Insight News ::: 07.14.14

JULY 24 at WALKER ART CENTER

Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art TURN TO PAGE 10

Adam Avila

Maren Hassinger: Diaries

Insight News July 14 - July 20, 2014

Vol. 41 No. 29 • The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com

Journey TO THE

Mother Land

By Denisha Richardson

Denisha Richardson. “Hiking up Table Mountain, stopped for a quick photo shoot (12 apostles mountains, Atlantic ocean and Camps Bay in background).”

Early in 2011, I left my home in east Bloomington for South Africa to pursue my Master’s degree at the University of Cape Town (UCT).

The night prior to my travels, for the first time I was consumed with immense fear and anxiety.

I pushed through my frights and within three connecting flights and a seven-hour layover in Abu Dhabi, I had crossed the threshold –customs into Mama Afrika. The agent, whom I identified as Black, which I soon learned was indeed Coloured, looked at my passport, looked at me and said “Welcome home.” With those two words all of my previous worries drifted

away. While driving to my new digs – Capetonian lingo for home – near my school’s campus, I was amazed, startled and very jetlagged. I marveled at high glorious mountains, good infrastructure, beautiful two-story homes and hundreds of shacks made of tin, wood and even plastic.

My first semester at UCT was a struggle to say the least. My funds were low. I couldn’t land a job. I was homesick. I was fascinated yet challenged with the Republic of South Africa’s (RSA) politics and racial stratifications. I was confused with the school system and classes and most of all I found it hard to relate to people.

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Fires of the 60’s vs the deity of daddy part V

Black Power advocates emerge

By Azaniah Little

Bobby Seale and Huey Newton

The fires of the sixties cast a veil of disdain and gross contempt over these men of integrity and quiet strength – my Daddy and other area heroes.

These raging fires cast hues of red and orange shadows upon fathers that we had formerly depended upon. Suddenly they

became boring, unexciting – out dated. The constraints they constantly placed upon my generation went from annoyance to anger at the world.

The flames of the 1960s claimed to offer “better fathers” … modern ones. They were flamboyant, complete with fancy ideological footwork, and a limitless set of liberalities.

Personally, the sixties

explosively presented a new set of “fathers” for me as well as my community, and my brother and sisters. Equipped with erudite political jargon, enticing speech and ideologies, plus good looks that radiated strength, energy and charisma, they captured the imagination of young “daddy’s girls” all around the Twin Cities, as well as around the country.

Entrapped in teenage carnality and emergent hormones, “this generation of fathers stole my heart from my Daddy.

They were the antithesis of him.

My father was soft spoken.

They shouted “What we need is Black power.”

LITTLE TURN TO 6

U.S. political views not rigidly defined

By Jazelle Hunt Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Politically, the nation is less sharply divided collection of red and blue states, and more a rainbow patchwork of political ideologies, according to the Pew Center.

The report, “Beyond vs.

Blue: The Political Typology” (and its supplemental reports) breaks American politics down beyond primary colors.

Political typology, a system the Pew Center devised 27 years

ago, groups people based on their attitudes on key issues as opposed to their limited partisan labels.

“More Americans today hold consistently liberal or consistently conservative values across a wide range of issues, Democrats and Republicans are further apart ideologically, and more partisans express deeply negative views of the other political party,” the report reads.

“But the typology shows that the center is hardly unified.”

This year’s typology survey revealed eight attitude Pew Research Center

Democrats and Republicans are more polarized than ever before, but most Americans fall somewhere in the varied center between the two extremes

POLITICS TURN TO 2

Athletics

Business

Earth Talk

Concussions a greater problem for Black youth

Satisfying work creates freedom

Chemicals and obesity

PAGE 2

PAGE 3

PAGE 5

Moments in Sports Twins players and stadium on display for All-Star game

PAGE 9

Page 2 • July 14 - July 20, 2014 • Insight News

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Concussions a greater problem for Black youth

By Jazelle Hunt Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Despite the flurry of news about NFL lawsuits over concussions, the problem affects far more athletes at the high school and junior high school level, according to the federal government statistics.

In 2009 alone, nearly 250,000 youth age 19 or younger were treated in emergency rooms for sports and recreationrelated injuries that included concussions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between 2001 and 2009, the rate of such visits rose 57 percent.

Concussions occur when the brain is shaken violently against the skull. Although concussions are the most common brain injury, widespread awareness and concern about this issue in the world of student athletics is fairly recent.

But it is especially relevant for Black communities, particularly young men most likely to die

Politics From 1 categories. The highest share of African Americans (accounting for 30 percent of the group) fall into a category called the “faith and family left.” Religion “is a very important part of life” for 85 percent of this group’s members. They are, or lean, Democrat, favoring robust social programs, while also holding conservative attitudes on moral and religious issues such as same-sex marriage, marijuana legalization, and abortion. For Republicans looking to draw Black voters from the left, this would be the fount—fully 37 percent of the faith and family left consider themselves conservative.

The faith and family left is the only category that is majorityminority—it also encompasses the largest share of Latino and

Courtesy of Howard University

Dr. Gary Harris hopes to improve the way the Howard University Bison football team combats concussion, using this “Lilypad” Arduino chip to measure impact during games. foreign-born voters. And yet, the views on racial issues are murky within this group. While 74 percent support affirmative action, only 28 percent believe the government should continue making changes to give Blacks equal rights. At the same time, 57 percent believe that “blacks who are unable to get ahead are responsible for their own condition.”

According to the report, this is now the prevailing attitude in the United States.

“While the public is divided over whether additional societal changes are needed to further racial equality, most do not believe that discrimination is the main reason why many blacks can’t get ahead today,” it states.

“By more than two-to-one (63 percent to 27 percent), the public says blacks who can’t get ahead are mostly responsible for their own condition.”

In fact, racial inequality is one of the most divisive topics on

the left. Among “solid liberals” (just 15 percent of voters, 69 percent of whom are White), 80 percent say that discrimination holds Blacks back. This is compared to 31 percent of the faith and family left who believe the same. People under 50 who skew liberal are even more skeptical about racial inequality.

As the report explains, “The Next Generation Left are young, relatively affluent and very liberal on social issues like same-sex marriage and abortion. But they have reservations about the cost of social programs. And while most of the Next Generation Left support affirmative action, they decisively reject the idea that racial discrimination is the main reason why many blacks are unable to get ahead.”

Only 19 percent of members of this group attribute the African American plight to racial discrimination. Fully 67 percent believe that the U.S. has made enough changes to

even the racial playing field, and 77 percent believe that anyone who wants to get ahead can do so through hard work. Black Americans account for 7 percent of the next generation left.

Black voters account for less than 5 percent of “steadfast conservatives” and even less of “business conservatives,” the two Republican-leaning groups.

Among political “bystanders,” those disenfranchised or unregistered by choice and/ or pay little to no attention to politics, 10 percent are Black. Black voters make up a significant share (20 percent) of “hard-pressed skeptics” who identify as Independents. (This group is still largely White, making up 61 percent of the ranks).

“Deeply financially-stressed and distrustful of government, Hard-Pressed Skeptics lean toward the Democratic Party but have reservations about both political parties,” the

from traumatic brain injuries, according to the CDC. And according to data from research nonprofit, Child Trends, 50 to 60 percent of Black American high schoolers were on a sports team in 2011.

In severe or untreated cases, they can cause brain damage, seizures, emotional distress, and death—in fact the CDC estimates that 5.3 million U.S. citizens are living with disability as a result of a traumatic brain injury (or TBI, an umbrella term that includes concussions).

“From an athletic trainer perspective concussions have always been a big concern.

Coaches seemed to think that injuries increased because [athletic trainers] were there, but really it’s that awareness is increased,” says Jennifer Rheeling, a veteran athletic trainer in D.C. Public Schools and chair of the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee for the D.C. State Athletic Association.

“In the last five years particularly with the NFL starting to talk about it, and the lawsuits, has helped immensely now that people get it on a mainstream level. What they thought was just

getting their bell rung was really a concussion.”

On the most diligent and well-resourced student teams, players take baseline tests—a battery of motor skill drills and survey questions to record their individual peak cognitive health—and have athletic trainers who check for signs of decline.

If a concussion is suspected, a player does another test to compare those results to his or her baseline. The ImPACT Concussion Management program is currently the program of record for these tests among school athletic programs.

But according to Dr. Vernon Williams, neurologist and medical director of the Sports Concussion Institute, a lack of access to care compounds the (now fading) problem of awareness. ImPACT, for example, costs a minimum of $400 per year for 100 baseline tests and 15 post-injury tests for one school. Meanwhile, many schools and school districts, largely populated by Black and brown children, routinely have to make cuts to balance their budget.

report explains. “They want government to do more to solve problems, but have doubts about its efficiency.”

This group has a half-hearted interest in following government (43 percent pay attention “most of the time”), is largely underand unemployed, and has the lowest incomes and education levels.

In turn, members of this group overwhelmingly harbor negative opinions, including: immigrants are a burden on the country; government benefits don’t go far enough; hard work does not guarantee success; and the country’s best times have passed.

Despite all of these differences, the average citizen is not nearly as politically unyielding as the behavior of elected officials might suggest.

The report explains that “Overall, more Americans say they prefer elected officials who make compromises with people

they disagree with than those who stick to their positions (56 percent vs. 39 percent),” with the exception of “steadfast conservatives” who prefer their candidates—well, steadfast.

Similarly, the faith and family left are about evenly divided on the merit of candidates who can compromise.

And so, it’s going to be a nail-biting election season for a deadlocked two-party system struggling to capture and represent the ideological diversity among voters, the report concludes.

“Beyond the ideological wings, which make up a minority of the public, the political landscape includes a center that is large and diverse, unified by frustration with politics and little else,” it explains. “As a result, both parties face formidable challenges in reaching beyond their bases to appeal to the middle of the electorate and build sustainable coalitions.”

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Insight News • July 14 - July 20, 2014 • Page 3

BUSINESS Satisfying work creates freedom Plan Your Career

By Julie Desmond julie@insightnews.com After years of repetitive work, Albi is living in the land of opportunity and feeling pretty much like a prisoner in a jail he built himself. He makes a decent living, provides for his family, relaxes on the weekends. And is dying. Of

INSIGHT NEWS www.insightnews.com

Insight News is published weekly, every Monday by McFarlane Media Interests.

Editor-In-Chief Al McFarlane CFO Adrianne Hamilton-Butler Publisher Batala-Ra McFarlane Assistant to the Publisher Shumira Cunningham Associate Editor & Associate Publisher B.P. Ford Vice President of Sales & Marketing Selene White Culture and Education Editor Irma McClaurin Director of Content & Production Patricia Weaver Sr. Content & Production Coordinator Ben Williams Production Intern Sunny Thongthi Distribution/Facilities Manager Jamal Mohamed Receptionist Lue B. Lampley Contributing Writers Harry Colbert, Jr. Julie Desmond Fred Easter Abeni Hill Timothy Houston Penny Jones-Richardson Toki Wright Alaina L. Lewis Darren Moore Photography Michele Spaise David Bradley Contact Us: Insight News, Inc. Marcus Garvey House 1815 Bryant Ave. N. Minneapolis., MN 55411 Ph.: (612) 588-1313 Fax: (612) 588-2031 Member: Minnesota Multicultural Media Consortium (MMMC), Midwest Black Publishers Coalition, Inc. (MBPCI), National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) Postmaster: Send address changes to McFarlane Media Interests, Marcus Garvey House 1815 Bryant Avenue North, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55411.

boredom. He’d rather do something else, but changing careers at this point would mean risking that decent living, the comfort of his family and those relaxing weekends. For Albi, retirement can’t come soon enough. And when it does, what then?

Freedom is not about doing what we want all the time; it’s about making choices about what we’ll do next, and what we’ll do after that, depending on the circumstances. When our founding fathers took on the British a couple centuries ago, they were not sure how it would go. You can read about Paul Revere’s famous ride, and how he let people know where the challenge would come from by hanging one or two lights in a window. The plan was to display one light if the challenger was arriving by land. The backup plan was

Career freedom happens when most of the work we do most of the time is mostly satisfying.

Albi has been in the same position for a long time, apparently successfully. That means he is probably good at it, and he probably likes some aspects of it. Focusing on what is working will help Albi see his next steps.

to show “Two if by sea.” The people involved knew what they would do either way.

If Albi is going to broker his own freedom, freedom from endless days in dead-end jobs, he is going to need a backup plan.

Daydreams are common among the unchallenged. What is Albi daydreaming about?

What would he rather be doing, over what he’s doing now? If he would rather be playing in the World Cup over driving a city bus, there are ways to do that.

Some daydreams are closer to reality than others, though, so Albi will want to keep that in mind.

Let’s say Albi is driving a bus. And let’s say he’s obsessed with sports. Perhaps he could make the connections that would lead to a job driving a team vehicle. His backup plan might include keeping his current job, and using his vacation time or weekends off to drive the team around. If it leads to more responsibility with the team, great. If not, he will still have his day job, along with some really great stories to help him pass the

time.

Career freedom happens when most of the work we do most of the time is mostly satisfying. Ups and downs happen; not every day is a party. But not every day has to be prison-like, either. When a career shift happens gradually, springing up naturally out of something that is already working, it can be liberating.

Creating a plan, and a backup plan, will lead Albi to the freedom of a more fulfilling career and, it follows, a more interesting retirement when retirement comes around.

Julie Desmond is IT & Software Engineering Recruiting Manager with George Konik Associates. Send your comments and questions to jdesmond@georgekonik.com.

Grow your talent pool: Recruit people over 55 FUNdraising Good Times

By Mel and Pearl Shaw Are you overlooking a valuable pool of prospective employees and volunteers? Are you unknowingly operating from out-dated stereotypes of “senior citizens” and leaving talent sitting on the sidelines?

In today’s lexicon “talent” means college educated individuals ages 25 – 35. Maybe 40. But in our experience that’s a limited definition. Here’s what we know. There are many talented

Concussions From 2 “We have coaches who understand the need, but they have different resources. For example, we know baseline testing for people in contact collision sports can help evaluate when people get injured,” Dr. Williams explains. “But it’s uncommon for people to have access to state-of-the-art baseline testing. Players, school systems, and parents don’t have access to those funds. But we can still implement treatment using creative measures.”

Currently, Dr. Gary Harris, who specializes in computer engineering and serves as associate provost for Research and Graduate Studies at Howard University, is working with engineering students and the Bison football team to devise an inexpensive concussion monitoring system, using an open source platform. (“Open source” is a tech industry term that means the equipment and information to create this system is public as opposed to proprietary, so as to encourage others to innovate and improve on the idea).

The project uses a computer chip attached inside the helmet that measures impact up to 100 gs of force. For reference: a sneeze is about 2 or 3 gs of force on the human body; an F-16 fighter jet barrel roll exerts 7 to 9 gs; a car crash at 45 mph is about 60 gs.

Concussions usually happen with collisions between 80 and 120 gs.

The chip records the force of impact for every collision—it can be programed to transmit this information wirelessly, say, to a cell phone app. Or, it can be downloaded from the helmet using a USB cable. It can also be programed to send an alert when a hit exceeds a certain threshold.

“You can have an entire team’s list where you know all their shock, trauma, and incidents on file,” says Dr. Harris. “We still don’t know the threshold of force for brain damage, we don’t know how many hits it takes, but the first thing we have to do is collect the data.”

Each of these chips costs approximately $30.

Technology is also being used to improve care and outcomes the aftermath of serious concussion cases. Interactive Metronome, a health tech company that creates

individuals over 55 years old who are unengaged, their talent untapped all to the detriment of the communities they live in, and employers seeking a diverse and experienced workforce. Think about it for a moment: early retirement, buy-outs, downsizing, layoffs, corporate restructuring.

These all result in skilled, experienced and well-connected individuals who are no longer part of the work-force. Many have proven themselves overand-over again in the course of their careers. They are up-to-date on technology (despite rampant jokes to the contrary), understand corporate culture, know how to work-to-deadline, mentor, strategize, and innovate. They have been doing it for years!

Many of these individuals need to continue working either

full-time or part-time. Others have secured their financial future but want to remain active in the workforce and in their community. Regardless of economics most want to give back, feel connected, and contribute. And many have the skills that nonprofits are looking for. “Soft skills” include the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, strong written and verbal communication skills, networking, ability to work as a member of a diverse team, stability, excellent attendance, maturity, discretion, time management, decision making and more. Experience that easily translates to fund development and fundraising include sales, marketing, training and development, and team building.

If you want top talent for

neurological research-based brain training programs and activities, is one example. The activities are designed around “brain timing”—the ability to clap to a

beat, for example. As users play games and do activities that test

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your nonprofit make sure you recruit in ways that result in an applicant pool that includes individuals 55 and over. If you want to attract and retain “seniors” as part of your team, take time to assess your own responses to seniors and look for organizational biases that could your workplace “uninviting.” Are younger managers experienced in managing people older than they are? What is the average age of your workforce? Will you be bringing in one older person or are there others already part of your team? Is your business culture inclusive, respectful and appreciative?

In terms of fundraising and fund development it is important to remember that many of the larger gifts given to nonprofits are made by individuals who are

over 50. Having older people as members of your team is crucial.

People who are well connected within your community are even more valuable. Add a history of sales or marketing and you may have struck it rich!

When looking for employees and volunteers take proactive measures to ensure your pool of applicants includes qualified, experienced and talented people over 55. The benefits are yours to experience!

Copyright 2014 – Mel and Pearl Shaw Mel and Pearl Shaw position nonprofits, colleges and universities for fundraising success.

For help with your campaign visit www. saadandshaw.com or call (901) 522-8727.

Page 4 • July 14 - July 20, 2014 • Insight News

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HEALTH Ehlinger discusses extreme health disparities On Friday, July 18, 2014, Community Action Partnership of Ramsey & Washington Counties will host Minnesota Commissioner of Health, Dr. Edward Ehlinger, who will address Minnesota’s considerable health-related disparities and discuss strategies to reduce health inequities across the state.

Dr. Ehlinger will present an overview of 2014 report to the

Minnesota State Legislature titled “Advancing Health Equity in Minnesota.” This is the first event in Community Action Partnership of Ramsey & Washington Counties’ C.h.a.t. initiative (Community Health Action Talks), a bimonthly series designed to inform and engage low-income communities around issues affecting the overall health and wellness of Ramsey and

Dr. Edward Ehlinger

Washington County residents.

In spite of the comparatively high standing regarding the health of its general population, Minnesota’s extreme health disparities, particularly among Minnesotans of color, continue to plague communities throughout the state.

According to The Wilder Foundation’s Minnesota Compass Report, people of color are 2½ more likely to

be without health insurance as compared to their white counterparts.

Action Partnership of Ramsey & Washington’s first C.h.a.t. event, featuring Minnesota Commissioner of Health Edward Ehlinger, will take place Friday, July 18, 2014, in the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Room of Community Action’s St. Paul headquarters, 450 Syndicate Street North.

Registration begins at 8:30 am and the program is scheduled to begin at 9:00 am. This event is free and open to the public and preregistration is available at http://caprwchats.eventbrite. com?s=26313919. For more information please contact Tasha Byers at 651-603-5980 or tbyers@caprw.org

Politics plaguing school lunches

By Nick Stumo-Langer, Undergraduate Research Fellow, Minnesota 2020 Blog If you haven’t heard, the national 2010 legislation requiring schools to include more whole grains, vegetables and fruits at the cost of gradually reducing starch, sodium and calories is under attack by the big-food-corporation-funded School Nutrition Association.

Unfortunately for Minnesota, six of our biggest

Concussions From 3 their reaction time, those brain cell connections are repaired and strengthened. Originally (and primarily) used to improve motor skills and cognitive function in children with ADD/ADHD, the program is beginning to see success with TBI rehabilitation.

“We fit into concussions in a new way, which is helping out when those [post-concussion]

food companies (Schwan’s, General Mills, Cargill, Land O’Lakes, Hormel and Michael Foods) provide funding to this organization, including its current lobbying effort to provide waivers to school districts to get around these requirements.

Current compliance with the standards is high throughout the nation. Minnesota has a 92.5% compliance rate. This achievement could be in danger due to a new waiver initiative.

If this effort succeeds, it will create a nutritional disincentive for school districts, reversing

gains and returning them to reliance on less healthy foods to meet student caloric intake goals.

Because the new healthier diet program is in its infancy and best practices are still being perfected, some school districts are losing money on it.

Jean Ronnei, the Vice President of Minnesota’s office of the School Nutrition Association and the COO of St. Paul Public Schools, stated simply: “I’m losing customers, what do I decide to do? Charge more for that entrée?” This mindset forces districts to

choose between following the law at the expense of their budgets or breaking the law to save some money. A waiver, however, is not the only option.

Minnesota’s food companies must work together with state educational policymakers to ensure districts that are struggling receive temporary support implementing welcome new standards. Until the school’s communities trust that healthy food can taste good and not break the bank, districts face pressure to make short-term financial decisions to the

detriment of students’ longterm health.

General Mills has reported that they are “already working on products that would conform to the new standards.” If other food companies embrace the new, healthier standards for Minnesota’s schoolchildren, compliant food costs will align with school district food budgets.

School lunches are an opportunity to reinforce for children the experience of a healthy, well-balanced meal.

The new regulations, with their increased emphasis on

fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, are a responsible way to address and curb childhood obesity as well as to educate students about the value of a well-balanced meal.

School nutrition guidelines are only one piece of the puzzle for ensuring that school districts do best by their students and their community.

Indeed, these new regulations ensure that a meeting of food, education and economic policy can have a progressive impact on Minnesota.

symptoms don’t dissipate,” says Nick Etten, vice president of Strategy and Business Development at Interactive Metronome. “There’s a lot of emphasis on technology these days—it’s really important in the world of concussions and cognitive rehab. We’re starting to understand that there was a big void in information.”

Technology has helped improve identifying and treating concussions; on the prevention front, sports health care professionals now have

the backing of the law. In all 50 states, a student athlete must be immediately removed from play if a concussion is suspected, and cannot return to practice or play without medical clearance. Some states also mandate that a student must remain free of symptoms or remain on the injured list for a set period of time, even if they gain medical clearance immediately.

But there are still holes in preventing these injuries.

“There’s clearly benefits to legislation in terms of drawing attention to the issue of

concussions and having some foundation across the board with how they should be managed,” says Dr. Williams. “I think there are some variables…related to who should be allowed to clear players.”

He and Rheeling have both seen athletes on under-resourced teams get clearance from an emergency room resident, for example, in contrast with athletes who take a concussion test against their baseline with their team’s athletic trainer.

They’ve also seen instances of

students underreporting their symptoms, coaches resisting care recommendations, and parents being lax in monitoring their child’s rest after a concussion.

Emerging laws are attempting to add another layer of protection by regulating the number of weekly practices involving rough contact drills, thus reducing exposure to collisions and risk of concussion. Trainers, coaches, parents, and athletes can also receive guidance through resources such as the American Academy of Neurology online

Sports Concussion Toolkit, and organizations such as the Sports Legacy Network.

“We’re at the end of the beginning as relates to concussion management. We’re learning more every day and the process will continue to evolve,” says Dr. Williams. “We’re out of the phase of explaining what a concussion is, identifying symptoms….

It’s no longer an unrecognized epidemic, we’re aware of the issues and that [a concussion] has to be managed effectively.”

Enrolling now for September Fitness Challenge

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Insight News • July 14 - July 20, 2014 • Page 5

Chemicals and obesity (NIEHS) reports that as many as 20 synthetic chemicals— from the BPA in plastic food storage containers and the lining of cans to phthalates used in the manufacture of non-stick coatings to the parabens in many personal care products—have been shown to cause weight gain in humans, mostly from exposure in utero or as infants.

These early effects can last a lifetime, permanently altering one’s metabolic “set points” for gaining weight. “If you have more fat cells and propensity to make more fat cells, and if you eat the typical highcarbohydrate, high-fat diet we eat [in the U.S.], you probably will get fat,” Blumberg tells the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

Adult exposure to obesogens has also been shown to trigger weight gain and other endocrine issues while exacerbating the effects of earlier exposure.

Certain pharmaceuticals (including some of the most commonly prescribed antidepressants) have been found to be particularly egregious in this regard. Meanwhile, nicotine, air fresheners and many household cleaning products also contain obesogens. Also, soybeans (consumed by both humans and the livestock we eat)

By EarthTalk® E - The Environmental Magazine Dear EarthTalk: I’ve heard that, above and beyond our bad eating and lifestyle habits, some chemicals in everyday products are contributing to the obesity problem. Can you explain?

-- Alyssa Israel, Fairfield, CT Obesity is a huge problem in the U.S. and other industrialized countries. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity rates have doubled for American adults and tripled for kids and teenagers aged six through 19 since 1980. Today, 31 percent of American adults and 15 percent of youngsters are classified as overweight.

The rise in obesity and related health problems like diabetes is usually attributed to an abundance of highcalorie food coupled with the trend toward a more sedentary lifestyle, but there is more to the story. A growing number of researchers believe that certain chemicals collectively known as “obesogens” may be a contributing factor to the growing obesity epidemic.

Exposure to these chemicals has been shown to interfere with the way we metabolize fat, leading

Tylor Long

Exposure to certain chemicals collectively known as “obesogens” may be contributing to the growing obesity epidemic, because exposure has been shown to interfere with the way we metabolize fat.

Culprits include some pharmaceuticals, including antidepressants, as well as nicotine, many household cleaning products and air fresheners. to obesity despite otherwise normal diet and exercise.

Bruce Blumberg, a biology professor at the University of California at Irvine, first coined the term “obesogen” in 2006 after discovering that certain

tin-based compounds known as organotins predisposed lab mice to weight gain. In the intervening years, hundreds of research studies have found similar connections between weight gain in humans and exposure

to organotins as well as several other common chemicals found in everyday consumer products, agricultural pesticides and even some drinking water.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

contain a naturally occurring obesogen.

There may not be much we can do about the damage already done, but avoiding obesogens, whether from natural or synthetic, might be the best thing we can do to prevent making our obesity, hypertension, diabetes and other health problems that much worse. Says Blumberg: “Eat organic, filter water, minimize plastic in your life…

If there’s no benefit and some degree of risk, why expose yourself and your family?”

Of course, avoiding obesogens alone won’t keep people from getting fat. Eating a nutritious diet and getting regular exercise are as important as ever to keep one’s weight and overall health in check.

CONTACTS: NIEHS, www. niehs.nih.gov; “Obesogens: An Environmental Link to Obesity,” Environmental Health Perspectives, www. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ PMC3279464/.

EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to: earthtalk@ emagazine.com.

Africa From 1 Although Cape Town is a cosmopolitan city, I found that many of the locals tend to remain with their own cultural or racial groups and the people at Uni– Capetonian, which is how we referred to the university and school, had known each other since undergrad. I also struggled with being viewed as Coloured and how and why Coloured people still viewed themselves as such. In November, my first year was coming to a close and

Fun in the sun; my friends and I camping just off the ocean in the Western Cape Province although I started making more friends and enjoying the social scene, I had decided I would complete my thesis back home in Bloomington. However, after a week or so of being home, I felt the Afro-beat/Afro-house calling me back through the sounds of Liquideep – one of my favorite South African groups.

February 2012 couldn’t come quick enough. I was refilled and rejuvenated with excitement to return to the Mother City – a common nickname for Cape Town. This time, I decided not to live in the cozy suburb near my university. I moved into the city to an area called Zonnebloem – Afrikaans for sunflower – in the

AFRICA TURN TO 7

MNsure ENROLLMENT FOR CURRENT ADULT MINNESOTA CARE RECIPIENTS As of June 18, 2014 MNsure has issued notices to current adult Minnesota Care recipients notifying them to transition to a Health Plan in the MNsure Health Exchange before July 31, 2014.

If you have received a notice in the mail and need assistance with switching to MNsure, please contact:

Angela Williams, MNsure Outreach Navigator Minneapolis Urban League 2100 Plymouth Avenue North Minneapolis, MN

(612) 302-3145 awilliams@mul.org

Page 6 • July 14 - July 20, 2014 • Insight News

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COMMENTARY

Breaking the code of silence Child Watch

By Marian Wright Edelman “I found my voice long before I became a writer in community organizing. That’s where I found my voice, where I was able to take all that pain and transform it into something useful in the world, and I never looked back.”

Michael Patrick MacDonald is a storyteller. Michael recently encouraged the crowd of young leaders at the Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools’® National Training to understand the power of storytelling to create change.

His first book, All Souls: A Family Story from Southie, became a national bestseller and won an American Book Award, and All Souls and its follow-up Easter Rising: A Memoir of Roots and Rebellion have captivated readers with their accounts of his childhood in South Boston’s Old Colony housing project and the poverty, crime, and addiction that devastated his Irish Catholic neighborhood and killed four of his siblings.

He said All Souls begins with a description of an event he organized in his own community: “I organized an All Souls Day vigil to get the neighborhood to start to come out and to tell the truth about all the deaths in the

neighborhood, from murders, overdoses, all of the things that we didn’t talk about, all of the things that we pretended didn’t exist. South Boston held the highest concentration of White poverty in America, and I grew up in the housing projects there in a family of 11 kids. Of the 11 kids, we lost four, plus a sister who was crippled in a fight over pills and was pushed off a roof in the projects. But the others all died from poverty and violence as well. My mother was shot as well, and all the years you would go through that stuff, and all of our neighbors were going through that stuff, we were strangled by this code of silence where you were never able to talk about it. You weren’t allowed to talk about this stuff because our neighborhood was controlled by organized crime, but also because the neighborhood was in a state of denial, choosing to believe what the media says—that this stuff doesn’t happen here, this stuff happens ‘over there,’ to ‘those people.’ That’s Black and Latino people, in particular. [South Boston] is very well known for the race riots of the 1970s, when the neighborhood broke into racist riots over desegregation in the city of Boston, but had an awful lot in common with those neighborhoods that we were trying to keep out—an awful lot in common in terms of class.”

Michael knew the code of silence in his neighborhood very well because it was the way he was brought up. In his own family he was “the quiet

one” of the 11 children, and as each of his four brothers died he initially felt “kind of stunned speechless.” But when he started working “over there” in some of Boston’s other neighborhoods he realized he wasn’t the only one holding a story inside—and learned how much more power people had when they started letting their stories out and sharing them with each other.

“I decided to write a memoir

Little From 1 My father was nonviolent and never owned a gun. They carried .357 magnums.

My father raised his four girls to be ladies. They called being a lady a remnant of the white man’s culture stemming from the plantation with Miss Ann. My father worked for civil rights with politicians. They called the President of the United States “Tricky Dick,” the police department “pigs,” teachers enemies of the people, organizations such as the NAACP and Urban League Uncle Tom organizations that were tools of racist white America.

They called the church and Jesus “colonialist and imperialistic” tools to sedate the people into servitude. Their outrage was not limited to the United States. They articulated solidarity with the revolutionary movements of Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Central America and every part of the world that was waging revolution against common oppressors.

It was the height of the war in Vietnam, and these new fathers vocally stood against the United States of America, and passionately on the side with the Vietnamese people.

This younger generation of ‘fathers’ emerged on the American scene like an invisible Normandy invasion. There was Huey Newton, whose poster I kept in my room, as he sat in a wicker chair with his head cocked wearing a black bandanna and leather coat with a Russian M-16 strapped causally by his side. There was Bobby Seale and there was H. Rap Brown. They were loud, boisterous, and in the face of all that opposed them. No marching for them. – no Siree– no begging the white man for rights. They criticized men like my father for devoting their lives for the right to have lunch next to “a honkie” a “cracker” and their message was spoken on loud speakers before ABC, NBC, BBC. They taunted the FBI and the boldly stated, “Black people will be free and by any means necessary.”

Overnight – at least it seemed – my father and a generation of fathers with him had gone from being heroes to relics of a past generation … outdated and contemptible. Soon they too had been named “Uncle Toms.”

And as Daddy became smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller and my afro became larger and larger and larger, my anger began to burn in unison with the fires that raged across America.

I, like most teenagers my age, wanted action … change. And we wanted it now. My father did not

H. Rap Brown have a gun in the home. I cannot remember him even once raising

his voice to the level of a shout.

I never saw my parents argue.

reading Howard Zinn’s beloved classic A People’s History of the United States: “When I even just saw the title of that book and started to think about what ‘people’s history’ means, that means that all of us have to tell our stories, and that’s ultimately a people’s history— and the more we can encourage that in young people, the more we will have a more complete story.” Readers everywhere have been grateful for the ways Michael Patrick MacDonald has helped complete South Boston’s story, and he says as he continues to travel and talk about his own writing he’s learned the idea young people connect with most is how powerful it can be to share their own stories and the “possibility of transforming trauma into voice.” It’s a critical lesson for all young people and for all of us—and especially for those who’ve experienced some of the same kinds of family and community poverty, violence, and addiction, for whom breaking silences and realizing they are not alone can be lifechanging.

after years of doing community organizing, especially with a lot of mothers of murdered children, from around the city of Boston— from Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, the Black and Latino neighborhoods, as well as eventually South Boston and Charlestown, the poorer White neighborhoods . . . and I would organize these press conferences or rallies, and I’d push them to the microphone to get them

to tell their stories. I saw what happened to them when they told their stories in whatever amount that they wanted to and were capable of telling—how it changed them, and it was also changing the world.”

Michael could see the impact these mothers were having on their communities, especially by speaking out against gun violence. He could also see that sharing their stories was helping reduce their own risks of suicide, alcoholism, drug addiction, and need for revenge against the people who had taken their family members’ lives, and breaking their silences was even changing them in other ways: “They had a really powerful strength, and they completely changed from ‘high-risk’ people to really powerful people . . . I saw what it did for them . . . and then they started to push me out to the front to the microphone, and I would give little bits of my story, and tell of my siblings that were killed, and eventually wanted to tell more and more because I started to feel what it does for you.” By the vigil he described at the beginning of his book he was both organizer and participant, one of the last people to step to the altar to light a candle and recite the names of each of his own lost brothers—“I stopped and took a deep breath. Then I spoke up. Davy, Frankie, Kevin, and Patrick, and for all souls.”

Michael ultimately learned a lesson that he compared to

His raising his hand towards my mother was unheard of.

As the fires continued to rage in the streets of America, the flames began to lap away at our little three-story home in south Minneapolis. Daddy still got up at 4 o’clock in the morning, still methodically built his landscaping business and still came home every night with the smell of sweat and sod reeking from his pores.

These young new fathers were “men of fire” who helped birth me into a new identity. I was an “Afro-American”-they told me … an African queen. I would sneak to the political rallies on what was then my forbidden territory, the so called Near North

Side or 38th Street & 4th Avenue in South Minneapolis. My Afro continued to grow and I was given Mao Tse Tung’s “Little Red Book”, the bible of the revolutionary movement, which I studied relentlessly. I was taught that the white man’s western education had brain-washed the slave and turned him into a Negro. I joined the Black Panther Party, becoming a high school recruiter, and when I came home, I would stash the Black Panther Papers that I sold.

A pivotal moment in the sixties was when a Black Panther was transporting explosives on the newly constructed I35W expressway and an electrical storm ignited the bars of dynamite.

Parts of his body were found miles away. He was labeled a martyr for “the cause” by my so-called comrades.

Though the sixties was swallowing his family whole with me at the forefront, and though he must have been terrified at what he saw in me - in the faces of his own children - Daddy never stopped working his 17-hour days.

Marian Wright Edelman is President of the Children’s Defense Fund whose Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. For more information go to www. childrensdefense.org.

Azaniah Little lives in Seattle.

She works as a freelance writer, minister and consultant, and is currently seeking publication for her first book, “Purpose for Your Pain...”

She is the proud mother of Namibia Little who lives in Minneapolis.

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Insight News • July 14 - July 20, 2014 • Page 7

LIFESTYLE Rondo Days: Recognizing the past… resulted in the formation of the “Rondo Avenue, Inc.” organization and the Rondo Days Festival. The Rondo Day Festival celebrates the best and brightest of Minnesota’s African-American stories, achievements and culture.

It reunites a dispersed people, welcomes new neighbours and encourages everyone to be mindful of the extent to which neighborhoods nourish our souls.

Today, Rondo Avenue, Inc. is a community based 501(c) 3 organization that sponsors a number of community events and workshops that seek to preserve Rondo’s rich heritage for future generations while rebuilding and strengthening present community relationships. The Festival plays a critical role in educating our youth on the history of our community.

It is that time again to join with others in our community during the Rondo Days celebration.

Although the construction of I-94 radically changed the landscape of the neighborhood, the community of Rondo still exists and its persistence and growth are celebrated through events like Rondo Days and the Jazz Festival. Come on out on Saturday July 19th and celebrate our resilience.

Man Talk

By Timothy Houston On Saturday July 19, 2014, the Rondo Avenue celebration will be held. This year’s theme is “Recognizing the Past, Honouring the Present, and Soaring into the Future.” This theme reflects on our collective experiences as a people. Every day, we experience events that would break the spirit of ordinary people, but as a resilient people, we have managed to find the silver lining. Time and time again we have found positive responses to adversity. The annual Rondo Days celebration is a testament of our resilience. Here is a little history of the Rondo Days celebration.

According to the Rondo Days website, In the 1930s, Rondo Avenue was at the heart of Saint Paul, MN’s largest Black neighborhood. AfricanAmericans whose families had lived in Minnesota for decades and others who were just arriving from the South made up a vibrant, vital community that was in many ways independent of the white society around it. The construction of I-94 in the 1960s shattered this tight-knit community, displaced thousands of African-Americans into a racially segregated city and

Suluki Fardan

Rondo Days Parade 2012 a discriminatory housing market, and erased a now-legendary neighborhood.

The website further stated that in 1982, Marvin “Roger” Anderson and Floyd Smaller

came up with an idea to bring back a sense of community, stability, and neighborhood values of the old Rondo community.

It was their intent to create an organization dedicated to sharing

the contributions of African Americans and the rich cultural history of the Rondo community to the City of Saint Paul, and the great State of Minnesota; and to bring people together to

celebrate the positive growth and diversity of our beloved Rondo community.

As the founders, their hard work and dedication to the memory of the Rondo community

Timothy Houston is an author, minister, and motivational speaker who is committed to guiding positive life changes in families and communities. To get copies of his books, for questions, comments or more information, go to www.tlhouston.com.

The power of staying positive Motivational Moments

By Penny JonesRichardson There is power in positive thinking! I have heard this time and time again. In the past,

I have also had to train my thoughts to be more positive.

I can remember going through some very tough times and everything around me being negative. I also remember how I had to think positive even though my surroundings made it hard for me to believe that there was anything good around the corner.

The power of positive thinking is amazing! When you can see great things for yourself

no matter what your life looks like that is how positive thinking starts. There are many people out here who have lots of problems, but they stay positive and that is what helps to motivate them. Any situation can be changed if you believe it can be!

I recently met a person who sees something positive in every situation. No matter what happens, they live on the “sunny side of the street.” This

person lost so many important things in their life, but through it all, they continue to stay positive. This person also gives advice to others about positive thinking. How they maintain such positive thoughts, astounds me.

My journey is all about staying positive.

I speak positive words over my life and I think positive thoughts throughout my day.

No matter what happens, there

is something positive in the midst of it all. Think about it this way, have you ever wanted something so bad and when the time came you still didn’t receive it? Maybe that thing wasn’t for you. I know it’s hard to think like that when you really want something, but stay positive through it all and you may be amazed with where your positive thoughts take you!

When you can see something positive when there is so much

negativity, you have a gift! So continue to nourish your gift of positive thinking!

And as always, stay focused, stay determined, and keep striving for greatness.

Penny Jones-Richardson is a published author and life coach.

She can be reached via her website at www.thequeensproject. com or email at penny@ thequeensproject.com.

Nachito Herrera orchestra to perform at St. Peter’s AME The Trustee Board of St. Peter’s AME Church recently sponsored Cabaret IV, an evening of music, fun, food and fellowship.

The event held at the church, located at 401 E. 41st St. in south Minneapolis, attracted over 100 guests and featured performances by the church’s musicians Thom West, piano;

Curt Boganey, saxophone; and Daryl Boudreaux, percussions.

Musical guests included Larry Sims, trumpet; Perry Trenon Graham, drums; and Lee Gatlin, bass guitar. Also appearing were vocalists Maurice Jacox, Annie Favors and Valton Henderson.

Perry Trenon Graham also entertained the audience with

Photos: Willie Dean

Larry Sims

Nachito Herrera

Kwa-Zulu Natal and even to Tanzania with my now best friend Rianne. At my Uni, I attended tense forums on issues of race, gender, sexuality and inequality in RSA. In less than two years, I had fallen completely in love with the complexity I had come to know as RSA. I made friends from all over the world – Zimbabwe,

A few friends hanging out at Mzoli’s local Braai eatery in Gugulethu Township, Cape Town

Africa From 5 historic District Six area with Ola, my British-Nigerian friend, and Marjon, our new Dutch roommate. I would love to say I was knee deep in my thesis but this was not the case. Marjon and I partied our weekends away up and down Long Street – a long strip through the city lined with clubs, bars, hostels

and restaurants similar to Hennepin Avenue or 1st Avenue in downtown Minneapolis.

Whenever friends asked me to join them for a sundowner – a gathering including wine and a snack, usually on a hill or a high balcony – to watch the sunset into the Atlantic Ocean, I was there. Marjon, Ola and I found any and every excuse to host braais – Afrikaans for barbecue, at our digs. I went on monthly – sometimes weekly – hikes up Lion’s Head or nature reserves,

and I volunteered with a school organization two to three times a week in Khayelitsha – an impoverished community known as a township.

Eventually, I was able to gain self-control and refocused on my thesis. I researched Coloured identity in RSA and I would even joke with the locals that I was from Mitchell’s Plain – a historic and largely Coloured community. During school breaks, I travelled to the Western Cape, Eastern Cape,

his ventriloquism skills. Guests enjoyed food and an assortment of “mocktails,” non-alcoholic drinks.

The Rev. Nazim B. Fakir, Pastor of St. Peter’s AME Church, introduced surprise guest, Nachito Herrera, who played several numbers to a rousing applause. Herrera and

his orchestra will perform a benefit concert at the church on September 13. The VIP meet and greet with Herrera begins at 5 p.m. The concert will start at 6 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at www.TheStPeters.org. For more information on ticket pricing call (612) 825-9750.

Sweden, Netherlands, France, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Mauritius, Norway, Belgium, India, Brazil and Germany. My South African friends shared with me their Indian, Zulu, Xhosa, Cape Malay Coloured, Afrikaans, Khoi and British cultures and the challenges they endure in South African society. I

absolutely loved my new home away from home and I intended on making it my permanent home for years to come.

Unfortunately, I had run out of funds and was unable to find employment. Sourly, I returned to Bloomington where, I completed my thesis and longed for my next extended stay or at least another Cape Town beach day.

Page 8 • July 14 - July 20, 2014 • Insight News

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EDUCATION Samuels seeks at-large school board seat

By Sheila Regan, TC Daily Planet After giving up his Minneapolis city council seat, which he had held since 2003, to run for mayor last year with an ambitious education platform, Don Samuels now throws his name into the ring for at-large school board member. He hopes to bring his deep connections within local and state government to support the superintendent’s agenda in fighting the achievement gap.

“I’ve been staring this monster in the face forever with two hands tied behind me,” Samuels said of education issues. “I’ve been on the sidelines of this thing for a long time, and I just want to be in the middle of it.”

Samuels ran for city council over a decade ago when former city councilmember Joe Biernat stepped down after receiving five felony charges. Samuels had just finished seminary in 2001, and was planning to start a ministry on his street in North Minneapolis for kids living in poverty. His neighbor, Bill Alum, woke him up one morning to urge him to run for the council, telling him that North Minneapolis didn’t need another pastor, but instead needed a leader “who understands what’s happening.”

While on the council, Samuels said, he introduced to the city a program called Results Minneapolis, a data-driven system of performance analysis, where the city collects data from every department and analyzes the data.

“If we’re not on track, something

has to change,” Samuels said.

Samuels also suggested the idea to Superintendent Johnson, and the city loaned the program’s developer to the school district for six months to create a similar program for the school district.

As a school board member, Samuels hopes to push the district to analyze that information “and make changes in an ongoing way,” he said.

Much of Samuels’ legacy on the council has involved issues of safety, he said, but outside of the council he also helped start the Peace Foundation, a nonprofit organization aimed at confronting violence. Samuels stepped down as president of the Peace Foundation in 2005 amidst criticisms there was a conflict of interest. This issue became a major sticking point in his election battle with Natalie Johnson Lee, whose ward had been redrawn.

Samuel’s wife, Sondra Samuels, assumed leadership of the organization, which in recent years shifted its focus towards education and supporting North Minneapolis families and children from birth to college. Renamed the Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ), the organization won a $28 million federal grant in 2011.

Samuels said that if elected, he would recuse himself from any decisions surrounding NAZ, which has a formal partnership with Minneapolis Public Schools.

“The Zone is a demonstration project that has a relationship with the district,” Samuels said. “If it works, we will learn from it, if it doesn’t work, we will stop the relationship. It’s just as cold as that… I have to take that position

Don Samuels as a person married to- well I would take that position anyway, but I have to make that position clear,” Samuels said.

Still, Samuels points to recent successes with NAZ, especially with getting children ready for kindergarten. NAZ children in 2013 were 59 percent ready for kindergarten, compared to 35 percent or the entire zone. “If that continues, that would be outstanding,” Samuels said.

Samuels also helped form Hope Collaborative, an initiative that brought in leaders of successful schools around the country working in neighborhoods with similar demographics to North Minneapolis to talk about how they achieved success to community members and school board members. “The idea was to bring people in the community who were facing the most serious

Courtesy Don Samuels

problems in their community and were having results,” Samuels said, “and to demonstrate to the community that we can do it too.”

The series of discussions initiated

by Hope Collaborative had influence on the superintendent’s strategic plan, according to Samuels.

What the Hope Collaborative found, Samuels said, is that in order to attract the best students, schools have to have high achievement. As an example, he cites the Harlem Children’s Zone, which is in a crisis right now because it’s so effective, upper and middle class families are moving into the neighborhood that it’s based in and poor people can’t afford the homes anymore.

“If you want to attract high achieving kids, or if you want to attract middle class back into the city, into neighborhoods that are

now called challenged, you need to have high achieving schools,” he said.

For his own family, education has been the first priority for his children, even above safety.

His family moved into Jordan neighborhood because “we believed that the flight of the Black middle class is a major contributor to the plight of communities like this,” he said. However, while he and his wife Sondra intentionally chose to live in one of the most challenged neighborhoods of the state, he chose to send his son, from a previous marriage, to private school.

“When my son became school age I would go to the district in whatever city I lived and ask for the performance of kids according to race,” Samuels recalled.

“They’d give me these charts and always the Black kids were at the bottom line, and I just said I’m not willing to subject my son to this.

So he was in private school all his life.” His oldest daughter, who is 21 and now living in New York and working as a model, attended both city and suburban schools and his youngest daughter attends Minneapolis Public Schools at Anthony Middle School, which, because it’s not her neighborhood school, requires Samuels to hire a driver for her to get there when he is unable to drive her himself. “So for me, safety comes second,” he said, “and I think there are a lot of parents who would see the world like that. They’d go through the jaws of hell to get their kids to live up to their potential.”

Samuels, who famously told a reporter in 2007 “I’ve said, burn North High School down,”

said that the district today “is in dire straits,” with one of the largest achievement gaps between people of color and white kids in the country. However, Samuels also believes the district is “in a position of humility that is unprecedented.” As a theologian, he finds that to be the first step toward transformation.

For Samuels, when you start talking about the real causes of the achievement gap, you have to go back to the forming of this country. “There’s always been an achievement gap,” he said.

“America has a very dysfunctional and disturbing relationship with the achievement gap. The achievement gap was part of its accomplishment. And so what we are doing now is not trying to go back to the way things were, we’re trying to achieve something that has never been.”

Since America created the achievement gap, Samuels believes we have a responsibility and obligation to fix it. “It flies in the face of who we are as Americans,” he said. “We created the achievement gap through slavery, through Jim Crow, through exclusionary practices which have become institutionalized in the culture and internalized in families that are trapped in it. So we must do now whatever it takes to reverse it. If we do not do that, we have settled for the injustice we have created.”

In the mayoral election last year, Samuels ran as the “education mayor,” which he admits seems inconsistent with the charge of the mayor’s office under

SAMUELS TURN TO 9

Superintendent Sicoli receives National Urban Alliance Award for Equity and Social Justice Robbinsdale Area Schools’ superintendent Dr. Aldo Sicoli on July 7 received the National Urban Alliance (NUA) for Effective Education’s most distinguished award during its annual Summer Academy that is being held in Minnetonka.

Sicoli was presented with the “Leadership Award for Promoting Equity and Social Justice” in front of dozens of educators during the opening session.

The award celebrates superintendents who have focused on equity and social justice through education. Sicoli is the third superintendent to receive this award since 2005.

“Dr. Sicoli is a tireless leader for diversity and recognizes the importance of student learning in diverse schools and classrooms. He focuses on the strength of students’ experiences

Superintendent Aldo Sicoli receives award from Dr. Yvette Jackson, CEO of National Urban Alliance and skills, rather than limiting student potential through remediation of weaknesses in learning and achievement,” said NUA President Eric Cooper.

Sicoli has fostered a unified

district vision to embrace the large demographic shifts in the district, which has gone from 63.9 percent white in 2004, to

SICOLI TURN TO 9

Nelson Mandela International Day Friday, July 18, 2014 Minnesota African American Museum

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BY JASON BLUM p.g.a. MICHAEL BAY ANDREW FORM BRAD FULLER SEBASTI ´ EN K. LEMERCIER p.g.a. DIRECTED BY JAMES DE MONACO #PURGEANARCHY A UNIVERSAL RELEASE © 2014 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

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12:30pm – 1:30pm rd

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Please join us for the Annual Nelson Mandela International Day at the Minnesota African American Museum, Minnesota’s official designated site. Join this global Nelson Mandela Day of service in your community starting at MAAM with speakers from the South African Consulate, Chicago, a historical dedication and refreshments. Free and open to the public.

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Insight News • July 14 - July 20, 2014 • Page 9

COMMUNITY Twins players and stadium on display for All-Star game Moments in Sports

By Ryan T. Scott ryan@insightnews.com Twenty-nine franchises are not selected to host the Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star game.

There are many tangible benefits that come with hosting this annual convention, including a typical tip of the hat to the leading performers on the host’s team. And while there are other players and organizations disgruntled from being passed over for the “Mid-Summer Classic.� sometimes all the factors involved say it just is, or isn’t, your time. It’s certainly a great time for Target Field to shine.

For the second year in a row, Twins closing pitcher, Glen Perkins, was selected as an All-Star reserve, along with the catcher he throws to – last year it was Joe Mauer that joined him. This year it’s Kurt Suzuki. In a special alignment of the baseball stars, Perkins is a Minnesota native (Stillwater), collegiate alum of the University of Minnesota baseball team, and now an MLB All-Star for the Twins, as the franchise hosts the All-Star game. That’s got to feel pretty surreal, and Perkins stated as much. “It really hasn’t sunk in yet. It’s a dream come true,� said Perkins after the selection announcement.

Perkins new catching mate, Suzuki stated as much, saying, “It’s kind of surreal right now.�

Suzuki, a native of Hawaii and nine-year MLB veteran, is now an All-Star for the first time.

Suzuki’s (.306) batting average

Sicoli From 8 presently 47.3 percent white, 30.3 percent black, and 12.6 percent Hispanic. “I am surprised and honored

Samuels From 8 Minneapolis’s current charter, but he believed he could have a voice of influence on every aspect of the

Creative Commons / JL1Row

Target Field Stadium leads all American League (AL) catchers. In that Suzuki is replacing perennial All-Star catcher Mauer, who is now playing first base, a great amount of satisfaction must also be held by the entire Twins organization.

The ability to quickly replace Mauer’s historic production at catcher furthers the wellknown lore of the Twins player development system.

Twins staff joining the two players in All-Star inclusion are

manager Ron Gardenhire, trainer Dave Pruemer and strength coach Perry Castellano.

Having a world-class event held in your city – especially events held on a generally quiet Monday and Tuesday event schedule – provides the greatest award (or at least opportunity) for the most important group of people – the fans and local businesses.

The fact that the Twins have key players on the All-Star roster

is also a reason for the fans to remain hopeful as the second half of the season unfolds. The team’s hitting performance this year, led by Suzuki, is marginally improved from 2013, at .245 versus .242. The team’s overall pitching has been marginally worse (4.55 ERA in 2013, 4.38 this season). That combination lands the Twins in the basement of the AL Central, and fading, should the team not rally to improve.

Pesky injuries to key players such as Mauer, pitcher Mike Pelfrey, and centerfielders Aaron Hicks and Danny Santana, have disallowed any strong positive momentum this season. This, in addition to the overall dip in pitching performance, are enough to heavily tread on the Twins 2014 playoff hopes. And while batting and health may improve as the season moves on, pitching is the type of baseball activity that provides truth in

statistical advertising.

Anything can happen in baseball, but Twins fans can minimally look forward to consistently competitive outings, as the team typically produces year in, and year out. Baseball is a patient game. And while the Twins may not be on the path for a World Series championship in 2014, their award-winning stadium and overall franchise operation remain a celebrated act in baseball.

to be the recipient of this award that is a testament to the hard work and commitment of so many people in Robbinsdale Area Schools,� said Sicoli. “One of my greatest joys as an educator is to see students learning, growing, and achieving. If we are going to be effective as

educators, we must celebrate and embrace the value that diversity brings to our schools.�

In his acceptance speech, Sicoli shared how, as immigrants, his family stressed hard work and achievement and maintained high expectations for him in America. He challenged

the audience to maintain high expectations for all students because if teachers expect great results from their students they are more likely to get them. “High expectations are contagious. What we say to students matter. What strengths can we pull out of our students

if we have high expectations for them?�

Robbinsdale Area Schools has made significant growth in ensuring all students are ready for career and college by significantly increasing the numbers of minority students taking the ACT while also

increasing the number of all students who the full battery of core courses to prepare for college. That number has increased from 39 percent in 2007, to 89 percent in 2013, which places the district above statewide and national averages.

city, using the “bully pulpit� and collaborations to make changes.

As a school board member, Samuels plans to take a similar approach. Believing Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson “is on the right track,� she needs the school board to “be

the wind beneath her wings,� to achieve success, he said.

To provide the kind of strategic help the superintendent needs, Samuels plans to call on his strong relationships across the city and state, in addition to using a “bully pulpit� approach. “I understand

the importance of communicating, of being vocal, of staking out a position on things and repeating it frequently, and I think I also have a reputation of putting myself out there if no one else will call it that, meaning not shrinking from the most difficult questions and the

most difficult actions that need to be taken.�

Finally, Samuels hopes to take an active role in teacher contract negotiations. Though he he’s not mad at the teacher’s union, which does a “great job of taking care of its people,� Samuels said there

needs to be a “kid union� that is currently absent. “Me? I believe I am the kid union,� he said. “The school board is the children’s union, it is the parent’s union, it is the community’s union. There’s absolutely no other way to look at it.�

Classifieds

Phone: 612.588.1313

Program Director The Sexual Violence Center (SVC) seeks a Program Director to lead staff, programs and direct service delivery in Hennepin, Carver and Scott counties. Applications due July 14, 2014. Details: http://www.sexualviolencecenter.org/get-involved/index/

Section 8 Housing for Seniors 62 and older Bergstad Properties is accepting application for Seniors 62 and older. Applicant must be income eligible and must qualify for Section 8 Housing. Please visit our web site at www.bergstad.com for a virtual tour and application.

The following sites are currently accepting application.

FOR RENT 2 bedrooms, Hiawatha neighborhood, 1100 sq ft, hardwood flr, great for roommates, call 612-559-1043.

Park Street Apartments 321 West Park St. Cannon Falls, MN. 55009 507-263-4773 200 Levee Drive Apartments 200 Levee Drive Shakopee, MN. 55379 952-445-2001

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Fax: 612.588.2031

Email: info@insightnews.com

University of Minnesota Extension Center for Community Vitality

RENTAL UNITS AVAILABLE

This Leadership and Civic Engagement Extension Educator will be based in either the Morris or the Moorhead Regional Extension office and will primarily serve a region of 11 or more counties in west central Minnesota (which also has a Community Economics educator assigned to it.) The Educator meets program area outcome and impact goals through education, outreach, applied scholarship and by leveraging University of Minnesota resources for and with communities. The educator also serves as a member of a statewide program team that serves other regions and the entire state of Minnesota. Required: A Master’s degree at time of appointment. Formal education should include significant course in leadership development or studies (personal and/or community); educational, counseling or clinical psychology; and/or in public or civic engagement, community studies, sociology, communication, adult learning or a closely related field.

The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Housing Authority has rental units available in Cass County, MN. Please call 218-335-8280. Must meet certain qualifications.

Extension Educator – Leadership and Civic Engagement Morris or Moorhead, Minnesota

West Falls Estates

International Falls, MN. 56649 Rent based on 30% Of adjusted income Call Patricia Brown At 218-283-4967 TDD 800-627-3529

Application Review: The review of applications begins on August 18, 2014. Position will remain open until filled.

To learn more about these positions and to apply, visit: @ http://www1.extension.umn.edu/about/employment/ or call 612-624-3717

Central Minnesota Housing Partnership

Is currently accepting applications for Residency or the waiting list at the following property locations Granite Ledge Townhomes Tower Terrace Townhomes Ridgeview Court Townhomes Timberland Townhomes Grand Oaks Townhomes Grand Oaks Court Townhomes Meadow View Townhomes Northcrest Townhomes Braham Heights Johnson Apartments Gilmanor Apartments Groundhouse Apartments Randall Apartments Waverly Community Homes Eden Place Apartments Highland Court Townhomes River View Townhomes West Birch Townhomes Sprucewood Townhomes Brickstone Apartments Shoreline Common’s Apartments

Cold Spring, MN Cambridge, MN Paynesville, MN Brainerd, MN Baxter, MN Baxter, MN Zimmerman, MN Mora, MN Braham, MN Pine City, MN Foley, MN Ogilvie, MN Randall, MN Waverly, MN Eden Valley, MN Little Falls, MN Sauk Centre, MN Princeton, MN Baxter, MN Avon, MN Howard Lake, MN

320-685-8650 763-691-1091 320-243-2010 218-822-3701 218-822-3661 218-822-3661 763-856-8048 320-679-4592 320-258-0682 320-258-0682 320-258-0682 320-258-0682 320-258-0682 320-258-0682 320-258-0675 320-616-7094 320-352-5101 763-389-2400 320-822-3661 320-258-0675 320-543-2663

APARTMENT OPENINGS Delton Manor located in Bemidji, MN is accepting applications for future 1, 2, & 3 Bedrm apartment openings. Delton Manor has 3 twobedrm handicapped accessible units located in the building. Delton Manor promotes equal housing opportunities for all perspective residents regardless of race, color, creed, sex, sexual preference, religion, handicap, marital status, familial status, national origin or source of income. For applications and qualifications, contact NANCY at 218-759-2523.

AN EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY.

Page 10 • July 14 - July 20, 2014 • Insight News

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JULY 24 at WALKER ART CENTER

Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art The Walker Art Center is set to present the groundbreaking survey “Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art.” “Radical Presence” chronicles the development of Black performance in contemporary art beginning with fluxus and conceptual art in the 1960s and extending to the present. While this tradition has previously been contextualized from the perspective of theater and popular culture, its prevalence in visual art has gone largely unexamined until recently.

Organized and first presented by the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, “Radical Presence” was copresented in New York City by The Studio Museum in Harlem and New York University’s Grey Art Gallery.

The final opportunity to view the exhibition will be at the Walker. The showing opens July 24 and runs through Jan. 4, 2015 in the Target and Friedman galleries.

PRESENCE TURN TO 12

Photo by Adam Avila

Maren Hassinger: Diaries

TWIN CITIES JAZZ FESTIVAL 2014

Photos: David Bradley

Jazz lovers from throughout the region converged on Mears Park and nearby stages in St. Paul for the 16th annual Twin Cities Jazz Festival. The three-day festival (June 26 – 28) featured music icon and jazz ambassador, Branford Marsalis and jazz and R&B legend Dianne Reeves. Several other artists, including a host of local acts played to the crowd that numbered in the thousands.

Among the area acts that played the festival, which was free to the public, were Atlantis Quartet, Foreign Motion, Source Code, Crash Trio, Salsa del Soul, Jon Weber, Babatunde Lea, and Phil Hey.

insightnews.com

Insight News • July 14 - July 20, 2014 • Page 11

Jay Young

Math Hoffa June 14 - 20 Keyshia Cole Aesthetically It! is a list of picks from the editors of Aesthetically Speaking.

Aesthetically It! features venues, events, outings and more that are worthy of “It” status. If you have a venue, event or outing that you feel is “It” worthy, email us at aestheticallyit@ insightnews.com

Ricardo Levins Morales Seun Kuti

Monday, July 14

Tuesday, July 15

Dr. Mambo’s Combo Bunkers Bar and Grill 761 Washington Ave. Minneapolis 9:30 p.m. $7

Face Forward Artist Dialogue w/Ricardo Levins Morales Minnehaha Free Space 3747 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

N.,

Dr. Mambo’s Combo is a legendary soul and R&B musical group that has been playing at Bunker’s in downtown Minneapolis since 1987.

The band includes drummer Michael Bland, who was discovered and hired by Prince while playing with The Combo.

Legendary Twin Cities visual artist and community activist, Ricardo Levins Morales, participates in a dialogue called “Community Art as Medicinal Practice.” For more information visit www.rlmartstudio.com.

Wednesday, July 16

RADICAL

Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 Cedar Cultural Center 111 5th St. N., Minneapolis All ages 7 p.m.

Advance $30, doors $35 An explosive night of Afrobeat from the Fela Kuti’s youngest son, Seun, and Fela’s band, Egypt 80. Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 are taking to the road behind their new album “A Long Way To The Beginning.” The followup to 2011’s “From Africa With Fury: Rise,” the upcoming record from the reigning prince of Afrobeat was coproduced by Grammy winner Robert Glasper and features appearances from M-1 of Dead Prez, Blitz the Ambassador and Nneka.

PRESENCE

Thursday, July 17

Icehouse 2528 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis 8 p.m. $10

Exodus featuring Prince Jabba and Lynval Jackson Blue Nile Resturaunt 2027 Franklin Ave. E., Minneapolis 10:30 p.m.

Freelance bassist Jay Young is one of the Twin Cities top performers. He has shared the stage with Dizzy Gillespie and more. See him live on stage in a tribute to music greats.

Local reggae greats, Exodus, blesses the Blue Nile stage every Thursday night, featuring Prince Jabba and singer and radio host Lynval Jackson.

Saturday, July 19

Friday, July 18 Jazz Tribute to Stevie Wonder & Michael Jackson With Jay Young and the Lyric Factory

Capital Punishment Battle w/ Math Hoffa, Qleen Paper Arnella’s 1183 University Ave. W., St Paul 10 p.m.

21-plus $20

With international attention once again on MC Battles, Minnesota steps back up to the plate with The Capital Punishment Battle.

Manslaughter Battle League brings you Qleen Paper vs. Gwopo, Math Hoffa faces Hakeem the Poet, and more.

Sunday, July 20 Keyshia Cole Myth 3090 Southlawn Dr., St Paul $26.50 – $36.50 8:30 p.m.

Grammy nominated singersongwriter and producer Keyshia Cole returns to Minneapolis with special invited guests.

J U L Y

Adam Pendleton with Jaan Evart and Marc Hollenstein Black Dada (Ian Berry, couple dancing, independence celebration Congo, 1960) 2008/2012 Courtesy the artist, Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago, and Pace Gallery, New York

2 4

BLACK PERFORMANCE IN CONTEMPORARY ART

2 0 1 4 — J A N U A R Y 4 2 0 1 5 W A L K E R A R T C E N T E R

Radical Presence explores the development of black performance in contemporary art from the 1960s to the present. From groundbreaking works by influential artists such as Coco Fusco, Lorraine O’Grady, Pope.L, and David Hammons to essential new voices including Theaster Gates, Jacolby Satterwhite, and Xaviera Simmons, this dynamic exhibition brings together some 36 artists from across generations who push the boundaries of performance.

Opening Day Performances and Reception:

THU JUL 24, 6–9 PM

FREE

Kick off the exhibition with a cocktail and experience a dynamic range of performances by contributing artists, including a tribute to the late conceptual artist Terry Adkins involving four 18-foot-long brass horns played by local musicians.

Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art is organized by the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.

The exhibition is supported by generous grants from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the patrons, benefactors and donors to CAMH’s Major Exhibition Fund. The catalogue accompanying the exhibition is made possible by a grant from The Brown Foundation, Inc. The Walker Art Center’s presentation is made possible by generous support from Angela and Tom Wicka.

© 2014 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

LOCAL LISTINGS FOR STARTS FRIDAY, JULY 25 CHECK THEATERS AND SHOWTIMES

Page 12 • July 14 - July 20, 2014 • Insight News

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Presence From 10 The July 24 launch, a Target Free Thursday Night, with live performances at the Walker by contributing artists Senga Nengudi, Pope.L and Jacolby Satterwhite.

Performances continue on Saturday, July 26 with Maren Hassinger and Jamal Cyrus, in addition to a panel discussion hosted by organizing curator Valerie Cassel Oliver from the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and contributing artists Adam Pendleton, Satterwhite, and Xaviera Simmons that addresses the role of performance in their larger artistic practice.

A range of performances and events continue beyond the opening weekend and throughout the run of the exhibition.

Beginning in September, the Walker and The Bindery Projects will host Theaster Gates’ “See, Sit, Sup, Sip, Sing: Holding Court” (2012), while additional performances include Benjamin Patterson’s “Activation of Pond” (1962), a performance lecture by Coco Fusco, and Trenton Doyle Hancock’s “Devotion” (2013).

Featuring more than 100 works by some 36 artists, “Radical Presence” includes video and photo documentation of performances, scores and installations, interactive works and artworks created as a result of performance actions, presenting a rich and complex look at this important facet of contemporary art. ‘“Radical Presence’ is a risktaking exhibition that looks at the vitality of performancebased works by Black artists from the United States and the Caribbean over several decades and across generations,” said Olga Viso, executive director of the Walker. “Engaging works where the performer is often the medium and subject, the exhibition is both provocative and captivating, as it addresses the limits of representation of the Black body and elicits timely reflection on American culture and identity.”

“From seminal works by such highly influential artists as Coco Fusco, Lorraine O’Grady, Pope.L and David Hammons to essential new voices like Theaster Gates, Jacolby Satterwhite, and Xaviera Simmons, ‘Radical Presence’ brings together artists from across generations that push the boundaries of performance,” said Fionn Meade, the Walker’s senior curator of cross-disciplinary platforms. “Ranging from intimate acts done solely for the camera to participatory installations and the tracing of overtly public gestures of celebration and resistance, the Walker is thrilled to welcome such a dynamic and far-ranging exploration.”

Works on view in “Radical Presence” include “Hopes and Dreams: Gestures of Demonstration” (2006-2007),

Clockwise from top-left: Senga Nengudi: RSVP at CAMH performance. Jacolby Satterwhite: Orifice at CAMH performance (Photo by Max Fields). Pope.L: Costume at CAMH performance (Photo by Max Fields). Jamal Cyrus: Texas Fried Tenor at CAMH performance (Photo by Max Fields)

a photographic series by Carrie Mae Weems, “Pond” (1962), a performance score conceived and activated by Benjamin Patterson, documentation of Lorraine O’Grady’s performance, “Mlle, Bourgeoise Noire” (19801983), “Eating the Wall Street Journal” (2000) by Pope.L, a

sculpture and video installation, “Say It Loud” (2004) by Satch Hoyt, a participatory sculpture meant to be activated by gallery visitors and documentation of Jamal Cyrus’ performance “Texas Fried Tenor” from the series “Learning to Work the Saxophone” (2012).

UNIVERSAL PICTURES AND IMAGINE ENTERTAINMENT PRESENT A JAGGED FILMS/ BRIAN GRAZER PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH EXECUTIVE WYOLAH FILMS ATATE TAYLOR FILM “GET ON UP” MUSIC CHADWICMUSICK BOSEMAN NELSAN ELLIS DAN EXECUTIVE AYKROYD VIOLA DAVIS CRAIG ROBINSON OCTAVIA SPENCER MUSIC PRODUCER MICK JAGGER BY THOMAS NEWMAN SUPERVISORS BUDD CARR MARGARET YEN PRODUCERS PETER AFTERMAN TRISH HOFMANN JEZ BUTTERWORTH JOHN-HENRY BUTTERWORTH JOHN NORRIS ANNA CULP PRODUCED STORY

BY BRIAN GRAZER p.g.a. MICK JAGGER p.g.a. VICTORIA PEARMAN p.g.a. ERICA HUGGINS p.g.a. TATE TAYLOR BY STEVEN BAIGELMAN AND JEZ BUTTERWORTH & JOHN-HENRY BUTTERWORTH SCREENPLAY DIRECTED A UNIVERSAL PICTURE

BY JEZ BUTTERWORTH & JOHN-HENRY BUTTERWORTH BY TATE TAYLOR SOUNDTRACK ON UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES

THIS FILM CONTAINS DEPICTIONS OF TOBACCO CONSUMPTION

© 2014 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

STARTS FRIDAY, AUGUST 1

CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR THEATERS AND SHOWTIMES