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JACKSONIAN Katherine Day

atherine Day came home to Jackson on a train last fall; it had been six years since she had last lived in the city. Day grew up in Jackson, but when she was 24 years old, she made a break for it and left in 2006. Day has lived in San Francisco, Asheville, N.C., and most recently New York City, working in the film industry. She studied screenwriting and film at Hunter College in New York City. Before she left Jackson, she studied biology at Belhaven University. And while Day did not finish any degrees, she says she’s always learning. Reflecting on her days as a production assistant and stylist in New York, Day says despite the long hours, she loved to learn on set, create projects much bigger than herself and look at the big picture. “It’s about networking and learning, and it’s like being paid to go to school,” she says. “I am never just doing what I am supposed to be doing, and if it’s mundane, it’s about multi-tasking.” In Jackson, Day works a day job to pay the bills, but the arts are where her passions lie. Here, she has realized that she is able to do everything she wanted to do in New York—without the competition—because the city has a smaller number of people. “It’s really great to move away, but it’s often really good to come back because what 20 million people are doing elsewhere,

contents

you would be the only one doing it here,” she says. “And you can bring a fresh perspective back to Jackson, Mississippi, which so desperately needs it.” Day wears many creative hats; she is an actor, screenwriter and jewelry designer, and she’s found that Jackson is a good place to work on a lot of her passion projects behind the scenes. She has finished a screenplay for her first film, “The Homecoming Queen,” and is working on getting the funding to finish production. “There are a lot of things I am working on behind the scenes,” she says. “It’s about me doing all the things that I’ve wanted to do.” She recently performed her comedy routine, “A One Woman Show,” at Hal & Mal’s, and got such great response that she will perform it again on Wednesday, May 25. Day’s return to Jackson meant a way for her to greet the city as Katherine, a transgender woman, for the first time. Day says her identity as a woman is more than the “trans” image that media portray. “Just as quickly as ‘trans’ became a thing, society made a mold, a cookie cutter for us all to fit in very quick, so anybody who is trans, we have to push them through this confirmation,” Day says. She says that when trans women start the change, a type of femininity is expected, but not everyone can fit the “super-model” mold. —Arielle Dreher

cover photo of Vice Lord-tagged abandoned house at the corner of Chennault Avenue and Lindsey Drive in “the Bottom” by Imani Khayyam

8 Transgender in Mississippi

As the state refuses to comply with Obama’s new rules protecting transgender students, here is what it felt like to be one of those kids.

12 Look East to Alabama

“While Alabama appears to want to continue to move toward the future and away from its dark past, Mississippi seems to want to relive its tainted history.” —Ben Needham, “‘Thank God for Alabama’ Now Has New Meaning”

27 A Comet and Cajun Food See what’s new in Jackson’s food and drink scene.

May 25 - 31, 2016 • jfp.ms

4 ............................. Editor’s Note 6 ............................................ Talks 12 ................................. editorial 13 ..................................... opinion 15 ............................. Cover Story 24 ........................................ 8 Days 25 ....................................... Events 25 ...................................... sports 27 .......................................... food 28 ........................................ music 28 ........................ music listings 29 ..................................... Puzzles 31 ........................................ astro 31 .............................. Classifieds

courtesy D’s Cajun Spot; courtesy Ben Needham; imani Khayyam

May 25 - 31, 2016 | Vol. 14 No. 38

PUBLISHER’s note

by Todd Stauffer, Publisher

Juvenile Crime: Identify the Problem

do not want to re-live my childhood. As a kid and teen I experienced, in my estimation, pretty much all the trauma I needed: moving, divorce, money worries, peer pressure, teen angst, self-doubt and run-ins with authority. But ultimately, I was always secure. We had food; my neighborhood was safe to play in and travel around. When I was a teen, I could ride my bike or moped to school and, later, I had a pretty awesome big red convertible my uncle sold me for cheap (if I could get it running) to get to part-time work and after-school activities. My family had housing and transportation and medical care, and people would hire my parents to work and pay them well. Drugs were around at school and acquaintances’ houses, but they weren’t forced on me. I could decide whether they were “my scene” or not; no one in my neighborhood, as far as I knew, was a drug dealer. (OK, maybe this one guy.) And when a member of our “crew” got caught stealing or trespassing or wrecking a car or smoking something behind a building—or got in enough trouble that he found himself in the back seat of a police car—the result always went something like this: (a) Our parents were called, and (b) we were driven home. Sometimes somebody’s mom or dad came to pick us up. Once or twice someone had to be bailed out of jail by an angry parent and then appear before a judge for a scary moment or two. The education was good, and access to the outdoors and afterschool programs was great. The elementary school across the street where I attended through third grade didn’t have enough students by the time I was a teenager, so they turned it into a rec center with football fields, basketball courts, tennis courts, arts-andcrafts lessons, theater and so on. I had fun as a kid, I had freedom as

a teenager; I had good role models as parents; when I was old enough I could get a decent job in food service and have some walking-around money. I wasn’t a bad kid, I guess, but I wasn’t always good. And, while I was a “smart” kid with fine grades and a National Merit Scholarship, that didn’t keep me from doing some stupid, stupid stuff. I was a kid. And here I am now, a (reasonably)

Over the past two years, I’ve had the opportunity to attend some intense workshops on issues of race equity and ethnicity in America, and I’ve had a chance to ponder structural and institutional racism. In that time, I’ve come up with a phrase that I want some white people to read and consider: “It may not be your fault, but it is your problem.” It’s not a perfect phrase, because I don’t want to suggest that the dominant

It may not be your fault, but it is your problem. upstanding, tax-form-filing, mortgagepaying, business-owning, payroll-checkwriting citizen. On the JFP’s website under previous stories in our team’s “Preventing Violence” series (see jfp.ms/preventing violence), I’ve seen what I would describe as some tepid attempts to “find someone to blame” for the plight of the young men Donna Ladd has talked to and written about. One commenter tried blaming the free- and reduced-lunch program. Maybe if the families of these young men Donna interviewed had to pay for school lunch, they wouldn’t have money for drugs. (Really.) In reference to the story Donna told about young boys breaking into a school to steal laptops, another commenter said, “What about the short jail time, apparently, for such a crime?” (Note: The boys, aged 9 and 11, had gotten into the school but failed to find any laptops to take. This guy’s plan: Put them in jail longer.)

culture or the status quo isn’t culpable for the past. People of color might read that and get mad at me, saying folks are getting off too easy. And some white guys (it’ll mostly be guys) who believe they haven’t “personally oppressed anybody” and “get along with everyone at work” will say “Wha-whawhat??! It’s not MY PROBLEM.” My answer: Yes, it is. And trying to attack the problem exclusively through blame is an abdication of your responsibility as a citizen of the community, an American and a human being. Here’s the deal: Can you imagine having post-traumatic stress disorder because of your childhood? I don’t mean because of one particular traumatic incident, which would be bad in its own right. I mean because of pretty much the whole damn childhood. Sometimes you have nothing to eat. And you’re just a kid. Sometimes your parents are there. Or they aren’t. Or they’re wasted. Or

they’re in jail. Or they’re depressed. Houses are falling down in your neighborhood, but at any point, someone might come out of one of those ramshackle buildings when you’re walking home from school or band practice or work and threaten you in some way, perhaps with a gun. See a cop car? Do you get a positive or negative feeling? Fight or flight? Dad comes home or doesn’t come home. Which feels better? A teen brother dies. A best friend is killed in the streets. Most everything on the nightly news—most every night— is about how people who look a whole lot like you are getting shot or getting in trouble or rotting in jail or are considered the problem. You’re called a thug. And. You’re. A. Kid. In the BOTEC report that Donna and reporter Tim Summers Jr. reference in their cover story on pages 15-22, the report writers say of their directive from the attorney general: “Rather than dwelling on the incendiary issue of who is to blame, the OAG has asked us for solutions that could interrupt the status quo, which currently generates an intolerably high crime rate.” Now that’s a plan. It doesn’t mean ignoring crime or violence or failing to question the system or avoiding hard truths or not challenging and helping families to do more. What it does mean is having an open mind, being empathetic enough to understand that some people have it harder than you and repeating every so often to yourself, “There but for the grace of God go I.” It may not be your fault, but it is your problem. It’s our problem. And so far, solving problems seems to be pretty much our saving grace as a species—which is a good thing considering how many problems we create. Let’s get to work. Email Todd Stauffer at todd@ jacksonfreepress.com.

May 25 - 31, 2016 • jfp.ms

contributors

Donna Ladd

Sierra Mannie

Tim Summers Jr.

Arielle Dreher

Imani Khayyam

Dustin Cardon

Micah Smith

Kimberly Griffin

JFP Editor in Chief and CEO Donna Ladd is a Neshoba County native. After being in exile from Mississippi for 18 years, she came on back where she damn-well belongs. She wrote about “Broken Windows” policing.

Education Reporting Fellow Sierra Mannie’s opinions of the Ancient Greeks can’t be trusted nearly as much as her opinions of Beyoncé. She wrote about federal guidelines to protect transgender students.

City Reporter Tim Summers Jr. enjoys loud live music, teaching his cat to fetch, long city council meetings and FOIA requests. Send him story ideas at tim@ jacksonfreepress.com. He cowrote the cover story about delapidated housing.

News Reporter Arielle Dreher is working on finding some new hobbies and adopting an otter from the Jackson Zoo. Email her story ideas at arielle@jackson freepress.com. She wrote about juvenile-detention alternatives losing federal funding.

Staff Photographer Imani Khayyam is an art lover and a native of Jackson. He loves to be behind the camera and capture the true essence of his subjects. He took photos for the cover story, the cover photo and many in the issue.

Web Editor Dustin Cardon is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi. He enjoys reading fantasy novels and wants to write them himself one day. He wrote about Jackson food and drink news.

Music Editor Micah Smith is married to a great lady, has two dog-children named Kirby and Zelda, and plays in the band Empty Atlas. Send gig info to music@jacksonfreepress.com. He wrote about Genesis Be and Strive Till I Rise.

Advertising Director Kimberly Griffin is a fitness buff and foodie who loves chocolate and her mama. She’s also Michelle Obama’s super secret BFF, which explains the Secret Service detail.

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“I think it would’ve made my learning environment a lot safer to know that people had my back, basically.”

Kishia Powell sat down with JFP to talk about her struggles as public works director p 11

–Blossom Brown on the Mississippi Department of Education protections for transgender students

Wednesday, May 18 The Mississippi Court of Appeals upholds the firing of former Aberdeen School District superintendent Chester Leigh for telling the district’s chief financial officer in 2011 to lease two sport utility vehicles for a security force Leigh wanted to create.

by Arielle Dreher

young man lives with his single mother, who struggles with drug addiction. He makes one mistake and finds himself in the youth court system for the first time, but instead of going to a juvenile-detention center, he is put into an Adolescent Opportunity

pre-intervention programs are vital in the state’s criminal-justice system and have the power to prevent young people from entering the system in the first place. Besides the Oakley Youth Development Program or other county-specific alternatives, Adolescent Opportunity Programs, or AOPs, are Courtesy YMCA of Mississippi

Thursday, May 19 Attorney Chokwe Antar Lumumba announces his candidacy for mayor on the steps of Jackson City Hall. … The Oklahoma Legislature passes a bill that would make performing an abortion a felony punishable by up to three years in prison and sends it to Gov. Mary Fallin.

Juvy Intervention Programs Losing Federal Funds

Friday, May 20 Republican Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma vetoes the bill that would have made abortion illegal in the state, saying that while she opposes abortion, it was vague and would not withstand a legal challenge. … A U.S. Secret Service officer shoots a man named Jesse Oliveri who approached a checkpoint outside the White House with a gun and refused to drop his weapon. Saturday, May 21 President Barack Obama departs on a weeklong trip to Asia as part of his effort to pay more attention to the region and boost economic and security cooperation. Sunday, May 22 Iraqi Prime Minister Haider alAbadi announces the beginning of military operations to retake the Islamic State-held held city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad.

May 25 - 31, 2016 • jfp.ms

Monday, May 23 Baltimore police officer Edward Nero is acquitted of assault and other charges in the arrest of Freddie Gray and his subsequent death in the back of a police van.

Tuesday, May 24 The membership of the American Association of Airport Executives elects Carl D. Newman—the executive director of the Jackson Medgar-Wiley Evers International Airport—as the Chair of the Executive Committee of the organization, its top elected spot.

Get breaking news at jfpdaily.com.

The Adolescent Opportunity Program run through the YMCA of Metropolitan Jackson, which serves 11 counties, will lose federal funding on July 1, along with all other similar programs in the state.

Program, where he gets counseling, therapy and tutoring for school for a whole year. Instead of entering the criminal-justice system, he leaves the AOP and goes on to graduate high school and get a job. His mother gets clean, and the direction of his life shifts completely. While not all stories are like this one,

one of the only pre-intervention programs for minors charged in youth court. If a minor is charged with a crime, youth-court judges can use an AOP instead of sending a first-time youth offender to a detention center or other more rigorous alternatives. Mississippi has 18 AOPs statewide, and many serve multiple counties. AOPs are

community-based programs run through efforts of state and local agencies and local organizations. They are year-long programs for youth usually aged 12 to 17 years old that include intensive counseling, training, therapy (if necessary) and support programs for young people referred through youth court who are at a high risk of becoming further involved in the criminal-justice system. The best part about AOPs? They appear to be working. The bad news? Federal funding runs out on July 1. ‘A Proven Record of Helping’ Adams County Youth Court Judge Walt Brown has only been on the bench for a year and a half at his current post but has already seen results with his county’s AOP. He said of the 10 who recently graduated from the program, at least eight of them he hasn’t seen get into more trouble. Brown said the AOP is the perfect place for first-time nonviolent felony offenses for youth—and his other options are few and far between. The YMCA of Metropolitan Jackson operates an AOP for the Jackson area and 11 counties throughout the state. Janet Reihle, development director of the Metropolitan YMCAs of Mississippi, said the AOP program works and has a low recidivism rate. “The courts and these judges don’t want to see these kids in there again, and they know that AOP has a proven record of more AOPs, see page 8

More Headlines That Don’t Exist—But Should by JFP Staff Between discriminatory laws and widespread financial woes, Mississippi has been making national news a lot recently and never for good things. Here are a few headlines that we wish were making the rounds instead.

Bryant Repeals Young 1523 After Visit from Melvin

Ghost

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Trump Drops

State Legislators

P r e s i d e n t i a l Buy Dictionary, Race to Run for

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o w

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Resisting the Tide: Trans Mississippians Speak Out by Sierra Mannie

May 25 - 31, 2016 • jfp.ms

AOPs from page 6

helping these kids, and that’s why even our court system (judges) are adamant this is a necessary program, and we want it to continue, but without this funding, they just can’t,” Reihle told the Jackson Free Press. AOPs typically work like an intensive after-school program for kids to get the support they often do not have at home to go to school and do their work to graduate or get a GED. At the Jackson Metro Y, counselors work with kids in a ratio of 2:9, so kids get specialized attention to make sure they can stay in school. In 2015, the Jackson YMCA AOP had 138 students go through its program in all 11 counties. “This (AOP program) gives them the chance to not blow the opportunities that they have right in front of them,” Reihle said, “and take full advantage of the schools and the support systems that they have at this age (in the program).”

The federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families currently funds Mississippi’s AOPs, but the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced last October that the use of TANF money violates the Social Security Act and “cannot be used to provide juvenile justice services.” As a result, the state’s AOPs will lose federal funding July 1. The Mississippi Department of Human Services administers TANF funds to the AOPs. The department said in a statement that HHS recently notified it of the changes. “The Mississippi Department of Human Services (MDHS) was recently notified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that effective July 1, 2016, TANF funding could no longer be used for juvenile services for youth adjudicated by the courts,” the statement said. “Without funding for the programs we are left with little choice but to close all AOPs. MDHS, along with our partners at the court and AOPs, will continue to search for additional fund-

federal guidance that frightened many conservatives. The Civil Rights offices of the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education issued a “Dear Colleague” letter instructing school districts to honor the pronouns and gender identities preferred by trans students, or risk being out of compliance with Title IX, a federal law passed in 1972 that protects against sex discrimination. The guidelines included ensuring trans students have access to the restrooms, locker rooms and sports teams that align with their gender identity. Schools that ignored the letter would face Title IX sanctions, such as loss of federal funding. The Mississippi Department of Education initially agreed to adhere to the federal guidance but backtracked after pressure from Gov. Phil Bryant and letters from Mississippi House and Senate Republicans calling for state superintendent Dr. Carey Wright to resign unless she instructed MDE not to adhere to Title IX, like they originally planned to do. Wright agreed to hold off on applying the new rules. David Sadker, professor emeritus at American University in Washington, D.C., says Title IX is usually associated with sex-based equity in athletics—having girls’ basketball and track teams, for instance, in the male-dominated culture of sports. But advocates say it actually applies much more broadly. TitleIX.info, a National Women’s Law Center site explaining the statute, argues it “opens the door for girls to pursue math and science, requires fair treatment for pregnant and parenting students, and protects students from bullying and sexual harassment.” “Its purpose is to inhibit or prevent discrimination based on gender in any program getting public funds,” Sadker told the Jackson Free Press. “That would be public schools, Imani Khayyam

uke Knight’s mother is a florist, and she’s busy; dle class (and) predominately white, going to Broadmoor Knight’s stepsister is getting married. Puffs of pink (Baptist Church), so I don’t know if there would be as much and white hog the top of the kitchen table in their acceptance for people who don’t fit that, and that’s part of comfortable home in Madison. Midday sunlight why I didn’t come out until college,” he said. streams in from the windows and glistens on the plastic Now, lawmakers in the state are pressuring the Missisguarding a sleeveless white gown with a beaded bodice sippi Department of Education to not honor federal guidehanging from a door frame. In the living room, Knight, 22, is a quiet island in the midst of the haphazard flowers. His hair, which he cut himself, is closely cropped. He is wearing a neat polo and khaki shorts, and thin, square glasses cover incredibly blue eyes. Knight was born female, but he identifies as a man and is using hormones to transition. He looks exactly like his mother. In elementary and middle school, Knight was one of the smartest people I knew. When he moved to Madison, a middle class, mostly white suburb from neighboring Ridgeland, he excelled on Madison Central’s juggernaut Academic Decathlon team. His PSAT scores made him a National Merit Finalist, giving the school a record number of those who scored exceptionally high on the pre-college examination that year. Blossom Brown, 29, faced trans discrimination when applying to Knight graduated, and went on to the Uninursing school. versity of Alabama to major in classical studies. But though Knight was an extremely successful student, he spent his time in high school terrified. He lines that, for the first time, could protect vulnerable trans was always afraid that someone would find out about him, students like Knight. That means that Mississippi’s transgeneven his friends. He hated using the girls’ bathroom, especial- der students, already more prone to depression and anxiety ly when people would come in groups—though, he admits, and more likely to commit suicide than their non-trans peers, that might have had less to do with being trans as just not might find the banner for their cause dropped by state leaders liking crowds in general. Knight waited until he was 18 and at the place where they spend the most time: school. enrolled in college to come out. There, he said, he felt like he had more space to explore his identity. Title IX: Not Just For Athletics “At Madison, there’s such an image of like, (being) mid- On Friday, May 13, the Obama administration issued

ing from other sources.” Judge Brown said he has not had to send many kids to the Oakley Youth Development Program, calling it one “extreme” while other “extremes” include a probation

‘This is a necessary program, and we want it to continue.’ program through the Division of Youth Services, house-arrest monitoring and the detention center. But without the AOP, he will be forced to send kids to the alternatives. “What I am afraid of is that I am going to be sending more kids to Oakley—I always

knew I had the AOP there (as an alternative),” Brown said. “And you multiply me by 82 other counties, and Oakley is already stretched to the limits.” Oakley currently only takes youth who have been adjudicated on felony charges. Judges and AOPs across the state are hopeful that funding can be found to continue the program. The YMCA’s other operations are funded locally through the community, so one of the only ways to keep the AOP program going would be more local support, although Reihle said that would be difficult. MDHS is also continuing its search for funding, in hopes to keep AOPs across the state afloat. “I hope that they can find funding through the state, the federal government or grants,” Brown said. Email state reporter Arielle Dreher at arielle@ jacksonfreepress.com. Read more at jfp.ms/state.

TALK | education get into nursing school as she was transitioning. She says it would have meant the world to her if, during her time in Jackson Public Schools, education leaders had stood up for kids like her. “I would’ve felt like I was welcomed like everyone else, I could be myself and use the restroom of the identity I prefer. I think it would’ve made my learning environment a lot safer to know that people had my back, basically,” she said. “You can’t be some kind of leader cherry picking the type of people you want to serve. You’re in the public to serve everyone.” Brown says as a trans woman of color, she constantly has to be on guard—she says she never knows if someone is transphobic. And trans women of color are especially vulnerable to violence, Brown says; at least 13 trans women, mostly of color, have been murdered this year alone. “You want to feel comfortable using the restroom you really feel comfortable with,” Brown said. “It’s kind of like ‘People, get over it.’ Everybody’s got to pee. Who’s really going to be sitting there making sure you’re a guy or a girl?” “My freshman year, I was still just kind of playing with

Imani Khayyam

March of this year, the American College of Pediatricians, a fringe group of pediatricians that advocates for a socially conservative view of treatment, and which the Southern Poverty Law Center designates as a hate group for its generally anti-LGBT positions, released a statement saying that trans children are not trans, but “confused,” and suffering from gender dysphoria. Quinn Gee, owner and therapist at Healing Hearts Counseling Center in Memphis, specializes in LGBT issues, race-based trauma and women’s issues. She began offering pro bono counseling services for trans clients in light of anti-LGBT legislation in Mississippi, where she’s from, and Tennessee, where she practices, and rejects the idea that being trans is a mental disorder. Gender dysphoria is when a person perceives their gender as distressing or disabling. The American Psychological Association says there’s a difference between dysphoria and being transgender. A transgender person might be particularly distressed by discrimination and lack of affordable resources for trans people, but otherwise fine with their gender identity. “Gender dysphoria is when you are in such a level of distress surrounding your gender identity that it creates a mental illness, and that includes things like depression, anger issues and other mental illness,” Gee said. “It’s not the same. And gender non-conforming people are not inherently disordered.” Research also shows that support‘Trans Panic’ ing transgender children in presenting A month before the administrain their identities, whether or not they tion issued its letter urging schools to have gender dysphoria, improves their accommodate transgender students, lives. A study published in Pediatrics Rep. Robert Foster was among 69 other last year found that when children’s mostly Republican Mississippi House parents supported them emotionally members who voted for the controverand socially as they began to identify as sial HB 1523, or the Protecting Freetrans, their levels of anxiety and depresdom of Conscience from Government sion were significantly lower than averDiscrimination Act, signed into law by age for trans children who might not Republican Gov. Phil Bryant this April. have that support. Mississippi’s bill emerged at the same On the other hand, as GLSEN’s Luke Knight, 22, moved to Tuscaloosa before he came out as transgender to his time as similarly anti-LGBT legislation National School Climate Survey refamily and friends. He says it would have meant a lot to him if the state publicly from North Carolina and Tennessee did, ports, LGBT students who experienced defended trans students when he was in high school. but Nathan Smith, director of public LGBT-related discrimination at school policy at the Gay, Lesbian and Straight were more than three times as likely to Education Network, said Mississippi’s was groundbreaking gender presentation. I was just like short hair and a T-shirt, miss school as their straight and “cisgendered,” or non-trans, in how sweeping it was in allowing religious refusals to state and I wouldn’t have assumed I passed as male or anything, classmates. In addition to having lower GPAs than their employees such as counselors who might want to refuse ser- but I was going to the women’s bathroom, and some dude classmates, their self-esteem was lower, too. physically stopped me and was like, ‘Dude, you can’t go in vices to trans students. Knight has a few classes left to take at Alabama, but is Foster says the federal guidelines would compound there,’” Knight said. “And I was like, why are you trying to now living back at home for part of the summer. He said it is tell me? Do you think you know better than I do where I’m still kind of weird with his parents, but at least when he came transgender students’ issues more than help them. “It’s going to cause them to be in a lot worse position, going? I just have to pee, right?” out to them, they didn’t kick him out. because they’re going to make so many other people feel un “It took them a while to call me Luke, but they generNothing to be Fixed comfortable in those situations,” Foster said. ally avoid pronouns,” he said. “My stepdad took a while to Mississippi’s House Bill 1523 treats as interchangeable get it, but now he talks to me about cars and football, and it’s Smith says the federal guidance would do the opposite the words man and male, and the word woman and female, kind of sweet.” of what Foster suggests. “Factually, we know that providing access to restrooms defining them as “an individual’s immutable biological sex Knight said he has called his Republican representative, and locker rooms that are affirming to trans students does as objectively determined by anatomy and genetics at time Madison resident Rep. Joel Bomgar, and Gov. Phil Bryant make them feel safer,” Smith told the Jackson Free Press. of birth.” and left messages. “This is the reason why so many young Foster does not see any difference between gender Mississippians are going elsewhere,” he said. “Students are “When students have policies in place at schools that affirm their gender identities, they feel more welcome. So I don’t identity and biological sex, calling the perceived difference really the main people impacted by this, and schools have a think there’s anything to it that says it actually makes things between sex and gender by trans people a mental disorder. duty to protect those kids. So having a uniform policy that “It’s just like any other disability anyone has. They says we’ll work with you, we’ll let you use the bathroom you worse; whenever you affirm a student’s gender identity, that’s (transgender people) have to learn to overcome it and not need to, that’s a really big, significant thing.” beneficial for a student,” he said. Blossom Brown, 29, a native of Jackson and a trans let it be a hindrance to anything else in their life,” he told Sierra Mannie is an education reportwoman of color, has seen discrimination against trans people the Jackson Free Press. ing fellow for the Jackson Free Press and That being transgender is a disorder is not just conser- the Hechinger Report. Email her at sierra@ in education firsthand, making national headlines last year when she spoke out about her many blocked attempts to vative politician rhetoric—some doctors believe it, too. In jacksonfreepress.com.

May 25 - 31, 2016 • jfp.ms

a museum, lots of places wherever there’s federal tax dollars. If that institution discriminates on the basis of gender, it puts itself in jeopardy of losing federal funds.” For places like Mississippi, with its chronically underfunded education system, where federal dollars are important, “that could be a big hit,” Sadker said. In the 2014-2015 school year, federal funding made up almost 15 percent of Mississippi’s total revenue for school districts—$672,385,143. Title IX, as a civil-rights statute, doesn’t give federal money to educational institutions, but violations of Title IX can help take them away. “Institutions and entities that receive federal funds must comply with federal civil-rights laws,” said a representative from the U.S. Department of Education, who asked to speak on background. “Educational institutions that have been found in violation of the law and refuse to address the problems identified by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) can lose federal funding or be referred to the U.S. Department of Justice for further action.” Sadker says that most schools are out of compliance with Title IX, but that it is rare that the federal government punishes schools for it. “It’s random, and I don’t think it’s accidental, that few parents know what it does or what it is. If you ask someone, they think it deals with athletics. And school districts do not go out of their way to inform parents and students the way they’re supposed to. So ignorance is a big part of this,” he said.

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Imani Khayyam

This house on Wainwright Street, like more than 3,000 other properties across Jackson, is owned by the State of Mississippi. It was forfeited in 2012 after owners accumulated four years of unpaid property taxes.

Preventing Violence, Part III

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nna Wilson sat on her porch in the fading afternoon sun, lording over the 10-foot-tall piles of debris in the lot across from her house. Her lawn, immaculately cut, heavily decorated and bordered by a chain-link fence, contrasts heavily with the overgrown and wild space of the other houses on the street. She pointed across the street to deep track marks, freshly pressed into the dirt where a burned husk of a house had barely stood until Friday, May 13. The demolition finally came after eight years of her dedication and persistence. She was not shy about what she did to bring it down. “I’ve been calling about it since 2008,” Wilson said, shaking her head and pointing her finger across the street, “and they finally tore it down last Friday.” Wilson lives deep in south Jackson on

Beaufort Street. The demolition of the house, carried out by the Jackson Police Department’s Community Improvement division, was quick and easy. That was mostly due to the fact, she said, that the house had been a charred eyesore for years, almost a decade. “All they had to do was push it,” Wilson said, “because it was burned up.” State-Owned Crime Magnets Wilson’s bête noire is a common situation all over Jackson—dilapidated houses blighting neighborhoods number in the triple-digits at least—but in some places the blight is more concentrated. Lots across the Washington Addition, for example, sit abandoned as overgrown plots with crumbling houses, some of them burned ruins just south of Jackson State University. Since September 2014, JPD’s Community Improvement division, led by Commander Jaye Coleman, has been charged

with destroying these dangerous eyesores. The police leading the demolition effort is the only thing that seems to work in a resources-strapped city. “(There) had not been one house torn down in I don’t know how long,” JPD Chief Lee Vance said in an interview in his office last summer. “A lot of these houses belong to, guess who, the State of Mississippi, and they ain’t paying a dime to do it.” The State of Mississippi, in fact, owns 3,000 lots that dot the capital city, and especially in some of the poorer neighborhoods, like the Washington Addition, wherein the state owns over a hundred lots. Many, including Jackson State University’s 22 lots just to the east of the campus itself, are in the possession of the state-level entities. “The situation we have with that is approximately 85 percent of the properties are state-owned property,” Coleman said during a May 10 phone interview.

Even with state ownership, the City of Jackson usually has to foot the bill for cleaning the lots or demolishing the houses, or they continue to sit, rot and attract children to play amid the rotted wood, garbage and broken glass, or even become drug dens. Mayor Tony Yarber said the departmental transfer of responsibility to JPD was to give strength to the code enforcement in the city. “The division needed enforcement authority,” Yarber said in a statement. “There was no enforcement under the Department of Planning. The Jackson Police Department empowered the division to enforce key quality-of-life ordinances. It continues to prove itself with achievements in demolition, grass and weeds, and board-up rates.” Yarber created the division out of thin air, allotting the code-enforcement officers

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photos by Imani Khayyam

more BANDOS, see page 18 15

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with a total budget of $1.4 million to address the city’s problems with blight. Out of that fiscal-year 2015 budget, $525,634 was for salaries, with a total of $661,148 for personal services, which includes insurance and pension contributions. The division was budgeted $165,000 for contracts for “grass, weeds, board up” and $287,000 for “contract construction.” The line item for “contract demolition structures” was only $2,500. Jackson recently released its audit of the city’s finances but has yet to release the budget for fiscal-year 2016. Recently, the division celebrated its 200th demolition. The officer in charge says that to citizens all that matters is the blight be addressed rather than whether or not the City owns the property. “That’s what most people are worried about,” Coleman said. ‘Blight Fosters Crime’ Chief Vance drove his black SUV slowly along the swampy-feeling Wainwright Street in “the Bottom” on April 15, where 18 lush, green trees closed in, leaving it feeling

more like a tropical movie set and less like the middle of a capital city in the United States. The chief pointed to a row of crumbling houses his department would soon take down, still barely standing and overgrown with weeds, with broken windows and open doors inviting young explorers or criminals who stay in the Second Precinct. “We’re closing in on 200 houses,” Vance said, then paused. “Look at this, Donna: Three little kids walking right down the street. What burns my biscuit—that one’s got markings, too—is that people shouldn’t just leave property like this.” As Vance talked at the corner of Wainwright and Eisenhower, three young, black boys, probably 7 or 8 years old, were sauntering along the street as little boys do, one of them pushing a bicycle, as the chief’s black SUV slowly approached. As the children turned their heads and saw the vehicle, they must have smelled a cop, suddenly running away past a string of abandoned houses. “A lot of these properties, too, belong to the State,” the chief said, shaking his head.

children can be saved from a life of crime if the community gets smarter about tackling those conditions. One piece of the puzzle is to rid the city of the blight, just as Annie Wilson was determined would happen on her south Jackson street. Significant evidence shows that blighted neighborhoods hurt children and their potential, and cities overall, in many ways. The 2007 report, “How Housing Affects Child Well-Being,” by the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities, looks at all the ways unfit housing harms a child, from the lead ingested from pipes and paint, to living in overcrowded conditions, to growing up among abandoned housing— what it called “critical housing needs.” The dangers to children are complex and interconnected in poor neighborhoods where people and wealth have fled, leaving behind houses that no one keeps up, feeding into the crime and unhealthy conditions that compound when not addressed. “Conditions in neighborhoods with high poverty rates, such as a lack of access to quality medical care, high crime rates, and access to drugs, can all threaten children’s health. Poor neighborhoods also tend to lack restaurants or supermarkets with affordable, healthy choices for meals,” the Funders’ Network report stated. “Additionally, due to fear for their children’s safety, parents may not allow children who live in unsafe neighborhoods to play outside, but the resulting lack of exercise is not good for children’s health. Furthermore, because poverty tends to be concentrated in neighborhoods, families that experience risky conditions in their own home likely also face risky conditions in their neighborhoods, multiplying the risks to children.” Tragically, though, children who grow up amid blight do not expect it to change. ‘With All the Tall Grasses’ A 17-year-old rapper and high-school dropout in the Washington Addition who more BANDOS, see page 20

Imani Khayyam

Kvng Zeakyy, 17, is a rapper and school dropout who grew up amid crumbling housing in the Washington Addition. He doesn’t think it will ever change.

“We shouldn’t have to be doing their work for them,” the chief added. Around the corner, a crumbling house was covered with “Vice Lord” graffiti on every side—probably painted by one of the local “groups” that identify with the gang that started in Chicago in 1958 and that helped terrorize Jackson during the crack era of the 1980s before the gang splintered into smaller groups. The graffiti appeared since 2014, Google mapping shows. Those houses in the Bottom, and elsewhere in Jackson, are community eyesores that drag on property values and, thus, community wealth-building ability. Worse, they are a key indicator that make it more likely that those little boys ambling along Wainwright will grow up and become criminals. “Neighborhood blight is part of the vicious cycle in Jackson; crime causes blight, and blight fosters crime,” warned researchers for the BOTEC Analysis Corporation’s exhaustive study of crime in Jackson, commissioned by Attorney General Jim Hood and completed in January 2016. “Abandoned houses, called ‘bandos,’ shelter runaway youth and provide a haven for drug use or headquarters for gang activity.” One Jackson mother told researchers that her middle-school son and his girlfriend would camp out in buildings “that were dirty, dangerous, and full of drug detritus and broken alcohol bottles.” That son, and even the little boys on Wainwright, could be three of the 225 Jackson Public Schools students that BOTEC researchers identified as a “target efficiency group” who are most likely to “become criminals (some of them violent felons) who will cause damage to their communities in a multitude of ways—due in large part to the cyclical conditions in which they grew up. “Rather than dwelling on the incendiary issue of who is to blame, the (attorney general) has asked us for solutions that could interrupt the status quo, which currently generates an intolerably high crime rate,” the report stated. BOTEC’s good news is that those 225

This Wainwright Street house, forfeited to the State of Mississippi in 2002, currently has a lein placed on it by the JPD’s Community Improvement division.

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BANDOS from page 18

May 25 - 31, 2016 • jfp.ms

logical: Studies show that dilapidation makes communities more susceptible to crime, so “Broken Windows” policing would be about cleaning up that decay and disorder, no? That is what the Jackson Police Department clearly is trying to do, after all. But that’s not how the often-misunderstood “Broken Windows” policing strategy operates: It’s not about cleaning up the disorder, usually; it is about regulating behavior and, often, punishment. (See “Pursuing ‘Broken Windows,’” page 21.) Police departments that embrace the theory focus on arresting the people who cause disorder for what are usually lowlevel offenses—known as “quality of life” crimes—that become the start of a longer

systems, feed directly into crime. “Youth who reside in disadvantaged neighborhoods have an increased risk for delinquent behavior,” the Jackson BOTEC report stated directly. When researchers asked young Jacksonians why they turned to crime, they talked about systemic conditions: “Responses from youth of Jackson often focused on issues of poverty, from hunger to neighborhood blight.” The BOTEC researchers asked one young Jackson woman how she would solve the problem of crime in Jackson if she had unlimited resources. “Feed them,” she answered. But, “Broken windows” is about policing disorder through stops and arrests, not Imani Khayya,m

prefers to be called Kvng Zeakyy grew up on Florence Street amid poverty, crime and crumbling houses in every direction; the City lists more than 100 tax-forfeiture properties in the small neighborhood south of Jackson State. Driving through the streets, you pass burned-out husks, windowless flophouses and young people playing among rubble, with better-cared-for homes in between. But the young man, who committed his first crime when he broke into his elementary school when he was in the fourth grade, said he doesn’t expect the conditions to change, even as he and other young people struggle to go straight and avoid crime after growing up in uncertain conditions and, often, hungry and unsettled. “I been around it so long that I actually feel like it’s Jackson,” Zeakyy said in Sheppard Brothers Park near Jim Hill High School in April. He said he has been to Houston, Texas, to visit family, and the conditions there aren’t the same. “But down here, you go out on the sidewalk where the grass should be this high”—he points toward the ground, then much higher, shaking his head—“the grass gone be that high because they don’t take care of nothing.” The house Zeakky grew up in on Florence, a couple blocks from the park, is now abandoned. The BOTEC researchers warned that neglected housing is a vicious cycle that needs interruption: Blight brings crime, and crime leads to blight. They interviewed a local Jackson church leader who said repairing physical community should be top priority in order to reduce crime: “Before we do anything else in Jackson, I’d make sure they get all the houses and the places in Jackson with all the tall grasses cut down and redo the houses that have been abandoned.” The idea of fixing neighborhood conditions came up in the April 6 meeting of the Mayor’s Criminal Justice Reform Task Force on crime in Jackson’s downtown police headquarters. “I don’t know if you have heard of the ‘Broken Windows’ theory,” Mississippi College law professor Patricia Bennett told other members. “But that is a theory that has been used to reduce crime. “When I look over the City of Jackson, and I see some of the neglect and decay in the city, I just think we can do more. Considering that theory, we start by taking care of the little things first, and then you start to appreciate the environment more, and it tends to reduce crime. I think that if we were to take a look at that, that would really help.” Bennett mentioned Medgar Evers Boulevard where she drives into the city, saying that she wonders if a patrolman or a City employee ever travels the street due to the conditions she sees. “If it needs to be done, you do it,” she said of the need to clean up the street and make neighborhood repairs. What Bennett said about the famous 20 “Broken Windows” strategy was certainly

JPD Chief Lee Vance is frustrated at the State for owning so much crumbling housing in Jackson but is glad that his department is helping to bring it down.

rap sheet and, often, clog the court and jail system with people who cannot afford the fines. That could be for graffiti, urinating in public, riding a bicycle on a sidewalk, smoking a joint or, yes, for breaking a window, even in an abandoned building that no one has done anything about for eight years. The co-authors of the popular theory introduced it in a seminal essay in The Atlantic Monthly in 1982, “Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety,” warning about “the fear of being bothered by disorderly people.” The men, George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson, defined the group that needed “order maintenance” widely: “Not violent people, nor, necessarily, criminals, but disreputable or obstreperous or unpredictable people: panhandlers, drunks, addicts, rowdy teenagers, prostitutes, loiterers, the mentally disturbed.” What the “Broken Windows” approach is, or isn’t, strikes at the very heart of the debate of how much policing is too much— in the exact communities where blight and poverty, as well as over-policing and time spent in the youth and adult criminal-justice

feeding would-be criminals or even fixing the stuff that is busted in the neighborhoods where they are growing up amid decay and trauma. Not even on Medgar Evers Boulevard. ‘They Just Want It Done’ Yet in Jackson, at least for now, the approach to cleaning up “broken windows” means what it sounds like: The police take down the abandoned houses—an unusual role, but one that actually goes after the root causes of crime in an arguably more effective way than low-level fishing for arrests does. Using police for demolition may seem unsettling and maybe even wasteful—is this the police’s role?—but it is a City department more likely to get funding than others in tough times when sales tax revenue is flat, insurance and public transportation costs are up, hiring is frozen, and most of the City’s reserves are gone. As one leader said privately, “We never tell the police department no.” At least until someone tells him to stop—and that could happen in these breaking-point times for the City’s budget—Coleman works with nine code enforcement of-

ficers, along with their five-member clerical support staff, to ensure that city ordinances concerning blight are followed. The process begins with complaints from neighbors, Coleman said, and can cost the city thousands of dollars by the time it is through. The demolition, performed by contract, creates a net loss for the City budget, which is never reimbursed. “I don’t want to talk bad about the State, but we don’t get reimbursed when we have to assign contractors to these properties that have been identified,” Coleman said. “When we have to demolish a house on state property, we don’t get reimbursed.” Coleman said although the State controls these properties, the complaints come through to the city, and one of the officers from his division goes to the site to inspect the house. The inspector records the violations and recommends how to best remedy the situation. From there, the officers use their investigative skills, which Coleman described as “a tedious process” of tracking down the owner, which may be a person, a corporation or nonprofit entity, or the State of Mississippi. If the owner cannot be found, or as with the State does not legally have to take any steps to remedy the problems, local ordinance and state stature require the City to arrange for the cleaning and clearing of the property, even at its own expense. “We have to exhaust all our avenues for notifying them,” Coleman said. “A lot of these properties may be tied to LLCs, and it is hard to track an owner like that because it changes hands.” The process ends at the Jackson City Council, which then has to approve the cleaning contracts. From start to finish, Coleman said the process can take from four to six months, during which the houses or lots sit. If the City has to demolish the house, the Community Improvement division sends off samples for asbestos testing and final approval from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. “We find the owners a lot of the time,” Coleman said. “We have a good situation going on where a lot of times when these people are notified they take care of the problem themselves.” “And if they respond, we will give them an opportunity to try to remedy the situation without going to court.” That, he said, saves the City money, and his department time. “It’s a process going through city council; that takes up a lot of the time, which a lot of people don’t understand. They just want it done,” Coleman added. Doing the State’s Dirty Work The ownership quandary means that the City is forced to do the dirty work of more BANDOS, see page 22

Roots and Sins of ‘Broken Windows’ by Donna Ladd

n July 17, 2014, Eric Garner was selling cigarettes for $7 a pack and loose cigarettes for 75 cents each in Staten Island, N.Y. His sale of untaxed “loosies” helped him support his family of eight in a way that wasn’t as illegal as selling illicit drugs. Police had arrested him multiple times already for his “job,” but that day a chokehold by an NYPD officer killed him, helping ignite the Black Lives Matter movement across the country. Garner begged cops not to arrest him, then uttered “I can’t breathe” 11 times as they took him to the ground— making his case a jarring example of the potential cost of New York City’s “quality-of-life” policing that targets misdemeanors like selling cigarettes. “If he could have found a job or benefits that would have supported his big family, I don’t think my father would have been out there selling cigarettes,” his daughter Erica Garner told me in her Brooklyn home. “… I believe my father worked until his death, until he couldn’t anymore, to give me and my siblings the essentials.” But Garner committed his minor crime in 2014, 20 years after New York City embraced the idea that police should enforce such low-level crimes as selling loose cigarettes, rather than focusing exclusively on worse crimes. That change in strategy, his family says, got him killed.

ling and political scientist James Q. Wilson wrote. “A stable neighborhood of families who care for their homes, mind each other’s children, and confidently frown on unwanted intruders can change, in a few years or even a few months, to an inhospitable and frightening jungle. A piece of property is abandoned, weeds grow up, a window is smashed.” Then, worse crime sets in, they argue. For Kelling and Wilson, the answer was controlling, and often punishing, the behavior rather than focusing on physical conditions and root causes that may have caused the behavior. As fiscal conservatives, neither Kelling or Wilson, who is now deceased, has spent much time talking about marshalling resources to fix crumbling neighborhoods, or the poverty, that creates conditions for crime and blight. In the “Broken Windows” theory, there isn’t much talk of actually fixing any windows. It’s about policing. The essay convinced a new generation of police that officers must be “unleashed,” not just respond to calls but to make stops for lower-level offenses such as urinating outside, smoking a joint, tagging a wall, jumping a subway turnstile or peddling untaxed items. Police could also use those stops and searches to find illegal guns, drugs and outstanding warrants. For Kelling, long a fellow with the conservative Manhattan Institute, it has long been important to take lowlevel crimes, such as subway fare-beating and selling untaxed items, seriously as “economic” crime. “I’m not sure we should just send police out and say, “arrest these people,” he said, preferring civilian tax inspectors. But, he said, stealing a subway fare or selling an untaxed cigarette may seem inconsequential, but you “start multiplying that over a year, and then you’re talking about millions and millions of dol-

of Wilson’s other published beliefs. For instance, many young criminals were genetically and biologically predisposed to violent crime, and raised that way, so tackling societal “root causes” such as “unemployment, racism, poor housing, too little schooling, a lack of self-esteem” wouldn’t do any good, as Wilson wrote in the 1995 book he co-edited, “Crime.” In fact, he wrote, those root causes were not “major causes at all.” “His work on imprisonment and other areas, that was his domain,” Kelling said in December of Wilson. Wilson was also part of the “Bell Curve” academic crowd—men who controversially, and often together in co-authored books, pushed the idea that criminals, and especially black ones, enjoyed a lower IQ and were, thus, difficult to rehabilitate—often using inhumane language “[W]e are terrified by the prospect of innocent people being gunned down at random, without warning and almost without motive, by youngsters who afterwards show us the blank, unremorseful face of a seemingly feral, presocial being,” Wilson wrote in “Crime” in 1993. Wilson was also quoted extensively in the controversial IQ writings of his friend and co-author Richard J. Herrnstein, who co-authored “The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life” in 1994. That book attracted academic derision for its premise that many African Americans are prone to crime due to their lower IQs. Asked about Wilson’s embrace of the “IQ” arguments, Kelling said it never came up in conversation. “He and I never talked about that,” he said. “… Jim and I never crossed that bridge.”

May 25 - 31, 2016 • jfp.ms

Associated Press /Carlos Osorio

‘Burden on the Police’ In contrast to his late writing partner’s beliefs, Kelling can sound like a civil-rights activist (and he was in the 1960s, he says). And, like Bratton, he talks a lot about the distrust over-policing has brought to black communities, even as he defends quality-of-life policing as vital to restoring order in them. “The burden is on the police to prove themselves,” he says. Kelling points to vagrancy and loitering laws, and even the vicious Black Codes, that targeted black people well into the 20th century. “That history is ‘Sins’ of the Police in the genes of African Americans of the “A lot of sins have been present time. … Police must deal with committed in the name of people on the basis of their behavior, ‘Broken Windows,” George not race. … If we’re going to improve Kelling, 81, tells me in a midthe quality of life in their neighbortown Manhattan hotel lounge hoods, we’d better do it right.” in December 2015. Kelling is Kelling said the NYPD went far one of two men who popularoverboard with arrest quotas. Police ized the “order maintenance” George Kelling is a sociologist who helped popularize the “Broken Windows” policing don’t need “zero tolerance,” he says; they strategy in a seminal 1982 strategy in 1982. He stands by the theory, even as many say it actually harms communities need training to avoid abuse of discreAtlantic Monthly essay, “Broof color. Here is pictured with Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee in 2012. tion that can harm a low-level offender. ken Windows: The Police and “A powerful tool means you have to Neighborhood Safety.” Kelling had agreed by phone that Garner is a perfect lars being lost, not to say what the impact of the behavior of manage the tool very carefully,” he says. A city can’t just decide to start a “Broken Windows” case study for “Broken Windows” analysis, although he are beaters meant to other passengers.” strategy overnight. “I would be very concerned because it declined to comment specifically on the case because he is Feral, Presocial Predators takes training; it takes guidelines for officers about how to back as a consultant for the New York Police Department. Kelling says he didn’t know James Q. Wilson when use discretion,” Kelling said. The now-infamous 1982 essay that started that revo- But how do you get the cops to exercise the correct dislution in policing, most notably in New York City under the political scientist reached out to him to write The At- his friend Bill Bratton, built on a 1969 study by Stanford lantic essay after Kelling did a study showing that police cretion? “It’s called sergeants,” he says. If they do their job, psychologist Philip Zimbardo finding that untended prob- were more effective on foot than in cars. Wilson was on the they can redirect bad cop behavior, he argued. For instance, officers cannot expect to curse citizens, including young lems, such as an abandoned car with broken windows, Police Foundation Board that funded Kelling’s work. The two men agreed that “if you want to reduce gang associates, and expect community buy-in. “Starting could breed crime in that community. “We suggest that ‘untended’ behavior also leads to crime, a good bet is to create and main order,” and that out with ‘hey, asshole’ is the wrong start,” Kelling says. 21 A longer version is at jfp.ms/preventingviolence. the breakdown of community controls,” sociologist Kel- police needed to do it. But he distanced himself from some

BANDOS from page 20

May 25 - 31, 2016 • jfp.ms

Some of the Addition’s blight is on property that some interests wanted to turn into housing for Jackson State University— in a neighborhood that used to house JSU faculty in an earlier heyday. But, after funding from the state failed to turn up, the property just sits. “And with these so-called ‘tight times’ now and certain leadership, they just haven’t been receiving that,” Anderson said of the money. “I think that’s why a lot of it is sitting dormant now.” “But they can’t do a lot with them because they don’t receive the allocations from the State. And that’s why you see a lot of blight in and around the Washington Addition area.”

tion, an independent, private nonprofit, wished to arrange for the dormitory’s construction and then pass the building over to the university, it had to adjust its schedule when the Institutes of Higher Learning, the governing board for state universities and colleges, objected. “IHL requested that we didn’t use a third party, because to some degree if it is a state building you have to go through a bid process; but the foundation being a separate entity from the university and not a part of the state institution, it could do that, but then if they gave the building to the university and didn’t ever go through the bid process, it just really made it convoluted,” Brookins said. So then, the land sat empty and unImani Khayyam

cleaning up property that they will never be able to reassign to another owner or to even draw property tax revenue on. Von Anderson of the City’s Department of Planning is in charge of the Neighbors First Lot Program that is trying to recoup some of the investment. “The more property we get on the tax roll,” Anderson said. “We generate more tax revenue. And I think that’s the most important thing about this.” He estimates that the State controls around 3,000 such properties in the city. The Neighbors First program lets residents apply to purchase surplus unused by the City, but Anderson said that the total number of those eligible properties pale compared to those the State owns. Sources close to the process say that the State has not engaged the City in efforts to include state-owned property in the Neighbors First Lot program, and the secretary of state’s office did not return calls about the properties by press time. The Hinds County Land Rolls list the Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration’s address as the “owners” of the property. It is not clear whether this is simply a bureaucratic designation or property-holding status. The department did not return calls by press time. There are only 150 eligible lots for the program, but Anderson said that this hasn’t stopped Jackson residents from attempting to purchase the blight in their neighborhoods. “Actually, I have a lot of those,” Anderson said. “I haven’t finished processing all of them, but we had a fair share.” “That’s why the City doesn’t make it a policy to clean up all the properties that are owned by the state,” Anderson said. “And we just don’t have the money, that’s one, and number two, we don’t get compensated.” When the City cleans the property, unlike with businesses or individuals, Jackson doesn’t have the ability to place a lien on the state property. The system normally works. “Eventually we will own it or get our money,” Anderson said. “But with the state, it’s just money down a rabbit hole.” Anderson said that although it is in the power of the state to hand the property over, they rarely do so, if at all. “The state can, but a lot of the time we don’t get that property. Even though we clean it, we don’t get it,” Anderson said. “We make a request on it, but the state will say hey thanks. And we just lose that money. It is just money that goes down the pipe.” “So that’s what we are dealing with. Most of the property we lose money from are from the state ones.” In the Washington Addition and the Bottom, this is just one of many reasons blight sits, grows and spreads. “We have some over there,” Anderson said of a few Jackson-owned lots in the Addition. “A lot of 22 that property Jackson State owns.”

This house on Canal Street, east of Jackson State University, is one of the 22 buildings that will be cleared after the school finalizes talks with a developer for a new dormitory complex on the site.

JSU: Stuck in the Middle Jason Brookins recalls a night when he saw one of the Addition properties associated with the stalled development on the nightly news, with curling sheets of fire consuming the abandoned building. “We are highly concerned with, number one, how it looks, and, number two, the safety issues,” Brookins said during a phone interview on May 20. “We had a fire, I can’t remember exactly when, but it was an old apartment complex.” Brookins, now the executive director of the Center for University-Based Development at Jackson State, said he raced down to the building, joining the firefighters already there, learning that it was not as abandoned as he thought. “It was one of those things where people were living in it.” The 22 structures to the east of Jackson State University, stretching from Pascagoula Street and bordered on the north and south by Pearl Street and Lynch Street, have sat abandoned for the last four years at least, Brookins said, in part due to statutes requiring state approval for the contract to develop the land. Since the JSU Development Founda-

used, with the houses slowly deteriorating from mis- and dis-use, as the foundation and the university waited for first IHL approval and then state legislative approval, and finally the governor’s signature, which finally happened Friday, May 13. “The reality is that funding is an issue and timing is an issue because we expected that the Legislature would approve it and that the governor would sign off on it early in the session,” Brookins said. “And he has every right to sign it whenever he feels like he wants to sign it.” That delay in time did provide the city the opportunity to address it, as they do with other instances of blight, but Brookins said the foundation and the City reached a sort of agreement. “And interestingly enough, we had two separate conversations. Initially the foundation as a 501(c)(3) as a nonprofit organization requested that the City knock down the structures,” Brookins said. “And there was some discussion about whether they could do that legally, spend dollars to come on private property, that kind of thing, and we would just reimburse them after we sold the land to the developer.”

“That just kind of fizzled. I think there was some things that they simply could not do. You can’t hire the city to hire a firm to tear down your property. We could just hire a firm, of course. But we didn’t have the dollars necessary,” he said. Brookins estimated knocking down the 22 structures on the 12-acre property would have cost the foundation over $100,000, and the City was also not willing to take on that kind of cost. The foundation itself sank millions into purchasing the property, drawing too much of their resources away from their original purpose: providing academic and athletic scholarships, Brookins said. “The foundation has spent a lot of money on this project that it really intended not to spend. The foundation really exists for scholarships, not for housing,” he added. So then the university, the foundation and the City were stuck in a situation where it seemed they all had to wait on the State to approve the construction before the demolition of the houses could commence. “As an institution, they are looking for us to handle it in-house, and we can’t do that,” Brookins said about the City. “But on the flip side of it, they couldn’t really assist us. If they tore down one house in that block of 22 structures, it would not have made that much of a difference.” But now that the governor has approved the deal, all that is left is IHL approval, and then, Brookins said, the houses will be wiped clean to make room for a 630-bed, multi-structure dormitory with a courtyard in the middle. “All of the little structures in there will come down, that will be the first thing that will happen when the contracts are signed,” he said. But in the state’s perspective, Brookins said, blight is a local issue. “Again on the state level, the state is only concerned about building a new building. If it is an issue of blight, then that is an issue for the local people to address. Unfortunately, it puts the JSU foundation in the same situation as just a regular landowner in that if we don’t have the money to tear down a structure, it just sits, for when the City comes around to address it,” he said. For Annie Wilson in south Jackson, that finally happened on Friday the 13th. The house across the way now sits in a big garbage heap on its lot. But that’s better than the dangerous hulk that used to sit on that patch of grass. Wilson pointed down Beaufort Street toward other decrepit property. “There’s another one behind the trees,” she said. This is the third part of a “Preventing Violence” reporting project, supported by a John Jay College of Criminal Justice fellowship and a grant from the Solutions Journalism Network. Visit jfp.ms/preventingviolence for the full series. Email city reporter Tim Summers Jr. at tim@ jacksonfreepress.com.

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May 25 - 31, 2016 • jfp.ms

EXTENDED HAPPY HOUR! NOW 3-7

FRIDAY 5/27

SATURDAY 5/28

SUNDAY 5/29

We Are Jackson Food Truck Friday is at Smith Park.

Afrikan Liberation Day 2016 is at the Chokwe Lumumba Center for Economic Democracy.

The ISH Factor is at ISH Grill & Bar.

BEST BETS May 25 June 1, 2016

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WEDNESDAY 5/25

“Who Is Gloria Dunbar?” is at 8 p.m. at Hal & Mal’s (200 Commerce St.). On the patio. Jackson native, transcomic and Internet personality Katherine Day gives a onewoman show. Doors open at 7 p.m. For ages 18 and up. $5; call 948-0888; email theevolutionofkatherine@gmail.com.

THURSDAY 5/26

courtesy Lyrik

Author John Hart signs copies of his book, “Redemption Road,” at 5 p.m. at Lemuria Books (Banner Hall, 4465 Interstate 55 N., Suite 202). Reading at 5:30 p.m. $27.99 book; call 601-366-7619; email info@lemuriabooks.com; lemuriabooks.com. … Come On, Phil the Love! is at 7 p.m. at Offbeat (151 Wesley Ave.). The event is a response to recent Mississippi legislation. Lyrik, Rareluth, Cynical Twins, Standard Issues and more perform. Enjoy gumbo from Chef Tom Ramsey. Benefits Let’s Build Change in Mississippi!, Inspire Jackson and other nonprofits. $5 suggested donation; call 601-988-3955; find the event on Facebook.

(Left to right) Judson Wright, Vincent McMurtery, Ben Atkinson and Vinson McMurtery of The CUT perform for We Are Jackson Family Day on the Green, Monday, May 30, at the Mississippi Museum of Art.

(622 Duling Ave.). Keb’ Mo’ is a blues singer-songwriter and Grammy winner. Doors open at 7 p.m. Standing room only. $35 in advance, $40 at the door, $3 surcharge for patrons under 21; call 601-292-7121 or 877-987-6487; email arden@ardenland.net; dulinghall.com.

SATURDAY 5/28

The Prince Movie Marathon is at 6 p.m. at the Russell C. Davis Planetarium (201 E. Pascagoula St.). Enjoy films featuring the late music icon, including “Purple Rain,” “Under the Cherry Moon” and “Graffiti Bridge.” Includes a Prince costume contest, a cash bar and concessions. Limited seating. $10; call 601-960-1537; email bfranklin@jacksonms.gov. … Old School Party with a Purby Micah Smith pose is at 8 p.m. at The Railroad District (824 S. State St.). The fundraiser featuring jacksonfreepress.com hip-hop and R&B music from Fax: 601-510-9019 the 1970s, 1980s or 1990s Daily updates at benefits Stewpot, the Missisjfpevents.com sippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Autism Mississippi. Wear ’70s, ’80s or ’90s attire. $20, $40 VIP; oldschoolpartywithapurpose.eventbrite.com.

MONDAY 5/30

We Are Jackson Family Day on the Green is from noon to 5 p.m. at the Mississippi Museum of Art (380 S. Lamar St.) on the BankPlus Green. Includes children’s activities, food trucks, a salute to military members and music. Performers include Press Play, 5th Child and The CUT. Stop by the Russell C. Davis Planetarium for films and popcorn. No glass or coolers. Free; call 601-960-1537; email bfranklin@jacksonms.gov. … “The Reunion” Dinner Theater is from 7 to 9 p.m. at Char (Highland Village, 4500 Interstate 55 N.). The Detectives present the four-act comedy “whodunnit.” Includes a three-course meal. RSVP. $49; call 601-9569562; thedetectives.biz.

May 25 - 31, 2016 • jfp.ms

5/31 events@ TUESDAY “The Robber Bridegroom” is at 7:30 p.m. at New Stage

Jackson rapper Lyrik performs for “Come On, Phil the Love!” on Thursday, May 26, at Offbeat.

FRIDAY 5/27

The We Are Jackson Comedy Show is at 7 p.m. at Thalia Mara Hall (255 E. Pascagoula St.). Comedians include Lil Darrell, Brandon Queshawn, Cadillac, Terry Grossman, Roz Washington and Teddy Ruks. $16; call 800-745-3000. 24 … The Keb’ Mo’ Band performs at 8 p.m. at Duling Hall

SUNDAY 5/29

We Are Jackson Sunday Funday begins at 2 p.m. at The Landing (112 S. President St.). The Blast, Mississippi Greek Weekend and Mississippi Move host the block party. Includes a cash bar, food and music from DJ Scrap Dirty, The Nasty Sho, Spirituals and DJ Spre. Free; call 601-9601537; email bfranklin@jacksonms.gov.

Theatre (1100 Carlisle St.). The Mississippi bluegrass musical is about a robber who courts the daughter of a rich planter. Additional dates: May 25-28, 7:30 p.m., May 29, 2 p.m., May 31-June 4, 7:30 p.m., June 5, 2 p.m. $28, $22 students; call 601-948-3533, ext. 222; newstagetheatre.com.

WEDNESDAY 6/1

History Is Lunch is at noon at the William F. Winter Archives and History Building (200 North St.). Authors Teresa Nicholas and Joanne Prichard Morris discuss the book “Willie: The Life of Willie Morris.” Free; call 601-576-6998. … The ’90s Hip-Hop Exhibition is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Includes hip-hop music, graffiti art and a sneaker display. Additional dates: June 1-4, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Free, donations welcome; call 601-960-9250; jsums.edu/gallery1arts.

Old School Party with a Purpose May 28, 8 p.m., at The Railroad District (824 S. State St.). Includes hip-hop and R&B music from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. Benefits Stewpot, the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Autism Mississippi. Wear ’70s, ’80s or ’90s attire. $20, $40 VIP; oldschoolpartywithapurpose.eventbrite.com.

COMMUNITY Fun-N-The-Sun Self-Care Fair May 25, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., at Hinds Behavioral Health Services (3450 Highway 80 W.). Come for self-help resources, food, games and more. Free; call 601-321-2400. Events at William F. Winter Archives and History Building (200 North St.) • History Is Lunch May 25, noon. Edwina Carpenter presents “Saving a Battlefield: The Preservation of Brices Crossroads.” Free; call 601-576-6998. • History Is Lunch June 1, noon. Authors Teresa Nicholas and Joanne Prichard Morris discuss the book “Willie: The Life of Willie Morris.” Free; call 601-576-6998. Reclaiming the Legacy of Carter High School Ceremony May 28, 11 a.m., at 200 School Road, Brandon. Alumni and staff gather to place a historical marker where the historically black school once stood. The event is part of the class of 1966’s 50th reunion. Free; call 601-259-1784. We Are Jackson Sunday Funday May 29, 2 p.m., at The Landing (112 S. President St.). The Blast, Mississippi Greek Weekend and Mississippi Move host the block party. Includes a cash bar, food and music from DJ Scrap Dirty, The Nasty Sho, Spirituals and DJ Spre. Free; call 601-960-1537; email bfranklin@jacksonms.gov.

KIDS Art Is Word May 27, 7-10 p.m., at Big Sleepy’s (208 W. Capitol St.). Inspire Jackson hosts the open mic for youth who are poets, musicians or performance artists. Includes music from DJ Spre. If you are performing with a music track, please provide a flash drive. $5 cover, $3 to perform; call 863-9516; facebook.com/inspirejacktown. Camp Evolution May 31, 7 a.m.-6 p.m., at Tougaloo College (500 W. County Line Road, Tougaloo). The Y.O.U. C.A.N.! Institute hosts. Includes character development, math, sports, STEM robotics and more. Registration required. Held through July 31. Fee TBA; call 601-977-7910. New Vineyard Summer Camp June 1, 7:15 a.m.-6 p.m., at New Vineyard Community Development Center (4207 Rainey Road). The program for ages 5-16 includes arts and crafts, field trips and more. Held weekdays through Aug. 6. Registration required. $45 per week; call 4872330; email newvineyardms@gmail.com. Thomas & Friends: Explore the Rails Exhibit Open Tuesdays-Saturdays through Sept. 11, at Mississippi Children’s Museum (2145 Highland Drive). Also includes Timker with Thomas Tuesdays, which incorporates STEM activities. $10, children under 12 months and members free; call 601-981-5469; mschildrensmuseum.org.

FOOD & DRINK Firkin Friday May 27, 5 p.m., at Saltine Oyster Bar (622 Duling Ave., Suite 201). Enjoy beer from a selected brewery. Limited supply. Takes place on the last Friday of every month. Beer for sale; call 601-982-2899; saltinerestaurant.com.

We Are Jackson Food Truck Friday Fridays, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. through May 27, at Smith Park (302 E. Amite St.). Along Yazoo Street. Purchase lunch from a variety of food trucks and enjoy music from a live deejay. Limited seating available. Free; call 601-960-1557, ext 222; email theresa@greaterjacksonartscouncil.com.

SPORTS & WELLNESS Community Bike Ride May 27, 6 p.m., at Rainbow Natural Grocery Cooperative (2807 Old Canton Road). Bikers ride to a different destination on the last Friday of each month. Jackson Bike Advocates is the sponsor. Free; call 601-3661602; email co-opgm@rainbowcoop.org; follow Jackson Bike Advocates on Facebook.

SLATE

We Are Jackson Comedy Show May 27, 7 p.m., at Thalia Mara Hall (255 E. Pascagoula St.). Comedians include Lil Darrell, Brandon Queshawn, Cadillac, Terry Grossman, Roz Washington and Teddy Ruks. In conjunction with We Are Jackson Weekend. $16; call 800-745-3000. Afrikan Liberation Day 2016 May 28, 2 p.m., at Chokwe Lumumba Center for Economic Democracy (939 W. Capitol St.). Cooperation Jackson and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement are the hosts. Includes a screening of PanAfrican films. $5 suggested donation; find the event on Facebook. “The Post Traumatic Slave Diet” Film Screening May 28, 3-7 p.m., at Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center (528 Bloom St.). The documentary is about the cultural dietary habits

the best in sports over the next seven days

by Bryan Flynn With Saturday’s win against Arkansas, Mississippi State became the first SEC baseball team to win a regular-season title after finishing in last place the year before. The Bulldogs won their 11th overall SEC regular-season title. Thursday, May 26 College baseball (9:30 a.m.-11 p.m., SECN): Watch day three of the 2016 SEC Tournament, as the number of teams starts dwindling in the double elimination part of the tournament.

Monday, May 30 College baseball (11 a.m.-noon, ESPNU): See where all 64 baseball teams in the NCAA Tournament will be playing and get a look at the matchups in the NCAA Baseball Selection Special.

Friday, May 27 College baseball (3-10 p.m., SECN): The quarterfinals of the 2016 SEC Tournament begin, and the teams left move closer to an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

Tuesday, May 31 WNBA (7-9 p.m., ESPN2): Take a break from baseball to watch some basketball action, as the New York Liberty hosts the Minnesota Lynx.

Saturday, May 28 College baseball (Noon-7 p.m., SECN): The semifinals will set up which teams will advance to the championship of the 2016 SEC Tournament. Sunday, May 29 College baseball (1-4 p.m., CBSSN): Catch the championship game of the 2016 C-USA Tournament. … College baseball (2-6 p.m., ESPN2): Watch the 2016 SEC Tournament championship game. Soak Up the Sun Triathlon May 28, 7 a.m., at the Reunion community, Madison. Includes a 200yard swim, an eight-mile bike ride and a two-mile run. Registration required. $70; soakupthesun.net.

STAGE & SCREEN “The Robber Bridegroom” May 25-28, 7:30 p.m., May 29, 2 p.m., May 31-June 4, 7:30 p.m., June 5, 2 p.m., at New Stage Theatre (1100 Carlisle St.). The Mississippi bluegrass musical is about a robber who courts the daughter of a rich planter. $28, $22 students; call 601-948-3533, ext. 222; newstagetheatre.com. Who Is Gloria Dunbar? May 25, 8 p.m., at Hal & Mal’s (200 Commerce St.). Jackson-native trans-comic Katherine Day gives a one-woman show. For ages 18 and up. $5; call 948-0888; email theevolutionofkatherine@gmail.com.

Wednesday, June 1 MLB (7-10 p.m., ESPN): The best team in MLB, the Chicago Cubs, host the Los Angeles Dodgers in what should be an entertaining clash. The University of Southern Mississippi has taken part in all 21 C-USA baseball tournaments and is the third seed this year. USM hosts the tournament for the sixth time at Pete Taylor Park. Follow Bryan Flynn at jfpsports.com, @jfpsports and at facebook.com/jfpsports.

of African Americans and how it can improve. Includes a Q&A with the producers and refreshments. Free; call 608-8327. Prince Movie Marathon May 28, 6 p.m., at Russell C. Davis Planetarium (201 E. Pascagoula St.). Enjoy films featuring the late music icon, including “Purple Rain,” “Under the Cherry Moon” and “Graffiti Bridge.” Includes a Prince costume contest with prizes awarded, a cash bar and concessions. Limited seating. Includes Prince music between screenings. $10; call 601960-1537; email bfranklin@jacksonms.gov. ISH Factor May 29, 6 p.m., at ISH Grill & Bar (5105 Interstate 55 N. Frontage Road). Singers, poets and comedians compete in the open mic for a chance to win $500. Takes place every second and fourth Sunday. Participants must sign up in advance. No cover; call 601-668-9154; email ishgrillandbar@gmail.com.

CONCERTS & FESTIVALS We Are Jackson Family Day on the Green May 30, noon-5 p.m., at Mississippi Museum of Art (380 S. Lamar St.). On the BankPlus Green. Includes children’s activities, food trucks, a salute to military members and music. Performers include Press Play, 5th Child and The Cut. Stop by the Russell C. Davis Planetarium for films and popcorn. No glass or coolers. Free; call 601-9601537; email bfranklin@jacksonms.gov. The Keb’ Mo’ Band May 27, 8 p.m., at Duling Hall (622 Duling Ave.). Keb’ Mo’ is a blues singersongwriter and Grammy winner. $35 in advance, $40 at the door, $3 surcharge for under 21; call 601-292-7121; ardenland.net.

LITERARY SIGNINGS Events at Lemuria Books (Banner Hall, 4465 Interstate 55 N., Suite 202) • “The After Party” May 25, 5 p.m. Anton DiSclafani signs books. Reading at 5:30 p.m. $26 book; call 601-366-7619; email info@lemuriabooks.com; lemuriabooks.com. • “Redemption Road” May 26, 5 p.m. John Hart signs books. Reading at 5:30 p.m. $27.99 book; call 601-366-7619; email info@lemuriabooks.com; lemuriabooks.com.

EXHIBIT OPENINGS Daringly Different Interactive Tour May 26, 6-7:30 p.m., at Mississippi Museum of Art (380 S. Lamar St.). Join MMA’s daniel johnson, Julian Rankin and Caitlin Podas for an interactive tour of the exhibit When Modern Was Contemporary. RSVP. $20, $8 members; call 601-960-1515; msmuseumart.org. Events at Gallery1 (One University Place, 1100 John R. Lynch St., Suite 4) • Kira Cummings: Mark Making MondaysFridays through May 28. See the Jackson artist’s mixed-media pieces. Free, donations welcome, art for sale; call 601-960-9250; email gallery1@ jsums.edu or kcummings.art@gmail.com; jsums. edu/gallery1arts. • ’90s Hip-Hop Exhibition June 1-4, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Includes hip-hop music, graffiti art and a sneaker display. Free, donations welcome; call 601-960-9250; jsums.edu/gallery1arts. Goosebumps! The Science of Fear Exhibit Opening May 28, at Mississippi Museum of Natural Science (2148 Riverside Drive). The interactive exhibit allows visitors to examine the physiological, neurobiological, and sociological aspects of fear. Open Mondays-Saturdays through Dec. 30. Included with admission ($6, $5 seniors, $4 ages 3-18, free for members and children under three); call 601-576-6000; mdwfp.com/museum.

BE THE CHANGE Come On, Phil the Love! May 26, 7 p.m., at Offbeat (151 Wesley Ave.). The event is a response to recent Mississippi legislation. Lyrik, Rareluth, Cynical Twins, Standard Issues and more perform. Enjoy gumbo from Chef Tom Ramsey. Proceeds benefit Let’s Build Change in Mississippi!, Inspire Jackson and other nonprofits. $5 suggested donation; call 601-988-3955; email westmollyc@gmail. com; find the event on Facebook. Check jfpevents.com for updates and more listings, or to add your own events online. You can also email event details to events@jacksonfreepress.com to be added to the calendar. The deadline is noon the Wednesday prior to the week of publication.

May 25 - 31, 2016 • jfp.ms

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LIFE&STYLE | food&drink

Eat Cajun, Drink Beer by Dustin Cardon, dustin@jacksonfreepress.com

Courtesy D’s Cajun Spot

D’s Cajun Spot, which serves dishes such as blackened shrimp pasta, opened in Ridgeland on May 7. David Tran is the owner.

D’s Cajun Spot Opens in Ridgeland David Tran opened his new Cajun restaurant, D’s Cajun Spot (6547 Old Canton Road, Ridgeland, 769-447-5666), on May 7. Jessica Furches serves as the executive chef and has extensive experience with seafood and Cajun cuisine from her stints working in the kitchens of other popular Jackson restaurants such as Char Restaurant, Table 100, Walker’s Drive-in and the now-closed The Islander Seafood and Oyster House in Maywood Mart. The menu at D’s Cajun Spot includes items such as homemade gumbo, red beans and rice, New Orleans-style po’boys on Gambino bread, chicken pasta with Cajun cream sauce, blackened shrimp pasta, and specialty crawfish boiled and tossed in a mild or spicy seasoning. The crawfish is available in juicy Cajun, Louisiana style, garlic butter or lemon pepper. D’s Cajun Spot also has seafood options such as blue crab, king crab, snow crab, shrimp and seafood pasta. The restaurant has $8 beer-bucket specials on Mondays and Tuesdays and 50-cent oysters on the half shell on Wednesdays. D’s Cajun Spot is open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. The menu is available on its Facebook page, facebook.com/cajunspotridgeland. For more information, call 769447-5666.

May 25 - 31, 2016 • jfp.ms

Courtesy Haley’s Comet

Haley’s Comet Has Landed (209 Commerce St., 985-507-4606) Haley Fisher opened her new Jackson night club, Haley’s Comet, on March 19 this year in the former location of Club Fire. After purchasing the building, Fisher completely remodeled the interior of the club, making new additions such as an octagonal bar in the center of the building with a deejay booth set on a raised platform above, six pool tables, a large stage in the back and Haley’s Comet opened in the former concrete floors in favor of the origi- locaiton of Club Fire on March 19. nal wood floor. The building can fit up to 600 people, and while the club’s bar only serves beer for now, Fisher plans to obtain a liquor license for the club in a few months. Haley’s Comet (209 Commerce St.) is open on Fridays and Saturdays from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., and features deejays on Friday and live music every Saturday. For more information, call 985-507-4606.

Music listings are due noon Monday to be included in print and online listings: music@jacksonfreepress.com.

MAY 25 - Wednesday Char - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m. Fitzgerald’s - Hunter Gibson & Chris Link 7:30 p.m. Hal & Mal’s - New Bourbon Street Jazz Band (rest) 6:30-9 p.m. free Kathryn’s - Larry Brewer & Doug Hurd 6:30 p.m. free Kemistry - Open Mic Night 8:30 p.m. 601-665-2073 McB’s - Acoustic Crossroads 7 p.m. free Pelican Cove - Barry Leach 6 p.m. Shucker’s - Jason Stogner Band 7:30 p.m. free

MAY 26 - Thursday

MAY 27 - Friday

May 25 - 31, 2016 • jfp.ms

Ameristar Bottleneck Blues Bar, Vicksburg - Fleetwood Mac Tribute 8 p.m. free Burgers & Blues - 3 Hour Tour 6 p.m. Char - Ronnie Brown 6 p.m. Doc 36 Skatepark - Die with Nature, Surfwax & Daniel Masterpiece Jones 8:30 p.m. $10 Duling Hall - Keb’Mo’ 8 p.m. $35 advance $40 door F. Jones Corner - Lucky Hand Blues Band midnight $10 Fenian’s - Joe Carroll Georgia Blue, Flowood - Jason Turner The Hideaway - Hub City Comedy Showcase feat. Jamie Arrington, Mark Brooks, Deveron Dennis, Holly Perkins, Brandon Phillips & more w/ music from Candybone, Dustborn & Backseat Romeo 8 p.m. $10 Iron Horse Grill - Bernard Jenkins 9 p.m.

Doc 36 Skatepark - Deaf II Society, DevMaccc, Rosser and Loudpack Weezy 8:30 p.m. $10 The Hideaway - Mike & Marty’s Jam Session Kathryn’s - Travelin’ Jane 6 p.m. free Pelican Cove - Sofa Kings noon; Waylon Halen 5 p.m. Shucker’s - Acoustic Crossroads (deck) 3 p.m. free Sombra Mexican Kitchen - John Mora 11 a.m. Table 100 - Raphael Semmes 11:30 a.m. Wellington’s - Andy Hardwick 11 a.m.

MAY 28 - Saturday

Char - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m. Martin’s - Open Mic Free Jam 10 p.m. Pelican Cove - Larry Brewer & Doug Hurd noon; Shaun Patterson & Jonathan Alexander 5 p.m. Shucker’s - Hunter & the Gators 8 p.m. $5

Ameristar Bottleneck Blues Bar, Vicksburg - Pandora’s Box 8 p.m. free Burgers & Blues - Travelin’ Jane 6 p.m. F. Jones Corner - Fred T. & the Band midnight $10

May 30 - Monday

May 31 - Tuesday Char - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m. Fenian’s - Open Mic Kathryn’s - Steele Heart 6:30 p.m. free Last Call Sports Grill - Top-Shelf Tuesdays feat. DJ Spoon 9 p.m. Margarita’s - John Mora 6 p.m. Pelican Cove - Jason Turner 6 p.m. The Penguin - Jazz Tuesday Keb’Mo’

Fenian’s - Shaun Patterson Georgia Blue, Flowood - Brian Jones The Hideaway - Memorial Glow Party feat. 6 DJs 9 p.m. $10 Iron Horse Grill - James Bell Kathryn’s - The Axe-identals 7 p.m. free Kemistry - Spikey Tee, Tony Skratchere, Skratchin’ Jackson & 360 Degrees 9 p.m. $10 M Bar - Saturday Night Live feat. DJ Shanomak free Ole Tavern - Oxford Allstars One Block East - jj Thames 9 p.m. Pelican Cove - Stace & Cassie 2 p.m.; Acoustic Crossroads 7 p.m. Reed Pierce’s, Byram - Aaron Coker 9 p.m. free Shucker’s - Sofa Kings (deck) 3:30 p.m. free; Snazz 8 p.m. $5; Jason Turner (deck) 10 p.m. free Soulshine, Ridgeland - Ron Etheridge 7:30-9:30 p.m. Table 100 - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m.

May 29 - Sunday

June 1 - Wednesday Char - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m. Hal & Mal’s - Mark Roemer & Jamie Weems (rest) 6-8 p.m. free Kathryn’s - Gator Trio 6:30 p.m. free Kemistry - Open Mic Night 8:30 p.m. 601-665-2073 Pelican Cove - Acoustic Crossroads 6 p.m. Shucker’s - Candice Moore & Jim Hartner 7:30 p.m.

Send music listings to Micah Smith at music@ jacksonfreepress.com by noon Monday for inclusion in the next issue. Music venue info at jfp.ms/musicvenues.

Char - Big Easy Three 11 a.m.; Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m.

5/26 - Joe Walsh & Bad Company - Champions Square, New Orleans 5/26 - Hatebreed - Republic New Orleans 5/27 - Peter Frampton - IP Casino, Resort & Spa, Biloxi 5/27 - Steel Panther- House of Blues, New Orleans 5/27 - Bayou Country Superfest feat. Luke Bryan, Lady Antebellum, Little Big Town & more LSU Tigers Stadium, Baton Rouge 5/28 - Foreigner - Horseshoe Tunica Hotel & Casino

DIVERSIONS | music

Striving for Change by Micah Smith

uch of Mississippi’s arts com- discovered a need for education on topics munity is banding together to such as media literacy—teaching students combat recent discriminatory that what they see on TV or hear on the ralegislation, and the fight isn’t dio doesn’t reflect reality or need to be imilimited to those still in the state. Hip-hop art- tated—and the voting process. Many of the ist Genesis Be, a Biloxi native, recently made groups she met with didn’t know anything national news for donning a rebel flag and about the policy makers who affected their noose in protest of Gov. Phil Bryant’s proc- cities, counties, state or region. lamation of Confederate Heritage Month at “I was like, ‘How come I can throw a performance at New York nightclub SOB’s up a picture of Lil Wayne and all of you on April 26. However, the musician and ac- know who he is, but then I throw up a tivist says she wants her audience to under- picture of the current governor, and two stand that the problem is with Mississippi kids know who he is?’ There’s a problem politics, not necessarily those living here. “There are freethinking, progressive people in Mississippi,” she says. “The power structure and the politics and the policies that are being passed, although representative of the people, they don’t necessarily reflect the largest population of Hip-hop artist Genesis Be (bottom left) created Strive people. And it’s really Till I Rise, which led hip-hop-infused youth workshops hard to stand up for at locations in New York City and Mississippi. Mississippi when we’re having these laws and these declarations made by our leaders that with that,” she says. are not of unity, not of tolerance and not of Before returning to New York City, compassion. But I try my best to represent where she continued Strive Till I Rise for my state well because I love it.” another year, Be conducted nine months That love of her state was one of the of workshops at locations across Mississipmotivations for Be’s 2011 multi-state youth- pi, including the Mississippi Gay Straight enrichment campaign, Strive Till I Rise. The Alliance in Jackson, the Boys & Girls Club project evolved from her work on an educa- and the Lynn Meadows Discovery Center tional hip-hop album, which was her thesis in Gulfport, and the University of Southfor the Catherine B. Reynolds Program for ern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, as well as Social Entrepreneurship, a highly coveted plenty of youth centers and community scholarship that helped pay for Be’s tuition colleges along the way. At the same time, at New York University. she did face push back from several orga “I produced a series of tracks, ranging nizations that wouldn’t allow Strive Till I from HIV and AIDS awareness, bullying, Rise to present workshops. LGBTQ tolerance, teen pregnancy, and I “Some of the older generations in Misjust had these different topics,” she says. sissippi have such a negative stigma toward “So that was before Strive Till I Rise came hip-hop because they only hear what’s being about; I was already playing with the idea played on the radio,” she says. “They don’t of using hip-hop as an educational tool for care to dig deeper. They don’t care that it’s children because that’s what a lot of kids what the youth is listening to. They don’t see are listening to.” it as a way to connect with the youth, and After graduating from NYU with they’re really missing out on an opportunity bachelor’s degrees in political science and to elevate our youth.” recording music in 2011, Be returned to the In recent years, Be has focused on makcoast and began meeting with youth to re- ing music, such as her upcoming album, search which issues Strive Till I Rise should “Gulf Coast Queens,” which she plans to tackle. Writing in New York, she had to con- release in June, but says she hopes to one sider the issues that she grew up with, but by day see Strive Till I Rise partner with a larger submerging herself in Mississippi’s modern organization against mass incarceration and youth culture, she was able to tailor work- other violations of human rights and take shops to meet the needs of young people. the campaign to an international audience. While the workshops dealt with many For more information on Genesis Be’s of the themes from Be’s thesis tracks, she also music, visit genesisbe.com.

Courtesy Genesis Be

Char - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m. Doc 36 Skatepark - Alexander Fresco, Mildred Noor, Eruditious, Skinny Bragg & II G.U.Y.S. 8:30 p.m. $10 Fenian’s - Vulcan Eejits Fitzgerald’s - Sonny Brooks & Ron Etheridge 7:30 p.m. Georgia Blue, Flowood - Shaun Patterson Hal & Mal’s - D’Lo Trio (rest) 7-10 p.m. free Iron Horse Grill - Chuck Bryan 6 p.m. Kathryn’s - Greenfish 6:30 p.m. free Offbeat - Come On, Phil the Love! feat. Rareluth, Cynical Twins, Standard Issues, Lyrik & more 7 p.m. $5 suggested donation Pelican Cove - Alanna Mosley 6 p.m. Shucker’s - Jason Turner Band 7:30 p.m. free Soulshine, Ridgeland - Andy Tanas 8-10 p.m. Sylvia’s - Thursday Night Live feat. The Blues Man & Sunshine McGhee 9 p.m. free

Kathryn’s - Sole Shakers 7 p.m. free M Bar - Flirt Fridays feat. DJ T. Lewis free Martin’s - Reid Stone & Guilt Ridden Troubadour 10 p.m. McB’s - Travelin’ Jane 8 p.m. Ole Tavern - Lady L & the River City Blues Band Pelican Cove - The StoneCoats 7 p.m. Reed Pierce’s, Byram - Rockit 9 p.m. free Shucker’s - Deeb’s Blues Band 5:30 p.m.; Snazz 8 p.m. $5; Chad Perry (deck) 10 p.m. free Soulshine, Ridgeland - Scott Stricklin 8-10 p.m. Table 100 - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m.

Courtesy Keb’Mo’

MUSIC | live

BY MATT JONES

50 Like much of the analysis on “Marketplace” 54 Nestle’s ___-Caps 55 Letters on Windy City trains 56 Hawaiian actor Jason who’s set to play Aquaman 58 “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” author Ken 62 Radiohead title followed by the lyric “Arrest this man” 65 ___-de-France 66 ___ a high note (ﬁnish well) 67 Eugene of travel guide fame 68 100% 69 Stopwatch button 70 Banjo ridges 71 Item hidden in the four theme entries

35 “Li’l Abner” creator Al 36 Companion of Aramis and Porthos 40 Coin portraying Louis XIV 41 Sufﬁx for sugars, in chemistry 43 Deighton who wrote the “Hook, Line and Sinker” trilogy 44 Cartoon hero with antennae 45 Place to get lost, per Neil Simon 46 Gin-ﬂavoring fruit 47 One of a making-out couple 48 Number at the pump 51 Unruly hairdo

52 “See ya!” 53 Peach, burgundy, or chocolate, e.g. 57 Assistant 59 Thailand, once 60 Tuneful Fitzgerald 61 Website for restaurant reviews 63 Bartender to Homer 64 Inﬁrmary bed ©2016 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@ jonesincrosswords.com)

Last Week’s Answers

For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, 99 cents per minute. Must be 18+. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800 655-6548. Reference puzzle #773.

Down

“I Fold” —ﬁnd your way around the puzzle. Across

1 Progressive spokesperson 4 Stanley of “Julie & Julia” 9 Grows light 14 “Hamilton” creator/star ___-Manuel Miranda 15 Take ___ for the worse 16 Novel on an iPad, e.g. 17 Actress Poehler 18 Sleepover of sorts 20 Louis or Lewis, e.g. 22 Former Boston Symphony director Seiji 23 Actor Penn of the “Harold & Kumar” ﬁlms

24 Gear sprocket 26 Deprive of strength 28 Newsroom honchos 32 “Talk ___” (Pedro Almodovar ﬁlm) 33 Fashion designer and daughter of a noted painter 37 ___Pen (injector for allergic reactions) 38 1978 Peace Nobelist Anwar 39 Ted ___ and the Pharmacists 42 Study involving charged particles and ﬂuids 47 “Check,” in poker 49 Stick at a table

1 “Love handles” material 2 One might pick you up at an airport 3 Multicolored agate 4 Where many brews are on draft 5 “Respect for Acting” writer Hagen 6 Stephen King novel about a dog 7 Hot trend 8 “Cold Mountain” hero W. P. ___ 9 Leaves 10 Atty.’s organization 11 Ofﬁce ﬁxture? 12 Make marginal markings 13 Walter’s wife on “Breaking Bad” 19 Leave astonished 21 Delta follower, in the NATO alphabet 25 Blades cut by blades 27 Parade columnist Marilyn ___ Savant 28 Dr. Zaius, e.g. 29 It’s no deep slumber 30 Props for driving instructors 31 “V.1.A.G.R.a 4 FR33!”, perhaps 34 Film noir actress Lupino

BY MATT JONES Last Week’s Answers

“Greater-Than Sudoku”

For this ‘Greater-Than Sudoku,’ I’m not givin’ you ANY numbers to start off with!! Adjoining squares in the grid’s 3x3 boxes have a greater-than sign (>) telling you which of the two numbers in those squares is larger. Fill in every square with a number from 1-9 using the greater-than signs as a guide. When you’re done, as with a normal Sudoku, every row, column and 3x3 box will contain the numbers 1-9 exactly one time. (Solving hint: try to look for the 1s and 9s in each box ﬁrst, then move on to the 2s and 8s, and so on). psychosudoku@gmail.com

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May 25 - 31, 2016 • jfp.ms

St. Alexis’ EYC youth group invited other EYC groups to assemble ‘buddy bags’ for the homeless. (toiletries, food & useful items)

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GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Whatever youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re meant to do, do it now,â&#x20AC;? said novelist Doris Lessing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The conditions are always impossible.â&#x20AC;? I hope you take her advice to heart, Gemini. In my astrological opinion, there is no good excuse for you to postpone your gratification or to procrastinate about moving to the next stage of a big dream. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s senseless to tell yourself that you will finally get serious as soon as all the circumstances are perfect. Perfection does not and will never exist. The future is now. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re as ready as you will ever be.

French painter Henri Matisse didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mind being unmoored, befuddled or in-between. In fact, he regarded these states as being potentially valuable to his creative process. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s his testimony: â&#x20AC;&#x153;In art, truth and reality begin when one no longer understands what one is doing or what one knows.â&#x20AC;? Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m recommending that you try out his attitude, Cancerian. In my astrological opinion, the time has come for you to drum up the inspirations and revelations that become available when you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know where the hell you are and what the hell youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re doing.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

Proposed experiment: Imagine that all the lovers and would-be lovers you have ever adored are in your presence. Review in detail your memories of the times you felt thrillingly close to them. Fill yourself up with feelings of praise and gratitude for their mysteries. Sing the love songs you love best. Look into a mirror and rehearse your â&#x20AC;&#x153;I only have eyes for youâ&#x20AC;? gaze until it is both luminous and smoldering. Cultivate facial expressions that are full of tender, focused affection. Got all that, Leo? My purpose in urging you to engage in these practices is that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the High Sexy Time of year for you. You have a license to be as erotically attractive and wisely intimate as you dare.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Consider how hard it is to change yourself and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll understand what little chance you have in trying to change others,â&#x20AC;? wrote editor Jacob M. Braude. Normally I would endorse his poignant counsel, but for the foreseeable future, I am predicting that the first half of it wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fully apply to you. Why? Because you are entering a phase that I regard as unusually favorable for the project of transforming yourself. It may not be easy to do so, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be easier than it has been in a long time. And I bet you will find the challenge to reimagine, reinvent and reshape yourself at least as much fun as it is hard work.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Never turn down an adventure without a really good reason,â&#x20AC;? says author Rebecca Solnit in her book â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Far Away Nearby.â&#x20AC;? Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a thought she had as she contemplated the possibility of riding a raft down the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s how I suspect this meditation applies to you, Libra: There have been other times and there will be other times when you will have good reasons for not embarking on an available adventure. But now is not one of those moments.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

to bestow extra imaginative blessings. (P.S. The consequences will be invigorating to your own dreams.)

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

I believe that every one of us should set aside a few days every year when we celebrate our gaffes, our flaws and our bloopers. During this crooked holiday, we are not embarrassed about the false moves we have made. We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t decry our bad judgment or criticize our delusional behavior. Instead, we forgive ourselves of our sins. We work to understand and feel compassion for the ignorance that led us astray. Maybe we even find redemptive value in our apparent lapses; we come to see that they saved us from some painful experience or helped us avoid getting a supposed treasure that would have turned out to be a booby prize. Now would be a perfect time for you to observe this crooked holiday.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

Sometimes the love you experience for those you care about makes you feel vulnerable. You may worry about being out of control or swooping so deeply into your tenderness that you lose yourself. Giving yourself permission to cherish and nurture can make you feel exposed, even unsafe. But none of that applies in the coming weeks. According to my interpretation of the astrological omens, love will be a source of potency and magnificence for you. It will make you smarter, braver and cooler. Your words of power will be this declaration by Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani: â&#x20AC;&#x153;When I love / I feel that I am the king of time / I possess the earth and everything on it / and ride into the sun upon my horse.â&#x20AC;? (Translated by Lena Jayyusi and Christopher Middleton.)

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Notices

IN THE CHANCERY COURT OF TENNESSEE FOR THE TWENTY-FIFTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT, AT RIPLEY NO. 15343 COLTON WADE BROYLES and AMBER NICHOLE BROYLES vs. MATTHEW AARON SMITH Colton Wade Broyles and Amber Nichole Broyles filed a petition seeking to terminate the parental rights of Matthew Aaron Smith to M.L.S., a minor born 26 September 2011, in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, alleging that the father of M.L.S. abandoned the child. Matthew Aaron Smith is ordered to respond to the Petition within thirty days of the final day of publication of this notice; a copy of the answer must be served upon Lewis Jenkins, Attorney, P.O. Box 220, Dyersburg, TN 38025-0220. A copy of the Petition may be obtained from the clerk of this Court. If Matthew Aaron Smith fails to respond as ordered, judgment by default will be entered for the relief demanded.

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PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

In November 1916, at the height of World War I, the Swedish schooner JĂśnkĂśping set sail for Finland, carrying 4,400 bottles of champagne intended for officers of the occupying Russian army. But the delivery was interrupted. A hostile German submarine sunk the boat, and the precious cargo drifted to the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The story didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t end there, however. More than eight decades later, a Swedish salvage team retrieved a portion of the lost treasure, which had been well-preserved in the frosty abyss. Taste tests revealed that the bubbly alcholic beverage was â&#x20AC;&#x153;remarkably light-bodied, extraordinarily elegant and fantastically fresh, with discreet, slow-building toasty aromas of great finesse.â&#x20AC;? (Source: tinyurl.com/toastyaromas.) I foresee the potential of a similar resurrection in your future, Pisces. How deep are you willing to dive?

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

Russian poet Vera Pavlova tells about how once when she was using a pen and paper to jot down some fresh ideas, she got a paper cut on her palm. Annoying, right? On the contrary. She loved the fact that the new mark substantially extended her life line. The palmistry-lover in her celebrated. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m seeing a comparable twist in your near future, Scorpio. A minor inconvenience or mild setback will be a sign that a symbolic revitalization or enhancement is nigh.

To convey the best strategy for you to employ in the coming weeks, I have drawn inspiration from a set of instructions composed by aphorist Alex Stein: Scribble, scribble, erase. Scribble, erase, scribble. Scribble, scribble, scribble, scribble. Erase, erase, erase. Scribble, erase. Keep whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s left. In other words, Aries, you have a mandate to be innocently empirical, robustly experimental and cheerfully improvisationalâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;with the understanding that you must also balance your fun with ruthless editing.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

Norway is mountainous, but its neighbor Finland is quite flat. A group of Norwegians has launched a campaign to partially remedy the imbalance. They propose that to mark the 100th anniversary of Finlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s independence, their country will offer a unique birthday gift: the top of Halti mountain. Right now the 4,479-foot peak is in Norway. But under the proposed plan, the border between countries will be shifted so that the peak will be transferred to Finland. I would love you to contemplate generous gestures like this in the coming weeks, Sagittarius. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a highly favorable time for you

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being,â&#x20AC;? wrote Taurus memoirist May Sarton. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a dauntingly high standard to live up to, but for the foreseeable future itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important that you try. In the coming weeks, you will need to maintain a heroic level of potency and excellence if you hope to keep your dreams on track and your integrity intact. Luckily, you will have an extraordinary potential to do just that. But youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have to work hard to fulfill the potentialâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;as hard as a hero on a quest to find the real Holy Grail in the midst of all the fake Holy Grails.

Homework: Confess, brag and expostulate about what inspires you to love. Go to Freewillastrology.com and click â&#x20AC;&#x153;Email Rob.â&#x20AC;?

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