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THEINNER-CITY INNER-CITY NEWSNEWS JanuaryJuly 17, 27, 2018 - January 23, 2018 2016 - August 02, 2016

First Black Woman U.S.at Olympic SpeedSkating Team Financial JusticeGlides a KeyOnto Focus 2016 NAACP Convention New Haven, Bridgeport

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Volume 27 . No. 2262 Volume 21 No. 2194

Condemning Trump’s “sh—hole countries” Remarks

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Malloy Malloy To To Dems: Dems:

Ignore On Re-Establishes Ignore“Tough “Tough OnCrime” Crime”

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Elected Democrats Justin Farmer, Gary Winfield, and Robyn Porter all showed up for Monday’s service …

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How Police Violence Kills Black Women Slowly Through Trauma, Pain and Loss

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

Not-For-Profit Seeks Support To Keep Rebuilding In Hill “If we’re doing a house in the Hill, they don’t necessarily have to already live in the Hill,” Russell said.

“But, whoever purchases the house has to be willing to be an owneroccupant.” She said that the money that NHS gets to do the development and to help with down payment and closing cost assistance all require that the recipient occupies the house after purchasing it.

She also stressed that NHS’s housing reach extends well beyond the specific building that they renovate.

She said that the HomeOwnership Center’s educational courses and financial consulting services encour-

by THOMAS BREEN New Haven Independent

A city not-for-profit that has spent nearly 40 years rehabilitating historic houses and supporting stable homeownership in the city’s poorest communities is looking for another round of federal grant money to help it continue its housing renovation and education work in the Hill, Newhallville and Dwight neighborhoods.

Bridgette Russell and Elias Estabrook of Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) made that pitch during the Hill North Community Management Team’s regular monthly meeting in the cafeteria at Hill Regional Career High School on Legion Avenue.

Russell, the managing director of NHS’s HomeOwnership Center, and Estabrook, an AmeriCorps VISTA member in NHS’s Community Building & Development division, presented at Tuesday night’s meeting to ask the team for a letter of community support as NHS prepares its application to the city for $150,000 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding for the coming fiscal year.

The city receives $6 million in CDBG funds every year from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The city then distributes that money to local social service organizations of its choosing that work on affordable housing, care for the disabled and elderly, and neighborhood revitalization.

NHS’s CDBG funding request is actually twofold. One application is for $100,000 for NHS, which the organization would use to fund physical improvements for the 10 houses throughout the city that it is currently rehabbing. The other application is for $50,000 for the HomeOwnership Center, an NHS offshot that focuses on providing homebuyer education, financial counseling, mortgage intervention assistance, and other educational services for new and existing homeowners.

According to the latest city budget, NHS requested $100,000 in CDBG funding for the current fiscal year, and received $45,181. The HomeOwnership Center requested $50,000 in CDBG funding for the current fiscal year, and received $8,438.

Estabrook told the management team on Tuesday night that NHS has been focusing on Stevens Street in the Hill

age homeownership throughout the city, regardless of whether or not the purchased homes were worked on by NHS. “Our whole thing is really sustainable homeownership,” she said.

At the end of the meeting, Largie said that she is interested in supporting NHS, but that she and her leadership committee need to further review the handouts provided by NHS on Tuesday night before formally signing off on a letter of recommendation for the CDBG application. Estabrook said that the CDBG application is due at the end of January.

Winfield Stays Put For Now Hill North Management Team Chair Lena Largie (right) and Hill Alder Ron Hurt.

for a number of years.

Last year it finished a gut rehab of 12 Stevens St., a three-story wooden building that was first constructed in 1905 and fell into foreclosure and disrepair in the early 2000s on a city block that has long struggled with blight and violence.

NHS bought the house in 2012, installed new insulation and energy-efficient windows and rehabbed plaster walls. It sold the house to Courtney Walker, a first-time homeowner, in November 2017.

Estabrook said that NHS is now focusing on a vacant, dilapidated home just down the block at 29 Stevens St., which NHS purchased in 2014. He said that they were hoping to have that building renovation completed by the end of 2018.

“We’ve been working on Stevens Street for several years and we hope to continue making an impact with the houses we work on,” Estabrook said, “and also by working at the community garden and by participating in block parties.”

Estabrook said that each NHS building rehab project usually takes around $300,000 to complete.

After the meeting, Estabrook told the Independent that seven of the 57 New Haven homes that NHS has restored since 2010 are in the Hill neighborhood. All seven of those Hill homes are currently occupied.

In addition to 12 Stevens St., NHS restored a two-family home at 422 Legion Ave. in 2010, a two-family

home at 46 Frank St. in 2011, a two-family home at 311 Greenwich Ave. in 2012, a single-family home at 46 Stevens St. in 2013, a twofamily home at 570 Howard Ave. in 2015, and a two-family home at 51 Frank St. in 2016. He said that 29 Stevens St. is the only home in the Hill that NHS plans on completing this year.

Russell followed Estabrook at Tuesday night’s meeting with a pitch for supporting funding for the educational services provided by the HomeOwnership Center.

“I want to make sure that people know their options so that they make the best choices in the process,” she said, “and so that they can be at the end of the day sustainable homeowners, not just people who are purchasing homes.”

She said that the HomeOwnership Center works with prospective homeowners on down payment and closing cost assistance, and offers homebuyer education classes and one-on-one consultations. She said that they see over 1,500 people every year for their education classes and individual financial consultations, and that they help produce around 200 new homeowners in New Haven every year.

“What is the process for becoming a homeowner through Neighborhood Housing Services?” asked management team chair Lena Largie. “Is there a first obligation to whoever lives in the community.”

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PAUL BASS PHOTO

State Sen. Gary Winfield.

New Haven State Sen. Gary Winfield has his eye on higher office, but has decided not to pursue it in 2018.

So Winfield said during a conversation at Monday’s mayoral inauguration at Hill Regional Career High School.

Winfield, who has made a name for himself in Hartford as a leading advocate of criminal-justice reform, had been weighing a quest for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor. “I had been having conversations” to gauge potential support, he said.

Meanwhile, his wife Rasheda reached the six-month point of her pregnancy with, it turned out, twins. It’s been a challenging pregnancy, Winfield said, and he decided this isn’t the right year to throw himself into a quest for statewide office.

Winfield was first elected to the state legislature in 2008. He ran for mayor in 2013.

Stetson Library: The Next Chapter HELP STETSON LIBRARY MOVE INTO THE NEW Q HOUSE “We don’t just need a place for books—we need a space for people to learn, to be challenged, to come together.

A library is not just a home for books, it’s a home for the community.” - Diane Brown, Stetson Branch Manager

Thanks to a generous challenge grant from the Seedlings Foundation, you can double the impact of your donation. All gifts between $50 - $10,000 will be matched dollar for dollar!

Donate online at nextstetson.org or by check to: NHFPL Foundation - Stetson Library, 133 Elm St, New Haven, CT 06510 The NHFPL Foundation is a 501(c)(3) exempt organization; gifts are fully deductible under federal tax regulations.

Seafood Kings Pull Up Some Chairs THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

by MARKESHIA RICKS New Haven Independent

For the first time in 85 years of feeding New Haveners fresh fried seafood, the D’Amatos have invited them to sit down.

The fifth-generation family business D’Amato’s Seafood at 423 Whalley Ave. has expanded its operations at the corner of Ellsworth and Whalley avenues to include a separate new dine-in restaurant next door.

Husband and wife Toma and Jennifer D’Amato, who have taken the reins of the family business, said they had been hoping to buy the building that has been home to the takeout business since 2005.

They’ve both worked in the business since it was over on Grand Avenue and Toma’s father, Anthony, was running it. Toma is the fifth-generation family owner.

The D’Amato family first opened the fresh seafood business in 1933 over in Savin Rock in West Haven. Anthony’s parents were among the family members to run the business. It eventually morphed into a cooked seafood business, moving to Grand Avenue in 1971. Family members started looking for new digs for the takeout business when the Ferry Street Bridge closed in 2002 for safety reasons and severely impacted their business.

When they asked their customers to suggest where they could move, it came down to Whalley and Dixwell avenues. Whalley Avenue won.

“We ended up over here, and it was very successful right from the start,” Jennifer said. “We’re very lucky our following that my father in law had for years came. We let them know for quite a while that this is where we’d be so that worked out well for us.”

But in the last few years, the D’Amatos said, the landlord wasn’t maintaining the building well. They were thinking they

could do a better job if they owned it.

“It was getting really run down,” Jennifer said of the Whalley Avenue building.

“The landlord wasn’t really taking care of it anymore and we were paying out of pocket to do stuff,” Toma added.

If they were ever to buy it, Jennifer said, they wanted to add a place where people could sit down and eat all year round. They got to see the potential of such an addition to the business when they added picnic tables out front, which was a big hit with customers. But that worked only on the days when it wasn’t brutally hot or ice cold.

“In this state, you don’t have too many months of the perfect outdoor weather,” Jennifer quipped.

“And it’s nice to eat [the food] when it’s hot out of the fryer,” Anthony added.

Three years ago, the opportunity to buy the building presented itself. The D’Amatos seized that opportunity and put their expansion plans in motion.

“There was a little restaurant next to us here,” Jennifer said. “A little soul food spot. They’re still in business. They moved down the street about a half a mile toward Westville.”

Jennifer said she likes to let people know that that business, which is now Joyce & Da’Vina’s Good ‘N Plenty Soul Food, is still around.

“They are good people but the new location worked for them because they were looking for something a little smaller and more manageable,” she said.

Renovations to the new D’Amato’s dining space got underway about a year ago. Toma said it was a complete gut renovation. Workers took out a wall so that staff can pass from the takeout side kitchen where all the food is still prepared. The new space has a full kitchen with fryers and prep space but Toma said it likely won’t be used unless customer

MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO Toma, second from left, Anthony, center, and Jennifer D’Amato with the kitchen crew. Below: The Combo #1.

demand warrants it.

The new dine-in area, which seats up to 50 people, invokes a water connection with its walls that resemble the planks of a weathered dock and its accents of turquoise seating. And that was by design—his design, Toma said.

“I wanted it to be more like a dock,” he said. “We did most of the finishing work ourselves.”

He said the old place was in rough shape and needed a lot of work. He said he hopes the restaurant now has “a cool place for people to hang out and eat.”

Jennifer announced the opening of the new space on Facebook on Jan. 2. A formal grand opening is planned for some time in February.

“Hopefully, we can get the mayor out

here,” Anthony said.

Right now a temporary sign out front draws attention to the new dine-in space.

Toma said eventually there will be new signage and an awning that lets people know that it’s the same D’Amato’s with a little something extra. He also is on the hunt for sturdier outdoor picnic-table umbrellas that are harder to blow away or steal.

Jennifer said her big hope is that the takeout business stays strong as ever because “that’s what we’ve been forever.” She also said she hopes it encourages regulars to come by a little more often, rather than having to eat in their car at lunchtime.

“We’d also like to attract more people to come into New Haven and come down to this area,” she said. “That’s why we

decided to put our money back in here because we believe that it can still be a great area. People shouldn’t forget about it.”

“We’re still the same family from Grand Avenue,” she added. “I want [people] to know that and that we still do things the same way.”

Anthony, who is the face of D’Amato’s a sketch of his face with his signature phrase “Hook it up!!!” is the restaurant’s logo pointed out that the new dine-in space allows the restaurant to offer a few new menu items like desserts, and more grilled items, which are best eaten immediately.

“The menu’s the same,” Anthony said.

“Actually, it’s even better now. They got it down to a science.”

Fire Chief Seeks Performance Evaluations

by ALLAN APPEL

New Haven Independent

Firefighter Timothy Borer passed all the required tests and assessments, so he was promoted and sworn in Tuesday to become a fire inspector.

However, as long as he stays in that position, there will be no formal annual review of his work to help him improve at the job. Neither the department nor the firefighters’ union contract requires one.

Fire Chief John Alston, Jr. wants to change all that. By going first.

Borer was sworn as the city’s seventh fire inspector at Tuesday morning’s regular monthly meeting of the Board of Fire

Commissioners.

Alston took the opportunity, as part of the commissioners’ new business, to announce to the commissioners that since his contract is coming up for renewal, “I sent the board an evaluation document. This has not been done in the past. It is a performance evaluation.

I want to do it. To lead by example.

Please be brutally honest.”

Alston said his action was voluntary;the mayor is the only person who must approve and offer to renew or renegotiate his contract. But he said he hopes that eventually every sworn officer in his department will have a similar department-level review.

For such annual performance review to occur, the firefighters union would have to agree to it, confirmed Assistant Corporation Counsel Audrey Kramer.

In an interview after the meeting, Alston said that this practice in not uncommon in other fire departments: Your boss reviews you. You comment on the review, not in a punitive way but in the spirit of improvement. Then the two of you sign the completed review document.

He said the practice would be “progressive” for the NHFD. Alston said the vast majority of his Con’t on page 23

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Chief Alson, on right, with Commissioner Steven Cousin Jr. at Tuesday’s meeting.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

Intergenerational Challenge Brews

by CHRISTOPHER PEAK New Haven Independent

New Haven’s longest-serving state representative is facing a likely challenge from a fellow Democrat who claims he can help bring home more bacon from Hartford.

Darryl Brackeen, Jr., a three-term city alder from Upper Westville, told the Independent he’s “strongly considering” a primary challenge against fellow Democrat Patricia Dillon, a 17-term state representative from the 92nd General Assembly District. He’s expected to file his paperwork to run as soon as in coming days, according to people familiar with his plans.

In a district that encompasses both the Westville and West River neighborhoods, both are positioning themselves as the candidate who’s best able to reel in state dollars that could generate much-needed economic opportunity in New Haven.

Brackeen, 29, often seen sporting a bow tie, said he’s been hearing discontent from his Upper Westville constituents about the state’s gridlock. He said he possesses the skill set to advocate for New Haven up in Hartford.

“With the economy of the state as it stands today, what has the representative done to get us out of the hole that we’re in? With 32 years to do it?” Brackeen asked. “I’m strongly considering a primary in order to

CHRISTOPHER PEAK, MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTOS

ensure that the issues of the 92nd District are raised and advocated for in a manner in which we can actually see deliverables and not just talking points.”

Mayor Toni Harp, who worked with Dillon in the legislature for two decades and lives in Brackeen’s ward, said that she needs more information before choosing whom to endorse. “I know how effective [Dillon] is, so I just want to know why some folks think we need a change,” Harp said.

Dillon, once the director of a battered women’s shelter, defeated a popular Republican incumbent in 1984 to first win

Darryl Brackeen and Pat Dillon.

her seat in Connecticut’s House of Representatives, despite a red wave that year.

Four years behind Sen. Martin Looney’s arrival in Hartford (who was then a state rep), she’s still New Haven’s senior lawmaker in the lower chamber. Dillon serves as the assistant majority whip, though she said she doesn’t “put much stock in titles.”

She also sits on the Appropriations, Environment and Judiciary Committees, which she said come with “very heavy workloads.”

During her tenure in the House, she passed laws requiring hospitals to collect gun violence data for researchers and set up

a voucher program for pregnant women and seniors to buy produce. Most recently, she convinced state budget makers to provide $4 million in bond money to shore up sinking homes. In the next term, Dillon said she’s planning to push legislation to tax Bitcoin trades and pressure the Department of Transportation to clear a multi-use trail along West River.

Dillon, who last faced, and defeated, a Democratic primary opponent in 2010, said she was prepared to take on another competitor this year. But she hadn’t predicted Brackeen would be her opponent.

“It’s a surprise coming from someone I worked with very closely,” she said.

“Having a challenger is, you know, part of the process. The reasons for it would matter, and it will certainly be disruptive of relationships. It’s a small town.”

She argued that now’s not the right time for Brackeen to make a bid, as the New Haven delegation needs to present a unified front to win limited funds for the city in what’s proven to be a tough budget cycle.

“Its difficult for any incumbent in a year like this because of what’s going on at the Capitol,” Dillon said, citing a tied State Senate and closely-divided state House as well as fiscal constraints being imCat’t on page 5

Record Number of Gubernatorial Candidates On Track To Secure Financing

by Christine Stuart CT. Junkie News

HARTFORD, CT — A handful of candidates in the Republican and Democratic Party who are vying for their party’s nomination for governor have reached or almost reached the threshold for public financing.

However, in order to secure that additional financing they have to first receive 15 percent of the delegates to their party’s convention in early May or they have to collect signatures of two percent of the members of the party between May 1 and June 12 to get on the primary ballot.

Once they secure a spot on the ballot then they’re eligible to receive a state grant of $1.25 million.

Based on the latest fundraising reports on the Republican side Rep. Prasad Srinivasan, Steve Obsitnik, David Walker, Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti, and Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton have raised the requisite amount of money to access the grant if they’re nominated.

On the Democratic side Jonathan Harris, the former Consumer Protection Commissioner, might be close having raised $232,000, but it’s hard

to tell since he’s still in the exploratory phase of the campaign where donors can contribute up to $375.

The only contributions that count toward the $250,000 threshold are those $100 or less.

Middletown Mayor Dan Drew who struggled with fundraising and had more unpaid expenses than he had cash on hand at the end of the most recent report dropped out of the race Friday.

The latest reporting period started on Oct. 1 and ended on Dec. 31.

Greenwich Republican David Stemerman, who hasn’t been making the rounds to the Republican Town Committee meetings to shake hands with delegates, loaned his campaign $1.8 million.

Stemerman hasn’t participated in the past two Republican Party sponsored debates and doesn’t have a website yet. However, according to his recent report he’s managed to spend $224,000 of the $1.8 million he loaned his campaign. Most of the money went toward polling and consultants from outside of Connecticut.

Stemerman paid Precision Campaign Group of Virginia $47,775, Strategic Perceptions, a Hollywood based

John P. Thomas Publisher / CEO

Babz Rawls Ivy

Editor-in-Chief Liaison, Corporate Affairs Babz@penfieldcomm.com

Advertising/Sales Team Trenda Lucky Keith Jackson Delores Alleyne John Thomas, III

Editorial Team Staff Writers

Christian Lewis/Current Affairs Anthony Scott/Sports Arlene Davis-Rudd/Politics

Contributing Writers David Asbery Tanisha Asbery Jerry Craft/Cartoons Barbara Fair

Dr. Tamiko Jackson-McArthur Michelle Turner Smita Shrestha William Spivey Kam Williams Rev. Samuel T. Ross-Lee

_______________________

Contributors At-Large

Christine Stuart www.CTNewsJunkie.com Paul Bass New Haven Independent www.newhavenindependent.org

Memberships

National Association of Black Journalist National Newspapers Publishers Association Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce Greater New Haven Business & Professional Association Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council, Inc.

CTNEWSJUNKIE FILE PHOTO

School

David Walker at the recent Republican debate at RHAM High

advertising firm $22,300, and Public Opinion Strategies LLC $47,000 for a poll.

He did receive about $21,000 in individual donations. The most a donor can give to an individual who isn’t participating in public financing is $3,500.

Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim also isn’t participating in public financing, but it’s not by choice. A federal court judge said his corruption conviction bars him from the program.

Ganim has been able to raise just shy of $200,000 in the exploratory phase of his campaign. At the end of his ex-

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ploratory period he had about $99,000 of cash available.

Former Democratic Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz has also expressed an interest in running for governor. Bysiewicz who is expected to make an announcement soon has raised more than $146,000 and at least $105,000 of that would count toward the $250,000 threshold.

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin who is exploring a run was able to raise $113,710 in less than a month. Dita Bhargarava, the former vice chair of the Democratic Party, was able to

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Trump Inspires Love March THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

Cat’t from page 4

Intergenerational

pediments to getting legislation passed. “I think that unity is important. New Haven has many voices, and we squander our authority at the Capitol if we don’t come up with a common agenda.”

Brackeen disagreed, saying a competitive race will produce “a stronger democracy and a stronger party to address the issues of her district.” If he proceeds with plans for the primary, he promised to make adjustments for the “21st-century realities that require a reassessment of progressive ideas.”

Define “Newcomer” Brackeen, a Hillhouse High grad who currently works as outreach director for the advocacy group Educators 4 Excellence, called himself “a strong team player” who has developed a “reputation as a fierce advocate” for New Haven’s middleclass families during his four years on the Board of Alders. He said he mobilized his constituents against raising property taxes, steered the installation of speed bumps and traffic-calming measures throughout his ward, and advocated for full funding of the state’s Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) in Hartford.

Dillon objected to the narrative that Brackeen’s entrance to the race would offer a choice between a veteran’s experience and a newcomer’s energy.

“I don’t expect voters to defer to experience, but I don’t know that turning on people because they’re incumbents makes sense either. You do it on the facts of the case,” she said. “I’m a known quantity; I know what I’m doing.”

She added that Brackeen isn’t necessarily a newcomer to politics. “I don’t know if he’s fresh. He’s been around quite a bit,” she said. “Fresh to the Capitol? Well, I suppose, but not to public life.”

Dillon said she worried about running for reelection as an older woman, citing attacks on Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, who she regularly saw drawn as wrinkled “hags” in cartoons. “I was just astonished over the venom against Hillary Clinton,” she said. “Maybe I should have anticipated it, but I’m bracing for it.”

She described herself as “younger than Trump, younger than Hillary and older than Darryl.” (She’s 69.)

Brackeen said he won’t be running to diminish women’s leadership in politics.

“It’s just kind of far-fetched,” he said.

“This is not about labels, this is about results.” He said that he’d been shaped by powerful women throughout his life.

“I grew up in a single-parent home with a mother who was a strong, intelligent banker. [I] married a brilliant, wonderful woman who’s a social worker and fathered two daughters who I believe could reach the highest pinnacle and break the glass ceiling, as Pat Dillon has done,” he said. “I honor her for her work and what she’s done for women, there’s no question.”

Brackeen said he hasn’t submitted any campaign filings yet; Dillon said she signed her reelection papers on Tuesday.

by ALLAN APPEL

New Haven Independent

President Donald Trump’s policies and especially his recent “shithole” statements about Africa and Haiti inspired the 150 people who prayed and hit the streets for New Haven’s 48th annual Martin Luther King Day “Love March.”

No, they didn’t agree with Trump’s statements. They statements gave them renewed energy to carry on King’s fight for racial and social justice.

The church service and street march, which always take place on Martin Luther King Jr.‘s birthday, was founded

by Rev. George W. Hampton at his Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church on Lawrence Avenue in East Rock.

It is is now in its 48th edition, helmed by his sons, the Revs. Kennedy D. Hampton Sr. and Gerald Hampton.

Monday morning, marchers carried signs and performed a chant and songfilled circumambulation that took them down Lawrence Street to Whitney Avenue, back east across Humphrey to State, and then back into the warmth of the church’s sanctuary at 100 Lawrence.

Both marchers and sermonizers refused to let Trump’s statements and policies dampen the enthusiasm of the parade. They said they found reason to reinvigorate the battle for social justice.

“Come on, misogyny!” called out the event’s chief speaker, Rev. Frederick Streets, senior pastor at the Dixwell Avenue United Congregational Church, in the peroration of his stem-winder.

“Come on, racism, so we can knock you down.”

In an address titled “Healing A Nation,” Streets bemoaned the abject state of official public life when we are being compelled to accept new definitions of racism, misogyny, and greed by those people who practice those vices.

In a wide-ranging address, Streets quoted from Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney’s words on the inherent inferiority of the Negro in the Dred Scott Decision. “Sounds familiar today,” Streets remarked.

He quoted from the Bible, and Lord Acton’s famous warning to politicians that “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

He said it is therefore more important today, an historical turning point, “to speak truth to power, fact to fiction, and honesty to hypocrisy.”

As a Chicagoan, he said, he is “proud of the senator [Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin] who spoke truth to power and called

ALLAN APPEL PHOTO

The Love March.

Rev. Fred Streets.

Shiloh Deacon Sam Byers, with Rev. Hargett and long-time marcher Ella Smith, who did not want to talk about Trump.

The Rivers family starts a tradition.

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out the president for who he is.”

Streets concluded his remarks by saying, “Donald Trump and those like him might be serving the purpose of justice. Come on, racism. Come on, misogyny. The more their racism rises, the more we can knock it down. President Obama said, ‘Yes we can.’ Yes we did. Now it’s time to say, ‘Yes we will.

We will be true to the real meaning of democracy.’”

Streets’ seeking-the-silver-lining remarks were echoed by marchers like the Rev. Anthony Hargett, also associated with the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church.

“We see what disdain he [President Trump] has for poeple not white,” Hargett said. “It’s a curse and a blessing. It’s a curse that we’re denied what’s our due. But a blessing to us to help keep Martin Luther King’s legacy alive. We will overcome. It’s sad, but bad times bring out the best in people,” he said.

Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker was among the political figures at the march, which attracts representatives and senators. Other officials included Downtown Alder Abby Roth, State Sen. Gary Winfield, Mayor Toni Harp, schools Superintendent Reggie Mayo, and gubernatorial hopeful Guy Smith.

Walker, the Board of Alders’ first female president, said King paved a way “for people like me. You’ve got to be grateful.”

“I don’t want anything about Donald Trump to take away from Dr. King’s birthday. We will continue to do what’s necessary to make a just world for everybody in spite of Donald Trump,” she said.

Many marchers, like Ella Smith, had participated in many of the marches— in her case all but three of them since 1971. (“I promised Rev. Hampton I’d go to them all,” she said). For Jane and Patrick Rivers of Westville and their two daughters and nanny, the experience was a first.

Jane Rivers teaches math and the University of New Haven; her husband teaches music. They heard about the event from its advertising on WYBC and brought along their kids, daughters Naomi and Dalia, and nanny, Sharicia Culbreath.

Culbreath, who is from an island in the Caribbean, St. Kitts, has been in town eight years She said she loved the singing, the unity, and the kids. She said she tried not to listen to Trump’s remarks about Haiti, among other things, but said, “It’s hard not to hear them.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

New Haven “Rises” To King’s Full Vision

by THOMAS BREEN New Haven Independent

On the day that slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. would have turned 89 years old, hundreds of New Haveners gathered to celebrate his legacy of racial and economic justice, and to extend that legacy to the current fight for immigrant rights.

Over 400 New Haveners packed into the Varick Memorial AME Zion Church on Dixwell Avenue on Monday night to sing, dance and listen to a three-hour Martin Luther King Day service organized by the local labor advocacy group New Haven Rising.

A diverse crowd of older African American churchgoers, UNITE HERE union organizers, and local politicians filled the pews and balcony, with an overflow audience moving to the church’s basement to watch a livestream of the festivities happening upstairs.

The service also brought out a slew of Democrats with statewide electoral ambitions, including Bridgeport Mayor and gubernatorial candidate Joe Ganim, Stamford State Rep. and attorney general candidate William Tong, and gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont, demonstrating the political pull that New Haven’s labor movement has for Democrats interested in being sent to Hartford in 2018.

But Monday night’s service was focused less on an embattled Connecticut election year and more on the racial, economic, social and immigration concerns raised by the President Trump administration.

“Today hateful, divisive forces threaten to take us backwards and undo the legacy of the civil rights movement,” said Varick pastor Kelcy Steele at the top of the service.

“We cannot and will not stand by and allow that to happen.”

Mayor Toni Harp echoed Steele’s alarm, but also referenced the city’s 48th annual Love March and the West Haven Black Coalition’s 32nd annual MLK Day service as indicators of New Haven’s longstanding commitment to the compassion, social activism and resilience represented by Dr. King.

“We are here tonight to think about

THOMAS BREEN PHOTOS AME Bishop W. Darin Moore at New Haven Rising’s MLK Day rally at Varick Church.

Hundreds of New Haveners attended Monday night’s service.

Elected Democrats Justin Farmer, Gary Winfield, and Robyn Porter all showed up for Monday’s service …

Chaz Carmon brought up members of the Ice the Beef Youth, telling the crowd: “If you didn’t have a reason to fight, this is a reason to fight.”

6

what it is that we still have to do,” she said. “We’re here tonight to say to those people who want to take us back to the 1950s that we’re not going back, but that we’re going forward together.”

As the night progressed, speaker after speaker took the stage to call for unity in opposition to what they saw as a culture of ignorance, hatred and exploitation emanating from the White House.

New Haven Rising chair Scott Marks and AFSCME Council 4 Executive Director Salvatore Luciano reminded the audience that King said that racial justice was impossible without economic justice. They said that working people of all backgrounds needed to band together to advocate for more good union jobs to counteract the ever-increasing disparity in this country between the haves and the have-nots.

“Dr. King was not killed because of his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech,” Luciano told the crowd as he recounted the deaths of Memphis sanitation workers Echol Cole and Robert Walker due to faulty work equipment on Feb. 1, 1968, and King’s subsequent push to organize striking Memphis sanitation workers before his own death on April 4. “He was killed because he told black working people, white working people, yellow working people, brown working people to all come together to fight for economic justice.”

Luciano also said that Black Lives Matter, support for a $15 minimum wage, healthcare for all, and opposition to attacks on LGBTQ people were all parts of the same collective, social justice fight.

The middle section of the service was dedicated entirely to immigration rights.

Lucas Codognolla, the director of CT Students for a Dream, told the crowd that he was “undocumented, unafraid and here to stay.” He said that different segments of the political left had to remember that immigrants can also be black, queer, and poor, and that every one of them, documented or no, needs access to a good job.

Unidad Latina en Acción (ULA) volunteers Fatima Rojas and Vanesa Suarez praised New Haven’s status as a sanctuary city. They introduced

Elsa Pinos, the wife of an Ecuadorian man who has found refuge at a downtown church for the past six weeks after being served with a deportation notice even though he had been living in Connecticut for 25 years, to talk about the suffering and confusion caused by seemingly arbitrary crackdowns on long-settled immigrants who have raised families and paid taxes for decades in the U.S. And Donald Jean Marie, a Haitian im migrant who works for UNITE HERE Local 217 as a hotel union organizer in Stamford, spoke about the folly in repealing Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of Central American immigrants throughout the country.

He said that sending 50,000 Haitians back to an island country that is still struggling to recover from an earthquake and two hurricanes would be a humanitarian disaster.

The keynote speaker, AME Bishop W. Darin Moore, built off of the themes of racial, economic and immigration injustice and the need for collaboration that had been preached by the men and women who spoke before him. He took those prevailing sentiments, and directed them squarely at President Trump, whom he said is “a leader who is antithetical to everything Christianity represents.”

In a wide-ranging sermon that cited Kierkegaard, Southern spirituals, the new tax bill, Nebuchadnezzar, and police violence against unarmed black civilians, Moore again and again decried Trump and his administration for fostering a political culture of fear, hostility and intimidation. He said that an effective resistance to the current administration included not just marching in the streets, but also singling out and celebrating a history of achievement among both White and Black Americans.

“If you celebrate Abraham Lincoln, then you ought to celebrate Frederick Douglass,” he said. “If you celebrate Emily Dickinson, then you ought to celebrate Maya Angelou. If you celebrate Ben Affleck, then you ought to celebrate Denzel Washington. If you celebrate JFK, then you ought to celebrate MLK.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

To Truly Remember Dr. King Political Action and Infinite Hope Must Outweigh Anti-Democratic Forces

By Rep. Gregory W. Meeks Often lost in our celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. is his unwavering testimony of hope and his political action in the face of despair and nihilism, forces that have the potential to thwart otherwise transformative movements.

We often remember Dr. King’s hope as a more passive “dream” instead of the definitive declaration of “Normalcy, Never Again” which was the intended title of his revered 1963 speech. Nonetheless, no time is riper than 2018 to commemorate Dr. King’s true legacy by exercising political action and demonstrating unwavering hope in the face of circumstances that naturally call for the blues.

No doubt, anti-democratic forces have penetrated American politics and those forces have the potential to breed widespread hopelessness and political apathy. For example, gerrymandering – the partisan act of creating voting districts in favor of one’s own political party – has led to situations like that in Virginia, where 55 percent of voters pulled the levers for Democrats to only lose the House of Delegates by the drawing of straws.

These Virginians, and other marginalized voters, could lose hope and sit out future elections conceding that their votes and voices matter little.

Anti-democratic proposals—including a bid by Jeff Sessions to require Census respondents to answer self-incriminating questions about their immigration status—have the potential to discourage participation in a process that determines the size of each state’s congressional delegation and each state’s receipt of federal funds for essential programs like quality public education. Such forces do more to depress civic participation, and they create a disconnected class of Americans, rather than encourage lawfulness.

Many pre-civil rights era measures that suppressed minority voters, like poll taxes and literacy tests, have despicable descendants that plague the modern-day electoral system. Discriminatory voter identification laws, voter roll purges, limitations on early voting procedures, and other impedi-

ments to voter registration and ballot casting continue to suppress Americans to this day.

Despite the times, if the legacy of Dr. King means anything, today’s challenges are a call for increased involvement in our democratic process.

A number of democratic victories reaffirm Dr. King’s call to “accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” A recent federal court decision that found North Carolina’s partisan gerrymandered districts, which unjustifiably favored Republicans 10 to 3, unconstitutional provides persuasive arguments as to why the Supreme Court should conclude the same in two pending cases. If the Supreme Court adopts North Carolina’s reasoning, the result may be a more leveled political playing field during 2018 midterm congressional elections, and a more accountable Washington, as a result.

Democratic Senator Doug Jones’ statewide victory in Alabama is also an example of why our infinite hope should always trump finite disappointment, especially in the electoral process. If only a few voters lost hope and decided to sit out the Alabama senatorial race, the result could have been status quo in the Senate during a time where resistance to anti-democratic forces in Washington is needed more than ever.

We must heed the words of the great man we honor today, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who warned us that “history will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” As Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus’ Political Action Committee, I am inspired

by Dr. King’s infinite hope now more than ever before. This year, concerned citizens can make Dr. King’s philosophy real in the voting booth. Lawyers can do the same in the courts, as well as advocates throughout the halls of Congress and state legislatures. If we all maintain hope and action, the outcome will be a more democratic America where our institutions reflect our true values, not the perverted aspirations of the powerful few.

Congressman Gregory W. Meeks represents the 5th Congressional District of New York and is the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus’ Political Action Committee. Follow Rep. Gregory W. Meeks on Twitter @RepGregoryMeeks.

ya l e i n st i t u t e o f s a c r e d m u s i c joins the

inner city news in celebrating the accomplishments of African Americans to the cultural and spiritual life of New Haven and the world.

e v e n t l i st i n g s at ism.yale.edu

7

Love Changed Their Plans THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

by MARKESHIA RICKS New Haven Independent

Entrepreneur Kia Levey-Burden was adamant that she would never be a mom, especially a single one. State Sen. Gary Winfield always wanted to be a dad but never thought it would happen after a first marriage failed.

Before a gathering Monday night in Newhallville, Levey-Burden and Winfield told the stories of how love and faith brought each of them the unexpected adventure of parenthood.

They did so as part of Storytellers New Haven, a monthly series that invites people from the community to tell a story about their lives to their fellow community members. Monday’s event at ConnCAT was the third since the inception of the venture created by husband-and-wife team Karen DuBoisWalton and Kevin Walton.

DuBois-Walton said Storytellers New Haven is an outgrowth of the community conversations that were held around the city after the last presidential election and the Waltons’ affiliation with the Graustein Community Leadership Program. Like those conversations, the series is designed to bring a diverse group of people from all over the city together to learn more deeply about their neighbors.

“This is our offering to the New Haven community as a way of coming together,” she said. “There are 130,000 residents in the city and there are that many plus stories.”

Levey-Burden, a native New Havener and founder of a consulting company called Launch, told the crowd of nearly 50 people Monday that she had a lot of plans for herself at an early age particularly around love. But being a mother was not among those early imaginings.

“I knew I wanted to be a wife,” she said. “I knew we would have the kind of wonderful relationship that writers write about and storytellers talk about.

But I knew that I never wanted to have children, even as a teenager.”

Though she loved children, after seeing her own mother through a tumultuous marriage and then widowed at age 30, Levey-Burden said she swore off motherhood.

“She had three children who were not the easiest to raise,” Levey-Burden recalled of her mother. “As I got older and reflected, I knew I loved her for what she did for us, I honored her but I did not want to be her. It just looked too hard.”

DuBois-Walton, center, started the Storyteller series with her husband Kevin Walton.

She swore it off again when she discovered herself pregnant at 19, during her sophomore year at college in North Carolina. Rather than stay with her boyfriend at the time and keep the baby, she came home to Connecticut.

And she said for many years she never told her mother why she had decided not to return to school in that state.

When she did finally get married, she made sure to discuss her desire to not have children. As their friends also started to marry and eventually have children, her then-husband asked her to revisit the idea. Her mind hadn’t changed. But her fate would change about four years into the marriage.

“I knew before I took the test,” she said when she discovered she was pregnant. “I knew it. I cried for two days.”

They weren’t tears of joy, but she wasn’t willing to terminate the pregnancy. She went through the pregnancy “dutifully,” not particularly excited about the process of growing a baby she was certain she didn’t want.

But when her son Seth arrived, she fell in love.

“This baby’s amazing,” she said, drawing a chuckle from the audience.

“He is all the things. He’s gorgeous.

He smells good, and he’s fun.”

But while she was “growing in love

as a mother,” she was “falling out of love,” with her then-husband, she said. The marriage broke up.

In the early days, she was angriest with her ex-husband for making her the very thing she never wanted to be: a single mother. She said it wasn’t the love story that she envisioned.

But her love for her son helped her embrace motherhood.

She said she named her son Seth, deliberately because the biblical Seth was “God’s promise.” The meaning of his name is something that she now reminds him of regularly as they navigate systems, particularly school, where they are both confronted with labels like “aggressive,” and “out of control,” when his behavior is in question.

Motherhood has been hard for her, she said, but not necessarily in the way that she thought. It’s been hard to confront the fact that people don’t see her “really tall, really big, little black boy” the way she sees him. She said it has been her job to remind Seth, who will soon be 11, that he “is not bad, not a problem, not a behavioral issue.”

“That’s not the name I gave to you,” she said she tells her son. “You’re God’s promise.”

“There’s always a happy ending,”

8

Levey-Burden told the crowd. “I get to be his shield and his rear guard. I get to tell people how to treat him. That is a love I didn’t know I had the capacity to give.”

She also found romantic love again and got married in July.

When State Sen. Gary Winfield got up to tell his story Monday night, he remarked that is was amazing that he and Levey-Burden hadn’t talked beforehand, given the similarities in their stories.

Winfield opened his story with the demise of his first marriage back in 2014.

A 20 plus year relationship or 8,522 days from the first date to the day he found himself in divorce court ended in the blink of an eye. That night when he couldn’t sleep. He decided to have a talk with God. He told the crowd Monday night that in that conversation he said he didn’t want to meet another woman for at least two years.

That is unless God had a different plan.

“Someone said something about not blocking your blessing,” he said. So, he told the Lord, “‘If you have a different plan…’

“He had a different plan.”

An avid user of social media, Winfield a couple of months later noticed a woman was liking a lot of what he was

posting on Facebook. He decided they should talk.

The woman’s name was Rasheda. That talk led the senator, who also is an avid photographer, to take Rasheda’s picture. That picture taking session turned into talking for hours.

“When I heard her voice it was like magic,” he said. “It hit me and went through my spine and made me feel something.”

That magic gave him the courage to ask for a date. That date turned into more dates and long conversations.

They eventually married in 2016.

Rasheda came with a daughter and a son. Winfield assumed that helping raise those two children would be as close to fatherhood as he would get.

Once again God had other plans.

The newlyweds announced on social media last August that they are expecting twins: a boy and a girl.

Baby boy Winfield will take his dad’s name. Winfield admits mixed feelings about that because he is named after an absentee father.

Baby girl Winfield will be named Imani Harriet.

“Imani means faith,” he said. “Faith allowed me to meet that woman.”

Harriet is for his beloved mother, who died in 2012 after what was supposed to be a routine medical procedure and the lineage of women who came before her. His mother was named Araminta and his maternal grandmother was named Harriet. And his maternal great-grandmother was named Araminta. All the women were named for Harriet Tubman, who was born Araminta Ross. And naming his daughter Harriet keeps the alternating patterns of the names alive.

Winfield said that his mother was a woman of faith who wanted to live up to her namesake’s accomplishments.

But she had not been able to. She died before she was 60. In his previous talks with his mother, Winfield knew she regretted not being able to do more of that work. He said it hurt to know that his mother might have died believing that her life wasn’t important.

“My mother was like a superhero to me,” he said. “I wouldn’t be doing the work that I’m doing if not for my mother.” Not only is Winfield a state legislator; he is an activist and leading advocate for criminal justice reform.

And so his daughter will carry his mother’s name and the faith she passed down. That’s how Imani Harriet Winfield got her name.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

How Police Violence Kills Black Women Slowly Through Trauma, Pain and Loss

Nationwide — When we think of police violence, what first comes to mind is the people that suffer and die directly from baton blows or by being hit by a bullet. But there’s so much more than that. The pain of losing a loved one to that kind of violence slowly kills a person with trauma and depression.

Oftentimes, the subject of such dire lethality are black people.

The recent death of Eric Garner’s daughter, Erica, on December 30 last year is still very fresh. At the age of 27, she suffered a massive heart attack which led to a major brain damage. The root cause is considered the trauma she got after her father’s brutal death.

Erica’s case is not isolated. There were similar cases in the past that slowly killed several black women, especially black mothers and grandmothers.

In 2002, Dona Iraci, a 45-year-old grandmother, died of heart attack after police ransacked her home in Salvador, Bahia in search of her grandson.

There’s also the story of Joselito de Souza, a mother of a 16-year-old boy who was with his friends when he got gunned down and killed by the police in a car ambush in Rio De Janeiro in 2015. In less than a year, she died because of what her family said was “sadness”. After her son was killed, she had no appetite to eat anything but soup which later on caused her anemia and she died of its complications.

27-year old Erica Garner, activist daughter of Eric Garner, who was killed by police in 2014

Also consider the case of Venida Browder, a loving mother to her son, Kalief. She died of heart attack complications sixteen months after she lost Kalief to suicide. Kalief suffered three tormenting years locked up in Rikers Island waiting for trial for allegedly stealing a backpack. There, he was severely beaten and subjected to over 800 days of solitary confinement. Her mother worked tirelessly to get him out of there — which she did — but not before the trauma take its toll on him. It eventually took a toll on her as well.

In one of her last interviews, Erica Garner related her situation to Browder. She said, “Look at Kalief Browder’s mother, she died of a broken heart. I’m struggling with my health right now… The system beats you down.” She also men-

tioned about the financial obstacles that families like hers face when they need therapy to deal with grief.

The deaths of the mentioned black women are just some of the growing number of stress-related deaths due to gender-based racism in America.

Not to mention a research that suggests that “At ages 49–55, black women are 7.5 years biologically ‘older’ than white women.” What more for a young woman who has struggled the same way as Erica Garner.

Certainly, police violence does not end on baton blows, gunfires, chokeholds, or beating. It subsequently, slowly kills black women with the aftershocks of their loved one’s death. And this is a fight to save black women that should be taken into account right now.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

The DNC Is Sorry

by THOMAS BREEN New Haven Independent

Yes, the Democratic National Committee put “a thumb on the scale” to make sure Hillary Clinton beat Bernie Sanders in 2016. But it’ll do better next time.

So Keith Ellison the DNC’s deputy leader promised a church full of local Democrats Saturday.

Ellison, a Minnesota U.S. Congressman and prominent Sanders supporter who was elected DNC deputy chair in February 2017, held a community forum on Saturday afternoon at First and Summerfield United Methodist Church at the corner of College Street and Elm Street. The forum was organized by the Connecticut Democratic Party.

Over 300 people from New Haven and throughout southern Connecticut showed up to learn about the DNC’s revised strategies and mission, and to voice their concerns about how to make the Democratic Party strong at the local, state and national levels.

State Democratic Party chair Nick Balletto and New Haven Mayor Toni Harp took the podium first, talking about how Democrats had flipped 22 Connecticut municipalities from Republican to Democrat in 2017 municipal elections. They also warned that President Trump and the Republican-majority Congress are intent on making deep cuts to the social safety net, and that Democrats must rally together to resist such an assault.

“We are a sanctuary city,” Harp said. “You are in a sanctuary church. But each and every one of us knows that democracy as we know it is under attack. Each and every one of us knows that what we have to do is resist, that we are going to have to fight to get our country back.”

When Ellison took the stage, he spent less time criticizing anti-democratic tendencies among Republican politicians, and more time reflecting on the ways that the DNC had failed its constituents in years past, and how that needed to change going forward.

Ellison had run for chair of the DNC after the 2016 election, the standard-bearer for Bernie Sanders supporters who felt the party needs to become more progressive and democratic. He came in second, and has since united with the victor, Thomas Perez, to seek to unify party factions.

“We’re here to talk about not just how to win an election,” Ellison said, “but how to really win the argument for working people all across the country. You cannot build a sustainable economy and society unless you win the argument that we ought to have health care for everybody, that college has to be affordable, that you’ve got to be able to drink clean water and breathe clean air, that you’ve got to be able to use science to deal with problems like climate change, and that you should have unions and a voice on jobs.”

Ellison said that the DNC failed in recent years at doing community organizing and grassroots engagement. Those failures, he said, have cost the party thousands of seats in local, state and federal offices throughout the country.

He said that the DNC has changed its mission and its model. No longer will it focus only on reelecting Democratic presidents, reaching out to its supporters every four years

10

THOMAS BREEN PHOTOS

Keith Ellison.

Mayor Toni Harp. with the hope of keeping the White House blue.

Instead, the DNC will invest its money and resources into local elections and community organizing, Ellison said. He said that working people throughout the country need to recognize in the Democratic Party a party that represents their values and best interests.

“My prayer for the Democratic Party is that people out there looking for a good job that pays well feel that we know them,” he said.

“That somebody who’s on a union drive so that they can have a voice on the job, that they feel like we know them. That some African-American mom who’s worried that her son is going to get treated with less than fairness and respect by law enforcement, that she knows that we care about her.”

The majority of the hour-and-a-half event saw audience members lining up to ask questions about the new workings of the DNC, and Ellison responding in kind.

“Do you believe that the DNC had its thumb on the scale in 2016?” asked New Havener Bruce Oren. He said the party needs to have “fair and honest primaries” if it truly wishes to win back disenchanted members of the party, particularly those who supported Sanders’s Democratic presidential primary campaign against Hillary Clinton.

“Do I believe that there was a thumb on the scale in the primaries?” Ellison said. “It’s kind of undeniable.” He cited the deal that the DNC made with the Clinton campaign in August 2015 that gave that campaign influence over party finances, strategy, and staffing decisions.

“Having acknowledged that fact,” he said, “what do we do now?”

He said that Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders had agreed to setting up a unity commission last year. He said that on Dec.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

U.S. Lawmakers Condemn Trump’s “sh—hole countries” Remarks

By Freddie Allen, Editor-In-Chief, BlackPressUSA.com/NNPA Newswire

Trump made the comments during a meeting with Republican and Democratic congressmen about immigration reform and President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

The New York Times reported: “When Mr. Trump heard that Haitians were among those who would benefit from the proposed deal, he asked whether they could be left out of the plan, asking, ‘Why do we want people from Haiti here?’”

Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond said that the Diversity Visa Program “greatly benefits immigrants from African countries and provides an opportunity for them to achieve the American Dream.”

Civil rights groups and lawmakers on Capitol Hill condemned racially hostile comments that President Donald Trump made during a recent meeting about immigration reform with Democrats and Republicans at the White House.

The New York Times reported: “President Trump on Thursday balked at an immigration deal that would include protections for people from Haiti and some nations in Africa, demanding to know at a White House meeting why he should accept immigrants from ‘sh– hole countries’ rather than from places like Norway, according to people with direct knowledge of the conversation.”

The U.S. congressmen that attended the meeting, according to The New York Times, included: Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.); Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.); Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.); Senator David Perdue (R-Ga.); Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.); Representative Robert W.

President Trump Goodlatte (R-Va.).

Trump’s disparaging comments received quick condemnation in the civil rights community and across the political spectrum.

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., the president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association tweeted: “It is a glaring contradiction that as the US is preparing to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr as a national holiday, President Trump utters racist statements against Africa and people of color.”

In a statement about the President’s comments posted to her Twitter account, Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah), the only Republican serving in the U.S. House of Representatives of Haitian descent, said that his “behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation.”

Love continued: “My parents came from one of those countries but proudly took the oath of allegiance to the Unites States and took on the

responsibilities of everything that being a citizen comes with. They never took a thing from our federal government. They worked hard, paid taxes, and rose from nothing to take care of and provide opportunities for their children. They taught their children to do the same. That’s the American Dream.”

Love added that Trump must apologize to “the American people and the nations he so wantonly maligned.”

Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said that President Trump’s comments are yet another confirmation of his racially insensitive and ignorant views.

“It also reinforces the concerns that we hear every day, that the President’s slogan Make America Great Again is really code for Make America White Again,” said Richmond.

Richmond continued: “All of the reservations we have had about negotiating with him on immigration are well-

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founded. President Trump is clearly more concerned with ending the future flow of immigrants from Africa and the African diaspora than providing relief to Dreamers who came here through no fault of their own. Unfortunately, there is no reason to believe that we can negotiate in good faith with a person who holds such vile and reprehensible beliefs.”

Marc Morial, the president and CEO of the National Urban League, said Trump’s crude statement regarding immigration from Haiti and African nations is appalling for its lack of compassion, and stunning for its ignorance about the contributions of Haitian and African immigrants.

“Even more troubling was the fact that his slur was coupled with a desire for more immigration from overwhelmingly White countries like Norway,” said Morial. “Congress must reject this divisive and racially-discriminatory approach to immigration policy.”

Rev. Al Sharpton, the president and founder of National Action Network (NAN), said that Trump’s deplorable statements while meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers at the White House regarding an immigration deal go beyond racial insensitivity.

“For the President to make these remarks just after he was quoted as saying all Haitians have AIDS and Nigerians live in huts, demonstrates a consistent pattern of racism and bigotry. It is further concerning that he is doing it in policy meetings that will impact laws in this country and abroad,” said Sharpton. “Trump uses White nationalist rhetoric to continue to explicitly defile, disrespect, and destroy communities of color. His lack of presidential decorum is a disgrace to our country’s highest office.”

Sharpton continued: “We must challenge the Senate and Congress to repudiate President Trump’s comments and every Senator that was in that meeting should publicly denounce him. They should also explain why they didn’t say anything in the meeting—and if they fail to answer they should be targeted by the civil rights community as accomplices.”

Sharpton said that Trump’s comments were the ultimate disrespect to hundreds of communities who believe in the American Dream—the same dream of equality and justice that Dr. King had.

“We will not let Trump or his Administration forget these words when we vote this year or in 2020,” Sharpton said.

Con’t from page 4

The DNC Is Sorry

5, 2017 that commission made public a slate of proposed reforms, including cutting the total number of superdelegates to conventions by over 60 percent, pushing state parties to have more open primaries, and requiring that no officer of the DNC endorse a presidential candidate before the primary is over.

“If you have trust issues,” Ellison said, “there’s reason for you to give us a shot.”

Another member of the audience said that the Democratic Party always asks people of color for their vote, but rarely includes them in positions of leadership.

“Yes, the party’s been a little stupid, but we’re waking up,” said Ellison, who is African-American. He said that the DNC invested $1.5 million in Virginia statehouse elections in 2017 and invested $600,000 in the Alabama U.S. Senate race between Doug Jones and Roy Moore. He said that that most of that money went to communities of color in Virginia and Alabama, so that locals, as opposed to D.C. interlopers, were talking to their neighbors about why they supported the respective local Democratic candidates.

Audience members were not only concerned about Democratic Party failings. They had also showed up to express their fear and frustrations about Donald Trump.

Cate Saxton from West Haven told Ellison that she grew up in a conservative household; her father ran, unsuccessfully, for U.S. Senate as a Republican. She said that Trump’s party is “not my daddy’s Republican Party,” that she feels galvanized to show up to protest the current administration’s hostility towards immigrants, women and people of color.

“When he said the ‘shithole country’ thing, I felt like he was talking about me. When he said ban the Muslims, I felt like he was talking about me,” said Ellison, who is Muslim.

“We have got to be the party this unwaveringly for civil rights for all people.”

Con’t from page 4

Record Number

raise a total of about $125,000, and about $71,800 in the recent quarter.

Sean Connolly, the former commissioner of Veterans Affairs, was able to raise $90,830 in the exploratory phase before switching over to a candidate committee earlier this week.

Guy Smith of Greenwich, another Democrat who entered the race this week, isn’t participating in the Citizens Election Program and plans to raise funds outside of the program.

“We’re going to raise money from who wants to support us,” Smith said.

R. Nelson ‘Oz’ Griebel, the former director of the MetroHartford Alliance, who is running as an unaffiliated candidate, loaned his campaign $10,000 and was able to raise $3,600.

Griebel and his running mate Monte Frank are seeking to petition their way onto the General Election ballot.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

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by Christine Stuart CT. Junkie News

HARTFORD, CT — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced his intention Monday to make Justice Andrew McDonald the first openly gay chief justice of any state in the country.

“He has a deep understanding of the role and the impact that the justice system has on the everyday lives of Connecticut residents, and the value of ensuring equality and fairness through the court’s many responsibilities,” Malloy said in making the announcement at a press conference.

Malloy first nominated McDonald to the Supreme Court in 2013. McDonald, a former state Senator from Stamford, was confirmed in January 2013.

“The prospect of leading that court as chief justice would be the honor of my professional life,” McDonald said.

McDonald and Malloy have been friends for years and the announcement doesn’t come as a surprise to many who expected Malloy to nominate his friend.

At a press conference in the governor’s briefing room, McDonald complimented the tenure of Chief Justice Chase Rogers and said he hopes to continue “her tireless work administering justice on behalf of the people of Connecticut in a fair, transparent, and efficient manner.”

Rogers announced her retirement last November.

McDonald, who never served on the court before his confirmation to the Supreme Court in 2013, spent most of his legal career as a partner in Pull-

CHRISTINE STUART / CTNEWSJUNKIE

Justice Andrew McDonald

man and Comley. He also spent eight years as a state Senator from Stamford before becoming Malloy’s chief legal counsel. Following that, Malloy nominated McDonald to the Supreme Court.

Malloy will officially submit the McDonald’s nomination when the session starts on Feb. 7.

Malloy said he’s not worried about McDonald’s confirmation hearing. He said his first nominaCon’t on page 18

Hunger On Rise In New Haven

by MARKESHIA RICKS New Haven Independent

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More New Haveners are facing food insecurity, particularly if they are Latino and live in any of the city’s six lowest-income neighborhood.

That’s just some of the disheartening information alders heard Tuesday night from a report on “The State of Hunger in New Haven.”

Produced through a collaboration of local organizations that work on food insecurity issues and the city’s Food Policy Council, the report reveals a snapshot of who is going hungry in the city and what can be done about it.

Alicia Santilli, director of the Community Alliance for Research and Engagement (CARE) at the Southern Connecticut State University School of Health and Human Services and a member of the New Haven Food Policy Council, told alders that across the city 22 percent of residents are food insecure, meaning they don’t have enough food or money to buy food at some point in the month.

In the city’s six lowest-income neighborhoods the number of people who are food insecure rises to 34 percent. And when you drill down even further and specifically look at the Latino population in those neighborhoods the number of people without access to enough food rises to 50.1 percent.

“The most distressing, I think is knowing that our

14

MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO Kim

insecure household.

Hart heads a food

children are going hungry,” said Santilli, who is a co-author of the report.

Con’t on page 18

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

Serena Williams Saves Her Own Life After Blood Clotting During Birth

By Gemma Greene, BDO Staff Writer

Superstar athlete Serena Williams, like most Black women, seems like a superwoman: she won a tournament while pregnant, she bounced back from injury, she gave birth to a healthy baby, she went back to work on the court just weeks after…there’s no stopping this woman! Now, she’s the picture of happiness on the the cover of Vogue with her little one snuggled up next to her.

On the cover story, Williams talks about her new life as a mom and wife, her career ambitions and how motherhood almost took her life. Yes, you read that right.

In a terrifying episode, after an emergency C-section, Williams encountered what is an often fatal complication: Blood clots. She also had to fight to be taken seriously, Vogue reports: Though she had an enviably easy pregnancy, what followed was the greatest medical ordeal of a life that has been punctuated by them. Olympia was born by emergency C-section after her heart rate dove dangerously low during contractions. The surgery went off without a hitch; Alexis cut the cord, and the wail-

ing newborn fell silent the moment she was laid on her mother’s chest. “That was an amazing feeling,” Serena remembers. “And then everything went bad.”

The next day, while recovering in the hospital, Serena suddenly felt short of breath. Because of her history of blood clots, and because she was off her daily anticoagulant regimen due to the recent surgery, she immediately assumed she was having another pulmonary embolism. (Serena lives in fear of blood clots.)

She walked out of the hospital room so her mother wouldn’t worry and told the nearest nurse, between gasps, that she needed a CT scan with contrast and IV heparin (a blood thinner) right away. The nurse thought her pain medicine might be making her confused. But Serena insisted, and soon enough a doctor was performing an ultrasound of her legs. “I was like, a Doppler? I told you, I need a CT scan and a heparin drip,” she remembers telling the team. The ultrasound revealed nothing, so they sent her for the CT, and sure enough, several small blood clots had settled in her lungs. Minutes later she was on the drip. “I was like, listen to Dr. Williams!”

That’s right, if it doesn’t feel right to you, speak up! It was only hours after

giving birth through a major surgery, Williams had to convince the medical staff that she was in need of care.

Though she survived, Williams became one of the estimated 150,000 women in America to experience serious illness or near-death experiences around pregnancy every year. Because her history of blood clots made her aware of the symptoms, Williams was able to save her own life.

And the stats for Black women and pregnancy are worse! Even after considering other known risk factors — such as diabetes, hypertension and kidney problems — researchers found that African-Americans still experienced a higher rate of deep vein thrombosis or blood clotting.

“The bottom line is this is not just because this population is sicker or less compliant, but there is something else there that needs to be explored,” said Ron Waksman, M.D., the study’s lead author.

In the study, African-American patients were nearly three times as likely to experience clotting as non-AfricanAmerican patients. African-Americans’ clotting rates compared to non-African Americans were:

dependent

15

*1.71 percent vs. 0.59 percent after 30 days; *2.25 percent vs. 0.79 percent at one year; *2.78 percent vs. 1.09 percent at two years; and *3.67 percent vs. 1.25 percent at three years.

The rate of death from all causes at three years was also higher among AfricanAmericans, 24.9 percent vs. 13.1 per-

cent in other races.

“Physicians and patients need to know that African-Americans are at a higher risk of developing stent thrombosis, which is associated with heart attack or death,” said Waksman, associate director of the Division of Cardiology at Washington Hospital Center and professor of medicine and cardiology at Georgetown University.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

Deal Re-Establishes ESSENCE as a 100% Black-Owned Independent Company

Essence Ventures LLC, an independent African-American owned company focused on merging content, community and commerce, has announced its acquisition of multi-platform media company Essence Communications Inc. from Time Inc. ESSENCE President Michelle Ebanks will continue at the helm of the company and will also join its board of directors. In addition, the all Black female executive team of ESSENCE, including Ebanks, will have an equity stake in the business.

“This acquisition of ESSENCE represents the beginning of an exciting transformation of our iconic brand as it evolves to serve the needs and interests of multigenerational Black women around the world in an even more elevated and comprehensive way across print, digital, e-commerce and experiential platforms,” said Ebanks.

“In addition, it represents a critical recognition, centering and elevation of the Black women running the business from solely a leadership position to a co-ownership position.”

Through the Essence Ventures’ investment and resulting incremental growth opportunities, ESSENCE will focus on expanding its digital businesses via distribution partnerships, compelling original content and targeted client-first strategies. In addition, the brand will expand its international growth by planting its rich content ecosystem, including the flagship magazine, digital properties and successful live event franchises, in more global markets with women who have shared interests and aspirations.

“The strategic vision and leader-

ship that Michelle has provided to ESSENCE over the years have been exemplary, and we are thrilled to work with her and her talented team to provide the necessary resources and support to continue to grow the engagement and influence of the ESSENCE brand and transform this business,” said Richelieu Dennis, founder and chairperson of Essence Ventures.

“As importantly, we are excited to be able to return this culturally relevant and historically significant platform to ownership by the people and the consumers whom it serves and offer new opportunities for the women leading the business to also be partners in the business.”

Dennis continued, “We remain committed to leveraging our resources to provide opportunities for other

culturally-rooted entrepreneurs and businesses that further our culture and create economic opportunities for our communities. Our focus here will be on ensuring that Essence reaches its full potential via heightened capabilities, technology, products and touch points that super-serve the interests of Black women locally and globally. We look forward to helping generate new opportunities that create more value across the ESSENCE portfolio with unmatched content, commerce and international access for the millions of women it serves, as well as exceptional value for our advertising partners and content creators.”

Since its founding in 1970, ESSENCE has been a hallmark for women’s empowerment and a cultural beacon of pride and celebration of the

diverse images and lifestyles of Black women. Today, ESSENCE is an international, omni-channel destination for diverse storytelling and original content comprising beauty, fashion, lifestyle, entertainment and culture.

“ESSENCE has always embodied and evangelized what the world now sees – the sheer beauty, power and magic of Black women,” said Ebanks.

“From her influence in politics and at the polls, mandate for social justice, and demand for economic inclusion to her impact on beauty culture, leadership in equal rights efforts, and catalyzation of community empowerment, she is at the forefront – driving the cultural phenomena that are positively changing the world. ESSENCE will continue to lead that charge with, for and beside her as the unparalleled

platform for her voice.”

ESSENCE currently reaches a global audience of more than 16 million across its various platforms encompassing its signature print magazine; digital, video and social platforms; television specials, including the Black Women in Hollywood Awards on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network; books; and live events, including the Street Style Block Party during New York Fashion Week and the annual ESSENCE Festival, a cultural celebration that debuted in 1995 and is now one of the country’s largest annual events, attracting more than 450,000 attendees.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

For more detail about ESSENCE, visit www.essence.com

First Black Woman Glides Onto U.S. Olympic SpeedSkating Team

by Lenore T. Adkins

Maame Biney, 17, has made history as the first Black woman to qualify for the U.S. Olympic speedskating squad, setting her up to compete in the upcoming Winter Games.

The Reston, Va., native landed her spot on the team Dec. 16 after two wins in the women’s 500-meter, U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Kearns, Utah.

In the first 500 final at the short track trials, Biney emerged victorious over Olympians Lana Gehring, Jessica Kooreman and Catherine Reutter-Adamek.

The teenager crushed the competition again in the second final, and once she crossed the finish line, Biney celebrated so hard that she fell down.

“When I realized that I made the Olympic team, I started cheering like crazy and then I made my epic fall,” Biney told reporters.

Maame Biney, 17 16

Biney was only five when she moved to the United States from Ghana, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

She’ll head to Pyeongchang, South Korea for the upcoming 2018 Winter Games in February.

Biney’s hoping to set a new world record for the women’s 500-meter event — the current record, set in 2016 by Elise Christie of Great Britain, is 42.335 seconds, the Tribune reported. Biney’s personal best is 43.161 seconds, according to the Tribune.

The teen’s Olympic berth makes her the second Black speedskater to land on the U.S. Olympic team. Shani Davis of Chicago was 19 when he qualified for the short track team in 2002. He later changed to long track and secured four medals, two gold medals among them, NBC reported.

Next month, Davis, 35, will attempt to secure a spot on the Olympic long track team.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

National Millennial Community Works to Dispel Stereotypes about Young People

SUNDAY MIRROR

Smith said that it can be hard searching for jobs and networking as a Black millennial.

“Being Black sets me apart as it is, then when you add the fact that I’m a woman and a millennial, that’s when things get sticky,” said Smith. “Because of those three attributes, I constantly find myself having to go the extra mile and surpass the expectations that have been predetermined for me.”

Smith continued: “I’ve learned that in this world, being a Black millennial will never be easy, I will have to continue to work three times as hard as [White men]. However, one thing I will never do is jeopardize my morals and values in an attempt to be accepted in the workforce.”

Xavier Robertson said that sometimes millennials are stereotyped for lacking a strong work ethic.

“This is a misunderstanding,” said Robertson.

“It’s not that we don’t like to work, it’s that we like to do work that matters and for people that care.”

Robertson continued: “We want to make an im-

pact and we want to be respected. Millennials want to be challenged and inspired on a daily basis, so that we can maximize our potential.”

During the Seattle trip, Chevrolet provided millennials with the Chevy Trax sports utility vehicle to use as a mobile working space. The 4G LTE Wi-Fi within the vehicle allowed the teams (up to seven devices) to connect to the Internet, research necessary information and collaborate on their findings. While traveling to their various destinations, the drivers used Apple CarPlay or Android Auto for navigation and playing music.

Chevrolet equipped the Trax with a printer, coffee machine and other office gadgets that were plugged into the 12-volt outlet in the rear seats.

Once each team arrived at their destination, the front passenger seat folded down, providing a completely flat working desk for laptops, tablets or writing.

Following the think tanks, the National Millennial Community participants traveled to a central location and crafted a tool kit designed to help their peers find jobs and network more effectively.

Smith said that as a member of the National Millennial Community, she has benefitted in ways that she could have never imagined. Smith said that she has not only traveled to different states to share different perspectives as a millennial, she has also had the opportunity to meet CEOs and owners of major corporations.

Robertson agreed that the experiences provided through the National Millennial Community are life-changing.

“The National Millennial Community is an awesome group of diverse individuals working to inform people about the misconceptions about millennials,” said Robertson. “This community not only assembles millennials from around the country to talk about these issues, but we also had the opportunity to talk face to face with the leaders of influential brands in the United States.”

Robertson continued: “We are able to have a direct impact on the conversation about us. Very few times are there opportunities where you can sit down and have conversations that can impact the world and through NMC, we can do that.”

You can follow the conversation, on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #ChevyThinkTanks.

17

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Chevrolet recently partnered with the National Millennial Community and sent out groups of influential young people to destinations around Seattle, Washington to execute think tank-style discussions on topics related to the success of today’s multicultural millennials.

The National Millennial Community (NMC) is a progressive and diverse group of millennials that works to dispel negative stereotypes about the generation and represents the 80 million young people in this country by conducting think tanks, seminars and engagement opportunities with the CEOs of major corporations. The community’s members present diversity in ethnicity, geographic location, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, religion and more. Chevrolet and the National Millennial Community created these mobile think tanks in an effort to understand what networking, personal branding and searching for jobs means for all millennials, factoring in the unique challenges facing that generation.

Precious Angel Smith, one of the program participants, said that she’s working to dispel the negative stereotypes that millennials don’t understand the importance of working hard and that they’re too obsessed with technology to engage with the world around them.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

‘Living Single’ 20 Years Later: Still Laughter & Love!

by T. R. Causay, Social Reporter

Before the hugely successful Friends sitcom came along, there was Living Single. Starring Queen Latifah (Khadijah), Kim Coles (Synclaire), Kim Fields (Regine), Erika Alexander (Max), T.C. Carson (Kyle) and John Henton (Overton), the show debuted in 1993 and was a hit all the way through 1997.

In 1993 the race for Sunday night ratings was close. Critics agreed that the big contenders were CBS’ Murder, She Wrote and NBC’s seaQuest DSV, but out of left field came a sitcom deemed underdog: Fox’s Living Single. The sitcom chronicled the adventures of four single ladies living in New York City. Living Single captured viewers with its on-point comedy and catchy opening credits song. Featuring six African-American comedic stars, the show quickly became the most popular sitcom of its era.

During her latest appearance on Watch What Happens Live, Queen Latifah revealed that she’s not only in the process of rebooting the fan favorite in the next couple of years, but also confirms the concept for Friends was essentially a white version of Living Single, revamped for NBC’s audience.

“It was one of those things where there was a guy called Warren Littlefield, who used to run NBC,” explains Latifah. “They asked him, ‘When all the new shows came out, if there was any show you could have, which one would it be?’ And he said Living Single…and

then he created Friends.”

But Latifah maintains she and the rest of the Living Single production team harbor no ill will toward the show, saying, “Friends was so good, so it wasn’t like we hated on it.”

The show’s creator—television writer and executive producer Yvette Lee Bowser, now 52—saw the need for a strong black female voice in the television. After leaving A Different World as a writer, and while producing Hanging With Mr. Cooper, she created the concept for Living Single.

“I feel blessed that my vision and the characters have stuck with people through the decades. It’s a blessing to set out to make art, make TV and to end up making history. It feels great.

It makes me smile, and it’s certainly something to be proud of,” Bowser tells The Root. “After A Different World went off the air, it left a void.

There was no longer a platform for strong black female voices. Suddenly, I didn’t see myself. That was my impetus for creating the show.”

Twenty years later after the last show aired, audiences around the country still enjoy the laughter in syndication and all the cast went on to become successful in their own right.

After Living Single was canceled, Kim Fields took on directing and has worked on a few of Tyler Perry’s movies and BET’s Let’s Stay Together. In 2015, Fields joined the cast of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, although her gig only lasted one season. The actress’

Con’t from page 14

Malloy Will Nominate McDonald To Chief Justice tion was overwhelmingly supported.

When McDonald was first confirmed to the Supreme Court in 2013, the Senate approved his nomination 30-3, while the House approved it 125-20.

Rep. Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, told Dennis House on Face the State on Sunday that he would likely vote against McDonald’s nomination.

“On a personal level it would be difficult for me to confirm him as a chief justice,” Candelora said.

He said even though some Republicans voted against McDonald he’s not sure there would be a concerted effort to block his nomination.

“Justice Andrew McDonald is a brilliant and thoughtful jurist,” Senate

President Martin Looney, D-New Haven, said. “Throughout his distinguished career in public service as Corporation Counsel for the City of Stamford, as State Senate co-chair of the Judiciary Committee, as chief counsel to the governor, and as a member of the State Supreme Court, Justice McDonald has been a trailblazer across all three branches of state government.

McDonald has served as an associate justice on the court since January 2013. He also serves as the chairman of the Connecticut Criminal Justice Commission, the group which is charged with appointing all state prosecutors within the Division of Criminal Justice.

dive into reality continued as she competed in season 22 of Dancing with the Stars in 2016, finishing in 8th place.

When the role of the hilarious Synclaire was over, Kim Coles went on to make appearances on shows like Fraiser, Six Feet Under, and… … My Wife and Kids. Plus, she had a recurring role on The Geena Davis Show in 2000 as Judy Owens. In recent years

the actress found success as host of BET’s game show Pay It Off and was part of TBS’ comedy 10 Items or Less. Presently Coles continues acting and making guest star appearances on television.

Post Living Single, John Henton starred on ABC’s The Hughleys next to D.L. Hughley. In 2000 he was involved in a serious car accident that

broke both of his legs, 10 teeth, and shattered one of his eye sockets. After extensive reconstructive plastic surgery, he continued his work on The Hughleys. Henton subsequently made a few other guest appearances (in 2009 and 2014), but has seemed to stayed away from television. Today he lives in Los Angeles.

“The biggest blessing for me [is] that people still love it after all of these years,” shares Henton. “When I was growing up it was Good Times, Sanford and Son, the great shows of that era. Nobody had ever seen young black stockbrokers, black lawyers, black publishers.

Even though I was a handyman, I was proud and I was good at what I did. These were young people on the go, coming up. It was fresh, it was new, and it’d never been done before.”

Erika Alexander inspired many young girls for her role as the sharpwitted and just-as-sharp tonged Maxine. She is a married woman for over 15 years in real life, collaborates with her husband on projects, writes for and has created a comic book and still acts and directs.

After Living Single, T.C. Carson became a succesful voiceover actor, giving life to Mace Windu on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Kratos in the PlayStation game God of War. In recent years, you can catch him on shows like Nashville and OWN’s Greenleaf.

Con’t from page 14

Hunger On Rise In New Haven

The number of children in New Haven public schools who are eligible for free meals has increased dramatically from 83.8 percent in 2014-2015 to 93.7 percent in 2016-2017, she said.

Kim Hart is the mother of one of those children.

The 56-year-old mom was disabled after suffering a brain aneurysm and no longer able to work. She relies on a combination of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the school breakfast and lunch, and food pantries to make sure she and her son eat. Going to food pantries often means getting to a location up to three hours early,” she said.

“If they’re open from 11 to 1 and I get there at 10:30, the line will be wrapped around the building,” she said.

“I’m a woman of faith,” she told alders Tuesday night. “My son nor I have ever

18

went to bed hungry.”

Hart said when her son was younger, if push came to shove, they could go to a soup kitchen and eat. But now that he’s older, she said he’d rather go hungry than be seen in a soup kitchen.

She said if the city schools could further expand their evening meals programs — a policy recommendation of the Food Policy Council — it would help. Santilli said that food insecurity has a detrimental impact on health with those who are most food insecure experiencing problems related to high blood pressure, diabetes, and being overweight or obese. Food insecure children are also more likely to have diabetes and asthma, according to the report.

New Haven has a network of some 70 food providers but she noted that

all of those organizations are run by volunteers. And more could be done about food insecurity if there were a better-coordinated strategy and system for addressing the problem, she said.

Austin Bryniarski, vice chair of the city’s Food Policy Council, said that the council is advocating three policy prescriptions: expanding the school meals program with the goal of serving three meals every day; streamlining the food emergency system; and protecting food system workers from theft and abuse.

Bryniarski also urged alders to continue to support the city food system policy director position that was created in 2016. Its current occupant, Joy Johannes, has submitted her resignation.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport Invitation for Bid (IFB) PT Barnum Apartments Unit 205 Renovation Solicitation Number: 080-PD-17-S The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport d/b/a Park City Communities (PCC) is requesting sealed bids for Renovation of unit 205 at PT Barnum Apartments. A complete set of the plans and technical specifications will be available on May 8, 2017. To obtain a copy of the solicitation you must send your request to bids@parkcitycommunities.org, please reference solicitation number and title on the subject line. A MANDATORY pre-bid conference will be held at 150 Highland Ave, Bridgeport, CT 06604 on May 23, 2017 @ 10:00 a.m., submitting a bid for the project without attending conference is not in the best interest of the Offeror. Additional questions should be emailed only to bids@parkcitycommunities.org no later than May 30, 2017 @ 3:00 p.m. Answers to all the questions will be posted on PCC’s Website: www.parkcitycommunities.org. All bids must be received by mailed or hand delivered by June 6, 2017 @ 2:00 PM, to Ms. Caroline Sanchez, Contract Specialist, 150 Highland Ave, Bridgeport, CT 06604, at which time and place all bids will be publicly opened and read aloud. No bids will be accepted after the designated time.

The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport Invitation for Bid (IFB) Moving and Storage Services Agency Wide Solicitation Number: 097-AM-18-S The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport d/b/a Park City Communities (PCC) is currently seeking bids from qualified moving companies for Moving and Storage Service. Solicitation package will be available on January 16, 2018. To obtain a copy of the solicitation you must send your request to bids@parkcitycommunities.org, please reference solicitation number and title on the subject line. A pre-bid conference will be held at 301 Bostwick Ave, Bridgeport, CT 06604 on January 30, 2018, @ 10:00 a.m. Although attendance is not mandatory, submitting a bid for the project without attending conference is not in the best interest of the Offeror. Additional questions should be emailed only to bids@parkcitycommunities. org no later than February 14, 2018 @ 3:00 p.m. Answers to all the questions will be posted on PCC’s Website: www.parkcitycommunities.org.

Seal bids will be received until February 28, 2018 @ 2:00 PM, at which time the bids will be publicly opened and read aloud.

The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport

Request for Proposal (RFP) for Security Guard Services – Trumbull Gardens Solicitation Number: 098-SEC-18-S The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport d/b/a Park City Communities (PCC) is currently requesting proposals from qualified security firms to provide security guard services at Trumbull Gardens a public housing complex in the city of Bridgeport. Solicitation package will be available on January 16, 2018. To obtain a copy of the solicitation you must send your request to bids@parkcitycommunities.org, please reference solicitation number and title on the subject line. A pre-proposal conference will be held at 505 Trumbull Ave, Bridgeport, CT 06606 on January 31, 2018, @ 10:00 a.m. Although attendance is not mandatory, submitting a bid for the project without attending conference is not in the best interest of the Offeror. Additional questions should be emailed only to bids@parkcitycommunities.org no later than February 14, 2018 @ 3:00 p.m. Answers to all the questions will be posted on PCC’s Website: www.parkcitycommunities.org. Proposals shall be mailed or hand delivered by February 28, 2018 @ 3:00 PM, to Ms. Caroline Sanchez, Director of Procurement, 150 Highland Ave, Bridgeport, CT 06604. Late proposals will not be accepted.

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Union Company seeks: Tractor Trailer Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction Equipment. Must have a CDL License, clean driving record, capable of operating heavy equipment; be willing to travel throughout the Northeast & NY. We offer Invitation for Bids benefits excellent hourly rate & excellent Contact: Dana Briere Phone: Snow Removal ServicesValley 860-243-2300 Email: dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com and Waverly Townhouse Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply The Housing Authority of the City of New Haven d/b/a Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Elm City Communities is currently seeking Bids for Snow Employer Removal Services-Valley and Waverly Townhouses. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Wednesday, November 1, 2017 at 3:00PM

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES s

GARRITY ASPHALT RECLAIMING , INC Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks: Reclaimer Operators and Milling Operators with current licensing and clean driving record.

We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits Contact: Rick Tousignant Phone: 860243-2300 Email: rick.tousignant@garrityasphalt.com Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming Inc Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity seeks: Construction Equipment Mechanic Employer

preferably experienced in Reclaiming and Road Milling Equipment. We offer factory training on equipment we operate.

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming Inc Location: Bloomfield CT seeks: Construction Equipment Mechanic Contact: James Burke Phone: 860preferably experienced in Reclaiming and 243-2300 Road Milling Equipment. We offer factory email: jim.burke@garrityasphalt.com training on equipment we operate.

Women & Minority Applicants are Location: Bloomfield CT to apply Contact:encouraged James Burke Phone: 860Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity 243-2300 Employer We offer excellent hourly rate & email: jim.burke@garrityasphalt.com Women excellent & Minoritybenefits Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits

Union Company seeks: Tractor Trailer Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction Equipment. Must have a CDL License, clean driving record, capable of operating Union Company seeks: Tractor Trailer heavy equipment; be willing to travel Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction throughout the Northeast & NY. We offer Equipment. Must have a CDL License, excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits clean driving record, capable of operating Contact: Dana be Briere Phone: heavy equipment; willing to travel 860-243-2300 Email: throughout the Northeast & NY. We offer dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits Women & Minority Applicants are Contact: Dana Briere Phone: encouraged to apply 860-243-2300 Email: Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com Employer Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

Field Engineer

PUBLIC NOTICE

BA/BS in Civil Engineering or Construction Management.

2-5 yrs. experience. OSHA Certified.

Proficient in reading contract plans and specifications.

Resumes to RED Technologies, LLC, 10 Northwood Dr., Bloomfield, CT 06002; Fax 860.218.2433;

State and Park Streets Meriden, CT

Project Manager Environmental Remediation Division

Project: Meriden Commons 2 SUBCONTRACTOR PRE BID MEETING Thursday, January 11, 2018 5 to 6:00 pm Location: Meriden Housing Authority 22 Church Street, Meriden

INVITATION TO BID:

New Construction 3 Buildings, 75 Units, Approx 106,000SF This is our Project, Taxable & Residential Wage Rates apply.

This contract is subject to state set-aside and contract compliance requirements.

Bid Due Date: Subcontractor bids due: January 25, 2018 @ 5 pm Project documents available via ftp link below: http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=meridencommons2 Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 dlang@haynesct.com

HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified

Businesses Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 AA/EEO EMPLOYER

The Wallingford Police Department is seeking qualified applicants for Police Officer. $1,206.80 weekly plus an excellent fringe benefit package. The physical performance, written and oral board exams will be administered by the South Central Criminal Justice Administration. Candidates must register at: www.PoliceApp.com/WallingfordCT. Registration/Application deadline is Wednesday, January 17, 2018. The registration requires a fee of $85.00. EOE

Assistant Facilities Manager Common Ground seeks an Assistant Facilities Manager/Custodian to be responsible for the care, upkeep and maintenance of Common Ground’s facilities. The Assistant Facilities Manager/Custodian will supervise part time custodial staff.

This is a full time, year round 40-hour per week position with benefits. Work hours will generally run from noon until 8 pm with some weekend hours required. For a more detailed job description and how to apply, please visit http:// commongroundct.org/2017/10/common-ground-seeks-an-assistant-facilitiesmanager/Common Ground seeks an Assistant Facilities Manager/Custodian to be responsible for the care, upkeep and maintenance of Common Ground’s facilities. The Assistant Facilities Manager/Custodian will supervise part time custodial staff. This is a full time, year round 40-hour per week position with benefits. Work hours will generally run from noon until 8 pm with some weekend hours required. For a more detailed job description and how to apply, please

TRANSFER STATION LABORER Off load trailers, reload for trans/disp. Lift 50 lbs., operate industrial powered trucks and forklift. Asbestos Worker Handler Training a +. Resumes to RED Technologies, LLC, 173 Pickering St., Portland, CT 06480; Fax 860-342-1022; or Email to lkelly@redtransfer.com RED Technologies, LLC is an EOE.

Email resumes to info@redtechllc.com. RED Technologies, LLC is an EOE.

3-5 years exp. and Bachelor’s Degree, 40-Hr. Hazwoper Training Req. Forward resumes to RED Technologies, LLC, 10 Northwood Dr., Bloomfield, CT 06002;

Fax 860.218.2433; or Email to HR@redtechllc.com

RED Technologies, LLC is an EOE.

Class A CDL Driver

with 3 years min. exp. HAZMAT Endorsed. (Tractor/Triaxle/Roll-off ) Some overnights may be required. FAX resumes to RED Technologies, at 860.342-1042; Email: HR@redtechllc.com Mail or in person: 173 Pickering Street, Portland, CT 06480. RED Technologies, LLC is An EOE.

Help Wanted. Immediate opening for operator for Heavy and Highway construction. Please call PJF Construction Corp. @ 860-888-9998.

We are an equal opportunity employer M/F.

Town of Bloomfield

Custodian $22.31 hourly For details go to www.bloomfieldct.org

Common Ground -

high school, urban farm and environmental education center - is looking for a full time Development Associate for Special Events and Communications. For the full job description, qualifications and how to apply, please go to http://commongroundct. org/2017/12/common-ground-seeks-development-associate-events-and-communications/

KMK Insulation Inc.

1907 Hartford Turnpike North Haven, CT 06473

Mechanical Insulator position.

Insulation company offering good pay and benefits.

Please mail resume to above address.. MAIL ONLY This company is an Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer.

Waste Treatment Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator (Attendant II): Operates and maintains equipment and processes in a municipal sewage treatment plant. Requires a H.S. diploma or GED. In addition, must possess a State of Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Class II Operator or higher certification; or a Class II Operatorin-training or higher certification. Must possess and maintain a valid driver’s license. $25.38 to $30.24 hourly / $22.59 - $30.24 based on certifications & experience plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply: Personnel Department, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. The closing date will be that date the 50th application form/resume is received, or February 13, 2018, whichever occurs first.

EOE

The Housing Authority of the City of Norwalk, CT is requesting proposals for the painting of interior vacant units.

Proposal documents can be viewed and printed at www.

norwalkha.org<http://www.norwalkha.org> under the Business section RFP’s/RFQ’s Norwalk Housing is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Curtis O. Law, Executive Director.

Contract Administrator Galasso Materials is seeking a motivated, organized individual to be its next Contract Administrator. This position provides administration associated with our paving division. Responsibilities include billing, payroll, collection, lien tracking, coordinating with outside legal counsel, and job cost. Experience is preferred but willing to train the right candidate. Salary commensurate with experience and educational achievement. NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE. Reply to Hiring Manager, PO Box 1776, East Granby, CT 06026. EOE/M/F/D/V.

Dispatcher Galasso Materials is seeking a motivated, organized, detail-oriented candidate to join its truck dispatch office. Responsibilities include order entry and truck ticketing in a fast paced materials manufacturing and contracting company. You will have daily interaction with employees and customers as numerous truckloads of material cross our scales daily. We are willing to train the right individual that has a great attitude. NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE. Reply to Hiring Manager, PO Box 1776, East Granby, CT 06026.

EOE/M/F/D/V.

Hot Mix Asphalt Plant Technician & Paving Inspector There are multiple openings in Galasso Materials Quality Control Department. NETTCP certification is preferred, with at least one year of experience. Full time positions available. Your schedule must be flexible as sometimes night shifts are required. Must be able to lift and carry 50lb buckets.

NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE. Reply to Hiring Manager, PO Box 1776, East Granby, CT 06026. EOE/M/F/D/V.

Equipment Operators and Laborers Galasso Materials is seeking applicants for the 2018 paving season. Experience in paving operations is required. Must possess current OSHA 10 card, have a valid driver’s license, and own transportation. NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE. Reply to Hiring Manager, PO Box 1776, East Granby, CT 06026.

EOE/M/F/D/V.

Listing: Receptionist/Office Assistant

Petroleum Company has an immediate full time opening. Previous experience in a very busy office handling multiple telephone lines and dealing with customers required. Excellent customer service skills a must. Previous petroleum experience a plus. Applicant to also perform administrative/clerical tasks as assigned. Please send resume to: H.R. Manager, Confidential, P O Box 388, Guilford CT 06437.

********An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer**********

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

San Francisco’s First Ever Black Woman Mayor Takes Office

San Francisco, CA — Following the sudden death of San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, the city’s President of the Board of Supervisors, London Breed, made history when she became the city’s first Black female mayor. The 43-year old will carry on in the role until a citywide mayoral election is held in the summer of 2018.

Breed is also only the second woman to be mayor of the city, as the only other woman to be mayor was Mayor Dianne Feinstein from 1978 to 1988.

In addition, Breed is also only the second Black person to take the job. The first was Mayor Willie Brown, who served from 1996 to 2004.

But aside from inheriting her role as mayor, she is also planning to actually

run for mayor in the 2018 election.

She told reporters, “I do feel strongly that I’m qualified and I’m prepared to do this job.”

Born and raised in San Francisco, Breed earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Davis in 1997 and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of San Francisco in 2012.

In 2002, Breed became the executive director of the African American Art & Culture Complex, where she raised over $2.5 million to renovate the complex’s 34,000 square foot space. She was named to the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency Commission in 2004, and in 2010, she was appointed to the San Francisco Fire Commission.

For more details about the San Franciso Mayor’s office, visit www. sfmayor.org

SIXTH ANNUAL GLOBAL SPIN AWARDS NOMINEES & HONOREES ANNOUNCED Timbaland to Receive the Lifetime Achievement Award and Jermaine Dupri to Receive the Breaking Barriers Award

New York, NY, December 12, 2017 – Today, the Global Spin Awards (GSA), honoring the most dynamic and talented DJ’s from around the world, alongside REVOLT,unveiled the 2018 nominees. The award show will take place in Los Angeles, at the Novo Theater on February 15th, 2018. The announcement was made this morning exclusively on “Power 105.1’s - The Breakfast Club” which airs on REVOLT. Now in its sixth year, the Global Spin Awards has become a pillar of the music industry, and is celebrated by toptalent, including nominees, DJ Khaled, DJ Envy, Marshmello, The Chain Smokers and Funk Flex. Each year, the nominees are chosen from submissions across 30 categories, showcasing some of the most talented creators and breakthrough DJs. The most reputable DJs in the industry, celebrities and top music executives, will gather to celebrate their work and the growth of the DJ industry.

“DJs are innovators, continuously changing the industry through their creative sounds and love for music. The Global Spin Awards was created to spotlight the industry and honor these artists.” said Shawn Prez, Founder of the Global Spin Awards. “We are recognizing the top DJs for their achievements and contributions to the music industry and our culture”.

The Global Spin Awards also announced the 2018 honoree recipients: Grammy Award-winning songwriter/producer Timbaland will receive the “Lifetime Achievement Award” and CEO of So So Def and Grammy Award-winning songwriter/ producer Jermaine Dupri will receive the “Breaking Barriers Award”. Each year GSA recognizes two respected visionaries that have contributed to the continuous growth and success of the industry. This year, both recipients share a timeless legacy and influence on music, and beyond.

Last year’s show was hosted by Rap Legend Tip “T.I.” Harris and attended by some of the industry’s biggest entertain-

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entertainment industries. The GSAs have been classified as the Quality Standard of DJ Recognition by music industry heavy weights. Actors have the Academy Awards, Musicians have the Grammys and now DJ’s have the GSAs. ABOUT POWER MOVES INC. PMI is a grass roots marketing and promotions company that has been connecting celebrity talent and brands with consumers for over 15 years. Major connections in the music industries has enhanced theirsuccess, spreading their accomplishments nationwide affiliating them with major brands in other industries. PMI embraces the new urban lifestyle, transcending race, class and geography with a strong spirit of self-expression through music, sports, art and fashion.

ABOUT REVOLT MEDIA & TV

ers including Dave Chappelle, DJ Khaled, Joey Badass, No Limit and more. The 2017 winners of the Global Spin Awards included: DJ Khaled (Hip Hop DJ of the Year, DJ Album of the Year, DJ of the Year); Steve Aoki(EDM DJ of the Year), DJ Clark Kent (Lifetime Achievement Honoree) and Spinderella (Breaking Barriers Honoree).

The 2018 Global Spin Awards will air exclusively on REVOLT. For channel listings and for more information on the Global Spin Awards, visit REVOLT.tv.

ABOUT GLOBAL SPIN AWARDS The GLOBAL SPIN AWARDS was established to honor DJs from across the globe for their contribution to the music and

REVOLT is focused on expertly curating the best of the best in music and engaging youth in social conversation – on-air, online, on-demand. The multi-genre, multiplatform network offers breaking music news, videos, artist interviews, exclusive performances, and original programming.

Attracting over 50 million young adults through television, digital properties, social and mobile, REVOLT is accessible 24/7 – anytime, anywhere, any screen. Launched in broadcast in October 2013, REVOLT is available on DIRECTV, AT&T U-verse TV, Charter Spectrum, Comcast Xfinity, Verizon FiOS, CenturyLink Prism TV, Suddenlink, Frontier Communications, Comporium and Cincinnati Bell, as well as OTT platforms DIRECTV Now, FuboTV and FilmOn. REVOLT is also available internationally in Africa on Kwese TV, in the Bahamas on Cable Bahamas, the Cayman Islands on Westel, in Jamaica, Barbados, Nevis, Anguilla and Trinidad on Digicel, and in Trinidad on Massy Communications. Check local listings at https://revolt. tv/listings.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018 Con’t from page 3

Snoop Dogg, Warren G & Nate Dogg Becomes the First Hip Hop Landmark of its Kind!

Fire Chief Seeks The World Famous VIP Sign That Anchored the Birthplace of G-Funk,

firefighters do a good job, and that should be acknowledged more. He took pains in October, on the occasion of the 155th birthday of the department, to do just that: Give out acknowledgements and award of merit for courage and performance. That type of recognition had not formally taken place since 2002, he said.

Hand in hand with that, an annual performance assessment would be a big plus for the department, he contended: After a promotion, for example, a person can stay in a job for years, at any level, with no formal review.

“It’s the only way we have to inspire ourselves: to ask questions and ask questions of ourselves as to what can I do and how to be better,” he said.

In the short document Alston gave the commissioners, he outlined the different areas of his work, and solicited their commentary on each. They included leadership; management effectiveness; personnel management; innovation; special contributions; and public service orientation.

“They might say, ‘This guy puts out fires,’” but his interaction with the public needs improvement, Alston said by way of giving a theoretical response.

“I make my case” after receiving their comments, he added, and then the documents are forwarded to the mayor to review in connection with making a renewal offer, if that is decision, to the chief.

How all this would work with the rank and file, of course, is to be determined down the road.

After the meeting, fire union President Frank Ricci said he’s open to including Alston’s idea in negotiations on a new contract, expected to begin in March.

“The fire union is always willing to discuss anything with management that will improve the department,” Ricci said.

The department currently has 41 vacancies, with a civil service list of approved potential firefighters which the deparment is waiting to be approved.

When it is, Alston said, the department will begin fielding a class of 40 new firefighters as early as Feb. 20, he said, to begin the 16 weeks of training.

Fielding that class and one more as soon as possible is the department’s way of preparing for current and expected waves of retirees in the coming months.

One of those is Thomas Neville, an assistant chief, now in his 30th year, who serves the final shift of his 30-year career Tuesday night.

Kelvin Anderson Sr. (left), Mayor Robert Garcia (middle), and Cletus Anderson (right) at press conference announcing the historic landmark designation Photo credit: Tromaine Ellis

Long Beach, CA — At the corner of PCH and Martin L. King Ave., in one of Long Beach’s most culturally rich black neighborhoods, sits the icon: and now historic VIP Records sign, that once anchored the former VIP Records Store. VIP Records opened its doors in 1978 breaking R&B, gospel, jazz, reggae and blues acts.

By the early 90’s, VIP became the World Famous VIP Records and the birthplace of G-Funk by providing the launching pad for Warren G, Nate Dogg and Snoop Dogg, who later recorded his first video “What’s my name?” on the roof of VIP Records, with the now historic sign.

“The VIP was the place to go if you were a rapper to showcase your skills. VIP is special to me and I take the VIP with me everywhere I go,” comments Snoop Dogg in an upcoming documentary titled The VIP Legacy.

In the 90’s at a time of heightened gang violence Kelvin Anderson Sr., owner of VIP Records, with the help of producer, Sir Jinx opened up a small studio in a back of his record store to provide a safe haven for young people. It was there that 213, with producer DJ Slice, recorded the demo that would land Snoop Dogg, Warren G and Nate Dogg record

deals.

On December 19, 2017, the Long Beach City Council recognized the history and dedication of Kelvin Anderson Sr and VIP Records by voting 9-0 in favor of designating the VIP sign a historic landmark in the city of Long Beach. By Kelvin Anderson Sr.’s side was his big brother, Cletus Anderson who opened the original VIP in South Central LA, in 1967 and went on to open the Long Beach Location in 1978, before it was sold to Kelvin Anderson Sr. “It’s really important that tonight we designate this landmark but it’s really about honoring Kelvin and his family,” Mayor Robert Garcia stated.

“It should not be lost on us that we have so few historical landmarks that honor first and foremost, the black experience and Black Americans in Long Beach.”

Of the 100 historic landmarks in Long Beach, only two has anything to do with African American culture – one of which Craftsman bungalow belonging to the late civil rights pioneer Ernest S. McBride, founder of the local chapter of the NAACP. On a national scale, only 3% of historic landmarks are associated with the African American community, and the VIP sign is the only Hip-Hop or music landmark of its kind in the

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world.

After 40 years, the historic VIP sign will be taken down on January 11, 2018, and will be stored until a home is secured to build the first Black Music Museum and MultiMedia center.

VIP Records does not own the building the sign is on top of, and the original location, which VIP downsized from in 2012, has since been leased to 7-11 Corporation.

Although 7-11 agreed to work with VIP to preserve the history, 7-11 backed out of the agreement in September of 2017. They went on to open the store, with the help of the local council member, Dee Andrews, the week the sign was designated as a historic landmark.

“A historic landmark development would have increased tourism, property values, and brought muchneeded investments to a community that is facing 50% poverty among its kids,” comments Shirin Senegal, President of VIP Records. “We encouraged the city to work with us to purchase the original location, but the political will was not there.

Perhaps that will change when the reality of what we gave up to 711, kicks in.”

“This is a bittersweet moment for us. Taking the sign down after 40

years is not easy, but we will not keep it over 711, a company that does not respect African American history. I feel confident Mayor Garcia and the city will help us secure the right home for The Historic VIP Sign so that we can tell the story of Black Music,” says Anderson.

So far, the city has allocated $80,000 to restore and preserve the sign and has committed to help VIP secure a home for the sign. Currently, VIP is working to secure land across the street from the original VIP Location, that is owned by the city, to build its future development.

In the meantime, VIP is slated to open a 5,000 square foot multimedia center and business incubator, within a mile from the original VIP location. The center will be spearheaded by the World Famous VIP Foundation and Ronnie’s House, and will be the first of its kind in the district to foster entrepreneurship and multimedia.

To learn more about VIP Records or for licensing opportunities or collaborations, please visit www. shopviprecords.com. You can take a photo with the historic sign no later than Wednesday Jan 10, 2018 before it comes down from the original location where it made history!

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 17, 2018 - January 23, 2018

N e w H av e n P u b l i c S ch o o l s

2018 SCHOOL EXPOS You are invited to discover all that New Haven Public Schools can offer families and students. Please join us at a School Expo.

Thur • Jan. 25, 5:30-8pm Floyd Little Athletic Center • 480 Sherman Pkwy

6 - 7pm High School Info Session

Sat • Feb. 3, 11am-2pm

1:30 - 2:30pm Kindergarten Info Session

John Martinez Magnet School • 100 James Street Choice.NHPS.Net 24