INNER-CITY NEWS

THE INNER-CITY NEWS NEWS MARCHJuly 14, 2018 - -MARCH INNER-CITY 27, 2016 August 20, 02, 2018 2016

House Dems Lookato Position State Sports Betting Financial Justice Key Focus at 2016For NAACP Convention New Haven, Bridgeport

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“DMC” For the First Time Ever,

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Ambitious Agenda For Black and Puerto Rican Caucus Malloy To Dems: Malloy To Dems: Ignore “Tough Ignore “ToughOn OnCrime” Crime” Want More Nakia and Princess Shuri?

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FOLLOW US ONNew ‘Black Panther’ Novel

The Black Press Honors Senator Kamala Harris

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS

MARCH 14, 2018

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MARCH 20, 2018

The Artist Formerly Known As Moonchild

The artist Moon is a shape-shifter. Poet, musician, human beatbox and spoken word performer, she resists an urge to be classified. After attending high school and college in Connecticut, she began to perform as Moonchild at intimate music venues like New Haven’s Cafe Nine and the city’s now-defunct Daggett Street Square. But when a group reached out with copyright concerns over the name two years ago, Moonchild became Moon, and started reinventing her music at the same time.

Earlier this year, Arts Council intern Sydney Feinberg had a chance to sit down with Moon and talk music, creative aesthetic, and what it means to be constantly experimenting with style. This Thursday, Moon takes the mic again at Kehler Liddell Gallery, where there will be a special Lit Happy Hour from 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.

Their interview is below.

Sydney Feinberg: So how would you describe yourself as an artist?

I don’t know! I only really know hiphop. I mean, I know other genres of course, but I feel like hip-hop needs me the most.

I could be like, “oh I’m experimental or something,” but I think it’s important that I’m part of the hip-hop culture. Because number one, I rap pretty well—and hip hop needs this perspective.

And when you say “this perspective,” what do you mean?

I mean like a New England, queer perspective, as weird as that sounds. Like a New England, queer, space perspective.

How do you think being queer shapes the way you rap, or the way you perform as an artist?

It makes me more empathetic. It gives me more attention to detail because of what I see missing from most artists that I listen to. So I’m more like “oh this matters and this matters.” It shows me what matters more.

How did you come to hip-hop, and the type of music and art you create now?

I was just kind of bathed in it as a child. I grew up Catholic, so I was dipped in communion oil then also dipped in Wu Tang Clan at the same time. Like, literally, I’ve just never known a life without it. When I was an infant, there were videos of me, and you can hear the hip-hop music playing in the background. So my parents were really, they were like really 90’s parents. So I kind of got it all.

Do you think the music you grew up listening to has a big influence on the music you create today?

Yeah. My parents are divorced; I lived with my mom mostly, or forever. And she had a certain string of CD’s in her car that shaped my life. Sting and the Police, Shonte, and Floetry, and Jill Scott, and Mos Def, and Kanye. She was the person that got me into Kanye. So, yeah, mostly those CD’s, traveling in the car, going to school. She had a lot of good ones. The Fugees … I just realized that the other day, my mom has really great taste in music. Like, really great taste.

What are you listening to now?

I’m listening to a lot of local artists …

Chef the Chef, Mark the Mighty. I’m listening to Lotus Halves, she’s a queer singer

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE, IN ASSOCIATION WITH AMERICAN CONSERVATORY THEATER,

FATHER COMES HOME FROM THE WARS,

BY SUZAN-LORI PARKS DIRECTED BY LIZ DIAMOND

Moon earlier this year at the MLK Day Poetry Slam at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. Photo courtesy Moon.

Chef the Chef, Moon, Mark Da Mighty and DJ Fife Finesse. Kasaad Bullock Photo. from New York. I met her, I did a show with her. She’s really cool, really chill too. Who else … Andre Jakia, people like that. I really like to listen to old music. But it’s hard, because I find myself in this weird place where I really like to listen to it, but it’s problematic. Like everyone, not just some people. Everyone.

Like, I love Kodak Black, for example, and then he was like “oh I don’t really like Black women” and I was like, “wow, damn.” I just want to listen to music, you know what I mean? But I guess, some artists you have to separate. They’re not really political … some people belong in a square.

That’s why, me as an artist, I think I can walk out of that as an artist because I can talk politically. I’m not afraid of questions.

I’m not afraid of any questions really, I just want to be in that platform where I can say some real shit.

That was actually something I was going to ask about—whether or not you would identify as a more political artist.

Oh, definitely. It’s easier for me, because I was raised to think that the issues aren’t easy, but my opinions on them are not. Because even if I say something wrong, I’ll learn. That’s what takes—just as a person, I don’t even think, to be honest, that tackling these issues are so hard. Just do the right thing. I think now, more than ever it’s pretty easy to see what the right thing is, you

know what I mean? It’s kind of weird how people are like, “I don’t … I don’t want to get into it.”

I’m all for “if you don’t want to do it, don’t do it.” But I’ll do it. I’ll hopefully say the right thing, and if I don’t I’ll learn from it.

Do you think the last year, with the Trump presidency and general political turmoil, has made you more willing to speak politically and make more political work, or less?

Both. Definitely both. I can’t lie. I wish I could just be like, “oh I just put on my cape and put and S on my chest and darted out,” but I didn’t.

I was actually, especially the last couple of months last year, just so afraid to even walk outside. I was spending time in my room, not really doing much, but I just feel so ashamed doing that. Because then you look at the people who were me, like Nina Simone and Martin and Malcolm and everybody who literally gave up their lives and gave up their sanity to do what’s right.

So I feel like I have a ancestral obligation to do the right thing at all times, most likely. But it’s okay. You’ve gotta do the right thing.

When you talk about being afraid, where does that fear come from?

Mostly just being an American. Like, Con’t on page 10

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MARCH 16–APRIL 7 Yale Repertory Theatre (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) presents Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3 by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed

by Liz Diamond, March 16–April 7, at the University Theatre (222 York Street). Opening Night is Thursday, March 22. Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3 is a co-production with San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater, where it will play April 25–May 20.

A finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3 by playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, who also composed songs and additional music, features choreography by Randy Duncan, scenic design by Riccardo Hernandez, costumes by Sarah Nietfeld, lighting by Yi Zhao, sound design and music supervision by Frederick Kennedy, dramaturgy by Catherine María Rodríguez and Catherine Sheehy, technical direction by Latiana (LT) Gourzong, vocal and dialect coaching

by Chantal Jean-Pierre, fight direction

by Rick Sordelet, and stage management by Shelby North.

The cast includes Rotimi Agbabiaka, Erron Crawford, Eboni Flowers, Safiya Fredericks, Dan Hiatt, Steven Anthony Jones, Julian Elijah Martinez, Martin Luther McCoy, Chivas Michael, Tom Pecinka, James Udom, and Gregory Wallace.

In the astonishing first installment of Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks’s new American Odyssey, set over the course of the Civil War, Hero is offered his freedom from slavery in exchange for joining his master in the ranks of the Confederacy. Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3 is a devastatingly beautiful epic new work filled with music, wit, and exquisite lyricism.

Contains coarse language.

SUZAN-LORI PARKS (PLAYWRIGHT, SONGS, ADDITIONAL MUSIC) Named one of Time Magazine’s “100 Innovators for the Next New Wave” in 2002, Suzan-Lori Parks became the first African American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her Broadway hit Topdog/Underdog. A MacArthur “Genius” Award and Gish Prize recipient, she has also been awarded grants by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the

photos: Eboni Flowers, Rotim Agbabiaka, Erron Crawford Ford Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3had its world premiere at The Public Theater and has also been staged at American Repertory Theater and Center Theatre Group. The play was named a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was awarded the 2015 Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History as well as the 2014 Horton Foote Prize.

Woods Writes His Way To Bread Loaf THE INNER-CITY NEWS MARCH 14, 2018 - MARCH 20, 2018

First it was J.K. Rowling. Then it was Philip Pullman. Now MarQuel Woods is hoping to see his own name on a book jacket—as soon as the chapters get the jumpstart they need.

He may not have to wait that long. This May, the junior at Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School (Co-Op) is headed to the New England Young Writers’ Conference (NEYWC) at the Bread Loaf School of English in Middlebury, Vermont. While he’s there, he’ll be working on a novel that he’s had in his back pocket for over three years.

He received his acceptance earlier this week.

According to his teachers, he’s one of the fi rst New Haven Public School (NHPS) students to attend the conference, which took 160 out of over 400 applicants this year.

On Tuesday morning, a representative from NEYWC confi rmed that while it regularly gets applications from New Haven’s Hopkins School, Woods is the fi rst NHPS student to attend in the past two years. They did not have records for the conference’s 35-year history.

Woods started writing when he was a kid, fi rst at home and then as a student at Celentano Biotech, Health, and Medical Magnet School. He was drawn to books built around fantasy worlds: J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series and Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, then Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments. When his teachers gave out

a quiz on future professions, he gravitated toward writing.

“I just really thought about it and thought about what I loved to do,” he recalled in an interview at Atticus downtown earlier this week. “And I just made the connection that I should maybe explore writing.”

That bug goes way back, snaking through Woods’ 17 years to his youth in New Haven with his mom, Shaneka. Woods was a quiet kid—he recalled having a soft voice, so much so that teachers and family members often said they couldn’t hear or understand him unless he repeated himself. As a kid, he started writing out letters to his mom when they fought, a suggestion she came up with for him “to put my feelings down on the page.”

“I would be frustrated because I couldn’t really speak up,” he said. “I would just write that frustration … she just wanted me to convey what I was feeling, and what I thought, and to kind of take it in on her own.”

As those letters opened new lines of communication at home, so too did stanzas and free verse at school. When he was in seventh grade, he began writing poetry, fi rst with a homework assignment titled “You Ask Me Why I Read” (“So you ask me why I read/I think it’s quite clear/You still ask me why I read/Then maybe you should read,” it ends), and then as a way to unlock emotions.

By the end of middle school, he said he knew he wanted to make fi ction into a career.

But poetry let him explore his emotions in a way that dense, action-packed paragraphs of text and fantastical worlds never did. Beside almost each poem that he wrote, he would add a date, and a few notes about the way he’d been feeling as he wrote it.

“I just dig deep inside of myself and I think about how I’m feeling at the moment,” he said. “I just focus on that … with my poetry, that can be my trademark. Being brutally honest and emotional.”

But “I’m a fi ction writer,” he added, his face tightening just for a moment. “That’s my passion. Poetry is more for my emotional state and especially my emotions and my opinions. Fiction is more for creativity and for me.”

It’s an art that he’s trying to live out in the little free time he has outside of school.

Three or four years ago, he began mapping out his own novel, inspired by the books he was reading. As he storyboarded, drawing on worlds of wizardry that so moved him, a plot emerged: A nature-loving people, hidden away in their own world, with the power to control life and death.

As he ironed out the plot, two protagonists jumped out from his mental woodwork— quiet, merely mortal twins, thrust into a magical landscape to discover the secrets of

their birthright.

Woods continued his novel through middle and high school. As he wrote in bits and pieces—the novel is not fi nished, but coming together, he said—action-packed scenes turned into chapters. Moments that he’d dreamed up became inciting incidents. Even as the book was still largely confi ned to his imagination, it grew legs.

Then in September of 2017, that world and

this one came to a screeching halt.

Late in the month, his mom was struck and killed by two cars at Ella T. Grasso Boulevard, where state routes 1 and 10 intersect without a pedestrian signal. Woods spiraled into what he called “old habits”—he withdrew from his peers and his family, procrastinated on assignments, and remained quiet until the silence threatened to bubble

Con’t on page

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS

MARCH 14, 2018

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MARCH 20, 2018

Ambitious Agenda For Black and Puerto Rican Caucus

by Christine Stuart CT. Junkie News

HARTFORD, CT — The Black and Puerto Rican Caucus has a wide ranging list of priorities this legislative session from finding funding for Puerto Rican families displaced by the hurricane last year to increasing the number of minority teachers in schools and ensuring better medical care for the incarcerated population.

The caucus has 24 members at the moment. One of its members, Rep. Angel Arce, D-Hartford, said he planned to resign. The comment came after the Hartford Courant reported about an exchange Arce had with a 16-yearold girl. Arce has not submitted his resignation yet to the Secretary of the State’s office so he’s still a sitting state representative.

Asked about Arce, Rep. Christopher Rosario, who chairs the caucus, said “The caucus has never taken a position on individual members.”

The House is expected to vote on the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Andrew McDonald to chief justice.

Rep. Minnie Gonzalez, D-Hartford, was the only Democrat on the Judiciary Committee to vote against McDonald’s elevation to chief justice. She’s also a member of the Black and Puerto Rican caucus, but did not attend the

press conference Monday.

Rosario said the caucus didn’t take a position on McDonald and each individual lawmaker will have to make up their mind.

In the meantime, the caucus is still generally supportive of revenue increases, such as tax hikes on the wealthy or legalizing the sale of recreational marijuana.

“Supporting our middle class families and creating opportunities for everyone is something we fully support as a group,” Rosario said. “Pay equity, earning a livable wage and protecting women’s healthcare are all priorities we champion. Additionally, securing the support that displaced families from Puerto Rico need is extremely critical to many of our members.”

Rep. Brandon McGee, D-Hartford, said they will also be looking at how inmates are treated by the Department of Correction.

“We want to take a closer look at what’s happening in the Department of Correction,” McGee said.

He said he doesn’t believe the quality of care was given to all inmates.

McGee said they received some information about one of the inmates at a hearing in February, but weren’t able to receive all the information they wanted from the Department of Correction.

CT. Junkie News

HARTFORD, CT — Connecticut’s manufacturing sector lost 500 jobs in January, but it grew by 6,300 jobs in 2017, according to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Overall, Connecticut added 3,400 jobs in January, and the adjusted numbers for 2017 show the state gained only 1,800 jobs last year. However, the increase in manufacturing jobs was the first since since 2011, Andy Condon, director of the Office of Research for the Connecticut Labor Department, said.

Including the job growth for January, the private sector has now recovered 100 percent of the jobs it lost in the 20082010 recession. The February job numbers will be released later this month.

Pete Gioia, an economist with the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, said even with the revisions to the December job numbers, 2017 represents an improvement over 2016 when the state lost 200 jobs.

Gioia noted that overall, Connecticut employers added a net 5,500 new jobs in 2017. At 0.3 percent, that was the slow-

est growth of any of the New England states.

“We’re seeing momentum,” Gioia said in a statement. “We still need improvement, but we’re going in the right direction.”

Gioia noted that it marks just the third annual gain for the manufacturing sector over the last 20 years.

While manufacturing remained a bright spot, Don Klepper-Smith, of DataCore Partners, continues to believe Connecticut will see a full-blown domestic recession before it recovers all the jobs it lost

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

Editorial Team Staff Writers

CHRISTINE STUART / CTNEWSJUNKIE

Rep. Brandon McGee and Rep. Christopher Rosario

The Department of Correction recently announced that effective July 2018 it would end its contract with the University of Connecticut Health Services and bring inmate medical care back into the department.

The decision was based on a report by a consultant, but Correction Commissioner Scott Semple said during an Appropriations Committee hearing that they won’t be releasing the report to the General Assembly or the public.

The report was done by A Health Adventure, Inc. McGee said they are also looking at

legislation that would give employers who hire formerly incarcerated inmates a tax credit. And they’re looking at providing more housing options to the previously incarcerated. He said while the population faces many challenges finding and securing housing is one of the most difficult.

Last year, the caucus was successful in getting a debate on legislation that sought to hold police accountable following events in which excessive or deadly force is used.

However, the bill was tabled after more than an hour of debate.

Connecticut Gained Jobs In 2017, But Hasn’t Fully Recovered

by Christine Stuart

John P. Thomas

during the recession.

Klepper-Smith said the economy has now added 94,800 jobs on a cumulative basis, equating to an average monthly gain of about 1,000 jobs per month.

“This means we’re not likely to see full job recovery until the end of 2019 at the current pace,” Klepper-Smith said.

Klepper-Smith said the January job gains “basically represented a bounceback of sorts from the labor market sluggishness in 2017” and was “a bit above expectations” given the national gain of 200,000 jobs in January.

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Connecticut has now recovered 79.6 percent of the 119,100 seasonally adjusted jobs lost in the “Great Recession.” The job recovery is into its 95th month and the state needs an additional 24,300 jobs to reach an overall nonfarm employment expansion.

The state’s private sector has now recovered 100 percent or 111,700 of the private sector jobs lost in that same employment downturn.

Overall, Connecticut’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.5 percent in January.

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

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS MARCH 14, 2018 - MARCH 20, 2018

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

Attention Parents/Guardians: If your child is turning 5 years old on or before January 1, 2019, then your child should be registered for Kindergarten!

Register with the Office of Choice & Enrollment Please bring the following required documents with you: 1. Birth Certificate 2. Proof of Residency (current utility bill, lease/mortgage statement with parent/guardian’s name & address) 3. Parent/Guardian Identification

Office of Choice and Enrollment

Location: 54 Meadow St., 1st Floor, New Haven, CT 06519 Hours: Monday - Friday, 8:30am to 4:30pm Phone: 475-220-1430 and 475-220-1431 Website: choice.NHPS.net 5

THE INNER-CITY NEWS

MARCH 14, 2018

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MARCH 20, 2018

AG Hopeful Vows To Shoot Hoops In Town

by ALLAN APPEL

New Haven Independent

When New Haven activist Ibrahim Shareef learned that a Republican candidate for attorney general was a statewide high school hoops star, he asked if she would “lace it up” as part of her campaign in the Elm City.

Shareef suggested organizing a game in town to expose Republicanism to kids who hang around the basketball courts.

The candidate, Sue Hatfield, said she is all in.

Shareef extracted that promised at the most recent meeting of Republican Town Committee (RTC) at the Hall of Records on Orange Street.

The meeting was the latest beauty contest for candidates seeking statewide Republican nominations this year.

“I believe I’m the most qualified” Republican seeking the attorney general nomination, Hatfield told the gathering, which took place Thursday night.

(Her only opponent so far is former State Rep. John Shaban.)

Hatfield, a member of Pomfret’s zoning board member, is running for a statewide office for the first time.

“We need something new. We have not had this seat since 1950. We need a change.”

She has worked as a state prosecutor and as as a nurse, serving in mental health units at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

“I know the law. As a nurse, I love and care about people,” she said.

Hatfield said among her priorities would be addressing the opioid crisis: “I plan on holding drug companies— some of them—responsible if they put patient safety below profits.”

Another priority: addressing the crumbling foundations of residences, especially in the eastern part of the state from which she hails.

One RTC questioner asked Hatfield her take of how now U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthall had handled, as the former state attorney general, two specific cases: a anti-trust case regarding Apple and Amazon and tobacco settlement litigation.

Hatfield did not respond with any detail. She said that she distinguishes herself from previous Democratic attorneys general, citing especially Blumenthal: “His era was concerned

ALLAN APPEL PHOTO

Shareef & Hatfield fist-bump on it.

with what issues get press rather than what’s best for the people.”

She cited her initial political experience as legal policy researcher for then-U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1997 and 1998, when he came up with his “Contract for America.”

Hatfield called Gingrich both a mentor and the smartest man she’s ever

met, Perhaps it’s time for a “contract for Connecticut,” she said. It would include a commitment to combat the opioid crisis and crumbling foundations, she said. Gingrich has endorsed Hatfield’s campaign.

The most intriguing aspect of Hatfield’s resume, at least for Ibrahim Shareef, was her career as a high

school basketball star, or “accomplished athlete.”

That’s how Hatfield described herself, giving that equal billing on her campaign material, along with state prosecutor, wife and mother, and registered nurse.

It reads: “Two-time Connecticut First Team All-State basketball team.

Held state records for 3-point basketball field goals. State champion, track and field (discus, shotput, javelin).

The list goes on from there. Clearly, Sue knows how to work hard. And she’s a winner.”

Campaign literature was not needed to convince Shareef. “Just feel her grip,” he said to a reporter.

Where might the game unfold? Shareef said he was thinking of “Goffe Street,” the courts at DeGale Park near Hillhouse High School.

He and Hatfield agreed , details to be determined, on organizing a basketball game as part of Hatfield’s campaign in New Haven, a city that may not have very many Republicans but certainly boasts a lot of hoop fans and practitioners.

Connecticut’s “Food Hub” Takes Off

You’re a young farmer trying to negotiate a land transfer in Southern Connecticut. You’re struggling; there are all sorts of specifics you don’t know, and your finances are too tight to hire a lawyer.

Just when you’re thinking of calling it quits, you head to a local legal clinic you’ve heard about, where a pro bono lawyer is waiting to help you get things off the ground.

It makes the difference between not getting the transfer and securing the land.

That’s the idea behind the new CT Legal Food Hub, the state’s first-ever service matching Connecticut farmers and food entrepreneurs with pro bono legal representation. A collaboration among the Conservation Law Foundation, The Ludwig Center for Community & Economic Development, and the Environmental Protection Clinic at Yale Law School, the hub launched Thursday morning at Kroon Hall in the Yale School of Forestry.

25 lawyers, legal advocates, farmers, food entrepreneurs and food justice advocates attended the launch.

A Boston-based environmental advocacy organization that serves all of New England, the Conservation Law Founda-

tion started organizing legal food hubs in 2014, under the supervision of Senior Attorney and Farm and Food Director Jenny Rushlow. Each year, the foundation has added a new state: Maine, Rhode Island, and now Connecticut. To qualify, a farm, agricultural business or food entrepreneur must be making less than $30,000 per year in net revenue.

Rushlow said the hubs grew out of a need she’d observed in her pro bono work: Farmers, often strapped economically, were “living on the margins,” unable to afford or seek out legal assistance of which they were often in need. They teetered on the razor’s edge of sustainability, threatened by the complex landscape of land transfers and agricultural regulations.

“When you’re that close to the edge, it can only take one accident, one mistake to push you over the edge into losing your business,” she said.

“Supporting sustainable agriculture is essential to supporting New England’s economy, environment, and communities,” she added. “We saw an opportunity where the legal community could intersect with agriculture and food producers in a way that they hadn’t before.”

Chef Nadine Nelson, founder and director of GlobalLocal Gourmet, at the event. Lucy Gellman Photos.

It comes at a time when farming in the state is changing. In the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) 2012 census, the average age of Connecticut farmers was recorded at 58.7 years old, with at least 63 of farmers at 55 years.

75 percent of those farmers are men; 99 percent of them are white, and 54 percent have primary jobs away from their farms.

That aging population may lead to a

6

great deal of turnover in farm real estate, said Rushlow—and “studies have shown that we are not very well prepared to handle that transition.” That leaves the state’s 6,000 farms—many of them family-owned, with farmland at $11,200 per acre—hanging in the balance.

Until now. Working with both farmers and food entrepreneurs across the state, Food Hub attorneys who have regis-

tered through a network will provide assistance for land transfer, nonprofit incorporation, new agricultural permitting, and other services. It’s a safeguard so fewer farms will fall through the cracks because they don’t have enough resources on their own.

“When we reached out to other farms that were doing similar things, we found that many of them just weren’t complying with the regulations and were hoping that they would never be found out,” said Lauren Hobby, a law student who spent last year working with Soul Fire Farm in upstate New York. “That was unacceptable for us … this is work that’s too important to not do the right way.”

Even in its fetal stages, the hub has already helped farm and food advocates like Joey Listro, a founding member of The New CT Farmer Alliance. In fall 2017, Listro and other alliance members expressed interest in “moving from a grassroots organization to an incorporated organization that can serve our members better,” he said.

At the time, those members numbered 200 farmers from around the state, all of whom had been farming for 10 years or less. Through Food and Farm Legal Fel-

THE INNER-CITY NEWS MARCH 14, 2018 - MARCH 20, 2018

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Vinyl is still king!

THE INNER-CITY NEWS

MARCH 14, 2018

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MARCH 20, 2018

by Dooley-O, Artist, DJ

Just picked up Dj R Nice and we headed to the WPKN Radio record show in b-port (Bridgeport) at the Reads building downtown.

Today’s mission…To search and seek for the baby bam beat (Good Music). For those that have never been to a record/vinyl show, let me explain. A record show consists of a collective bunch of people who buy and sell records, Yes I’m talking about Music on wax (Vinyl) not mp3’s or cd’s because in all tests of time vinyl records have out lasted their previous owners.

Collecting records is like keeping a library of music.

Now, what would happen if you lost your smartphone, iPad, Laptop and or access to “the cloud” with no way to listen to music except on vinyl. Would you be able to pull out a turntable or record player and listen to your favorite tunes?

When was the last time you wondered who produced, wrote or engineered your favorite artist album?

Liner notes? Who designed the cover art? I thought so! This is where record shows and record conventions come in handy. Sad to say there aren’t too many record stores left.

As we step inside the WPKN Record Show I’m getting a weird vibe on how to approach the right dealer about their record collections and while I’m here, I’m passing out flyers for our Vinyl Party at the Knickerbocker Club in New Haven on Friday March 9th, 9pm as well as bringing some records I can play with the crew.

Distracted by the smell of vinyl, I can see the look in R-Nice eyes that he is finding out what it is to be a music lover. As I soul strut through the lobby in slow motion, I see a familiar face, a cool dealer named Gee, aka Gees Records; a heavy record collector from Stratford (Story on Gee coming soon).

He points me to the key players who would be more interested in our event at the historic Knickerbocker Golf Club. R-Nice is digging in the crates, I’m combing through Gee Records looking at some wild album covers from jazz ,funk, soul, disco and 45’s.

My purpose lately, is to rebuild my CtI record label collection. I mean Freddie Hubbard, George Benson, Herbert Laws and other great musicians. I can say that being a Dj in 2018 pulling out wax makes you official on any level.

8

Vinyl sound quality is different from a mp3, most mp3s are played at 128kbps (Kilobytes per second) and the best is played at 256kbps but those files are too big. So, to compromise space the 128kbps works. When you play vinyl, you’re playing at full quality of the recording instead of 25%.

That’s why most songs that are on the radio don’t have that groove or funk (bass & Vibes) except when you hear

an old school classic that keeps you rockin’ every time you hear it.

Well, after digging for three hours searching for the groove on CtI Records & chopping it up with my boy Dave Coon & Jim Bo and vibing with R-Nice & Gees records, and meeting a bunch of other cool people. The WPKN record show in the “port” I can say was a big success.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS MARCH 14, 2018 - MARCH 20, 2018

Food Rescue Grows Its New Haven Presence

Ryan Cosgrove has a special routine at Liuzzi Gourmet Food Market twice a week. Working his way between fresh meats and narrow shelves of salad, pasta, and prepackaged meals, he begins packing whole boxes methodically. In go the loaves of bread, sandwiches, fresh produce, pasta salad that is one day away from expiring. The perishables fill up at least one box, but sometimes as many as three or four or five.

But it’s not part of the shipping North Haven-based Liuzzi does around the country. It’s to fill hungry bellies as food insecurity rises across New Haven and the state, and state dollars fail to fill a growing gap.

Cosgrove is part of the New Haven chapter of Food Rescue U.S., a national organization that pairs supermarkets, bakeries, and specialty food stores with organizations in need of food. Each week, food providers with excess product send their food to pantries, religious organizations, schools, daycare and outreach centers that serve food insecure individuals and families. And they have a network of local volunteers to do it.

It’s an intended solution to a common problem, said Food Rescue U.S.’s New Haven Site Director Lori Martin in an interview for WNHH Radio’s “Kitchen Sync” program. There is a huge amount of food waste each day in the United States—40.05 billion meals per year, according to the organization’s data. In New Haven, food insecurity has reached staggering highs: 22 percent overall and 34 percent in low-income neighborhoods, up from what it’s been in past years.

At the same time, grocery stores and bakeries are dealing with food they can’t sell, but don’t want to throw away. Sometimes it’s yogurt too close to its printed expiration date. Or maybe it’s a loaf bread that hasn’t sold, and will be stale by the next morning, but could go to use in someone’s dinner that night. Or a bag of 15 clementine oranges, with just one that is bruised.

“Employees or managers are concerned that there’s extra food,” said Martin. “They know that this food is worthy of being eaten, but it’s past its sell-by date. They’re in touch with us to say ‘Hey, how can we work on this program to get it done?’”

That’s where Food Rescue’s network of volunteers comes in. Using an app that lets them know who needs a pickup, they identify community partners in need of food aid, and then drop food off at those sites. The app

lets them be responsive to the speed of turnover—that some food only has an hours-long lifespan between pickup and the time that it’s eaten, and will go to waste otherwise.

“I can get calls and sometimes texts … and then I’m able to stick it out on the app, let folks know that there’s a run that needs to happen in a few hours,” Martin said. Occasionally the app gets buggy, when is when Martin “runs and gets in the car, just me and my kids ourselves, and move it.”

There are still bugs in the system, but they’re getting smaller. Martin noted that large institutions like Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) have reached out, expressing interest in donating their extra food on a daily and weekly basis. So far, New Haven volunteers haven’t been able to handle a load that large.

Long before Food Rescue U.S. captivated Martin, there were the whales. Growing up in New Haven, she learned during kindergarten that whales were being slaughtered from the national nonprofit Save The Whales, and started a letter-writing campaign to her legislators. Her family members split on the issue—some lauded her for it, while others told her she was wasting her time. But the act—“I was an early writer, then,” she recalled—ignited a fire in her.

From whales, she developed into a self-described “lifelong environmentalist—including humans.” She began looking closely at the world around her, growing quietly angry at what she saw. She watched as then-president Ronald Reagan spun the myth of the welfare queen into being, and worked on fighting it at every chance she got.

“It was the one I think I felt the most infuriated by,” she recalled. “I was born here … and I was still living here as a high school student, and was traveling from one side of the city to the other to go to school, and saw folks really struggling and working hard.”

“I was an anomaly,” she added of her life at home in those years, a laugh catching in her throat. “We [my parents and I] don’t share the same political views. But I came in the world with a different understanding, and a different place in my heart for people.”

She was captivated as she watched New Haveners from each neighborhood in the city become civically involved, “committed to making the city a better place to live.” From high school activism she went on to college in Arizona, then education, and

Myles Anderson: “You gotta give back. You won’t believe how many people appreciate having a meal.” renewable energy.

Then in the early 2010s, Martin signed up as a volunteer with Food Rescue, then called Community Plates. The runs were small: a loaf or two of bread that needed to be shuttled across town. She stayed with it for a while, But then the organization’s director left, and “I got busy with other things.”

For a while, at least. In mid-2015, one of her sons was taking a gap year before college, and Martin encouraged him to “go do something good for the world.” The two were standing outside of a grocery store when he suggested that that thing could be food rescue on a larger scale. They reconnected with the organization, and began doing runs from grocery stores, adding Stop N’ Shop and Trader Joe’s to Food Rescue’s New Haven wheelhouse. Just a few months in, Martin stepped up as director.

“These are conversations that we’ve had forever—how the world moves resources, or hordes them, or doesn’t share them, and food is part of that,” she said of her kids, three of whom now help her with weekly food runs.

“Over and over again, their eyes are opened. They see food whatever they are that’s being wasted that they’re shocked by.”

She’s redoubled her efforts in the past year, as demands for food have become higher and more frequent.

“I felt the rise of anxiety around food and kids having food over the last year,” said Martin. “Even since the federal administration changed—before we began to say ‘Hey, food insecurity is rising here in New Haven,’ I could already feel it. I was already hearing more, and people were more concerned. Sort of like, the news came

9

last.”

She’s had success stories, like a city official who passed Whole G Cafe last year, and noticed that it was throwing its leftover bread and baked goods into the dumpsters behind the shop.

When the official told row cafe about Food Rescue, employees were quick to redirect their leftovers to the organization.

Or seniors, who have tried fresh, not grown-in-Connecticut foods for the first time through their rescued meals.

Last year, a community elder reached out to Martin with some news—she had tried a pomegranate through the program. And it was opening up whole new worlds for her.

“We talk about people needing educa-

tion—the poorest folks who are getting SNAP benefits and nutrition education,” Martin said. “Actually I think they just need access to good food.

If it’s available and it’s affordable … they’ll eat it.”

Or a Head Start program that the program’s now been serving for two years. When Martin brought it onboard in 2016, she watched as some parents shied away from taking food, saying that they weren’t needy enough to bring it home. Then they became more comfortable with the program.

Now, she watches as parents “who wouldn’t otherwise have this fresh food” take a bag or a portion of a bag home, and rests easier knowing that the kids will be fed for the night.

“I want to create a new existence for all of us,” she said. “Nobody should be hungry.”

To ensure that she’s fulfilling that mission, Martin works each day matching volunteers—sometimes herself, with a car full of food—with food donors and recipients. She’s learned how to make it into a regimented science, where volunteers scurry in and out of kitchens and markets, grab their bags or boxes of food and head on to the receiving organization.

On a recent Friday morning, Cosgrove was bracing for that minuteslong interaction, checking the market’s window and back door for the arrival of weekly volunteers. Born and raised in the New Haven area, Con’t on page 06

ArtSpeaks Vol. I Women, Workplaces & The Arts

On this first episode of Artspeaks, Lucy Gellman leads a discussion with actor Malia Imani West, photographer Lucy McClure, violist Annalisa Boerner and chef Nadine Nelson about the challenges women face working in the arts -- both in the face of the #metoo movement and far beyond it. To listen, click on or download the audio below.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS

MARCH 14, 2018

-

MARCH 20, 2018

Community Policing Task Force Violated FOIA

by CHRISTOPHER PEAK New Haven Independent

A community policing panel created to improve public confidence in the police violated the state’s open meetings law in barring a citizen from a closed-door meeting with the police chief.

So concluded a hearing officer for the Freedom of Information Commission (FOIC), who sided with Patricia Kane, an attorney and civil rights activist, in an appeal claiming that the Community and Police Relations Task Force violated state law.

The task force shouldn’t have talked privately with Chief Anthony Campbell, and its members shouldn’t have demanded that Kane explain her reasons for showing up at a meeting, the hearing officer, Paula Pearlman, wrote in a proposed decision.

The FOIC will take a final vote on the report later this month.

Mayor Toni Harp appointed the community policing task force in 2015 after the controversial arrest of a teenager outside the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. The cops and activists on the panel issued two reports chock full of recommendations, including ways to deescalate tense encounters, catch misconduct and recruit a more diverse force. More recently, the task force has turned to the department’s longterm planning.

When Kane showed up for a July 13, 2017, meeting, members of the task force asked that she identify herself and state why she’d come in. Kane re-

Patricia Kane a policing forum .

fused, but a task force member blurted out her name and job. Not wanting to provoke further hostility, she wrote her name on a sign-in sheet.

Kane later complained that the members “created a hostile atmosphere.”

Pearlman agreed, finding that the task force had created an “improper precondition of attendance,” which the Freedom of Information Act prohibits.

The task force also went into a closeddoor meeting with Campbell to discuss “contractual issues” outside of collective bargaining agreements. Kane objected, and the task force threatened to have police remove her.

Before the FOIC’s hearing officer, the task force members admitted that they were “unaware” of the law’s limits on executive sessions, and they acknowledged a need to train themselves on

the requirements in state law. In early November, they participated in a workshop on open government.

Pearlman declined to nullify the panel’s actions at last year’s meeting nor to force it to turn over all its records, as Kane had requested. Instead, she ordered the task force to “strictly comply” with the law at all future meetings.

“The lack of training for Board members is a real problem,” Kane wrote in an email. “The city should mandate training for all people serving on boards and commissions so we don’t have to go this route.”

The Independent is currently appealing the Police Commission’s executive session and the Police Department’s non-disclosure of a drug policy for new hires.

In my Humble Opinion

by ICN Reader and Woodbridge Bubbe

White Privilege. It never occurred to me to put these two words together until recently. Of course they belong together but why did I never think of this myself?

Exactly: White Privilege.

Is it possible to not be a racist in a racist society? I don’t think so. No matter how we were raised, even if we never heard a racist remark in our own homes, although that would have been unlikely.

Then there is whatabout: anti-Irish, anti-semitic, anti-whatever. Well, you know. It is hardly relevant to the overall negatives and/or benefits of White Privilege.

Very few of those epithets come close

to what I can only imagine are the many individual large and accumulated small assaults that come from being easily identifiable.

What lengths we go to deny these things, going so far as to believe the insult is not what it seems. Do they follow me around a store? The staff is just trying to be sure I know what is available and I can find what I need. Do they follow my friend around a store? Let’s make sure she does not steal anything.

Have I stepped off a cliff by telling

my very smart friend that I appreciate her thoughtful and articulate musings?

A racist society is the reason this is an issue and we are both the people that result from such a society.

How do we get out of this mess? I wish I knew.

Would I give up my White Privilege?

I do not know but until it is no longer a “thing” it does not seem to be a choice.

Can I do anything about it? Maybe not on a global level, but I will try to do the best I can as an individual.

10

Con’t from page 10

The Artist Formerly Known As Moonchild

more than anything. More than being Black, more than being a woman, being an American right now is scary, because this dude is really going to kill us all. And I’m scrambling to get my art out because I literally had a time where I thought that at any moment … I really thought that he could just end this whole thing for us.

People don’t think about that, but I’m sure the people of Hiroshima thought: “Oh my God, you don’t know what the accounts were.” I know how temporary life is, so I’m always super weird about that. But then I had a revelation this coming year on New Years, because I really didn’t think we were going to make it to 2018. And then I did. So now it’s like, you know what? You’ve just gotta go for it, you know what I mean? If anything did happen, I’m going to die anyways so you may as well just live your life in color.

You live in New Haven. What does that mean to you?

From a person who has lived in North Carolina, California … what pulls me to Haven is two things. Number one is the diversity.

The diversity is beautiful in New Haven.

You meet all different types of people in different walks of life, and not just Black people and white people, but all different types of cultures, and it’s so beautiful to watch.

And, I think it’s hilarious that we have this economic dichotomy that is just such a theme for America. Where we have the juxtaposition of Yale and Dixwell right next to each other, just living and commingling. I think it’s so dope to be surrounded by that. I’ve talked to people that are really New Haven and I’ve talked to people that went to college in New Haven, and it’s just totally different types of experiences. Not one good or bad, but it’s just totally different types of people. Like, you guys probably pass by each other with different lives every day. It’s just a better New York. New York is overrated.

There are so many people that really dislike New Haven.

For what? What did New Haven ever do to them?

What would you tell someone who doesn’t want to go into the city?

Don’t go! We don’t want you. I mean, that’s weird. That’s like hating mahogany.

Who hurt you? You can quote me as ‘who hurt you?’ They must have left their car unlocked. That’s just a bad decision anywhere. Don’t leave your car unlocked.

Come on.

Right now, what are your goals for the future as an artist?

I’m actually doing a play and a comic book. I’m trying to really centralize and I’m trying to get HBO’s attention, for real.

Because there are a lot of Black, queer women right now on television that are, like, killing it. Have you ever seen The Chi, produced by the Black, queer woman from Aziz Ansari’s Master of None (the producer is Lena Waithe)? He wrote it, and she was on it forever. There’s Shonda, the God, you know what I mean.

And I was just thinking, I don’t really want to do just one thing, and I don’t really have

to do just one thing. Because I’m getting labeled as a Connecticut artist, and that truthfully for my ego is really weird. So I’m trying to write this play right now and make this comic book. It’s like a sci-fi drama about empowerment and finding your power inside. It’s about this young queer girl, Moon, it’s gonna be me, and how she got a message from beings in space, that she has innate power within her and she has to prove that.

And when she fulfills this mission, they’ll be returning. I also really want to bring more art to my demographic. I know a lot of Connecticut artists, and I feel like they’re stifled. They’re making like, really dope music videos, that are damn near movies, and I’m just like: “Why don’t you make a movie?” You could do all this stuff.

I just want to prove it.

I’d love to know a little more about what the play’s going to be like.

The play’s actually going to be soundtracked by the last release I just did, Strs&Englhtnmnt. So it’s pretty much going to be about the journey of this young, queer, Black girl who makes music, and through the frequencies in her music, she finds she is connected to this outer being in space. And they work together to find more power that she has in her. And she has to operate and move forward and go through this stuff. But these inner conflicts are going to be represented as monsters and demons, so there’s going to be a lot of guts and blood, and it’s going to be really, really cool.

So would you say you feel like New Haven is more your home than other places you’ve lived?

Yeah, definitely. It’s weird, I was born in Waterbury, which I claimed until Trump visited my old high school. So I moved out here, and this is where I found myself. This is where I became me. This is definitely the home, you know what I mean? There’s so much culture here. The Black Panthers down on the Green, and just a whole bunch of stuff that happened here low, low key. I like the low key stuff.

How do you think being an artist plays into your identity?

They’re—what’s the word, they coexist.

There’s not one without another. My biggest inspiration is Nina Simone. Not in her tunes and her melodies or anything she does musically, but how she carried herself.

So, she had a quote that said, I don’t think I’m quoting her completely correct, but she said—basically it’s her responsibility as an artist to reflect the times in which you create art in. And I think that’s important to me, as an artist in particular.

You know, I can easily do some trap stuff and get rich. Easily. Like people really don’t know how easy it is. I could really just make a beat and be like another Little Kim, and be on the spot. I love Little Kim—no shout outs to Little Kim—but I just think that God put me here for a different type of reason. I’m just trying to figure out what that is. That’s pretty much it.

You talk about God. If you’re comfortable, would you be able to talk a little about how Con’t from page 16

THE INNER-CITY NEWS MARCH 14, 2018 - MARCH 20, 2018

House Dems Look to Position State For Sports Betting

by Jack Kramer

HARTFORD, CT—House Democratic leaders said they want to make sure Connecticut is poised jump into the sports betting world if the U.S. Supreme Court rules that states can legalize it.

House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, House Majority Leader Matt Ritter, DHartford, and Public Safety Committee CoChair Joe Verrengia, D-West Hartford, held a news conference Wednesday concerning an expected verdict in the sports betting case Christie v. NCAA. Depending on how the court sides, it could open up sports betting to the states.

“If the court opens up this extremely popular market to the states, Connecticut should be ready to go from both a regulatory and operational standpoint,” Aresimowicz said.

“The odds may be changing, and we need to look ahead and be ready for what the future of gaming will look like.”

To do that the legislature would need to pass legislation.

Aresimowicz said legalized sports betting could bring in “$40 to $80 million a year” to cash-starved Connecticut. He noted that the state of Rhode Island has built its next fiscal year budget adding in $23 million in anticipated sports betting funding it would receive if the court rules in favor of the states.

“We are always so far behind,” Ritter said when asked about the wisdom of talking about action before the Supreme Court has acted. “We want to be ahead of it.”

“Connecticut should be ready to act as soon as the Supreme Court decision is handed down,” Ritter said. “Based on the oral arguments before the Court late last year, it seems entirely possible that the federal ban on sports betting will be overturned and we want to be competitive with other states.”

Christie v. NCAA is on its face a case about sports gambling. Congress passed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in 1992, prohibiting most states from enacting laws that legalize betting on sports. The law grandfathered in Nevada, Montana, Delaware and Oregon, all of which had already set up sports lotteries before PASPA passed.

The rest of the country had a one-year grace period in which they could pass legislation that would allow gambling on sports.

In November 2011, New Jersey voters passed an amendment to the state constitution allowing state lawmakers to enact legislation making gambling on sports legal.

The Sports Wagering Act was signed into law in January 2012, allowing casinos and racetracks to take bets on college and professional sporting events.

The four major sports leagues in the country – the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL – joined the NCAA in challenging New Jersey’s new law in federal court.

So New Jersey’s legislature went back to work, looking for a way to pass a law that would put into action the voters’ referendum while still obeying the federal appeals court’s decision.

In 2014, the legislature decided that instead

JACK KRAMER / CTNEWSJUNKIE House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz and House Majority Leader Matter Ritter, and Reps. Joe Verrengia and Daniel Rovero

of passing a law allowing for the licensing of casinos and racetracks, it would repeal the laws requiring casinos and racetracks to be licensed to accept sports bets.

That set off the current round of litigation. The leagues again sued and the federal district court and the Third Circuit enjoined New Jersey’s law, saying it, too, violated PASPA. New Jersey appealed to the Supreme Court, where it argues that by prohibiting states from repealing laws already on their books, PASPA commandeers state governments.

Meanwhile, in Connecticut any agreement on sports betting would have to involve the Mashantucket T:9.25” Pequot and Mohegan Tribal Nation, who have exclusive

agreements with Connecticut over gaming.

Currently the state and the tribes have a compact in which the state receives 25 percent of slot revenue in exchange for exclusive casino rights.

Aresimowicz called the tribes “good partners,” but added that much has changed with gambling since the compact was originally signed. He said he anticipated the tribes would be part of discussions concerning sports betting when and if the legislation advances.

“The Speaker recognizes our 25 year exclusive agreement with Connecticut, which has resulted in thousands of jobs and over $7 billion in revenue between ours and Mohegans’ flagship properties combined,”

Lori Potter, director of communications for the Mashantucket Pequot, said.

“We are grateful for that, and we look forward to continuing conversations with him and other members of the General Assembly with regard to sports betting and any other gaming opportunities that may arise this session,” Potter added.

Chief of Staff for the Mohegan Tribe Chuck Bunnell added: “We feel that we are uniquely positioned to deliver an outstanding product. Fortunately, the state and its two tribal nations have a partnership that makes them ready to be national leaders in this potential new market.”

Asked if there would be enough time to pass legislation since the timing of a Supreme Court ruling is not known, Aresimowicz said the issue is important enough “that we could call ourselves into a special session over the summer.”

Verrengia’s committee is holding a sports gaming forum on Thursday, which he said will help determine the best legislative approach to pursue. Scheduled participants for the forum include representatives of the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball, as well as sports gaming industry officials.

“I think it’s important that Connecticut is poised to compete in the marketplace should sports betting become legalized,” Verrengia said. “The informational hearing - a national perspective from leaders in the industry - is intended to assist legislators in their decision-making process.”

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Online Sex Trafficking Targeted THE INNER-CITY NEWS

MARCH 14, 2018

-

MARCH 20, 2018

traffi cking tool that helps federal investigators track and catch traffi ckers and other criminals. (Read more about that argument here.)

The site also requires that people agree to report “any illegal services or activities” including reporting “suspected exploitation of minors and/or human traffi cking to the appropriate authorities.”

Leonard-Rozyn, who also was Blu-

by MARKESHIA RICKS New Haven Independent

When Theresa Leonard-Rozyn was being traffi cked by her drug-addicted mother, nobody was looking for her.

She wasn’t a runaway. She was a nineyear-old who needed help.

Now at 45, she wants to make sure that someone is looking out for the children being traffi cked for sex on the Internet.

And she wants to go after the websites that make it so easy to buy children and abuse them.

Leonard-Rozyn joined Sen. Richard Blumenthal at the headquarters of the anti-traffi cking group Love146 on Chapel Street Monday to support the Stop Enabling Sex Traffi cking Act. Blumenthal is a co-sponsor of the bill in the Senate and he said it has bipartisan support to pass but it needs Senate leaders to schedule a vote.

A companion bill has made it out of the U.S. House of Representatives with overwhelming bipartisan support and a 388 to 25 vote, he said. But voting on the Senate bill has stalled while lawmakers wrangle over a bill that threatens consumer protections.

Leonard-Rozyn, who is the founder of the Underground, an organization that provides referral services to those who have been the victim of sex traffi cking, said advertisements on classifi ed websites like Backpage.com are often written in coded language that attempts to obscure that someone is traffi cking a person for sex.

“They use certain smiley faces ... emo-

menthal’s guest at the most recent State of the Union address, said it’s time for the Senate to step up and do the right thing on this bill. She said every day that the bill is delayed in its passage she wonders how many children have been sold for sex.

“Every day that they don’t bring this bill, they’re saying it’s OK,” she said.

Stop & Shop Signs Lease For Another Decade

Blumenthal, Leonard-Rozyn and Love146’s Erin Williamson.

jis ... to communicate with a buyer,” she said. “It seems legal because it’s on Backpage ... but these are America’s children being sold to the highest bidder.”

Erin Williamson, survivor care program director for Love146, said advocates for sex traffi cking victims want the ability to hold accountable sites they say are profi ting from “the rape of our children.” She said she’s been doing advocacy work for 20 years and the Internet has changed the sex traffi cking game. Love146 has a waitlist for long-term services victims because the numbers of people being exploited have increased signifi cantly.

“We can’t keep up with the number of

people who need services,” she said.

Blumenthal called sex traffi cking a “scourge” that should have the direct attention of the entire nation.

“It’s really modern day slavery,” he said. “We need to break the shackles.”

And Blumenthal said to do that the government must hold sites that “knowingly” allow the advertisement that facilitates sex traffi cking accountable. He said the bill would amend the Communications Decency Act, which he said currently protects sites like Backpage from any liability associated with content posted by others.

Backpage.com higher-ups have for years denied accusations that the site facilitates such crimes.

They argue that the site is an anti-

Stop & Shop Supermarket signed a lease to remain at 150 Whalley Ave.r for another decade.

That’s a big deal to neighbors in Dwight and Edgewood, who, before a supermarket came to that spot, were living in what has become known as a “food desert.”

“We are very excited that Stop & Shop will continue to be part of our community,” said Linda Townsend Maier. As president of the Greater Dwight Community Investment Corporation, Townsend Maier originally worked with other commu-

nity organizations to pave the way for Shaw’s to open at the location, then to convince Stop & Shop to fi ll the space in 2011 after Shaw’s fl ed. Her organization also operates Dwight Place, the shopping plaza that the supermarket anchors.

“The store not only provides New Haven with fresh food, but also creates jobs and helps our organization address neighborhood priorities of education and sound nutrition. It is a vital part of the quality of the city’s life.”

Graduate Admissions Open House Join us for an opportunity to meet with graduate faculty in more than 40 areas of study in education, business, health and human services, and the arts and sciences.

Visit our campus and explore the possibilities of graduate education at Southern.

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Thursday, April 12, 2018 3–6:30 p.m.

• Take an optional tour of our campus To register, visit SouthernCT.edu/ gradadmissions/openhouse

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS MARCH 14, 2018 - MARCH 20, 2018

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS

MARCH 14, 2018

-

MARCH 20, 2018

Stetson Library Campaign Gathers Student Momentum

by ALLAN APPEL New Haven Independent If each of the 950 students at James Hillhouse High School puts just a quarter in the three wooden boxes fashioned by the young carpenters in wood shop, that would add up to more than $200 for books, technology, data bases, and furniture for the new Stetson Library.

The money, however, is only part of the point. “You’re in high school now,” Stetson Librarian Diane Brown told students assembled for a special library event. “But in six years, you walk into the new Stetson and you say, ‘I gave a quarter for this,’ with pride. For me it’s about the community taking ownership.”

Brown who has for years run the Stetson branch on Dixwell Avenue — made that comment on Monday, which was official Stetson Day at all the high schools in the city. The event called attention to efforts to raise money for a new home for Stetson in a two-story building adjacent to the soonto-be-rebuilt Dixwell Q House across the street.

Under the leadership of former Hillhouse history teacher and librarian Robert Gibson, all the city high school student councils have deployed their own plans to help fund the community-wide campaign, which goes by the name “Stetson LIbrary: The Next Chapter.” Hillhouse’s idea was to launch what they called a “penny drive” with the wooden boxes Since the Dixwell Community Q House closed in 2003, the 100-year old branch library has evolved into a library cum community center.

The total budget for the library portion of the Q House project is $9.2 million, with $5.3 paid for through state bonding, one million from a state library grant, $900,000 from city capital funding.

All those funds cover design, construction, collections and some technology. But that leaves $2 million, which is the campaign goal, to cover furniture and fixtures, books and e-books, databases and other technology.

One of the three campaign chairs, Elsie Chapman, said the campaign is going great guns, with about $1.4 million raised so far.

When Gibson, who taught at Hillhouse for 35 years, brought the idea of high school kids to the committee, they were all in.

ALLAN APPEL PHOTO Hllhouse students Makayla Dawkins and Ti’Juana Gibson, in first row, with coordinator Darrell Brown and Principal Worthy.

Gibson and Brown with brochure for upcoming benefit concert.

As Brown pointed out, including high schoolers in the campaign was less about the money than about community buy-in and investment, underscoring the already tight relationship especially between area kids and their branch library.

“I grew up here,” said Darrell Brown, a 2009 Hillhouse grad who is now studying to be a teacher and works as a student liaison at the school. “I grew up here. We didn’t always have Internet. The Stetson LIbrary was the place where we got that.”

And a lot more: like test prep, college guidance, and mentoring of all kinds.

“It’s a refuge,” said Althea Norcott, another of the campaign committee co-chairs, who also happens to be a now-retired 31-year teacher and assistant principal at Hillhouse. Norcott was Darrell Brown’s counselor at the school, and has inspired him to follow in her footsteps.

Brown coordinated with Hillhouse student Makayla Dawkins, who is also one of the student reps to the Board of Education, and with Ti’Juana Gibson, the school’s student council president, as they developed the penny drive to support the new Stetson.

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The boxes are being placed in classrooms, the cafeteria, and of course the library.

Virtual Library These kids already know that a modern library is far more than a depository for books and even media. Especially in the case of Stetson, it is a community and cultural center. It is also the only place that many parents allow their children to go after school.

“They graduate, they go out into the world, then they come back, they bring their children with them. We don’t realize some of the impact,” Brown said with a tear or two visible.

Taking out a note pad, Brown asked these high school leaders what they would like to see in the new Stetson.

“We’d like the library to be more virtual,” said Ti’Juana. She suggested having more programs and a help-desk librarian available to be contacted by the students on their phones to help with school work, college applications, and job searches.

Makayla Dawkins endorsed the new technology being planned for the library” so we can use it on our phones.” She had an old-fashioned suggestion as well.

“How about creating a teen book club?” she asked, turning to Brown “Why don’t you do it?” Brown replied “It’s boring to read a book alone,” said Makayla.

Brown explained that the library has had a longtime adult book group and lots of reading activities for little kids, but “I don’t have a teen book club. I’m going to come to get you!”

At least 100 kids perform some of the 50 hours of community service required for graduation at Stetson, noted Hillhouse Principal Glen Worthy. He called Stetson practically an adjunct of the high school.

Elsie Chapman said the Seedlings Foundation has donated a community challenge grant of $250,000; it will match one to one any contribution from $50 to $10,000.

For more information, to contribute, and find out about other events, such as a March 25 benefit jazz concert at the Elks Club on March 25, go to the campaign’s site.

Construction of the new Q House and Stetson Library is expected to begin in the spring and take 12 to 18 months.

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Food Rescue Grows Its New Haven Presence

Ryan Cosgrove has a special routine at Liuzzi Gourmet Food Market twice a week. Working his way between fresh meats and narrow shelves of salad, pasta, and prepackaged meals, he begins packing whole boxes methodically. In go the loaves of bread, sandwiches, fresh produce, pasta salad that is one day away from expiring.

The perishables fill up at least one box, but sometimes as many as three or four or five.

But it’s not part of the shipping North Haven-based Liuzzi does around the country. It’s to fill hungry bellies as food insecurity rises across New Haven and the state, and state dollars fail to fill a growing gap.

Cosgrove is part of the New Haven chapter of Food Rescue U.S., a national organization that pairs supermarkets, bakeries, and specialty food stores with organizations in need of food. Each week, food providers with excess product send their food to pantries, religious organizations, schools, daycare and outreach centers that serve food insecure individuals and families. And they have a network of local volunteers to do it.

It’s an intended solution to a common problem, said Food Rescue U.S.’s New Haven Site Director Lori Martin in an interview for WNHH Radio’s “Kitchen Sync” program. There is a huge amount of food waste each day in the United States—40.05 billion meals per year, according to the organization’s data. In New Haven, food insecurity has reached staggering highs: 22 percent overall and 34 percent in low-income neighborhoods, up from what it’s been in past years.

At the same time, grocery stores and bakeries are dealing with food they can’t sell, but don’t want to throw away. Sometimes it’s yogurt too close to its printed expiration date. Or maybe it’s a loaf bread that hasn’t sold, and will be stale by the next morning, but could go to use in someone’s dinner that night. Or a bag of 15 clementine oranges, with just one that is bruised.

“Employees or managers are concerned that there’s extra food,” said Martin. “They know that this food is worthy of being eaten, but it’s past its sell-by date. They’re in touch with us to say ‘Hey, how can we work on this program to get it done?’”

That’s where Food Rescue’s network of volunteers comes in. Using an app that lets them know who needs a pickup, they identify community partners in need of food aid, and then drop food off at those sites. The app lets them be

THE INNER-CITY NEWS MARCH 14, 2018 - MARCH 20, 2018

The Black Press Honors Senator Kamala Harris with the NNPA’s 2018 Newsmaker of the Year Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. (NNPANewswirePR)—The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) will honor Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) with the 2018 Newsmaker of the Year Award during the NNPA’s 2018 Black Press Week. The Newsmaker event will take place at the Rayburn House Office Building on Wednesday, March 14 at 7pm.

“The Honorable Kamala Harris, the second African American woman and first South Asian American senator in U.S. history, is an outstanding choice for the NNPA’s 2018 Newsmaker of the Year Award,” said Dorothy Leavell, the chairman of the NNPA and publisher of the Crusader Newspapers in Chicago and Gary, Ind. The NNPA will also celebrate the senator’s efforts to raise wages for working people, reform the criminal justice system, and expand healthcare access for all Americans.

“In all of my years of covering news in our community, Senator Harris has been one of the smartest, most fearless, steadfast and caring politicians that I have come to know,” said Amelia Ashley-Ward, the new NNPA Founda-

OPINION:

The NNPA will honor Senator Kamala Harris with the NNPA’s 2018 Newsmaker of the Year Award during Black Press Week. James Farmer, Rep. Barbara Lee of California and Rev. Amos Brown will receive Torch Awards. tion chair and publisher of the San Francisco Sun-Reporter. “She has a lot to offer the world…we are so fortunate to have her advocating on our behalf.”

The theme of this year’s Black Press Week is “Celebrating 191 Years of the Black Press of America: Publishing Truth to Empower.” Black publishers, media professionals, civil rights leaders and lawmakers from across the

country attend the annual event, taking place March 14-16. On Friday, March 16, Democratic strategist and author Donna Brazile will deliver a keynote address on the state of the Black Press in America.

“When John B. Russwurm and Samuel E. Cornish printed that first issue of Freedom’s Journal they sought to empower Black people to determine their own destiny and to define them-

meaningful discourse on the issue of gun control is nearly impossible, and in that silence, school shootings from Sandy Hook to Parkland keep the classroom a battleground, not a place of learning.

Some African American communities know all too well the potential danger associated with everyday activities, as gun violence spills into our communities from various angles.

Yet, for the most part, schools have remained safe places for our young people.

Given the disproportionate damage gun violence is having on our communities, the NAACP has advocated for sane, sensible laws, to help eliminate or at least to decrease the damage and death caused by gun violence.

Requiring universal background checks on all gun sales and transfers, banning military-style, semi-automatic assault guns, enacting tough, new criminal penalties for straw purchasers and gun traffickers, and allowing the Center for Disease Control to research gun violence as a major public health issue are just a few of the reasonable steps lawmakers could take to stem the tide of gun related deaths

in neighborhoods across the nation.

Unfortunately, years of ridiculously easy access to guns and ammunition has yielded an epidemic with deadly consequences for all Americans, but has been particularly fatal for communities of color who are disproportionately impacted. Gun violence is the number one killer of African Americans ages 15 to 34. Though African Americans make up only 13 percent of the U.S. population, we represent nearly 50 percent of all gun homicide victims. Over 80 percent of gun deaths of African Americans are homicides.

Roughly speaking, 1 out of every 3 African American males who die between the ages of 15 and 19 is killed by gun violence. African American children and teens were less than 15 percent of the total child population in 2008 and 2009, but accounted for 45 percent of all child- and teen-related gun deaths. These numbers are tragic and intolerable, but most of all they are preventable.

Critics might call such policy interventions naively ambitious in our current political climate. However, comprehensive, sustainable gun control is achievable. We know this because

selves,” said Leavell. “How iconic, that in 2018, our theme still rings true: ‘Publishing Truth to Empower.’”

Black Press Week will also feature sessions on business development, education reform, and sickle cell disease. Outstanding leaders in the Black community will be honored during the Torch Awards Dinner.

The Torch Award recipients are: Dr. Amos Brown, the pastor of the San Francisco Third Baptist Church; Rep. Barbara Jean Lee (D-Calif.); and James Farmer, a senior consultant for General Motors.

Ken Barrett, the global chief diversity officer for General Motors, said that “Jim” Farmer dedicated his career to transforming the automotive industry through diversity and community service.

“I am proud of the invaluable support Jim continues to provide GM and he is truly most deserving of this prestigious honor,” said Barrett.

Chairman Leavell agreed.

“The NNPA Foundation, under the leadership of Chairman Amelia Ward, the publisher of the Sun Reporter in San Francisco, Calif., has chosen

some of the most outstanding leaders and trailblazers in the Black community to receive Torch Awards, this year,” said Leavell.

The 2018 Black Press Week partners include the Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Reynolds American (RAI), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Pfizer, Inc. The 2018 Black Press Week sponsors include AARP, Amerihealth, Comcast, Koch Industries, Wells Fargo, AT&T, and Volkswagen.

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., the president and CEO of the NNPA, said that the NNPA and the NNPA Foundation have joined together to celebrate the 191-year anniversary of the Black Press in America.

“This year, Black Press Week convenes at a time of profound opportunity and responsibility to ensure a record turnout for Black American voters in the upcoming midterm elections across the nation,” said Chavis. “The new strategic alliance between the NNPA and the NAACP bodes well to advance civil rights and the economic, political, and cultural empowerment of Black America.”

someone has done it.

suicides dropped by 59 percent and 65 percent, respectively. While there is still room for improvement, the immediate and directly correlative impact of Australia’s gun control reform demonstrates the potential of policy to promote peace.

Australia’s gun control intervention was not achieved without encountering significant opposition. Like America, Australia holds a near fetish-like obsession for rugged individualism, which caused many to resent the government’s action and to perceive it as an insult to gun owners and a breach of power. To be fair, a 28-day waiting period on gun purchases hardly fits the image of the reckless, rough-andtumble Outback presented by media and movies. But, as President Obama praised in 2015, the Australian people ultimately united in favor of national safety and progress.

Australia’s success story is an example for us all. America will remain a deadly nation for our children, its schools caught in the crossfire, unless we insist politicians and the NRA curb their lobbyist efforts and allow the creation of policy that acts in the best in-

Gun Safety Is about Freedom

By Derrick Johnson, President and CEO, NAACP In the wake of the Parkland massacre, NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson says that comprehensive, sustainable gun control is achievable.

Johnson uses Australia’s gun control policies as an example.

Fear at school was something the Little Rock Nine knew all too well. Facing vitriol, racism, and merciless violence, the Little Rock Nine were escorted, for their own safety, by federal troops to their high school classes. For those brave students selected to make the promises of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision a reality, fear and terror were a normal part of the school-day routine.

Decades later, fear and terror still exist in our children’s classrooms. Due to the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the politicians that support them,

15

Just look to Australia.

In the past 20 years, Australia has proven that sensible reform can prevail over partisan divides and high rates of gun ownership. In the spring of 1996, Australia faced the deadliest mass shooting in its history when a 28-year-old man opened fire at a tourist resort in Tasmania, killing 35 and wounding 23 with a semi-automatic rifle. Following the massacre, the party in power—the center-right Liberal coalition—surprised the country and world by joining with groups across the political spectrum to implement a radical intervention on gun violence.

Over the course of mere months, the Australian government bought and destroyed over half a million firearms, banned automatic and semiautomatic weapons, created a national firearms registry, and enforced a 28-day waiting period for gun purchases.

The results were both clear and staggering—there has not been a single mass shooting in Australia since 1996.

Additionally, data shows that in the ten years following the Tasmanian massacre, gun-related homicides and

Con’t on page 18

THE INNER-CITY NEWS Con’t from page 10

The Artist Formerly Known As Moonchild

religion plays into your art?

It didn’t so much before, and it doesn’t completely. It’s really behind the scenes.

I performed at the Yale Peabody Museum the day before yesterday for Martin Luther King’s birthday, and I was so nervous, because there were going to be like 6,000 people there. That’s like a lot of people. So I went to church, and I’m sitting in the pew, and I haven’t been to church in a really long time, so I was like, let me just be respectful, and this is where I grew up. I was raised very common—Black family, my mom made me go to church. I went to church, and I was like, “Okay God, show me some signs. I know I’m probably going to have to pick it apart, I know you’re not going to give it to me fully, so just show me how to navigate.”

Then the preacher stands up and is like: “Somebody today is afraid of taking the opportunities that they were given.” That’s me. I like stood up and everything, and was like, “Oh my God, that’s me.” And he was like: “Don’t be afraid. Just don’t be afraid.

There’s literally no reason to be, nothing good comes from fear. So just don’t do it.”

I went to the show, and I rocked it, and it was dope. So yeah, God defi nitely has my back, I feel like. But I’m also defi nitely very open to any other religion. It’s me trying to be a chill person. Minimally decent.

Is there anything that you want to plug in this interview, that you really want people to know about?

I’m in a community of Connecticut artists. There’s a lot of different types of people, and right now there’s like an uproar of Connecticut artists because, that I would say was catalyzed by Diddy’s comment.

You know Diddy, right? He, in an Instagram post, was like, “We need more artists from New York and Atlanta. Nobody wants to hear artists from Connecticut.”

Those were his very words. So people were bubbling because I’m in a community of amazing artists who are seriously much better than the mainstream. And they’re not even too complex to be mainstream.

One of the Connecticut artists just passed away, his name was Zoe [Dowdell]. He was shot by a police offi cer. He’s linked with a lot of different artists, and he was a good friend of mine. We weren’t super, duper close, but I knew of him and I had performed with him before, and he was literally a ball of happiness and joy and light.

And, it’s just a shame, I won’t even go into the whole police thing, but it’s just a shame that this boy didn’t see his accolades for his music, because he had to die to receive them.

Recently he was posted in a magazine, and he’s now seen his fame. I think it’s ridiculous that he had to die in order to do that. A lot of people are ignoring that. What I say to folks is just go local. If you’re willing to do it with your food—go local. Do it with your music. And if you feel like you don’t have something you want locally, talk to me, because I will hit you up. I just want to mention some artists, if I could.

Of course.

Chef the Chef, Mark Da Mighty, Alyssa Hughes—you’re going to love Alyssa Hughes. Vee Skeeno, Andre Jakia, Gedda on the Tracks is good. He’s not only a rapper, but he also makes art. He’s a cartoonist and he makes really good cartoons, and it’s dope. I’ll give you three more. Another fashion person who’s really dope is Ari Serrano, he’s like an amazing fashion person.

You know, I’ll just give you that. That’s a good start.

Those people are really important to music, really on a national level … They’re really dope. They’re better than like, everybody. And I’m not just saying that because I know them. Even if I hated any of those people, they would still be the greatest people ever. So, that’s how you know it’s real.

You talk a lot about the group. How do you feel performing in a group is different than performing alone on stage?

Well, doing it solo is really dope. I love doing that, I just don’t always get the opportunity. So if anyone wants to hand me that opportunity—you know what I mean?

Or sometimes, I set it up and do shows, and do it that way.

But obviously with a group, normally I perform with these folks, and the energy is better. It will always be better in a group.

It’s weird, it’s kind of like this theory of icons. I feel like we’re living in a generation where they really emphasize icons, and icons being this one thing. I hope nobody out there thinks that Apple was created by one guy in a turtleneck. I hope nobody really thinks that. Even though somebody could be the face of something, there’s always the team behind it. It’s always better.

Because it adds the energy.

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MARCH 20, 2018

Want More Nakia and Princess Shuri? Read Jesse Holland’s New ‘Black Panther’

By Freddie Allen, Editor-In-Chief, NNPA Newswire and BlackPressUSA Jesse Holland’s novel “Black Panther: Who is the Black Panther?” gives readers an in-depth look into T’Challa’s world and the lives of the other characters—like Nakia and Princess Shuri—in Marvel’s groundbreaking “Black Panther” comic book series and new fi lm.

In the fi rst novel commissioned by Marvel about the Wakandan superhero, award-winning journalist and author Jesse Holland takes a deep dive into the mythology of the Black Panther and the lives of the characters depicted in the groundbreaking feature fi lm.

Marvel’s “Black Panther” has earned $922 million worldwide and $512.6 million domestically. The fi lm is on its way to becoming, “the secondbiggest comic book superhero fl ick in North America behind “The Avengers” ($623m in 2012),” according to Forbes.com.

Before “Black Panther” smashed box offi ce records, Holland had written a nonfi ction book titled “The Invisibles: The Untold Story about Slaves in the White House.”

A description of the “The Invisibles” on Amazon.com says, that the book chronicles “the African American presence inside the White House from its beginnings in 1782 until 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that granted slaves their freedom.”

An editor from Lucas Films read “The Invisibles” and loved it, Holland said, and reached out to him to write a history for Finn, the African American character in “Stars Wars: The Force Awakens.” Those conversations led to Holland’s novel “Star Wars: The Force Awakens-Finn’s Story.”

Holland said that “Finn’s Story” landed him on Marvel’s radar. “[Marvel Studios] was making a movie about the Black Panther and wanted to know if I would be interested in writing the fi rst novel about the iconic Marvel character,” said Holland.

The author said, “Yes,” immediately.

Holland said that there was just one catch: The entire novel had to be written in six months.

Luckily, Holland had been a Black Panther fan since he was a child. When Marvel offered to send him some Black Panther comic books for background material, he told them, “You don’t have to, because I already own them.”

16

Holland went back and read Black Panther comic books written by Reginald Hudlin and Christopher Priest; he even went back to the very beginning with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Marvel’s Black Panther character has existed since the 1960s and preceded the launch of the Black Panther political party, by just a few months.

According to History.com, in a 1990 interview with “The Comics Journal,” co-creator Jack Kirby said that he came up with the Black Panther when he realized that he didn’t have any Black characters in his growing Marvel Universe.

“I had a lot of Black readers. My fi rst friend was…Black,” Kirby said in the interview. “And here I was ignoring them, because I was associating with everybody else.”

Holland said that Marvel asked him to develop a mythology around the character that would be relatable to modern audiences. Holland started with the classic Black Panther origin story written by Reginald Hudlin and fl eshed it out.

“I had to go from a six-issue comic book to 90,000 words,” said Holland.

“So, I had to fl esh out the story a little bit and add a few more themes to it.”

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS MARCH 14, 2018 - MARCH 20, 2018

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A Wrinkle in Time THE INNER-CITY NEWS

MARCH 14, 2018

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MARCH 20, 2018

“Flava In Ya Ear” Rapper Craig Mack Dead At 46

Film Review by Kam Williams

Dazzling Adaptation of Beloved Children’s Classic Brought to the Big Screen Madeleine L’Engle finished writing “A Wrinkle in Time” in 1960, but the escapist fantasy was rejected by over two dozen publishers before it finally captured the imagination of John Farrar, co-founder of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. In 1963, the groundbreaking, illustrated novel won the Newbery Medal for being the best children’s book of the year.

Four decades later, Disney eviscerated the magical masterpiece of its religious overtones in the process of turning it into a generic, made-forTV kiddie movie devoid of allusions to Christianity. Even the author expressed her displeasure with the sanitized production, remarking, “ I expected it to be bad, and it is.” You see, L’Engle, long-time writer-in-residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, had consciously laced the opus with lots of Biblical quotations.

Fast-forward 15 years, and we now find Disney mounting a big screen version of the beloved classic many consider unfilmable. That unenviable task fell to Ava DuVernay, director of Selma and the Oscar-nominated documentary, 13th.

Ava availed herself of state-of-the-art technology to create an eye-popping spectacular designed to enthrall young and old alike. She also cast the message movie in colorblind fashion.

The original ensemble only had a single, non-white member, Alfre Woodard. Compare that to the reboot which features an ethnic rainbow reflective of the direction in which the browning nation has been rapidly heading.

Though the film has its spiritual moments, they are more universal in nature as opposed to pushing a Christian agenda.

The basic plotline sounds anything but faith-based. In 25 words or less, the story is about a brother (Deric McCabe), sister (Storm Reid) and friend (Levi Miller) who time-travel to distant universes with the help of a trio of astral travelers played by Oprah, Mindy Kaling and Reese Witherspoon.

The kids are searching for the siblings’ scientist father (Chris Pine) who went missing several years earlier.

Along the way, they learn some big life lessons about what really matters

WOCHIT ENTERTAINMENT Craig Mack died on Monday at the age of 46. The rapper came to fame via Diddy’s Bad Boy Records in the ‘90s, Mack died of heart failure at a hospital in Walterboro, South Carolina.

“God bless my friend. He was a good friend of mine. He was prepared for whatever comes, to go home to the Lord. He was prepared to do that. He wasn’t scared. He was ready.” Alvin Toney Mack was best known for his 1994 single “Flava in Ya Ear.” The track sold more than a million copies and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance.

He left the industry to become a minister at a church in South Carolina. in life.

An overblown, intergalactic saga certain to tug on your heartstrings during unapologetically-sentimental breaks in the action.

Very Good (3 stars)

Rated PG for peril and mature themes Running time: 109 minutes Production Studios: Whitaker Entertainment / Walt Disney Pictures Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

The Center for Black Literature presents the 14th National Black Writers Conference Thursday, March 22 to Sunday, March 25, 2018. More than 30 writers, scholars, and literary professionals will discuss the Conference theme “Gathering at the Waters: Healing, Legacy and Activism in Black Literature.” This timely theme acknowledges our concern about the recent, and continuing, issues of social inequality and injustices that challenge us and builds on the legacy of healing through activism. The 2018 NBWC Honorees are Steven Barnes, Kwame Dawes, Tananarive Due, David Levering Lewis, Eugene B. Redmond, Susan L. Taylor, and Colson Whitehead. The Conference will include roundtable conversations, author readings, films, workshops, vendors and more.

For more information and to register, visit www.centerforblackliterature.org

18

Con’t from page 15

about Freedom

terests of public safety. The solution is simple. America needs sane and sensible gun safety laws. The NAACP has spoken out, delivering a loud and clear message, on the most urgent and impactful policies pending, and we will continue to push and monitor federal action on these proposals.

The disproportionate impact on communities of color does make gun control a civil rights issue, but gun violence is a national issue and should be a matter of national concern. It is also a matter of freedom. Without sane gun laws, parents are faced with the daily and ever-present fear of another shooting at their child’s school that could have been prevented. All Americans deserve this freedom regardless of skin color, political affiliation, or zip code. This is one freedom that the NAACP is committed to fighting for.

Derrick Johnson is the President and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Color People (NAACP). Follow him on Twitter: @ DerrickNAACP.

Con’t from page 3

Way To Bread Loaf

over, and he lashed out in frustration. When he didn’t write the feelings down, he found himself at loss for words.

“I was kind of lost for a while,” Woods said.

“I had to take it out on my family a little bit, and I just kind of distanced myself. I just kind of backtracked to a lot of progress that I made during the years.”

But he continued writing, crafting two poems around his mom’s death that he said helped him explore the grief he was feeling. At a recent PenJunction—meetings of Co-Op students who are interested in writing—he stood up to share one.

“He didn’t really talk about it, and then he was like: ‘I have something,’” recalled creative writing teacher Mindi Englart, who taught Woods in a journalism class earlier this year. “He comes out with this poem. It was like, this done poem. It was his way of being ready to say: This happened.”

“There are different parts of him,” she added.

“He’s a mix of so confident and clear and so reserved and modest and shy. He knows what he’s saying, and ends up doing it really well.

But it’s never why he’s doing it.”

Those parts have come together to keep writing, and a village of mentors has rallied around him. Late last year, a family friend named Paul Sabin recommended the conference for Woods. A professor of History and American Studies at Yale, Sabin had done the workshop when he was Woods’ age. It had been, he told Woods, a formative experience in his young life.

Woods applied, working through the application materials largely on his own as he pulled together references from his creative writing teachers and New Haven mentors.

Having been accepted, he is now in the process of submitting the fourth chapter of his novel, currently titled “Energin,” that he will work on during his time there.

“He did that all on his own,” said Englart.

“He makes things happen, quietly. It’s such a modest confidence.”

It’s one of Woods’ first times out of New Haven and Hamden, where he’s now living with his older brother. But he has his sights set on getting out of the city once again in a year, to either New York or California for college. The former, he explained, is “the literary capital of the U.S.” The latter is where industry is, if he chooses to go into scriptwriting.

In the meantime, said he wants to use the workshop as a springboard—and bring the lessons back to his Co-Op creative writing classes with Englart, Aaron Brenner and Department Chair Judi Katz.

“I’m hoping to build myself as a writer and expand to new things, because I’ve never done a workshop like this before,” he said.

“It’ll be away from home, and it’ll be kind of like a college experience.”

For Kelly Wuzzardo, who works closely with Co-Op through her role as director of education and outreach initiatives at the Shubert Theatre, he’ll add to those places what he is already adding to New Have—not only his words, but also a desire to quietly, warmly make things that much better for those around him.

“He’s always thinking of things to do to make the world a better place,” she said, recalling his work with the Shubert’s Kindness Project this and last year. “He’s thinking of

THE INNER-CITY NEWS MARCH 14, 2018 - MARCH 20, 2018

LET’S MAKE CONNECTICUT THE BEST IT CAN BE, TOGETHER.

N O T WO C AREER P ATHS A RE T HE S AME T:5.1”

AARP in Connecticut is in your community helping you live, work, and play. Our volunteers can talk to you about fraud prevention, caregiving, making your community more livable and more.

Call us at 860-548-3163 or visit aarp.org/CT for more information.

We Offer: • Employer Incentives to Hire • On-the-Job Training • Job Search Assistance • Re-Training • Transportation Assistance • Hiring Events

4 Locations: New Haven: (203) 624-1493 Meriden: (203) 238-3688 Middletown: (860) 347-7691 Hamden: (203) 859-3200 Open Mon-Fri, 8:30am – 4:30pm Hamden opens at 8am

Visit www.workforcealliance.biz/services/wheredoistart Be Part of the South Central CT Economy

*There is never a fee for the jobseeker or the employer. Services are funded through state and federal grants.

Imagine.

Inform.

Invest.

Inspire.

Working together to build a stronger community – now and forever.

“But the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation TOWNHOUSE ENT: AARP SIZE, SPACE: 5.472” x 5.1”, None COMMUNITY. It is this ODUCT: 412200 CT Inner of City the beloved PUBS: None B#: arpstlISSUE: None type of spirit and this type of love that T DIRECTOR: Nathan Hoang COPYWRITER: Conor Patterson can transform opposers into friends.”

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200 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK, NY 10010

JOB #: arpstl-

PROOF: 1

CLIENT: AARP

OP: None

SPACE/SIZE: B: 5.972” x 5.6” T: 5.472” x 5.1” S: 4.972” x 4.6” LEGAL RELEASE STATUS

AD APPROVAL DATE:

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-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Come be apart of our COMMUNITY. Contact us to learn about the many ways you can strengthen our community and create a personal legacy that benefits the nonprofit(s) that matter most to you.

www.cfgnh.org | 203-777-7068

19

July 2016 -- August THE INNER-CITY INNER-CITY NEWSNEWS MARCH 14,27, 2018 MARCH02, 20,2016 2018

PUBLIC NOTICE

The Housing AuthorityNOTICE of the City of Bridgeport (HACB) d/b/a Park City Communities (PCC)

VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE will be opening its Low Income Public Housing Waiting List for 2 bedroom units beginning Monday, March 5 through Friday, March 16, 2018. To qualify, a family HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, size MUST be a minimum of two (2) AND the families annual gross income may not exceed the income limits shown below for the household size. Pre-Applications is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this develmay be picked at Gary 301income Bostwick Ave. Preopment locatedup at 108 FrankCrooks Street,Community New Haven.Center, Maximum limitations apApplications can also be downloaded from our website www.parkcitycommunities. ply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y org.

Only one per family will be accepted; duplicate pre-applica25, 2016 and pre-application ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have tions will be disqualifi been received at the ed. offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon request by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours. Completed preApplications be returned Gary Crooks ONLY.Street, Third applications mustmust be returned to HOME to INC’s offices at 171 Orange Floor, New Haven, CT 06510.

This housing authority does have a preference point system: disabled, homeless, elderly, working, displaced, domestic violence, veterans, elderly congregate and witness protection. A waiting list with preferences means that applicants who qualify for the preference will receive assistance before applicants who do not.

NOTICIA

VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES

HOME INC, en nombre de la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) en las oficinas de HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correo a petición llamando a HOME INC al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse a las oficinas INCaccommodation en 171 OrangeforStreet, tercer piso, New Haven , CTwill 06510 If you requiredea HOME reasonable this process, a designated help line be . available to receive your requests at (203) 337-8804

PCC does not discriminate based upon race, color, disabilities, religion, sex or national origin.

Request for Specialty Crop NEW ELECTRICIAN/APPRENTICE – HAVEN Block Grant Concept

242-258 Fairmont Ave 2BR Townhouse, 1.5 BA, 3BR, 1 level , 1BA

Proposals Telecommunications company looking for low voltage cable installer familiar with all aspects of indoor The Connecticut Department of Agriculture is & outdoor cable installation, aerial bucket work, pole concept proposal for projects that solework, messenger, manhole new & underground All new lashing, apartments, appliances,seeking carpet, to I-91 &of I-95 lynew enhance the close competitiveness specialty installation. Company is also looking for apprentices crops.

Specialty are defined by the USDA highways, near busto stop & shopping crops center to train. Good salary with benefi ts. Fax resume as fruits and vegetables, dried fruit, tree nuts, 860-282-0424 or mail to Fibre Optic Plus, LLC 585 maple syrup,Maria honey,@ horticulture, and nursery Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested parties contact 860-985-8258 Nutmeg Road North, South Windsor, CT 06074 Attn: crops.

Don Ballsieper

Projects must impact and produce measurable outcomes for the specialty crop industry and/ the public.

Projects cannot begin until after Certificate Program. This is a 10 month program designedor to assist in the intellectual formation of Candidates January 1, 2019, and must be completed by in response to the Church’s Ministry needs. The cost is $125.

Classes start Saturday, August 20, 2016 1:303:30 Contact: Chairman, Deacon Joe J. Davis, M.S., B.S. September 29, 2021. The maximum award is (203) 996-4517 Host, General Bishop Elijah Davis, D.D. Pastor of Pitts Chapel U.F.W.B. Church 64 Brewster $75,000.

CT.rmative Unified Action/Equal Deacon’s Association is pleased to offer a Deacon’s Affi Opportunity Employer

Class A CDL Driver St. New Haven, CT

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 Tech-

More info and complete application guidelines are available at www.CTGrown.gov/grants, or by contacting Jaime Smith at 860-713-2559 or jaime.smith@ct.gov.

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

Concept proposals are due to the Connecticut Department of Agriculture by 4:00 p.m. on March 2, 2018.

Sealed bids areLLC invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour nologies, is An EOE. until 3:00 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at its office at 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483Certifi for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the ed Police Officer Smithfield Gardens Assisted Living Facility, 26 Smith Street Seymour.

The Town of Wallingford is currently accepting applications for current Connecticut P.O.S.T.C Certifi ed Police Offi cers. Applicants must be active P.O.S.T.C Certifi ed Police Offi A cers in good standing with their current department, or have retired in good standing, pre-bid conference will be held at the Housing Authority Office 28 Smith still having a current certifi cation status with P.O.S.T.C. This Process will consist of WritStreet Seymour, CT at 10:00 am, on Wednesday, July 20, 2016. ten, Oral, Polygraph, Psychological, Medical Exam, and Background Investigation.

The Town of Wallingford offers a competitive pay rate $62,753.60 - $74,963.20 annually. Application deadline will be March 5, 2018 Apply: Human Resources Department, Bidding documents are available from the Seymour Housing Authority OfTown of Wallingford, 45 South Main St., Wallingford, CT. fice, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579. phone: (203) 294-2080; fax: (203) 294-2084. EOE.

The Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any

Large shoreline CT based construction company Large shoreline CT based construction company seeking full-time Accounting/Administrative Assistant for busy offi ce environment.

The position includes both accounting and customer service/administrative duties i.e. data entry in ERP system (Sage 100), reviewing and processing AP transactions, processing billing for over-the-counter sales orders, maintenance of W-9s and insurance certifi cates for vendors/subcontractors and assisting with 1099/ W2 preparation. Also includes answering phones with positive attitude, scheduling customer appointments for salespersons, fi ling and other general duties. Minimum 5 years’ experience in an offi ce environment, strong written and verbal communication skills, ability to multi-task, working knowledge of basic accounting, strong Microsoft offi ce (excel/word) skills. Sage 100 knowledge a major plus. Salary: $17.00 to $18.00 per hour. Email resume to Swilloughby@atlasoutdoor.com. AA/EOE/M-F

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 excellent hourly rateor& excellent benefits BA/BS in Civil Engineering Construction Management.

Contact: Dana Briere Phone: 2-5 yrs. experience. OSHA Certifi ed.

860-243-2300 Email: cations.

Profi cient in reading contract plans and specifi dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com Resumes to RED Technologies, LLC, 10 Northwood Dr., Women & Minority Applicants are Bloomfi eld, CT 06002; Fax 860.218.2433; encouraged to apply Email resumes to info@redtechllc.com. RED Technologies, LLC is an EOE. Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity EmployerRemediation Division Project Manager Environmental

Field Engineer

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

Fax 860.218.2433; or Email to HR@redtechllc.com

RED Technologies, LLC is an EOE.

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc

Large CT. Fenace Company Large CT. Fence Company is looking for an individual for our stock yard. Warehouse shipping and receiving and Forklift experience a must. Must have a minimum of 3 years’ material handling experience. Must be able to read and write English, and read a tape measure. Duties will include: Loading and unloading trucks, pulling orders for installation and retail counter sales, keeping the yard clean and organized at all times and inventory control. Welding experience a plus. Individual will also make deliveries of fence panels and products, must be able to lift at least 70lbs. Required to pass a Physical and Drug test, have a valid CT. Driver’s License and be able to obtain a Drivers Medical Card. Send resume to pboucher@atlasoutdoor.com AA/ EOE/MF

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 Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming Inc Employer

seeks: Construction Equipment Mechanic preferably experienced in Reclaiming and Road Milling Equipment. We offer factory training Asphalt on equipment we operate.

Garrity Reclaiming Inc Location: Bloomfield CT seeks: Construction Equipment Mechanic NORTH BRANFORD HOUSING AUTHORITY Contact: experienced James Burke Phone: 860preferably in Reclaiming and c/o Merit Properties, Inc. 243-2300 Invitation Bid: Road Milling Equipment.

We offer factory 1224 Mill Street Building A, Suiteto102 email: jim.burke@garrityasphalt.com training on equipment we operate.

2nd Notice East Berlin, CT 06023 Women & Minority Applicants are Location: Bloomfield CT Contact:encouraged James Burke Phone: 860to apply LISTA DE ESPERA ABIERTA 243-2300 Old Saybrook, CT Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity La Autoridad de Vivienda de North Branford anuncia que ahora están email: jim.burke@garrityasphalt.com Employer We offer excellent hourly rate & (4 Buildings, 17 Units) aceptando solicitudes para el complejo de ancianos / discapacitados HillWomen excellent & Minoritybenefits Applicants are Tax & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project side Terrace. Para califi car, Exempt debe tener al menos 62 años o 18 y estar encouraged to apply discapacitado.

Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Los límites de ingresos publicados por HUD no pueden exceder los $ New(una Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, Cast-We offer excellent hourly rate & 47,600 persona) y $ 54,400 (dos personas).

Los hogares también Employer deben cumplir con el ingreso mínimo requerido de $ 17,316 para pagar el in-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding, excellent benefits

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

alquiler base mínimo de la unidad. Las partes interesadas pueden recoger Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, una solicitud en Hillside Terrace, 167 Branford Road, North Branford, o pueden llamar al Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection.

203-488-5664 para solicitar que se le envíe una solicitud por correo.

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

Union Company seeks: Tractor Trailer

NORTH BRANFORD HOUSING AUTHORITY

Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction

WAITLIST OPEN

excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits clean driving record, capable of operating

Bid Extended, Due Date: August 5, 2016 Equipment. Must have a CDL License, c/o Merit Properties, Inc. clean driving record, capable of operating Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016 Union Company seeks: Tractor Trailer 1224 Mill Street Building A, Suite 102 heavy equipment; be willing to travel Project documents available via ftp link below: Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction East Berlin, CT 06023 throughout the Northeast & NY. We offer http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage Equipment. Must have a CDL License,

Contact: Dana be Briere Phone: The North Branford Housing Authority hereby announces that they are heavy equipment; willing to travel Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com now accepting applications for the State Elderly/Disabled Complex 860-243-2300 Email: throughout the Northeast & NY. We offer HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses Hillside Terrace. To qualify you must be at least 62 years old or 18 dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com hourly rate & excellent benefits Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483excellent and disabled.

Women & Minority Applicants are Contact: Dana Briere Phone: AA/EEO EMPLOYER Income limits as published by HUD cannot exceed $47,600 (one perencouraged to apply son) and $54,400 (two people). Households must also meet the re860-243-2300 Email: Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity quired minimum income of $17,316 to afford the minimum Base Rent dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com for the unit. Interested parties may pick up an application at Hillside Employer Women & Minority Applicants are Terrace, 167 Branford Road, North Branford, or you may call 203-488encouraged to apply 5664 to request an application be mailed to you.

20

Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016- - August 02, 2016 THE INNER-CITY NEWS MARCH 14, 2018 MARCH 20, 2018

PVC FENCE PRODUCTION

The Town of East Haven is currently accepting ap-

plications to participate in the following examinations: Large CT Fence Company looking for an individual for our PVC Fence Pro- Secretary II, Grade Level 10-$18.36/hour. Candidate must possess a High duction Shop. Experience preferred but will train the right person. Must be School Diploma or equivalent and a minimum of 2 years secretarial experifamiliar with carpentry hand & power tools and be able to read a CAD draw- ence. Prior experience in a school system or related work with children ing and tape measure. Use of CNC Router machine a plus but not required, preferred. will train the right person. This is an in-shop production position. Duties include building fence panels, posts, gates and more. Some pickup & delivery Custodian-$20. 47/hour. Candidates shall meet the following minimum reof materials may also be required. Must have aHouse valid CT driver’s license and Housing quirements: Graduation HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus and the New Haven Authority, from High School or 1 year employment in building be able to obtain a Drivers Medical Card. Must be able to pass a physical and care and cleaning operations required. is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this develdrug test. Please email resume to pboucher@atlasoutdoor.com. AA/EOE opment located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven. Maximum income limitations apApplications to participate in the examination are available online at www. ply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y townofeasthavenct.org/civil-service-commission/pages/job-notices-andtests or the Civilhave Service Office, 250 Main Street, East Haven CT and must 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) bemailied returnedupon no later than March 21, 2018. Candidates bilingual in Spanish been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be LaRosa Building Group, as CM, invites all trade contractors to are encouraged to reapply.

NOTICE

VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE

INVITATION TO BID:

by callingPhase HOME INC atlocated 203-562-4663 duringconsisting those hours. Completed prebidquest the Rockview 2 project in New Haven must be returned to HOME at 171 Orange Street, Third The Town of East Haven is committed to building a workforce of diverse of applications the new construction of 78 housing unitsINC’s withinoffices 32 buildings.

Floor, Newis Haven, CT 06510.

This project tax exempt and subject to Prevailing Wage rates, as individuals. Minorities, Females, Handicapped and Veterans are encouraged provided by CM. Subcontractor bids are due to LaRosa no later to apply. than 3PM March 16, 2018. Bids can be emailed to Vincent Parete vparete@larosabg.com or faxed to 203-599-6210 no later than 3PM on 3/16/18. Pre-bid conference is scheduled for Thursday, 3/8/18 @ 10amVALENTINA at the Rockview locatedPRE-SOLICITUDES at 122 Wilmot Seeking a qualified professional to perform technical work involving MACRICommunity VIVIENDASBuilding DE ALQUILER DISPONIBLES Road, New Haven, CT. A subsequent Small, Minority, Women, and the inspection of building construction for conformance with state and national electrical building code. Minimum Qualifications: A high Section business outreach be conducted there-Housing HOME3 INC, en nombre de lawill Columbus House yimmediately de la New Haven Authority, está school diploma or GED and possession of a valid E-1 ‘unlimited conafter at 11am. aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en estelicense desarrollo tractors” or an E-2 “unlimited journeyman’s” license for not less

ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos LaRosa Building Group is an Affirmative Action, Equal Opportu- than two years. Appointees must maintain or improve license during tenure, and a valid máximos.

LasSmall, pre-solicitudes 093a.m.-5 p.m.arecomenzando Martes 25 driver’s license. $59,138- $75,665 plus an excelnity Employer.

Minority, estarán Women,disponibles and Section Business lent fringe benefit package. Apply to: Personnel Department, Town of julio, 2016 hasta cuando strongly encouraged to bid.se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100)

NOTICIA

Electrical Inspector

NOTICIA PUBLICA The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport (HACB) d/b/a Park City Communities (PCC) abrirá la lista de espera de Viviendas de Bajos Ingresos de 2 dormitorios el día 5 de Marzo 2018 hasta 16 de Marzo 2018. Para calificar, una familia debe tener un mínimo de tres (3) miembros y los ingresos bruto anual de la familia no pueden exceder los límites de ingresos que se muestran a continuación para el tamaño del hogar. Pre- solicitudes se pueden recoger en la oficina de Gary Crooks Community Center situado en 301 Bostwick Avenue, Bridgeport, CT. Aplicaciones pueden ser descargadas desde nuestro sitio de web www.parkcitycommunities. org. Sólo se aceptará una pre-solicitud por familia; duplicados de pre-solicitudes serán descalificadas.

Aplicaciones deben ser entregadas a Gary Crooks Community Center solamente!

La Autoridad de Viviendas tiene un sistema de preferencias: personas sin hogar, discapacitados, mayor de edad, empleados, víctimas de violencia domestica, veteranos, ancianos congregados y protección de testigos. Una lista de espera con preferencias quiere decir que personas que cualifican con su preferencia recibirán asistencia antes de personas sin preferencias.

Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Closing en las oficinas de HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correo a petición date will be March 19, 2018 or the date the 50th application is received, llamando a HOME INC al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse whichever occurs first. EOE. CARPENTER a las oficinas de HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510 .

Large CT Fence Company looking for a carpenter for our Wood Fence Production Shop. Experience preferred but will train the right person. Must be familiar with carpentry hand & power tools and be able to read a CAD drawing and tape measure. This is an in-shop production position. Duties include building fence panels, posts, gates and more. Some pickup & delivery of materials may also be required. Must have a valid CT driver’s license and be able to obtain a Drivers Medical Card. Must be able to pass a physical and drug test. Please email resume to pboucher@atlasoutdoor.com. AA/EOE

KMK Insulation Inc.

Si necesita un ajuste razonable para este proceso, una línea de ayuda designada estará disponible

para recibir sus peticiones al (203) 337-8804

1907 Hartford Turnpike North Haven, CT 06473

Mechanical Insulator position.

Insulation company offering good pay and benefits.

NEW HAVEN

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

PCC no discrimina basado en la raza, color, discapacidad, religión, sexo u origen nacional.

Construction Truck and Equipment Head Mechanic

InvitationLarge to Bid: CT based Fence and Guard Rail contractor looking for experienced, self-motivated, responsible Head Mechanic. Responsibilities will include maintaining and repairing all company equipment and 2nd Notice

242-258 Fairmont Ave vehicles, updating asset lists and assuring all rolling stock is in compliance with state and federal Town of Portland, CTBA, (EOE) 2BR Townhouse, 1.5 3BR, 1 levelThe , 1BA SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE regulations.

Must have extensive diesel engine, electrical wiring and hydraulic systems experience.

GUILFORD HOUSING AUTHORITY is currently

Top wages paid, company truck and benefits.

Allmunicipality new apartments, new appliances, carpet, I-91 & I-95 Suburban of 9,400 residents; supervises 25new employees; 1.8 close mil- to accepting applications for COUPLES ONLY for its one bedroom Old Saybrook, CT AA/EOE lion budget; 75 miles ofhighways, roads. Requires a bachelor’s degree in engineering near bus stop & shopping centerapartments at Guilford Court and Boston Terrace in Guilford, CT. (4 Buildings, 17 Units) Please send resume to Mpicard@atlasoutdoor.com or business/public administration plus seven years of progressively responApplicants must be age 62 and over or on 100% social security Pet underexperience, 40lb allowed.

Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258 sible administration including three years of supervisory capacity.

Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project Must possess valid CT driver’s license. Salary range DOQ; non-union with or federal disability and over the age of 18. Applications may be obtained by calling the application line at 203-453-6262, ext. 107. fringe benefits. Subject to pre-employment drug/alcohol testing. Deadline: also Construction, be provided with theFramed, application.

3/2/2018. Submit resume with Town application 3 letters of reference to: An information packet willNew CT. Unified Deacon’s Association is pleased to offer& a Deacon’s Wood Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, CastOffice of theProgram.

First Selectwoman, P.O. Box 71, Portland, CT 06480-0071 Applications will be accepted until end of business day on July Certificate This is a 10 month program designed to assist in the intellectual formation of Candidates

DELIVERY PERSON NEEDED

in-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding, procured by the Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection.

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

in response to the Church’s Ministry needs. The cost is $125. Classes start Saturday,31, August 20, 2016 1:30-police, and landlord checks are 2018. Credit, 3:30 Contact: Chairman, Deacon Joe J. Davis, M.S., B.S. authority. Smoke (203) 996-4517 Host, General Bishop Elijah Davis, D.D. Pastor of Pitts Chapel U.F.W.B. Church 64 Brewsterfree housing.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY HOUSING St. New Haven, CT 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.

The New Haven Early Childhood Council EOE/M/F/D/V.

Dispatcher

Part Time Delivery Needed One/Two Day a Week, Bid Extended, Due Date: August 5, 2016

NEW HAVEN EARLY CHILHDOOD COUNCIL REQUEST FOR QUALITY ENHANCEMENT PROPOSALS

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

Must Have Own Vehicle If Interested call (203) 435-1387

isAnticipated seeking toStart: August 15, 2016 Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of quality Seymour fund enhancement (QE) projects for the period available via ftp link below: Project documents until 3:00 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at its office at 28 Smith Street, July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019 for the following services: Hot Mix Asphalt Plant Technician & Paving Inspector http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage Seymour, CTopenings 06483infor Concrete Repairs and Replacement at the There are multiple Galasso MaterialsSidewalk Quality Control Department.

• on-site education consultation to prek programs NETTCP certification is preferred, with at least one year of experience. Full Smithfield Gardens Assisted Living Facility, 26 Smithtime Street Seymour.

• mental health resources for children families in prek programs; Fax orand Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com

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.

• professional development trainings related to CT Early Standards, HCC encourages theLearning participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses trauma informed care and topics required

A pre-bid conference will be held at the Housing Authority Office 28 Smith Street Seymour, CT at 10:00 am, on Wednesday, July 20, 2016.

by School Readiness and NAEYC. Equipment Operators and Laborers

TRANSFER STATION LABORER

Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 AA/EEO EMPLOYER 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, An info session will be held Monday, May 12th from 2-3pm at 54 Meadow Galasso Materials is seeking applicants for the 2018 paving season. Experience in Street, conference Ofroom 3B. To receive the RFP and for established rates for each Bidding documents are available from the Seymour Housing Authority 173 Pickering St., Portland, CT 06480; Fax 860-342-1022; or paving operations is required. Must possess current OSHA 10 card, have a valid service type, contact the School Readiness office Email to lkelly@redtransfer.com driver’s and own transportation.

NO PHONE CALLS(203) PLEASE. Reply to fice,license, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 888-4579.

Denised@nhps.net 203-946-7875.

Hiring Manager, PO Box 1776, East Granby, CT 06026. EOE/M/F/D/V. RED Technologies, LLC is an EOE.

21The Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any

THE INNER-CITY NEWS

MARCH 14, 2018

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MARCH 20, 2018

For the First Time Ever, A Black Woman is the New Face of the $10 Bill in Canada

Canada — More than 70 years ago, Viola Desmond stood up for civil rights in Canada when she refused to leave a whites-only section of a theater. Last week, she was honored as the first Black person and a non-royal woman to become the face of a dollar bill in Canada.

Civil rights pioneer Viola Desmond was the one chosen out of the 26,000 submissions that came in following Bank of Canada’s announcement that they will be featuring a Canadian woman on the country’s bill for the first time.

Desmond’s story began in 1946, almost a decade before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus. Desmond, a businesswoman from Halifax selling her own line of beauty products, was on the way to Nova Scotia when her car broke down.

Finding ways to kill time while stuck, she decided to watch a movie at a theater.

The local theater is a segregated area where the black people were relegated to the balcony while the floor seating was reserved for whites only.

Desmond, being shortsighted, tried to buy a floor seat but was denied. So she bought a balcony seat, in which tax is

one-cent cheaper, and still sat on the floor area.

She refused to leave until the police dragged and arrested her. She

was thrown in jail for 12 hours and was fined for tax evasion over a single penny.

For so many years, her act of defi-

ance and her efforts for Canada’s civil rights movement was overlooked by many. Desmond died in 1965 but she was only issued a posthumous apology and pardon by Nova Scotia in 2010, over six decades after she was arrested.

On March 9, 2018, Desmond’s 90-year-old sister Wanda Robson represented her as the new $10 bill featuring her image was unveiled.

“It’s beyond what I ever thought. It’s beautiful,” Robson said at the event in Halifax.

Aside from being the first Black person to be featured on a regularly circulating Canadian bill, she is also the first non-royal, Canadian-born woman to do so. The $10 bill, which is also the first in the country to have a vertical orientation, is expected to be in circulation at the end of the year.

“I say thank you, thank you, thank you,” Robson continued. “Our family will go down in history–in history, imagine that.”

Russell Grosse, executive director of the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia, said that it is a powerful act of acceptance. “The launch of the bill sends people of African descent the message that Canada is finally accept-

NAACP Critical of Ben Carson’s Move to Change HUD’s Mission Statement BALTIMORE (March, 2018)—The NAACP is deeply concerned by Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson’s move to dilute the agency’s long-standing mission.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development Act, which established HUD as a cabinet-level agency, declared a purpose: “[T]o provide for full and appropriate consideration, at the national level, of the needs and interests of the Nation’s communities and of the people who live and work in them.” This purpose is sustained through the agency’s mission to “build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination.” Secretary Carson’s action not only threatens HUD’s founding purpose, but also reveals plans of regression.

“Dr. Carson’s attempt to diminish HUD’s mission comes on the heels of the 50th anniversary of the Kerner Commission’s report which affirmed that discrimination and segregation had long permeated much of American Life and continues to threaten the future of every American; and at a time when the Trump administration seeks to cut billions of dollars in housing aid for low-income families,” said NAACP’s Sr. Director of Economic

The NAACP releases a statement on Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson’s move to dilute the agency’s longstanding mission.

Programs, Marvin J. Owens, Jr. Despite these attempts, the promise of discrimination-free practices lives on in the Fair Housing Act which has the central objective of prohibiting race discrimination in sales and rentals of housing. The hope of continued progress in America rests in the hands of communities across the country that continue to push their elected leaders to preserve programs designed to help disadvantaged communities and promote policies that make economic inclusion a reality.

The NAACP recognizes the importance of an inclusive economy and economic policies that address the challenging realities facing our country including poverty, lack of jobs and disproportionate high unemployment, lack of affordable housing, and foreclosures. The NAACP Economic Department’s work enhances the capacity of African Americans and other under-served groups through financial economic education; individual and community asset building initiatives; diversity and inclusion in business hir-

22

ing, career advancement and procurement; and monitoring financial banking practices.

ABOUT THE NAACP Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation’s oldest and largest nonpartisan civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities. You can read more about the NAACP’s work and our six “Game Changer” issue areas by visiting NAACP.org.

Con’t from page

Connecticut’s

low Brian Fink, alliance members were able to connect with a several attorneys at Wiggin & Dana who took the work on pro bono, helping them inch toward nonprofit status.

It’s also helped food entrepreneurs like Sumiya Kahn and Amelia Reese Masterson, founders of CitySeed’s refugeecentric Sanctuary Kitchen program. As the two have added an incubator component to the program this year, they’ve found that the refugees with whom they’re working need legal assistance with the basics of starting a food business—entity formation, licensing, liability insurance, and Connecticut food laws.

“What’s exciting about that work is we’re able to refer those individuals to the legal food hub,” said Chenault Taylor, a second-year graduate student at the Yale School of Management who has been working with the program.

“They’re going to be able to have sustained access to individuals who are really excited to work with them.”

As one of its first steps, the CT Legal Food Hub is also rolling out a legal guide co-written by The Ludwig Center for Community and Economic Development at Yale Law School and The Environmental Protection Clinic at Yale Law School) with chapters on tax regulations, land transitions, and employment law. It is also extending a welcome to farmers and food entrepreneurs who may not know it exists, and trying to spread the word about its services.

“I think about how things have changed,” said Steven Reviczky, the state’s commissioner of agriculture.

“We have young farmers, older farmers, people coming back to the farm, multigenerational farms … and I think that that is changing and has changed. I see a lot of younger people coming back to the farm, and I see a lot of individuals entering farming and agriculture.”

“For me, it is truly exciting,” he added.

“The challenge is that people who aren’t steeped in agriculture don’t necessarily know the services available … unless you were born into it, how would you know that those services exist?”

For CTCORE-Organize Now! Director Isa Mujahid, that’s exactly what the hub is for. A longtime proponent of food justice and health equity in New Haven, Mujahid is interested in acquiring a farm for CTCORE, as a way to expand the organization’s mission of social and racial justice in the state of Connecticut.

“We don’t even know what we don’t know,” he said. “To be able to have a sounding board to ask those questions is really important.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS MARCH 14, 2018 - MARCH 20, 2018

Questions about your bill?

Yale New Haven Hospital is pleased to offer patients and their families financial counseling regarding their hospital bills or the availability of financial assistance, including free care funds.

By appointment, patients can speak one-on-one with a financial counselor during regular business hours. For your convenience, extended hours are available once a month.

Date: Monday, March 19 Time: 5 - 7 pm Location: Children’s Hospital, 1 Park St., 1st Floor, Admitting Parking available (handicapped accessible) An appointment is necessary. Please call 203-688-2046.

Spanish-speaking counselors available.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS

MARCH 14, 2018

-

MARCH 20, 2018

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