INNER-CITY NEWS

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016 THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 16, 2022 - March 22, 2022

Financial Justice a Key Focus at 2016 NAACP Convention

2020 Census Called ‘Worse Undercount’ in Decades as Bureau Misses Millions of Blacks and Hispanics New Haven, Bridgeport

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 16, 2022 - March 22, 2022

Hamden’s Female Leadership Team Marks International Women’s Day

by MAYA MCFADDEN and NORA GRACE-FLOOD | New Haven Independent

On International Women’s Day, local leaders in Hamden had reason to celebrate a transformation in town leadership — and to pose for a photo.

That’s because for the first time in Hamden history, all of the municipal government’s’s top offices are filled with women.

The women include Mayor Lauren Garrett, Town Clerk Karimah Mickens, Legislative Council President Dominique Baez, and Board of Education President Melissa Kaplan. Mickens and Baez are also the first Black women to fill their respective roles in town.

“Women in power don’t come naturally.

You need a support system and you need to fight for it,” Garrett said.

On Tuesday marked not just a day to honor women but a Democratic Party “change slate’s” first 100 days office.

So the four women gathered at Government Center to document history made and in the making — not just by taking the time to stand for a team leadership photo, but to participate in the filming of a documentary by another past female town leader.

Hamden’s top female four agreed that having more women in positions of authority means that “we are accessible to one another, we share our thoughts with one another, we are open to each others’ perspective, and that we have a tremendous amount of respect for one another,” in Melissa Kaplan’s words.

Mickens said that she can always count on her three fellow officials to keep her in the loop about local issues, calling her just to say, “Hey, did you know about this?”

“They’re making sure I have a seat at the

Melissa Kaplan, Lauren Garrett, Karimah Mickens and Dominique Baez.

table,” Mickens asserted.

“As a woman with a toddler currently,” Baez pitched in, while her daughter, Zoe, played by her feet, “I find a lot of support in the women around me — they’re okay with me bringing a baby to a meeting or being on a zoom and Zoe pops her head in.”

“I feel comfortable with that because I understand that people are caregivers,

people have families … Humans aren’t in a vacuum,” Baez said.

“So many women before us have helped all of us get to where we are,” Garrett said. “That’s what International Women’s Day is about.”

Garrett said that she hopes gradually getting more women into political positions will help women “be judged by the policies they write, the words that they say

and less by the fact that we have these presumed gender roles that make it difficult for us.”

The group planned to spend the rest of International Women’s Daysigning papers at the Council office (Baez), swearing in a new member to the Board of Education (Mickens), working on the town budget (Garrett), and teaching a women and gender studies senior capstone at

Quinnipiac University (Kaplan).

Watch an interview with some of Hamden’s women leaders below, conducted as part of “Word On The Street,” a segment of WNHH FM’s LoveBabz LoveTalk.

The documentarian present Tuesday was Roxana Walker-Canton, who was the only Black person to serve on the Board of Education back in 2019 before Garrett’s crew of Democrats beat out an incumbent-led slate and, in the process, established more diverse representation across elected offices.

Walker-Canton, a university professor and filmmaker, moved to Florida rather than running for a second term alongside Garrett. She spent her time on the board fighting to bring more teachers of color to Hamden schools and to introduce social justice inspired curriculums.

Walker-Canton has been visiting Hamden lately to build her documentary, which has the working title “One Town At A Time.” It will tell the story of how Garrett’s slate tipped town politics while reflecting on Martin Luther King Jr. ‘s notion that “injustice anywhere is a threat to injustice everywhere,” she said.

“Prior to this 2021 election was a town where the leadership was not representative,” Walker-Canton reflected. “It’s been three years of struggles — people losing races and getting back up and running again … the folks that are in office now worked for it. They weren’t just friends of friends.”

The past two to three years have seen a total “transformation,” Walker-Canton said. “We have a woman mayor, a woman town clerk — the head of the board of education, legislative council are all women, and diverse women, too.

They’re not just members of the good ol’ boys club.”

Honored Teacher Opens Linguistic Doors

by PAUL BASS

New Haven Independent

Trudy Anderson can tell you four different ways to say pen — in Spanish alone.

Ecuadorians say “esfero.” Mexicans say, “lapiecro.” Carribean Spanish-speakers use the word “pluma,” while those from Spain say, “boligrafo.”

You can hear all four versions in New Haven, where families come from a host of Spanish-speaking countries.

And you find students hailing from many of those countries in New Haven public school classrooms, including Trudy Anderson’s sixth through eighth-grade Spanish class at Nathan Hale School.

Anderson has been teaching Spanish and French in New Haven schools for

30 years. She’s good enough at it that the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages has named her its teacher of the year.

“I was very surprised. I was humbled,” Anderson, who is 52 and was born in Jamaica, said during an appearance Tuesday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”

She spoke of the value of what she teaches her students: “When you learn another language, it’s like you’re living two lives,” she said. And it helps people understand better those who come from different backgrounds — an important skill for students who will graduate into a globalized, interconnected work world.

Anderson has up to 26 students at one time in a class. She breaks them into smaller groups to learn at their own

paces. She also integrates the experiences of people from other cultures into the curriculum: She assigns students, for instances, to visit bodegas or homes of friends to converse in Spanish as homework.

Recently she brought in a friend from Puerto Rico to discuss her childhood — exposing students to someone whose accent and word choices differ from the teacher’s. Instead of translating for students when they get confused, Anderson guides them to the right answer and will “say it a different way until they get it” to help them master the language.

Anderson will next compete in a national final round in November against other regional foreign-language teachers of the year.

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PAUL BASS PHOTO Foreign Language Teacher of the Year Trudy Anderson at WNHH FM.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 16, 2022 - March 22, 2022

Bill Seeks Higher Education – Later – For Foster Youth

by Lisa Backus

CT NEWS JUNKIE

Nationally more than 70% of youth in foster care would like to get a college education, according to Connecticut Voices for Children. But 20% of foster youth go to college and only 5% graduate, the organization said.

The advocacy group testified Tuesday before the Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee in support of HB 5299, which would require the state Department of Children and Families to provide access to higher education, vocational training or employment training programs for youth who have been in foster care until they reach age 30. a green button that says support and red button that says oppose “For young people who left DCF care at 18 and now want to return to school, young people in DCF care who pressed pause on school while they managed the trauma of living through a pandemic, and young people in DCF care who decided not to go to college amidst a pandemic, this bill would provide another chance to finish their education or vocational training,” said Lauren Rush, a researcher for CT Voices, in her testimony.

The bill was raised by House Chair Josh Elliott, D-Hamden, after CT Voices issued a report authored by Rush and Ryan Wilson that called for more help building stability and financial wealth for foster

DCF Commissioner Vannessa Dorantes. Credit: Christine Stuart photo

youth aging out of the system.

“It’s important that people who are in foster care have as much of a chance as anybody else to get an education,” Elliott said. “Because they are under the care of DCF, that should at least translate into a medium-term investment of resources by the state.”

The bill would change the law to extend the age that former and current DCF

youth could receive post-secondary education or vocational training funding to 30. An estimate hasn’t been developed on how much the bill could cost.

“A lot of people won’t use the option,” Rush said, responding to questions on how many former and current DCF foster youth are likely to participate. About 10% of eligible foster care youth are participating in a similar program after Minnesota

raised the age for educational funding for those in state care to 27 last year, Rush said.

But DCF officials said that would mean the agency might have to pick up the tab for college or training and support services for close to 5,000 former and current foster care youth who are now between the ages of 18 and 30, said DCF Commissioner Vannessa Dorantes.

“DCF policy currently provides for financial assistance for post-secondary education expenses up to the amount of attending Central Connecticut State University,” Dorantes said. “Implementing the bill’s provisions would also require DCF to hire more specialized staff and fund additional contracts with community providers for support services.”

Dorantes said the bill doesn’t take into consideration that youth who are about to “age out” of the system at 21, or if they receive a waiver, 23, continue to receive case management and other services.

“These services are an integral part of ensuring success for these youths, but it is not contemplated in this legislation for the proposed older age cohort,” Dorantes told the committee.

There are currently about 1,100 youth ages 18 to 23 who are receiving DCF services while they complete their education or vocational training with financial assistance from the agency, Dorantes said.

Susan Myers, president of the Connecti-

cut Council on Adoption, said that young people who have been in foster care may need more time to access college or vocational training due to the trauma they experienced early in life.

In some cases they had to repeat grades or are delayed in starting kindergarten due to unstable homes which makes them graduate high school later, Myers said.

“Additionally, because of the impact on children and youth of trauma related to neglect and abuse leading to their involvement with the department (DCF), many of them are not prepared to begin college or vocational programs at the same time as their peers and may need additional time to complete a course of study,” Myers said.

Caron Quanick, a foster mom who adopted a son from the agency, told lawmakers, “I think foster youth need support beyond the age of 21 because children who have grown up with trauma often take a good amount of time to access education. When their basic needs are not being met, they are unable to make strides academically.”

Many foster youth will need to work full time while in school, Quanick said. “This will further the need to extend the time funding is available to them,” she said.

“If this funding is truly put into place to break the cycle and create a better future for foster youth, we must make it accessible to them.”

Could A Gas Tax Suspension Spell Relief At The Pump?

by Hugh McQuaid CT NEWS JUNKIE

Republican lawmakers called Thursday for a suspension of Connecticut’s gross receipts tax on gasoline in a temporary proposal they hope will mitigate the impact of a record-breaking surge in gas prices.

Standing at a busy intersection in Hartford, House and Senate Republicans proposed to table the gross receipts tax until July, forgoing an estimated $180 million in revenue to provide temporary relief at the pumps.

“This is, quite frankly, a no-brainer and will provide immediate relief to families who need it now,” Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly said.

Gas prices have soared around the country since late February when Russia invaded Ukraine. The average price per gallon of gas stood at $4.475 Thursday, the state’s highest recorded price, according to AAA. The increases have hit commuters with sticker shock and caught the attention of politicians from both parties.

On Wednesday, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski made a more sweeping call for a pause on all gas taxes until next year. Meanwhile, in a video posted to his Twitter account, Gov.

Ned Lamont said he would explore relief options with the legislature.

“What we can do in terms of rebates, what we can do in terms of a gas tax holiday,” Lamont said. “Make sure it’s something we can afford for the near term.

Make sure we continue to rebuild our roads and bridges.”

Earlier this week, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal was among a group of federal lawmakers promoting legislation to suspend the $.18 per gallon federal gas tax.

On Thursday, state Republicans said the two suspensions combined could lower gas prices by nearly $.45 per gallon.

House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora said the state could afford to suspend the gross receipts tax on gas given its recent budget surplus. He said lawmakers have heard desperate pleas for relief from their constituents.

“We have never been inundated more from our constituents of the panic that they are going through, trying to make ends meet,” Candelora said. “It’s important that we act now.”

Democratic lawmakers expressed support Thursday for reducing the tax burden on Connecticut families, although not necessarily through the proposal offered

by Republicans.

Rep. Sean Scanlon, a Guilford Demo-

Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly Credit: Hugh McQuaid / CTNewsJunkie

crat who chairs the legislature’s tax policy committee, said legislative leaders have been in talks with the governor’s administration over the past two days seeking to identify the best way to address the spike in gas prices.

Suspending the gas tax may do more to help oil companies, who could absorb the

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savings, than drivers.

“What we definitely don’t want to do is help the oil companies that are making a lot of money right now,” Scanlon said.

“We want to help the drivers and a suspension of the gas tax sounds nice, I’m just not sure it’s the right idea yet.”

Senate President Martin Looney and

Majority Leader Bob Duff also released a statement, saying they were in ongoing conversation on tax relief including the gas tax.

“Democrats have and will continue to push for policies that reduce the tax burden for middle and working class families while ensuring that the most wealthy and corporations pay their fair share,” Looney and Duff said. “Drivers across the country are suffering from the impact of Putin’s Price Hike as a result of his devastating and criminal war in Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, Attorney General William Tong reported an influx of consumer complaints to his office alleging price gouging by gas stations.

“Not every price increase is price gouging, but we will investigate every report we receive during this abnormal market disruption,” Tong said on his Twitter account. He urged residents looking to file a complaint to save receipts and identify the time and location of the sale.

Candelora said price gouging complaints were not likely to be an effective way to address the issue.

“I can imagine everyone feels they’re being gouged right now,” he said. “What we will do is take our message to the people. That is: We can afford this tax relief to take the pressure off the pump.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 16, 2022 - March 22, 2022

Slain Man’s Family Launches Foundation To Spread Healing And Peace

by MAYA MCFADDEN New Haven Independent

Half a year since 27-year-old Trequon Lawrence was murdered, his family is looking to help others grieving over other unsolved homicides.

Lawrence was shot in his blue Genesis G80 sedan Sept. 8 at Newhall and Division streets. The police received notice from the ShotSpotter identification system of 10 gunshots and found ten .9mm casings near the scene. Lawrence was pronounced dead at the hospital Lawrence’s grandmother Laverne Watts and mother Pashion Watts-Gaines have founded the Trequon Lawrence Advocacy and Accountability Foundation (TLAAF) in his memory, with a mission of finding preventive solutions to reduce the city’s gun violence.

The co-founders gathered Tuesday evening for the organization’s monthly community meeting, where ideas for curbing gun violence were discussed. Tuesday also was the six-month anniversary of Lawrence’s death.

Watts and Watts-Gaines founded the organization because gun violence and homicides have “become the norm for this city,” Watts said.

In February the group celebrated the launch of the nonprofit with its first virtual community meeting.

At the Tuesday meeting, Watts raised concerns about the upcoming summer season, which gets “out of control” with violence, she said.

She suggested there be an increase in places for youth to go for recreational fun in all neighborhoods, and spoke of raising money to help “put their energy to good use.: The foundation aims to tackle not only gun violence but all city violence and crime.

“We want prevention. We need action before things happen,” Watts said. “Don’t just show up when a murder happens.”

This summer, if upticks in violence occur, Watts suggested the city implement curfews that are enforced by the police department.

Watts also suggested that police officers be required to get to know the communities they patrol and build relationships

Trequon Lawrence.

with residents.

“Nowadays no one knows anyone,” Watts said.

“If they know police are not going to care, then they’re going to continue keeping people at bay and keep people locked up in their own homes,” she added.

“When you walk out your door, you have to look both ways, like you’re crossing the street,” Watts said.

Also in attendance at the meeting was Kim DiBenedetto-Rogers, whose nephew, Isaiah Conyers, was shot dead in his apartment in 2014.

DiBenedetto-Rogers echoed Watts’ demand for community policing that re-

quires police to make relationships with neighborhood residents.

When she sees officers patrolling neighborhoods, they rarely stop to say hello to kids and other residents. she said.

She added that more police presence is needed, particularly in Newhallville, along with more transparency from the police department.

She asked why “cop cars [are] sitting in parking lots where there is no crime or action.”

Watts-Gaines, Lawrence’s mother, has gotten no answers about her son’s death in six months, she said.

She said she “remembers it like it was

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yesterday” when her son was murdered.

The pain and grieving remains “fresh and new,” she said, especially when “no one is feeling responsible for it.”

Watts said that community members won’t speak up to help solve crimes if they don’t know or trust city police.

The foundation hopes to partner with Mothers United Against Violence, Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF), and other prevention efforts to curb community issues like crime and drug abuse.

DiBenedetto-Rogers suggested the organization also look to partner with youth mental health resources that focus in following up with children who have witnessed or been exposed to local violence.

The idea came to her after having a shooting happen in the backyard of her home years ago during her child’s birthday party.

“Kids that are not getting the treatment or the therapy that they need after witnessing something like that or after it being a family member, that can then turn into something that they’re going to do,” DiBenedetto-Rogers said.

Nancy Jordan, the New Haven police department’s victim services officer, facilities monthly Survivors of Homicide Victims Support Group meetings that both DiBenedetto-Rogers and WattsGaines attend.

Despite plans to retire from the department two years ago after 20 years of service, Jordan has remained at the department because of the support group.

“I needed to give more,” she said. “My motto is: No survivors should be left behind.”

She said she plans to increase the community presence of the support group to bring awareness to all forms of violence and the number of unsolved homicides.

On Sunday Jordan has arranged for the support group to march for its first time ever in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Watts asked Jordan to help the foundation establish a relationship with the police department to work together to prevent violence in the city.

The foundation also has a goal to create a fund to give awards to community members who speak up to help solve cases.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 16, 2022 - March 22, 2022

32 Years Later, A Murder Resonates Anew

by LAURA GLESBY ail the Author New Haven Independent

Thanks to the internet, Jocelyn Jackson has found a community of people who remember her brother — one that she hopes will surface new leads 32 years after his murder devastated people whose lives he touched on both sides of New Haven’s town-gown divide.

For more than three decades after the unsolved murder, Jackson held onto physical traces of John Evers Robinson’s 24-year life: the tin candle he gave her for an early teenage birthday, the posthumous record of hardcore punk songs he wrote with his band.

A few months ago, Jackson found a digital trove of memories in an online Facebook group of over 100 people connected to Robinson, a musician who spent his adolescence in New Haven creating communities of friends from disparate parts of the city’s life.

Now, as Jackson and other loved ones look ahead to the 32nd anniversary of Robinson’s death, they are asking for help in their search for the missing pieces of their collective memory: answers about Robinson’s death, and accountability for the person who killed him.

Jackson knows that fear may be holding people back from sharing what they know about the case.

“I want to encourage and invite the strength that’s required to come forward to speak the justice that’s required for my brother to find this peace, and for my family to find this peace after so long,” she said. “I want them to know that the friends that John created, this whole community of people in New Haven, they’re still here and willing to actively support anyone coming forward to make this case.”

The family is working to raise a $20,000 police reward for information that leads to an arrest.

Someone murdered Robinson, whom many knew as “Rokked,” on March 12, 1990, with blows to the head in a Temple Street office he repurposed as a music studio.

Police have identified persons of interest in the case, but have not found sufficient evidence to issue charges. The case reopened in 2009 when one of those persons of interest came under a separate federal investigation, but yielded no new answers.

As this contemporary article in the nowdefunct New Haven Advocate newspaper detailed, police believed that Robinson knew his murderer, as there were no signs of forced entry in his studio. Some have theorized that the murder had to do with a drug sale, or a robbery-gone-wrong; others believe a Nazi skinhead was responsible, motivated perhaps by an allegedly stolen cymbal.

For decades, Jackson’s grief remained rooted in herself and in the small group of people she knew connected to Robinson.

Robinson died long before the internet became a household tool.

In recent years, she made an annual practice of searching Robinson’s name online for any new references to his life and death. In a recent search, Jackson found a comment on an article referring to the Advocate story about Robinson’s death.

She reached out to the article’s writer, Howard Altman, who spoke with her back and forth for two days and created a cascade of connections to other friends and loved ones of Robinson’s from every corner of the country whom Jackson found online.

Together, Jackson and her new contacts created this website repository of articles written about the case, as well as a Facebook group of people who knew Robinson. Thirty two years after Robinson’s death, the group has brought about a stream of photographs and memories that each individual participant could not have accessed on their own.

“There is a groundswell of love in the direction of John,” Jackson said. “You still see this real strong line of heartbreak among all of us that this is a case without justice and accountability.”

Robinson grew up in Kansas with his mother, then decided at age 14 to move to New Haven with his father. He spent his subsequent years in the city attending school at Hamden Hall and devoting him-

self to his hardcore band, Sold On Murder, for which he wrote music, sang, and played bass.

In the last months of his life, Robinson was working on the band’s first album; the Advocate reported that he had been selling substances in order to fund the album’s production. After Robinson’s death, friends and family pooled money to produce the record posthumously.

Robinson’s death left a “void” among his friends, according to one friend, Susan, who wished to be identified by her first name only in fear of retribution. “For so many years, our larger friend group didn’t talk about it, because it only brought up so much pain for people.” Some people left the city in grief; others stayed and sought to numb the sorrow they felt while still others changed their lives dramatically as a result.

When he died at 24, Jackson was 15 years old, still living in Kansas. She knew her brother mostly through his weekend visits. She remembers his olderbrother presence as they buried their pet rabbit together, and his “unflagging energy” as they painted campaign signs for their mother’s school board campaign.

After Robinson’s murder, Jackson was left to mourn the parts of her brother that she did get to know, but also the parts she would never experience firsthand from the time they lived apart.

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Since meeting others who knew Robinson, Jackson has been able to learn about her brother’s life as a young adult — and his friends have been able to impart a piece of the person they loved to her.

“Connecting with Jocelyn has just been wonderful… to come up with all of these memories to help teach her about her brother,” Susan said.

Robinson was curious and politicallyminded, yet never condescending, said Xanda Fayen, a friend and, in the mid80s, a romantic partner of Robinson who helped create the Facebook group. He wrote songs about anti-capitalism and anti-colonialism, about love and mental health. He was a wordsmith; Fayen remembers learning the words “maudlin” and “obstreperous” from him.

He held a calm demeanor in chaotic situations, Susan said. She recalled a shift when they worked at Ashley’s ice cream shop together and accidentally cleaned the store with the toxic combination of bleach and ammonia.

“It didn’t ruffle him,” she recalled.

Robinson was known for his ability to flow between polarized social circles and fit right in. “He could go from the home of Yale professors to chatting with people from all walks of life on Broadway, and he was a beautiful person at any of those surroundings,” Fayen said, “but you couldn’t define him by any one of

those interactions.”

His best friend, Saul Fussiner, said Robinson was a “thrill seeker”: “going to shows, misadventures, borrowing cars, everything off the rails all the time.” But “in a matter of a few moments, he could transform into this lawyerly, logical, matter of fact person.” Robinson won every argument he entered, even when everyone knew his position was wrong.

In every setting, Fussiner said, “he was never clique‑y. He was always pulling everyone into his orbit.”

Once, Robinson spent his last dime on artichoke hearts for a picnic, Fussiner recalled. “He could not eat a sandwich without cheese on it. He would get into arguments with guys at kosher delis because he wanted cheese on his pastrami.

He did everything 300 percent. That’s the way he lived his life.”

And John had a knack for pinpointing the type of music that each person would enjoy. He was certain that Fayen would love Handsworth Revolution by Steel Pulse in the summer of 1986, and he had been right, she said.

Robinson’s murder still feels raw to Fayen, who has found herself discovering new aspects of Robinson’s life from the Facebook group. One new memory, posted by Ali Boyd, a classmate of Robinson at Hamden Hall, recalled Robinson as an upperclassman and class president who took time to make Boyd feel welcomed when she felt most like an outsider.

In one rough moment, Robinson brought Boyd “dough balls” of bread to eat. “After that, any time I was awkwardly standing alone, which was often, John would stand next to me,” Boyd wrote. “He was class president, a senior, seemed to be friends with EVERYONE, sang in a punk band. It’s like he wanted to give me cool kid cred so I’d feel safe.”

“A lot of those of us [in John’s circle] had struggled in various ways in our lives, and maybe not always made the best decisions and had personal challenges,” Fayen said. But most of them — including Fayen, who is a school social worker in Michigan, and Susan, who works as a teacher — grew up to build families of their own and take on public service roles. “And John never got the chance to find his way because that was taken away from him.”

Susan echoed this feeling. “So many of us that had really really rough time as a teenager and a young adult, and it’s been one of the most beautiful things to see those people grow up, and figure out who they are, and get on the path that means something to them,” she said. “But the back of my head always is wondering what John’s path would have been.”

Jackson remembers that when she turned 24, she realized, “He’s always going to be my older brother, but I will always be older than him.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 16, 2022 - March 22, 2022

Fire Victim Restitches Fashion Dream

by NORA GRACE-FLOOD New Haven Independent

SNOWY DAY | NEW WORLD Friday, March 18 | 7:30pm Lyman Center for the Performing Arts Southern CT State University New Haven Symphony Orchestra Alasdair Neale, music director Flora Hawk, soprano Lianna Wimberly Williams, soprano Korin Thomas-Smith, baritone Dvorak Symphony No. 9, “From the New World” Simerson The Fallen Ravel Mother Goose Suite Excerpts from The Snowy Day Music by NHSO Composer-inResidence Joel Thompson Inspired by the children’s book by Ezra Jack Keats All audience members will wear masks & present proof of vaccination or neg. Covid test (administered less than 48 hours prior).

Learn more at NewHavenSymphony.org.

For Tickets: (203) 787-4282 NewHavenSymphony.org

When fashion designer Jerlisa Thomas returned to her Warner Street apartment for the first time following a three-alarm fire, she was bombarded with ash and loss — until she noticed a treasure the flames failed to destroy: Her sewing machine.

Thomas’ Hamden apartment complex at 42 Warner St. is scheduled for demolition after a devastating fire displaced herself and roughly 60 residents on Valentine’s Day. On Feb. 14, the 26-year-old model and designer was out bartending and promoting her first fashion show, a lingerie line-up from her business Chemistry Lingerie that she planned to present the next month. She had selected Valentine’s Day to launch ticket sales, but when she returned to her home studio at 1 a.m., she saw cops, crying neighbors and the potential death of her lifelong dream.

“Is this for real?” she questioned.

“I had just received my inventory,” Thomas recalled, explaining that she purchases fabrics and articles of clothing wholesale before altering them into her personal products ready for sale. “The first thing I thought about was my inventory, and then I started thinking about my laptop — business documents, receipts of everything I’ve paid for, my Chemistry Lingerie file, my portfolio of all the models I had and all the information that they’d just filled out.”

All of her belongings, including years of sketches, stitches and a thought-through plan to finally showcase years of hard work, appeared ruined. But the survival of Thomas’ sewing machine affirmed the first major decision she made to retain control of her life.

NORA GRACE-FLOOD PHOTO Jerlisa Thomas with her soulmate sewing machine outside of Clarion Hotel, her temporary lodgings.

“I gave myself a day. I gave myself another day. And then I said, what am I gonna do? I can’t just sit here and mope.”

Thomas told herself: The show must go on.

On Monday night, Thomas and her crew of models completed their final dress rehearsal for an upcoming event that will feature little “dress.” On Friday, Thomas’ birthday, models of all shapes and sizes will strip down inside New Haven’s Terminal 110 and show off boxers, bras, and thongs styled to meet Thomas’ theme, “50 Shades of Chem.”

While temporarily living alongside other Warner fire victims out of the Clarion Hotel in Hamden, Thomas has been working four times more than usual. She picked up extra shifts at a restaurant in Westport to address the financial burden of the fire while spending the remainder of her free time rearranging and coordinating looks

and event details to stay on track to avoid canceling her chosen venue, models, and ticket sales.

“All I do now is go to work,” she said. Instead of her typical, meticulously curated and tailored outfits, Thomas said, “I just wear black” to her job — or sweatsuits donated to her by caring friends and family.

“I realize now the impact I have on some people,” she reflected. “They tell me that I inspire them, that I’m headstrong.

Sometimes I feel like people just tell me that to make me feel better, but I’ve realized — they’re actually right!”

“Work, work, work, work, work,” is one of Thomas’ mottos, one sung by her role model Rihanna, the Barbadian pop star and creator of Fenty Beauty and and Savage X Fenty, the latter of which is an allinclusive undergarment company.

Overcoming adversity and determining her own destination, Thomas said, helped her realize: If people like Rihanna, or Thomas’ other heroes such as model and influencer Tenaya Henry, can achieve their visions, “Why not me?”

One day, Thomas said, she hopes to go international with her brand and open up a storefront in Dominica, her parents’ home country.

Thomas’ company, Chemistry Lingerie, seeks to “include everyone” in that sense of possibility.

“When you meet someone and you’re super attracted to them, there’s the potential of sexual connection. That potential is chemistry,” Thomas said.

In other words, Thomas’ brand is not just about “confidence, sexiness, and resilience,” but about “potential” — the potential to connect not just with another person, but with oneself and one’s wide range of desires, whether that’s uncovering love and attraction or building selfesteem and empowerment.

Potential becomes reality through psychological adaptation and action. That theory is threaded into the name of Thomas’ business.

Con’t on page 19

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Labor Deal Poised For Partisan Debate THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 16, 2022 - March 22, 2022

by Hugh McQuaid CT NEWS JUNKIE

If ratified by state workers, a labor deal providing raises and bonuses looks likely to be the subject of a partisan debate in the legislature as Republicans signaled Thursday they believed the terms negotiated by the governor’s administration are too costly.

A coalition of public sector unions and Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration announced last week they had reached a tentative agreement on compensation for around 43,000 state employees.

According to documents provided to unionized state workers, the deal includes 2.5% step raises for the next three years beginning with a raise retroactive to last July. If approved, workers will also receive $3,500 in bonuses spread over two installments.

In addition to a vote by rank and file workers, which union leaders expect to occur in the next few weeks, the terms will need to be approved by the state legislature. At an unrelated press conference Thursday, the legislature’s top Republicans told reporters they do not expect their members to support the deal.

“I would be shocked,” House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora said. “We’ve seen rich employment packages in the past. It is unprecedented to give our workers $3,500 bonuses.”

The deal comes at a pivotal time for both

Lamont, a Democrat seeking re-election in November, and state government, where the number of workers has plunged this year as many eligible employees choose to retire rather than accept the leaner cost-of-living adjustment terms that will apply to any state worker who retires after July 1.

According to the state comptroller’s office, 952 state workers have already retired this year as of earlier this week and another 2,307 have filed paperwork indicating their intent to retire soon.

In a press release this week, the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition cast the tentative agreement as a fair deal aimed at recruiting and retaining qualified state workers in the face of a “retirement tsunami.” Unionized state workers have had their wages frozen for six of the last 12 years and the state has demanded benefit concessions as previous negotiations took place against a backdrop of state budget deficits. This year, the state enjoys a surplus.

“Now is the time to invest in Connecticut’s future with a diverse and talented workforce ready to move us forward, not backwards,” union leaders wrote in a press release. “We hope that these Tentative Agreements encourage our current workforce to delay their retirement and continue to provide these critical public services.”

On Thursday, Candelora said he sus-

File photo of Gov. Ned Lamont at a union event in November 2018 Credit: Christine Stuart / CTNewsJunkie

pected the terms of the deal would be inadequate to coax eligible state employees away from their plans to retire.

“I’ve talked to state workers that have been in for 20 or 30 years,” Candelora said. “They’ve already made those life decisions, they’ve already bought their house in Florida. They’re ready to go.”

Candelora said the agreement seemed to be an election-year concession by Lamont to the state’s labor community and a missed opportunity by the governor, who had previously expressed interest in

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using the retirements to consolidate state government.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly said it was “tone deaf” to provide pay increases and bonuses to public sector workers while private sector workers were struggling.

“I know that the financial circumstances of the state are good, but the financial circumstances of the people who pay for our government are not. And I don’t think we should be rewarding government when families across Connecticut are strug-

gling,” Kelly said.

Republican opposition to the labor agreement is not unexpected. Even deals in previous years that included wage freezes and givebacks failed to attract much support from Republicans. The agreements will likely receive a warmer reception from the Democrats who control both chambers of the legislature.

Speaking generally about the details of the deal, Senate President Martin Looney said he was inclined to support the agreements.

“What they will do is to help us to attract quality workers to state government and retain those we have,” Looney said. “It’ll be a positive thing for the state.”

Looney said he hoped more lucrative contracts may help prevent a further “hollowing-out” of state agencies by privatizing certain government functions. Years of tight budgets and frozen wages has made state employment less desirable to some employees, he said.

“Many of those years were years of no increases and so it’s legitimate to catch up now that things are better somewhat because we really don’t want to be losing skilled people who just decide there are better opportunities for them outside of state government,” Looney said.

The Office of Policy and Management, which negotiated the deal with state employees, has not released the details of the agreement to the media.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 16, 2022 - March 22, 2022

“Morning Without Childcare” Rally Draws 350

by LAURA GLESBY

by Christine Stuart CT NEWS JUNKIE

New Haven Independent

Preschool teachers led a round of “If You’re Happy And You Know It” Tuesday morning — but this time it was adults, not kids, singing along. And they weren’t happy.

The 350 childcare workers and parents (and some young children) were gathered on the New Haven Green to make a point about a funding crisis affecting their classrooms, and to demand help from the state.

The gathering on the Green was one of nine protest rallies taking place in cities statewide under the banner, “A Morning Without Childcare.” Several New Haven-area childcare facilities — ranging from large centers to home-based providers — closed from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. to demonstrate what might happen to their industry if the government does not step in.

“If you’re happy and you know it, say ‘Fix it now!’ ” early educator Devonna Lewis called out.

“Fix it now!” echoed the crowd, sounding a call for more state funding for the imperiled childcare industry.

The industry has been facing dire staffing shortages, in part because childcare workers, who often need to earn associates or bachelor’s degrees, earn a median wage of $13.45 per hour.

Meanwhile, according to the Economic Policy Institute, infant care is “affordable” by federal Health and Human Services standards for only 11.5 percent of Connecticut families. On average, childcare in the state costs more than $15,000 per year per child in a center, or more than $10,500 per year per child in a homebased facility.

A Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance poll found that 62 percent of childcare facilities are currently operating at a loss and that 89 percent had trouble hiring staff in the latter half of 2021.

Childcare advocates are calling on the state to provide at least $300 million of the $700 million in funding they say is necessary for the industry to survive.

The state legislature is currently weighing a bill that would provide some of that funding.

The pandemic accelerated the financial pressure on childcare providers, while heightening the health risks and emotional challenges of their job as they sought to maintain a safe, welcoming space for children.

“We diligently responded to the call of duty when asked to do extraordinary things, such as risk our lives and the lives of our families to remain open … even before anyone really understood how to safely deal with Covid,” said home-based childcare provider Angela Russell.

Mayor Justin Elicker, whose daughter April attends Leila Day Nurseries in East Rock, said the rally was “the first time I heard Leila Day staff this riled up.” He

Calls For Investigation of COVID-19 Collection Cases

Demonstrators at Tuesday morning's rally. LAURA GLESBY PHOTO

Elicker: City needs state's help.

noted that the staffers there have “some kind of mystery magic” that immediately calms down his daughter and her peers when they enter their classroom. He said the city is increasing its funding for youth development programs this year, and called on the state to provide more support for childcare centers.

Low funding strained the industry, and the parents struggling to pay for childcare, long before the pandemic.

“No more are we going to work eight to ten hours per day, plus two hours of night school to earn a degree, and still make the same as a high school student working their first job,” said Hope For New Haven Director Georgia Goldburn, one of the organizers.

“The system is designed to pay women to work in poverty,” said Friends Center For Children Director Allyx Schiavone, noting that many childcare workers rely on supplemental income.

After the rally, Schiavone elaborated that the state should ensure that the necessary influx of support is equitable and supporting high-quality care. “We don’t want to invigorate a broken system,” she said.

Families from any zip code and income bracket should be able to access childcare, including on the weekends if needed, Schiavone said. She argued that state funding should not only expand childcare capacity — it should strengthen classrooms that are currently struggling to function on the bare minimum resources.

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“We’re asking programs and providers and educators to provide high quality on 50 percent of what the true cost is,” Schiavone said.

Miriam Johnson, a program head at Fair Haven Heights-based Friends Center For Children who has worked in childcare for more than 20 years, spoke of her experience as a young single mom trying to afford childcare for her now-11-yearold daughter.

“The wage is just outrageous,” she said.

While her daughter received an “affordable” childcare slot, the reduced fee still put a strain on her family, Johnson said.

Friends Center For Children is still trying to fill staffing vacancies, Johnson said.

Staffers from childcare and early learning centers showed up on Tuesday with the support of parents and children who rely on their programs. The Newhallbased Harris and Tucker School, which hopes to hire four more educators if it receives more funding, was one such center.

Harris and Tucker parent Ashlei Garrett, said she has noticed how much her 3‑year-old, Ace, is learning from preschool. She recalled that Ace came home one day repeating the question, “Float or sink? Float or sink?”

Garrett works as a program manager at the recovery assistance organization Continuum of Care. Childcare has been essential for her to keep working, she said.

Claudine Wilkins-Chambers sent her daughter to Harris and Tucker decades ago. Now, her great-grandson, Kali, attends the school. On Dr. Martin Luther King Day, Kali came home with a photograph of the civil rights leader, whom he has recognized in books and pictures ever since. “He’s just bloomed,” WilkinsChambers said.

The Interim Consumer Counsel Claire Coleman is concerned that utility companies in Connecticut have been trying to collect past due bills from customers struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coleman filed a petition Friday afternoon with the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority calling for an investigation into two of the largest public utility companies: Eversource Energy and Avangrid, Inc. Coleman said her office has obtained information “that demonstrates that at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the utility companies sued consumers for nonpayment and sought and received wage garnishment in court.”

Those actions run counter to the intent of PURA’s multiple orders seeking to assist vulnerable and low-income consumers during the unprecedented financial challenges that COVID-19 inflicted upon the people of Connecticut.

“I am deeply disturbed,” Coleman said.

“OCC, PURA, the Attorney General, and many other stakeholders have worked diligently over the course of the pandemic to ensure that consumers facing financial hardship receive the assistance they need to keep the lights on and the heat running. To learn that our utilities, and to the greatest extent United Illuminating, were pursuing judgments against consumers in court during the Covid-19 State of Emergency rather than directing them to the many assistance and relief programs available during this time is shocking. I welcome a full investigation into this matter.” “ We have and continue to empathize with customers struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic and have fully complied with the PURA’s directives in this area,” Eversource Spokeswoman Tricia Taskey Modifica said. “In addition to imposing a moratorium on service disconnections, out of an abundance of caution, we voluntarily suspended all new legal collections beginning March 13, 2020, which have not restarted. We look forward to fully participating in this review and providing additional information to PURA related to this matter.”

Avangrid, Inc., which represents United Illuminating Company, Connecticut Natural Gas and Southern Connecticut Gas, said they were among the first to suspend turn-offs.

“As the pandemic continued, we helped customers take advantage of the numerous products, government assistance and services designed to help them pay for their energy use in a flexible and customerfriendly manner,” Gage Frank, a spokesman for Avangrid, said. “This includes options such as interest-free pandemic payment plans, suspension of late payment charges, and referrals to assistance programs. Currently, AVANGRID is reviewing the petition submitted by the Consumer Counsel and will await further action from PURA.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 16, 2022 - March 22, 2022

State Lands $11.4M Electric-Bus Grant; “Move New Haven” Transit Plan On Slow Track

by THOMAS BREEN CT NEWS JUNKIE

Twenty-two new electric buses should hit the streets of New Haven, Hartford, Bridgeport, Waterbury, and Stamford over the next year and a half, thanks in part to a newly awarded $11.4 million federal grant to help the state transportation department wean itself off of fossil fuels.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy and state Department of Transportation (DOT) Public Transportation Bureau Chief Rich Andreski announced that news Friday morning during a bus stop-adjacent press conference held on Temple Street on the Green.

Standing alongside two recent batterypowered additions to the state public transit fleet, Andreski and Murphy said that Connecticut has received a $11.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration’s Buses and Bus Facilities Program.

That federal aid will help the state purchase 22 new battery electric buses, which will replace 22 existing dieseloperated buses.

Andreski said the purchase-and-replacement project should cost $25.7 million in total. He said the new electric buses should be acquired and on the road in about 18 months, depending on “potentially elongated [production] lead times” resulting from a surge in federal investments in electric buses.

And he said that this latest acquisition will bring the total number of electric buses in CT DOT’s fleet to 32; eight have

already been delivered and are on the road, four more should be delivered in the next few months, and the new 22 should be operational in a year and a half.

The CT DOT fleet includes roughly 800 buses in total.

These electric buses are “more than 80 percent more efficient in terms of powertrain, production, life-cycle maintenance, and fuel consumption” than diesel buses, Andreski said.

“These are clean buses,” added Murphy.

He said that transportation-related emissions represent the largest contributor to manmade climate change. Part of the state and federal government’s commitment to curbing those emissions, he said, is by replacing polluting diesel buses with electric ones.

“These buses are also more reliable than diesel buses. They break down less frequently,” Murphy said.

Reflecting on how gas prices are eclipsing $4 per gallon, in large part thanks to Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, Murphy said that “electric buses in the long run are cheaper. These buses aren’t held hostage by the price of gasoline.”

With wind turbines slated to be built in the Long Island Sound, Murphy said, Connecticut and the region have the power to help “get this American economy off of foreign oil” and the resulting price volatility at the gas pump.

“It could be Connecticut-produced energy that powers our bus fleet five to 10 years from now.” That would be more reliable, more efficient, and more secure than relying on Russia-produced oil,

THOMAS BREEN PHOTOS U.S. Sen. Murphy (right) with bus drivers Jermaine and Sylvia…

he said.

Andreski added that the purchase price of an electric bus is around $950,000 to $1 million. That’s in comparison to the roughly $650,000 cost of a diesel-hybrid bus.

“But that’s only acquisition,” he said.

“That doesn’t factor in fuel cost and lifecycle maintenance.”

The expected lifespan of an electric bus is roughly the same as a diesel-powered bus, Andreski said, which is around 12 years.

After the presser, the Independent asked Andreski for an update on the recom-

mendations included in the state-funded, decade-in-the-making Move New Haven transit study.

Those recommendations include consolidating bus stops; building out a local Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system with new express routes along Grand, Dixwell, Whalley, and Congress Avenues; building new mini-hub stations in Fair Haven, Dixwell, and Westville; adding dedicated “bus only” lanes; and transit signal priority upgrades to traffic signals.

The backers of that plan — which included the Greater New Haven Transit

District, the state DOT, the Federal Transit Administration, and the City of New Haven — wrapped that study up in September 2019. It’s been mired in delays ever since.

These two and a half years later since the final report was published … what’s going on?

Andreski said the state — which took over the Move New Haven plan from the Greater New Haven Transit District — has been meeting with the city engineer and his team to talk about how the state and the city are going to partner on making some of these recommendations a reality.

“The issue is: This is not like CTfastrack, where we built it in an existing rail rightof-way” that was owned by the state, controlled by the state, and the construction could take place away from city streets and neighborhoods.

“This is a different program,” he said.

These various traffic signal updates and “queue jump” lanes and newly built out bus hubs will take place on city streets and in city neighborhoods.

He said the state plans to retain an engineering consultant at some point this year to help the state work with the city to “develop the scope” for what comes next.

In terms of upgrades to the New Haven bus system that actually have happened recently, Andreski said, the state did successfully extend bus service until 1 a.m.

The state also recently installed two new digital signs with real-time information on when a bus will get to a stop. One of those signs is on Chapel Street between Temple and Church, the other is on Broadway.

Portrait Of Fallen Officer Diane Gonzalez Unveiled On NHPD Memorial Wall

by MAYA MCFADDEN New Haven Independent

City police, elected officials, and family celebrated the life of Officer Diane Gonzalez at the unveiling of a memorial portrait and plaque two months after she succumbed to injuries suffered in an onduty car crash.

Officer Gonzalez suffered from a traumatic brain injury that put her in a coma after the crash, which occurred at the intersection of Chapel and East Streets when she was responding to a 911 call on Sept. 9, 2008. Gonzalez’s cruiser collided with another driven by Sgt. Dario “Scott” Aponte, who was killed in the crash.

Gonzalez succumbed to her injuries on Jan. 10, 2022.

Interim Chief Renee Dominguez, Mayor Justin Elicker, fellow police officers, and relatives of Gonzalez joined at the police headquarters Tuesday for the unveiling on the department’s “Above and Beyond” fallen officer memorial wall in the 1 Union Ave. lobby.

The department, city, and family members celebrated Gonzalez’s 13 years of service on the New Haven force.

Dominguez said she has received thou-

sands of cards and notes about Gonzalez from people worldwide.

“Never as a chief do you want to have to bury one of your officers. Never as a chief do you want to unveil their picture on memorial in the lobby. We hope and pray that those faces that are left empty will never be filled,” Dominguez said.

Gonzalez’s three children, Diane MoraVelez, Kathleen Mora, and Ramon Mora, joined the ceremony for their mother and brought along Gonzalez’s 5‑year-old grandson Nathaniel.

Mora-Velez said her mother dedicated her life to “her family and her job.” She said her mother was always proud to be a police officer and felt a sense of “brotherhood and sisterhood” with her colleagues.” Gonzalez left behind five grandchildren in total.

Mora-Velez said she works hard to keep her mother’s memory alive with her four kids by showing them pictures and a video of her graduation from the police academy.

“She would have chosen a different picture,” Mora-Velez joked after the portrait unveiling.

William McMullen, a city government

MAYA MCFADDEN PHOTOS Gonzalez's daughter Diane Mora-Valez and grandson Nathaniel check out honorary portrait.

retiree who engineered and designed the memorial, unveiled Gonzalez’s portrait, which marks the 23rd fallen officer in New Haven and the first woman officer lost.

“We hope that the memorial that is in

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there really is seen by the citizens of this city so they realize the ultimate sacrifice that being in public safety can be,” McMullen said.

President of The Hundred Club of Connecticut Peter Carozza joined the ceremo-

ny and presented Gonzalez’s two daughters and son each with gifts.

“Today and everyday we remember Officer Diane Gonzalez,” police spokesperson Officer Scott Shumway said.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 16, 2022 - March 22, 2022

Youth Get A Glimpse Into Jaigantic Vision

by Danielle Campbell, The Arts Paper www.newhavenarts.org

Michael Jai White’s whole life changed when someone walked into his school and told him about professional opportunities that were open to him. Now, he’s working to do the same thing for New Haven’s youth as he builds a film studio in their city.

White—the actor, martial artist, and creative force behind Jaigantic Studios— brought that story to the new Stetson Branch Library Saturday, in an effort to connect with some of New Haven’s youngest creatives. As he spoke from the Dixwell Avenue space, he charted his own path from Bridgeport to Hollywood and back to Connecticut, where he is now working towards a “creator studio district” on River Street.

It marks one of the first events in the library, which anchors one end of the Dixwell Community Q House. Prior to Saturday, Jaigantic leadership worked closely with Stetson Branch Manager Diane Brown to pull the event together. Saturday, they included Jaigantic Chief Impact Officer Jackie Buster, Executive Assistant Kaiya Lawrence, spokesperson Devin Michael White. Young Minds and Family Librarian Phillip Modeen also attended/ “When you have street knowledge and you combine that with academic or just you know, business knowledge, you can’t be stopped,” White told a crowd of roughly 70 young people, parents, and mentors Saturday. “My whole thing is if I could find people who are local to hype up, that’s what I’m going to do because I’m from Connecticut and I want to brag about it.”

Saturday, White greeted young people as they trickled into the new library building, many taking it in for the first time.

They included young representatives of the Monk Youth STEAM and Jazz Connective, Artspace New Haven, LEAP, and Creative Hearts, Inc., the Shelton Avenue arts incubator run by Manny James Sorrells. Prior to Saturday, Brown reached out to all of the organizations in an effort to bring neighbors in on the project. So far, much of Jaigantic’s outreach has been limited to Fair Haven and its Sheltonbased satellite, or virtual due to Covid-19.

Before launching into an introduction on the studios, White spoke to the youth in attendance as someone who saw his own story reflected back in many of the faces across the room. Born in Brooklyn and raised in New York and then Bridgeport, White said he struggled with school when he was a kid, and turned to “running the streets” after realizing he was on his own at just 14. For a few years, “I experienced stuff that you only see in movies,” he said.

Then one day a lawyer walked into his high school to talk to the students about his work.

White remembered listening intently—

“Don’t let anybody tell you because you’re from a poor place that that you’re less than,” he said.

just as some of Saturday’s youth were doing as he spoke. The speaker seemed totally confident as himself. He realized that education, in which he later worked, could be a way out.

“He said something that made me think, ‘You know, if he could do that I could do it,’” White said. “And it just planted a seed for me to probably think about doing my schoolwork and maybe I’ll do what he does.”

He started excelling in his classes, “and my teachers started paying attention to me and started investing in me,” he remembered. After “one thing led to another,” it

became a launchpad to the film industry, and to higher education. He developed his own new kind of superheroes as he took on those very roles, breaking barriers for millions of viewers watching from across the country and the world.

“My heroes were people who kind of survived the street,” he said. “I saw people who were going to school, learning things and moving into really nice neighborhoods and raising families. I realized this is why I’ve been angry my whole life, because that image was denied to me. I didn’t get those opportunities.”

Now that those opportunities have come

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to him—and kept coming to him—he wants to make sure to give back. He urged young listeners to pursue educational pathways that came their way, whether or not they were in a formal classroom or institution. At Jaigantic, for instance, that might look like a year-long paid apprenticeship in production. Staff at the studio have said multiple times that they are screening not for a list of educational degrees, but for potential skill. That means they’re open to applicants of all creative backgrounds.

As if on cue, representatives from the studio handed out a list of production jobs

they were soon going to be looking for.

White said he wanted to fill those jobs with local talent before he started looking anywhere else. That’s where young New Haveners come in.

While youth listened intently, it was several of the adults who were fastest to ask questions. As the owner of Styledw.

Purpose, Ta’Nia Bussey is a used to being creative director, set designer, stylist, graphic designer and photographer. So when she heard about the possibility of work at Jaigantic Studios, she wanted to know more about flexibility in the movie industry—and whether it was a good fit for her.

Buster stepped forward and described the “two sides to the studio.” Operations, which is not unionized, is fairly flexible, she said—that covers the job she does. Production, which is unionized, is less flexible. So Bussey might have to choose—but Buster said that Jaigantic will be hiring for both.

Audience member Shirley Ellis-West, who works with the Urban Community Alliance, wondered about the studio’s title of virtual production hub. White explained the studio uses virtual technology as seen in Maleficent, The Mandalorian and Alice in Wonderland. At the beginning of April, special effects artist Robert Stromberg will be joining the team in Shelton. Mayne Berke, chief operating officer and producer with Jaigantic, has already laid out a vision for seven sound stages and one virtual stage on River Street.

One young attendee did ask White if Jaigantic was planning to break into animation. He referenced White’s involvement with Black Dynamite, the animated series created from his 2009 Blaxploitation hit live-action movie of the same name. White said that animation may be in the studio’s future, but it isn’t the main focus at the moment.

In a phone call after the event, Brown said it was important to her to involve the young people, particularly talented Black youth, that are a part of the city’s vibrant but sometimes overlooked arts community. A few months ago, she attended a community meeting and outdoor press conference in Fair Haven, where she learned that White had already walked around Fair Haven, meeting business owners and community leaders in the neighborhood.

Brown suggested he do some more outreach in other neighborhood.

“This is not just for Fair Haven,” Brown said. “This is New Haven history-making that all the neighborhoods should know and should get a chance to meet him or understand what’s going on with the studio.”

“Everyone needs to be celebrating this,” she added. “I was so excited about this.

Have you heard the good news?”

Danielle Campbell Photos.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 16, 2022 - March 22, 2022

Bolaji COVID Patient

“To everyone who saved my life and my baby’s life too... thank you – from both of us.”

“I was 34 weeks pregnant when I found out I had COVID. While I was on the ventilator and sedated, I delivered Joseph by C-section, and I couldn’t see him for a month. But the doctors and nurses at Yale New Haven Health, they took care of us.”

At Yale New Haven Health, we’re grateful to all the healthcare workers out there who care for others.

So that others can live.

11

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 16, 2022 - March 22, 2022

Word At The Barber Shop: Ukraine Needs Our Help

by MAYA MCFADDEN and NORA GRACE-FLOOD New Haven Independent

The word at Transformerz barber shop Thursday was Ukraine — along with some other topics that had to stay in the shop.

As owner Majesty Whitaker gave his close friend and customer JC a bald fade for his biweekly cut inside the 1440 Whalley Ave. shop, he issued a plea for the American government to help save the lives of Ukrainians in the face of the Russian invasion.

Discussions about Ukraine and other current events are not unusual topics of conversation in the barber shop setting Whitaker said. Lately the shop consensus has been that “we’re all worried about Ukraine,” he said during a conversation on the “Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s “LoveBabz Love Talk” radio program..

“You may think it has nothing to do with us, but we’re just worried about human beings and seeing the children and the families that’s being displaced and absolutely senseless war and violence for nothing,” Whitaker said.

As two customers waiting for the next available barber, four others were being shorn in chairs throughout the busy shop.

JC admitted to getting teary-eyed while

talking about Ukraine during a recent conversation in the shop and watching news clips of families in danger, separating, and “people kissing their kids maybe possibly for the last time.”

“When you see senseless killing and violence and you know that we’re a superpower, you kind of want them to step in and say, ‘Enough is enough,’ ” Whitaker said.

JC is one of the many friends who trust Whitaker for a regular shape-up. Whitaker shaved the bottom half of JC’s head bald until reaching an inch above his ear then blended his hair into a fade.

In the background a TV played clips from ESPN, a go-to channel in the shop along with news outlets.

Whitaker said the shop’s customers don’t always agree on topics. Disagreement is “what makes the barbershop,” he said.

Talk in the shop and images on the screen helped Whitaker gain a new perspective on the war in Ukraine.

Two weeks ago Whitaker felt that “we should just mind our business and let history take its course.”

Now he feels America should step in and help out the “elderly and children and people that’s dying for no cause,” he said. “We have to help them somehow, some way.”

MAYA MCFADDEN PHOTO

Majesty Whitaker talks Ukraine and barbershop talk Thursday morning.

A universal barber shop code is “certain stuff in the barber shop stays in the barber shop,” Whitaker said when asked about what other topics have been buzzing aroudn Transformerz of late.

No topic is off limits.

“We try not to talk about religion and politics, but we do anyway,” he said.

Originally from Brooklyn, Whitaker has

worked a barber for three decades. He decided to move to New Haven 20 years ago because it slower-paced than New York.

“I was moving too fast. Once I came here I realized I needed to slow it down,” he said.

Whitaker rarely went to barbershops as a child; he would get all his hair shaved off by his mother instead. “I felt de-

prived,” he said.

When he got his first pair of clippers, he would practice on his friends.

Eventually he learned barbershops are more than just places to get haircuts. The conversational atmosphere drew him in and helped him to realize barbering is his destiny, he said.

After moving to New Haven he got married, had three kids, and then 10 years ago opened the Whalley Avenue barbershop.

Whitaker added that recently he has had to increase his haircut prices by $5-$10.

“Yesterday’s prices are not today’s prices,” he joked. “Everything went up not just gas, haircuts as well.”

He describe the shop as a “village” that helps raise youth and provide an outlet for the communitu “What I really love about barbering is how we raise boys to men. We see generations,” he said. Whitaker said he has “become like family members to people” over the past 30 years; he attended several wedding of friends made at the shop.

His 11-year-old son was raised in his shop, learning how to have healthy dialogue and build relationships.

Whitaker’s Thursday plans included working until 6 p.m., then taking his son to football practice, followed by picking his daughter up from dance at 9 p.m.

Schools Ready “Day of Healing” with student art and stickers pointing to activites on the ground, allows Truman students to take a break from classes when needed and “self-regulate selfmanage when they need a break” and “wiggle their wiggles out,” Truman Principal Kathleen Mattern said.

Truman has also implemented an SEL check-in daily with its students.

On Friday, topics will range from mindfulness, yoga, and breathing techniques to neurotrophic art, social justice and advocacy, and music.

The day will also provide educators and students with the “autonomy to decide within their classrooms how the day is structured,” Social Emotional Learning Coordinator Monica Abbott said.

The plan is for classrooms to vote on the live presentations the group is most interested in. Classes can choose among live virtual SEL sessions, pre-recorded SEL video activities, and/or SEL-focused classroom activities.

More than 35 workshops will be offered and led by district educators, local organizations , and some students. The district will partner for presentations

by MAYA MCFADDEN New Haven Independent

New Haven Public School’s (NHPS) will focus attention on its students’, educators’, and parents’ wellbeing for a “day of healing.”

For a second year in a row, the district is hosting a “Day of Hope and Healing,” this Friday.

It will be focused on fostering students’, parents’, and educators’ socialemotional learning (SEL) skills during the particularly difficult recent years with the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Board of Education Monday night approved the superintendent’s plan to make the full day into a half- day session for all schools.

This year all city public schools will offer virtual interactive presentations and in-person activities promoting self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making.

Superintendent of Schools Iline Tracey spoke about the plan at a Tuesday press conference held in one of Truman School’s “sensory hallways,” created three years ago. The hallway, decorated

12

by the city’s youth and rec department, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and Movimiento Cultural Afro-Continental Inc. Movimiento Cultural will be performing live at Fair Haven school, streamed into all classrooms. Another presentation will be given by a former NHPS student that will discuss starting up a music business and Youtube channel.

“We are listening to you. We are concerned about what is happening in our schools. To say to our students we hear you,” Tracey said.

Each school is encouraged to curate the day of healing to what its school community needs, Abbott said. The half day will also allow families to enjoy the day “well after the bell rings” by having more time in the day to spend outside.

“Even the superintendent needs a day of hope and healing,” Tracey quipped.

The day was established last year as apart of the district’s mission to take care of the “whole student.”

“Children are not just coming to school to learn content. They’re much more than content,” Tracey said.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 16, 2022 - March 22, 2022

2020 Census Called ‘Worse Undercount’ in Decades as Bureau Misses Millions of Blacks and Hispanics

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

According to many experts, the COVID-19 pandemic and an administration that displayed a complete disregard for ensuring accuracy led to a consequential undercount in the number of Black, Hispanic, and Native American residents during the 2020 U.S. Census.

Further, Census officials admit that they overcounted white and Asian residents.

The bureau reported the overall population as 323.2 million.

“The undercounting of Black, Latino, Indigenous and other communities of color rob us of the opportunity to be the directors of our fate, reducing our representation and limiting our power while depriving policymakers of the information they need to make informed decisions about where the next hospital will be built or where the next school should be located,” said Damon Hewitt, the president and executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “In addition, the undercount exacerbates underfunding of our communities because Census data is used as the basis for hundreds of billions of dollars of federal, state, and local appropriations each year,” Hewitt said.

The Census population count determines how many representatives each state has in Congress for the next decade.

It also decides how much federal funding

communities receive for roads, schools, housing, and social programs. Hundreds of billions of dollars are at stake each time the census occurs.

Robert L. Santos, the bureau’s director, displayed little regard for the undercount of minorities. He said the 2020 results were consistent with recent censuses.

“This is notable, given the unprecedented challenges of 2020,” Santos said in a statement. “But the results also include some limitations — the 2020 census undercounted many of the same population groups we have historically undercounted, and it overcounted others.”

“We remain proud of the job we accomplished in the face of immense challenges,” Mr. Santos said. “And we are ready to work with the stakeholders and the public to leverage this enormously valuable resource fully.”

Terri Ann Lowenthal, a leading expert on the census and consultant to governments and others with a stake in the count, told the New York Times that the results were “troubling but not entirely surprising.”

“Overall, the results are less accurate than in 2010,” she said.

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The bureau estimated that the 2020 census incorrectly counted 18.8 million residents, double-counting some, wrongly including others, and missing others entirely, even as it came extremely close to reaching an accurate count of the overall population.

The Times reported that the “estimates released on Thursday — in essence, a statistical adjustment of totals made public last year — are based on an examination of federal records and an extensive survey in which the bureau interviewed residents in some 10,000 census blocks — the smallest unit used in census tabula-

tions. Bureau experts then compared their answers to the actual census results for those blocks.”

Officials claimed that the survey enabled the bureau to estimate how many residents it missed entirely in the 2020 count, how many people were counted twice, and how many people — such as deceased persons or short-term visitors to the United States — were counted mistakenly.

Officials began the count after the pandemic shut down operations in April 2020. After other starts and stops, the Trump administration pressured census takers by inexplicably moving up the deadline to finish the count.

Trump also attempted to add a citizenship question to the census, further muddying attempts at an accurate count.

Many experts complained that more time was required and called the count unreliable. Some called on then-incoming President Joe Biden to order a recount.

“This is the worse census undercount I’ve seen in my 30 years working on census issues,” Arturo Vargas, CEO of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials Education Fund, said during a news conference.

“I can’t even find the right word. I’m just upset about the extent of the undercount that has been confirmed by the post-enumeration survey,” Vargas said.

“This is a major step backward on this.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 16, 2022 - March 22, 2022

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee: “House Has Votes to Pass Reparations Bill”

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

For several years Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee has picked up the mantle to lead efforts to create a commission to study reparations for African Americans, and now the Democrat from Texas and others believe they finally have the votes for passage in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“This has been a 30-plus year journey,” Congresswoman Jackson Lee declared.

“We had to take a different approach. We had to go one by one to members explaining this does not generate a check.”

Congresswoman Jackson Lee said this week that there’s now enough votes in the House for passage of the historic piece of legislation.

If the measure passes and ultimately becomes law, it will create a commission that would hold hearings with testimony from those who support and oppose the idea.

“Reparations is about repair and when you repair the damage that has been done, you do so much to move a society forward. This commission can be a healing process. Telling the truth can heal America,” she said.

If the Senate doesn’t join the House in passing the bill, the congresswoman said she and others would push President Biden to sign an executive order to create

the commission.

The White House didn’t immediately respond.

Congresswoman Jackson Lee added that there has never been another time in which she has garnered so much support and momentum for H.R. 40, the reparations legislation that focuses on truth, racial healing, and transformation.

Congresswoman Jackson Lee recently reflected on the long-overdue redress to African descendants of slaves.

She also praised the resiliency of Black Americans.

“I want to give credit to the giants that were and are Black Americans. They are giants,” Congresswoman Jackson Lee declared.

“I want to give credit to the everyday mom and dad who get up every day and get to work and provide for their family.

I’m going to give those who came up on the farms or stayed on the farm and raised nine and ten and twelve children,” she reflected.

The Congresswoman continued, “I want to give them the honor that they deserve, and that is to recognize the insurmountable odds that some of them had and how they continue to plant seeds of respect and dignity in their children.

“Has anyone addressed the question of slavery and its comprehensive impact on Black Americans in this country? This is what H.R. 40 will do.”

While the bill doesn’t place a monetary value on reparations, it does focus on truth, racial healing, and transformation.

The bill would fund a commission to study and develop proposals for providing reparations to African Americans.

The commission’s mission includes identifying the role of federal and state governments in supporting the institution of slavery, forms of discrimination in public and private sectors against freed slaves and their descendants, and lingering adverse effects of slavery on living African Americans and society.

Congresswoman Jackson Lee, who sits on numerous House committees, including the Judiciary, Budget, and Homeland Security, has made the reparations legislation her top priority during the 117th Congress.

“I think if people begin to associate this legislation with what happened to the descendants of enslaved Africans as a human rights violation, the sordid past that violated the human rights of all of us who are descendants of enslaved Africans, I think that we can find common ground to pass this legislation,” Congresswoman Jackson Lee pronounced.

“Can anyone imagine that we’ve never gotten a simple, effective, deeply-embedded, and well-respected apology?”

The Congresswoman is further encouraged by the support of the most cosponsors (166) in the bill’s history, which

dates back decades to former Democratic Rep. John Conyers Jr., of Michigan, who first introduced the legislation in 1969.

In an earlier NNPA interview, White House Senior Advisor to President Biden and Director of the Office of Public Engagement Cedric Richmond sounded an urgent tone about the administration’s commitment to ensure racial justice, accessibility, and equity concerning Black America.

Richmond told the Black Press that the administration supports Congresswoman Jackson Lee’s H.R. 40.

“We do support a commission and H.R.

40, We know we can’t wait. We have to start acting now,” Richmond declared.

“We don’t need a study to tell us that systemic racism is out there. We don’t need a study to tell us that redlining in Black communities has been treated a lot differently.”

Richmond continued: “We don’t think the Black community should have to wait on a study, we need to deal with systemic racism right now and, yes, we support the commission, but it’s not going to stop us from acting right now.”

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 16, 2022 - March 22, 2022

Robert F. Smith, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Frank Baker and William Pickard Top List of Black Donors to HBCUs OP-ED:

By Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., President and CEO, National Newspaper Publishers Association Billionaire philanthropist and novelist MacKenzie Scott’s $560 million donation last year to 23 Historically Black Colleial equity has become front-page news. However, for decades Black leaders in business, entertainment, education, and other fields have been the main sources of philanthropic donations to HBCUs. A recent Washington Post story found that Black Americans donate a higher share of their wealth than their white counterparts – to the tune of around $11 billion each year. Given their cultural and educational importance to the Black community, HBCUs are the repository of much of these donations with a number of household names – and some you may not know – making big-dollar contributions to these institutions. ges and Universities (HBCUs) made headlines across the country at a time when rac Here are some of the most prominent Black philanthropists to donate to HBCUS:

Robert F. Smith – Chairman & CEO, Vista Equity Partners

Smith, the billionaire investor behind the software private equity firm Vista Equity Partners, drew widespread praise in May 2019 when he announced that he and his family would pay off the entire student loan debt of the 2019 Morehouse College graduating class of 396 students. Along with paying off the student debt, Smith’s $35 million donation also helped establish the Student Success Program to reduce or eliminate debt for all Morehouse grads. The private equity guru also gave the school an additional $1.5 million to create the Robert Frederick Smith Scholars Program and build a park on campus.

As board chair of the Student Freedom Initiative – a plan to provide STEM students at HBCUs with a family-centric, income-contingent payment alternative to high-cost, fixed-payment debt – Smith pledged $50 million. Smith’s donation jumpstarted the initiative, which hopes to raise $500 million for the effort and began operations in the fall of 2021 at eleven HBCUs. “Each year, thousands of Black graduates from HBCUs across America enter the workforce with a crushing debt burden that stunts future decisions and prevents opportunities and choices,” Smith said.

“The initiative is purposefully built to redress historic economic and social inequities and to offer a sustain-

able, scalable platform to invest in the education of future Black leaders.”

Oprah Winfrey,

Television Personality, Philanthropist, Author, Entrepreneur & Actress Most people may know the philanthropic acts of Oprah – who, like Beyoncé, Prince, and Zendaya needs no further introduction – through the infamous “You get a Car!” episode of her talk show, but she is also quietly, one of the biggest donors to HBCUs in the country.

In 2019, Oprah donated $13 million to Morehouse College to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Oprah Winfrey Scholars Program at the HBCU. Overall, Oprah has donated at least $25 million to the Atlanta school. “I felt that the very first time I came here,” Oprah said. “The money was an offering to support that in these young men. I understand that African American men are an endangered species. They are so misunderstood. They are so marginalized.”

Besides her gift to Morehouse, Oprah also donated $1.5 million to the United Negro College Fund to help pay for scholarships for Black students and general scholarship funds for 37 private HBCUs.

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Baker, the founder of private equity firm Siris, along with his wife, interior designer Laura Day Baker, donated $1 million in May 2020 to establish a scholarship fund at Atlanta’s Spelman College, the oldest private historically Black liberal arts college for women.

Initially, the scholarship paid off the existing spring tuition balances of nearly 50 members of Spelman’s 2020 graduating class and the remaining funds are meant to ensure that future high achieving graduating seniors have the financial resources to graduate.

“We are all aware of the headwinds that people of color — especially women — face in our country, the challenges of which are made even more apparent by the economic and health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the couple said in a press release. “We believe it is critical that talented women finish college and confidently enter – free of undue financial stress – the initial stage of their professional careers.

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Mississippi Black History THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 16, 2022 - March 22, 2022

OP-ED:

By Paulette Patton, Contributing Guest Writer to The Mississippi Link

After recently watching ABC’s mini-series, “Women of the Movement: the story of Mamie Till Mobley,” I was reminded, as I often am, of memories growing up in Mississippi.

This docu-drama chronicled the life of Mamie Till Mobley, who devoted her life to seeking justice for her son Emmett Till.

Till was abducted and killed for allegedly flirting with a white woman in Money, Mississippi.

I can remember looking at that iconic photo of Emmett Till in Jet Magazine when I was just 7 years old. I only recall how awful it looked. I don’t remember even asking my parents about it. Thanks to executive co-producers, Will Smith and Jay-Z, this true story was a painful reminder of Mississippi’s history during that perilous era.

As many governors, school boards and educational systems are trying to erase such history by banning certain books in our schools and public libraries, how powerful to have this story retold at this particular time. Some governors have even said that they would penalize schools, teachers and principals if such material is taught. The mini-series was and should be painful to watch to all who watched it. We need to be reminded of atrocities such as these.

For ten years, I helped plan and accompanied a group of Ursinus College (Collegeville, PA) students and their professors to Mississippi to visit sites around the state to have a firsthand look at some of the most treacherous and unforgiving parts of the history of the American South. We would start our journey in Jackson where we visited Jackson State University, (formerly Jackson College).

Ursinus students learned about the killing of Phillip J. Gibbs and James E. Green and the shooting of twelve others on campus by the State Police in 1970.

Tougaloo College was another stop on our journey. Tougaloo’s history is rich in the Civil Rights Movement. Student activism was commonplace. Tougaloo College Archives, as stated on its website, has a collection of personal papers, oral histories, photographs and other memorabilia of persons who were active in the movement.

Hollis Watkins, a Tougaloo graduate and activist, is founder and director of Southern Echo. At this stop, students learned about the importance of community organizing. Watkins and others travelled all over the state of Mississippi teaching communities how essential it is for citizens to organize and have an impact on economic development, educational and environmental decisions.

While also in Jackson, we visited the

By Paulette Patton, Contributing Guest Writer to The Mississippi Link

photo: Paulette Patton home of one of those activists, Medgar Evers. We toured the Evers House, now a National Historic Landmark, where we saw the trajectory of the bullets that went into the home. We stood on the driveway where Evers was murdered.

Farish Street was another stop. Farish Street was the “largest economically independent” business section in Jackson, where Black businesses thrived.

Recently, my sisters and I strolled down a few blocks of a mostly deserted community. We stopped at The Alamo Theatre where Black folks could see a movie without fear of being arrested because of segregation. Most of the businesses were shuttered. The Big Apple Inn, commonly known back then as Big John’s, was first opened in 1936, was still open.

Another stop, for the students, on our journey was Bolton, Mississippi to visit another Tougaloo College graduate and activist, Congressman Bennie Thompson, who is in his 13th term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Visiting Thompson’s office was always one of the highlights of the trip for many reasons, perhaps because he is a living legend, especially now as he chairs the January 6 Committee investigating the Insurrection that took place on our nation’s Capital.

Philadelphia, Mississippi was another stop. We saw the jail where Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner were detained

and toured the courthouse where Edgar Ray Killen and seven klansmen and white supremacists were tried for their murder.

Chaney, from Meridian, MS, and Goodman and Schwerner from New York, were working to help Black Mississippians register to vote. These three activists were abducted and murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi in 1964. Our tour was led by Leroy Clemons, former president of the local chapter of the NAACP. Clemons is currently the executive director of the Neshoba Youth Coalition. Our tour ended at the murder site of Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner.

Many times, I would look at the faces of the students where tears flowed as Clemons told the story of their brutal murders as we stood on the site where they were buried.

As we journeyed to the Mississippi Delta, many times the ride was quiet as we looked out on cotton fields, as we tried to prepare ourselves for the last leg of the trip. Our first stop was in Ruleville, Mississippi to visit the gravesite of Fannie Lou Hamer, a voting and women’s rights activist, a leader in the Civil Rights Movement and co-founder of the Freedom Democratic Party. Here we paid homage to her and her lifetime of work.

She is buried next to her beloved husband, Perry “Pap” Hamer.

From there to Glendora, Mississippi.

16

We visited the Emmett Till Interpretive Center/Museum. This Museum was established by Mayor Johnny B Thomas.

Thomas would meet us at the museum for a private tour. We were able to see a replica of the cotton gin fan that was tied around the neck of Till. The end of our journey was in Money, Mississippi. We stood on the very ground of Bryant’s store where Till and his cousins had entered to buy candy. This is the location where he was falsely accused.

Visiting all these places gave me the opportunity as an adult to visit places I never went as a child. I’m sure my parents were trying to spare us from the brutal nature of violence perpetrated against Blacks. As a parent and grandparent, I can understand wanting to protect your child. But our history should not be erased. Books should not be banned.

One place that I have been intrigued by since a student at Tougaloo was Mound Bayou, Mississippi. I was intrigued by the fact that there was an all-Black town in Mississippi that once thrived. I had a romanticized vision of this Black community. I don’t recall knowing about Mound Bayou as a child. It certainly was not in our history books. Recently, my sisters and I decided to take a road trip to Cleveland, Mississippi which would include Mound Bayou.

As portrayed in the mini-series, Mound

Bayou was a thriving community. Not only was it thriving, it was a thriving Black community. It was founded by two cousins, Isiah and Joshua Montgomery and Benjamin Gill. It was founded in 1887 and aptly called “the Jewel of the Delta.” There was a hospital where Blacks all over the state would come for good medical care. The all-Black school was compared favorably with the best white schools in the state. There were several churches, a zoo, swimming pool, newspaper(s), insurance company, banks, credit union and sawmill, all owned by Black folks.

Today, like Farish Street, most of those businesses are gone. The hospital still stands and is used as the Delta Health Center.

Exploring and learning more about our history is very rewarding. Choose a place and set out on an adventure. As watching the Emmett Till story and visiting these places allowed us to see how we have survived as we struggle for self-determination. As we confront our history, we struggle with love and anger. Understanding our history is challenging and uplifting.

But we must push forward. In the words of Maya Angelou, “And Still I Rise.”

James Hampton, reference librarian at the Eudora Welty Library in Jackson, MS, contributed to this article.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 16, 2022 - March 22, 2022

Con’t from page 15

Black Donors William F. Pickard – Businessman, Coowner of Real Times Media Detroit businessman and philanthropist Pickard has a long history of donating to HBCUs across the country. Most recently Pickard and his cousin, Cincinnati businessman Judson W. Pickard Jr., donated $2 million to Morehouse College to create the Pickard Scholars Program. This program will recruit and support Black students from metro Detroit, Flint, greater Cincinnati, and LaGrange, Georgia to attend the Atlanta HBCU. “People have uplifted and helped me grow and I believe in blessing others,” Pickard, whose children attended Morehouse, told the Atlanta Tribune. “Our gifts are given to where we are from and those who have invested in us and who we are.”

The Pickard Family Foundation also donated $100,000 to the National Black MBA Association to create the William F. Pickard Business Scholarship Fund. The fund is open to qualified business student members at several HBCUs who need help financing their education.

Michael Jordan – Former NBA Superstar

Michael Jordan is arguably the greatest basketball player of all time and is almost single-handedly responsible for transforming the game into the global phenomenon it is today. So, if anybody knows how to make an impact on HBCUs, it would be His Airness.

The six-time NBA champion and fivetime league MVP, along with Nike’s Jordan Brand, donated $1 million last year to Morehouse College to boost the school’s journalism and sports-related studies program. The donation is meant to bolster a program launched thanks to the donation of another icon, director Spike Lee. “Education is crucial for understanding the Black experience today,” Jordan said in a press release. “We want to help people understand the truth of our past and help tell the stories that will shape our future.”

The donation to Morehouse is part of a pledge made by Jordan and his brand in 2020 to donate $100 million over the next ten years to combat racism across the country.

The following video link highlights the transformative financial contributions to HBCUs by these African American philanthropists: https://vimeo. com/687271086/670be7a4b6 Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr is President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and is the Executive Producer/Host of The Chavis Chronicles (TCC) television show broadcast weekly on PBS TV stations throughout the United States.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 16, 2022 - March 22, 2022

Ebony Magazine Publishing launches new podcast network: Ebony Covering Black America NNPA News America’s most recognizable African American brand introduces a New Wave of Original Podcasts. The Ebony Covering Black America Podcast Network is inspired by the stunningly designed coffee table book of the same name by Lavaille Lavette, President and Publisher of Ebony Publishing and the Ebony Podcast Network.

Much like the book, the Podcast Network covers all aspects of Black culture, creating a collective universe for authors and content creators.

The new wave of shows includes a broad spectrum of podcasters from established figures such as civil rights leader Dr. Ben Chavis, radio host and entrepreneur Angela Yee and daytime talk show host Erica Cobb, to new emerging voices, such as former Major League baseball player Patrick Mahomes, Ron Dawson, Carla Black, Marita Thomas, Trina Blair, Tad Prescott and Elizabeth Leiba.

Twenty plus shows on the network cover the areas of entertainment, literature, sports, media, politics, lifestyle, pop culture, finance, wellness, and science.

Erica Cobb of the Comeback with Erica Cobb podcast, states, “I’m beyond excited to partner my podcast with a legacy media brand like Ebony that historically has meant so much to the culture.

“As a Chicago native, Ebony symbolized Black excellence to me. I see this as an opportunity to be a part of something new and fresh and look forward to reaching new audiences together.”

“I feel honored to bring the Dungeons and Durags Podcast to the Ebony Covering Black America Podcast Network. To be associated with such an iconic brand is humbling. But for this particular podcast to be on Ebony, is also comically ironic (you’ll understand once you listen). I would be remiss if I did not end by saying

“I am thrilled to present the Big Mahomes Show on the Ebony Covering Black America podcast network, where I can contribute to the Ebony brand legacy by featuring top figures in the world of sports to a new generation,” stated retired major league baseball player, Pat Mahomes.

For a complete list of podcasts, please visit: https://ebonypodcastnetwork.com About Ebony Podcast Network

“Ya dig. Sho ’nuff. And peace out.”

Media veterans Carla Black, Marita Thomas, Trina Blair write: “Ebony has long had a history of telling our stories in rich and authentic ways, especially those of Black women.

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IN MEMORIAM: Autherine Lucy Foster, a Critical Figure in the Civil Rights Movement, Dies at 92

By Stacy M. Brown, The Washington Informer Her desire for a second undergraduate degree was cut short after just three days when a mob of racists assaulted her with food, rocks, and other items when she attempted to enter the University of Alabama.

Autherine Lucy Foster, who earned a bachelor’s degree in English from historically Black Miles College in 1952, and whose legal battle with the University of Alabama concluded two years after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, has died at 92.

A critical, but sometimes overlooked figure in the civil rights movement, Foster’s case became the first to challenge the Brown ruling that allowed federal judges to implement the historic decision.

In 1992, Foster recalled her experience in a New York Times interview.

“It felt somewhat like you were not re-

ally a human being. But had it not been for some at the university, my life might not have been spared at all,” Foster said.

“I did expect to find isolation. I thought I could survive that. But I did not expect it to go as far as it did. There were students behind me saying, ‘Let’s kill her! Let’s kill her!’”

Foster visited Tuscaloosa a week before her death, cutting the ribbon on the newly named College of Education building, where she took refuge from the racist mob.

Previously known as Bibb Graves Hall, the university’s building adopted a new name called Autherine Lucy Hall.

“My staff was proud to celebrate the courage and sacrifice of Dr. Autherine Lucy Foster by presenting her with a Congressional Record,” Alabama Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell stated.

“The naming of the University of Alabama’s Autherine Lucy Hall will stand as a powerful reminder of her sacrifice in the

name of justice and equity for all.”

Foster “was the embodiment of courage,” said Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, who chairs the organization.

“As the first Black student to attend the University of Alabama, her trailblazing determination paved the way for a more inclusive and equitable higher education system in Alabama. Her life was a testament to the power of compassion and grace in the face of unyielding adversity.

We are all made better by her example.”

Many others tweeted and offered statements of condolences. Foster’s family asked for privacy, but they did release a statement about the trailblazer.

“She was known, honored, and respected around the world after she broke the color barrier at the University of Alabama,” her daughter Chrystal Foster said in a statement.

“She passed away at home, surrounded by family. We are deeply saddened, yet we realize she left a proud legacy.”

2022

18

Con’t from page 06

Fire Victim

“In college I was doing terribly in chemistry,” Thomas remembered. “I was fighting for my grades. I ended up with a C minus, but I considered that failing.”

“I wanted another opportunity where I could succeed in chemistry,” she said with a laugh. So she created a lingerie brand — based on styles she had already been coming up with in her dorm room on a sewing machine gifted to her by her mother — and named it Chemistry.

“I’ll succeed in that,” she told herself.

Thomas uses the terminology she picked up in that college class to define her styles — a patent leather piece, she offered as an example, would be labeled “exothermic,” because it “gives off heat.”

Thomas began her business two years ago in March 2020, another time of hardship and emotional duress for individuals across the globe.

“It was during quarantine. I was stationed at home and collecting unemployment,” she said.

After years of trying to make it as a model, navigating “weird scamming types of energies” and restrictive standards for her height and weight, she asked herself: “Instead of trying to work for a company, why don’t I try to create one myself?”

Rather than spending her time attempting to discern which job offers were legitimate and which were fake or creating a false version of herself to appeal to agencies, she could build her own reality in which individuals with different appearances and preferences were all celebrated and seen.

In her mind, finally holding a fashion show represented the advancement of her business — she had accumulated the styles, capital, and audience to pull a full event together.

While the loss of her home created new obstacles and obscured her course of action, the fire ultimately fueled Thomas’ sense of self-actualization. “Being a young business owner is about learning how to work certain things and how to move forward when things go left,” she said.

“I’ve been in business for two years — the fashion show is like a birthday gift for myself,” she stated. If she had canceled or postponed the event, she said, “I wouldn’t know what else to do on my birthday!”

Though at first Thomas struggled to believe the fact that the fire had even happened, she soon accepted the situation, used her water-sign energy to cool down, and picked up where she left off with a new approach to the world.

“I’m alive,” Thomas stated. “That’s what I’m grateful for. And I can start my life over again in the direction I’m supposed to go in.”

Tickets for the event — which will feature live music and pole dancing this Friday at 9 P.M.— can be purchased here.

Attendees are encouraged to bring donations for fire victims, like Thomas, which will be collected upon entry.

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THEINNER-CITY INNER-CITY NEWS March , 2022 - March 2022 NEWS -July 27, 16 2016 - August 02, 22, 2016

DRIVER CDL CLASS A

Control Room Operations/Dispatching

NOTICE The Town of Wallingford Electric Division is seeking qualified candidates for the posi-

Full Time – All Shifts Top Pay-Full Benefits EOE Please apply in person: 1425 Honeyspot Rd. Ext. Stratford, CT 06615

tion of System Operator/Dispatcher for a municipal electric utility serving 25,000 customers.

Coordinates electricRENTAL system HOUSING switching and places equipment inAVAILABLE and out of serVALENTINA MACRI PREAPPLICATIONS vice during routine and emergency operations. Requires HS diploma/GED with 2 years experience in the of Distribution switchboards HOME INC, on operation behalf of Columbus HouseSCADA and the equipment New Havenand/or Housing Authority, used in the distribution of electricity or other qualifying experience in a related field. is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this develExperience and training may be substituted on a year for year basis. Must maintain opment located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven. Maximum income limitations apvalid system operation certification from Connecticut Valley Exchange (CONVEX) or ply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y other approved agency or be able to obtain the same within 90 days of hire. Must posand aending whenofsufficient pre-applications (approximately 100)plus have ses 25, and2016 maintain valid State CT Driver’s License. $34.63 - $41.15 hourly an been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon excellent fringe benefits package to include a defined benefit pension plan. Applyreto: quest by of calling HOME INC at Town 203-562-4663 during 45 those hours. preDepartment Human Resources, of Wallingford, South MainCompleted Street, Wallingapplications be returned to HOME officestoatwlfdhr@wallingfordct.gov.

171 Orange Street, Third ford, CT 06492.must Application materials canINC’s be emailed Floor, New Haven, Application forms willCT be06510. mailed upon request by calling the Department of Human Resources, (203) 294-2080 or may be downloaded from the Department of Human Resources Web Page. Fax #: (203) 294-2084. Closing date will be April 12, 2022. EOE.

QSR STEEL CORPORATION

APPLY NOW!

Steel Fabricators, Erectors & Welders Top pay for top performers. Health Benefits, 401K, Vacation Pay. Email Resume: Rose@qsrsteel.com Hartford, CT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION/EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

NOTICIA

Town of Bloomfield

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES HOMECoordinator INC, en nombre la Columbus House y Authority de la New Haven Housing Authority, está Housing F/T:deThe Bristol Housing is looking to hire a Housing aceptando for pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un este desarrollo Coordinator the HCV (Section 8) department.

This is adormitorio full-timeenUnion position. ubicadorent en calculation la calle 109 experience Frank Street, New aplicanChoice limitaciones de ingresos Previous with theHaven.

HUD Se Housing Voucher (Section Las Mainstream pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 The a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 8), máximos.

PVB, FUD, programs is preferred. successful candidate must25 be julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) organized, a team player, computer literate, able to work in a fast-paced environment, en lasexcellent oficinas deinterpersonal HOME INC. skills Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadastoporassist correolow-income a petición possess and be highly motivated llamando aHourly HOME INC 203-562-4663 esas horas.Pre-solicitudes remitirse households. wageal is determineddurante by a bargaining unit contract.deberán Excellent bena las oficinas de HOME INC en 171byOrange tercer HavenLambertsen , CT 06510 . at efits.

Send resume with references Friday,Street, March 21, piso, 2022,New to Signe slambertsen@bristolhousing.org .

The Housing Authority of the City of Bristol is an equal opportunity employer. It does not discriminate based on sex, race, color, religion, age, disability, status of veteran, national or ethnic origin, or sexual orientation.

NEW HAVEN

242-258 Fairmont Ave

Request for1.5Qualifi 2BR Townhouse, BA, 3BR,cations 1 level , 1BA All new apartments, new appliances, new carpet, closeseeks to I-91 I-95 of The South Central Regional Council of Governments (SCRCOG) the&services highways, near bus planning stop & shopping center one or more consultants for transportation studies during the 2023 Fiscal Year (July 1, 2022June40lb 30, 2023).

Disadvantaged Business Enterprise rms are strongly enPet under allowed.

Interested parties contact Maria @fi860-985-8258 couraged to respond as prime contractor or to play a significant role within a consultant team. Responses are due by April 14, 2022, (12 noon local time). The full RFQ docuCT. can Unified is pleasedwebsite: to offer a Deacon’s ment beDeacon’s viewedAssociation at the Council’s www.scrcog.org or can be made available Certificate Program. This is a 10 month program designed to assist in the intellectual formation of Candidates upon request.

Contact James Rode at 203-466-8623 with any questions. 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. (203) 996-4517 Host, General Bishop Elijah Davis, D.D. Pastor of Pitts Chapel U.F.W.B. Church 64 Brewster St. New Haven, CT

Listing: Commercial Driver

Immediate opening for a Class A full time driver for petroleum&like product deliveries for nights and weekends. Previous experience required. Send resume to: HR Manager, P. O. Box 388, Guilford, CT 06437 or Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour email: hrdept@eastriverenergy.com

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

until 3:00 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at its office at 28 Smith Street,

********An rmative Opportunity Employer********** Seymour, CTAffi 06483 for Action/Equal Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the

Smithfield Gardens Assisted Living Facility, 26 Smith Street Seymour.

Listing: Mechanic Assistant A pre-bid conference will be held at the Housing Authority Office 28 Smith Street Seymour, CT for at 10:00 Wednesday, July 20,maintenance 2016.

Immediate opening a full am, timeonmechanic assistant; to be

done on diesel trucks and trailers. Send resume to: HR Manager, P. O. Box 388, documents Guilford, CT or email hrdept@eastriverenergy.com Bidding are 06437 available from the Seymour Housing Authority Of-

fice, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579.

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

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

Vehicle Mechanic Technician Salary $30.97 hourly (non-CDL) Salary $31.91 hourly (CDL) Pre-employment drug testing.

AA/EOE.

For Details go to www.bloomfieldct.org

Listing: Accounting Accounting Department has an immediate opening in Accounts Payable for an AP Operations Specialist. This full time position in a fast-paced office requires good computer and organizational skills, attention to detail, and multi-tasking. Benefits include health, dental & LTD insurance plus 401(k).

Invitation to Bid: Send resume by email to: HRDept@eastriverenergy.com or send resume to: Human 2nd Notice Resource Dept. P O Box 388, Guilford CT 06437.

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

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

Old Saybrook, CT (4 Buildings, 17 Units) QSR STEEL Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project CORPORATION New Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, Castin-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding, Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, Steel Fabricators, Erectors & WeldersPlumbing and Fire Protection.

Mechanical, Electrical, Top pay for top performers. Health This contract is subject to state set-aside and contract compliance requirements.

Benefits, 401K, Vacation Pay.

APPLY NOW!

Email Resume: Rose@qsrsteel.com Hartford, CT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION/EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Bid Extended, Due Date: August 5, 2016 Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016 Project documents available via ftp link below: http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage

TOWN PLANNER

Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 AA/EEO EMPLOYER

Full-time position Go to www.portlandct.org for details 20

Town of Bloomfield Maintainer II Salary $28.58 hourly Pre-employment drug testing.

AA/EOE. For Details go to HYPERLINK "http://www.bloomfieldct.org/" www.bloomfieldct.org

NEWS- July 27,162016 - August 02, 22, 2016 THEINNER-CITY INNER-CITY NEWS March , 2022 - March 2022

NOTICE VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this development located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven. Maximum income limitations apply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon request by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours. Completed preapplications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Street, Third Floor, New Haven, CT 06510.

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 de HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510 .

CITY OF MILFORD

Seeking qualified condidates to fill numerous vacancies to include, Deputy Assessor, Mechanic Sewer Line, Public Health Nurse and more. For information and detailed application instructions, visit www.ci.milford.ct.us Click on SERVICES, JOBS and JOB TITLE.

DELIVERY PERSON

NEEDED Must Have your Own Vehicle If Interested call

Part Time Delivery Needed One/Two Day a Week,

(203) 435-1387

DRIVER CDL CLASS A Full Time – All Shifts Top

NEW HAVEN 242-258 Fairmont Ave 2BR Townhouse, 1.5 BA, 3BR, 1 level , 1BA All new apartments, new appliances, new carpet, close to I-91 & I-95 highways, near bus stop & shopping center Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258 CT. Unified Deacon’s Association is pleased to offer a Deacon’s Certificate Program. This is a 10 month program designed to assist in the intellectual formation of Candidates 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. (203) 996-4517 Host, General Bishop Elijah Davis, D.D. Pastor of Pitts Chapel U.F.W.B. Church 64 Brewster St. New Haven, CT

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour until 3:00 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at its office at 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the Smithfield Gardens Assisted Living Facility, 26 Smith Street Seymour.

Listing: Tax Manager

High Volume petroleum fuel distributor is seeking a full time Tax Manager to handle 30+ fuel and sales tax filings in multiple states monthly. Duties also include some A pre-bid conference will be held the Housing Authorityexperience.

Office 28 Smith general accounting.

Three+ years publicataccounting or equivalent BA/BS Street Seymour, CT at 10:00 am,ason Wednesday, 20,and 2016. in Accounting or Business required well as advancedJuly Excel computer system skills. Reports to Controller. CPA a plus.

Send resume to: HRDept@eastriverenergy.com or Human Housing Resource Authority Dept., P.O. OfBox Bidding documents are available from the Seymour 388, Guilford CT 06437.

fice, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579.

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

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 informalities in the bidding, if such actions are in the best interest of the

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

Request for Qualifications from Architects/Engineers to Assist the Housing Authority in Preparation of Plans, Specifications & Contract Documents for Renovations at the Housing Authority’s State Developments The Seymour Housing Authority extends an invitation to architects/engineers to submit a statement of their qualifications to the Authority. The architect's/engineer’s qualifications should indicate the ability to perform work required in a timely and sufficient manner. The architect/engineer must be licensed to perform services in the State of Connecticut. Firms selected through the RFQ process will be invited to submit fee proposals for the A&E services required for the proposed renovation projects at the Housing Authority’s State Developments.

The services being required by the Housing Authority will include but shall not be limited to schematic design, preliminary studies, preparation and design of construction documents, work write-ups, energy modeling, cost estimates, evaluation of construction bids, inspection of materials and workmanship during construction, and post completion documents.

The project(s) may be funded by the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA) and / or the Connecticut Department of Housing (DOH).

The entire procurement procedure and contract award will be subject to all applicable Federal/State Laws and Regulations. The architect/engineer selected shall comply with the Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Requirements adopted by the Authority in compliance with said order.

Profiles of the firm's principals, staff and facilities must be submitted along with a list of completed projects, especially those completed with DOH or CHFA funds. The architect/ engineer should specify any work performed under DOH or CHFA Funded Programs including but not limited to Competitive Housing Assistance for Multifamily Properties (CHAMP) and/or State Sponsored Housing Portfolio (SSHP). A certified statement that the architect/engineer is not debarred, suspended, or otherwise prohibited from professional practice by any Federal, State or local agency must also be submitted.

Pay-Full Benefits In addition, the following insurance will be required: EOE Please apply in person: 1. Professional Liability including Errors and Omissions, 2. Comprehensive General Liability, 1425 Honeyspot Rd. Ext. 3 Automobile Liability, Valuable Papers Destruction policy, Stratford, CT 06615Invitation4.to Bid: 5. Worker’s Compensation and Employer Liability policy.

2nd Notice The Architect/Engineer SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE should have previous experience in providing professional services to SENIOR ADMINITRATIVE public housing authorities and must display evidence of knowledge of DOH, and CHFA regula-

ASSISTANT

Old Saybrook, tions. CT Completed current federal GSA Forms 254 and 255 must be submitted.

(4 Buildings, 17 Units) Evaluation Criteria: Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project

1. Firm’s qualifications - history and resource capability to perform required services in a

Full-time position timely manner (20 Points).

Evaluation of staff personnel (20 Points).

New Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition,2.Site-work, CastGo to www.portland3. DOH/CHFA experience, including but not limited to the Competitive Housing Assistance in-place Concrete, Asphaltfor Shingles, Vinyl Siding, Multifamily Properties (CHAMP) and/or State Sponsored Housing Portfolio (SSHP) funds. ct.org for details Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, (20 Points).

Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection. 4. Other experience (15 Points).

QSR STEEL CORPORATION 5. Hourly Fee Schedule (15 Points) This contract is subject to state set-aside and contract compliance6.requirements.

Overall response to RFQ (10 Points).

APPLY NOW!

All interested Bid Extended, Due Date: August 5, 2016 firms shall submit three (3) copies of the proposal to: Steel Fabricators, Erectors & Welders Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016 David Keyser Executive Director Top pay for top performers. Health Project documents available via ftp link below: Seymour Housing Authority Benefits, 401K, Vacation Pay. 28 Smith Street http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage

Email Resume: Rose@qsrsteel.com Hartford, CT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION/EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Seymour, CT 06483

Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com by 2:00 p.m. on or before March 29, 2022.

HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran,All S/W/MBE & Section Certified Businesses proposals should3 be sent certified mail, hand delivered or delivered by recognized carrier. All proposals should be clearly identified as “A&E RFQ Response – Seymour Housing Authority’s Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 State Developments.

AA/EEO EMPLOYER

MECHANIC TRACTOR TRAILER

Full Time, Benefits, Top Pay Apply:Pace, 1425 Honeyspot

Rd. Ext., Stratford, CT EOE

21

Further information may be obtained by contacting David Keyser at (203) 888-4579 or by writing to David Keyser at the Seymour Housing Authority, 28 Smith Street. Seymour, CT 06483.

AN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION/EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER Small Business Concerns, Minority Business Enterprises, Women Owned Business Enterprises and Disabled Persons are encouraged to submit proposals.

THE INNER-CITY INNER-CITY NEWS March , 2022 - March 2022 NEWS- July 27,16 2016 - August 02,22, 2016

Construction

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks:

Construction Equipment Mechanic preferably experienced in Seeking to employ experienced individuals in the labor, Reclaiming and Road Milling Equipment. We offer factory foreman, operator and teamster trades for a heavy outside training on equipment we operate. Location: Bloomfield CT work statewide. Reliable personal transportation and a valWe offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits id drivers license required. To apply please call (860) 621Contact: Tom Dunay VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE 1720 or send resume to: Personnel Department, P.O. Box 368, Cheshire, CT06410.

Phone: 860- 243-2300 HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, Email: tom.dunay@garrityasphalt.com is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom this develAffiatrmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to applyapartments Drug Free Workforce opment located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven.

Maximum income limitations apAffirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer ply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon reGarrity Asphalt Incduring seeks: CT Fence quest by calling HOMEReclaiming, INC at 203-562-4663 those hours.Large Completed pre- Company looking for an individual for our Reclaimer Operators and Milling Operators with current licensing PVCStreet, Fence Third Production Shop. Experience preferred but will applications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange and clean driving record, be willing to travel throughout the Northtrain the right person. Must be familiar with carpentry hand Floor, New Haven, CT 06510. east & NY. We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits & power tools and be able to read a CAD drawing and tape measure. Use of CNC Router machine a plus but not required, will train the right person. This is an in-shop production poContact: Rick Tousignant Phone: 860- 243-2300 sition. Duties include building fence panels, posts, gates and Email: rick.touMust have a valid CT driver’s license & be able to obtain VALENTINAsignant@garrityasphalt.com MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDESmore.

DISPONIBLES a Drivers Medical Card. Must be able to pass a physical and Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply drug test. Please email resume to pboucher@atlasoutdoor.com.

Affirmative Action/deEqual Opportunity HOME INC, en nombre la Columbus House y Employer de la New Haven Housing Authority, está AA/EOE-MF 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 Tractor Trailer Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction Equipjulio,Must 2016have hastaacuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes ment.

CDL License, clean driving record, capable of (aproximadamente 100) en las oficinas HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas porSeeking correo atopetición operating heavyde equipment; be willing to travel throughout the employ experienced individuals in the labor, foreman, llamando HOME INC alexcellent 203-562-4663 horas.Pre-solicitudes deberánand remitirse Northeast &aNY. We offer hourlydurante rate &esas excellent benefits operator teamster trades for a heavy outside work statewide. a las oficinas de HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT personal 06510 . transportation and a valid drivers license reReliable

NOTICE

PVC FENCE PRODUCTION

NOTICIA

Union Company seeks:

Contact Dana at 860-243-2300

Construction

THE GLENDOWER GROUP, INC. Request for Proposals

Consultant with Project Rental Assistance Contract Experience for the Redevelopment of 34 Level Street The Glendower Group, Inc. is currently seeking proposals for a consultant with project rental assistance contract experience for the redevelopment of 34 Level Street.

A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Glendower’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway

beginning on Monday, March 14, 2022 at 3:00PM.

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES Request for Proposals Data Warehouse Business Intelligence Elm City Communities is currently seeking proposals for data warehouse business intelligence. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems. com/gateway beginning on

Wednesday, March 16, 2022 at 3:00PM.

quired. To apply please call (860) 621-1720 or send resume to:

ELECTRIC UTILITY

CHIEF ELECTRICIAN – The Wallingford Electric Division is seeking a highly responsible individual to direct and assign the work related to the installation, maintenance, repair, inspection and operation of all facilities and equipment within the diviAffirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V sion’s substations. This position requires a high school, trade/vocational school diploma Drug Free Workforce or a GED, plus six (6) years of experience in the maintenance and operation of electric Invitationutility to Bid:substations and/or utility grade protection and control systems. Two (2) years of nd 2 242-258 Fairmont Ave Notice college-level education or advanced training in a related field may substitute for two State of Connecticut (2) years of the experience requirement. Must possess and maintain a valid ProtecOffice of Policy 2BR Townhouse, 1.5 BA, 3BR, 1 level , 1BA tive Switching and Tagging Procedures certification from CONVEX or other approved and Management All new apartments, new appliances, new carpet, close to I-91 & I-95 agencyCTor obtain same within six (6) months of hire. Must possess and maintain a Old Saybrook, highways, near bus stop & shopping center valid State of Connecticut motor vehicle operator’s license. Wages: $ 42.77 – $ 45.83 (4 Buildings, 17 Units) The State of Connecticut, Office of (hourly) Apply to: Department of Human Resources, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258 Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Project CT 06492. Application materials can be emailed to wlfdhr@ Policy and Management is recruiting MainWage Street,Rate Wallingford, for an Agency Labor Relations wallingfordct.gov. Application Forms will be mailed upon request by calling the DeSpecialist. partment of Human Resources, (203) 294-2080 or may be downloaded from the DepartCT. Unified Deacon’s Association is pleased to offer a Deacon’s New Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, CastFurther information regarding the duties, Certificate Program. This is a 10 month program designed to assist in the intellectual formation of Candidates ment of Human Resources Web Page.

Fax #: (203)294-2084. The closing date will be in-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding, in response to the Church’s Ministry needs. The cost is $125. Classes start Saturday, August 20, 2016 1:30eligibility requirements and application April 12, 2022. EOE 3:30 Contact: Chairman, Deacon Joe J. Davis, M.S., B.S.

Email: dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

Personnel Department, P.O. Box 368, Cheshire, CT06410.

NEW HAVEN

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

(203) 996-4517 Host, General Bishop Elijah Davis, D.D. Pastor of Pitts Chapel U.F.W.B. Church 64 Brewster St. New Haven, CT

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour until 3:00 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at its office at 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the Smithfield Gardens Assisted Living Facility, 26 Smith Street Seymour.

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.

Bidding documents are available from the Seymour Housing Authority Office, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579.

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

instructions are available Flooring, Painting, Divisionat:10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, https://www.jobapscloud.

Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection. com/CT/sup/bulpreview.asp?

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

R1=220224&R2=5257MP&R3=001

The State of Connecticut is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer Due Date: August 5, 2016 Bid Extended, and strongly encourages the applications Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016 of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

PUBLIC WORKS

MAINTAINER II - Performs a variety of semi-skilled tasks in road Project documents available via ftp link below: and grounds maintenance. Must possess 2 years’ experience as laborer in construction http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage work involving operation and care of trucks and other mechanical equipment used in

construction OR two (2) years training in one of the skilled trades and one (1) year of experiencedawnlang@haynesconstruction.com in construction operations OR an equivalent combination of experience and Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 training. possess andBusinesses maintain a valid commercial driver’s license (CDL) Class HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBEMust & Section 3 Certified B to operate equipment.

(Provide a copy of your CDL license with your application) Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 Full Time –Haynes All Construction Shifts Top $23.73 - $27.82 Hourly. Applications may be obtained at the Department of Human AA/EEO EMPLOYER Resources, 45 S. Main Street, Room 301, Wallingford CT 06492. Forms will be mailed EOE Please apply in person: upon request from the Department of Human Resources or may be downloaded from the Department of Human Resources Web Page. Fax (203)-294-2084 Phone: (203)1425 Honeyspot Rd. Ext. 294-2080. The closing date will be the date the 50th application or resume is received Stratford, CT 06615 or March 28, 2022, whichever occurs first. EOE

DRIVER CDL CLASS A Pay-Full Benefits

22

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 16, 2022 - March 22, 2022

Join The Inner City Newspaper As We Celebrate The Achievements Of Women During Women’s History Month!

HISTORY DURING THE MONTH OF MARCH,

The Inner City Newspaper

will present our “Annual Women’s History Month Commemorative Issues!”

These Special Edition Issues published each week during March, will be a tribute to the achievements of Women from a historical perspective as well as a celebration of the lives of women who impact our communities, Our region, and who through their works, have made an impact throughout the country.

These issues will focus on Women's Health , Lifestyle, Fashion, Careers, Entertainment, Relationships, and Comfortable Living!

We invite your business to utilize these showcase editions as a platform to place your branding messages in premium locations throughout these keepsake issues! For more information on how your business can play a prominent role in these productions, call the Inner City News Advertising Department at: (203) 387-0354.

Circulation Breakdown

Circulation Breakdown Inner-City News Market CIRCULATION BREAKDOWN

GET THE FACTS

Connecticut has

16.5% non-white population. The figure

Published: weekly / circulation:

for the inner city newspaper coverage area is an overwhelming

44%.

25,000 / Readership:

100,000 Where: over

750+ racks throughout the New Haven and

Bridgeport area.

Within the inner city distribution area, the cities with the largest non-white populations are: Bridgeport

New haven

53.1% New haven 49.3%

60% Bridgeport 40%

New Haven, Westhaven, Hamden, North Haven, Bridgeport,

This represents a vital consumer base and an important seg-

Orange, Ansonia, Milford, Waterbury

ment of the population that cannot be ignored! Media market research (MRI) reported that

30.3% of the black popu$40,000 a year!

Here are some quick facts about our readers.

35–78 College educated: 53% 46%– 54% Home owners: 34%

lation have household incomes of over

Age:

10%

Male / Female:

of this population have incomes of 70,000 or more!

Place your message where people place their trust.

The

Inner-City Penfield Communications inc.

News

Connecticut’s first choice for urban news since 1990.

5 0 Fi t c h S t r e e t ,

New Haven, C T 06515 | Phone: 203.387.0354 w w w. i n n e r c i t y o n l i n e . c o m

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|

Fa x :

203.387.2684

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 16, 2022 - March 22, 2022

The secret’s out.

Introducing game-changing savings.

Xfinity is changing the Internet and wireless game. We’re talking the fastest in-home WiFi with speeds over a Gig and wireless on the most reliable 5G network with Xfinity Mobile. And NOW, introducing game-changing savings when you get both. Get Gig Internet and Unlimited data with Xfinity Mobile and you could save more than $800 on Internet your first year. Gig-speed Internet and reliable 5G? Now that’s a game-changer.

Join the millions who save by getting Xfinity Internet and Mobile together.* *Savings based on weighted average of optimized pricing for top 3 carriers. Xfinity Internet required. Reduced speeds after 20 GB of usage/line.

1-800-xfinity

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Offer ends 4/3/22. Restrictions apply. Not available in all areas. New customers only. Limited to Gigabit Internet and one line of Xfinity Mobile Unlimited data. Savings based on combination of promotional discount for Gigabit Internet and Xfinity Mobile Unlimited discount as compared to regular rate for Gigabit Internet. Internet: Gig-speed WiFi requires Gigabit Internet and compatible xFi Gateway. WiFi is shareable across all devices in your home. Actual speeds vary and not guaranteed. Many factors affect speed, including equipment performance, interference, congestion, and speeds of visited websites. WiFi speeds affected by additional factors, including distance from Gateway, home configuration, personal device capabilities, and others. For factors affecting speed visit www.xfinity.com/networkmanagement. All devices must be returned when service ends. Xfinity Mobile: Requires post-pay Xfinity Internet. Line limitations may apply. For Xfinity Mobile Broadband Disclosures visit: www.xfinity.com/mobile/policies/broadband-disclosures. Xfinity Mobile utilizes the network with the most RootMetrics 5G data reliability wins in 2H 2021. Results may vary. Award is not endorsement. Xfinity customers will auto-connect to Xfinity WiFi when available and not use the wireless network. RootMetrics did not test WiFi networks. Call for restrictions and complete details. NPA239608-0003 NED-AA-BMD-V5

142515_NPA239608-0003 N BMD launch 9.25x10.5 V5.indd 1

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