INNER-CITY NEWS

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - September 25, 2019 - October 01, 2019

Exercise Arthritis: A Natural Remedy For Chronic Pain Financial&Justice a Key Focus at 2016 NAACP Convention INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

New Haven, Bridgeport

INNER-CITYNEWS

Volume 27 . No. 2351 Volume 21 No. 2194

New Haven

Has A Presidential Prison Gerrymandering

Suit Can Proceed

“DMC”

“We may finally have the chance to reveal the injustice of prison gerrymandering,” State NAACP President Scot X. Esdaile

Dr. Glenda Glover

Color Struck?

Visitor

Malloy Malloy To To Dems: Dems:

Ignore Ignore“Tough “ToughOn OnCrime” Crime”

Snow in July?

AKA Raises $1 Million A Filmmaker, an Anthropologist and a Sculptor Launch National Tour for HBCUs in One Day FOLLOW USto Ignite ONa Conversation Around Black Men and Vulnerability 1

1

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

September 25, 2019 - October 01 , 2019

2

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - September 25, 2019 - October 01, 2019

DeLauro, Murphy, Blumenthal Push Impeachment Probe

by STAFF

New Haven Independent

The latest revelations about President Trump’s request for a political campaign “favor” from the Ukrainian government have led New Haven’s representatives in Washington to join the Democratic stampede toward impeachment.

New Haven U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro accused Trump of breaking the law and engaging in possible extortion by asking Ukraine’s president to press a criminal investigation into Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden at a time when the U.S. was withholding military aid to the country. That effort emerged in a transcript released Wednesday of a telephone call between the U.S. and Ukrainian presidents.

DeLauro, who previously had resisted calling for impeachment hearings into Trump’s conduct in various controversies, now embraces the call for impeachment hearings into the Ukrainian affair.

“President Donald Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should alarm every American — especially those in Congress who have

LAURA GLESBY PHOTO U.S. Rosa DeLauro: Time for action.

taken an oath to support and defend the Constitution. On July 25, 2019, just one day after Special Counsel Robert Mueller testified before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, the President asked a foreign leader point-blank to ‘look into’ 2020 Presidential candidate Vice President Joe Biden and his son. That request — to investigate a political opponent before the upcoming 2020 election — reeks of potential extortion and it is illegal,” DeLauro, a Democrat, stated in a release from her office.

“We cannot allow the President or his advisers, including his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to confuse and obfuscate this matter. Releasing notes of President’s call does not make his words less damning; no amount of propaganda on cable TV can change that. In fact, this call only makes the need for the Intelligence Committee to see the entire whistleblower complaint even more urgent.

That is why I am reiterating my support for an impeachment inquiry, which is the only recourse Congress has to respond to President Trump’s egregious actions.”

“This transcript is devastating. Within

moments of President Zelensky discussing the need for U.S. security aid, Trump asks him to investigate his political opponents,” agreed Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy in a separate release Wednesday.

“Throughout the call, Trump tells the Ukrainian president to coordinate with his reelection campaign. These are demands that a President of the United States simply cannot make of a foreign leader, and the transcript further underscores the urgent need to get a full, complete accounting of Trump’s abuse of his office.”

Murphy, who discussed the matter recently with Zelensky during a trip to Ukraine, called on the U.S. House of Representatives to begin an impeachment inquiry into the president’s efforts to press a foreign nation into the service of his reelection campaign.”

Later Wednesday, Murphy responded to an allegation by President Trump that Murphy had “threatened” President Zelensky during a visit to Ukraine three weeks ago. Here’s Murphy’s version: “I

made it clear to him that Ukraine should not become involved in the 2020 election and that his government should communicate with the State Department, not the president’s campaign. I still believe this to be true.: Connecticut’s other U.S. Senator, Richard Blumenthal, issued his own call for such an inquiry a day earlier. “The President has repeatedly broken laws and betrayed his oath of office. His seeking corrupt assistance from a foreign leader for personal political gain crosses the line,” Blumenthal is quoted as stating in a Tuesday release. “This illegal misuse of the presidency for private benefit is an impeachable act. This most recent lawbreaking follows three years of contemptuous disregard for the Constitution. The Congress must demand accountability.

The values and norms of our democracy are precious and vulnerable and they depend on people fighting for them in times of adversity. At this moment, the threat to the rule of law and our democracy has reached a new height and requires all of us to step forward.”

JUNTA Comes Full Circle For 50th Anniversary

by KAREN PONZIO New Haven Independent

Alicia Caraballo spoke of her mother and her role as one of the founders of Junta for Progressive Action and so much more as she stood proudly by her side on the deck of Amarante’s Saturday evening for the pioneering Latinx agency.

“She is one of the activists who in 1969 at the height of civil unrest helped create services that provide for our community. I grew up with this,” Caraballo said of her mother, Pura Delgado.

Caraballo went on to serve a stint running the organization herself — and at Saturday night’s event won JUNTA’s Pura Delgado Leadership Award.

Caraballo and Delgado joined a soldout crowd of family, friends, and supporters under a blazing summer sunset at Amarante’s Sea Cliff to celebrate the Fair Haven organization’s legacy and continued involvement in assisting the advancement of the Latinx community in New Haven. The night would not only celebrate the agency’s golden anniversar;, it would also pay homage to its founders with four awards named in their honor.

Dominic Woolfrey — who joined as a volunteer and has now been board chair for the past four years — spoke of the organization’s importance in his life as well as the community’s. “JUNTA exists to lift up families in need and crisis.

I’m glad to be a part of it,” he said.

Partygoers steadily filled the elegantly decorated room, many stopping for a photo opportunity outside the entrance against a JUNTA-themed backdrop, beginning the evening out on the back deck overlooking Long Island Sound and city skyline in the distance. The energy level was high. Everyone had a connection and a story to tell.

Master of Ceremony Hugo Balta spoke of the growth of TNP aka The Neighborhood Place — Junta’s after school program — from 30 to 75 students . He spoke of the Hurricane Maria evacuees who continue to rebuild their lives in New Haven two years later. Founding community member Genny Palmieri spoke of the beginnings of JUNTA as well as the “JUNTA of today” that continues to serve the “diverse Latino community in New Haven making sure their needs are met.”

Executive Director Daniel Reyes also spoke about honoring the history of the organization while moving forward. He spoke of “returning to our multi-service roots” and the continued “dedication to youth enhancement, social services, and economic advancement” as well as “celebrating what makes each Latino community unique.”

Four leaders — “committed to advancement of the Latinx community,” according to Woolfrey, who introduced

the presenters — were honored with awards named after four principal founders of JUNTA. Rafael Ramos was presented the Gumercindo Del Rio Legacy Award by Kica Matos, who spoke lovingly of both men, calling Del Rio a “titan of the New Haven community” and Ramos “one of the people who makes New Haven the great city that it is” and “a Renaissance man.”

“I came to New Haven from the Bronx to work for six months and I’m still here. I love it” said Ramos, founder and director of Bregamos Community Theater, after he accepted his award. “I’m a firm believer that we are responsible for our neighborhoods and making it happen.” He also dedicated his award to his mother, a poet, and read a poem he wrote in honor of her and this night.

Aida Ortega spoke of her “larger than life” friend and colleague Pura Delgado before presenting the Leadership Award name in her honor to Delgado’s daughter Alicia Caraballo. Delgado was called up to the podium to speak, escorted by Reyes, while the room thunderously clapped and chanted her name.

Next Caraballo – former vice chair of the New Haven Board of Education and interim executive director of JUNTA in 2017-2018 — acknowledged her mother and the other leaders. She also called the room to action: “We are in different

3

KAREN PONZIO PHOTO

Alicia Caraballo and Pura Delgado.

times facing some of the same issues as 50 years ago. We need your leadership.

Do what you can, each one of you, to make this world a better place.”

Maritza Rosa presented the Marcos Ocasio Partner Award to Danny Diaz, co-founder of ARTE, Inc, who she said

“puts his all into everything he does.”

Diaz accepted his award and said it was for everyone, thanking those who answered when he asked “help me to help JUNTA”.

Con’t on page 07

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

September 25, 2019 - October 01 , 2019

Gov.’s Lamont, Cuomo Talk Marijuana, Vaping, and Transportation

by Christine Stuart

New Haven Independent

HARTFORD, CT — Frustrated with the lack of action by the federal government on a handful of issues, Gov. Ned Lamont and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, are looking to partner on things like recreational marijuana, transportation, and vaping.

“We don’t have a federal government that is providing leadership on these issues,” Cuomo said. “... If we are on our own let’s hook our boats together and see if we can find our way through this storm.”

This is the second meeting the two governors have had. The first was a fishing trip to Lake Ontario last month.

Cuomo said having a relationship with its neighbor Connecticut makes sense because “I believe we’re going to get very little help from the federal government.”

One of the areas where states are taking the lead is on the issue of vaping.

The U.S. death toll from vaping is up the nine with 530 confirmed and probable cases of vaping-related illness reported by 38 states, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Last week, Cuomo announced his intention to ban the sale of flavored vaping products through that state’s emergency regulations.

Lamont doesn’t have the same ability to sign an executive order and ban the sale

CHRISTINE STUART / CTNEWSJUNKIE

Govs. Ned Lamont and Andrew Cuomo

of flavored vaping products.

“I don’t know what I can do by executive order but I’m going to be very strong doing it forward at least get something in a bill before the legislature as soon as I can,” Lamont said.

Max Reiss, a spokesman for Lamont, said they are researching how far Lamont’s executive authority extends to issues of public health.

“We’re exploring what are the emergency powers of the governor,” Reiss said. “If it needs to be done in a special session that’s something he’s looking at.”

On Oct. 1, anyone under the age of 21 will not be allowed to purchase vaping products, but the legislation did not ban the sale of flavored products.

Lamont said he wants to do more research on it.

On recreational marijuana some of the questions the states can resolve collectively aside from price are other regulatory issues about how old someone should be to purchase it, how much THC should be allowed, what substances should be allowed to be sold, and what precautions are on those substances to

prevent children from getting a hold of them.

“Doing that collectively and regionally makes sense,” said Cuomo. That’s why New York, Connecticut and possibly New Jersey will be meeting Oct. 17 to discuss the issue further. Cuomo said he wants to be able to have something to present in January as part of his state-ofthe-state.

Lamont said what’s important to him is getting this right and he wants to make sure Connecticut doesn’t “surrender” a legal market to the black market.

The two also talked about transportation and the funding of transportation, but Cuomo said they did not talk about tolls.

They did talk about Metro-North.

“We can speed up our transportation system,” Lamont said. “Get the rail going in a way that it should be going, but it doesn’t work unless the Metro-North goes all the way into Grand Central Station, it can’t stop at the border.”

Lamont said Cuomo reminded him he’s going to need some early successes to show people the direction he wants to go.

This is Lamont’s third meeting with neighboring governors. Earlier this year he met with Govs. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island. The trio plans to meet again later this month in Providence.

by STAFF

New Haven will get the chance to fight in court to have its citizens counted as its voters.

That’s the upshot of a unanimously ruling Tuesday by a U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals panel.

The court’s three-judge panel ruled against a state effort to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the NAACP seeking to have incarcerated people count as residents of their hometowns, not the rural towns in which they’re behind bars.

The NAACP brought the suit on behalf of five Greater New Haveners: Justin Farmer, Germano Kimbro, Conley Monk Jr., Garry Monk, and Dione Zachery. In the suit the NAACP accuses Connecticut of violating the 14th Amendment’s “one person, one vote” principle.

The lawsuit claims that all five people — residents who have been incarcerated or are related to someone who has been incarcerated — have been harmed byPrison gerrymandering.” That’s Connecticut’s practice of counting incarcerated people in the places they are locked up instead of the place they reside, for

Plaintiff Germano Kimbro. the purposes of redistricting. The suit Amendment protections against facing argues that at least five state House of “frivolous and insubstantial”.

“Plaintiffs claim seeking prospecRepresentative districts and possibly as many as nine districts — Districts 5, 37, tive relief from a purportedly ongoing 42, 52, 59, 61, 103, 106, 108 and Senate constitutional violation falls within the District 7 — have an inflated amount of Ex parte Young doctrine,” the judges wrote. “The claim is neither frivolous political power because of this practice.

That means white and rural areas gain nor insubstantial. The district court thus political power at the expense of cities. has subject matter jurisdiction over the The federal appeals court disagreed with claim. Perhaps [Plaintiffs] will ultimatethe state argument that the case should ly fail on the merits of their suit, but § be dismissed based on states’ 11th 2284 entitles them to make their case be-

MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO

4

Publisher / CEO

Babz Rawls Ivy

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

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

Editorial Team Staff Writers

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

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

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

_______________________

Prison Gerrymandering Suit Can Proceed New Haven Independent

John P. Thomas

fore a three judge district court.

The federal ruling now allows the plaintiffs to proceed with discovery and a trial.

“We may finally have the chance to reveal the injustice of prison gerrymandering,” State NAACP President Scot X. Esdaile (pictured) ,stated in a press release.. “We hope that soon the voices and votes from our communities will count the same as those from the rural districts where the prisons are located.”

“This ruling reaffirms the importance of the rights at stake. We are eager to move ahead and bring an end to this harmful and unconstitutional practice,” Alaa Chaker, a law student intern with the Yale Law School Peter Gruber Rule of Law Clinic, a counsel for the plaintiffs, stated in the elease. Chaker argued the appeal alongside Alex Taubes of David Rosen & Associates, co-counsel for the plaintiffs. “We hope that by moving forward and arguing this case on the merits, we’ll be able to shine a light on this violation of one of our most fundamental constitutional rights,” added Taubes. The NAACP Office of the General Counsel represents the plaintiffs as well.

Contributors At-Large

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

Memberships

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

The Inner-City Newspaper is published weekly

by Penfield Communications, Inc. from offices located at 50 Fitch Street, 2nd Floor, New Haven, CT 06515. 203-387-0354 phone; 203-3872684 fax. Subscriptions:$260 per year (does not include sales tax for the in State subscriptions). Send name, address, zip code with payment. Postmaster, send address changes to 50 Fitch Street, New Haven, CT 06515. Display ad deadline Friday prior to insertion date at 5:00pm Advertisers are responsible for checking ads for error in publication. Penfield Communications, Inc d.b.a., “The Inner-City Newspaper” , shall not be liable for failure to publish an ad or for typographical errors or errors in publication, except to the extent of the cost of the space in which actual error appeared in the first insertion. The Publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising for any reason and to alter advertising copy or graphics deemed unacceptable for publication. The entire contents of The Inner-City Newspaper are copyright 2012, Penfield Communications, Inc. and no portion may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - September 25, 2019 - October 01, 2019

Pause the WiFi? Most definitely.

Your kids will never have to struggle with slow Internet speeds again. Whether they’re gaming online with friends or working on a school project, Xfinity delivers fast and reliable Internet for all their needs. Plus, take control with Xfinity xFi — keep screen time in check by monitoring who’s online and even pause WiFi to any device on your home network. With Xfinity, any challenge is simple, easy and awesome.

Get started with Internet | TV | Voice

79

$

99

a month/ 2 years

Includes up to 150 Mbps download speed

with 2-year agreement

Ask how to add xFi Advantage for enhanced network security

Equipment, taxes, and other charges extra, and subject to change. See below for details.

Call 1-800-xfinity, go to xfinity.com, or visit your local Xfinity Store today.

Offer ends 10/13/19. Restrictions apply. Not available in all areas. New residential customers only. Limited to the Standard Triple Play with Performance Pro 150 Mbps Internet and Voice Unlimited services. Early termination fee applies if all Xfinity services are cancelled during the agreement term. Equipment, installation, taxes and fees, including regulatory recovery fees, Broadcast TV Fee (up to $10.00/mo.), Regional Sports Fee (up to $8.25/mo.), and other applicable charges extra, and subject to change during and after agreement term. After term agreement, or if any service is cancelled or downgraded, regular rates apply. Service limited to a single outlet. May not be combined with other offers. TV: Limited Basic service subscription required to receive other levels of service. Internet: Ac tual speeds vary and are not guaranteed. Xfinity xFi is available to Xfinity Internet service customers with a compatible Xfinity Gateway. Ability to pause limited to home WiFi network. Does not apply to Xfinity WiFi hotspots. Voice: If there is a power outage or network issue, calling, including calls to 911 may be unavailable. Call for restrictions and complete details. NPA224999-0004 NED AA Q4 BAU V11

134663_NPA224999-0004 Pause ad V11 9.25x10.5 New Haven.indd 1

5

8/23/19 4:21 PM

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

September 25, 2019 - October 01 , 2019

New Haven Has A Presidential Visitor

by THOMAS BREEN New Haven Independent

The president of a West African country with nearly two centuries’ worth of historical connections to New Haven visited City Hall to pay the Elm City respect, and to revisit a statue dedicated to his countrymen that he last saw nearly three decades ago.

That foreign dignitary visit and celebration took place Tuesday afternoon on the second floor of City Hall, where Mayor Toni Harp welcomed Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio, his wife Fatima Maada Bio, and a host of other politicians, state officials, and diplomatic representatives from the small West African nation.

President Bio had made the 4,000-plus mile trip from Freetown, Sierra Leone, to New York this week to attend the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. He said he made the side trip up to the Elm City Tuesday to honor New Haven’s two-decade plus sister city relationship with Freetown.

He said he also wanted to make sure to visit New Haven to celebrate the shared history that the Elm City and Sierra Leone have through the story of the Amistad slave revolt, and to thank New Haven for the humanitarian support it helped raise money for during his country’s 2014 ebola crisis.

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO

Mayor Toni Harp with Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio and First Lady Fatima Maada Bio at the Amistad memorial outside City Hall.

“You have always been a haven,” he told the 50 people packed into City Hall’s second-floor rotunda for the visit.

“And today is no exception. We have been warmly welcomed, just like Sengbe Pieh and others who came here not knowing anyone at all. You comforted them. You welcome them.”

Again and again he referenced the story of the Amistad revolt, in which 53 enslaved captives from Sierra Leone rose up against their Spanish captors in 1939, were ultimately imprisoned in New Haven, and subsequently led a coalition of local, state, and national abolitionists in a successful bid to win back their freedom in an 1841 U.S. Supreme Court case.

“This is a great story,” he said. “You are a great people. There is so much we can teach the world about what happened here.”

As Bio and his wife sat in leather upholstered seats at the front of a crowd of enamored onlookers, speaker after speaker took the mic to praise the work her has done in fighting corruption and making public education free during his yearand-a-half as president of Sierra Leone.

“The respective histories of New Haven and Sierra Leone have been interlaced for centuries,” Harp (pictured) said, “just as the people of each embrace the values we share. Cherished ideals of freedom, Con’t on page 09

Advice you need for the mortgage you want.

Ellington Jazz Series

Polly Curtin • Loan Officer 860-200-2292 pcurtin@liberty-bank.com NMLS #555684

Ignacio Berroa Trio Sep 27 | 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall

Chris Stokes • Loan Officer 203-720-6121 cstokes@liberty-bank.com NMLS #1182815

We’ll help you find the mortgage that’s right for you.

“The only Latin drummer in the world in the history of American music who intimately knows both worlds: his native Afro Cuban music as well as jazz.” —Dizzy Gillespie

Contact us today.

Loans are subject to credit and underwriting approval. Certain fees, restrictions and other terms and conditions may apply.

Ask your loan officer for details.

Tickets from $22, Students $10 | music-tickets.yale.edu

MEMBER FDIC

6

EQUAL HOUSING LENDER NMLS #459028

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - September 25, 2019 - October 01, 2019

Building the Pipeline: 2 Social Entrepreneurs Chosen at reSET Flight Night

by CTNewsJunkie

HARTFORD, CT — Think Shark Tank. Nervous entrepreneurs pitch their beloved business plans to steelyeyed judges, fielding tough questions and possibly leaving with funds to carry their dream forward.

The crowd Thursday night at reSET’s “Flight Night” was smaller, though, and the judges’ comments, while pointed, were generally kind.

“The idea is to give people a pre-pitch opportunity,” said David Menard, a partner at Murtha Cullina, one of the event’s sponsors. “For some people it’s their first time speaking in public and their voices shake. We consider that a success — we are building up the ecosystem and providing community and support.” reSET is the Social Enterprise Trust, which is a non-profit with a mission of advancing the social enterprise sector.

The group helped push through a bill allowing the creation of Benefit Corporations in Connecticut in 2014 as part of their effort to foster growth in social enterprises.

There have been nearly 10 previous “Flight Nights,” co-sponsored by reSET, at which all are welcome to pitch their plans for small cash prizes and constructive advice. Nearly 60 people turned out to watch seven pitches, ranging from software applications to address insurance costs, to individual writers, to a new alternative food for fish farmers to use at sea.

Judges Menard and Guilaine Menefee, Executive Director of the Black Business Alliance, offered feedback designed to inform all contestants and the audience.

“I am a small business owner myself,” Menefee said. “One thing different about being an entrepreneur is a sense of community. If you don’t know the answer, someone will help you out. So — take advantage of what you have here in this room!”

Menard told competitors that they are having a positive impact even beyond their own business. “You are doing everything you can to make our state better,” he said. “We can show people the value of their own business — and show others, inside and outside of Connecticut, too.”

Two of the competitors each left the event with $300. The judges selected Jennifer and Ray Smithberger, a couple from Canton, for “seedership” — a social impact and storytelling platform for businesses to track and report the value of their contributions. The audience selected Marina Marmolejo’s

CTNEWSJUNKIE PHOTO From left, winners Ray and Jennifer Smithberger of seedership, Marina Marmolejo of Dream Kit, and judges Guilaine Menefee and David Menard

Dream Kit, an app for homeless youth to track activities and help them work toward housing, employment, and other positive outcomes.

Both Renard and Sarah Bodley, reSET’s Managing Director, said that overall the climate in Connecticut for entrepreneurs has improved significantly in recent years. In addition to reSET, Hartford now has three other Con’t from page 03

Full Circle

The final honor of the night, the Carlos Rodriguez Trailblazer Award, was presented by Michelle Rodriguez, who spoke of her father Carlos who “never stopped blazing trails throughout Connecticut.” She presented the award to Adriana Rodriguez, executive director of Spanish Community of Wallingford, who said she began volunteering there at age 13 and “as you can see I never left.”

She told a story of how she had performed with her dance troupe at one of these events as a child. She recalled that “everyone looked like celebrities” and how she left that night inspired. It was difficult to not be inspired by the stories as well as the displays of affection, honor and gratitude that filled the room Saturday night as well.

“For tonight’s theme we decided to go back to our roots,” Woolfrey said when I spoke to him and Michelle Rodriguez after the ceremony was over.

“My father taught me to serve” said Rodriguez . “We have to honor him and the elders.”

“We’ve come full circle,” added Woolfrey.

7

business accelerators, each focused on a different industry. reSET also offers a four-month training for entrepreneurs, culminating in a more focused pitch meeting with much larger cash prizes.

Many businesses have been created as a result, Bodley said, including Blue Earth Compost, recently in the news as it expands, and Asarasi, which bottles water reclaimed from the maple syrup production process and is now shipping its wares around the world.

Two more events are coming up in October and November — an Accelerator Info Session and Beyond Business As Usual - Impact Investing. For more information, visit reSETco.or

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

September 25, 2019 - October 01 , 2019

Why is Suicide a Growing Problem in the Black Community?

The NNPA is taking a closer look at the stigma of mental illness in the African American community. This is the first in a series.

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

“Turning to our pastors was needed in the past, but as concerns have grown, more resources are available,” said Dr. Catherine Jackson, a licensed clinical psychologist and board certified neuro-therapist in Chicago, noting also that many African Americans eventually visit hospital emergency rooms with complaints that are in fact mental health issues.

Historically, seeking psychotherapy has been difficult for African Americans, said Dr. Viola Drancoli, a licensed clinical psychologist who wrote a master thesis about the barriers to seeking mental health services in ethnic minority communities.

“It is not only a concept with European origin, but also a concept that does not fit the community-oriented, collective approach to healing and support that has been so helpful to this population,” Drancoli said.

“Instead of finding healing in coming together, the client is separated, often sitting in a one-on-one session with a professional. The idea of being focused on, analyzed, can be perceived as threatening,” she said.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health says poverty level affects mental health status and African Americans living below the poverty level, as compared to those over twice the poverty level, are three times more likely to report psychological distress.

Further, African Americans are 10 percent more likely to report having serious psychological distress than Non-Hispanic whites, and the death rate from suicide for African American men was more than four times greater than for African American women, in 2014.

A report from the U.S. Surgeon General found that from 1980 to 1995, the suicide rate among African Americans ages 10 to 14 increased 233 percent, compared to 120 percent for non-Hispanic whites.

Yet, experts said even as the conversation around mental health has grown significantly with celebrities and others in the spotlight sharing their stories, most African Americans still refrain from seeking help.

“Unfortunately, among African Americans it remains taboo to talk about, and one reason is the fear of being labeled as crazy,” said Arron Muller, a licensed social worker.

“The intense fear of being judged has

Suicide

been a huge deterrent,” Muller said.

“In the African American community there is also an association that mental illness means weakness and the inability to handle your problems on your own or that anxiety or depressive symptoms should be addressed with praying and fasting,” he said.

Prayer and a relationship with God have their place in the full picture of health and wellness and a connection to God and leaning on a higher power does promote tremendous benefits for the brain and brain health, said Dr. Catherine Jackson, a licensed clinical psychologist and board certified neuro-therapist in Chicago.

Jackson founded Dr. J’s Holistic Health and Wellness at DrCCJ.com.

“While having the strength to work on your own problems is a good characteristic to have, not recognizing when to seek help can be detrimental to overall health,” Jackson said.

“Turning to our pastors was needed in the past, but as concerns have grown, more resources are available,” she said, noting also that many African Americans eventually visit hospital emergency rooms with complaints that are in fact mental health issues.

“Some hospitals give referrals to

Why

mental health practitioners, but without proper education and information shared, follow through is unlikely,” Jackson said.

Educator and life coach Elaine Taylor-Klaus said there’s something else that happens in the African American community that should warrant consideration when discussing the stigma of mental illness.

“In all aspects of life, the African American community has had to appear better than the average person just to be seen as good enough,” Taylor-Klaus said.

“African American families have long been conscious of a need to dress their kids a little nicer in public, to expect their kids to behave more respectfully in public, and to follow directions immediately,” Taylor-Klaus said.

“The implications for the adults when kids don’t behave has been a risk-factor — when an ‘uppity’ child acts out, an African American adult can get in serious, life-threatening trouble. It’s not reasonable — but it’s a reality of African American life in the United States,” she said.

There are more than 200 classified forms of mental illness and some of the more common disorders are depression, bipolar disorder, dementia, schizophrenia and anxiety disorders,

8

according to Mental Health America, the nation’s leading community-based nonprofit dedicated to addressing the needs of those living with mental illness.

Symptoms may include changes in mood, personality, personal habits and/or social withdrawal.

Mental health problems may be related to excessive stress due to a particular situation or series of events.

As with cancer, diabetes and heart disease, mental illnesses are often physical as well as emotional and psychological. According to Mental Health America, mental illnesses may be caused by a reaction to environmental stresses, genetic factors, biochemical imbalances, or a combination of: Confused thinking Prolonged depression (sadness or irritability) Feelings of extreme highs and lows Excessive fears, worries and anxieties Social withdrawal Dramatic changes in eating or sleeping habits Strong feelings of anger Strange thoughts (delusions) Seeing or hearing things that aren’t there (hallucinations) Growing inability to cope with daily problems and activities Suicidal thoughts Numerous unexplained physical ailments Substance use

In Older Children and Pre-Adolescents: Substance use Inability to cope with problems and daily activities Changes in sleeping and/or eating habits Excessive complaints of physical ailments Changes in ability to manage responsibilities – at home and/or at school Defiance of authority, truancy, theft, and/or vandalism Intense fear Prolonged negative mood, often accompanied by poor appetite or thoughts of death Frequent outbursts of anger In Younger Children: Changes in school performance Poor grades despite strong efforts Changes in sleeping and/or eating habits Excessive worry or anxiety (i.e. refusing to go to bed or school)Hyperactivity Persistent nightmares Persistent disobedience or aggression Frequent temper tantrums For detailed information about mental illness and where assistance is provided visit, www.nami. org; www.mentalhealthamerica.net; or www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov.

Part 2 in this series will tackle the growing number of suicides among young African Americans, an alarming trend that experts say is the result of poverty, racism, and post-traumatic stress syndrome both from military service and domestic and social prob-

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - September 25, 2019 - October 01, 2019 Con’t from page 06

Presidential

Visitor

justice, and dignity provide a foundation for our respective cultures. They are the basis for the connection we feel.”

“We welcome you, your excellency, again to New Haven,” New Haven Amistad Committee President Al Marder (pictured) said. “Again” because Bio was last in New Haven in 1992, when the city installed the statue to Sengbe Pieh, the leader of the 1839 revolt and subsequent freedom struggle, outside City Hall, where it still stands today.

“For the thousands who come to New Haven” every year, Marder said, the statue “informs them of the continual struggle against racism, and for equality and justice.”

Mohamed Berri, the honorary consul of Sierra Leone, praised Harp and Marder for working together while the former was a state Senator to fund the creation of the Connecticut Freedom Trail and the Freedom Schooner Amistad replica.

During the 2014 ebola crisis, he said, Harp led the city in raising $150,000, which led to the purchase and donation of three Ford vans sent to Freetown to be used as ambulances, as well as a Toyota pick-up truck to be used by Freetown’s City Hall.

He praised Althea Norcott, the head of the New Haven-Freetown sister city partnership, for helping raise money in the wake of the 2017 mudslides to build schools and a library and support an orphanage in Freetown.

“Thank you for hosting perhaps the greatest African president who has ever lived,” said Sidique Abou-Bakarr Wai (pictured), Sierra Leone’s ambassador to the United States. Under Bio’s leadership, he said, “We are no longer the ebola country,” but a country that has become one of the first in the continent to offer cost-free primary and secondary level education.

“I can only imagine the trauma suffered at sea” by the Amistad captives, Bio said. “Taken from their homes and being brought here. But you were generous enough to give them home. You have always believed in freedom. You have always believed in justice, and in the dignity of the human being.”

For that, he said, “I cannot thank you enough.”

After Harp presented Bio with an honorary key to the city, the president and his delegation made their way outside to the Amistad statue, where they took photo after photo.

“The fight for freedom is never finished,” Bio said when asked what the Amistad story means to him today, 180 years after the Mende captives first rose up to resist slavery.

9

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

September 25, 2019 - October 01 , 2019

Exercise & Arthritis: A Natural Remedy For Chronic Pain HealthDay News & BlackDoctor.org

Different from osteoarthritis, which is the wear-and-tear breakdown of joint cartilage experienced over time, rheumatoid arthritis, or RA, is an autoimmune disease that causes both pain and intense fatigue.

When you’re in the throes of a flare, exercise may seem like mission impossible and you might be advised to rest until it passes. But exercise is an essential part of an overall treatment plan to ease RA symptoms and improve mobility.

Aim for a weekly routine that includes stretching, cardio and strength training.

When Charlie Jannings, MD, talks about the value of exercise, you have to take him seriously. After all, the man is a kickboxer. He’s also the reigning male athlete of the year at the Big Sky State Games, an Olympic-style event that attracts thousands of Montanans of all ages: He won four gold medals in his age group. All in all, you could say he’s fairly fit for a 75-year-old.

A specialist in both geriatrics and sports medicine, Jannings has reason to be obsessed with exercise. Physical activity is a powerful remedy for chronic pain often caused by arthritis, a condition that afflicts most of the patients who come through his door. When patients seek relief for their sore, stiff joints, Jannings offers a standard prescription: “I tell them to move their joints every day in every way.”

“Part of my lifestyle” Every day in every way. Doctors all

over the country are dishing out the same advice, but patients aren’t always ready to listen. Jane Kowalski,* an 83-yearold living in Baltimore, had a typical response when her doctor urged her to exercise. “I was skeptical,” she says. “My joints hurt, and I thought I was supposed to rest them.”

Kowalski had another reason to be wary of exercise. Way back when she was 50, she decided to learn how to ride a bike.

Like any novice rider, she had a few spills. But her accidents weren’t child’s play. In one memorable wreck, she tore ligaments in her right knee. Even when the injury healed, she knew the pain wasn’t over. “My doctor said I’d get arthritis when I got old,” she says. “And seven years ago, I got old.”

As predicted, her right knee began to hurt. The rest of her body soon caught up. Osteoarthritis crept into her other knee, both hips, both wrists, both shoulders, and her neck. At times, the disease had such a grip on her that she couldn’t get out of bed. More than once, because of the pain, she was “trapped” in the bathtub or on the toilet seat. Kowalski had two options: She could do something about her arthritis or she could lose her independence.

Kowalski has decided to fight. She starts every day with stretches to warm up her muscles and ease the stiffness in her joints. Then she works her joints with a series of exercises, including leg lifts with weights strapped to her ankles.

The exercises give her the strength and flexibility she needs to get out of bed — and get through the day. “I do them every day, come hell or high water,” she says.

“It’s part of my lifestyle now.”

Joints are made to move, says Jannings.

If a person rests a sore knee or hip or elbow day after day, the muscles that support the joint will slowly weaken. At the same time, the tendons that attach the muscle to the bone will become less elastic. To a person with arthritis, it all adds up to more pain and stiffness.

Regular exercise can reverse this downward slide. The muscles become stronger, the tendons become more limber,

and as a result pain and stiffness may start to fade. Most people begin to notice improvements within two months, although some feel better almost immediately.

For patients with osteoarthritis, there’s another important benefit of exercise.

Regular activity provides the lifeblood to the cartilage that cushions joints. Unlike most tissues in the body, cartilage doesn’t receive nutrients from the bloodstream. Instead, it gets its nourishment

from a fluid (called synovial fluid) in the joints. When a joint moves, the fluid sloshes around, giving the cartilage a healthy dose of oxygen and other vital substances. As an added bonus, regular exercise encourages the body to produce extra synovial fluid.

Strong muscles, flexible tendons, and healthy cartilage. These are the things that make everyday life possible. “Ev-

lieved that her daughter, Sophia Macy, was educationally disadvantaged because of a learning disability.

Huffman tried to rationalize her cheating by saying that she only wanted to use her wealth to level the playing field for her daughter.

Most parents want what’s best for their children and Felicity Huffman is no exception. But it is likely that her daughter already had an abundance of the best.

Her parents were able to provide her with the advantages in life that wealth brings. In this sense, Sophia lived a life of privilege.

The absurdity of Huffman’s belief that her daughter has lived a life of disadvantage warranting short-circuiting the normal college admissions process is breathtaking. Are we expected to believe that Sophia did not have the opportunity to attend the best schools for

her learning disability and to have the most appropriate support systems? Sophia was even allowed six hours to take the three-hour SAT exam when she produced documentation stating that she had a learning disability.

Sophia’ s mother is a textbook example of the type of greed that underpins white supremacy. She exemplifies the people who have so much more than most people but who want even more. Why? Because they believe they deserve it.

And that is what, in their minds, makes it “fair” to cheat.

Deservedness is based upon merit in some cases and upon status in others.

While we all deserve respect because of our status as human beings, a student deserves a promotion because of her meritorious work. A problem arises when social wires get crossed by wealth, racism or other factors and status is seen as mer-

it. There is no merit in being born into a wealthy family, just as there is no merit in being born white. But racism and classism assign merit to both. And this leads to a false sense of deservedness.

For her crime, Felicity Huffman received only 14 days in jail at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, Calif., where at least one hour of recreational sunbathing is allowed from 4 p.m. Friday until 8:30 p.m. Sunday. She also is required to pay a $30,000 fine out of her $45 million in assets and perform 250 hours of community service.

During her trial, prosecutors argued that Huffman should go to prison, pointing out that a jury in Akron, Ohio, sentenced a single Black mom to five years in prison for using her father’s address to get her children into a nearby suburban school district. Prosecutors also pointed

out cases in Atlanta where some Black public school teachers and administrators received as much as three years in prison for bolstering school rankings by cheating on students’ state exams.

By understanding the false sense of deservedness that attaches to whiteness and wealth we can explain why judicial outcomes vary so greatly. This also explains the differing outcomes in employment, education, housing and health care.

“A fair shot” to some Americans means greater advantage for them at the expense of others. And unless we find a way to change this culture, racism and classism will continue to fuel the oppression of the truly disadvantaged in this country.

Oscar H. Blayton is a former Marine Corps combat pilot and human rights activist who practices law in Virginia. ​

A Fair Shot In America .........

by Oscar Blayton Felicity Huffman says she just wanted to give her daughter “a fair shot” at getting into the college of her choice.

That is the reason the Emmy Awardwinning actress paid someone to cheat on her daughter’s college entrance exam.

Huffman pled guilty in federal court to paying $15,000 to have her daughter’s SAT exam answers illicitly corrected by a test proctor.

Huffman, who, along with her celebrity husband, William H. Macy, reportedly has a net worth of $45 million, be-

10

Maintaining Fitness After 50 THE INNER-CITY NEWS - September 25, 2019 - October 01, 2019

Constance Brown-Riggs, is a registered dietitian, certified diabetes educator

As a woman over the age of 50, I know first-hand how challenging it can be to maintain fitness. For example, my body doesn’t require the same number of calories as it did when I was younger, but I still need to get enough nutrients.

There’s no getting around it, as we age, our bodies, minds, and lives change, and so does what we need to maintain fitness.

Healthy eating, regular exercise, and physical activity are the foundation for fitness after 50. Aging increases the risk of developing chronic diseases but physical activity can delay or prevent many of them, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia, and some cancers.

Being physically active can also improve mental health, help you sleep better, feel better, and maintain the ability to live independently.

When I was younger, my goals for working out were primarily to maintain weight. Now weight maintenance is a secondary goal, and functional fitness is primary. Functional fitness is training your body to handle real-life situations.

For me, functional fitness means maintaining my balance and not hitting the ground when I trip on an uneven sidewalk. As a frequent flyer, it also means

lifting my suitcase into the overhead bin or pulling it off the baggage carousel.

Exercise and physical activity fall into four basic categories—endurance, strength, balance, and flexibility. Regularly including all four types of exercise will give you a wide range of real-life benefits.

Building your endurance makes it easier to carry out many of your everyday activities. Endurance exercises include brisk walking or jogging, yard work (mowing, raking, digging), and dancing.

Strength exercises make your muscles stronger. They may help you stay independent and carry out everyday activities, such as climbing stairs and carrying groceries. These exercises also are called “strength training” or “resistance training.” Strength exercises include: lifting weights, using a resistance band, and using your own body weight.

Having good balance is important for many everyday activities, such as going up and down the stairs, or turning around quickly when you’re on a walk and hear a bicycle bell behind you. Many lower-body strength exercises will also improve your balance. Balance exercises include: standing on one foot, heel-totoe walk, and Tai Chi. Flexibility exercises stretch your muscles and can help your body stay limber.

Being flexible gives you more freedom of movement for other exercises as well as for your everyday activities, including driving and getting dressed. Flexibility exercises include shoulder and upper arm stretch, calf stretch, and yoga.

Aim for a total of 30 minutes of exercise and physical activity at least five days each week, including two days of strength training.

As you age, it’s essential to eat a variety of foods to get all the nutrients your body

needs for good health without a lot of extra calories. The food you eat should provide the right balance of carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and water. All of these nutrients working together give you the energy you need for a full and productive lifestyle.

Experts suggest seniors need more protein than when they were younger to help maintain muscle mass. Scientific evidence shows that older adults who consume more protein are more likely to maintain functional fitness. Good sources of protein are lean meat, poultry or fish, cooked beans, eggs, peanut butter, nuts, and seeds. Your health care provider can help you determine how much protein is right for you.

It can be challenging to eat healthier and fit exercise and physical activity into your daily routine.

Believe me, I know. But I also know, living an independent lifestyle is worth the challenge.

Constance Brown-Riggs, is a registered dietitian, certified diabetes educator, national speaker and author of the Diabetes Guide to Enjoying Foods of the World, a convenient guide to help people with diabetes enjoy all the flavors of the world while still following a healthy meal plan.

Follow Constance on social media @eatingsoulfully

1SCSU_GOH_InnerCity_5.472x5.1.qxp_Layout 1 9/23/19 9:16 AM Page 1

Position Yourself for Success!

School of Graduate and Professional Studies Open House Thursday, October 10, 2019 | 3 – 7 p.m. | Adanti Student Center Ballroom When you pursue a graduate degree at Southern Connecticut State University, you’re already positioning yourself for success.

Join us for an opportunity to learn how Southern’s graduate programs can uniquely align with your career goals. Visit our campus and explore the possibilities of graduate education at Southern.

Meet with graduate faculty in more than 40 areas of study in education, business, health and human services, and the arts and sciences.

• Speak with faculty and admissions representatives • Engage with current graduate students • Explore financial aid opportunities • Take an optional tour of our campus

To register, visit SouthernCT.edu/gradopenhouse 11

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

September 25, 2019 - October 01 , 2019

Debt collectors target consumers of color, people making less than $50K Consumer survey finds bipartisan support for effective debt collection regulation COMMENTARY:

By Charlene Crowell, NNPA Newswire Contributor A new survey asked likely voters across the country what they thought of a proposed debt collection rule. The response was strong and broad opposition.

Proposed earlier this year by Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Kathleen Kraninger, the rule would authorize debt collectors to expand how often consumers could be contacted as well as the ways such contacts could be made: email, text messages, and more.

Conducted by Lake Research Partners and Chesapeake Beach Consulting, the poll was jointly commissioned by the Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) and the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL). The results, released on September 11, found stark opposition by consumers to regulatory reforms announced by the CFPB. Con-

sumers are strongly united in wanting more and better protection in this area of financial regulation.

One in five poll participants were contacted by a debt collector in the past 12 months for different types of debt – including medical. Consumers of color, lower-income consumers and military families were contacted at higher rates.

More than one in three Black consumers (34%) or consumers with incomes less than $50,000 (33%), were contacted. Among Latinx consumers, nearly half or 48% were contacted.

Likely voters were most concerned about three specific changes included in the CFPB debt collection proposal: • 76% opposed allowing debt collectors to leave messages for people in places that are not private; • 74% opposed allowing debt collectors to contact consumers by private direct messaging on social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter; and • 73% opposed allowing debt collectors to phone people as often as seven times a week for each debt in collection.

“It should not surprise any of us that Americans don’t support governmentsanctioned harassment by debt collectors via phone, email, or text,” said AFR Senior Policy Counsel Linda Jun.

“And yet that’s exactly what the Kraninger CFPB is proposing. The agency needs to withdraw this plan and come up with one that actually protects consumers.”

The real irony with CFPB is that for six years, consumers benefitted from a series of actions that helped 29 million consumers to receive nearly $12 billion in restitution and/or forgiveness. Additionally, multiple public forums held across the country on a variety of issues gave consumers and all stakeholder interests meaningful opportunities to help shape public policy developments.

Research released by the CFPB have documented the harm of abusive debt collection practices and shown the rippling consequences of financial services practices as large as mortgages and as small as payday loans.

Under the Trump Administration, a consistent and focused deregulation effort has been underway to turn CFPB into a toothless tiger. It’s almost as if CFPB now stands for Corporate Financial Protection Bureau. Rather than living up to its name, CFPB eschews consumers and defers to companies and their preferences as to what financial regulation should look like.

The Administration has also repeatedly emphasized consumer information

BLACK VIOLIN October 11, 2019 BUSHNELL.ORG

•

860-987-5900

12

and education while predatory lenders pick the pockets of unsuspecting consumers. The error in this approach is that being aware of what should occur will not and cannot change punitive practices that earn billions of dollars for the corporations abusing consumers.

These actions are particularly suspect when one considers that debt collection complaints have been among the chief consumer complaints filed at both the CFPB and the Federal Trade Commission. Under CFPB’s first director, the agency filed more than 25 federal enforcement actions against debt collectors and creditors that deliver $300 million in restitution and another $100 million in civil penalties due to deceptive and abusive debt collection practices.

From weakening the Bureau’s Office of Fair Lending, to rewriting the longawaited payday lending rule that required lenders to ensure that borrowers can afford to repay these small-dollar loans that come with big costs, businesses and corporations are being coddled while consumers remain caught in harassing debt collection practices and debt trap loans.

“Bad policies from Washington are often the brainchild of people who aren’t

personally impacted by them,” said Jeremy Funk, spokesman for Allied Progress, a consumer advocacy organization. “Maybe spanning the spammerin-chief at the CFPB will help them realize the massive invasion of privacy that are inviting with this plan…Congress should get prepared to hold them accountable.”

Speaking for the Center for Responsible Lending, Melissa Stegman, a Senior Policy Counsel said: “The poll is clear – Americans don’t want CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger to give debt collectors a license to harass and intimidate consumers,” said Stegman. “A consumer-first debt collection rule should protect people – and particularly people of color and active duty military members, veterans and their families – from time-barred ‘zombie debt’.”

Government is supposed to be ‘for the people’– not for corporations.

Charlene Crowell is the Communications Deputy Director with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at Charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - September 25, 2019 - October 01, 2019

NEW HAVEN’S GRASSROOTS COMMUNITY RADIO STATION! www.newhavenindependent.org

JOE UGLY IN THE MORNING Weekdays 6-9 a.m.

THE TOM FICKLIN SHOW Mondays 10 a.m.

MAYOR MONDAY!

MERCY QUAYE

Mondays 11 a.m.

Mondays 1 p.m.

“THE SHOW”

“DJ REL”

MICHELLE TURNER Tuesdays 9 a.m.

“WERK IT OUT”

ELVERT EDEN Tuesdays at 2 p.m.

MORNINGS WITH MUBARAKAH

“JAZZ HAVEN”

Wednesdays 9 a.m.

Wednesdays 2 p.m.

STANLEY WELCH

“TALK-SIP”

LOVEBABZ LOVETALK

Thursdays 1 p.m.

Mondays-Fridays 9 a.m.

ALISA BOWENSMERCADO

FRIDAY PUNDITS Fridays 11 a.m.

At Saint Aedan Pre School

We believe in supporting and valuing all families.

We believe that a parent is the child’s first and best teacher.

We are committed to providing a high-quality experience that enhances the overall development of the child and supports the family unit. We incorporate play in our detailed experience plans that are in line with the CT ELDS and CT DOTS.

** Our Program is Full Day / Full Year /Open from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm ** NAEYC Accredited ** Care4Kids accepted ** State mandated sliding scale fee based on income and family size ** Onsite Social Worker and Educational Consultant

https://catholicacademynh.org/pre-school/pre-school-overview Dr. James F. Acabbo, Director St. Aedan Pre School 203-387-0041

13

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

September 25, 2019 - October 01 , 2019

AKA Raises $1 Million for HBCUs in One Day, Announces Collaboration with the Black Press of America

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

“I understand the impact personally that establishing an endowment has on a student’s enrollment and graduation prospects,” Dr. Glover said. “The actions of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. will go a long way toward ensuring that HBCUs remain open and able to encourage the best black students to choose them as a first option.”

For the second year in a row, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, the oldest Greek-letter organization established by African American college-educated women, raised $1 million in just 24 hours during this month’s HBCU Impact Day. The AKA Sorority, Inc. also has agreed to collaborate in the planning for the upcoming 80th-anniversary celebration of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) in 2020.

Dr. Glenda Glover, International President of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc., said the sorority would work with NNPA Chair Karen Carter Richards and NNPA President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., during the NNPA’s annual convention June 23-25, 2020 in New Orleans.

“When you need to know the positive stories – the real stories – about African Americans, then you understand our dependence on the Black Press for our news,” said Dr. Glover, the international president of AKA and president of the historically-Black Tennessee State University.

“It is my honor to be a part of this. Alpha Kappa Alpha has been a partner to the Black Press even right here in Nashville with the Tennessee Tribune,” she said.

While the first African American-owned newspaper was founded 192 years ago, the establishment of the NNPA took place in 1940 during a meeting in Chi-

cago.

Since its founding, the NNPA has advocated for the Black Press of America and delivering news to millions of people daily and weekly from the African American perspective. The NNPA is the national trade association that currently represents a vast conglomerate of more than 223 Black-owned newspapers throughout the country that comprise the Black Press of America.

For her part, Dr. Glover and the AKAs have steadfastly continued to promote support of HBCUs across the nation.

Dr. Glover has led that challenge for contributions as part of a four-year $10 million fundraising goal to benefit HBCUs. “As a college president, I need to recognize the need for HBCUs. I need to

recognize the operating needs, and the financial needs because we need funds to survive,” Dr. Glover said.

I asked my membership to support this initiative. We galvanized members, individuals, and corporate sponsors. We kept going back again, and again,” she said.

“It’s a tremendous feat to raise $1 million in one day, but we knew HBCUs needed to have funding, sustainability, and we have to make sure to secure the endowments of each university,” she said.

In February, AKA gifted $1.6 million from their AKA-HBCU Endowment Fund to 32 HBCUs. As an HBCU graduate, Glover said she has dedicated her life’s work to the HBCU community.

“I understand the impact personally

that establishing an endowment has on a student’s enrollment and graduation prospects,” Dr. Glover said.

“The actions of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. will go a long way toward ensuring that HBCUs remain open and able to encourage the best black students to choose them as a first option,” she said.

AKA began on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C., in 1908.

Today, nearly 300,000 members make up the sorority in approximately 1,018 graduate and undergraduate chapters in the U.S., the U.S. Virgin Islands, Liberia, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Dubai, Germany, Japan, and South Korea.

For her four-year tenure as president, Dr. Glover has implemented a five-point plan for AKA which includes the HBCU initiative.

®

A BR E AST CANCER S UPPOR T GROUP

21st Anniversary Pink Tea Saturday, October 26, 2019 1-5pm Mohegan Sun Convention Center 1 Mohegan Sun Blvd, Uncasville, CT 06382

$50.00 (bus +$20)

Please join us as we celebrate Breast Cancer Survivorship For ticket information call 203.288.3556 or visit www.sistersjourney.org

14

SAVE THE DATE

Sisters' Journey

The other four plan points include a women’s healthcare and wellness plan; building your economic legacy; the Arts; and global impact.

“We try to make sure that we handle certain national and international issues,” Dr. Glover said. “We have a program of wellness and health. We have a breast cancer mobile unit that travels around the country giving free mammograms to African American women,” she said.

“We know that breast cancer tends not to be found in black women until it reaches stage 4,” Dr. Glover said.

“With all of our initiatives, we want to make sure that African Americans don’t get lost in the shuffle. That is why we have programs and services that benefit the community,” Dr. Glover said.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - September 25, 2019 - October 01, 2019

Arien Wilkerson Sets The Stage For “Lovepiece”

by Lucy Gellman, The Arts Paper, ww.newhavenarts.org

At first, it’s hard to tell where the music is coming from. Strings rise, shrieking and shorting intermittently. An undulating, echoing voice swells to meet them.

Through shafts of red and green light, the set shifts into focus: a wooden bed frame several feet off the ground, lined with deep red tulle. A mattress and its cover, stretched and fixed to steel scaffolding with a net of multicolored yarn, rise into the air a few feet away. Flowers bloom wildly from both.

This is the landscape of Arien Wilkerson’s Lovepiece, a multimedia performance and installation running at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University through Sept. 24.

The world premiere of the performance, which Wilkerson is hoping to bring on tour, runs Monday at noon, 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. More information is available here.

“Lovepiece was kind of like a prompt within itself,” they said. “It’s about recovering from rejection and hate and humiliation and black and brown love, and every last thing that I had experienced, plus how I felt about my entire queerness, my family, all the men that I’ve had sex with, plus the fact that I’m HIV positive.”

The framework for Lovepiece began in late 2017, months after Wilkerson ended a two-year relationship with a poet and playwright they lived with in New Haven. At the time, the artist was just starting to tour a film for their installation Equators, later performed at the University of Hartford. Even as they threw themselves into their work, they struggled to come to terms with what had happened.

“I think it was the most earth-shattering breakup I’ve ever been through,” they said. “I don’t know how to unlove someone. I can’t like, not talk to someone that I’ve slept in the same bed with. I don’t know how to not care about someone. It was a huge hole that I felt was carved out of my entire body.”

And so, they threw themselves into work. In 2018, Wilkerson landed a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, which allowed them to tour Equators and develop their work Universal Womb. They bounced between Hartford, New York and Philadelphia, to which they are moving next month. They celebrated their birthday on tour. They compartmentalized until the breakup was just a droning sound at the back of their skull. And then in January of 2019, they crashed.

“I had no time to process all the things that I was feeling,” they recalled. “It was hard. And at the end of it, I was exhausted.”

But it was the kind of exhaustion from which creativity sometimes explodes in

Arien Wilkerson

hard-fought fits and starts. In early 2019, Wilkerson convinced fellow artist domsentfrommars to move from Brooklyn to Hartford. They “went on a cute little purge,” and disabled Facebook and Instagram. They got a therapist, and started talking about the breakup.

And then, slowly, they started drafting the piece. In particular, Wilkerson recalled, domsentfrommars encouraged the artist to dig deep on themselves, exploring parts of their own lived experience that had never made it into their work.

“I come from the land of make believe, and Arien’s always doing real issues that are conceptual,” domsentfrommars said in an interview Sunday. “But I just never saw them care about themselves or make anything personal. It almost feels like they can’t make anything personal because they haven’t done the work to just sit alone in a room with no music on, just sitting with yourself.”

Until Lovepiece. As the work came together, Wilkerson began to explore the eight types of love they had experienced both in the relationship and in life. There was eros (romantic love), phila (friendship love), storge (familial love and family love), mania (obsessive love, “which is the closest to how I love,” said Wilkerson), philautia (self love), agape (selfless love), pragma (enduring love), and ludus (playful love, or “cat and mouse, boy meets girl,” the artist said).

Wilkerson was intrigued by how easily one type of love intersected with another, and then another, and then another, just as their blackness, queerness, and recent

HIV diagnosis do in their life and work.

And so they developed eight prompts, loose structures on which movement and music could be based.

“There’s no narrative,” they said. “I did not want to tell this narrative from beginning to end about love, or about my life, I didn’t want to tell a memoir. You can’t tell a story without the recounting of someone else’s story. No matter what I say about [my ex] ... they have their own perspective on what has happened.

And it’s gonna be different from mine.

Their story or how the movie went down is gonna be different.”

As the piece evolved, the artist added in swelling vocals, classical and contemporary phrases, and floor work through which their body could become an instrument of its own accord. They enlisted the help of domsentfrommars, lighting and scenic designer Jon Paul LaRocco, New Haven drone musician Zach Rowden, and Hartford jazz musician and saxophonist Karim Rome, all of whom are not on stage during the performance.

The set grew to encapsulate the mattress, mattress pad, and bed frame on which Wilkerson was laying when they found out that they were HIV positive.

The title—on which Wilkerson said they still feel ambivalent because they hate the word “love”—references their expartner’s work in literature, poetry, and playwriting.

“Something about the work is way more subtle and refined, which took me a while to become,” they said. “I hate the fucking word love. But it couldn’t be anything else. I was like, I have to make

15

a piece with the word love in it.”

Now, the show has come to life in vibrant, unsettling and intensely felt detail.

In the Quick Center’s intimate black box theater, huge fake flowers are strewn over the floor, waiting for Wilkerson’s hands, feet, and mouth to lift them up and incorporate them into the piece. Fog rolls in from the ceiling and a space on the floor, chalky and billowing as Wilkerson crawls through it outlined in gold.

Lighting cues from LaRocco turn the space into eight different universes, each of them overlapping at the edges and sometimes at the centers too.

As they crawl out beneath fog and scaffolding to one type of love, their muscles strain and pop against the light and shadow. Breath, almost grunted, becomes audible in the theater. Shift to another form of love, and shafts of red and green light are coming down on the artist, turning the space into another sort of world entirely.

As the types of love merge, Wilkerson shape-shifts on a dime. One moment, voicemail messages from the artist’s friends, family members, and ex crackle and boom overhead, weaving themselves into the soundtrack. Another, and Los Ángeles Negros’ “Tres Palabras” runs right into a tape loop that sounds like Minnie Mouse on speed. Rome switches from sax to rap, drawing the audience in with Wilkerson’s concept of a situational, shifting score. Ariana Grande pipes in over the speakers, distorted.

Yet another, and Rowden and Rome launch into a back-and-forth that sounds ambient until it is suddenly dizzying,

ready to soak the whole room in sound.

Their relationship, a knot of deep-bellied and shrill notes, breaks and then repairs itself. Seated in a different part of the theater, domsentfrommars pushes in with transcendent vocals, echoing as if the artist are underwater and trying to break free.

There’s a heavy lean on improvisation: the eight types of love are never presented in the same order. In a brilliant move, LaRocco has set individual cues for each of them, enabling the ensemble to shift from one show to the next. In other words, Wilkerson said, “we created a lot of bases that we can fuck with,” while maintaining a series of structured entrances and exits.

Phrase work is never quite the same, as if the structure of Lovepiece is just a mere suggestion in this bigger relationship the audience calls life. And it works: by the time one exits the theater, they feel as if they have been to another country and back.

In part, it marks a radical departure from the artist’s other work, which has focused on on eco-consciousness, political activism, and the intersections of racial justice, climate justice, and educational justice. Wilkerson, with intense and sometimes furious beauty, comes forward willing to share more of themselves. It is highly collaborative: the piece centers Wilkerson’s work on themselves, but cannot fully exist without the ensemble.

Indeed, there is no degree of remove and nowhere to hide. Ensemble members are part of the set. Chairs are assembled in a deliberate mess, à la Pina Bausch— meaning that the audience, too, becomes part of the Lovepiece.

But like recent work in Equators and Universal Womb, it is also intensely relatable. In watching Wilkerson navigate the stage, bed, and steel scaffolding with grace, joy and fury, members of the audience may be reminded of the pitfalls, play, joy and destruction in their own relationships. In listening to the voicemails, they may dig up something from their own life—a lover despised by their family members, or maybe a partner’s family that was unwelcoming. And they, like Wilkerson, may start working towards resolution.

“I’m not there yet, but I will be,” they said. “I definitely feel it in my body. I think the more I that I do this, I’m just going to get stronger, and stronger, and stronger with loving myself, and learning about love. I’m a manic lover. But in the entire show, I don’t go manic. It’s the one and only show where I stay calm.”

“I’m always going to be changing how I feel and who I love,” they added. “So every time I do it, I can think about how I feel and different things.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

COMMENTARY:

September 25, 2019 - October 01 , 2019

Afghanistan is not worth it

Beyond the Rhetoric

By Harry C. Alford & Kay DeBow

Our latest trist in Afghanistan has lasted over 19 years. It is long overdue for us to face one solid fact: No one conquers and rules Afghanistan. This area of the world is in a continuous state of war, havoc and mass confusion. Confusion is the key word here. There is no one religion that rules, no conquering nation that remains, no major tribe or race of people.

It is just there and will continue to be one ongoing mass of confusion and change of temporary leadership.

Britain maintained one of the greatest empires the world has known. However, its attempt to rule what is now Afghanistan was a disaster. Here is how Wikipedia explains the disaster: “The First Anglo-Afghan War (also known by the British as the Disaster in Afghanistan) was fought between the British East India Company and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1839 to 1842.

“Initially, the British successfully intervened in a succession dispute between emir Dost Mohammad (Barakzai) and former emir Shah Shoah (Duran), whom they installed upon conquering Kabul in August 1839.

“The main British Indian and Sikh force occupying Kabul along with their camp followers, having endured harsh winters as well, was almost annihilated while retreating in January 1842.

“The British then sent an Army of Retribution to Kabul to avenge their defeat and having demolished parts of the capital and recovered prisoners they left Afghanistan altogether by the end of the year. Dost Mohamed returned from exile in India to resume his rule.

“It was one of the first major conflicts during the Great Game, the 19th century competition for power and influence in Central Asia between Britain and Russia.”

That was when Britain maintained one of the finest military operations in world history. They could not handle Afghanistan. Let’s go back further than that.

All the way to Alexander the Great and his great Greek Empire. It was here where he met the beginning of his demise. This is how Wikipedia explains it: “Alexander the Great invaded what is today Afghanistan in 330 BC as part of war against Persia. Comprising the easternmost satrapies of Persia, Afghanistan provided some challenging battles in the conquest of the remaining lands of Persia.

Renamed Bactria, and settled with his Ionian veterans, Alexander began his invasion of India from what is now Jalalabad, attacking the Indus River basin through the Khyber Pass. Several cities in Afghanistan are named for Alexander, including Alexandria Arachises, now

Con’t from page 10

Exercise & Arthritis: A Natural Remedy For Chronic Pain

erybody needs exercise,” says Barbara Resnick, Ph.D., a nurse practitioner at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. And when she says everybody, she means it. She has seen frail patients in their hundreds gain a new lease on life after taking up exercise.

The Big Four

Harry Alford and Kay DeBow, co-founder’s of the NBCC. (Twitter Photo @NationalBCC)

called Kandahar (a contraction of Kandahar).

Following the death of Alexander and the partition of his kingdom, the Province of Bactria was under the rule of Alexander’s former general, Seleucids, who now formed the Seleucid Dynasty, with its capital in Babylon. But the Greek soldiers in Bactria, based on the remoteness of their territory, declared independence, defeated Seleucid armies sent to reconquer them, and founded the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, which lasted for more than three centuries in Afghanistan, and western India.

This Greek Kingdom called Bactria carried on Greek culture while completely cut off from Europe for three centuries.

One of the cities, Ai-Khanoum was excavated in the 1970s, showing a complete Greek city with an acropolis, amphitheater, temples, and numerous statues.

Greeks of Bactria transmitted the art of sculpting human likeness to India and the Far East. Bactrian King Menander I converted to Buddhism after staging multiple theological and philosophical debates between his Greek priests and Indian Buddhist monks. Menander I is remembered in Buddhist Sutras as “King Melinda of the Yunani.”

The Ionian origin of the Greek veterans who settled Bactria is remembered to this day by the Afghan word for Greeks, which is “Ionian.” Bactrian Greeks left a legacy of coinage, architecture, and Buddhist art, which comprised the Gandara culture, especially all East Asia to this day.

The last Greek Kingdom in Afghanistan was conquered by the Kushan invaders in the first century AD, a full three centuries after Alexander. But Greek language continued to be used by the Kushans in their coinage for the next several centuries.”

Even one of the greatest generals of all time, Genghis Khan, could not put Afghanistan into his “quiver” of victories.

When he led his fierce army of Mongols from Manchuria to the “gates” of Europe, he found one “hiccup” he could not overcome. He selected to bypass what is now Afghanistan and continue with his conquest.

So, it was with great surprise that the Soviet Union, a “Johnny come lately” in terms of aspiring empires decided to invade Afghanistan in 1980. One of the most feared nations on earth came to its knees and eventually retreated. That was the beginning of the end for the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics. It was just another one that “bit the dust” trying to do what many empires before had failed to do.

Afghanistan should be considered a continuous, changing State in a free for all and controlled by no one party or government. A big variable in all of this is the Taliban tribe. The Taliban are roaming nomads and answer to no one.

They have no set geography which they live in, and no other government it will cooperate with. It is a strong warring group which answers to no other power on earth.

It is silly for us to think that we can sue for peace or even demand it in this strange quarter of the world. Let us pull out. After 19 years we should know by now. If not, let’s review the last couple of thousands of years to come up with one conclusion. Afghanistan is a “no win game.”

Bring our troops home. It is not worth it.

Mr. Alford is the Co-Founder, President/CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce®. Ms. DeBow is the Co-Founder, Executive Vice President of the Chamber. Website: www.nationalbcc.org Emails: halford@nationalbcc. org, kdebow@nationalbcc.org.

This article originally appeared in The Chicago Crusader.

16

Resnick outlines four basic types of exercise that can help patients with arthritis: Stretching, range-of-motion exercises (slowly moving the joints through their full range), strength training, and aerobics. Anyone with arthritis should incorporate each of these four types of exercise into their life, Resnick says.

She offers the following basic tips for each form of exercise: 1. Stretches. Slowly stretch to the point of mild discomfort, hold 10 to 30 seconds, and repeat three to five times.

Spend at least 10 minutes a day stretching, and make sure you cover every major muscle group.

2. Range of motion. Every joint should go through its full range of motion every day. If bending the joint in a certain way causes too much pain, stick with movements that are more comfortable. Over time, try to gradually increase your flexibility until the joint regains its full range.

3. Strength training. Take it slow and easy when lifting weights. You may need to start with just a one- or two-pound weight (or even no weight at all.) Once you can do three sets of eight or 10 repetitions with ease, gradually increase the weight.

4. Aerobic activity. Enjoy a brisk walk, swim, jog, or aerobics class. Swimming and water aerobics are especially good choices if your joints are too sore for walking. No matter which activity you choose, don’t push yourself too hard. At most, your heart rate should reach about 60 percent to 80 percent of its maximum.

5. Yoga: relief for arthritis painPreliminary research findings also suggest that yoga may be useful in treating some forms of arthritis, according to the Arthritis Foundation. A small, randomized, controlled study published in the Journal of Rheumatology indicated that yoga significantly improved tenderness, pain, and range of motion in the fingers among subjects with osteoarthritis of the hands. Another study in the British Journal of Rheumatology demonstrated that yoga was useful in treating rheumatoid arthritis.

An ancient discipline based on the Hindu practice of mind-body unity, yoga combines stretching, strength training, and range-of-motion exercises with mental and spiritual training; most forms include breathing and meditation techniques. As an added benefit, such techniques may help you relax and relieve some of the stresses of living with arthritis.

Because it may be difficult for older practitioners of yoga to balance, instructors advise people with arthritis to focus on yoga poses with the aid of a chair, wall, or while lying on the floor.

Getting started Exercise isn’t something to just jump into, Resnick says. Before starting any exercise program, patients should talk to a doctor, personal trainer, or physical therapist to learn which exercises are right for them. They also have to learn their own limits. As she explains, the body will sound an alarm if exercise becomes too intense. Possible signs of overexertion include chest discomfort, heavy sweating, and lingering pain or tiredness.

Some patients will have to adjust their routines day by day to keep up with their body’s needs. For example, Resnick encourages patients with rheumatoid arthritis to give their sore joints plenty of rest during a flare-up. Stretches, rangeof-motion exercises, and weight lifting could further inflame the joint. Wait till the flare-up is over before you resume your routine.

With any exercise program, the first steps are always the hardest. People with arthritis can have an especially difficult time getting started. When your joints creak every time you get up, a good workout is probably the furthest thing from your mind. “It’s very easy to sit down and give up,” says Helen Sollins, a 76-year-old arthritis sufferer living in Baltimore.

Like Kowalski and many others, Sollins decided not to take the easy way.

She stretches, lifts weights, rides a stationary bike, and stays as active as possible. “Exercise gives me such a feeling of satisfaction,” she says. “You feel like you’ve really accomplished something.”

Sollins has no intention of slowing down.

Her daily workouts, she says, help keep her on her feet and independent. Now, there’s an accomplishment. * Jane Kowalski is a pseudonym.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - September 25, 2019 - October 01, 2019

FALL JAZZ SERIES

SEPT JONATHAN BUTLER

27 FRI

OCT

26 SAT

NOV

23 SAT

AND

Inner City Ad 8/14 8/21

KIRK WHALUM

SUMMER GROOVE TOUR!

INCOGNITO

40TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

NOVEMBER 1–3

KIM WATERS

11:00am Show on Friday, Nov 1 – perfect for High School & Senior groups!

FEATURING KAYLA WATERS

CALL FOR GROUP DISCOUNTS!

NORMAN BROWN’S

DEC JOYOUS CHRISTMAS

14 SAT

SAVE 25%

on select seats when you buy tickets in groups of 4!

featuring

Norman Brown Bobby Caldwell Marion Meadows

On Sale - August 17th @11a.m.

Single event tickets on sale August 27th at 11a.m.

Get the same seats for all four amazing shows for one low price of $120!* plus $1.50 per ticket Handling Charge*

OCTOBER 11–13

LYMANCENTER.ORG

203-392-6154

shubert.com • 203.562.5666

17

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

September 25, 2019 - October 01 , 2019

A Filmmaker, an Anthropologist and a Sculptor Launch National Tour

to Ignite a Conversation Around Black Men and Vulnerability

This month, filmmaker Brian Ellison, anthropologist Marlon Hall, and sculptor Anthony Suber launched a series of conversations focused on the black male experience in contemporary society.

The dinner series centers the conversation around Ellison’s documentary, UnMASKulinity, debuting next year.

The first discussion was held last on Friday, September 13 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where is Ellison was born and raised.

“Tulsa will always be home for me and the black community still bears the scars of the devastating race riots of 1921,” said Ellison. “Our goal is to create spaces of vulnerability and archiving the stories of black men who talk about the masks we wear each day.”

After a day spent in each community shooting for the film, the organizers host a confluence of 16 men from a variety of backgrounds in an environment of listening and learning.

The evenings include original musical composition, the work of a resident culinary artist, and intentionally structured conversation. Curated by Hall’s anthropological eye, these gatherings become pathways toward the exploration of human story and possibility while simultaneously collecting information to inform the direction of the documentary. Suber creatse moving artwork that encourages guests to “remove their mask” throughout the evening.

The group, along with other experts in the arts and education, will create a curriculum to accompany the dinner series which aims to empower communities to continue the conversation long after the dinner is over. The trio of men came together after discovering their common interest in creating spaces for men to gather, share and grow–both emotionally and intellectually. According to Mental Health America, Black/African American men are particularly conscious of

stigma when it comes to seeking help or advice from an expert such as a psychologist.

“We have to be willing to be vulnerable in order to be whole. However, this cannot happen if the structure that black men can relate to most does not exist,” said Hall. “Gathering around the table– be it dinner with family, cards with your friends or out on the town with friends–is something that is all-too-familiar within the black community. We hope it feels like home.”

Hall is an international lecturing anthropologist, practitioner, and storyteller who helps individuals and organizations develop sustainable practices, rituals, values, and programs that deepen their connections, strengthen their culture, and broaden their impact. His life intention is to cultivate human potential in ways that are whimsically beautiful and positively willful.

Ellison is a philanthropist and a selftaught photographer, cinematographer, and conceptual visual artist. He’s known

for capturing the everyday black experience such as gentrification’s impact on historical communities, under-publicized black love and comradery, parenthood, and the persistent courage of black women and men.

Suber is a painter, sculptor and educator. Currently, he is creating an arts educational program for under-served communities in the Houston area focused not only on enrichment, but on serving the greater community by providing an effective voice to those who otherwise would be marginalized.

The tour dates are as follows: • Tulsa, Oklahoma- Sept 12th • Seattle, Washington- Oct 26th • New York, New York- Nov 9th • Atlanta, Georgia- Nov 16th • Los Angeles, CA- Dec 3rd • Nashville,Tennessee- Jan 27th This project is funded by grants from the John Steven Kellet Foundation, the City of Houston and the Houston Arts Alliance.

18

4 Ways to Enjoy The Single Life Lisa Hammond, BlackDoctor.org

It’s September, meaning that wedding season is seemingly coming to a close.

Hooray for the single folks, right? No more scrolling through your Instagram timeline full of weddings each weekend and your days of being a perpetual bridesmaid or groomsmen are over…at least until May 2020. The single life has gotten boring and redundant and it seems like you’ll never be a #relationshipgoal.

BUT what if I tell you that being single can be one of the best times of your life if you decide to enjoy it?

It sounds cliche but it is very true. Being single and legally unattached to a person can be the most freeing and adventurous time of your life. You just have to intentionally choose to live that way. Making the decision to enjoy your single life isn’t the easiest and for many, it’s a daily choice to change your perspective on what being single means and how to live a life worth more than just waiting for the day where you’ll be one with another person.

Here are 4 ways to enjoy your single life:

1. Learn who you are and what you ultimately want your life to look like This also sounds like another cliche quote but in actuality, if you don’t know who you are and what you ultimately want your life to look like you’re wasting valuable time. One of the greatest feelings in the world is the feeling you get when you know you are doing what you were put on Earth to do. The feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment that comes with tapping into your life’s work and knowing who you are and the values you stand for cannot be rivaled.

Many people spend years and even decades of their life searching for what it is they are supposed to do. So rather

than spend time scrolling through Instagram feeling sad that you’re single, write down your life’s dreams, your goals, what you want to accomplish in your life and the legacy you want to leave.

2. Travel No matter where you are from, it is important to learn that the world does not revolve around your home town nor the United States for that matter. Traveling opens the doors to your mind in a way that books, tv shows, and magazines cannot.

One of the best and probably easiest times to travel and see different parts of the world is when you’re single. Even if it’s picking a different place to travel each year, make time to see different parts of the country and different parts of the world. Trust me, it’ll shape how you live your life once you return.

3. Nurture healthy relationships

Many single people want to be in healthy romantic relationships but are unaware that in order to have a healthy romantic relationship, you must know how to maintain and nurture healthy relationships with family and friends. If it’s hard for you to be reliable, dependable and vulnerable with those around you when you’re single, it will be even harder to be that way once you’re in a relationship or married. Take the time while you’re single to learn how to be a good friend, son, daughter, cousin, sister or brother.

Check-in on those around you, be supportive, make plans and keep them. Relationships take work and maintaining healthy ones will sure to keep you busy.

4. Serve others

Whether you serve in your local church or the city’s homeless shelter, serving those in need takes the focus off what you don’t have and causes you to be thankful for what you do have. By nature, we are all selfish people and we need to be reminded that the world does not begin and end with our problems.

Seeing the happiness and joy in the eyes of those you serve will bring happiness and joy to your life and your singleness becomes meaningless. Who knows, your future bae might be right there serving alongside you!

Lisa Hammond is a 24-year old faith and lifestyle blogger from Cleveland, OH. With a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Cleveland State University, Lisa’s goal is to become a journalist, speaker, and author motivating women across the world.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - September 25, 2019 - October 01, 2019

COMMENTARY:

A Letter to President Barack Obama –We miss you

JACKSONVILLE FREE PRESS — Thanks for leading us out of the Great Recession and helping our country and economy rebound. You were professional and committed despite

some of the unprofessional politicians that you faced in Congress.

Dear President Obama, First, let me thank you for being a true statesman and such an exceptional role model. You have been an inspiration to so many people around the world.

Thank you for your passion, intelligence, commitment, aptitude and swagger. You are one the coolest brothers that I have ever seen – you, Samuel L. Jackson, John Shaft, Avon Barksdale (The Wire) and Ghost (Power). You are cool as the other side of the pillow.

Not only are you my favorite President of all time, you are my favorite light-skinned guy of all time. Forget Tom Joyner, Terrance Howard and Steph Curry, you have single handedly brought light skinned back. Us dark skinned brothers had taken over, but you Sir were like Luke Skywalker in “Return of the Jedi” – you brought balance to the Force.

So thank you Mr. Obama for being an awesome world leader, husband and father.

Thanks for leading us out of the Great

Recession and helping our country and economy rebound. You were professional and committed despite some of the unprofessional politicians that you faced in Congress.

Cheers, Mr. Real President for not being a sexist, bigot or an egomaniac.

Thanks for showing us that you were both the ideal professional, but very human at the same time. Although your rendition of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” sucked – you got cool points for trying and the effort being funny as hell.

And I just have to acknowledge the fact that you and your administration used social media responsibly, versus just tweeting or posting nonsense anytime you got in a bad mood or were craving attention. Thank you Mr. Obama for never calling someone “a dog” via Twitter and debasing the office of the President of the United States.

I loved your comments last July in South Africa at a speech commemorating the 100th birthday of Nelson Mandela. Obama said, “People just make stuff up. They just make stuff up. We see it in

the growth of state-sponsored propaganda. We see it in internet fabrications.”

He added, “We see it in the blurring of lines between news and entertainment.

We see the utter loss of shame among political leaders where they’re caught in a lie and they just double down and they lie some more.”

And thank you Barrack, if I can call you Barrack, for your passion for helping those Americans in great need. The My Brother’s Keeper initiative that you launched has made a difference and we thank you and Michelle for continuing to fight for youth around the country.

And how can we not thank you for actually hiring well-qualified competent people to help you run the country. You know like actually hiring a Secretary of Education that has a college degree or has actually been inside of a public school.

I have to give you major props for being a good human being and not stereotyping people from difference races and backgrounds. You didn’t target Mexicans and Muslims, but you attempted

to create policies that dealt promoted inclusion versus exclusion.

By the way, the last I checked we haven’t had any Mexican or Muslim mass murders in a while, but we certainly have had numerous white extremist or supremist (however you want to classify them) that have killed dozens of unsuspecting people.

And Mr. Obama you are way too smart to ever think that we could make Mexico or anyone else pay for a wall. It’s hard enough to make us Americans pay for anything extra.

How can I not thank you for being you without acknowledging your lovely bride. You married the best first lady ever and if she’s not the best she is at least in the top three. And I am not just saying this because of my tenyear crush on Michelle. I am saying it because she’s been transformative. We have never seen a first lady draw the types of crowds Mrs. Obama attracts for speaking engagements and book signing events?

I am not sure if my grandmother will

ever admit it, but I think that you have replaced me as her favorite grandson.

No you may not know it, but you are Ms. Ernestine’s favorite. That might be the only issue I have with you. In fact, she’s still waiting on you to come and pick up that sweet potato pie that she baked for you last Thanksgiving.

Finally Mr. President, I must end my man crush letter by again thanking you for the sacrifice and exceptional service.

You and Michelle deserve to finally have some fun and actually relax. By the way, don’t forget to invite me to housing warming for that new gigantic house you are buying.

Signing off from Martha’s Vineyards hanging with the Obamas (not really), Reggie Fullwood

Reggie Fullwood

(Photo courtesy of Twitter)

Amazon Prime included UNLIMITED

LINES When you switch.

Limited time offer. If congested, the fraction of users >35 GB/mo. may notice reduced speeds and Metro customers may notice reduced speeds vs. T-Mobile due to prioritization. Video streams at up to 480p. Unlimited on handset and network only.

19

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES Invitation

for Bids

Scattered Sites East and West- Furnace & Hot Water Conversion/ Replacement

The Housing Authority of the City of New Havend/b/a Elm City Communities is currently seeking Bids for Scattered Sites East and West- Furnace & Hot Water Conversion/ Replacement. A complete copy of the requirements may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems. com/gateway beginning on Wednesday, September 4, 2019 at 3:00PM

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES Invitation for Bids Interior and External Door Installations and Repairs The Housing Authority of the City of New Havend/b/a Elm City Communities is currently seeking Bids for Interior and External Door Installations and Repairs. A complete copy of the requirements may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Wednesday, September 4, 2019at 3:00PM.

HELP WANTED: Large CT guardrail company looking for Laborer/

Driver with valid CT CDL Class A license and able to get a medical card. Must be able to pass a drug test and physical. Compensation based on experience.

Email resume to dmastracchio@atlasoutdoor.com AA/EOE M-F

The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport Request for Proposal (RFP) Repositioning Consultant Solicitation Number: 133-EO-19-S

The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport d/b/a Park City Communities (PCC) is currently seeking proposals from qualified repositioning firms. Solicitation package will be available on September 23, 2019. To obtain a copy of the solicitation you must send your request to bids@parkcitycommunities.org, please reference solicitation number and title on the subject line. A pre-proposal conference will be held at 150 Highland Ave, Bridgeport, CT 06605 on October 9, 2019, @ 2:00 p.m. Although attendance is not mandatory, submitting a bid for the project without attending conference is not in the best interest of the Offeror. Additional questions should be emailed only to bids@parkcitycommunities.org no later than October 16, 2019 @ 3:00 p.m. Answers to all the questions will be posted on PCC’s Website: www.parkcitycommunities.org. Proposals shall be mailed, or hand delivered by October 24, 2019 @ 3:00 PM, to Ms. Caroline Sanchez, Director of Procurement, 150 Highland Ave, Bridgeport, CT 06604. Late proposals will not be accepted.

Water Treatment Water Treatment Pumping Operator I - The Town of Wallingford’s Water Division is seeking qualified candidates to maintain and operate the water treatment plants, pump stations, and well facilities. Must process a High School Diploma or G.E.D with one (1) year of experience involving the operation or maintenance of equipment of the type predominant in the water treatment industry. Ability to obtain within one (1) year, State of Connecticut DPH Class I Water Treatment Plant Operator’s Certificate, Class I Water Distribution System Operator Certification and successful completion of an approved water treatment plant operator’s certificate program. $25.96 - $31.55 hourly plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply: Department of Human Resources, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. The closing date will be the date the 50th application/resume is received, or October 7, 2019 whichever occurs first. EOE

September 25, 2019 - October 01 , 2019

HELP WANTED: Large CT guardrail company

looking for Laborer/Driver with valid CT CDL Class A license and able to get a medical card. Must be able to pass a drug test and physical. Compensation based on experience. Email resume to dmastracchio@atlasoutdoor.com AA/EOE M-F

Equipment Operator Help Wanted: Immediate opening for Equipment Operator for Heavy and Highway Construction.

10 hour OSHA certificate required. CDL license a plus but not required.

Please call PJF Construction Corp.@ 860-888-9998. We are an equal opportunity employer M/F.

Laborer Help Wanted: Immediate opening for Construction Laborer for Heavy and Highway Construction.

10 hour OSHA certificate required.

Please call PJF Construction Corp. @ 860-888-9998. We are an equal opportunity employer M/F.

CDL Driver Help Wanted: Immediate opening for CDL Driver for Heavy and Highway Construction.

10 hour OSHA certificate and clean CDL license required.

Please call PJF Construction Corp. @ 860-888-9998. We are an equal opportunity employer M/F.

Project Manager/Project Supervisor Help Wanted: Immediate opening for a Project Manager/Project Supervisor for Heavy and Highway Construction. Previous experience on CTDOT projects required.

Please call PJF Construction Corp. @ 860-888-9998.

We are an equal opportunity employer M/F

Listing: Accounting

Accounting Department has an immediate opening in Ac-

counts Payable. This full time position in a fast-paced office environment could be an excellent entry to an Accounting career. Requires good computer and organizational skills, attention to detail, and multi-tasking. Benefits include health, dental & LTD insurance plus 401(k). Send resume to: Human Resource Dept. P O Box 388, Guilford CT 06437.

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

Town of Bloomfield Vehicle Mechanic Technician Full Time - Benefited $30.49 hourly Pre-employment drug testing. For more details, visit our website – www.bloomfieldct.org

20

Civil Engineer

Diversified Technology Consultants (DTC) is a multi-disciple engineering and environmental consulting firm. DTC is a leader in servicing governmental clients for four decades. DTC prides itself as having worked on a wide variety of project types. From schools and senior centers to town halls and universities, our diverse portfolio provides extensive experience to our communities.

As DTC enters its forth decade, we are seeking an energetic, organized and proactive professional in our Civil Engineering Department. The successful candidate(s) will work closely with our technical staff in support of DTC’s strategic goals and objectives.

This is an entry level position located in our Hamden, Connecticut office.

Responsibilities:

• Assist in the preparation of plans, specifications, supporting documents, and permit applications for private and municipal projects.

• Assist in preparation of calculations such as storm drainage, water supply & wastewater collection, cost estimates, and earthwork quantities.

• Perform design and drafting using AutoCAD Civil 3D. MicroStation experience is beneficial but not required.

Qualifications:

• Graduate from an accredited college or university with a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering.

• Engineer in training certificate preferred.

For Further information or to apply send resumes to ellen.nelson@teamdtc.com DTC is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.

DTC is a Drug Free Work Place.

Individuals with Disabilities, Minorities and Protected Veterans are encouraged to apply.

POLICE OFFICER City of Bristol $63,934 - $77,714

Required testing,

Registration info & apply at www.bristolct.gov DEADLINE: 11-22-19 EOE

Recording Secretary The Town of Wallingford is seeking reliable individuals to record and prepare minutes for regular and special meetings that are held throughout the year for a variety of Boards and Commissions. Meetings are typically held in the evening and last between 2 to 5 hours. Must have access to a PC with email capability and be proficient in Microsoft Word. If necessary, must be able to do minutes remotely without attending meetings either by listening or watching YouTube recordings of meetings. All minutes must be completed within a legally required timeline. Recording equipment will be provided by the Town. The hourly rate for this position is $15.00 to $18.00 depending on experience. To apply, please send your resume and a letter of application to: James Hutt, Human Resources Director, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Phone: (203) 294-2080; Fax: (203) 294-2084. EOE

CITY OF MILFORD

Seeking qualified condidates to fill numerous vacancies to include,Benefits & Pension Coordinator, Clerk A,Truck Driver/Laborer, Electrician and more For information and detailed application instructions, visit WWW.ci.milford.ct.us Click on SERVICES, JOBS and JOB TITLE.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - September 25, 2019 - October 01, 2019

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

EMPLOYMENT SPECIALIST - (P/T)

Assist individuals receiving services in identifying and making choices about their social, vocation and personal goals. Duties include case management, job development/placement/retention services and job support as needed. Requires use of personal vehicle.

B.A. in a related field; plus 2 yrs’ related experience or equivalent combination of education and experience. Pay rate $16.61/hr.

Apply to: GWSNE, 432 Washington Ave., North Haven, CT 06473/ Fax (203) 495-6108/hr@goodwillsne.org EOE/AA - M/F/D/V

SURVEYING

DELIVERY PERSON NEEDED

Boundaries LLC is a full-service Land Surveying Firm located in Griswold, CT. We are recruiting for these positions and accepting resumes for: Survey Field Technicians, Survey Computer Technicians, Licensed Land Surveyors, Civil Engineers, From 9/12/2019 through 12/31/2019. Interested parties can contact us at 860-376-2009 or submit your resume to jfaulise@boundariesllc.net

Part Time Delivery Needed

is requesting proposals for Legal Services.

Request for Proposal documents can be viewed and printed at www.norwalkha.org under the Business section RFP’s/RFQ’s Norwalk Housing is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Adam Bovilsky, Executive Director.

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks: Construction Equipment Mechanic preferably experienced in Reclaiming and Road Milling Equipment. We offer factory training on equipment we operate. Location: Bloomfield CT We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits Contact: Tom Dunay Phone: 860- 243-2300 Email: Tom.dunay@garrityasphalt.com Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks: Reclaimer Operators and Milling Operators with current licensing and clean driving record, be willing to travel throughout the Northeast & NY. We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits Contact: Rick Tousignant Phone: 860- 243-2300 Email: rick.tousignant@garrityasphalt.com Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

Union Company seeks:

Tractor Trailer Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction Equipment. Must have a CDL License, clean driving record, capable of operating heavy equipment; be willing to travel throughout the Northeast & NY. We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits Contact Dana at 860-243-2300.

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

If Interested call

The Housing Authority of the City of New Havend/b/a Elm City Communities is currently seeking Proposals for Pay Per Use Laundry Services. A complete copy of the requirements may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Wednesday, August 14, 2019 at 3:00PM.

Listing: Accounting

Accounting Department has two immediate openings for full time Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable professionals in a fast-paced office environment. Must be highly organized, possess good computer skills, be detail oriented, and able to manage multiple projects. Benefits include health, dental & LTD insurance plus 401(k). Send resume to: Human Resource Dept. P O Box 388, Guilford CT 06437.

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

Request for Proposals Pay Per Use Laundry Services

(203) 387-0354

The Housing Authority of the City of Norwalk, CT

Housing Authority City of New Haven d/b/a Elm city Communities is currently seeking Proposals for Information Technology Consulting Services. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtainedfrom Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https:// newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Wednesday, August 21, 2019 at 9:00AM

One/Two Day a Week,

Must Have your Own Vehicle

An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer

Request for Proposals Information Technology Consulting Services

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

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

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION/EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Large CT. Fence Company is looking for an individual for our stock yard. Warehouse shipping and receiving and Forklift experience a must. Must have a minimum of 3 years’ material handling experience. Must be able to read and write English, and read a tape measure. Duties will include: Loading and unloading trucks, pulling orders for installation and retail counter sales, keeping the yard clean and organized at all times and inventory control. Individual will also make deliveries of fence panels and products, must be able to lift at least 70lbs.

Required to pass a Physical and Drug test, have a valid CT. Driver’s License and be able to obtain a Drivers Medical Card.

CDL B & A drivers a plus. Send resume to pking@atlasourdoor.com AA/EOE/MF

KMK Insulation Inc. 1907 Hartford Turnpike North Haven, CT 06473

Mechanical Insulator position.

Insulation company offering good pay and benefits. Please mail resume to above address.

MAIL ONLY

This company is an Affirmative Action/

21

The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport Invitation for Bid (IFB) 408 Poplar Street Roof Replacement Solicitation Number: 134-PD-19-S

The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport d/b/a Park City Communities (PCC) is requesting sealed bids for 408 Popular Street Roof Replacement. A complete set of the plans and technical specifications will be available on September 23, 2019. To obtain a copy of the solicitation you must send your request to bids@parkcitycommunities.org, please reference solicitation number and title on the subject line. A MANDATORY pre-bid conference will be held at 150 Highland Ave, Bridgeport, CT 06605 on October 9, 2019 @ 10:00 a.m., submitting a bid for the project without attending conference is not in the best interest of the Offeror. Additional questions should be emailed only to bids@parkcitycommunities.org no later than October 16, 2019 @ 3:00 p.m. Answers to all the questions will be posted on PCC’s Website: www.parkcitycommunities.org. All bids must be received by mailed or hand delivered by October 24, 2019 @ 10:00 AM, to Ms. Caroline Sanchez, Director of Procurement, 150 Highland Ave, Bridgeport, CT 06604, at which time and place all bids will be publicly opened and read aloud. No bids will be accepted after the designated time.

Town of Bloomfield,

Foster Care Family Support Worker, $18.00 hrly, (PT, non-benefited).

Pre-employment drug testing. AA/EOE. For details and how to apply go to www.bloomfieldct.org

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

September 25, 2019 - October 01 , 2019

Mental Health Stigma Still Affecting African Americans The NNPA is taking a closer look at the stigma of mental illness in the African American community. This is the first in a series.

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

“Turning to our pastors was needed in the past, but as concerns have grown, more resources are available,” said Dr. Catherine Jackson, a licensed clinical psychologist and board certified neuro-therapist in Chicago, noting also that many African Americans eventually visit hospital emergency rooms with complaints that are in fact mental health issues.

Historically, seeking psychotherapy has been difficult for African Americans, said Dr. Viola Drancoli, a licensed clinical psychologist who wrote a master thesis about the barriers to seeking mental health services in ethnic minority communities.

“It is not only a concept with European origin, but also a concept that does not fit the community-oriented, collective approach to healing and support that has been so helpful to this population,” Drancoli said.

“Instead of finding healing in coming together, the client is separated, often sitting in a one-on-one session with a professional. The idea of being focused on, analyzed, can be perceived as threatening,” she said.

The U.S. Department of Health and Hu-

Mental illness

more common disorders are depression, bipolar disorder, dementia, schizophrenia and anxiety disorders, according to Mental Health America, the nation’s leading community-based nonprofit dedicated to addressing the needs of those living with mental illness.

Symptoms may include changes in mood, personality, personal habits and/ or social withdrawal.

Mental health problems may be related to excessive stress due to a particular situation or series of events.

As with cancer, diabetes and heart disease, mental illnesses are often physical as well as emotional and psychological.

According to Mental Health America, mental illnesses may be caused by a reaction to environmental stresses, genetic factors, biochemical imbalances, or a combination of:

in the African American community

man Services Office of Minority Health says poverty level affects mental health status and African Americans living below the poverty level, as compared to those over twice the poverty level, are three times more likely to report psychological distress.

FALL 20th ANNUAL

FESTIVAL

@ BROOKSVALE PARK 524 Brooksvale Ave. Hamden 06518 -4pm m a 1 1

SEPT.

28

Craft Vendors - Live Music - Food - Kid’s Zone Haunted Forest - Beekeeping Demos - Channel 8 Weather Lab HPD K9 Demos - Pumpkin Patch - Environmental Exhibits Hayrides - Birds of Prey Demo - Climbing Wall - and More!

Rain Date: 9/29/19 FREE EVENT - FREE PARKING - BRING CASH FOR VENDORS & RIDES

(NO ATM ON SITE) - For info, call Ranger Vinny at 203-287-2669

Further, African Americans are 10 percent more likely to report having serious psychological distress than Non-Hispanic whites, and the death rate from suicide for African American men was more than four times greater than for African American women, in 2014.

A report from the U.S. Surgeon General found that from 1980 to 1995, the suicide rate among African Americans ages 10 to 14 increased 233 percent, compared to 120 percent for non-Hispanic whites.

Yet, experts said even as the conversation around mental health has grown significantly with celebrities and others in the spotlight sharing their stories, most African Americans still refrain from seeking help.

“Unfortunately, among African Americans it remains taboo to talk about, and one reason is the fear of being labeled as crazy,” said Arron Muller, a licensed social worker.

“The intense fear of being judged has been a huge deterrent,” Muller said.

“In the African American community there is also an association that mental illness means weakness and the inability to handle your problems on your own or that anxiety or depressive symptoms should be addressed with praying and fasting,” he said.

Prayer and a relationship with God have their place in the full picture of health and wellness and a connection to God and leaning on a higher power does promote tremendous benefits for the brain and brain health, said Dr. Catherine Jackson, a licensed clinical psychologist and board certified neuro-therapist in Chicago.

Jackson founded Dr. J’s Holistic Health

22

and Wellness at DrCCJ.com.

“While having the strength to work on your own problems is a good characteristic to have, not recognizing when to seek help can be detrimental to overall health,” Jackson said.

“Turning to our pastors was needed in the past, but as concerns have grown, more resources are available,” she said, noting also that many African Americans eventually visit hospital emergency rooms with complaints that are in fact mental health issues.

“Some hospitals give referrals to mental health practitioners, but without proper education and information shared, follow through is unlikely,” Jackson said.

Educator and life coach Elaine TaylorKlaus said there’s something else that happens in the African American community that should warrant consideration when discussing the stigma of mental illness.

“In all aspects of life, the African American community has had to appear better than the average person just to be seen as good enough,” Taylor-Klaus said.

“African American families have long been conscious of a need to dress their kids a little nicer in public, to expect their kids to behave more respectfully in public, and to follow directions immediately,” Taylor-Klaus said.

“The implications for the adults when kids don’t behave has been a risk-factor — when an ‘uppity’ child acts out, an African American adult can get in serious, life-threatening trouble. It’s not reasonable — but it’s a reality of African American life in the United States,” she said.

There are more than 200 classified forms of mental illness and some of the

Confused thinking Prolonged depression (sadness or irritability) Feelings of extreme highs and lows Excessive fears, worries and anxieties Social withdrawal Dramatic changes in eating or sleeping habits Strong feelings of anger Strange thoughts (delusions) Seeing or hearing things that aren’t there (hallucinations) Growing inability to cope with daily problems and activities Suicidal thoughts Numerous unexplained physical ailments Substance use In Older Children and Pre-Adolescents: Substance use Inability to cope with problems and daily activities Changes in sleeping and/ or eating habits Excessive complaints of physical ailments Changes in ability to manage responsibilities – at home and/or at school Defiance of authority, truancy, theft, and/or vandalism Intense fear Prolonged negative mood, often accompanied by poor appetite or thoughts of death Frequent outbursts of anger In Younger Children: Changes in school performance Poor grades despite strong efforts Changes in sleeping and/or eating habits Excessive worry or anxiety (i.e. refusing to go to bed or school) Hyperactivity Persistent nightmares Persistent disobedience or aggression Frequent temper tantrums For detailed information about mental illness and where assistance is provided visit, www.nami.org; www. mentalhealthamerica.net; or www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov.

Part 2 in this series will tackle the growing number of suicides among young African Americans, an alarming trend that experts say is the result of poverty, racism, and post-traumatic stress syndrome both from military service and domestic and social problems.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - September 25, 2019 - October 01, 2019

INSURED OR UNINSURED. WE’VE GOT YOU COVERED. IT’S WHAT WE DO. With 308,282 men’s health visits, testicular cancer screenings, as well as work and school physical exams, we are here for all people.

SCHEDULE A CHECK­UP TODAY. PPSNE.ORG • 1 (800) 230­PLAN

"DIRECTCITY" TO AddTEXT a little bit of body text

Amazon Prime included UNLIMITED

LINES When you switch.

Limited time offer. If congested, the fraction of users >35 GB/mo. may notice reduced speeds and Metro customers may notice reduced speeds vs. T-Mobile due to prioritization. Video streams at up to 480p. Unlimited on handset and network only.

23

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

September 25, 2019 - October 01 , 2019

Confused about which Medicare Advantage plan is right for you?

Let me help you navigate through your questions.

I’m your local expert. Call me to help you select the health care plan that will best fit your needs.

I’ll guide you through understanding Medicare and make sure you have all the facts.

I can steer you toward your best options by: Listening to your specific health needs and budget goals.

Reviewing our many affordable plan choices, which will protect your health and provide peace of mind.

Guiding you through the enrollment process so you don’t get stuck in the paperwork.

Michele DePina

Call today! There is no obligation.

an authorized licensed insurance agent for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Connecticut License number: 1082264

1-203-231-2501 TTY: 711 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., 5 days a week michele.depina@anthem.com

We do not discriminate, exclude people, or treat them differently on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability in our health programs and activities. ATENÇÃO: Se fala português, encontram-se disponíveis serviços linguísticos, grátis. Ligue para 1-888-211-9817 (TTY: 711). ATENCIÓN: Si habla español, tiene a su disposición servicios gratuitos de asistencia lingüística. Llame al 1-888-211-9817 (TTY: 711). This policy has exclusions, limitations, and terms under which the policy may be continued in force or discontinued. For costs and complete details of coverage, please contact your agent or the health plan. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield is a Medicare Advantage Organization with a Medicare contract. For Dual-Eligible Special Needs Plans: Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield is an HMO D-SNP with a Medicare contract and a contract with the Connecticut Medicaid program. Enrollment in Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield depends on contract renewal. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield is the trade name of Anthem Health Plans, Inc. Independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. Anthem is a registered trademark of Anthem Insurance Companies, Inc. Y0114_19_35593_U_002 CMS Accepted 10/01/2018 72316MUSENMUB_002 24