INNER-CITY NEWS

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 23,2016 2019- August - October 2019 INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 02, 29, 2016

OPINION: Importance of Color for Black & Brown Students Financial JusticeofaEducators Key Focus at 2016 NAACP Convention New Haven, Bridgeport

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Volume 27 . No. 2355 Volume 21 No. 2194

Six Schools Miss Vaccination Target

“DMC”

Color Struck?

New Market Slices Town-Gown Divide

Let’s Stop Encouraging

Malloy Dems: Malloy To ToLove Dems: Struggle Ignore Ignore“Tough “ToughOn OnCrime” Crime” UCONN'S JORGENSEN CENTER HOSTS “HARLEM 100” –

CELEBRATING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE

Snow in July?

STORRS, CT – On Saturday evening, October 26, Storrs audiences will take a musical journey back in time to the hey-day of the Cotton Club and Apollo Theater when jazz vocalist Michael Mwenso, accompanied by his band the Shakes and special guests, bring the sights, sounds, and music of 1920’s Harlem to the stage at UConn’s Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts for a presentation of Harlem 100, a joyous, soul-satisfying 100-year anniversary celebration of the Harlem Renaissance, one of the most important and influential artistic movements in America’s history.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

October 23, 2019 - October 29, 2019

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 23, 2019 - October 29, 2019

Social Justice "Bookspace" Bursts Onto The Scene

by Lucy Gellman, Editor, The Arts Paper www.newhavenarts.org

The first thing one notices is the sheer variety of books, packed neatly onto shelves that fill the room. Near the front door, copies of Jennifer Leason and Norman Chartrand’s Meennunyakaa / Blueberry Patch sit at the ready, catching one’s eye with a flurry of blue and purple. Across the room, Arabelle Sicardi’s Queer Heroes shares a long wall with the latest poetry by Joy Harjo and A Kid’s Guide to Native American History. Mark Long’s The Silence of Our Friends, a graphic novel on the civil rights movement, sits squarely in between.

It’s a normal scene at People Get Ready, a new “bookspace” centering voices of color that has landed on Whalley Avenue, in the space Music Haven once occupied beside St. Luke’s Church. The brainchild of New Haveners Delores Williams and Lauren Anderson, the store is now open on Sunday afternoons, with a lineup of readings, film screenings, book club meetings and educational workshops on additional days.

“It’s about creating space for people to come together around their common interests and have conversations,” Williams said last weekend, at a pop-up focused on reading and teaching indigenous history. “It really brought some great people from the community together, in a space where we could all have this, sort of like, radical empathy happening.”

As Anderson tells it, People Get Ready started as “this sort of magical series of events.” First, she and Williams met last year, at a film screening of Backpack Full of Cash at Southern Connecticut State University. As the two talked after the film, they realized that “we had a lot in common,” said Williams. Both are in education and advocacy work: Anderson is chair of the education department at Connecticut College, and Williams is a mom so heavily invested in her kids’ education that she has headed to Hartford to testify on proposed legislation.

They also both love poetry, which Williams writes and both read voraciously.

Earlier this year, both attended Poetry

By The Sea in Madison, an annual conference that a local poet had invited them to after meeting Anderson at RJ Julia Booksellers, where she worked to get bookstore experience earlier this year. The two kept telling attendees about their plans to open a bookstore— “I think it was the first time we spoke it out loud,” recalled Anderson—and watched as people responded with ex-

citement.

“Lauren has been paying attention to the signs of the universe,” Williams said. “I think we both really do, actually.”

Working closely with a series of neighborhood partners—they praised W.E.B. Management Team Chair Nadine Horton and Alder Evette Hamilton among others—the two secured a space beside St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, which is owned by the St. Luke’s Development Corporation (SDLC). While the building they occupy will ultimately come down for mixed-use development, there’s not yet a timeline for demolition, and they’ve made it their home.

“If we serve the community well and it’s reflective, then maybe we’ll be be written into the new design of this place,” Williams said. (SDLC did not respond to request for comment on a potential timeline).

As the space opens this month, it bears little resemblance to the crowded room Music Haven once used for practices.

Williams and Anderson have stocked the shelves with books meant to delight, inspire and educate students and teachers, from graphic novels on the civil rights movement to brightly illustrated texts on queer people of color, to educational manuals like A People’s Curriculum for the Earth. While many of their selections focus on literature for children and young adults, shelves also boast poetry and fiction by authors of color, with a collection the two plan to grow in the coming months.

That expansion is meant to be cumulative, Anderson said. Even before the Whalley Avenue spot was open, the two partnered with GLSEN’s Rainbow Libraries Community Reads Project to hold a pop-up at New Haven Pride Month celebrations in September. In advance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, they worked closely with the Akomawt Educational Initiative to develop a list of books by indigenous authors “around this theme of teaching the truth about U.S. history, and the history that doesn’t always get taught in schools.”

“There are some books that we think are really important to make available, that maybe aren’t as readily accessible in other bookstores,” Anderson said. “And that includes the collection of books that we sort of are featuring now … really feeling like that’s a part of what should be essential reading for everyone.”

They’ve also made it cozy, with the hope that readers will come and stay for a while, whether they buy books or not.

Poetry and artwork fill the the walls and sit in frames atop shelves, with an

eye-catching pride flag in one corner and a mural and stack of books by local author Genese Clark in another. Plush couches, seats, and rocking chairs with pillows form a reading circle in the center of the room. On sunny days, the rocking chairs make it outside.

They have a growing list of local collaborators, including veteran teacher Waltrina Mullins, who has been at Davis Street School for decades, New Haven Public School Advocates member Sarah Miller, Clark and others. Anderson said they are excited to work with schools to create reading lists and teaching materials that reflect the community, and move away from revisionist and overwhelmingly white lens on history.

Currently, People Get Ready is slated to be open on Sunday afternoons, with additional hours for events that pop up throughout the month. For Anderson and Williams, starting with that schedule made sense, because it’s the one day of the week when all five library branches are closed.

But they also have a rotating door of events that will take place on full weekends and during the week. In November, Elm City Lit Fest Founder and Organizer IfeMichelle Gardin will be moving her book club to the space to discuss Ta-Nehisi Coates’ new novel The Water Dancer, which Coates himself is also discussing in New Haven on Nov. 20.

In December and January, Williams and Anderson plan to hold a series of workshops on “People Get Ready: To Teach Black Lives and Radical Love,” focusing in on books by women of color. And in March of next year—just before National Poetry Month—they are bringing in books of poetry that cross cultures, time periods, and languages.

“We are really excited to work with community members to get the books that they want into the space, and available for purchase but also just for exploration while they’re here,” Anderson said. “We’ve kind of used the word ‘bookspace’ … it’s like a cross between an independent bookstore and a reading room.”

People Get Ready is now open at 117 Whalley Ave. from 12 to 6 p.m. on Sunday afternoons. For more information, visit their website or follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Delores Williams and Lauren Anderson on a recent Saturday, when People Get Ready was open for a pop-up during City-Wide Open Studios. Lucy Gelman Photos.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

October 23, 2019 - October 29, 2019

The Hilton Als Series/Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

by Francette Carson, ICN Correspondent

The Yale Center for British Art presents a Hilton Als Series. The exhibition is comprised of the culturally rich artistic creations by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.

The paintings are a display of intimacy in the lives of black fictional characters.

Yiadom-Boakye is an award-winning British painter and writer of Ghanaian descent.

Hilton Als, a highly acclaimed writer, and award-winning theatre critic, is utilizing his talents as a curator of dramatically stimulating art exhibitions. Als innate ability to think about things that are beyond the surface lays the foundation for his respectable recognition as Art Curator. The collection of works by Yiadom-Boakye is the 2nd of a three-phase series of exhibitions by Hilton Als at the Yale Center for British Art. The collection features six oil paintings, including the doubling of a portrait of two dancers emulating movement. There is a presentation of a portfolio of twenty etches on a single wall. Yiadom-Boakye depiction of black people existing in everyday life without any concerns in relation to the white gaze. The paintings are set in one large room against a neutral background, accented with soft dim lighting. They are hung low for eye-level view` to grasp and hold the viewer’s attention.

Hilton Als reflection of her work assists the spectator in connecting to the art-

ist through his reflective analysis of the paintings. Als interpretation of YiadomBoakye collection is of black folks experiencing life on their own terms and in their own time. The collection of etchings of black men giving face; speaks volumes as their eyes appear to be resonating with the core of their being. Als presentation of the paintings serves as a link between spectator and artist. He inspires one to take it to another level; who, what, where, and why is never enough. Als is notorious for making statements that bring forth significant elements to the forefront.

Als begins the conversation of Yiadom-Boakye collection of art with “The Western canon has often had a limited and problematical relationship to the black male figure. Rarely has his skin color and form, or the weight of what he means or might mean in a European context, been free of ideological concerns.

Like the great American portraitist Alice Neel, Yiadom-Boakye highlights the humanness in men of color and focuses on how they sit or play in a visual field.”

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

The Hilton Als Series Exhibit/Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Yale Center for British Art from September 12-December 15 The Huntington Library Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California from January 25- May 11, 2020

As she continues running for mayor in 2019, Toni Harp has still not revealed the names of donors who gave over $92,000 to her 2017 quest — raising the question about whether the state can enforce its campaign finance laws.

State Election Enforcement Commission (SEEC) spokesperson Joshua Foley told the Independent that the state is still looking into the complaint that mayoral candidate Justin Elicker filed against Harp back in March about the latter’s under-reporting of donor names during her 2017 campaign.

“That is still pending,” Foley said about the SEEC’s investigation, which began in March. “It’s an open file, and it’s under investigation. There’s no further comment available.”

Harp, who lost this year’s Democratic primary to Elicker, announced she would be suspending her campaign but leaving her name on the Working Families Party line on the Nov. 5 general election ballot, and then subsequently “un-suspended”

her campaign earlier this week, told the Independent this week that she and her campaign have figured out what went wrong with the 2017 campaign finance reports.

“The online donations were not added,” she said. “Once I have someone that I’ve hired to get all of that worked out, once we get those online donations in, I’m sure you’ll see that everything balances.”

“We’re working on it,” she promised.

Democratic State Sen. Mae Flexer, who is the deputy president pro tempore of the state legislature’s upper chamber, and is the chair of the Government Administration & Elections Committee, which is in charge of passing state election laws, said she has long been concerned with the timeliness of SEEC investigations.

“This is something that we’ve been struggling with in Connecticut in many different ways,” she said. “Trying to make sure that we have strong campaign finance laws and a legitimate investigation process that works.”

She said she is not concerned about

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politicians openly flouting campaign finance laws going unpunished. There are consequences to violating the law, she said, and the SEEC does investigate thoroughly.

But, she added, “we need to find ways to rectify how slow the process can be.”

The two main issues she sees the state enforcement body facing are the volume of issues they get and their ability to triage, as well as the limited staffing resources in their office.

“It’s hard to find a balance between giving them enough resources and helping them build a system that can move forward with these more serious questions in a faster way,” she said, “while recognizing that the current law is used to ask them to investigate things more minor.”

Gary Winfield, a New Haven state senator who has been an outspoken proponent for the state’s Clean Election Fund and public financing in general, declined to comment on the specifics of this particular complaint and investigation into Harp’s 2017 campaign.

But, he added, in his advocacy for cam-

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paign finance transparency, he has endeavored to make sure that politicians throughout the state reveal in real time, or as close to real time as possible, how and by whom their campaigns are being funded.

“When that doesn’t happen,” he said, “the public begins to question, even when there may not be a question present.”

As for the SEEC taking six months-andcounting to investigate the complaint, Winfield said that the state legislature has cut funding from the organization time and again in recent years. The legislature is always looking for all different kinds of ways to balance the state budget, he said.

The 2017 campaign finance complaint isn’t the only Harp transparency concern that the SEEC is still investigating.

Elicker filed a second complaint in August alleging that Harp’s 2019 reelection campaign failed to disclose the names of over $5,700 in donations. Foley said that that complaint, too, is still under investigation by the SEEC.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 23, 2019 - October 29, 2019

Six Schools Miss Vaccination Target

by CHRISTOPHER PEAK

An unsafe number of kindergarteners at six local elementary schools have been going to class without immunizations for measles.

Those low vaccination rates are revealed in a batch of school-by-school data released

by Connecticut’s Department of Public Health this week.

Medical experts say that 95 percent of students within a school building should be vaccinated to create “herd immunity,” which can limit outbreaks of contagious diseases even for those with compromised immune systems who can’t be safely vaccinated.

But within six buildings three public schools and three charter schools not enough students got their shot for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR).

Decades ago, nearly every child came down with measles, which generally causes a fever, a runny nose and a spotted rash.

The symptoms could also be far more severe. Each year, hundreds died and tens of thousands were hospitalized, including for swelling of the brain, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Through vaccinations, the federal government said in 2000 that measles had been eliminated.

But an increasing number of opt-outs especially for religious reasons has put that at risk, as measles cases return. This year, there have been three diagnosed cases of

measles in Connecticut.

Renee Coleman-Mitchell, the state’s public health commissioner, called for state lawmakers to eliminate religious exemptions, saying she feels “very concerned” about the increasing number of schools that are “falling short” on vaccination rates.

“The data reveal that a sharp rise in the number of religious exemptions is causing declining immunization rates. This unnecessarily puts our children at risk for contracting measles and other vaccine preventable diseases,” Coleman-Mitchell said.

“To address this unnecessary risk, I have recommended to Governor Lamont and legislative leadership that non-medical exemptions to vaccination be repealed. This will help ensure that all children in our state can learn in a healthy environment.”

Three district-run schools fell below the recommended threshold: Columbus Family Academy, at 90.0 percent and Lincoln-Bassett, at 93.8 percent; and Benjamin Jepson, which has missed the mark for two years running, at 94.6 percent.

Iline Tracey, the acting superintendent, said that the district gives parents about a month-long window to finalize their children’s vaccinations. She said that it’s better for students to keep coming to class, especially because that gives them access to the school-based health clinics where a nurse can deliver the shot with the parent’s permission.

“We expect students to be vaccinated,” Tracey said. “We try to make sure parents know the purpose of the school-based

CHRISTINE STUART/CTNEWSJUNKIE

Public Health Commissioner Renee Coleman-Mitchell. health clinic in their building and the Health Department downstairs [at Central Office]. We do that to prevent them from missing school time. But we still encourage them to, because [without herd immunity], then that raises the chronic absenteeism rate too.”

Three charter schools also missed the mark, reporting significantly lower vaccination rates.

At Amistad Academy, an Edgewood Av-

enue charter school within the Achievement First network, only 77.4 percent of kindergarteners had their MMR vaccinations, with 1.1 percent claiming a religious exemption, the state reported.

That ranks the school as the fourth lowest in the state — behind Achievement First Hartford Academy, another school in the charter network, a private school in Redding and a public school in Hartford. It’s worse than the 82.3 percent MMR vaccina-

tion rate among kindergarteners last year.

And it is far lower than even Elm City College Prep, another school within the network, where every single student showed up with their full series of vaccinations this year.

“Immunizations are required to attend our schools, and Amistad is actively working on this issue,” Amanda Pinto, an Achievement First spokesperson, wrote in an email.

“We reminded families of our policy in a communication earlier this month, and we will continue to work with families to get documentation of vaccinations as our policy and state law require.”

At Booker T. Washington Academy, a standalone charter school on Upper State Street, only 89.2 percent of kindergartners had their MMR vaccinations, with 2.7 percent claiming a religious exemption, the state reported.

John Taylor, the school’s executive director, said that he isn’t sure why the school’s rates are so low, because the school requires all kindergarteners to have their vaccinations — or at least, proof of an upcoming medical appointment — before they can start.

“Our policy is 100 percent,” Taylor wrote in an email. “We have had incidents where a parent could not get an appointment before the start of school. We only allow them to start if they prove they have appointments scheduled. We stay on them until we can verify the vaccinations are completed.”

And at Elm City Montessori School, a char-

The Hilton Als Series | Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Through December 15, 2019

Free and open to all 1080 Chapel Street, New Haven | 1 877 BRIT ART britishart.yale.edu @yalebritishart #LynetteYiadomBoakye

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Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Greenhouse Fantasies (detail) 2014, oil on canvas Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York © Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

October 23, 2019 - October 29, 2019

The Diva Is In

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

Dr. Tiffany Jackson leaned back from the mic, tracing and retracing her steps.

Somewhere in front of her, the ghost of James Weldon Johnson was waiting to see what came next. A rising sax stopped in its tracks. At the piano, Drew Fermo looked up. Jackson went back to the drawing board, one arm slicing through the air on its way down.

“We did something really nice before but I just forgot it,” she said, laughing a little. “I think it was something with the chords. When I get it, I’m straight with it.”

Johnson’s “Sence You Went Away” joins gospel, soul, blues, jazz, opera, and fluid first-person narrative in Jackson’s From The Hood To The Ivy League, a one-woman show that debuted Oct. 6 at the Church of St. Paul and St. James.

Proceeds will go to her fledgling nonprofit, Gift-Passion-Purpose Inc., which provides financial and educational support to young musicians in underrepresented communities in Connecticut.

Jackson accompanied by musicians in the Saint Paul and Saint James Jazz Band, including David Chevan, Fermo, Will Cleary, and Tido Holtkamp, as well as the Elm City Vocal Ensemble for part of the performance.

“My story is so unique,” she said in a recent interview at Koffee? On Audubon Street. “For years, I’ve been wanting to do something with it.”

A fusion of century-spanning music and personal storytelling, From The Hood To The Ivy League chronicles Jackson’s own journey from the Church Street South housing complex to graduate degrees at Yale and the University of Connecticut to teaching in New Haven, with stops in South Africa and on prime-time television along the way. At every turn, she injects the piece with rich context, weaving civil rights, Black history, the #MeToo movement and the multiplicity of a diaspora into her own life.

It’s a story that she’s been preparing to tell for decades. Jackson’s own musical career began in the 1970s, during a childhood in the Church Street South housing complex. Back then, she recalled, the now-demolished site was still new and beautiful, a chapter of its life that is often forgotten to the violence of the 1980s in New Haven. For her, it was synonymous with rich, vibrant friendships, early childhood games and time to meet both lifelong New Haveners and transplants who had come to the city for something new.

Even from a young age, Jackson gravitated toward music. As a kid, she would

burst into song around the house and in church, buoyed by her mother’s faith and grace. When she was 11, she started taking voice lessons at Neighborhood Music School (NMS), to which she later added time at the Educational Center for the Arts (ECA) and Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School.

But it was also a time in her life where feel could see her path diverging from many of the kids in her neighborhood.

Around her, she saw friends and fellow New Haveners succumb to drugs and the violence that often came with them.

She saw a country that declared a war on drugs, but was also waging a war on American poverty and people of color.

When she graduated from high school in 1989, she went on to the University of Michigan to study opera.

It was a revelation: her voice teacher was Dr. George Shirley, a Detroit-born opera legend who laid the groundwork for generations of Black tenors that followed him. In a department where almost no one looked like him—or like her—she had someone urging her on-

ward.

The deeper her studies became, the more connections she made: between slavery and centuries of American popular music, between jazz and blues, opera, and culture consumed in twentieth-century Europe, between collective trauma and music making. In 1993, those studies propelled her back to New Haven for a master’s degree at the Yale School of Music, after which she worked as a professional opera singer and teaching artist.

But in the years that followed, she began to realize that “I didn’t feel complete only singing opera.” She was at the top of her game: she toured the country and the globe, stunning audiences worlds away from New Haven. In the early 2000s, she added fitness to her wheelhouse, becoming known for opera-and-bodybuilding routines that ultimately took her to “America’s Got Talent.” Something was still missing.

Then in 2014, she decided to go back to school for her doctorate. She fell in love with the research she was doing, which

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tied the French genre of chanson réaliste to musicians Bessie Smith, Jack Johnson, Josephine Baker and the explosive worlds of jazz and blues at home and overseas. The department wasn’t particularly supportive, she recalled—no one looked like her, and no one was doing the same research. But it didn’t matter, she said.

“I was amazed by all these realist singers, how they sang in the streets,” she said. “I fell in love with the music.”

As it helped her move out from opera into other genres, Jackson also saw it as her mission to educate others on the artists that music history had largely forgotten. While she was in the thick of finishing her dissertation last year, a friend asked her to do a presentation during Black History Month at a private Catholic school in Stamford. Jackson didn’t hesitate when she said yes.

She designed a talk that followed the history of minstrelsy, injected it with opera, and probed the staggering, largely overlooked role of Black musicians in American music—a template she would return to with From The Hood To The Ivy League. She recalled watching students, all of whom were white, look on wide-eyed as she belted opera, rewrote American music history, and explained that it was Big Mama Thornton—and not Elvis Presley—who first sang and recorded “Hound Dog” in 1952. When she headed out, she realized she wanted to make that part of her work.

“When I left, I was in my car, and I just felt this energy,” she recalled. “This sense of, ‘you can’t just do this once.

Your story has to be shared.’”

Now, she is in the process of doing that.

In the performance, she has divided that narrative into three distinct parts (gift, passion, and purpose, to mirror the name and mission of her nonprofit), traveling from her family’s history to her own. In between sections of speaking, her voice winds around opera, jazz, blues and gospel in new, sometimes heart-rending interpretations. It seems effortless: she swoops from eighteenth-century Italy to gospel to hip-hop like it’s no big deal, then burrows back into the canon all over again.

“Singing is my gift,” she said. “It is the thing that has made room for me in this world. Without it, I don’t know where I would be.”

It is not an easy show, but it is one that feels as necessary as her nickname. At a recent rehearsal, her voice filled the church, wrapping around a version of “Strange Fruit” that honored Billie Holiday but also became very much her own.

With Cleary and Fermo at the ready, she started and stopped on the piece, enun-

ciating every consonant the song threw her way.

“Here is a strange and bitter crop,” she sang, the note lingering just long enough for one’s skin to start crawling. On sax, Cleary sent a flare-like wail straight up in the air. A dizzying cascade of piano notes spilled in. Then Jackson stopped and turned back to Cleary and Fermo.

“I want the sound to reflect a moment,” she said. “Whatever is the last moment of life. I know this may sound grotesque, but after Black men were lynched it didn’t stop there.”

She started up again, building to the final lines (“For the sun to rot,/for the tree to drop/Here is a strange and bitter crop”) before Cleary’s sax became a billowing thing, its sound running away with the notes. Jackson pushed onward.

When she held them, they bloomed and broke, at once florid and disfigured. It was as she had imagined it.

In this way, she has baked activism right in to the performance, unspooling the structural racism that lurks not just in music history, but in wider history itself.

From recent history she catapults the audience back to opera, stitching AfricanAmerican poetry, religion, jazz and civil rights effortlessly together. Her take on “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep” is enough to bring the audience right to its knees, with wells of feeling that spring from somewhere deep within her.

But she also makes time to be vulnerable. While her family life and education doubles as a sort of scaffolding for the show, she also speaks on personal trauma, and a healing process that included not just physical fitness, but also a trip to South Africa with Oprah’s book club, to learn about Alan Paton’s Cry, The Beloved Country.

For her, she said, part of her mission is giving young artists the same access to education and opportunity that she had.

Founding her nonprofit was a major step in that direction. Building scholarships, which she is in the process of doing, will be another going forward.

“The purpose is service to others,” she said. “That’s the rent you pay for your room on this earth.”

“It’s something much bigger,” she added. “I feel this God-force beginning to reveal to me what it’s going to be.”

Tiffany Jackson’s one-woman show, From The Hood To The Ivy League, Gift-Passion-Purpose Project: The Journey of a Woman in the Arts and Beyond Friday January 17 7:30 pm Main Stage, at Choate Rosemary Hall. For more information and tickets choate.edu and www.giftpassionpurposeproject.com.

Lucy Gellman photos.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 23, 2019 - October 29, 2019

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

October 23, 2019 - October 29, 2019

225 Reports Missing; Officer Resigns

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO Chief

Reyes: We’ll “get to the bottom of this.”

by PAUL BASS At least ten city cops face potential discipline, and one has already left the force, after top brass discovered that they failed to file hundreds of incident reports on complaints, some as serious as domestic violence.

One officer alone, who has been on the beat since only 2016, allegedly failed to file at least 225 reports.

The officer, who faced “serious” discipline, according to Police Chief Otoniel Reyes, has since resigned. (WTNH reporter Mario Boone earlier Thursday first reported on Facebook about this officer’s resignation.)

His case led top cops to do a broader audit, which revealed that 10-11 officers have for years been failing to file required incident reports. Some officers failed to file a small number of reports; others failed to file 60 or more, according to Chief Reyes. So far none has matched the the magnitude of the case involving the officer who has resigned, Reyes added.

“All of the officers face potential discipline,” he told the Independent. “We’re doing a full audit and are going to get to the bottom of it.”

This episode began about two months ago, when a citizen called seeking a copy of an incident report on a complaint he filed, Reyes said. The report didn’t exist.

That soon happened with a second citizen, in both cases involving a matter handled by the officer.

So cops did an audit of the officer’s work and discovered at least 225 cases in which he was supposed to file a report but didn’t, according to Reyes. Many of the cases involved minor alleged offenses like a stolen radio. But about half a dozen involved major crimes like domestic violence. So detectives separately reinvestigated those reports and obtained arrest warrants, according to Reyes.

The officer who resigned could not be

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reached for comment Thursday.

“I have no comment. I don’t want to get jammed up,” said an officer accused of failing to file multiple reports, who has decades on the force.

“This is an ongoing issue, and all the details are in the infancy stage,” commented police union President Florencio Cotto Jr. He added that the union “doesn’t comment on personnel matters concerning former employees.”

Reyes attributed the problem to a flaw in a software program the department adopted in 2014 to move to a paperless reporting system. Officers can now file paperless reports from the laptops in their cars. At the end of each shift officers are required either to submit reports on all complaints or to submit an “incomplete,” meaning a supervisor has authorized them to wait a day to file rather than earn overtime pay to write up a minor incident, Reyes said.

The 10-11 officers under scrutiny here allegedly violated that policy by simply not submitting any reports or any “incompletes” into the system.

The software, produced by company called Sungard (since purchased by a company called Central Square Technologies) offers no manageable way to track officers’ reporting in these cases, Reyes argued. He said his department is now working with the company to seek an upgrade that will streamline the auditing process. The company asked the NHPD to find other local departments facing the same problem; Reyes said his team has already located a couple.

One neighboring department, Hamden’s, uses software from a different company, called NexGen, according to town Police Chief John Cappiello. He said he has had no problems with it.

Central Square did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

Meanwhile, New Haven’s internal audit of officers’ reporting continues, according to Reyes.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 23, 2019 - October 29, 2019

New Market Slices Town-Gown Divide

by ALLAN APPEL

Blossoming. Sprouting, Spreading.

Growing. Flourishing.

No one could resist the floral and botanical metaphors Wednesday afternoon as 50 celebrants marked the opening of a new Dixwell eatery that combines fresh pizza (even for breakfast) with job-training and community-development efforts.

The scene was the new Petals Market, at 100 Ashmun St., at the corner of Ashmun and Lock. It is the third local eatery, and first neighborhood grocery, opened by the economic development arm of the job-training organization Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology (ConnCAT) ConnCAT culinary students and graduates at the event served up fresh pizza, including the amazing Breakfast Pizza, which features fried glistening fried eggs and bacon floating on a sea of cheese.

On nearby platters were home-baked chocolate chip and cranberry-orange cookies, and fresh apples and oranges and grab-and-go sandwiches.

The restaurant/grocery sits near two new Yale residential colleges and the Yale Health Center, and in the midst of a Dixwell neighborhood that is something of a food desert.

Yale Associate Vice President for New Haven Affairs and University Properties Lauren Zucker approached Science Park-based ConnCAT a year ago to consider turning the Yale property, which had been used for construction, into a Con’t from page 05

Six Schools

Raven Blake and Tryone Jones bring out a fresh Veggie Lovers’ pie.

neighborhood market.

The timing was right. ConnCAT had recently created ConnCorp, the economic development arm of the job-training and cultural center, in order to complete the circle: not only to train unemployed and under-employed young people for jobs, but to help create those jobs, said ConnCORP CEO Paul McCraven.

Roll the clock ahead a year, and the market shelves are stocked with milk and cereal for local moms, healthful

stuff for the area’s graduate students, and fresh pizza created by Kitchen Zinc former chef Jeff Gennerella.

ConnCORP already operates the Orchid Cafe in Science Park, where its students train, and has recently taken over the cafe at the Ives mail library branch.

Petals Market will be its first market, said McCraven.

The concept is two-fold: Making a profit while contributing to job creation and community revitalization.

ter school on Blake Street that’s uniquely overseen by New Haven’s Board of Education, only 81.3 percent of kindergarteners had their MMR vaccinations, with 3.1 percent claiming a religious exemption, the state reported.

A medical expert said that seeing “those gaps,” like at the six New Haven schools identified by the state, should encourage more children to get vaccinated, since it’s still “the best strategy” for preventing infections.

“Even though overall, the United State is a country where we have great access to vaccines and the overall immunization rates is high, when you look at the details, you notice gaps,” said Marietta Vázquez, an associate professor of pediatrics at Yale. “Those gaps are very, very worrisome. We’ve seen it with measles, with mumps, with influenza diseases that we thought we had a great handle on and now there are outbreaks.”

“This should not be a cause of alarm,” she added. “This should be a call to action.”

Families can get measles vaccines at their doctor’s office, the New Haven Health Department, the Cornell Scott Hill Health Center, or almost any pharmacy.

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“To engage folks and get them on a better economic trajectory,” as McCraven put it .

ConnCORP Vice-President for Food Operations Gideon Gebreysus said the three businesses employ about 22 people, including graduates of ConnCAT’s culinary program along with neighborhood people.

As she munched on a macadamia chocolate cookie, baked by ConnCAT students, Yale Assistant Dean for Student

Affairs and Director of Graduate Student Life Lisa Brandes called the market a godsend for the 3,000 graduate students in her charge, 85 percent of whom live off campus and are often on the run.

The store stocks no alcohol and no tobacco, reported Raven Blake, ConnCorp’s food operations manager. In addition to the delicate pizza, the offerings include grab-and-go paninis and fresh produce.

The store errs on the side of organic products and healthy teas and fresh produce.

Customers have asked for hot soups and hygiene products like toothpaste. Those are on the way, said Gebreysus.

As he and Raven Blake brought out a freshly made Bianca pizza (mozzarella, spinach, ricotta, caramelized onions and EVOO, or extra virgin olive oil), Tyrone Jones praised the place for giving him an opportunity to put into practice what he learned at ConnCAT’s culinary program: not only how to prepare food, but how to run a kitchen and how to manage the business side of a food operation.

The market, which also does catering, is open from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. on weekdays, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays, and from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Sundays.

In her remarks welcoming the Petals Market to her Dixwell ward, Alder Jeannette Morrison praised both the convenience and the job opportunities.

She confessed she doesn’t cook much anymore and suggested the market even increase its hours.

ConnCORP, which rents this property from Yale, has also been buying up Dixwell Plaza with a revitalization in mind.

“You’ll hear more from us soon,” McCraven promised.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

October 23, 2019 - October 29, 2019

Sisters’ Journey 2019 Survivor of the Month - Denise Goggins Dyson I am a metastatic breast cancer conqueror!

Born and raised in Hartford and currently a resident of Bloomfield, CT. I was living a normal healthy life prior to being diagnosed with breast cancer at age 51.

In August 2015 I noticed a change in one of my breasts and immediately scheduled an appointment with my primary care doctor. She saw the change and also felt a lump. Upon leaving her office I was immediately on a fast track – mammogram, ultra sound, and a biopsy.

Mind you, every year I always had my mammograms in September. However, this was one month prior to my scheduled mammogram.

After all the testing was done, on August 28, 2015, my doctor told my husband and I that the biopsy was cancerous. There was a mass on my left breast and it had spread to the lymph nodes. I was diagnosed with what is called Inflammatory Breast Cancer; Triple Negative, an aggressive type of breast cancer.

The news was devastating. All kinds of thoughts immediately ran through my mind. How long am I going to live? How long am I going to be sick? Am I going to have to have my breast removed? What will I look like? The thoughts went on and on.

When my husband and I returned home, we talked, cried together, prayed together and then pulled ourselves together!!

After the tears and prayer my husband said, “With God’s help, we’ll go through the process and get through the journey and you’re going to be fine.” I thank God for a praying husband!! At that moment, I decreed and declared Psalm 118:17 “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.”

The Lord immediately spoke to me and said, “You can’t be silent.” I share this because if it were up to me, I would have gone through this in silence. I would not have shared with anyone but my immediate family. But God had another plan. So, we couldn’t go through it alone. I opened up and told my family and friends. The love and support shown was so amazing and the shared journey began.

I went for a second opinion and decided to have my chemotherapy treatments at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. From the time I was diagnosed until my first chemotherapy (September 30, 2015), the mass had almost tripled in size. I underwent chemotherapy every other week for four months. I am grateful that at every treatment, my husband was right there with me.

After each chemotherapy the mass kept shrinking, getting smaller and smaller.

After my third treatment, the oncologist could no longer measure the mass. His exact 2 words were, “there’s no beginning and no ending.” I knew God was healing me and I was waiting for the

manifestation!!!

As I went through the treatments, every day was not always easy, but every day I thanked God in advance for my healing. I read scripture and listened to praise songs. God is so awesome!

Once, when I tried to have a pity party, God wouldn’t allow it. He said, “This is not your body, it belongs to Me. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.”

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He reminded me of His word!

February 2016 I had a unilateral mastectomy followed by radiation. I was healed and moving forward.

In 2016 the Lord placed upon my heart to have a luncheon to honor breast cancer survivors. In October 2016 the first luncheon was held, “Celebration of Breast Cancer Survivorship.”

This has been an annual luncheon ever since. The luncheons have been a blessing with survivors sharing their stories, women and men being educated and enlightened about breast cancer and seeing survivors thriving and living victoriously. Because of my journey, I had a desire to help others get through their journey and in April 2017 I started a breast cancer support group, Shared Journey.

My journey continued. On April 25, 2017 I was diagnosed with recurrent & metastatic breast cancer. The cancer had spread around my lungs & chest. The prognosis was not good.

The oncologist said I had about one year to 18 months to live. But I held on to my faith and believed God and His Word! It is by His stripes that I am healed! No matter what it looks like, or what I’m going through, or what the doctor report says, I still believe God. “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.”

In May 2017 I restarted chemo at St. Francis Women’s Comprehensive Center in Hartford. I kept the faith and I

believed that God was working for my good. I was getting better. In December 2017 and April 2018, I had scanning and imaging done. There was no evidence of cancer cells in my body. To God be the glory!

As I continue on this journey, cancer cells continue to try and invade my body but I am determined to stand on God’s promises. While I still have chemotherapy to maintain my healing, I know that God’s grace is sufficient for me and I am still here.

I thank God for what He is doing in my life and I thank Him for the outpouring of love and support from all of my family and friends. I am especially grateful for the support and unconditional love of my wonderful husband, John Dyson, Jr. Upcoming Events: 21st Annual Pink Tea - Oct 26th, 2019 1 Mohegan Sun Blvd, Uncasville, CT 06382 Go to the www.sistersjourney.org to pick up your tickets today Sisters’ Journey is a caring and powerful support group for breast cancer survivors, their family, and their friends.

Sisters’ Journey is a faith-based activity instilled for the purpose of ensuring that no women have to endure or experience the challenge of facing the obstacles that accompany the reality of being diagnosed with breast cancer alone.

SCSU_1619_InnerCity_4x8.qxp_Layout 1 10/9/19 4:02 PM Page 1

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 23, 2019 - October 29, 2019

NEW HAVEN’S GRASSROOTS COMMUNITY RADIO STATION!

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

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Mondays 11 a.m.

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MICHELLE TURNER Tuesdays 9 a.m.

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FRIDAY PUNDITS Fridays 11 a.m.

Monday, October 21 • Opening Ceremony with Keynote Speaker Marc Lamont Hill * BET news host, social justice advocate, and professor of Media, Cities, and Solutions at Temple University Adanti Student Center Ballroom | 6 PM – 9 PM * Registration reqired Tuesday, October 22 • Impact on Innocence: Mass Incarceration Art Exhibition & Reception | Lyman Center | 4 PM –6 PM Wednesday, October 23 • Embrace the 400th: 1619 Student Showcase Adanti Student Center Theater | 7 PM – 10 PM Thursday, October 24 • Remember My Struggle: Kae Me Br3 Art Exhibition & Reception, Earl Hall | 5 PM – 7 PM For more information and to register, visit SouthernCT.edu/1619 Sponsored by:

• SCSU Office of the President • SCSU Office of the Provost

• SCSU Multicultural Center • Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition

• Yale Center for British Art | Coca Cola

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

October 23, 2019 - October 29, 2019

Who’s Hurting Black Girls in School?

By The Afro

Women in the Room Productions announced its premiere schedule for “Pushout: The Criminalization Of Black Girls in Schools”, Friday.

The documentary aims to feature “a close look at the educational, judicial and societal disparities facing Black Girls,” the film’s website says. “Inspired by the groundbreaking book of the same name by renowned scholar, Monique W. Morris, Ed.D. The documentary confronts the ways in which the misunderstanding of Black girlhood has led to excessive punitive discipline which in turn disrupts one of the most important factors in their lives, their education.”

Dr. Morris, the Founder and President of the National Black Women’s Justice Institute (NBWJI), is a 2012 Soros Justice Fellow, former Vice President for Economic Programs, Advocacy and

Research at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the former Director of Research for the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at the UC Berkeley Law School.

“Black and Brown girls continue to disproportionately experience harsh and exclusionary school discipline for incidents and behaviors that do not pose a critical threat to the safety of the learning environment,” Morris said via an October 11 press release. “Many of these behaviors are fueled by experiences with trauma, much of which is under-reported for girls of color,” Morris is both executive producer and co-writer of the film.

and outcomes between White and Black girls in school.

Citing 2018 Discipline Data for Girls in US Public Schools, Department of Education office for Civil Rights, study, Black girls are six times more likely to be suspended, four times more likely to be arrested, and two times more likely to receive corporal punishment.

“Pushout” premiered in New York City this weekend, and will continue to premiere across the country. The schedule includes dates in Richmond, Virginia (November 12), Atlanta, Georgia (November 13 and 14), and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (December 6).

The weekend premiere coincided with the “Black Girl Takeover” of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“Pushout” explores these aforementioned alarming disparities in treatment

This article originally appeared in The Afro.

Zoe Kravitz gets big role in ‘The Batman’ movie WB ohana Lola and Wolfies big sister is CAT WOMAN. Unbelievable so freaking stoked. Your [sic] going to have so much fun Aloha P bear.”

And she replied: “LOVE YOU PAPABEAR! love that aquaman and catwomen spend the holidays together from now on.”

Meanwhile, Reeves is reportedly hoping to include many villains in the film as he plans to make a trilogy.

According to Forbes, The Joker, TwoFace and Hugo Strange and Robin will be featured in the film.

However, Batman’s arch-nemesis will not be played by Joaquin Phoenix, who plays Joker in the origin film of the same name.

Joker director Todd Phillips ruled out the possibility of Phoenix’s Joker crossing paths with Robert’s Batman.

By Rolling Out

Zoe Kravitz has been cast in The Batman movie beating out a short list that included Zazie Beetz, Eiza Gonzalez and Alicia Vikander.

The 30-year-old actress will star as Catwoman opposite Robert Pattinson, who will play Batman/Bruce Wayne in Matt Reeves’ upcoming Warner Bros / DC Comics movie.

Anne Hathaway, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Halle Berry have all previously played Catwoman/ Selina Kyle on the big screen.

After the casting news was announced, Kravitz’s stepfather Jason Momoa, who plays Aquaman, praised her on Instagram.

He wrote: “I’m so proud of u zozo bear. On and off screen OHANA. DC

Jonah Hill is in talks to play The Riddler, while Rihanna is reportedly in the running to play to Poison Ivy. Jeffrey Wright is also said to be in talks to play Commissioner James Gordon, the head of Gotham City police.

The post Zoe Kravitz gets big role in ‘The Batman’ movie appeared first on Rolling Out. This article originally appeared in RollingOut.com.

Zoe Kravitz attends the UK premiere of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald at Leicester Square in London on Nov. 13, 2018. (Photo credit: Bang Media)

Featuring Mwenso and the Shakes with special guests Brianna Thomas and Michela Marino Lerman & Vuyo Sotashe

UCONN'S JORGENSEN CENTER HOSTS “HARLEM 100” – CELEBRATING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE

STORRS, CT – On Saturday evening, October 26, Storrs audiences will take a musical journey back in time to the hey-day of the Cotton Club and Apollo Theater when jazz vocalist Michael Mwenso, accompanied by his band the Shakes and special guests, bring the sights, sounds, and music of 1920’s Harlem to the stage at UConn’s Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts for a presentation of Harlem 100, a joyous, soul-satisfying 100-year anniversary celebration of the Harlem Renaissance,

one of the most important and influential artistic movements in America’s history.

Featuring the music and artistry of legends like Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, and Billie Holiday, the program provides a special insight as to how Harlem evolved to become the center and showcase for African American music, art, and culture. Doors open at 7:30 pm. Showtime at 8:00 pm.

Special guest artists joining Mwenso & The Shakes on stage are jazz vocalists

Brianna Thomas and Vuyo Sotashe, and tap dancer Michela Marino Lerman. This production was created in collaboration with the National Jazz Museum. The Jorgensen presentation is co-sponsored by the H. Fred Simons African American Cultural Center at UConn. Media Sponsor: New England Public Radio (WFCR) For additional information please visit https://imgartists.com/roster/harlem-100/ Voted Best College or University Per-

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forming Arts Center in the Hartford Courant’s CTNow, Jorgensen presents 30 to 40 diverse performances each season, from nationally and internationally acclaimed artists and ensembles ranging from classical music to world music and dance, classical ballet and contemporary dance, comedy, family programming and contemporary entertainment.

Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts is located at 2132 Hillside Road on the UConn campus in Storrs. Tickets are

now available online: $32 - $36 (with some discounts available).

For tickets and information, go to jorgensen.uconn.edu, or call the Box Office at 860.486.4226, Monday - Friday, 10 am - 5 pm, and 90 minutes prior to events.

Convenient $5 event parking is available in the North Garage. Free parking is available in Lot N, Lot F and lower section of Lot X (unpaved). For a detailed parking map, go to park.uconn.edu.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 23, 2019 - October 29, 2019

Annual Tremé Fest Puts Spotlight on Community

Annual Tremé Fall Festival (Photo by: Kortney Williams)

By Kortney Williams The sounds of New Orleans jazz played as the smell of fried fish and chicken filled the air for locals and tourists who gathered at the St. Augustine Catholic Church on Governor Nicholls Street for the 5th Annual Tremé Fall Festival that took place on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2019.

Treme’ Fest is put on to help raise money for restorations of St. Augustine Catholic Church and other important landmarks in this historically African American part of the city. The festival is a mixture of art vendors, food vendors, and local performers. Wanda Rouzan, Naydja CoJoe, Dawn Richard, and Kermit Ruffins were just a few of the performers from this year’s festival. Organizers set up the festival stage on gravel behind the church with tents and chairs, and a spacewalk for kids to jump to attract the community.

“I was getting ready to wrap up, but they told me I have five more minutes on stage so let’s keep partying y’all!” Wan-

da Rouzan told an energized crowd of dozens of spectators as she joined Naydja CoJoe together for a few selections that had the crowd on their feet dancing through the heat.

Attendees were reminded to make their voices heard at the upcoming local election, and organizers included a registration booth to make it easier for members of the community to ensure they were prepared to exercise their civic duty on Oct. 12th.

Many attendees said this was more than a festival and saw the event as a way to inspire more community interaction and to promote positive actions throughout not only the Tremé area, but the entire city.

“This is my second year attending Tremé Fest,” said Bria Morlier, a Gentilly native. “[I’m] not sure what it is I love more: the food, music, or the arts, so I’ll just say I love it all,” Morlier added.

Performers from Samba Kids entertained the crowd as they danced on stilts to the beat of African drums. The

This article originally appeared in New Orleans Data News Weekly.

®

A BR E AS T CA N CE R S U PPO R T GRO U P

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

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Sisters' Journey

program is a part of Casa Samba and is a New Orleans Recreation Development Commission Program that teaches Samba drumming and stilt walking to support cultural enrichment and healthy activities for young people in the area.

The free program meets on Saturdays at the NORDC Center at 800 Race St., to teach the art form and welcomed members of the community who came to the festival to bring their children to learn the tradition.

Destinee Ross, a California native, said it was the first time she attended and that she was excited about being at the festival.

“I just landed in New Orleans this morning and was looking for something to do, but I just wanted it to involve food,” Ross said. “The food is a plus but seeing how this festival is doing its part to keep the community together is outstanding,” she said.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

October 23, 2019 - October 29, 2019

Motown Founder Berry Gordy Retires town would produce an extensive roster of hitmakers.

From Marvin Gaye’s groundbreaking “What’s Going On?” to the Diana Ross and the Supremes “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” the hits came nearly every day.

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

From the Miracles, Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Lionel Richie, and the shaping of the original Little Steven, to being the genius behind the launch of the man that would become known as “the King of Pop,” Berry Gordy long ago indelibly cemented his place as one of the true legends of popular music.

Known as “The Chairman,” Gordy is the founder and original architect of Motown Records — an American original that arguably featured the most exceptional assembly of talent in music history — has retired.

He announced his retirement during the 60th-anniversary celebration of Motown that took place in Detroit last month. “I have come full circle, and it’s only appropriate [to make the announcement] while here in Detroit, the city where my fairy tale happened with all of you,” Gordy said.

Sixty years ago, long before the lottery’s slogan of “A Dollar and a Dream,” was appropriated to describe “rags to riches” success, Gordy put up what little cash he had and launched Motown Records, forever and better known by its simpler singular moniker: “Motown,” out of his small Motor City home.

The determined businessman demanded the best from everyone passing through the illustrious halls of Motown.

Among his initial signings was The Miracles featuring Smokey Robinson.

Smokey would go on to become a recording legend, but he is also the songwriting genius who penned tunes for art-

Perhaps Gordy’s most shrewd signing was that of the Jackson Five.

ists like Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye.

In 2001, Gordy told this reporter that the secret to success was, in part, understanding who to trust. Gordy made no bones that the foremost person he believed in is himself. However, he also knew when to comply.

“Her recollection is absolutely correct,” Gordy said with a respectful laugh when relayed a story told by Lula Mae Hardaway. Hardaway, who died in 2006, said she was probably the most hardened person Gordy had ever negotiated with. The negotiation involved her young son who would soon become known to the entire world as Stevie Wonder.

“For a year, I refused to sign a contract to let Steve work for Motown because I wasn’t sure if they’d provide a proper tutor for him to get a good education,” said

Hardaway, who penned her life story in the 2002 book, “Blind Faith: The Miraculous Journey of Lula Hardaway, Stevie Wonder’s Mother.”

“We were poor, but I wasn’t stupid, and I wouldn’t be taken advantage of,” Hardaway told this reporter.

“We could certainly use the money Berry was offering, which really wasn’t much, but it wasn’t about the money, even though when we did finally agree to sign, it was a whole lot more than what he originally offered,” Hardaway stated.

Gordy said he knew he was getting a genius in the young Stevie Wonder, and a decade after his initial signing, Gordy and Wonder would ink what at the time was the largest contract in Motown history.

Along with Robinson and Wonder, Mo-

While the group never won a Grammy Award and enjoyed a handful of No. 1 hits, it was its lead singer that Gordy took a particular interest in.

“When people ask, ‘Did I know that Michael Jackson would become as big as he did?’ I tell them, ‘Why of course,’” Gordy stated. “Why wouldn’t I believe he’d break records and set new standards? No one worked harder, and no one worked as often as Michael Jackson.”

Even though his solo success came under a different record label, Jackson would rock the world with the ultrasuccessful “Off The Wall” album. The singer would then cement himself as perhaps the greatest pop music star in history with the release of his 1982 album, “Thriller.”

Two years after “Thriller,” Lionel Richie [former lead singer of the Commodores] released “Can’t Slow Down.”

The recording became the biggest selling album in Motown history.

It was the last major record under Gordy’s leadership.

He sold the label in 1988, and until this

year, Gordy remained in the entertainment industry producing Broadway musicals and feature films.

“Motown records is one of the most successful Black-owned record labels of all time,” said Aaron Douglas of R.E.A.L. Music Entertainment.

“Its history is in concrete because of the mega artists and because Berry Gordy had an eye for up-and-coming talent. …a Black owner giving a Black upand-coming talented artists a chance to show their talent to the world and to be a proven success over and over again. This would be a blueprint for other young aspiring Black people. Seeing is believing,” Douglas stated.

Gordy made a difference not just in the music industry, but also in the world, said music producer Linnette A. Harrigan.

“The Motown Sound has impacted millions worldwide, and it has influenced the popular music we hear even to this day.

“Berry Gordy paved the way for minorities in a way that had never been seen before. His Motown sound is now known as the sound that changed America, helping to bring together the nation then divided by race and segregation.

“As an African-American leader, businessman, entrepreneur, and important and historical agent of change, Berry Gordy is an inspiration and role model especially for African-Americans like myself,” Harrigan stated.

She added: “His legacy should and could never be forgotten.”

OPINION: Importance of Educators of Color for Black & Brown Students

By Ron Rice, Senior Director, Government Relations at the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools I have been a Black student, education policymaker, and now an advocate for providing the best educational opportunities for all our children. One reality that I’ve had to face and embrace through each of these stages in my life and career is that the prevalence of leaders of color like me is a major contributor to educational success and whose lack thereof stifles that potential. As a student of color, those examples helped me thrive; and today they inform my advocacy.

This month, my organization, the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools

released its highly-anticipated report, “Identity and Charter School Leadership: Profiles of Leaders of Color Building an Effective Staff” which examined the ways that school leaders of color’s experiences and perspectives influence how they build school culture, parent and community relationships, and effective staff. This needed report affirmed what I and many fellow school leaders of color have witnessed first-hand in schools from New Jersey (where I advised the state Department of Education) to Massachusetts, California, Louisiana, Missouri, Wisconsin, and North Carolina, where school leaders of color were studied. The report’s finding is clear: our children of color thrive with diverse and experienced teachers who understand their challenges and have a personal, unwavering dedication to their success.

Most importantly, our report is instructive as well because it sheds light — through the profiles of three public charter school leaders of color from Louisiana,

North Carolina, and California — on the principles that can help match our best current and future teachers with our nation’s students. Three of those principles that resonated with my two decades in education policy are: First, fill our school leadership pipeline with talented educators of color who come from nontraditional backgrounds and fields of study. But how do we dispel the myth that there are not enough qualified and passionate people of color who can and want to fill this educational pipeline?

One way to do this comes from Eric Sanchez, co-founder of Henderson Collegiate — a network of three schools serving elementary, middle and high school in Henderson, North Carolina. Instead of only recruiting future educators from traditional education programs, Eric also recruits graduates from university programs focusing on social justice and ethnic studies. And this encouragement doesn’t end once the teachers reach the classroom — we must provide clear pathways for these

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teachers to pursue school leadership.

Second, school leaders and education policymakers of all colors must be committed to seeing and promoting diversity as an asset, not a deficit; an opportunity, not an obstacle. Imagine how better prepared our children will be for the world of tomorrow if they have been taught the history behind their identity, the language behind their culture, and the geography behind their journey. While nearly all schools struggle with activating this principle for the benefit of our students, our report demonstrates that public charter schools are making substantial progress where traditional public schools haven’t.

Third, achievement and demonstrated success — not myths, preconceptions, and inherited political biases — must be the basis upon which we support the best educational opportunities for all our children. For example, by their design, public charter schools have the flexibility to create and finetune curricula, teaching methods, and optimal outcomes that traditional

public schools do not. So, why would we ever consider putting obstacles in any educational paths that are showing real achievement?

Race and identity of both our educators and students is only one factor in the holistic successes we are all working towards.

However, it’s also true that all schools across our country in every community have historically not valued students’ diversity and identity as assets to enrich the education they receive. Public charter schools are making real progress to expose this blind spot and make the needed course corrections to ensure the success we’ve seen for some students are the norm for all.

Ron Rice Jr. is a former two term Newark, NJ city councilman, chief advisor to the New Jersey Department of Education, and is currently Senior Director, Government Relations at the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 23, 2019 - October 29, 2019

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10/7/19 6:58 PM

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

October 23, 2019 - October 29, 2019

IN MEMORIAM: Congressman Elijah Cummings Dies at 68

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

The Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and a titan of the U.S. Congress, Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD-7), died early Thursday morning. He was 68.

Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, the congressman’s wife and chairman of the Maryland Democratic Committee, said Cummings died at 2:45 a.m. at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Mrs. Cummings said her husband’s death resulted from complications concerning longstanding health challenges.

In recent years, Cummings had been in and out of the hospital. “Dr. Elijah Saunders and I took care of Congressman Cummings for [years] for his blood pressure,” said Cummings’ longtime nurse, Barbara “B.J.” Shaneman.

“He always called me the boss because he told his team I was a short woman with a big voice. I would fuss at him about watching his blood pressure. His health was my concern. I screamed when I heard the news. I said, ‘this can’t happen.’ I said they [Cummings and Saunders, who died in 2015] were the last of the old guard,” Shaneman said.

Recently, and in increasingly rare sightings of the congressman, Cummings was seen using a walker.

He underwent an undisclosed medical procedure, and his office expected that he would only miss about one week of work.

“He was an honorable man who proudly served his district and the nation with dignity, integrity, compassion, and humility,” Mrs. Cummings said.

Cummings obtained his bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Howard University, serving as Student Government President and graduating Phi Beta Kappa.

He earned his law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law.

The recipient of 13 honorary doctoral degrees, Cummings dedicated his life of service to uplifting and empowering the people he was sworn to represent, according to his biography.

He began his career in public service in the Maryland House of Delegates, where he served for 14 years, becoming the first African American in Maryland history to ascend to the position of Speaker Pro Tem.

The Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and a titan of the U.S. Congress, Representative Elijah Cummings (DMD-7)

Since 1996, Cummings has represented Maryland’s 7th Congressional District in

the U.S. House of Representatives.

Cummings was committed to ensuring that the next generation has access to quality healthcare and education, clean air and water, and a strong economy defined by fiscal responsibility. Children “are the living messages that we send to a future we will never see,” he often said.

In addition to the contributions he made to improve the lives of all Americans, the congressman was a passionate advocate for his beloved Baltimore, where he was born and raised.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump disparaged the city – particularly parts of Cummings’ district — labeling the city as a “rodent-infested mess where no human being would want to live.”

Cummings immediately responded: “Those in the highest levels of government must stop making hateful, incendiary comments that only serve to divide and distract the nation from its real problems, including mass shootings and white supremacy.”

“Those in the highest levels of the government must stop invoking fear, using racist language and encouraging reprehensible behavior,” Cummings added.

“He was a champion of the people, a soldier and a warrior for his city, the

state, and the nation,” said Baltimore Times Publisher Joy Bramble. “Elijah Cummings made Baltimore and all of those who came across better.”

The congressman told a local reporter that he and Trump had just one face-toface conversation since the president took office in 2016.

“I said, ‘Mr. President, you’re now 70-something, I’m 60-something. Very soon, you and I will be dancing with the angels. The thing that you and I need to do is figure out what we can do – what present can we bring to generations unborn?”

His last act in Congress came on Oct. 8, when he joined three others from a bipartisan group to introduce legislation called “The Family Asthma Act.” The bill seeks to expand federal, state, and local efforts to improve care for individuals with asthma.

“Long live the freedom-fighting spirit of Brother Leader Congressman Elijah Cummings,” National Newspaper Publishers Association President, Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., said. “On behalf of the Black Press of America, we extend our heartfelt condolences to Mrs. Cummings and to the Cummings family.”

Household HazWaste and Drug Take Back October 26, 2019, 9 a.m. – Noon Last Collection of the Year Located at the Regional Water Authority, 90 Sargent Drive, New Haven Residential Waste Only. Partial List of What to Bring: Auto Body Repair Products & Fluids

Herbicides, Insecticides, Pesticides

Mercury & Mercury-Containing Items

Paint Thinner & Stripper

Gasoline & Kerosene

Latex & Oil-Based Paints & Stains

Oils, Cleaners, Polishes

Swimming Pool Chemicals

What not to bring: Asbestos, Gas Grill Propane Tanks.

Unwanted medicine will be collected first. Please store it in an accessible location.

For more information and to sign in early, visit: www.rwater.com/hazwaste or call 203-401-2712.

A program brought to you by the Regional Water Authority and these participating towns: Bethany, Branford, East Haven, Fairfield, Guilford, Hamden, Madison, Meriden, Milford, New Haven, North Branford, North Haven, Orange, Wallingford, West Haven and Woodbridge.

16

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 23, 2019 - October 29, 2019

A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH

by Oscar Blayton All oppressed people know this feeling.

Tevye expressed it best in “Fiddler on the Roof” when he said there are times “when our hearts lie panting on the floor.”

Atatiana Jefferson’s murder by Aaron Dean, a white police officer, in Fort Worth, Texas, on Oct. 11 has created one of those times. It is clear from the cries of outrage that many Americans, particularly people of color, feel this way. After watching video footage of the shooting from Dean’s body camera, there is no doubt that this was murder.

Initial media reports stated that roughly four seconds passed between the time Dean shouted “Put your hands up” at Ms. Jefferson as she stood by the window in her own home and the moment when he fired the fatal shot. However, video cam timers show that less than two seconds elapsed. One video time tracker showed that Dean shouted his command at timelapse 0:32 and pulled the trigger at 0:33.

That was little more than one second. We can only assume that the media obtained the four second time frame from the Fort Worth Police Department.

The Fort Worth police also quickly released information that Ms. Jefferson had a gun in the house. This information tended to bend the narrative in favor of Dean, even though Texas is an open-carry state where countless law-abiding citizens have guns in their homes.

As shocking as this murder was, what made it worse was the way the Fort Worth police initially recited the facts in a way that favored the murderer.

It is obvious that Dean shot and killed Ms. Jefferson before giving her a chance to respond to his shouts and without identifying himself as a police officer. And it is not disputed that Ms. Jefferson had every right to protect herself and her home from an unidentified and suspicious person outside.

Because this was a PR battle the Fort Worth police could not win, the chief has taken the position that Ms. Jefferson was within her rights, and Dean has been charged with murder.

This case, however, is an “outlier” even though there is no certainty that Dean will be convicted and punished for his crime.

It is impossible to have faith in the ability of law enforcement at any level to mete out justice fairly when we are constantly bombarded with news of police misconduct.

When we learn of innocent citizens being gunned down in their homes by police officers in Texas, or of a Virginia law enforcement officer who was also a recruiter for a white nationalist group, or that a Pennsylvania policeman arrested two Black men and charged them with loitering in their own front yard, there is no rationalizing this behavior. Constantly faced with these types of events, we must acknowledge that

there is still something very wrong with this country.

While white people worry about being killed by home-grown terrorists, people of color must also worry about being killed by the police.

People of color are being gunned down in the streets and in their homes by law enforcement officers who do not value our lives. And this will continue until we address the root cause of this problem.

Murderous police officers are on our streets because too many police chiefs do not care enough to properly vet them before they are hired or properly supervise them once they are on the job. We have incompetent police chiefs because too many politicians who hire them do not care enough to ensure that they carry out their jobs properly.

The way to be rid of these killer cops is to remove incompetent and uncaring chiefs.

And the way to be rid of those chiefs is by removing from office the politicians who hire and support them.

People of color will never be able to live a life in America free from fear of being killed indiscriminately by police until we find people committed to making us safe, support their political campaigns, vote them into office and support them while they are in office. By doing this, we maximize our ability to vote out of office those people whose policies and decisions result in killer cops murdering us.

We must drive out of office those policymakers whose indifference to the continued murder of people of color results in more of those murders time and again.

It is a step in the right direction that Dean has been charged with murder. However, that does not restore life to Atatiana Jefferson. Dean should never have been given a badge and a gun, and the police officials who hired him must be held accountable.

We cannot make public officials answer for their egregious behavior and poor decisions until we register and vote for the type of politicians who see us as human beings deserving of their respect and who have concern for our welfare.

Putting the right people in office will not be easy. The forces of white supremacy are hard at work to make it more difficult for people of color to participate in free and fair elections. Roadblocks to the ballot box have been thrown up in front of people of color in every state of the former Confederacy and in some states that fought for the Union. But we cannot let these obstacles stop us. We must vote and see to it that our friends, relatives and co-workers vote as well. We must also support our candidates to the best of our abilities, and once they are elected, we must continue to support them, watch their performance and hold them accountable if they make missteps.

We must march to the polling places in great numbers for each election, and stay engaged in the politics of our communities, our states and our nation. It is a matter of life and death.

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

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SEASO N

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

October 23, 2019 - October 29, 2019

Special Report: Police Shootings of African Americans

White Ex-Officer is Working to Change the Culture

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A police officer’s bullet shattered a window and fatally struck Atatiana Jefferson as she and her 8-year-old nephew played video games inside her Texas home.

Fort Worth Police Officer Aaron Dean, who never identified himself as a cop, and, without warning, fired into Atatiana’s window from outside the home, fatally striking the 28-year-old.

Just a week earlier, Ex-Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger received a 10year prison sentence for unlawfully entering the home of 28-year-old Botham Jean and murdering him.

Guyger claimed she had worked a late shift, was tired, and entered an apartment she thought was her own. She said she mistook the successful accountant as an intruder.

He used the best possible words when he said we need to hire people with a servant’s heart, not people with a warrior’s heart.

A Soldier’s Mentality

When I went to the police academy, which was some time ago, a lot of people were coming back from Iraq, and they were looking for jobs.

These people were trained killers because they’re soldiers. And, now you’re putting them not just [on the street] and giving them tactical solider-looking gear. And, they feel like they’re back on patrol in frickin’ Ramallah or Bagdad.

You know, when the soldiers are sent off to war, one of the ways that the government makes soldiers more effective is by dehumanizing them — calling them names like bugs.

Both Atatiana and Botham were Black.

Dean and Guyger are White.

It’s a good word to make to dehumanize them, and then they come home.

A study conducted earlier this year by researchers at three universities concluded that African Americans are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than White people.

Researchers found that police will kill roughly 1-in-1,000 Black boys and men during their lifetime. For White boys and men, the rate is 39 out of 100,000.

In the aftermath of the killing of Atatiana, an attorney and former detective spoke with NNPA Newswire about police shootings. Because of the sensitive nature of his current assignment, we will refer to the former officer as Detective Jones.

Jones is working with several police departments to find better training solutions, primarily for situations when officers are interacting with individuals of color.

And, it’s not hard for them to jump into things by taking back that concept and using it with minorities. Whatever the minority may be in that community.

The minority could be White people.

I know it’s not usually that, but it could be anybody.

So then when they use that language that, you know, aggressive and derogatory language against minorities, it’s just what they were trained to do as soldiers.

And, one of the things I can tell you from personal experience, and I mean, in the department that I was in when I started my law enforcement career in 1999, it was a small department.

And there was only maybe one military

DETECTIVE JONES: Among my friends who are police officers, I’m considered one of the more – let’s say liberal, as it were.

I’m hoping we can bridge build and repair relations between my brothers and sisters of varying backgrounds. So, that’s where I’m coming from.

From the police side of things, I’ve seen racist cops.

Unfortunately, a lot of that is because of what the job can do to people.

But I think that the key to the current problems, aside from the racial issue, is what the police chief in Fort Worth said.

guy in there. And he had all the knowledge and the tactical gear and everything. Scary.

As soldiers kept returning home, that was easy pickings for police departments, you know, all over the country.

They are hiring all of the time.

So, then the department starts getting, you know, an increasing number of exsoldiers. And, now they’ve got their own culture. And, within the department, they’ve almost created their own little thing. And the non-military cops see it, and they want to be part of it. So, they start to adopt the attitude a little bit.

It Starts at the Top

You know, here’s what it boils down to — the negative aspects of hiring are so much stronger than the positive aspects. If you hire bad apples, it’s so much worse than the good you get from hiring good apples.

So, a lot of this focuses on hiring the right people. Because when there’s a hillbilly cracker in the office, guess what? That is your department.

On the other side, cops are continually being taunted, and sometimes there are those purposefully agitating elements from the community. And it makes it difficult and sometimes impossible for them to do their job.

I think when it comes to hiring, police

departments need to pay more attention to bringing in people who are servants.

They need to pay more attention to training officers.

Another thing, when I was in the police academy, we were trained on how to figure out when to shoot someone as opposed to not shoot someone.

That’s a considerable distinction right there.

In my career, I had a situation where I would have been justified in shooting and killing someone. If I had done that in that particular situation, it would have Con’t on page 22

Morris Brown College advances toward accreditation

By ADW News

Morris Brown students, alumni and faculty celebrated the news that the school has been approved as an institute of higher learning from the Georgia Nonpublic Postsecondary Education Commissions. The announcement came on Friday, Oct. 12 during Morris Brown College’s homecoming activities.

“This is a gigantic first step in our road to full accreditation,” said Dr. Kevin James, interim president of Morris Brown College said in a statement. “We are on a positive path to resurrecting this historic black college back to prominence and creating an environment in which students will receive an education that is held in high regard. We are now in search of significant donors to pour

into our institution now that we have this momentum.”

The school has been working to become an accredited post secondary institution for more than a decade. MBC said it was simultaneously working on the application for recognition by GNPEC and the accreditation agency, TRACS (Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools).

The Atlanta Daily World and Atlanta Tribune will keep readers posted on MBC’s accreditation fight over the coming weeks.

Morris Brown College Campus (Photo credit: facebook.com/MorrisBrownCollege) This article originally appeared in The Atlanta Daily World.

18

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 23, 2019 - October 29, 2019

Let’s Stop Encouraging Struggle Love Jasmine Turner is a black love advocate, professional matchmaker, and founder of Black Match Made, a nationwide matchmaking service.

For the purpose of this article, “struggle love” is referring to a relationship where one partner experiences long term stress as a result of the other partner’s actions or inactions during their relationship. Examples of struggle love include cheaters in monogamous relationships, people who ghost and return when they choose only to ghost again, and any other relationship where one partner is waiting for the other partner to choose to respect and honor their relationship.

Rasheeda Frost is the poster child for struggle love. Tiny Harris is another great example. We know now via 4:44 that Beyonce served her time in struggle love as well.

“I seen the innocence leave your eyes I still mourn this death and I apologize for all the stillborns ’cause I wasn’t present Your body wouldn’t accept it” -Jay Z I imagine women of all races experience some level of struggle love.

However, in the black community, it sometimes eels as if it is a requirement before marriage or monogamous commitment. You can hear examples of struggle love throughout our communities when some men explain why they chose their spouse.

It usually sounds something like“She stood by me through everything”, similar to a recent Instagram post from Gucci Mane about his wife, Keyshia Kaoir. As if enduring the pain of struggle love is a reason for reward, honor, and commitment. Our families are full of relationships built on struggle love.

Our friendships have stories of struggle love. Even some of our churches are led by men whose wives are survivors of struggle love. For generations, black women have accepted pain before love.

While I’m sure there are black men who’ve waited for their partner to get it right, it’s usually the other way around. In our community, we expect black women to love black men until they are ready to reciprocate that love.

However, black men usually do a great job of walking away when they see red flags. They should continue to do so as struggle love is actually harmful to the recipient.

A study found that emotional pain

ever, we know this behavior is far too common in our community. Relationships that cause consistent, long term stress as a result of struggle love are not the type of relationships we should pursue or encourage.

It is not an accomplishment to endure emotional abuse for long periods of time. Standing by your partner for years while they take advantage of your loyalty and vulnerability is not a measure of strength. On the other hand, it is a measure of love. It’s not a measure of love for your partner or your family, but a measure of love for yourself.

We shouldn’t celebrate these types of relationships. Know what your deal breakers are and communicate them with your partner in the beginning.

If he or she chooses to break those boundaries, learn to walk away. There are quality black men who will reciprocate your love without expecting you to prove you’re worthy after years of struggle.

Jasmine Turner is a black love advocate, professional matchmaker, and founder of Black Match Made, a nationwide matchmaking service. She’s a mix of southern charm and Chicago grit. Find her @jasloveslove

from an unwanted breakup activated found emotional pain and physical pain similar parts of the brain as physical activate the same areas in the brain. In pain. In fact, another study found that other words, struggle love could affect Tylenol helped reduce grief. your health, giving a whole new meanNow, I’m a matchmaker and not a ing to the phrase “love hurts.” doctor. I’m not at all suggesting you We know no one is perfect. We also start taking Tylenol for heartbreak. I’m know not all black men expect women simply pointing out how science has to participate in struggle love. HowSCSU_UOH_5.472x5.1_InnerCity.qxp_Layout 1 10/17/19 3:43 PM Page 1

We Care.

We understand the value of providing high-quality water service and what it means to our customers on a daily basis. Unfortunately, some individuals and families are having difficulty paying their water bill. For customers who need aid, the RWA’s Residential Water Assistance Program can help.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2019 1:30-4:30 PM

FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS, TRANSFER STUDENTS, PARENTS, AND FRIENDS

• Visit our beautiful campus • Hear from President Joe • Meet our faculty, administrators, and students • Talk to admissions and financial aid counselors • Learn how you and Southern can partner for your future success!

To see if you qualify, contact the RWA’s program administrator, the Dollar Energy Fund at 1-888-282-6816, or the RWA at 203-562-4020.

To learn more, please visit rwater.com

SouthernCT.edu

19

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

Recreation Recreation Programs Specialist. Assists in the planning and coordination of a municipal recreation program covering a wide variety of community recreational activities. Requires a bachelor’s degree from a recognized college or university in recreation administration or related field plus 1 year of responsible recreation program experience. Must have a valid driver’s license. Salary: $61,376 to $78,529 annually plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply: Human Resources Department, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. The closing date will be that date the 50th application form/resume is received, or November 4, 2019 whichever occurs first. EOE

Account Clerk: The Town of East Haven is currently accepting applications to participate in the examination for the following positions: Account Clerk, Payroll-Board of Education. The starting hourly rate is $19.93/hour, 37.5 hours per week.

Account Clerk, Grade Level 10-Tax Office. The starting hourly rate is $22.76/hour, 35 hours per week.

Applications are available from The Civil Service Office, 250 Main Street, East Haven, CT or https://www.townofeasthavenct.org/civil-service-commission/pages/ job-notices-and-tests. The deadline to apply is November 15, 2019. East Haven is committed to building a workforce of diverse individuals. Minorities, Females, Handicapped and Veterans are encouraged to apply.

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES Invitation for Bids

Window, Screen and Glass Replacement and Repair Services The Housing Authority of the City of New Havend/b/a Elm City Communities is currently seeking Bids for Window, Screen and Glass Replacement and Repairs Services. A complete copy of the requirementsmay be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Wednesday, October 23, 2019 at 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 NOTICE OF REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF DANBURY Information Technology Services RFP No. P19007 SCOPE:

The Housing Authority of the City of Danbury hereby issues this Request for Proposal for a qualified firm to provide Information Technology Services.

CONTACT PERSON:

Ms. Devin Marra, Director of Procurement Telephone: 203-744-2500 x141 E-Mail: dmarra@hacdct.org

HOW TO OBTAIN THE RFP DOCUMENTS:

Contact Ms. Devin Marra, via e-mail.

PROPOSAL SUBMITTAL RETURN

Housing Authority of the City of Danbury 2 Mill Ridge Rd, Danbury, CT 06811 Envelope Must be Marked: RFP No. P19007 Information Technology Services

PROPOSAL SUBMITTAL DEADLINE

November 20, 2019 at 10:00 AM (EST)

[Minority- and/or women-owned businesses are encouraged to respond]

October 23, 2019 - October 29, 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 Accounts 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

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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.

Construction Seeking to employ experienced individuals in the labor, foreman, operator and teamster trades for a heavy outside work statewide. Reliable personal transportation and a valid drivers license required. To apply please call (860) 621-1720 or send resume to: Personnel Department, P.O. Box 368, Cheshire, CT06410.

Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V Drug Free Workforce

State of Connecticut Office of Policy and Management The State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management is recruiting for a Policy Development Coordinator position.

Further information regarding the duties, eligibility requirements and application instructions for this position is available at: https://www.jobapscloud.com/ CT/sup/bulpreview.asp?R1= 191011&R2=1581MP&R3=001 The State of Connecticut is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and strongly encourages the applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 23, 2019 - October 29, 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

SURVEYING 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 An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer

The Housing Authority of the City of Norwalk, CT

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

DELIVERY PERSON NEEDED Part Time Delivery Needed One/Two Day a Week,

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

NEW HAVEN POLICE NOW HIRING

If Interested call

(203) 387-0354

Norwalk Housing is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Adam Bovilsky, Executive Director.

Listing: Accounting

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

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

Must Have your Own Vehicle

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

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks:

Request for Proposals Information Technology Consulting Services

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.

Apply online at Policeapp.com Or Visit our Social Media Pages For More Information New Haven Police Department Recruitment Team

Nhpdrecruitment

********An 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

DON’T WAIT UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE! Deadline October 25th 2019 To Apply: www.firefighterapp.com General Information: www.newhavenct.gov/fire 21

NHPDrecruitment

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

October 23, 2019 - October 29, 2019

Seafarers: Historic Black Yacht Club

By Jessica Dortch

Being Black in America is hard. In the 50s and 60s, it was even harder.

A group of Blacks in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area were interested in boating on the Chesapeake Bay, but, unfortunately, the color of their skin restricted their access to premier boating products and supplies. Thus, in 1959, this same group of Blacks created Seafarers Yacht Club (SYC) of Annapolis, Md., because “…The best way to get around exclusion is to form your own,” as Mel Wyche, past commodore of Seafarers Yacht Club, said.

SYC members wanted to settle in Annapolis, and after the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education, which, according to the History Channel, deemed racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, a once ‘Blacks only’ vacant schoolhouse became the Seafarers new home.

The members of SYC, including the only surviving original member of the club, 93-year-old Joe Carpenter, celebrated their 60th anniversary on Sept.

14 with a special cruise from Annapolis to the Baltimore Inner Harbor. Since the club’s inception, the group has grown from its original 13 members to include so many other African-American men and women.

“In the club we’ve got African Americans from all walks of life,” Wyche said.

“You have no idea what kind of talent we have in that club until you talk to them individually. You learn how accomplished some of these people are, in the club,” he added.

Being a member in one of very few African-American yacht clubs is an accomplishment that gives its members and their families a sense of pride. Ade Adebisi, current commodore, recalls bringing his children to SYC. “It has done a lot for our children because by being a part of this club, our children grew up in an environment of highly successful African Americans,” said Adebisi.

Everyone is familiar with the African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child,” but SYC was founded on this principle, and is still ingrained in the work they provide to the community through the Seafarers Foundation.

“Right here in Annapolis you have such a large population of African American children who live close to the water, but have never been in the water. One of the core functions of the foundation is to put on an annual summer youth program… to provide swimming lessons to African American children,” Derrick Cogburn, treasurer of SYC and board member of the Seafarers Foundation, told the AFRO. This two-week program, starting in the second week of July, was created to teach Black youth, specifically, how to swim. Since the foundation began 10

Even though her birthday is technically in May, Gladys Knight celebrated her landmark 75th birthday in October with a special party in Los Angeles.

The seven-time Grammy winner was joined at Vibrato Grill Jazz by celebrity pals including David Foster and his new wife Katherine McPhee, LaToya Jackson and Terry Crews.

Knight, who was accompanied by her husband William McDowell, was all smiles as celebrities talked and shared about how much they adored the singer.

Even though Gladys doesn’t have diabetes, she fights for others who have it because it took the life of her mother, Elizabeth Knight, who died of complications from the disease in 1997. Knight is as busy as ever gracing the entertainment world with her exceptional voice, yet she never misses an opportunity to voice the message of early detection and treatment of diabetes.

Like nearly 5.5 million other adults in the U.S., Elizabeth had diabetic retinopathy, a sight-threatening complica-

tion of diabetes that can cause blindness.

“I remember my mother being at one of my performances. She came backstage and shed a tear saying, ‘Gladys, I can’t see you anymore on stage, baby’,” said Knight. Elizabeth eventually became legally blind in both eyes due to the dis-

been perfectly justifiable. But I also had a way out of it, and I got out of it. I didn’t have to kill anybody. The training would have said, kill, it’s the ABC’s. Pull out your gun and pull the trigger.

Training Not One-Size-Fits-All

years ago, the program has expanded to provide youth in Annapolis and surrounding areas with a well-rounded education in boating, water safety, etiquette, and life skills. Recently, the foundation partnered with the U.S. Chess Center to offer lessons to the youth.

Interested yet? SYC isn’t just about boating, the club hosts various events throughout the year including hand dancing classes, Mardi Gras, Thanksgiving dinner, and the club’s upcoming event, ‘An Evening of Jazz.’ On Oct. 19, from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m., club members along with their families and friends are invited to spend an elegant evening at

the SYC clubhouse listening to smooth jazz by Aaron Rhines & The Groove Unit. Adebisi, a member of SYC since the early 2000s said, “There will be food, dancing, jazz music. It will be a great Saturday evening in the Fall.” For more events from Seafarers Yacht Club of Annapolis, Md., visit www.seafarersyc.com.

Seafarers Yacht Club of Annapolis, Md. was founded in 1959 by a group of Blacks who lived in the D.C. metropolitan area. (Courtesy of www.seafarersyc. com) This article originally appeared in The Afro.

ease, as do approximately 25,000 Americans every year.

According to Prevent Blindness Ohio, the longer one has diabetes, the greater the risk of developing diabetic retinopathy.

“My mom went to the eye doctor every year and was on top of her health as far as nutrition and exercise,” said Knight.

Prevent Blindness Ohio recommends an annual dilated eye exam for people with diabetes. While diabetic retinopathy is not always avoidable, management of the disease and treatment options can help reduce the risk of sight loss. Like many others with diabetic retinopathy, Elizabeth had laser treatment called…

her a better understanding of what might lie ahead. It also gave her the tools to live with diabetes for more than 40 years.”

Elizabeth is not the only person close to Knight that has been hit by diabetes. In addition, Knight’s cousin Edward Patten, one of the Pips, developed diabetes. This is not surprising, as according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Diabetes Association, close to 11.1 million Americans have diagnosed diabetes, while an additional 5.9 million have undiagnosed diabetes. Diabetes is the fifth deadliest disease in Ohio and in the United States.

In fact, 6.4% of Ohio’s population has this disease. Knight’s brother David was also diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in the mid-80’s and had to give up performing with the band this past January due to complications of the disease.

Gladys shares her final words of wisdom: “Do something about diabetes …

Know more, do more!” Knight feels nearly as passionate about spreading that message as she does about the incredible singing career her mom helped her launch some 54 years ago.

Gladys Knight at 75: “Know More, Do More” Aria Ellise, BDO Special Contributor

Con’t from page 18

… photocoagulation, a procedure that helps control the growth of leaking blood vessels in the retina.

“Despite everything, my mom had great faith and resilience. She was an independent and strong willed woman,” said Knight. “She was all about family. She accepted curves life threw her and battled through them. I think being educated on the different conditions she had gave

22

It’s not possible to train all departments across the country the same way. It’s not constitutional. It’s not practical. The challenge is different from community to community.

A national policy would not work as a state-by-state policy. And what happens is the communities end up electing their head law enforcement officer, unless they’re appointed by other elected officials.

The department should be a reflection of the sentiments of the community. If you’ve got a community that is mostly White and they don’t like Black people or vice versa, then that may well be reflected in the department for sure.

Incompetent Law Enforcement Practices Adversely Impact Us All The overwhelming majority of Americans will never work for a police department or a law enforcement agency.

Yet, law enforcement impacts all of us in one way or another.

However, African Americans are disproportionately affected. So, everyone has a responsibility to do what we can to not only understand the culture(s) that influence police practices at the local level, but to also raise our voices as impacted citizens when we see problems.

The killing of unarmed African Americans by officers that are sworn to serve and protect has reached epidemic proportions. No citizen, regardless of race or background, should fear being killed by police when he or she is sitting innocently in their home, or in any other nonthreatening situation.

“Police shooting policies need to change, not only for minorities but for everyone,” said forensic psychiatrist and expert witness Dr. Carole Lieberman.

“It is shocking that police still aren’t trained more effectively to shoot to disarm and not to kill. Their go-to automatic response seems to be, shoot to kill – especially where it concerns minorities,” Liberman stated.

“This is not only tragic for black people and other minorities, but it is dangerous for the police themselves to cause these neighborhoods to become frightened and then act in a self-protective way which gets misinterpreted by the police.

“To shoot anyone in their own home should carry a severe penalty,” Lieberman concluded.

Since our inception, The Inner-City New is a long standing member of the National Newspaper Publishing Association (NNPA)

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 23, 2019 - October 29, 2019

ARTS FUNDING NEIGHBORHOOD CULTURAL VITALITY GRANT

call 203-946-7172 for info

NOVEMBER 1–3 11:00am Show on Friday, November 1 – perfect for High School and Senior groups!

CALL FOR GROUP DISCOUNTS!

grant DEADLINES Letter of Intent: November 20 | Application: December 18 INFORMATION SESSIONS Oct. 21 - Wilson Library @ 5:00pm Oct. 24 - Fair Haven Library @ 5:30pm Oct. 29 - Mitchell Library@ 5:00pm

grant writing @ stetson library

shubert.com 203.562.5666

SAVE 25%

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

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Nov. 6, 13, 20 6:00pm-8:00pm Nov. 23 10:00am-4:00pm

CITY OF NEW HAVEN, TONI. N. HARP, MAYOR

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

October 23, 2019 - October 29, 2019

WE HAVE IMMEDIATE OPENINGS NOW!

NHPS - Early Childhood Registration O ce: 54 Meadow Street, New Haven, CT 06519 If you have any additional questions please contact us at: Head Start (475) 220-1463 and School Readiness (475) 220-1482

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