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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

Conaway VoteaReveals Divide Financial Justice Key Focus Black-Brown at 2016 NAACP Convention INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

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Volume 27 . No. 2358 Volume 21 No. 2194

Policy

Change

“DMC”

'Baltimore' Malloy Malloy To To Dems: Dems:

Ignore “Tough On Ignore “Tough OnCrime” Crime” Hits Home At Quinnipiac

Color Struck?

Black Man Snow in July? on Death Row US ON FOLLOW

Brown-Dean with her Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sisters who organized and hosted the event.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

“Identity Politics” Illuminates Past, Present

by MARKESHIA RICKS

As you reflect on Veterans Day, Khalilah L. Brown-Dean asks you to think of Jimmie Lee Jackson and Leonard Matlovich.

And when you think of them she wants you to consider how their identities and the politics and policies that shaped their lives still have much to teach us today.

Brown-Dean, an associate professor of political science at Quinnipiac University who lives in Westville, is the author of the new book Identity Politics in the United States.

On Sunday evening, she read aloud from her work before a full house at Kehler Liddell Gallery on Whalley Avenue and talked about why she chose to write a book about a phrase that became a pejorative during the last presidential cycle.

She told the audience that when she couldn’t have one more discussion, read one more article, or see one more meme on social media that oversimplified the results of the 2016 election, she followed the advice of the late author Toni Morrison: Write the book you want to read.

Brown-Dean said she wrote the book so

that people remember that “past is always prologue in the United States.”

She talked about Jackson, an Alabama native who was deemed fit to fight for his country during the Vietnam War but not fit to vote because of the color of his skin. He died while peacefully pushing for voting rights after being shot by an Alabama state trooper.

She spoke about Matlovich, another Vietnam War veteran who also was deemed fit to fight, until he outed himself as gay.

Brown-Dean’s book includes a picture of Matlovich’s tombstone. The inscription on the tombstone reads: “When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.”

Brown-Dean argued that identity politics matter in a 21st-century world where non-citizen immigrants serving in the military and their children have a more uncertain path to citizenship in spite of their service and the ongoing inconsistency in policies regarding the right to serve for people who are LGBTQIA+.

Identity politics always mattered.

They mattered when Brown-Dean was “a little brown girl with a big Arabic

name” growing up in Lynchburg, Virginia. It was a time, she said, when Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority was amplifying the political voice of the Christian right. That voice didn’t resonate with her own Southern Baptist upbringing. But that voice had the power to make change, according to Brown-Dean’s book.

And identity politics matter now that she has the ability to help educate young minds in the classroom and raise a little brown girl growing up during a time when young people are again leading and organizing around the big issues of the day including civil rights and climate change.

When the time for questions came at Sunday evening’s event, the audience naturally asked about the lessons of the recent elections and how identity politics might shape the coming presidential election in 2020.

Brown-Dean’s response: It’s not just about Donald Trump.

Brown-Dean said she’s been known to critique both major political parties, third parties and independents alike. But, she said, “if you make the 2020 election just about Donald Trump, you have already ceded your power.”

Friends, fans and supporters line up to congratulate … … and take a picture with Brown-Dean.

Ending Solitary Confinement in CT

by Barbara Fair, Community Activist and ICN Community Correspondent

They sat in a room for 4 hours on a Saturday working to put together a strategic plan to introduce to Ct legislators, in the upcoming session language, to strengthen legislation passed in 2017 to address solitary confinement in Ct prisons. They are an ambitious group of 13, activists, law students, undergraduates, Yale fellows, a popular law professor at the Yale Law Clinic, religious leader, survivor of solitary and family members of those who have suffered in isolation in Ct prisons. They call themselves Stop Solitary Ct. The goal is to demand the closure of Northern Supermax which breeds and exacerbates mental illness. Beyond that is addressing other facilities, including youth facilities, which keep people locked in their cells for 20 or more hours a day. Of much concern is that the closure of Northern might end up transplanting the program to other high security facilities like Corrigan, Cheshire and MacDougall CI. Human rights groups including the United Nations have declared prolonged isolation is extremely harmful fundamentally altering brain function.

Across the nation on any given day

there are over 80,000 people held in solitary conditions and of that number at least 25,000 are held in the most restrictive housing called supermax. Forty-four states have a supermax. A day in these prisons means people are being confined to their cells 23 hours a day, are chained every time they leave the cell and receive programming and mental health services through a narrow slit in the steel door

where meals are served. Many are profoundly mentally ill. Some were mentally ill when they entered prison and solitary exacerbated their condition while others became mentally ill as a direct result of the inhumane conditions that stems from caging human beings. Many are held in these conditions for months, years , even decades.

Mental illness behind the walls has

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risen dramatically and the costs of psychiatric medications has become outrageously costly. Over 50% of people behind bars have a diagnosed mental illness. Most of these people will return home where resources to support them beyond medicating them are scarce.

Many will experience numerous psychiatric episodes throughout their lifetime with many turning to drugs and alcohol

to cope. Suicide is another consequence of isolation.

United Nations Special Rapporteur stated in 2011 that isolation in excess of 15 days can cause irreversible brain damage and should be absolutely prohibited against youth, pregnant women and mentally ill and yet the practice continues in prisons across the US without much resistance from the outside.

Ct legislation passed in 2017 prohibited the use of isolation for youth under 18 years of age and required Department of Corrections to submit an annual report indicating who is being held in isolation and for how long. Activists who worked long and hard on getting DOC to significantly reduce its use were disappointed by the watered down bill and committed to continuing the work to strengthen it.

Christ Chapel New Testament located on 220 Dixwell Av will be hosting an event to address the group’s concerns by educating the community and building a broad coalition across the state. The event is open to the public and will run from 6-8 PM on Monday, November 18, 2019 beginning with a 30 minute documentary produced in New Haven by Yale Law School students. A panel discussion will follow.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

The Anatomy Of A Life Sentence

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

Kim Williams is back on her home turf.

She climbs down from a bus, shakes off the 22-hour ride. No one’s there to greet her, but her feet know which way to go. Her eyes adjust even as she starts to walk. The city has aged a quarter of a century. She has aged a quarter of a century. The reality knocks the wind clear out of her.

“What happened to Church Street South?” she asks, eyes huge, and the audience can see the gaping wound on Union Avenue of which she speaks.

“What happened to The Jungle?”

Testimony, faith, and astounding resilience underscore Her Time, a new work from playwright Steve Driffin and producer Charles Grady that comes to the Klein Memorial Auditorium in Bridgeport this weekend. The play, a sequel to Grady’s 2012 film The 5K Motion, follows Williams as she navigates life on parole after 25 years behind bars.

It is presented by the nonprofit Hangtime and its sister organization Her Time, a healing space for ex-offenders that Grady runs in Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford, and Waterbury. Performances run Saturday at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets and more information are available here.

“What we’re really trying to do is highlight what we see and face everyday,” said Grady. “It isn’t spoken about enough.”

It’s a labor of love for the cast and creative team. Driffin is the youth and community programs manager at the Connecticut Center for Arts & Technology (ConnCAT) and Grady is a specialist with the FBI’s Community Outreach Program. Both have been working with the cast since August, when members came together for a table read and then began rehearsals each week at ConCAT. Set in present-day New Haven, Her Time picks up two decades after The 5K Motion has ended, as Kim Williams (Tamika Pettway) is released 25 years into a 40-year sentence, at the age of 43.

A short trial with a judge (Josh Wyrtzen) and sympathetic attorney (Valerie Brookshire) gives the audience all the exposition it needs: Williams was just a kid living in public housing when she got mixed up with the wrong crew.

There was a fight, and there was a gun, and someone died. She’s been punished with a disproportionately long sentence that has included giving birth in federal prison and being moved from Connecticut to Kansas, hundreds of miles away from her family.

When she says, half-pleading and halfready, “I don’t know the world behind

Lucy Gellman photos:

Tamika Pettway as Kim Williams in Her Time. Asia Murphy, Deidre Johnson and Kendall Driffin in Her Time.Charles Grady as an understudy for Brandon in Her Time. Tamika Pettway and Rodney Moore in Her Time.

these bars,” the audience feels it acutely.

But to what degree, and for how long, neither she nor her viewers are totally aware of at first. When Williams is given parole in a mumbled half-apology and ticket for a 22-hour bus ride from the Topeka Correctional Center back to New Haven, it seems that the world is opening and closing to her at exactly the same time. When she returns to a city that she barely recognizes, those fears are confirmed.

Her son Brandon (Alix Goubourn) and daughter Destiny (Kendall Driffin) don’t know how to greet this stranger who is also their mom. Her sister Jada (Deidre Johnson) overflows with love tempered by a sharp, smarting anger. Whole years have fallen into a void, nowhere clearer than in the existence of a granddaughter named Faith (Asia Murphy) and a villainous dealer named D-Lo (Oliver

Lester) whose resentment smolders into hate, then threatens to bring the whole family down.

With equal parts grace and real, palpable frustration, Driffin and Grady tell a story that feels intimately familiar, because it is. Williams is the mom who wants to make up lost time with her children, but has to push through the very real family trauma that exists in re-entry.

She has, in her words, “paid my debt to society” and is still turned down for every job, in a statement on the resounding limitations of “Ban The Box” legislation three years after it was celebrated at the State Capitol.

“It’s like the Jim Crow of employment,” Driffin said at a recent rehearsal.

“Like, you’re out of prison, and we say that we’ll hire you, but we’ll find a reason not to.”

As Williams and her family try to navi-

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gate this new reality, the audience sees how quickly history can repeat itself.

Gang violence is grafted onto multiple generations. Ex-offenders are turned down for employment despite proud crows of a second chance society. Hangtime shines like a bright beacon in a very dark night, but even its director Roland (a magnetic Rodney Moore) cannot be a panacea, so much as a piece of a much greater equation. That’s not just based loosely on reality—it’s lifted from the real-life stories Grady has heard in his organization.

“We have plenty of people that get hired on a temporary basis, and they tell the employer up front that they have a criminal background,” said Grady. “And the employer says, ‘oh, that’s no problem, we’ll wait for the background check to come back.’ They hire them for 60 days.

And at the 60th day, they let them go when the check comes [back], because they’ve gotten some cheap labor out of them. And then they repeat the cycle.”

But for its bitter and very sharp edge, Her Time is also triumphant. Roland seems right on time when he warns Williams that “you don’t have the opportunities to press the reset button,” but she does have the present she’s in. Several times throughout the show, the fourth wall falls as characters address the audience, steeped in personal anecdote.

As they do, the language catches one’s ear. It’s both pedestrian and poetic, showing one how quickly the supposed sins of the mother—mere mistakes Kim made as a baby, pregnant with another baby—can repeat themselves in a world shaped by the so-called war on drugs, Regan-era policies, and both internalized

and overt racism.

“For me, the most important thing the audience can take away is the struggles of re-entry are multi-layered,” Grady said in a recent interview at ConnCAT, taking a break halfway through rehearsal. “It’s not just hard to find a job. It’s not just people making promises that don’t come through. There’s that whole family element of ‘do I really know my mother?

Do I really know my son? Do I really know my sister anymore?’ And if I don’t know them, why do I care about them?”

Driffin and Grady don’t shy away from humor either, using it as both balm and buffer for some of their characters’ hardest moments. Nothing is sacred: the two praise the Black church as a bedrock of community and just as quickly point out its parsimoniousness and hypocrisy.

They note the ineffectiveness of their local leaders who promise aid, and then can’t be found when that call for help comes in.

They take nonprofits to task for a frequent “one and done” approach, where sustained community engagement is rare, and sustained funding for Black and Brown communities is even rarer.

They pepper their own gravitas with laugh lines that are candid and break the surface tension (“damn, baby! If you gonna haul ass you gonna have to take two trips!” Jada exclaims at one point).

The cast has brought it stunningly to life.

As Tamika Pettway takes on the role of Kim Williams, the audience sees a world that has hardened too quickly, but also another one where grace and kindness (and indeed, real-life second chances) are possible. Across from her, Johnson builds the backbone of the show, propelling it forward as Goubourn, Driffin, Murphy and Lester bring its high-stakes drama right into the present.

As it opens this weekend, Grady and Driffin said they are hoping to share the work not just in Connecticut’s cities, but also on a national scale. Its relatability isn’t meant to be shocking or political, Driffin said—it’s meant to tell a story about a system that still hasn’t changed, and the people who get caught in its machinations.

“The more things change, the more things stay the same,” he said at a recent rehearsal. “This is not new, people being incarcerated and coming out. This is not a new subject matter. I don’t want it to be sexy or trendy. If we’re really gonna try and promote a type of change, I’m hoping that this piece really allows people to look at the lives of people.”

Performances of Her Time run Saturday at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets and more information are available here https://www.theklein.org/ buy-tickets/upcoming-events/her-time/

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

Schools Put 69 On Leave; Policy To Change

by CHRISTOPHER PEAK

A student kicked his teacher in the leg, then claimed she kicked him back.

School administrators didn’t find any marks on the boy from what seemed to be “minor physical contact,” a union official said, but they decided to send the teacher out on administrative leave anyway while they conduct an investigation.

That teacher joins 69 school employees who were placed on administrative leave last year — at a cost of at least $410,000 (without including substitute teacher pay), according to newly obtained records.

Those figures were revealed in a 10page report that the school district kept secret for six months, until the Independent filed an appeal to the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission.

In total, the district temporarily removed three administrators, 42 certified teachers, 15 paraprofessionals, seven security guards, and two youth workers from their jobs last school year.

“I’ve never seen that many before in my career in the district,” said Claudine Wilkins-Chambers, an aide at ConteWest Hills Magnet School who’s been the president of the paraprofessionals union for the last 18 years. “I’m angry about it. It was really outrageous and out of control.”

The principals at Hill Regional Career Interdistrict Magnet High School, Augusta Lewis Troup School, Barnard Environmental Studies Interdistrict Magnet School, along with New Haven’s Head Start program, sent home the largest number of employees last school year, at least five each.

Some teachers were out for months before they returned to work. On average, they missed 19.5 days of class, which is just over one-tenth of the 180-day school year.

A spokesperson for the school district did not respond to repeated questions about its use of administrative leave last year.

Asked in person, Michael Pinto, the district’s chief operating officer, said he needed to look up the details. A week later, after four follow-up emails, Pinto still hadn’t given any answers.

Iline Tracey, the district’s new superintendent after Carol Birks took a buy-out, said the district’s policy will change, now that she’s in charge.

“In all my lifetime in New Haven, I’ve never heard of so many people on leave,” Tracey said. “If there are things that someone has done in an egregious manner that is jeopardizing the safety of a child, you have to act on that. But if DCF did not take the case — and we do our own investigation and find it’s not — we should not be pursuing the individual.”

“So far,” Tracey added, after a month in

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO Paras’ prez Wilkins-Chambers: “Never seen anything like this.”

charge, “I have not put anyone on leave.”

New Haven likely sent so many school employees home over what state officials say is a “very common misconception” of the role of the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, even among school employees.

While the agency can usually take up to roughly 45 days to complete its investigation into abuse or neglect, DCF staff say the school district does not need to wait on its findings.

But in New Haven, investigation into misconduct often don’t get going until they hear whether DCF will take the case. Then, with a short-staffed human resources department, the backlog has piled up, keeping some teachers out of the classroom for as long as 80 instructional days.

Union Prez: “Ridiculous” “New Haven is absolutely ridiculous in the way they implement administrative leave. It could be the most trivial thing, and they will put the teacher out on leave,” teacher union President David Cicarella said. “I try not not criticize, but from one superintendent to the next, it has just been downright silly. Nobody does it like this except us” Cicarella said he’d prefer for administrators to collect witness statements within a day, then conduct a preliminary threat assessment: What caused the problem? Does the teacher have a record of misconduct? Is there an ongoing risk to students? He estimated at least half the cases didn’t rise to that threat level.

He said teachers could still be investigated and reprimanded if they violated the district’s policies, but they didn’t always need to be out of the building while that personnel decision was being made.

He cited the example of the student who kicked the teacher.

“Even if it happened exactly as the student said, why would you send the teacher home for that?” Cicarella asked.

“Nobody’s at risk here. If the kid picked up a chair and threw it, that’s a serious situation. If the teacher grabbed the kid and dragged him out of the room, you’d remove that teacher. But in this one, how are those kids really at risk?”

Cicarella added that he understands where administrators were coming from, as they needed to cover themselves. He said it makes sense to err on the side of caution, but he asked them to be “more judicious.”

“I think probably the most frustrating part is that I know everyone one of those guys in Central Office is well-intentioned. I know they’re looking out for our kids’ well-being, but now it’s to the detriment of their instruction,” he said.

“It simply isn’t warranted, when we already have a lot of challenges to meet our learning goals.”

The number of teachers on leave showed the fall-out from then-Superintendent Birks’s insistence on reporting anything that could be construed as “abuse” or “neglect” to DCF, which state officials say fits with a trend of overreporting across Connecticut’s school districts.

At her previous job within Hartford Public Schools, Birks saw a high-level administrator arrested for sending lewd texts to a 13-year-old girl, after years of similar complaints.

The Office of the Child Advocate then said it had “profound and urgent concerns” about Hartford Public Schools’s “lack of compliance” with state laws,

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like reporting child abuse and documenting student injuries, and a “lack of accountability and monitoring” for repeat offenders.

In Hartford Birks was put in charge of drafting changes to the district’s policies on child abuse and neglect, briefing school leaders and compiling data for a “child safety dashboard.”

Meanwhile, across the rest of the state, DCF’s hotline was ringing nonstop, with more than one-third of all calls now coming from school employees, according to statistics the agency provided.

In 2017, school employees made 11,961 reports of suspected abuse or neglect.

This year, they’ve already outpaced that, making 18,288 calls, as of Oct. 1.

“In some very isolated incidents,” employees like Suffield’s retiring school superintendent “were arrested for failure to report,” said Ken Mysogland, the bureau chief of external affairs for DCF. “That has caused concern within the mandated reporter community, which then has resulted in reports coming to us that typically would not have been made. They are being made out of fear versus a true belief that a child has been harmed.”

However, “we can’t say this enough: We will always encourage individuals to contact our department if they have a reasonable suspicion abuse occurred, whether in a relative’s home, school, or daycare,” Mysogland added. “We don’t want people to hesitate if they truly believe a child has been harmed.”

Mysogland said that school employees need to use their professional “judgment and training” and “inherent knowledge of behavior” to decide when to file a report. He said there’s “context” and “intent” to think about. “There isn’t a list,” he said.

But he added if there are bruises and cuts, the agency definitely needs to hear about it.

“Is it appropriate for a teacher to hit a 3 1/2-year-old special-needs child in the head in angry because they did not follow the rules?” Mysogland asked. “One would argue that should be looked into.”

“If an individual is upset at the terse way a teacher spoke with a student during a negative interaction in the classroom, in the absence of a physical altercation,” he added, “that tends to be addressed within the school.”

But regardless of how many calls come in and how credible they might be, DCF cautioned that school officials need to make their own personnel decisions.

Mysogland said that, while their investigation might find an employee didn’t abuse or neglect a child, that doesn’t mean the employee followed all the internal district policies.

“The perception is that these are the department’s decisions, but they’re not,” Con’t on page 18

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

Racially Discriminatory Legislation and Policies Must Be Stopped The Unintended Consequences of a Menthol Cigarette Ban to Black America From pro-slavery laws to Jim Crow, to Prohibition, to racial profiling, to Stop-and-Frisk, history is clear: racist laws and discriminatory bans have been devastating for Black America.

Today, Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP) and National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) have joined together with other African-American law enforcement executives to call on you - our readers in Black communities across the nation - to see the warning signs of yet another proposed racially discriminatory law: the menthol cigarette ban.

It is a well-known fact that over 85 percent of African Americans who smoke prefer menthol cigarettes. There is no factual basis to assert that a menthol cigarette ban will stop African Americans from smoking. In fact, the unintended consequences of such a racially-discriminatory ban will set the stage for more negative and more likely counterproductive interactions between law enforcement and African Americans.

While proponents argue that a menthol cigarette ban could encourage menthol cigarette smokers to quit smoking coldturkey, another possible outcome could be extremely dangerous—the creation of an illicit market. If this happens, illegal sales of menthol cigarettes will likely be concentrated in communities of color, leading to a greater police presence, citations, fines, and arrests for selling a product that for the past 50 years has been legal.

Possible bans on menthol cigarettes are now being considered throughout the United States as add-ons to e-cigarette bans. It must be said that while FDA has deemed teen vaping an “epidemic,” there is no teen menthol cigarette epidemic.

The fact is teen cigarette use has steadily been on the decline over the past decade.

Recently in New York, the mothers of Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner courageously issued a public statement warning against the consequences of a proposed menthol cigarette ban. Sybrina Fulton and Gwendolyn Carr stated, “When you ban a product sold mostly in Black communities, you must consider the reality of what will happen to that very same over-represented community in the criminal justice system.”

Law enforcement leaders like Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP), National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), Grand Council of Guardians, and National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers (NABLEO) have stated countless times that a ban on menthol cigarettes will have unintended negative consequences, especially for African Americans.

Over the past 30 years, we have reduced tobacco consumption overall across this country by about 40 percent. And we did not do that with the criminal justice community. We did that with education, we did it with treatment, we did it from a health and educational perspective. Let’s continue with that. Let’s not do something that’s going to end up with these unintended consequences of increasing interaction between police and community members.

Major Neill Franklin (Ret.), Executive Director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP): “I dedicated 34 years of my life to public safety, enforcing the laws that our legislators placed before me. That’s what cops do, and we trust that those laws are well thought out, studied and based upon sound data and evidence. As we begin to mirror the days of alcohol prohibition with tobacco bans, expect the violence and corruption that comes with the illicit market and add something else, the over criminalization of the black community.”

Jiles Ship, President of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives – New Jersey (NOBLE): “Banning menthol cigarettes would be a 21st Century attempt at Prohibition, a past failure of government to restrict a previously legal product. As we learned with Prohibition, every time the government tries to ban something, it seems to cause other problems. And unfortunately, a menthol cigarette ban would be another example of government action that disproportionately disrupts the Black community.”

Charles Billips, National Chair Person of Grand Council of Guardians, “The first question I asked is how are they going to implement this ban on menthol cigarettes, knowing that a large number of Black and Brown people smoke menthol cigarettes? It would be best to educate the communities on the affect it has on our health instead of a ban enforced through Law Enforcement.”

As The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once prophetically said, “The time is always right to do what is right.” And the right thing to do for our families and communities and for all who stand for freedom, justice and equality is to speak out against all forms of racial discrimination and disproportionate law enforcement, as well as the systems, laws, bans and policies that perpetuate them.

Speak out against racism. Stand up against discrimination. Let your voices be heard.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

Be Like Anton and Win $1000 - 2020 Theme – “One World: Out of Many, We Are One”

Calling all New Haven 13-22 year olds to check out Sister Cities International Young Artists and Authors Showcase Annual contest.

Mayor Harp congratulates Anton Kot for winning $1000 from Sister Cities International (SCI) for a photograph that he took in China. Anton said he was truly honored as photography and diplomacy are strong personal interests.

Every year Sister Cities International sponsors a Young Artists and Authors Showcase contest. There are Grand Prize winners in four categories: essay, poetry, art and photography based on a theme. Submissions are judged based on originality, composition, and theme interpretation. The winning works are displayed at the annual conference and then embark on a yearlong tour hosted by local Sister Cities programs on a monthly basis.

Anton is a student at the Educational Center for the Arts (ECA) where he receives photo critiques and suggestions from New Haven photographer Paul Duda. Anton recalls Mr. Duda’s recommendation when taking a photo. Anton explains, “Rather than taking a picture of a sunset, focus on what it is that you like that is taking place within the environment, such as children playing against the waves.”

Anton first photo entry was selected as a Finalist after his jazz instructor, noted New Haven jazz great, Jesse Hameen II, shared with his students the SCI application. This photo of a local scene went on a national tour with artwork representing the US, Russia, Japan, Ghana, Moldova, Philippines, and China.

The following year, Anton re-visited China as an ECA Sister Cities Delegate and submitted photographs that he cap-

tured on his journey with hopes to share them in another US tour. One photo was chosen as the Grand prize winner, while a second was honored as a Finalist. These two photos were exhibited at the 2018 Annual Cities Leading the Way Sister Cities International Conference in Aurora, Colorado.

New Haven Sister Cities and Mayor Harp are very proud that Anton is our first Grand Prize Winner and we hope to continue this trend with many more New Haven young artists entering and winning.

Please contact Althea Musgrove Norcott at anorcott250@hotmail.com for more information or go directly to the Sister Cities International website.

Mayor Harp is pictured with Anton, his jazz instructor, Jesse Hameen II and Sister Cities President, Althea Musgrove Norcott.

Live Music Approved For Sandra’s Next Iteration

by ALLAN APPEL

A gospel group with deep New Haven roots, The Monk Family Singers, will be the first singers to perform at Sandra and Miguel Pittman’s proposed new restaurant on Davenport Avenue.

Tuesday night at the 200 Orange St.t hearing room, the owner of the famed Sandra’s Next Generation soul food restaurant received approval from the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) to have live music in an already approved plan to move the Congress Avenue business to a new 300-seat space on Davenport Street.

The board voted unanimously for a special exception to allow live music and other entertainment. The exception was required because the proposed restau-

Miguel Pittman makes his pitch to the zoners.

rant, on a combined five-parcel site on Davenport Avenue just east of Kossuth Street, is in a residentially zoned neighborhood.

The zoners approved the request with conditions. They wanted to be sure Miguel Pittman, who presented the proposal request, was acknowledging the conditions before a formal vote was taken.

“Did you look at the report?” BZA Chair Mildred Melendez queried Pittman.

That report indicated approval as long as the hours of operation, including the music, end by 11 p.m.

“Yes,” Pittman replied.

“You realize that includes weekends?”

Pittman confirmed that he understood.

He also added that he is proud that the

restaurant will be selecting performers in what Pittman called “a continuation of New Haven’s music tradition.”

By that he said he meant the offerings would be largely gospel. “But other types may be presented as well,” he added.

With no speakers for or against from the public, the zoners, without further discussion, voted unanimously to approve the request.

In the corridor outside the hearing room, Pittman consulted with some friends and confirmed the first group he would seek to present will be The Monk Family Singers. The family, which included the late jazz pianist Theolonius Monk, moved to New Haven from North Carolina in 1955 and has been performing and parading here since.

more time to get the outcome we want,” Radcliffe added.

“It’s near schools, the library, day cares,” said the Hill North Community Management Team Chair Howard Boyd. “At this point we’re not supporting it [the project] in any form. We already have too many social services [in the neighborhood].

Boyd said he had not received a call either from the BZA or from officials at Cornell Scott-Hill Health, although over the past months the group’s CEO Michael Taylor has met with Boyd and his executive board on potential community benefits for the project.

Boyd was at pains to point out that “the CMT doesn’t have anything against those who need treatment. We have enough!”

Boyd acknowledged that there are ongoing talks with Taylor about potential benefits

from the project, such as a pledge to let the management team use one of the proposed facility’s rooms as the regular venue for meetings.

YeThe team may require more commitments focusing especially on safety and other benefits. Boyd said he did not want to go into any detail without the team’s lawyer present.

He also conceded that Cornell Scott can build as of right in the zone. The team’s opposition — categorical now but potentially subject to change based on to-be-negotiated benefits — may ultimately be symbolic.

He used a sports analogy: “It’s like a baseball game in the ninth inning. We may be losing this one, but we’re trying to send a message. They took the CMT as a weak one. Even if this goes through, we’re not tolerating it any more.”

Treatment Center Plan Delayed Amid Opposition

by ALLAN APPEL

A controversial planned construction of a new $20 million, 52-bed in-patient addiction recovery center on land that the Cornell Scott Hill Health Corp. community health center already owns at 232-236 Cedar St. encountered another delay Tuesday night. Community members hailed it as a a victory.

The delay came in the form of a decision by the Board of Zoning Appeals to postpone a planned hearing on the plan.

The plan, which involves the sale of cityowned buildings to Cornell Hill Health on Minor Street and Howard Avenue to make possible an additional space for the addiction recovery facility currently on Cedar, had already put on hold in October at the Board of Alders.

There, Hill Alder Ron Hurt apologized for

offering his formal support for the plan back in the spring without, beforehand, airing the issue and sufficiently soliciting community input.

That input was very much in evidence Tuesday night at the regular meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals.

More than a dozen community members, along with the executive board of the Hill North Community Management Team, showed up as a coordinated group.

They were galvanized by a petition campaign in the fall and a vote by the team’s members in October formally to oppose the project. Their case: simply that the area is already burdened with more than its fair share of health and addiction-related facilities, and some, like the APT Foundation on Congress Avenue continue to create safety and quality of life problems for the neighborhood that are yet to be solved.

On Tuesday night the BZA planned to consider a request for a a special exception to allow off-site parking for the proposed new facility to be farther away from the site than the allowed 300 feet.

Even as the the Hill North folks lined up, one by one, to sign up to speak to the commissioners, BZA Chair Mildred Melendez announced that the item had been tabled.

She didn’t say who had tabled it or why.

As the group left the 200 Orange St. hearing room and gathered in the corridor outside to strategize, they were already declaring a small victory.

“It’s a good thing,’ said Leslie Radcliffe.

She is a City Plan Commission member who recused herself when the issue came before her. She said she was speaking as a citizen and Hill North neighbor.

“This puts a pause on it and means we have

6

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

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10/7/19 6:58 PM

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

Conaway Vote Reveals Black-Brown Divide

by THOMAS BREEN

Against a backdrop of broader racial tensions in city politics, alders approved Larry Conaway’s Board of Education appointment in a divided decision that saw four Latinx legislators praise the experienced local educator —and then vote no.

The vote took place Thursday night at a Board of Alders meeting in the Aldermanic Chambers on the second floor of City Hall.

Dozens of primarily African American residents, students, teachers, and school administrators filled one half of the chambers’ pews and stood along the room’s back wall to support Conaway, the recently retired former Riverside Academy principal who spent over three decades working in a half a dozen city public schools.

Sitting on the other side of the chambers and standing by the wall closest to the room’s entrance were roughly 20 local Latinx pastors, immigrant rights activists, and former school board members and administrators.

Many of the latter group of attendees had packed the Aldermanic Chambers several weeks ago to to protest Conaway’s appointment during his Aldermanic Affairs Committee interview.

They expressed no concerns about Conaway’s credentials. Instead they opposed the general proposition of another African-American ed board member who does not speak Spanish, while nearly half of the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) student population is Latinx, the system’s largest and growing racial group.

Mayor Toni Harp tapped Conaway for the school board in September soon after Joey Rodriguez stepped down from his position because he said he was not able to keep up with the time commitment. The only remaining Latina on the board is Yesenia Rivera, who serves alongside four African-American board members and one white board member.

The racial and ethnic divide in the audience mirrored almost exactly the floor debate amongst the alders.

Five board members (four black, one white) publicly urged their colleagues to support Conaway, arguing that his experience as an educator is exactly what the school board most needs and that his race will not preclude him from representing all students.

“It doesn’t make a difference what you look like, what your language is,” Dixwell Alder Jeannette Morrison said.

“It’s about the kids.”

Four board members (all Latino and Latina) similarly lauded Conaway’s career of public service and, to a person,

described him as an excellent candidate for the Board of Education.

But they all ultimately voted against his appointment because, they said, the primarily Hispanic communities they represent on the Board of Alders and that make up an overwhelming plurality of public school students do not have equal representation on the Board of Education, in the NHPS central office, or in the classroom.

“If he wins, I’ll be happy for our city,” Hill Alder Dolores Colon said. However, she continued, “we have to find more Hispanics, more Arabic people with PhDs and teaching qualifications so that they also can join the board and serve our children well with the sensitivity that is unique to bilingual speakers.”

The floor debate and final voice vote, which saw Colon, Hill Alder Dave Reyes, and Fair Haven Alders Jose Crespo and Ernie Santiago cast the sole dissenting “nays” against Conaway’s appointment, seemed to represent more than just the shifting demographics and surging bilingual education needs in city schools.

As Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers hinted at at the end of the meeting, the vote seemed to embody a bitter, specifically racial division that many New Haveners experienced in the wake of the recently concluded mayoral contest between challenger Justin Elicker and incumbent Mayor Toni Harp.

“Our city is hurting right now,” Walker-Myers said to her colleagues on the board. “I don’t know if you see it. I’m not blind. I see it. There is no reason why we should not be working together on these issues. We need to make a commitment to each other to figure it out and help each group that thinks it needs more representation.”

“This room,” she continued, “was real heavy tonight.”

“I Felt Like I Was In An Alien Nation” The most impassioned, and personal, testimony of the night came from Colon, who repeatedly praised Conaway during her remarks—and then explained that she would not be voting for him “on principle for the members of my community.”

With tears in her eyes and an audible hesitation in her throat, Colon recalled growing up in Brooklyn in the 1950s, soon after her family had moved to the United States from Puerto Rico, and not knowing a word of English.

Her family spoke entirely in Spanish at home, she said. When she first found herself in a kindergarten classroom where her teacher and fellow students all spoke only English, ” I thought my parents were sending me to another

THOMAS BREEN PHOTOS Larry Conaway after alders voted in support of his ed board appointment. Top: Latinx protesters in the Aldermanic Chambers.

planet.”

“I was a kindergarten dropout,” she continued, “because I felt like I was in an alien nation.” She said that her parents let her stay home for a year, where she learned English by watching television, listening to the radio, and having her siblings read her English-language books.

“I cannot begin to describe how a child feels when you come from one environment where only one language is spoken and then you are dropped off and

8

you cannot communicate with anyone,” she said. “So on principle, even though I think that Mr. Conaway would be wonderful, I see the need in our community to bring more Hispanics to the board and to the school system.”

Her Latino colleagues on the Board of Alders all agreed.

“I acknowledge Mr. Conaway’s resume is very impressive,” said Santiago (pictured). “I’m pretty sure he’s for all kids.” But out of concern for equity on the Board of Education, he said, “I’m

going to be voting no.”

Crespo said that he too greatly respects Conaway. In fact, he said, Conaway was an administrator at the very high school that Crespo attended.

“He was phenomenal,” he said. “He went above and beyond. But, at this time, I have to support my community.”

Reyes blamed his pained ambivalence—and frustration at not feeling able to vote for a qualified school board candidate—squarely on the mayor.

“This is a horrible situation to be in,” he said. “The administration did promise the Latino community that it was going to be a Latino to replace a Latino.

Unfortunately, that was not something that happened.”

Reyes lamented that he would be voting against a “person of integrity” because the community he represents got waylaid by the mayor.

“It’s not good for the racial division for the city,” he said.

Despite the four alders’ impassioned and pained opposition, an overwhelming majority of their colleagues voted in support of Conaway. Those alders pointed to Conaway’s educational credentials and not to his race—as the most important criterion to consider when evaluating his appropriateness for the board.

“In looking at Mr. Conaway, in looking at his years and years and years of support of children,” said Morrison (pictured), “he will be able to represent all children.”

Newhallville Alder Kim Edwards also praised his experience in the classroom and as a public school administrator as making him a good fit for the board.

“It’s not about race,” Beaver Hills Alder Jill Marks said. “It’s about who can do the job.”

Prospect Hill/Newhallville Alder Steve Winter, the only white board member to speak up on floor Thursday night, also encouraged his colleagues to vote in support of Conaway.

“For years, this board has been asked to appoint someone to the Board of Education with deep experience as an educator,” he said. “And tonight, we have an opportunity do just that.”

Beaver Hills Alder Brian Wingate similarly touted Conaway’s welldocumented dedication to improving the lives of city school children. He also pleaded with his colleagues—and residents throughout the city—to avoid turning this appointment into something more volatile than it needs to be.

“This can’t be about a race war,” he said. “It’s got to be about the right war.

And the right war is for the kids. Educate the kids.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

4 Years Later, Alice Peck Renovations Set To Begin

by SAM GURWITT

After years of delays and project expansions, Hamden is set to begin longawaited renovations of the Alice Peck School before Thanksgiving.

At a meeting Wednesday evening, the Hamden Legislative Council unanimously approved a $5 million renovation contract for the project with Trumbull-based RFJ Associates, LLC, also known as Tomlinson Hawley Patterson.

Alice Peck was a neighborhood elementary school until 2003, when it closed during a redistricting effort. Since then, it has housed special education and preschool classrooms.

In 2015, State Rep. Mike D’Agostino helped the town secure a $2.5 million grant from the state. The town planned a $2.5 million project that would involve redoing the roof and making lighting improvements.

Town officials then met with the state and presented their plans for the school.

Originally, said Superintendent Jody Goeler, he and other administrators had intended to create a program for students with high-functioning autism. Goeler said that state officials told him they liked the plans, and that they wanted the town to develop them further and broaden the scope of the project to encompass all of the needs of the school.

What began as a $2.5 million project then became a $6.5 million project.

Goeler said that in order to help pay for the project, the state kicked in an addi-

tional $1 million on top of its original $2.5 million grant, and allowed the town to use about $1 million in alliance grant funding for the renovation. The town then bonded about $1.9 million in 2018 to cover the rest.

Architect Bill Silver, who contracted with the town to design the renovations, said that the expanded scope includes redoing the heating and air conditioning systems, as well as countless other smaller items.

Legislative Council Education Committee Chair Lauren Garrett told colleagues that when her daughter was in pre-school at Alice Peck about 10 years ago, the roof leaked. She said that teachers have to place buckets on the floor beneath where water drips down from the ceiling.

Now, she said, urging the council to pass the contract, “we can put a roof on this school that has been leaking for 10 years.”

The town originally went out to bid for a contractor this summer. When the bids came in over budget, the town asked Silver to find ways of lowering the cost of the project so the town could afford it.

Silver said that among other changes, he made changes to heating and air-conditioning systems.

Once the project cost had been reduced, the town went out to bid again in October. Silver recommended RFJ because it was a low bidder and because it had completed similar projects throughout the region.

The project, Interim Finance Director and School Building Committee Chair Myron Hul explained to the council, has been plagued by delays. The first major delay, he said, happened when the state injected more money into the project and the town had to increase its scope. Second, he said, there was a miscommunication between the state and the town when the state was supposed to notify the town of its formal grant approval. Finally, he said, it added time to the project when contractor bids came in over budget and the town had to modify the project to bring it under the cost target.

As the clock ticked, the council and the Board of Education began to hear warnings that the project needed to advance or state funding might disappear. In February, D’Agostino appeared before the council to urge it to advance with the project, and a much larger construction project at the West Woods School. He said that the state needed to see progress by spring, or “all bets are off.”

RFJ now has a tight timeline to complete the project. It must complete it by mid-August of 2020 so that the building may be used for the 2020-2021 school year. First, said Silver, comes the roof.

Rooves, he explained, cannot be redone in the dead of winter, so the contractor must complete it in November and December before moving on to other elements of the project.

Once complete, the school will contain pre-K classrooms, special education classrooms, and a new “pyramid

Questions about your bill?

Bill Silver with Town Special Projects Director Julie Smith.

program” for young students with high social-emotional needs such as anxiety and disregulation. According to a business plan that Superintendent Jody Goeler submitted to the council, the district is seeing more students with “significant mental health and community-based needs.” The program would include wraparound services with a marriage and family therapist, in-home behavioral support staff, and a consulting psychiatrist who would all work with students

and their families. Ideally, students in the program will transition into their neighborhood schools once they’re ready.

If seats are available in the program it may also accept students from other districts. Those towns would pay tuition to Hamden to send their students there.

Though that feature was attractive to the state when it gave Hamden the grant, said Goeler, it is not a requirement of the grant.

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9

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

VIP Day held for Department of Corrections Partners

By Barbara Fair, Community Activist and ICN Community Correspondent

For the first time in over three years Ct Department of Corrections held a day of appreciation for those who volunteer to come into the prisons and provide services for the people who are incarcerated. VIP stands for Volunteers, Interns and Professional Partners. DOC has over 4,000 volunteers.

The event was held at the Maloney Center for Training and Staff Development Center located in Cheshire. Each facility recognized coordinators who support volunteers in gaining their approval.

DOC Director of Programs and Treatment Unit, William Murphy welcomed the volunteers to the 4 hour celebration. The Coordinator of the program stated to cheers from the audience, “Volunteers don’t get paid and it’s not because what they provide is worthless. They don’ get paid because what they provide is priceless”.

Lunch was provided and special rec-

ognitions made to volunteers who had given decades of their lives to volunteerism at DOC. Special honor awards and roses were given to five people.

Ms Anne Wernan , a resident of Old Lyme was acknowledged for her and her husband’s dedication of 40 years providing the Thresholds program at York CI. Saraj (Bala) Silvaramakrishnan received a special award for years teaching meditation and yoga at New Haven Correctional Center.

Ms Roslyn Billings, another devoted volunteer was given a special award for 26 years at Carl Robinson “showing up in all kinds of weather”.

Aston Dakers awarded for providing religious services at Northern. Dakers says his most commonly used phrase when talking to the men is “Success is about changing culture, climate and attitude”. Each awardee talked about how much they loved the people they work with and how much they learn from one another.

John Hughes was not present and received “2019 Volunteer of the year”

award for over 50 years of service. He was given a special award by Commissioner Cook two weeks previous for his long term commitment to addiction services. He is responsible for incarcerated men being able to attend Narcotics Anonymous and Alcohol Anonymous on a weekly basis.

Two of the newer volunteers at York CI include New Haven residents Atty Alec Taubes and Beatrice Codianni.

There are many volunteer services available and all it takes is a short application which describes the service one will provide and a background check. If approved there is a short oreientation one must attend. Among many services listed are Addiction, Chaplain, Basic Education, Alternatives to Violence, Family and Parenting and Clerical and Administrative, People Empowering People, Prison Art, Mentoring for children of the incarcerated, Hospice and more. . For more information go to web. DOC. volunteerservices@ct.gov

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10

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

Long Wharf Theater presents:Pride and Prejudice Written by Kate Hamill, adapted from the classic Jane Austen novel, and directed by Jess McLeod.

Long Wharf Theatre (Jacob G. Padrón, Artistic Director; Kit Ingui, Managing Director) is proud to announce dates, complete casting and creative team for Pride and Prejudice, written

by Kate Hamill, adapted from the classic Jane Austen novel, and directed by Jess McLeod. Performances begin on Wednesday, November 27, 2019 for a limited run through December 22, 2019.

Opening night is set for Wednesday, December 4, 7:30 PM on the Claire Tow Stage in the C. Newton Schenck III Theatre (222 Sargent Drive, New Haven, CT).

Pride and Prejudice is a hilarious whirlwind of a show. Filled with an equal mix of romance and rebellion, this ingenious adaptation by Kate Hamill is both decidedly feminist and deliciously fun. While their mother is determined to find suitable marriages for her daughters, the Bennet sisters find themselves caught up in the politics of love. When news spreads that a mysterious, handsome and wealthy bachelor has come to town, the world the Bennet sisters thought they knew turns upside down, especially for the independent and idealistic Lizzy.

This is not your mother’s Jane Austen novel.

The cast will feature Octavia ChávezRichmond (Jane Bennet/Miss Anne De Bourgh/As Cast), Dawn Elizabeth Clements (Lydia Bennet/Lady Catherine/As Cast), Biko Eisen-Martin (Mr. Darcy), Aneisa J. Hicks (Lizzy Bennet), Brian Lee Huynh (Wickham/Miss Bingley/Mr. Collins/As Cast), Rami Margron (Mr. Bennet/Charlotte Lucas/As Cast), Luis Moreno (Mr. Bingley/Mary Bennet/As Cast), Maria Elena Ramirez (Mrs. Bennet).

The creative team includes choreography by James Beaudry, set design by Gerardo Díaz Sánchez, costume design by Izumi Inaba, lighting design by Jennifer Fok, and sound design by Megumi Katayama. Kelsey Vivian serves as Production Stage Manager, Amy Patricia Stern as Assistant Stage Manager, and casting is by Calleri Casting.

Tickets start at $32 and can be purchased online at longwharf.org, by calling 203.787.4282, or by visiting the box office located at 222 Sargent Drive in New Haven. AnyTime Passes may be purchased online starting at $200 for four tickets. $10 student tickets are available for every Thursday and Friday performance (student ID required, sections A and G). For group ticket sales, contact groups@longwharf.org or call 203.772.8259. The Friday, December 13 performance will offer open captioning, making the show accessible to individuals with hearing loss. Post-show conversations will be held after all performanc-

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11

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

'Baltimore' Hits Home At Quinnipiac and students who self-segregate in the cafeteria to personal anecdotes about the first time students of color realized that race existed, often long before their white teachers and name-calling classmates did. While Shelby trudges through her own racial quagmire, her friend Maryam (Haneen Hamden) raises what may be the central question of the show, and of the present: what does it mean to see and be seen?

And how hard is it to do, really? A punky, pugnacious slip of a thing, Fiona hides behind her black boyfriend Bryant (Tyrell Latouche), insisting that she can’t be racist if she’s dating a person of color. Before audience members can decide to dislike her outright—which is tempting as she declares “See! I can take a joke!”—they may notice that they’ve heard her in their peers, their students, their colleagues and their family members.

Around her, student orbit each other like nervous atoms. There is Leigh (Emiola Omotade), raised to be proud of the melanin in her skin, and equally angry and humiliated when she sees a world that is still stacked to wear her down. There’s Carson (a winning Liam Pappas), the kind-of-clueless white guy who doesn’t see why we can’t all get beyond this race thing, but reveals himself to be more complex as the play unwinds. Rachel (Nicole Mawhirter), who can school Carson on race any day, but also wants to know how her role as a Latinx woman fits into this black-andwhite world, where the specter for 1619 can loom over every interaction.

In Staton’s able hands, Baltimore is raw and fresh. Tight lighting and sound design bring the set to life with a smart, interactive white board, PowerPoint-like prelude to the show, and lights that flash on and off with staticy sound beneath them. Students jump from normal interactions to propulsive, scored choreography, often driving the message home when words fail them. When the audience is left in the dark with Ysaye Maria Barnwell’s moving “No Mirrors In My Nana’s House” (sung by Sweet Honey in the Rock), it feels like it couldn’t have been any other way.

As Fiona, McCashion is a gut-churningly good case study in how quickly learned, unchecked bigotry can calcify to hatred. Around her, floormates unpack their own backgrounds in teaspoon-sized anecdotes and heady, heartrending monologues that slip right into the tenor of the play. As Alyssa, Bracey uses an economy of words to her advantage, fiery when she is speaking and also when she is not.

“I just felt exhausted,” she says at one point, and audience members hear

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

The students stand in the common room, exasperated. Some look down at their feet, blue and purple in the light.

Others sit, moving chest first toward the edge of their seats. One slouches back on the couch, as if it will absorb her full weight. Their RA is nowhere to be found, and this discussion needs to start now.

“The problem is, the problem is, all this history folds in on itself,” a voice begins in the half-dark. The line loops like poetry, and other voices join in. A metronome pulses on in the background, keeping time.

That cacophony underscores Baltimore, running this Thursday through Sunday at Quinnipiac University’s Theatre Arts Center in Hamden. Written by Kirsten Greenidge and directed by Aleta Staton, the play strikes a timely nerve, inserting itself into campus discussions around race, history, and economic privilege without ever coming across as preachy or contrived.

Tamia Barnes as Shelby and Haneen Hamden as Maryam in Baltimore.

Tickets and more information are available here.

In Baltimore, which draws its name from Countee Cullen’s “Incident,” the audience finds itself on familiar turf almost immediately. Somewhere in the wood-paneled annals of Sudbury University—which could be a Yale or a Quinnipiac—college student and RA Shelby Wilson (Tamia Barnes) is elbowdeep in discussion with Dean Hernandez (Sociology and Journalism Professor Don Sawyer, Quinnipiac’s real-life vice president for equity and inclusion).

It’s not going well: Shelby doesn’t agree with much of what Hernandez has to say about the history of race, and doesn’t know much of it either because she slept through his convocation address. He holds that history in his hands; she’d rather ignore the fact that it exists.

He’s pensive and methodical; she just wants a new job, because the one she has is too hard.

So when her white resident Fiona (Skye McCashion) leaves a raciallycharged caricature on her black floormate Alyssa’s door (Kaylin Bracey), the audience senses that Shelby might be out of her depth. Will she sink, or will she swim? Will she even jump into the choppy water?

Greenidge’s answer is more complex.

With a taste for both humor and tothe-moment realism (and the blinding whiteness of private college campus), she weaves a world that feels deeply familiar, from code-switching roommates

Professor Don Sawyer III as Dean Hernandez.

Haneen Hamden as Maryam and Nicole Mawhirter as Rachel.

Kaylin Bracey as Alyssa.

12

their daughter, their friend, themselves.

“Bone tired. And bare to the world.”

Barnes, with palpable anxiety and drive, brings Shelby to life, teasing out a buttoned-up personality that wants to do right, but doesn’t want the mess that comes with it. Beside her, Hamdan is in many ways the soul of the show, holding it together even as her life threatens to bring her to pieces.

These struggles are relatable, with enough characters that viewers may see and hear themselves in one or many of the voices onstage. Yes, the play suggests—sometimes it’s easier not to feel the weight of history, because there’s less pain that way. But it’s a luxury that only white people get to have. Baltimore is a call to arms to get messy, and to waste no more time in doing so.

It feels right on time for the university, despite the fact that it’s been planned for over a year. Initially, Staton chose the play because “I wasn’t seeing plays that focused on diversity,” and Baltimore put it front and center in a university setting.

She said she felt connected to Greenidge reading the play: both of them are graduates of Wesleyan University, where Staton experienced some of the same tensions years ago.

But it also hits a very current nerve: in August of this year, the Princeton Review ranked Quinnipiac first of 385 schools for “Little Race/Class Interaction.” The student paper picked up the story, and faculty began grappling with it in and outside of their classrooms.

“There are a lot of plays that college students can do, but this felt like it was about them,” Staton said at a preview of the show. “The experience has been transformative for us. The students and the cast are finding their voices.”

Since beginning the rehearsal process, Staton said students have come to her with personal anecdotes, stories of not fitting in on campus, and concerns about the current political atmosphere. Recently, Pappas approached her because he had seen a graffitied swastika on the way to school, and was so distraught by the image that he made a note of its location. She suggested he call the mayor of Hamden. The graffiti was down within 24 hours of the call.

That framework has translated to the show as well. After each performance, Sawyer and Sade Jean-Jacques, associate director for multicultural education, will lead a talkback with audiences, which usually comprise a mix of students and members of the public.

“We keep circling back on this history,” Staton said. “We have to start marching forward and talking to each other.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

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10/18/19 4:46 PM

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

How to build an emergency fund BlackNews.com

Nationwide — Rodney Reed, a 51year old man who was wrongfully convicted of a rape and murder that he did not commit, is scheduled to be executed on November 20th in Texas despite the evidence that confirms his innocence.

Several advocates and celebrities such as Beyonce, Rihanna, and Kim Kardashian West have signed a petition to prevent the execution.

In 1996, Reed was accused of killing Stacey Stites, who was then 19-years old. He allegedly kidnapped her before raping and strangling her, leaving her body in a remote area of Bastrop, Texas.

Reed was eventually convicted of rape and murder by an all-white jury in 1998.

However, new evidence that could potentially exonerate him and instead implicate Stites’ fiancé Jimmy Fennell, a local police officer, has emerged.

Reed’s attorneys claimed the prosecution relied on a hunch and inaccurate science, testing recovered DNA against Reed, which became the sole basis of the

case. Reed, who initially denied knowing Stites, later admitted that he had a relationship with her and the sperm found inside Stites’ body was because they had consensual sex the day before she was found dead.

Forensic witnesses in the original trial claimed that sperm could not survive for more than a day after sex so prosecutors believed that she was raped by Reed

shortly before being murdered. New evidence, however, proved that sperm can stay intact for days after death, confirming that the main evidence linking Reed to her death was wrong as it lacked scientific support.

Additional forensic evidence also pointed toward Fennell. Fingerprints discovered from his pickup truck — which was reportedly used to kidnap Stites —

14

matched only Stites and Fennell.

During the trial, several witnesses could have testified that Fennell found about their affair and threatened Reed, but they weren’t called.

Meanwhile, Fennel, who had a history of violence against women, was sent to jail for kidnapping and sexual assault soon after Rodney was imprisoned.

While in jail, Fennel allegedly confessed

to killing Stites, according to the affidavit filed by Arthur Snow Jr., a former prison inmate. Snow said he was in jail with Fennel when he said his fiancé had been sleeping around with a Black man behind his back, so he had to kill her.

“Toward the end of the conversation Jimmy said confidently, ‘I had to kill my n****r-loving fiancé,’” Snow wrote.

“My impression was that Jimmy felt safe, even proud, sharing this information with me because I was a member of the Aryan Brotherhood. I think Jimmy assumed that his confession would impress me and earn him credibility with the Aryan Brotherhood.”

Over the years, Reed, who has been on death row for 21 years, maintained his innocence. The Innocence Project, an organization that aims to exonerate wrongly convicted people, is representing Reed.

Moreover, Reed has been receiving support from several people, including pastors, police officers, and celebrities.

Almost 3 million people have signed the petition calling for Governor Greg Abbott to grant clemency, stop or delay the execution.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

Black News Channel Now to Launch to a Larger Viewing Audience

Tallahassee, Florida—November 6, 2019–Black News Channel (BNC) announced today that it has updated the launch of the nation’s only African American news network to January 6, 2020 in order to more than triple its viewing audience. Network executives credit advancements in new technologies and the advent of new distribution platforms as the catalysts for rethinking their launch strategy.

“The launch of BNC will be a historic event, and our highly qualified journalists are chomping at the bit to be on-air now,” says Bob Brillante, co-founder and CEO for BNC. “But if we have a chance to more than triple our viewing audience in January 2020, then this was an easy call to make.”

“Our network is about providing intelligent programming that is informative, educational, inspiring and empowering to our African American audience, so they are participants in a national conversation,” says J.C. Watts, Jr., co-

founder and chairman for BNC. “If we have the opportunity to include the largest African American audience possible from day one, then that should be our top priority.”

BNC plans to release more information about how and where customers can view the network’s programming in the coming weeks.

About BNC Black News Channel is an independent network that is minority owned and operated, and it will be the nation’s only provider of 24/7 cable news programming dedicated to covering the unique perspective of African American communities. BNC is the endeavor of the network’s visionaries and co-founders, Chairman J.C. Watts, Jr. and CEO Bob Brillante. BNC will provide access to information and educational programming to meet the specific needs of this growing and dynamic community that is a major consumer of subscription televi-

sion services.

BNC will provide an authentic, new voice that represents African Americans in mainstream media and fosters political, economic, and social discourse; the network will be one voice representing the many voices of African Americans.

BNC’s programming will illuminate truth about the unique challenges facing urban communities and help close the “image gap” that exists today between the negative black stereotypes perpetuated by mainstream media news and our enterprising African American communities.

NNPA President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. (pictured at right), who participated in the teleconference, said the NNPA’s partnership with the BNC is a profound win-win for Black America.

(Also pictured are Former Republican U.S. Congressman J.C. Watts, chairman of BNC (left) and Jacksonville Jaguars owner, Shad Khan, who is a primary investor in the new network (center).

ENDING SOLITARY CONFINEMENT IN CT

Christ Chapel New Testament Church and Pastor John Lewis is hosting a community event with My Brother’s Keeper founder, Barbara Fair to educate the community about the issue of solitary confinement in Ct jails and prisons.

It is an effort to build coalitions to help bring attention to a practice that causes and exacerbates mental illness.

According to Human Rights group prolonged solitary is considered torture. Many of the tortured souls are our loved ones. Many will return home broken.

Are we our brother’s keeper? We have a responsibility to stand up against cruel and inhuman treatment.

WHEN: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2019 WHERE:

220 DIXWELL AVENUE, NEW HAVEN TIME: 6-8 PM. All welcome. Light refreshments.

30 minute film with a panel discussion with a “survivor”, activists and local legislators pushing for legislative changes.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

1970s Throwback, Lenora — Helping Fans to ‘Relax’ with her Music

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

Chelsea Lenora White – simply Lenora to her family and fans – is proving herself to be one of the most exciting rising singers in the music industry.

The Houston-based crooner has released, “Relax,” a smooth tune with a languid feel that gives listeners a carefree, letting go, sensual experience.

Unintentionally reminiscent of Diana Ross’ “Love Hangover,” Lenora’s “Relax” counts as a throwback to the 1970s with enough appeal to make lasting impressions throughout the next decade.

“Just relax,” Lenora sings on the track.

“You could do it if you put your mind to it.”

When asked about the connection to Ms. Ross, Lenora said she’s a fan, and “Love Hangover” happens to be a song she loves.

“It probably was subconscious for sure,” Lenora says of the similarity the opening of “Relax” has to “Love Hangover.”

“When I work with producers, I always will give them something that I have listened to and something that I like, and ‘Love Hangover’ is a song that I like,” she stated.

The single contains a bass guitar riff that is also a nod to Marvin Gaye’s, 1976 hit, “I Want You.” By every definition, Lenora is a throwback.

For “Relax,” she introduces an alterego, “Suga’ Love,” an afro-wearing Foxy Brown-like character whose looks underscore the fad-happy decade of the 1970s.

“I’m a ’90s baby, but at heart, I’m like a

child of the ’70s. That era of music heavily influences me,” she notes.

While the ’70s is known for the lack of boundaries, Lenora understands that modern-day artists are under more of a microscope, mostly because of social media.

“I’m cautious. I love that era of music, but it always has to be fresh and new,” Lenora stated.

“Even with the cover art we use for the single, I thought was tasteful.”

In the cover art, Lenora is in her underwear, but unlike the penchant today to photograph sexy women in thongs and G-strings, she’s decked out in full bottom briefs. She’s also facing away from the camera, so only the back of her bra is revealed.

It’s just another way in which Lenora gets her message across for people to “Relax.”

“I draw a parallel between blue cheese and ranch,” Lenora stated regarding the line she chooses not to cross when displaying such sensuality in her music.

“A lot of people don’t like blue cheese, but I love blue cheese. But ranch is agreeable to everyone. So, with ‘Relax” I was like okay; this record is like my ranch dressing. Everybody can get on board with this.”

Lenora and her team, which includes the influential Houston-based producers, Beanz n Kornbread, and award-winning songwriter Dustin “Dab” Bowie, wrote the hit single in one hour.

Lenora said she just so happened to be in the same studio as Bowie one night, and she eventually played some music for him.

It was a Saturday night in Los Angeles,

Lenora explained.

A flight she had scheduled to leave two days later was delayed, so Lenora returned to the studio, and that’s where she and Bowie co-wrote “Relax.”

Already, the song has touched listeners in ways Lenora found surprising.

“I feel like music is therapy, music is escapism. I always hope my music will heal and provide therapy,” Lenora noted.

“A girl told me that the song saved her life. She said that in the song, I remind people to breathe. Some people’s lives are so hectic that they want something for themselves to be able to get away even if they can’t afford to get away

physically, the music can provide some of that escapism for them.”

Lenora started singing in Kindergarten and has wowed audiences from her church to local venues in Houston and on into college where she’s classically trained, and where her golden voice mastered the Opera.

It might surprise most who have heard her sing that Lenora went through a period of self-doubt and stopped performing.

“I think it was like six years that I didn’t put music out. It was 2017 when I finally started singing again,” Lenora said.

After a self-imposed hiatus, Lenora returned to the spotlight for a special performance in Washington, D.C. She belted out another Diana Ross tune,

“Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand)” during the enshrinement ceremony of her late grandmother and former Houston Forward Times Publisher, Lenora “Doll” Carter.

The ceremony inducted Carter into the Gallery of Distinguished Black Publishers.

“I knew I couldn’t stay away from music,” Lenora stated. “But, I had management and people telling me to do things that I didn’t necessarily agree with.

When I did come back out, I did a performance called ‘Motown and More,’ and it’s a huge deal. There are 40,000 people there over the weekend for that show, and I had never done it before 2017. When I did the audition, they were like, “Who are you?” “Where have you been?” And I realized that this style of music is who I am.”

With a hot new single and tens of thousands of followers on social media, Lenora is on the fast track to superstardom.

“That Motown show opened doors for me in terms of people knowing what I do. ‘Relax’ is the biggest so far for me, it’s getting a lot of radio play,” Lenora stated.

“It’s trending in the West Indies and London, and that’s crazy because I’ve never been to any of those places yet.

I’m not a brand-new artist, but essentially I am a new artist because I’ve rebranded, I’ve taken a step back.”

“Relax” is available on all streaming platforms.

Download “Relax”: https://song.link/ relax Connect with Lenora: Facebook:Facebook.com/SincerelyLenora Instagram: @SincerelyLenora Twitter: @SincerelyLenora

Rodney Reed, Innocent Black Man on Death Row, to Be Executed on November 20th BlackNews.com

Nationwide — Rodney Reed, a 51year old man who was wrongfully convicted of a rape and murder that he did not commit, is scheduled to be executed on November 20th in Texas despite the evidence that confirms his innocence.

Several advocates and celebrities such as Beyonce, Rihanna, and Kim Kardashian West have signed a petition to prevent the execution.

In 1996, Reed was accused of killing Stacey Stites, who was then 19-years old.

He allegedly kidnapped her before raping and strangling her, leaving her body in a remote area of Bastrop, Texas.

Reed was eventually convicted of rape and murder by an all-white jury in 1998.

However, new evidence that could potentially exonerate him and instead implicate Stites’ fiancé Jimmy Fennell, a local police officer, has emerged.

Reed’s attorneys claimed the prosecu-

tion relied on a hunch and inaccurate science, testing recovered DNA against Reed, which became the sole basis of the case. Reed, who initially denied knowing Stites, later admitted that he had a relationship with her and the sperm found inside Stites’ body was because they had consensual sex the day before she was found dead.

Forensic witnesses in the original trial claimed that sperm could not survive for more than a day after sex so prosecutors believed that she was raped by Reed shortly before being murdered. New evidence, however, proved that sperm can stay intact for days after death, confirming that the main evidence linking Reed to her death was wrong as it lacked scientific support.

Additional forensic evidence also pointed toward Fennell. Fingerprints discovered from his pickup truck — which was reportedly used to kidnap Stites — matched only Stites and Fennell.

During the trial, several witnesses could have testified that Fennell found about

their affair and threatened Reed, but they weren’t called.

Meanwhile, Fennel, who had a history of violence against women, was sent to jail for kidnapping and sexual assault soon after Rodney was imprisoned. While in jail, Fennel allegedly confessed to killing Stites, according to the affidavit filed by Arthur Snow Jr., a former prison inmate.

Snow said he was in jail with Fennel when he said his fiancé had been sleeping around with a Black man behind his back, so he had to kill her.

“Toward the end of the conversation Jimmy said confidently, ‘I had to kill my n****r-loving fiancé,’” Snow wrote. “My impression was that Jimmy felt safe, even proud, sharing this information with me because I was a member of the Aryan Brotherhood. I think Jimmy assumed that his confession would impress me and earn him credibility with the Aryan Brotherhood.”

Over the years, Reed, who has been on death row for 21 years, maintained his innocence. The Innocence Project, an or-

16

ganization that aims to exonerate wrongly convicted people, is representing Reed.

Moreover, Reed has been receiving support from several people, including pastors, police officers, and celebrities.

Almost 3 million people have signed the petition calling for Governor Greg Abbott to grant clemency, stop or delay the execution.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

OP-ED: How heavy a burden does a person of color alleging discrimination have to carry to have his day in court?

By Falen O. Cox, Esq., Founding Partner, Cox, Rodman, and Middleton

The case, Comcast Corp. v. National Association of African American Owned Media and Entertainment Studios Networks, is, on the surface, a case about procedural issues. Beneath the surface it is about the ease or complexity a plaintiff may face when raising claims of racial discrimination under 42 US 1981.

Even though it has reached the United States Supreme Court, procedurally, the lawsuit is in the beginning stages, and the Supreme Court will be deciding whether the plaintiffs (Byron Allen company) may move forward in the legal process to have its “day in court” before a jury, or whether its suit should be dismissed before it reaches a jury or the investigatory process that we lawyers call “discovery.”

During the discovery process each side has an opportunity to ask questions of the other and compel answers, to request documents, and to question potential witnesses. This process is “investigative” and allows the plaintiff to gather the information necessary to present his or her case to a jury, and the defendant the ability to form any defenses he or she may have.

For example, if a plaintiff sues a defendant for rear-ending her at a red light, during the discovery process the plaintiff can ask the defendant whether he was texting at the time of the accident — if he was, the plaintiff can use that to show that the defendant was negligent.

On the other hand, if the plaintiff claims that she has back pain as a result of the collision, the defendant can ask if she has ever had back problems before. If she had been seeing a doctor about back pain prior to the collision, the defendant may be able to show that her back pain was not a result of the collision. However, if the court dismisses a case before the discovery process begins, the case is over, and these “discoveries” are never made.

In short, whether a case makes it to the discovery process, depends on whether the case is allowed to move forward after the plaintiff files a complaint. As common practice, defendants usually file a motion for summary judgement, asking the court to dismiss the plaintiff’s complaint prior to discovery and prior to any decision on the merits of the plaintiff’s claim along with its answer to the plaintiff’s complaint. It is a procedural tactic to prevent the lawsuit from moving further than the written complaint.

There are valid reasons for motions for summary judgement (dismissal). It is designed to make sure that frivolous claims do not overwhelm the court system and to ensure that the court’s limited resources and time are spent on legitimate claims.

Additionally, defending a lawsuit can be time consuming and extremely costly for a defendant. A defendant should not have to spend thousands (or in this case probably hundreds of thousands) on legal fees and lost productivity to defend a frivolous claim. The motion for summary judgement acts as a gatekeeper to the legal sys-

tem.

In this case, the National Association of African-American Owned Media and Entertainment Studios Networks, Inc. (the “Plaintiffs”) filed suit against Comcast, Time-Warner Cable, the former FCC Commissioner, the NAACP, the National Urban League, the National Action Network, and Reverend Al Sharpton alleging that Comcast and the others conspired together to deny it a contract to carry its network/television shows because it is a 100% black-owned company. (Editor’s note: NAN, NUL, and NAACP each are no longer party to the lawsuit).

However, the Court dismissed the suits against everyone except Comcast and Time-Warner for lack of personal jurisdiction, and the plaintiffs abandoned its argument of conspiracy.

At issue now, and before the United States Supreme Court, is whether Comcast, in refusing to contract with the Plaintiff, is in violation of 42 USC 1981.

More specifically, whether a plaintiff who alleges discrimination in violation of 42 USC 1981 must allege that racial discrimination was the but for cause of the refusal to contract: “But for the plaintiff’s race, Comcast would have contracted with

the plaintiff,” or whether the plaintiff may allege that race was a motivating factor in Comcast’s refusal to contract.

Even though there may have been other reasons that Comcast did not contract with Plaintiffs, the fact that it is a black company was a motivating factor. For context, 42 USC 1981 was enacted in 1886 during Reconstruction (after slavery) and reads: “All persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the same right in every State and Territory to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, give evidence, and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of persons and property as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, penalties, taxes, licenses, and exactions of every kind, and to no other.”

The District Court, which acts as a trial court in the federal court system, dismissed the Plaintiff’s complaint three times for failure to state a claim for which relief can be granted. It held that the Plaintiff’s complaint failed to show that, but for racial discrimination, Comcast would have contracted with Plaintiff, and that Plaintiff failed to allege that other companies that Comcast did in fact contract with

were similarly situated to Plaintiff.

However, Plaintiff appealed the District Court’s decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals which reversed the District Court’s rulings and held that Plaintiff could move forward with its lawsuit. It denied Comcast’s motion for rehearing.

Comcast filed a petition for certiorari in the United States Supreme Court, which was granted.

Comcast argues that Plaintiff’s lawsuit should be dismissed because it alleges that Plaintiff’s complaint was insufficient and that it did not allege “but for” causation or refute what Comcast alleges are legitimate business considerations for its refusal to contract with Plaintiff.

Comcast argues that it did not extend a contract to Plaintiff’s as a result of legitimate business practices, e.g.: that it did not have the bandwidth necessary, that it had a preference for sports and news programming, and that there was a lack of demand for Plaintiff’s programming. As a result, Comcast argues that Plaintiffs have failed to show that Comcast would have contracted with them but for Plaintiff’s race.

Comcast points out that it had, within the same time period, considered contracting

with ESN; that it had in fact contracted with “Aspire” led by Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Revolt TV led by Sean “Diddy” Combs, which it claims has majority or substantial African-American ownership. Additionally, Comcast alleges that it has carried two 100% black-owned networks, African Channel and Black Family Channel.

Lastly, Comcast argues that Plaintiff’s case should be dismissed because Plaintiff has failed to show that it was similarly situated to the white-owned channels that it did contract with. The reasoning there is that apples must be compared to apples.

For instance, if there is a white-owned channel with tremendous interest that is within Comcast’s preferred programming, then the fact that Comcast contracted with that network as opposed to Plaintiff’s — which Comcast alleges does not have interest and is not its preferred programing —is not a result of race discrimination, but instead is Comcast simply choosing the best content for its company.

On the other hand, Plaintiffs allege that it has attempted to contract with Comcast for approximately 8 years and has repeatedly been passed over for white-owned companies despite Comcast’s assurances that its channels were “good enough” and that it was on a “short list.” Additionally, Plaintiff offered its Justice.TV network to Comcast for free and without licensing fees. Comcast declined. As it relates to the lack of bandwidth that Comcast claims is a reason for its refusal to contract, Plaintiff notes that Comcast carries every channel (more than 500) that its competitors carry, except for Plaintiff’s.

Plaintiff’s channels are currently carried on Verizon, FIOS, AT&T, U-Verse, Direct TV, Sudden Link, RCN, Century Link, and many others. Additionally, despite its refusal to contract with Plaintiff as a result of its alleged bandwidth scarcity, Comcast has launched more than 80 lesser known white-owned channels. Plaintiff alleges that during the 8 years that it attempted to Con’t on page 22

ENDING SOLITARY CONFINEMENT IN CT

Christ Chapel New Testament Church and Pastor John Lewis is hosting a community event with My Brother’s Keeper founder, Barbara Fair to educate the community about the issue of solitary confinement in Ct jails and prisons.

It is an effort to build coalitions to help bring attention to a practice that causes and exacerbates mental illness.

According to Human Rights group prolonged solitary is considered torture. Many of the tortured souls are our loved ones. Many will return home broken.

Are we our brother’s keeper? We have a responsibility to stand up against cruel and inhuman treatment.

WHEN: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2019 WHERE: 220 DIXWELL AVENUE, NEW HAVEN TIME: 6-8 PM. All welcome. Light refreshments.

30 minute film with a panel discussion with a “survivor”, activists and local legislators pushing for legislative changes.

18

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

We Care.

Ellington Jazz Series

Louis Hayes

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.

Nov 15 | 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall

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.

JazzTimes has described Louis Hayes, whose career has featured performances with the likes of Horace Silver, Cannonball Adderley, and Oscar Peterson, as “one of jazz’s most soulfully swinging drummers.”

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

To learn more, please visit rwater.com

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

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

19

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

Police Officer Town of Greenwich Do You Want A Job That Makes A Difference? Become A Town of Greenwich Police Officer. To view detailed information and apply online visit www.governmentjobs. com/careers/greenwichct Candidates must fulfill several basic requirements including: Be a U.S. Citizen Be at least 20 years of age · Possess 45 college credits, or 2 years of active military service or equivalent

Current Salary: $68,301

The Town of Greenwich is dedicated to Diversity & Equal Opportunity Employment; Town of Greenwich, HR Dept., 101 Field Point Rd, Greenwich, CT 06830 Close Date 4:00 PM 1/23/20.

After School Activity Specialist

Part Time – non benefited $11.00 hourly (15 to 18 hours weekly) Pre-employment drug testing. For details and how to apply go to www.bloomfieldct.org – AA/EOE

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

LEGAL NOTICE

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR SERVICES OEC-QIS-024 Connecticut Office of Early Childhood Quality Improvement Supports

ISSUE DATE: October 25, 2019

The State of Connecticut, Office of Early Childhood (OEC)is seeking proposals from private and public organizations to design, deliver and or implement OEC technical assistance activities. The scope of work includes reaching personnel working with young children in settings including family childcare, and center- and school-based programs. Technical assistance activities may include training, coaching, and consultation utilizing best practice strategies for delivering assistance that provides not only information but also enhances early care and education practice.

The request for proposals is available from the following sources: • Online at http://www.biznet.ct.gov/SCP_Search/Default.aspx?AccLast=2 • Online at www.ct.gov/oec ; or • From the Official Agency Contact:

Deborah Adams Office of Early Childhood Mail: 450 Columbus Blvd, Suite 304 Hartford, Connecticut 06103 E-mail: OEC.RFP@CT.GOV Telephone: 860-500-4535

A bidder’s conference will be held on November 13, 2019 at the Office of Early Childhood, 450 Columbus Blvd., Hartford. Registration for this event must Be completed at: Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oec-bidders-conference-for-oec-qis024-tickets-77496284473 Or Search Eventbrite.com for OEC Bidders Conference OEC-QIS-024 The due date, post marked, for proposals is 1:00 PM on Wednesday, December 11, 2019 Please direct all questions to the Official Agency Contact.

November 13, 2019 - November 19, 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**********

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

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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 - November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

Accounting

The Housing Authority of the City of Norwalk, CT is requesting proposals for Legal Services.

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

Adam Bovilsky, Executive Director.

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

Apprentice Accountant This position is responsible for maintaining accounting records and preparing vouchers, invoices, and checks. Applicants must have not less than (2) years of work experience involving clerical and general office responsibilities, plus graduation from high school or G.E.D. Salary: $ 25.72 ~ $ 30.87 hourly, plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply: Human Resources Department, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main St., Wallingford, CT 06492, (203) 294-2080. Fax: (203) 294-2084. The closing date will be that date the 50th application form/resume is received, or November 20, 2019, whichever occurs first. EOE

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

Must Have your Own Vehicle

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

Property Management Company

If Interested call

(203) 387-0354

is seeking a Resident Services Coordinator in New Haven, CT. Part time- 16 hrs/wk. Must have experience working w/ senior and disabled community. Social Services background preferred.

Please call (860) 951-9411 x238 for inquiries.

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.

NEW HAVEN POLICE NOW HIRING

Listing: Accounting

Accounting Department has two immediate openings for full time Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable professionals in a fastpaced 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. ********An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer**********

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

Housing Coordinator P/T. Bristol Housing Authority is seeking an individual with working knowledge of and experience in federally subsidized housing program rent calculations. Salary will be commensurate with experience. Send resume and references by Oct. 23, 2019 to Mitzy Rowe, CEO, Bristol Housing Authority (BHA), 163 Jerome Ave., Bristol, CT 06010

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

Nhpdrecruitment

NHPDrecruitment

An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Entity

LEGAL NOTICE Request for Proposals for Services The State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management, is seeking proposals from qualified vendors to provide consulting to identify and recommend efficiency improvements in Connecticut State government.

The intent of the request is to identify individuals or firms with the necessary expertise to identify and recommend efficiencies both in revenue maximization as well as cost savings by state agency; and develop and implement plans including but not limited to the evaluation and restructuring of state agencies in order to streamline processes and improve services.

This Request for Proposals (“RFP”) will define the scope of the work to be performed, the requirements for submission, the method for response, and the administrative requirements that must be followed. The contract period will commence on or about February 3, 2020 and expire on July 31, 2020.

The RFP is available online at https://biznet.ct.gov/SCP_Search/ BidDetail.aspx?CID=51570 and http://www.ct.gov/opm/cwp/view.asp?a=3006 &Q=383284&opmNav_GID=1386. Deadline for response submission is 3:00 PM, EST December 20, 2019.

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CONSTRUCTION HELP WANTED LaRosa Building Group is looking for people interested in construction for a project in New Haven.

New Haven and Section 3 residents are encouraged to apply.

For applications: Visit the job site at 300 Wilmot Rd, New Haven CT., or join us on Thursday, November 14th, at 6:00 PM

or

Email: HR@larosabg.com

An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

Lisa Willis Breaks Glass Ceiling Within NY Knicks Organization

“There were so many times along the way, even in this recent process which led me to the NBA, that I wanted to quit but my family wouldn’t let me,” she said. “They let me know that I could do whatever I wanted. They helped me see myself the way God created me, and they’ve cheered for me every step of the way.”

Willis admits having once considered abandoning basketball for a more traditional nine-to-five job, denying the passion she says she so deeply simply by being around and involved in the discipline-building sport. But her father’s love, ardent support and the relationship forged between the two served as the impetus for the strength she needed to never give up.

“I was my father’s little hooper,” she said. “He made sure I had everything I needed to pursue my dreams and we had a strong basketball relationship.

Whenever people have shared their congratulations, I’ve had to deal with mixed emotions because my dad, who died in 2017, was my guy. It’s been a bittersweet experience. More than anything, I wish he was still here sitting on the sidelines and rooting me on.”

By D. Kevin McNeir, Senior Editor, Washington Informer

If you’ve ever doubted the validity of the adage, “what a difference a day makes,” consider the changes that have occurred in one short year for California native Lisa Willis, recently making NBA history with her segue into a position almost exclusively reserved for men.

Just a season ago, Willis, 35, a former UCLA women’s basketball team standout and record-shattering sharpshooter in the WNBA, focused her attention on improving the level of performance and knowledge of the game as head coach for the girls b-ball program at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, VA. However, with the announcement by one of the NBA’s most-celebrated organizations, the New York Knickerbockers, Willis secures a page in the franchise’s archives as the first female assistant coach for their G League team – the Westchester Knicks (the official minor league team).

Who Says Women Can’t Coach Men? Willis, a former New York Liberty and Los Angeles Sparks guard in the WNBA, joins a growing number of retired WNBA stars now holding important positions for basketball teams including Becky Hammon and Kristi Toliver, assistant coaches for the San Antonio Spurs and Washington Wizards, respectively. Still, she contends it’s foolish to waste time debating whether men or women come

More Mountains to Climb better equipped to coach a men’s team.

“Men and women are different, absolutely,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t do the same things they do. It’s not an issue of better but different – different methods and different outlooks.

As a woman, I didn’t want to be brought in so the Knicks could check off a box.

What matters is whether I’m qualified.”

“There are some men who fit the traditional image of an NBA coach but they’re aren’t very good at their job even though, or even because, they’re men.”

“I’ve always been a coach I suppose. I realized that while working with the girls at T.C. Williams. That’s when I first acknowledged how much I love to mentor athletes – both on and off the court. If you’re not helping your players develop, then you’re not coaching. Management picks the players – coaches have the responsibility to coach those players. And it’s an all-encompassing job, for both the head coach and their staff.”

“I know wins and losses matter but you can’t measure success on a team’s record alone. Players have a variety of needs – needs that must be addressed and met if a coach wants them to perform at their highest possible level.”

“Men coaching women? Women coaching men? Truth be told, neither the efficiency or effectiveness of a coach can be determined by or limited to gender.”

Family Matters and a Dream Deferred While the recent season opener scheduled for Nov. 9 had to be delayed due to problems with court conditions, Willis says the celebration continues both for her and the “team” which she credits as being integral to her success – her family.

22

“The journey I’ve taken has often been trying so to get to this point really feels amazing and awesome,” she said.

“Less than 10 other women are currently coaching in the NBA and naturally I feel the pressure. But I decided a long time ago to remain faithful, trust in God and allow Him to take the wheel.”

“Sometimes I became angry or sad when doors through which I wanted to enter were closed. But my faith told me that there were other doors that I’d find open. The Knicks have opened a door for me. Now, it’s my responsibility to do a phenomenal job and make sure that door stays open for others – other women – to enter.”

The regular season for the Westchester Knicks continues through March with the playoffs culminating in April.

For inquiries about Lisa Willis, contact Warren Doles, 202-553-3404 or www. thenexxtone.com.

Willis, who also owns and manages a basketball training company, can be reached at either www.lisacwillis.live or www.hoopsmd.com.

Lisa Willis, a former UCLA women’s basketball team standout and WNBA veteran, recently made history becoming the first female coach in New York Knicks history. Her duties will include serving as an assistant coach for the Knicks’ G League team – the Westchester Knicks. (Courtesy of Warren Doles) This post originally appeared in The Washington Informer.

Con’t from page 12

His day in court?

By Falen O. Cox, Esq., Founding Partner, Cox, Rodman, and Middleton

The case, Comcast Corp. v. National Association of African American Owned Media and Entertainment Studios Networks, is, on the surface, a case about procedural issues. Beneath the surface it is about the ease or complexity a plaintiff may face when raising claims of racial discrimination under 42 US 1981.

Even though it has reached the United States Supreme Court, procedurally, the lawsuit is in the beginning stages, and the Supreme Court will be deciding whether the plaintiffs (Byron Allen company) may move forward in the legal process to have its “day in court” before a jury, or whether its suit should be dismissed before it reaches a jury or the investigatory process that we lawyers call “discovery.”

During the discovery process each side has an opportunity to ask questions of the other and compel answers, to request documents, and to question potential witnesses. This process is “investigative” and allows the plaintiff to gather the information necessary to present his or her case to a jury, and the defendant the ability to form any defenses he or she may have.

For example, if a plaintiff sues a defendant for rear-ending her at a red light, during the discovery process the plaintiff can ask the defendant whether he was texting at the time of the accident — if he was, the plaintiff can use that to show that the defendant was negligent.

On the other hand, if the plaintiff claims that she has back pain as a result of the collision, the defendant can ask if she has ever had back problems before. If she had been seeing a doctor about back pain prior to the collision, the defendant may be able to show that her back pain was not a result of the collision. However, if the court dismisses a case before the discovery process begins, the case is over, and these “discoveries” are never made.

In short, whether a case makes it to the discovery process, depends on whether the case is allowed to move forward after the plaintiff files a complaint. As common practice, defendants usually file a motion for summary judgement, asking the court to dismiss the plaintiff’s complaint prior to discovery and prior to any decision on the merits of the plaintiff’s claim along with its answer to the plaintiff’s complaint. It is a procedural tactic to prevent the lawsuit from moving further than the written complaint.

There are valid reasons for motions for summary judgement (dismissal). It is designed to make sure that frivolous claims do not overwhelm the court system and to ensure that the court’s limited resources and time are spent on legitimate claims.

Additionally, defending a lawsuit can be

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

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grant writing @ stetson library Nov. 6, 13, 20 6:00pm-8:00pm Nov. 23 10:00am-4:00pm

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

November 13, 2019 - November 19, 2019

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