VOL. 9 NO. 4
IN THIS ISSUE
My
Life
UT Professor Emeritus Cynthia Griggs Fleming can tell you a lot about AfricanAmerican history. She can tell you about the three books she’s written, and about the times she took her students into the heart of civil rights country to walk in the footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy. Stokely Carmichael himself sat in on her classes. She can tell you about all those things, and more. Problem is, you’ll have to catch her first. If she’s not astride her horse, chances are she’s muscling one of her classic cars down the highway.
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If anyone thought the new year would bring a kinder and more transparent TVA, they were quickly disabused of that notion when TVA rejected the freedom of information request regarding the amount of tax-paid incentives given to a Clinton industry to expand.
The WordPlayers of Knoxville are kicking off Black History Month in a big way with “Walk, Don’t Ride,” billed as “a presentation of drama and song depicting events that helped shape American freedom.” An example of the best kind of “edu-tainment,” “Walk, Don’t Ride” has been booked in nine different counties and 16 different venues in East Tennessee, including middle schools, colleges and churches. See Carol Shane’s story on page A-11
Make some noise Students and faculty at Northshore Elementary School couldn’t sit still during a visit from UT’s percussion students. The gymnasium echoed with beats of calypso as third, fourth and fifth graders tried their best to remain seated and still wiggle. Teachers danced beside the audience and cheered when the steel drums began to ring with the notes of “Rocky Top.”
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Fiery flamenco draws high-intensity dancers
Tessa Stockton and Ananda Ashworth (back) and Sharon Mansoor, Lucia Andronescu and Maria Gomez (front) dance during an advanced flamenco class, taught by Andronescu, at the Tennessee Conservatory of Fine Arts West. On guitar, partially obscured, is Victor Garza. Photo by Wendy Smith
By Wendy Smith Lucia Andronescu grew up in Romania and settled in West Knoxville. But part of her soul will always long for southern Spain, the home of flamenco. She came to New York after high school and later moved to Tucson, Ariz. While her career was in corporate management,
her education was in the arts, and she found herself drawn to a nearby flamenco studio. She had been a gymnast in Romania and craved physical activity. Flamenco dancing became her passion. “The rhythm and movement were so captivating to me,” she says. She continues to hone her danc-
See Victor Ashe’s story on page A-4
‘Walk, Don’t Ride’
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Ole!
See Sara Barrett’s story on page A-9
10512 Lexington Dr., Ste. 500 37932 (865) 218-WEST (9378) NEWS news@ShopperNewsNow.com Sherri Gardner Howell Wendy Smith | Anne Hart ADVERTISING SALES ads@ShopperNewsNow.com Patty Fecco | Tony Cranmore Wendy O’Dell | Sara Whittle
Richards heads KTA Jim Richards, general manager of Mast General Store on Gay Street, is the new chair of the Knoxville Transportation Authority (KTA) board. Liliana Burbano Bonilla is vice chair, and Knoxville Area Transit (KAT) employee Lauren Robinson is recording secretary. Richards is an avid alternative-transportation advocate. He has served on the KTA board since September 2012. Renee Hoyos is the previous board chair. The nine-member KTA board sets policy for all for-hire intra-city passenger transportation services, including bus transit service, taxicabs and Jim Richards private for-hire transportation services. KTA sets schedules, fares and routes for KAT services.
Push back on push-out By Bill Dockery African-American children in the Knox County school system are suspended from school almost three times more often than their white fellow students. And that rate has not changed since 2007, when a community task force recommended ways to fi x the disparities in discipline. State statistics reported for 2012 show that black Knox County students are Sheppard still about three times more likely to be suspended than white students, despite the negative results such suspensions will have on their educational and legal futures. Those facts are part of the information presented at a workshop on “school push-out,” the name given to discipline policies that re-
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sult in children leaving school and getting caught up in the criminal justice system. A group of parents, students, school personnel and civil rights activists gathered Thursday at Mount Calvary Baptist Church to share stories and strategize about ways to change county schools so that their discipline system does not discriminate against blacks, people with disabilities and other minorities. Local activists with the NAACP and the Children’s Defense Fund sponsored the meeting. “We want parents to understand that suspensions are not an individual problem with you and your child,” said Andre Canty, one of the organizers of the meeting. “School push-out is a systemic problem that has some students being arrested for no reason. That’s messed up.” Amy Sosinski, a law student at the University of Tennessee, pre-
ADDICTED TO
ing skills with summer programs at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque, which offers the only undergraduate and graduate flamenco degree programs in the world. She has taught flamenco in West Knoxville for almost 10 years. Her 14-member company, Pasión Flamenca, is the only traditional flamenco dance group in Knoxville. Flamenco is an art that exists in three forms − song, dance and guitar playing. While flamenco dance is improvised, it has such a defined structure that flamenco singers, dancers and guitar players who have never met before can perform together, Andronescu says. The dance form is physically and mentally challenging because there are 50 flamenco dances, each with a different musical structure and different moves. It’s a bit like working a puzzle, she says, and tends to draw high-intensity participants. Her dance company, which includes professionals with doctor-
ates, backs up her claim. Spanish children grow up with flamenco, but for outsiders, mastering the dance is like learning a new language. It can take five or six years to fully understand, she says. But Andronescu offers a variety of classes that allow dancers to participate by following the teacher or simply learning the movements for exercise. Because the music is an integral part of the dance, Andronescu’s classes are typically taught with live guitar accompaniment and sometimes a vocalist. Dancers wear ruffled skirts, ordered from Spain, and use shawls, fans and castanets. When performing for an audience, dancers wear traditional 19th-century dress. Pasión Flamenca has loaned props to the Knoxville Opera Company for its upcoming performance of “Carmen,” which features flamenco dancing. There are two shows on Valentine’s Day weekend at the Tennessee Theatre.
sented totals from 2012 state records that show that some 8,300 black students in Knox County schools are about 2.7 times more likely to be suspended than the system’s 44,600 white students. Among students with disabilities, slightly more than one in 10 white students will be suspended; around one in four black students with disabilities will be sent home from school. In November 2014, the Education Law Practicum filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education based on those disparities. That complaint is still pending in the department’s Office for Civil Rights. Maya Sheppard presented information on an innovative plan in Baltimore that had dramatically reduced school suspensions. Sheppard is a lawyer with the Knox County Public Defender’s Office who serves in the county’s juvenile court. Other speakers discussed similar programs that have improved racial disparities in discipline in other school systems.
“These are proven methods for reducing suspensions and arrests,” Canty said. “What needs to happen from the people is a collaborative effort among parents, teachers and students.” Canty asked the attendees to share their own experiences of problems with the school system’s disciplinary policies. He then led the attendees in a discussion of how they would like to see the system change and how those changes can be brought about. Suggestions included mentoring programs for students, cultural sensitivity training for teachers and school personnel, increased parental advocacy and changes in special-education laws and policies. “We want all our kids to have a bright future,” Canty said. In late December, Canty participated in a discussion with Superintendent Jim McIntyre on WATETV’s “Tennessee This Week.” During that broadcast McIntyre announced that he would create a working group to look at solutions to the disparity problems.
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