August 23rd, 2018 Edition

Community forces investigation of crash

Witnesses say county police were involved, yet officers drove past

n “I came here and I said, ‘This does not look like a fatal onecar accident.’ I plan to get to the bottom of it.”

– Clara Cheeks, mother of Mikel Neil

Lorenzo Johnson, a Berkeley resident and former Atlanta police officer, was driving home at about 9:30 p.m. on August 10 when he saw a St. Louis County Police vehicle chasing a car down Airport Road at high speed with its lights flashing. Johnson was going the opposite direction and had just turned on his street, Whitewater Drive, when he heard a huge crash across the street. He jumped out of his car and ran to the scene of the accident at Airport Road and Tyndall Drive, where two African-American men had driven into a tree and had died on impact, he said. The men were later identified as 59-year-old

Penny Daughtery, 16, attended a community press conference on Thursday, August 16 at the scene of a fatal car crash in Berkeley on August 10. Her sign reflects eyewitness statements that a St. Louis Police car was involved in the crash, but the officers fled the scene.

Part of a year-long series, presented by The American and the Brown School at Washington University, on changing the narratives and outcomes of young black males in St. Louis.

By Bruce Franks Jr.

For The St. Louis American August 9, 2014 changed my life. That date is burned into our memory as the day Michael Brown was killed. But it’s also the date my son, King, turned 1. So we’re getting ready for his get-together – blowing up balloons, firing up the barbecue – when my social media starts going crazy. I get the picture of a young man lying motionless in the middle of the street. I didn’t know what to do. But something compelled me to go out there. Before I saw that image, I wasn’t an activist. I’m from 4300 Gibson, the South Side of St. Louis, the ‘hood. I had seen 30 or 40 Mike Browns in my life, young men between the ages of 16 and 24 killed by the police. What was

of SIUE’s East St. Louis Center, helped integrate Kirkwood schools

See HALEY, A7

Rivas

By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American

Photo by Rebecca Rivas

Photo by Wiley Price

Kaliah Moody, 4, a student at Hamilton Elementary School in St. Louis Public Schools, took a spin on a hula hoop at Betty Jean Kerr People’s Health Centers’ Community Resource Health Fair on Saturday, August 18.

Hoopin’ at People’s

Bruce Franks

Man who found Bobbi Kristina unconscious in bathtub dead of drug overdose

Max Lomas, the friend of Nick Gordon who discovered Bobbi Kristina Brown unconscious in her bathtub, has died of a drug overdose at his home in Saltillo, MS.

People Magazine was first to report that Lomas was found in his bathroom by a friend, slumped over the toilet with a syringe nearby.

One month after Lomas found Bobbi Kristina face down in her bathtub, he agreed to testify against Nick Gordon if he were granted immunity.

Lomas’ girlfriend, Danyela Bradley, who was also at the townhouse the night Bobbi Kristina was found, gave an eyewitness account to Bobbi Kristina’s estate for their civil lawsuit against Nick Gordon claiming he fed Bobbi Kristina a lethal cocktail of drugs before submerging her in the tub.

Bobbi Kristina never regained consciousness died in hospice care six months later.

Teyana Taylor and Jeremih play the blame game over tour breakup

Last week, Teyana Taylor took aim at Jeremih in her explanation as to why she would be leaving his tour to headline her own. She claimed to be “extremely mistreated” and would “end up knocking this [n-word expletive] out” if she continued to remain in the presence of the Chicago-bred artist.

“Lazy, sneaky, jealous, conniving, [selfish], lame [expletive] [n-word expletive]! Don’t ever try to play me Petunia,” Taylor tweeted. Jeremih’s assistant, Adam J. Smith, fired back with claims of that Taylor was the issue.

“Crazy Teyana Taylor ruined Jeremih’s backdrop on the first day of the tour in Atlanta and we let that slide,” Smith tweeted. “She complained about the food, we fed ‘em out our own pockets. Next show she tells crowd to leave the venue to go to her meet and greet after she goes off stage (to leave before Jeremih performs), we ain’t trip. Now she is blaming J for X,Y,Z and the [expletive] just ain’t true. Why and how would we put water on the stage when we aren’t even in the building yet when you go on? These

lies are going too far now.”

The Queen of Soul said to have had no will

The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, passed away last week at the age of 76 after battling pancreatic cancer for several years. She reportedly never had a will written up to divide her assets. According to documents obtained by TMZ, the “Natural Woman” hitmaker died “intestate,” meaning she had no will at the time of death, and therefore her estate will be divided according to Michigan law.

The law states that her four sons will each get an equal portion of the star’s estate. Estimates of her net worth has ranged as high as $80

She will be laid to rest on August 31 at Greater Grace Temple in Detroit, Michigan, where several of her family members - including her father, brother, and two sisters - are also buried.

Before the burial, fans will have a chance to bid farewell to the music icon during two public viewings at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit on August 28 and 29.

Nicki Minaj nixes

North American leg of tour

In a video posted on Instagram Live, Nicki Minaj explained that she literally finished writing her new album the night it was released and that she simply didn’t have enough time to rehearse for the upcoming North American tour dates she scratched. The UK and Australia dates are still scheduled as planned but now her US tour will kick off next May.

Minaj also admits Future may not be part of the North American tour next year.

According to New York Post’s Page Six, lack of rehearsal time isn’t the only reason the North American leg of the tour has been pushed back.

“Nicki’s tour could be the most disappointing ticket sales of the year for any artist,” A Live Nation source told Page Six. “These are big arenas with up to 20,000 capacities. Sales for opening night in Baltimore is 2,000 tickets. LA is 3,400, New Orleans 1,000, Denver 1,300, Chicago 3,900. Even her hometown Brooklyn is only 5,050.”

Sources: New York Post, TMZ.com, People.com, Twitter.com, Instagram.com

Nicki Minaj

Max Lomas

Teyana Taylor

Saint Louis Chess Club celebrates 10 years

‘We want to create role models that are smart, that are able to travel the world’

By Ashley Jones For The St. Louis American

The Saint Louis Chess Club

celebrated its 10-year anniversary with an all-day gathering alongside 80 children from Gary Gore Elementary, Demetrious Johnson Chess Champ, and St. Vincent Home for Children on July 17.

“When we opened the club 10 years ago, it was with the really simple idea of just providing a community center, a fun place to go play chess,” said Tony Rich, executive director of Saint Louis Chess Club.

“Then that grew into providing scholastic chess, where we teach 100 schools in the

St. Louis area now. We have classes, lectures, and tournaments for 1,000-plus members. We also host big events.” The celebration also marked the halfway point in the U.S. Junior Championship and U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, both of which took place at the Saint Louis Chess Club from July 11-21.

“There’s a lot on the line for these players,” Rich said. “With the exception of two of them, they have all competed in this event before so they are coming back and they want to prove that they are the best.”

One of the U.S. Junior Championship competitors from St. Louis is Akshat Chandra. He became a frequent

visitor to the Saint Louis Chess Club when his family moved here in 2016.

“I like it because there’s always something to learn,” Chandra said. “It’s an infinite game. There are a lot of intricacies, and it’s a subtle game. There’s a lot of beauty in it. You have to be very precise in chess.”

The St. Louis Chess Club held its 10th anniversary on July 17 at its Central West End location. Joshua Edwards, 13, and Samirra Johnson, 12, played students from Gary Gore Elementary, Demetrious Johnson Chess Champ and St. Vincent Home for Children during the all-day event.

Photo by Wiley Price

Attendees had the opportunity to help paint a new chessthemed MetroBus that will operate throughout the city for a year and participate in additional family-friendly activities, giveaways, food/drinks, music, movies and shopping.

“The kids out here get so much enjoyment out of it, and it’s the reason why we host those big events because we want to create role models that are smart, that are able to travel the world and be famous and hopefully rich one day so that you can prove it’s not just about being a musician or an athlete or something,” Rich said. “You

can play chess too and achieve those same goals.”

Kids attending the event were mostly from the club’s scholastic summer camp programs, including St. Vincent Home for Children, Demetrious Johnson Charitable Foundation, and the Jennings School District.

“At its heart and soul chess is fun, especially in St. Louis. The club makes so many opportunities possible because of chess, and we want them to have access to those opportunities as well,” said Scholastic Manager Kareem Talhouni.

“What’s interesting about chess, compared to a lot of the other board games where the pieces all look the same, in a way chess has diversity. Each piece has its own personality and look, and you can bond with the pieces a little more. I think that’s the magic of chess: the personalities in the piece and how they relate to the personality of the player.”

For more information, visit saintlouischessclub.org or https://www.youtube.com/ user/STLChessClub, call (314) 361-2437 or visit the center at 4657 Maryland Ave, St. Louis, MO 63108.

New online tool about felon voting rights

Campaign Legal

Center has posted an online tool, RestoreYourVote.org, to help as many as 23 million citizens with past felony convictions understand their voting rights in all 50 states and take the necessary steps in the process to exercise their right to vote before the November general election. A majority of this group of

Americans - as many as 17 million people - should be able to vote right away if they understand their rights, according to the center, and many more are eligible to apply to restore their right to vote.

Felony disenfranchisement laws target primarily people of color, preventing them from having a voice, according to the center. Nationwide, one in every 13 black adults cannot vote as the result of a felony

Campaign Legal Center launches RestoreYourVote.org

conviction, according to the center, compared to one in 56 non-black adults.

“We launched this tool because state and federal policies do not uniformly protect the right to vote of all

citizens,” said Danielle Lang, senior legal counsel, voting rights and redistricting at the center. “We can’t overturn all discriminatory voting laws overnight. But while we fight them in court, we are

minimizing the harmful impact of these laws by clearing up the confusion and misinformation that prevents many people with past felony convictions throughout the country from voting.”

The center is also launching grassroots organizing efforts in several states to educate voters, beginning in Arizona, Nevada, and Texas. These states were chosen because of their large population of people that can

vote if they understand their rights. Watch this video at https:// tinyurl.com/yag68z3e to learn about the Alabama Voting Rights Project, the pilot state of this campaign, which highlights the knowledge gap about voting laws for people with past convictions.

Visit RestoreYourVote. org to learn about the path to voting rights restoration.

Public school staff need sensitivity training

After the passage of propositions awarding better pay to police officers and firefighters in the wake of Ferguson, we thought that more taxpayer money would have been better invested in public schools. A better educated, more upwardly mobile youth culture would do more to stem violence, crime and suffering than more, better-paid first responders.

Our regional and cultural focus on public safety at the expense of public schools shows up in another aspect of our public life. We join those calling for bias and sensitivity training for police (though if community advocates don’t consult on the choice of the trainer, don’t expect anybody to be persuaded that your troops have been trained). But what about bias and sensitivity training in public schools — including relatively deregulated public charter schools?

Like many who saw it, we were outraged about a public communication to parents and fellow staff from a public charter school teacher who referred to herself as a “monkey handler” and her students as “monkeys” in a teacher newsletter. The school’s student population is almost entirely black, and the teacher in question is white. This communication included her name, email and phone number, so it was either a cruel setup or a public statement by a public school teacher who is either rabidly racist or almost unbelievably culturally insensitive.

The school, Aspire Academy, did not follow up with us after returning an initial call, but the teacher did issue to families a followup communication. It made it clear that this communication was her work, not a setup, and that she claimed it was almost unbelievable cultural insensitivity, not rabid racism, at work. Her “sock monkey” theme for her classroom led her to using “monkey” as an image for her students, she said. She “truly apologized” to those who were offended and said she would do better in the future.

Aspire Academy, which has an AfricanAmerican principal, is part of Confluence Charter Schools, which has an African-American president, and its charter is held by two institutions of higher learning, University of Missouri Columbia and Saint Louis University. How does such a school employ a teacher who could send to parents and staff such an unbelievably insensitive communication? And how could she make such an outrageous communication public without anyone catching it before it gets out?

We consider it demeaning and an insult to our and our readers’ intelligence to explain to this teacher – or anyone else – why it is outrageously

We consider it an insult to our and our readers’ intelligence to explain to this teacher why it is outrageously insulting and deeply offensive to describe a black child as a “monkey.”

insulting and deeply offensive to describe a black child as a “monkey.” But, clearly, public schools are hiring some teachers who need to have such things explained to them. Of course, the other option is this teacher knew what she was doing and hoped to get away with it and is only lying after the fact. It is her employers’ responsibility to figure out if this was an incomprehensibly thoughtless and unacceptable mistake – or racism – and proceed accordingly. Clearly, public schools — especially relatively deregulated public charter schools — need bias and sensitivity training for staff as much as police departments do. They need proper protocols in place for handling acts of bias and racism as much as the police do. And like the police, they need to be held accountable for wrongdoing. Police and prosecutors will tell you that ignorance of the law is no defense. Similarly, ignorance of cultural norms and expectations is no excuse for the hurt and outrage wrought by breaking them.

Commentary

Truth is truth

Whenever the Trump administration ends, we already have its shameful epitaph: “Truth isn’t truth.”

President Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, made that unintentional confession of method and purpose Sunday on “Meet the Press.” From the beginning of the campaign, this whole enterprise has been a lie, a fraud, a grift, a cruel deception – a sustained and increasingly frantic attempt to obscure inconvenient truth. Earlier in the interview, as if to illustrate the point he was about to make, Giuliani told what can only be called a bald-faced lie. He claimed that when Trump’s son, son-in-law and campaign chairman met at Trump Tower in 2016 with a Russian lawyer offering dirt on Hillary Clinton, “all they knew is that a woman with a Russian name wanted to meet with them. They didn’t know she was a representative of the Russian government.”

But in email traffic setting up the meeting, Donald Trump Jr. was told that the promised “information that would incriminate Hillary” constituted “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” Giuliani claimed Monday that his declaration about the nature of veracity was just a clumsy way of describing “he said, she said” situations in which the facts cannot be ascertained. But he had tried to peddle what White House counselor Kellyanne Conway once called “alternative facts” about the Trump Tower meeting. “Truth isn’t truth” should be taken as a suspect’s blurted admission of guilt. Constant, relentless, shameless lying is not ancillary to the Trump administration. It is not a sideshow; it’s the main event. We have become inured to the fact that the president of the United States and his aides

and associates simply cannot be relied upon to tell the truth. Sometimes they lie about little things. Last week, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a rare correction – she had claimed, falsely, that more jobs have been created for African Americans since Trump took office than during Barack Obama’s eight-year tenure. In acknowledging that this was absurdly wrong (the true figures are about 3 million new jobs under Obama and about 700,000 under Trump), Sanders claimed that numbers she had given were right but “the time frame for Pres. Obama wasn’t.” Even that, however, was a lie.

The tallies that Sanders claimed are correct use as their starting points the months when the two presidents were elected, not the months when they took office. This unusual shift in time frame has the effect of subtracting jobs from Obama’s total, since his transition took place during the 2008 economic meltdown, and adding them to Trump’s, since the economy was rapidly expanding during the months he was president-elect. Why obsess over a few obscure numbers? Because the figures were prepared by the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), which in previous administrations has meticulously provided accurate, definitive information about the economy. It appears that Trump’s vanity and insecurity have impaired the CEA’s ability to perform its most important function, which is to

Amendment 1: a chance to make our voices heard

By Rasheen Aldridge For the St. Louis American

When I saw Barack Obama elected U.S. president, it seemed like change was possible. I got involved in the struggle to raise the minimum wage, I spoke with President Obama about my community’s concerns while I served on the Ferguson Commission, and I eventually won a seat at the table in our city’s politics as the youngest African-American Democratic committeeman.

Then we fought hard and won a vote to increase the St. Louis minimum wage, along with our brothers and sisters in Kansas City. It felt good.

But last year, the Missouri Legislature listened to their big donors, instead of us. They ignored our voices and overturned the will of St. Louis voters. And they took away the raises of Missourians they’re supposed to represent.

These “leaders” in Jefferson City help those who give millions to their campaigns and control our political system. They pad their own pockets while keeping the minimum wage below the poverty level. We are sick and tired of our voices not being heard. We are sick and tired of our political system working for the few, and not for the many.

That’s why it’s time to recognize we have the power to take action ourselves. This fall, we must vote Yes on Prop B to raise the Missouri minimum wage.

Then we must vote Yes on Amendment 1 to make politicians answer to us, not lobbyists and campaign donors.

Ltell presidents economic news they might not want to hear.

Little lies lead inexorably, of course, to big lies. Trump and his aides want us to believe that of the estimated 4 million Americans who have security clearances of some kind, the only individuals who deserve to have their clearances reviewed – and ultimately, perhaps, revoked –are a handful of vocal critics of Trump, including such figures as former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former national security adviser Susan Rice and former acting Attorney General Sally Yates. Former CIA Director John Brennan, who has accused Trump of “treasonous” behavior, said Sunday he may take Trump to court over last week’s decision to revoke his clearance. I hope Brennan does sue. The administration claims otherwise, but Trump has drawn up a Nixon-style “enemies list” and is punishing those on it – a clear and unacceptable abuse of power. Trump’s acid-tongued Twitter feed and his public remarks are gushers of lies, falsehoods and exaggerations. As of August 1, The Washington Post’s indefatigable Fact Checker column had counted a staggering 4,229 false or misleading claims by the president since he took office. How can this not have a corrosive effect on our democracy? We are accustomed to politicians who shade the truth and spin the facts, but now we have a president who ignores unpleasant truth and rejects unflattering facts. Whether this is a diabolical plan to delegitimize critics or a reflection of Trump’s narcissism, the damage is the same. As a society we become less able to believe, less able to trust.

Prop B will raise the minimum wage to $12 by 2023. This will help parents who are trying to give their kids a bright future and lower crime. It will also boost purchasing power in working -class neighborhoods and provide a major investment in our community’s small businesses. When wages are higher, everyone wins.

And then we must protect this win by voting for Amendment 1. Also known as “Clean Missouri,” Amendment 1 forces politicians to listen more to us, not to the wealthy and well-connected. It limits the power of big money and lobbyists in our legislature and prohibits racial gerrymandering. It has been endorsed by the Organization for Black Struggle, the Missouri Conference of the NAACP, Missouri Faith Voices, Missouri Jobs with Justice, Metropolitan Congregations United, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, and many other organizations.

This is critical. Every year, lobbyists give our elected officials nearly $900,000 in gifts, on average. Liquor. Steak dinners. Concert tickets. International travel. No matter who you vote for, this isn’t right.

You’ll hear a lot of lies and misinformation from politicians this fall. So here are the facts on what Amendment 1 will do:

• Eliminate almost all lobby-

etters to the editor

McClellan apology long overdue

Bill McClellan wrote about black youth in a very demeaning way in the PostDispatch. His article on the dine-and-dash IHOP incident in Clayton was a very racist article. He nor the PostDispatch have shown any inclination to apologize for the racist article. McClellan would have you believe that black kids are the problem with dine and dash, the MetroLink, hotels, the whole dysfunctional region we live in. It is very sad that we do not treasure the wonderful gift of youth, black, White or Brown. Mr. McClellan, your apology to our youth is long overdue.

Dorothy Dempsey, St. Louis

Glad for Wiley Price endorsement

I’m glad that The St. Louis American endorsed Wiley Price IV for state rep. I’m sad that Betty Thompson, Kenny Murdock and Clarence Jackson with his minister group supported Brad Bakker

in a district that is 70 percent African-American. I guess the trio thinks that white people’s water is colder than a black person’s water. It’s totally shameful that the trio advocated for less black elected power in Jefferson City. We have a sad day for black political power with this trio. They’re the people who always talk that we need more black people elected but they have chosen to weaken black elected power in Jefferson City.

Patrice Davis, Via email

The ‘Queen’ will be missed

I’m saddened to hear about the loss of our Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. Aretha is a legend. She not only provided the soundtrack for the Civil Rights Movement, Aretha’s music transcended race, nationality and religion and helped people from all backgrounds to recognize what they had in common.

ist gifts in the General Assembly, by banning any gift worth more than $5

• Require politicians to wait two years before becoming lobbyists, after the conclusion of their final legislative session

• Lower campaign contribution limits for state legislative candidates to limit the influence of big money and lobbyists in state government

• Stop legislative fundraising on state property

• Require that legislative records be open to the public by ensuring that the Legislature operate under the same open records law as other public entities in Missouri

• Protect the political power of minority communities by preserving majority-minority districts, while ensuring neither political party is given an unfair advantage when new maps are drawn after the next census.

We’re done waiting for politicians and lobbyists to raise wages or reform their corrupted systems. We have the power this November to stand up for each other and our democracy by voting for changes to make life better for all families –black, white, and brown. We can vote Yes on Prop B to ensure all parents can give their children a great future. And we can vote Yes on Amendment 1 to take power away from the rich and wellconnected, and give it to people like you and me.

Rasheen Aldridge, the youngest person to serve on the Ferguson Commission, is St. Louis’ 5th Ward Democratic committeeman.

Putin is a thug and a bully

Russia continues to engage in cyber warfare against our democracy. I will continue to speak out and press to hold them accountable. While this attack was not successful, it is outrageous that they think they can get away with this. I will not be intimidated. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, Putin is a thug and a bully. U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill Washington, D.C.

In addition to having an extraordinary voice, Aretha was a kind and God-fearing woman who loved her family, friends and community. My late wife and I were honored to have the icon come to Atlanta to sing for two benefit concerts for the Lowery Institute. I remember her singing her heart out for my 88th birthday celebration. We will miss her strong voice and infectious spirit, but songs like “Respect” and “Say A Little Prayer” will continue to keep our nation focused on achieving the dream her father, Rev. C. L. Franklin and others in the movement envisioned. Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery Via email

Columnist Eugene Robinson

Guest Columnist Rasheen Aldridge

School supplies giveaway in Hazelwood

Realtalk with Demingo Foundation and Representative Alan Green recently hosted a school supplies giveaway for Hazelwood School District teachers at the Garden Villas North. Teachers had the opportunity enjoy a light free lunch while they sorted through free school supplies. The event was also sponsored by Black Jack Fire Protection District, Bank On Save Up, Garden Villas North, Hazelwood School District Foundation, J. Walk Creations, Midwest Bank Centre, and Midland States Bank.

Free community active intruder workshop

The Hazelwood School District in partnership with Tier One Tactical Solutions will host a free active intruder workshop to educate the community on how to handle the threat of an aggressive intruder more proactively at 6 p.m. Monday, August 27 at Hazelwood Central High School Fieldhouse, 18755 New Halls Ferry Rd. in Florissant.

This event is free and open to the public, as well as students, parents, staff, members of the Hazelwood School District Community and the media. A light meal will be served. Please RSVP at 314-953-5750.

Ferguson Youth Initiative seeks board members

The Ferguson Youth Initiative is currently accepting applications for its Board of Directors. Candidates should have a passion to support young people, connections that can help promote the organization, the will to make a difference in the community and experience in fundraising, marketing, accounting, and strategic planning.

The organization empowers teens from Ferguson and surrounding communities to become productive, positive and contributing members of the community. It provided services to 400 area youth in 2017.

Board members are expected to solicit for a cash or in-kind donation totaling $2,500 annually, work part as a cohesive team with common goals, have no more than three consecutive absences from board meetings, and share his/her skills or expertise.

To apply, email info@fyifergyouth.org. If you have any questions or concerns, call (314) 749–5379.

What has change looked like at Confluence Academies?

By Candice Carter-Oliver For The St. Louis American

In the last 18 months, it’s been my honor and pleasure to meet the students, families, and staff of Confluence Academies. I’ve seen the dedication and talent that our staff gives to children each day. We have 3,200 students whose families made the choice of Confluence Academies for their education, now officially including Grand Center Arts Academy (GCAA), and do not take their choice lightly.

As a public charter school serving grades PreK-12, we welcome students of all capabilities, which includes special needs and English language learners. Among four schools (not including GCAA), 100 percent of families qualify for free and reduced lunch. Every family deserves a quality education, and we’re committed to providing it to ours.

On January 1, 2017, I officially became the first person to serve as the permanent chief executive officer of Confluence. Since that time, I’ve spent countless hours in classrooms, in schools, and in staff meetings to observe, listen and learn. I’ve looked at academic performance data from previous years and discovered our strengths and weaknesses. Confluence has continued to make steady progress in student achievement. Our staff is committed to our students, and the Board of Directors is committed to strengthening our schools.

We are implementing a strategic plan with an emphasis on teacher recruitment, retention and reward; curriculum; finance; and, community and family engagement. Our strategic plan is designed to raise levels of academic achievement and sets a course for Confluence to become the leading charter school network in St. Louis.

We emphasize professional development for teachers, trauma-informed training and restorative justice practices to reduce discipline and suspensions. Our lead teachers, department chairs, and curriculum coordinators are experts on the ground providing direct support to teachers and students minute by minute. We implement newly written curriculum that’s aligned with Missouri Learning Standards. Curriculum is revised as standards change by our leading faculty and external experts. We’re developing a culture that recognizes opportunities for improvement in parent engagement and community partnerships as evidenced by our first school health-based clinic.

Setting a goal of full accreditation as a public charter school, earning at least 70 percent on Missouri School Improvement Program ratings, is within immediate reach. This is evidenced by an APR score of 54.2 percent in 2016 and an increase to 63.2 percent in 2017. In 2013-14, the APR score was 28.3.

What has change looked like in our schools? Advanced Placement classes – a biomedical track; enhanced science, technology, engineering and math; dualenrollment and dual-credit with local colleges and universities; internships for juniors and seniors; expanded career-technical education programs; project-based learning, small group instruction, makerspace and design-thinking to foster creativity in students, social-emotional curriculum and new textbooks.

In February, 2017 the Missouri State Board of Education approved a renewed charter agreement between Confluence and the University of Missouri-Columbia. The agreement clearly outlines expectations for academic improvement and actions if we don’t reach our goals. We are confident that our students will continue to make gains.

As CEO, it’s my responsibility to lead our schools to success. It’s also my responsibility to keep us focused and not let our efforts be derailed. I think Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best: “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable … Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” Candice Carter-Oliver is chief executive officer of Confluence Academies.

Candice Carter-Oliver

CRASH

Townsal Woolfolk and 49-yearold Mikel Neil.

The St. Louis County police car was nowhere to be seen, and St. Louis County police didn’t arrive on the scene while Johnson was present – which was about 45 minutes, Johnson said. Looking at the crashed car, Johnson could also tell that the vehicle had gone into a “spin out.”

“You can tell the vehicle was hit on the rear end and made to go into a spin and that caused the vehicle to go out of control,” Johnson said.

Although Johnson was present and willing, no law enforcement agent asked for his statement. A woman in her 20s who saw the accident gave a statement to Berkeley Police and the Missouri Highway Patrol. She that the county police car hit the vehicle before it crashed, Johnson said. He knows because he stayed with her on the scene. The woman also told them that the St. Louis County Police had been chasing

FRANKS

Continued from A1

Continued from A1 so different now?

And then I thought about the image of his body lying in the street. You could have been in Chicago the moment you heard about Mike Brown being killed, right around noon. You could have hopped in your car, got on Highway 55 and drove 85 miles an hour to Ferguson and, when you got there, you would still have seen his body lying on the ground – four and a half hours later.

We were there in Ferguson on August 9, 2014, and this young man’s body was in the street for four and a half hours. That’s something that would never happen in Clayton, Ladue, the Central West End. So why did it happen here? I don’t care how you feel about the situation. That’s not OK.

When I first got out there, I saw something that I’ve never

the vehicle. It goes against county police’s policy to pursue a vehicle if a felony has not been committed. Until the surrounding community started raising questions, the St. Louis County Police had told the media that there was no highspeed pursuit of the vehicle.

St. Louis County Police told The St. Louis American that their officers from the Central County Precinct attempted a traffic stop of a vehicle for violating a red light signal at the intersection of Airport Road and Dade.

“The vehicle fled from the attempted traffic stop and crashed shortly thereafter, resulting in a fatal accident at Airport Road and Tyndall Drive,” a police spokesman said.

On August 17, Sergeant Shawn McGuire, a spokesman for the county police, stated in an email to The American that they cannot comment on the case while the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s investigation into the incident is underway. He said the county police also initiated an internal investigation into the police

seen before: people from all walks of life, every kind of background, everybody upset, crying, angry – thousands of people gathered in these same streets that we drive up and down each day. But if you saw the news clips, how many people looked at that and thought, “Riot”?

How many of us have been so mad at something where we hit a door or kicked a trash can or hit an object that had nothing to do with why we were mad? So just imagine somebody mad because their community is systematically oppressed.

You walk into a store, and you have to pay to more for bread than someone in a different neighborhood. You have a job where you’re not making a livable wage, but you still got a couple kids to take care of. You don’t live paycheck to paycheck, you live paycheck to Friday. You run the chance of getting pulled over, simply for the color of

officers’ actions that night.

However, on August 16, McGuire told KTVI Fox 2 that “there was never a chase.” The American spoke with McGuire on August 20 and asked about his statement to KTVI Fox 2.

“At the time, we were told there wasn’t a pursuit,” McGuire responded. “That was based on what our officers said, based on our quick internal investigation. Then as the week went on, our chief just basically took a look at the situation and said it’s not going to hurt if we just open up an internal investigation and do further investigating on our officers.”

Missouri Highway Patrol spokesman Dallas Thompson said the investigation includes looking into whether or not the car was struck by the St. Louis County Police vehicle or any other vehicle before it crashed.

“We are working well with the family to get to the bottom of the incident,” Thompson said.

The victims’ family members and community leaders held a press conference on August 16 at the site of

your skin – and that’s going to make you mad.

And then you walk outside and you find out that a young man has been killed, right in front of your apartment, and his body has been out here for four and a half hours. So, on August 9, 2014, what happened is that a bottle that had been shook for all these years, someone just abruptly took the top off.

We were out there for 400 days straight, peacefully protesting. A lot of people don’t know that because the cameras left. The folks who came to exploit Ferguson, they left. The stars who came to get their pictures and stand in front of the burned-down QuikTrip with their hands up, they left.

But we were still there. The pepper spray, the tear gas, it was still happening. Officers were upset because they were tired, because they had been out there for 12, 14, 16 hours. All of that still happening, 400 days straight.

In those 400 days, I began

the accident and said they are starting their own investigation.

“I was here Saturday when I got the bad news in the morning,” said Clara Cheeks, mother of Mikel Neil. “I came here and I said, ‘This does not look like a fatal one-car accident.’ I plan to get to the bottom of it. I’m not going to stop. I’m asking my God to give me strength.”

On August 20, Mikel’s older brother, Darryl Neil, showed The American a video from a business that was three streets or 0.3 miles away from the crash on Airport Road. In the video, a police car is clearly chasing another vehicle.

KTVI Fox 2 shared the video with St. Louis County Police on Monday, said McGuire who briefly watched it on his cell phone.

“It’s clear that these officers are attempting to stop this vehicle,” McGuire said. “What’s not clear is whether they were in pursuit of the vehicle or not because we don’t have a time frame of how long this happened.”

At the time of the accident, Johnson said that he spoke with a 911 dispatcher and stated,

to think, “You know what? We can protest, we can march, we can be upset. I’m willing to give my life for what I believe in. But, what’s next?” I started talking to people. I began working on policecommunity relationships. I began to mentor in my community. I started a program to help our youth get jobs. Then, somebody came to me and said, “You should run for office.”

Run for office? I had never even voted because I was taught that my vote didn’t count. We didn’t have representatives or elected officials who showed up in our community and talked to us about the importance of local politics, or how these decisions affect our lives every day. Nobody came to my ‘hood and taught me that.

When I decided to run for state representative, representing the 78th District in St. Louis, I had all of these establishment politicians

“A St. Louis County officer was involved but yet he kept going.”

On August 16, McGuire told KTVI Fox 2 that this was not the case and that the county police were the first responders. However, Johnson said that it took Berkeley Police and the Berkeley Fire Department 20 minutes to arrive at the scene, not the county police.

McGuire told The American on August 20 that, “We did go back to the scene. I know that for a fact, maybe not right way, because Highway Patrol called us 45 minutes after the accident. Our commander with those two same officers went back to the scene.”

Johnson said while he was at the scene, he heard Berkeley officers say that they didn’t hear about the chase because the call never came over the radio. Since the incident was in Berkeley, that police department should have been contacted, he said.

“There was never call for dispatch, even though he was in pursuit,” Johnson said. “That pursuit was never called in.”

At the press conference, the family questioned why

telling me, “Do not run.” They said, “The family that you’re running against, they are powerful.” They tried to strike fear in me.

Obviously, these people didn’t know me. I survived the death of my nine-year-old brother, who was used as a human shield during crossfire. I survived 168 funerals before I turned 30. Surely I could survive a political race.

My opponent raised a lot of money. We didn’t raise a lot of money. But the thing we did differently? We talked to the people. We talked to the people that the establishment forgot.

On Election Day, when the numbers came in, not only did we win, we won with 76 percent of the vote – 2,234 votes, to be exact. That was more votes than anybody got in our district’s history. I won. The kid from 4300 Gibson, with all these tattoos on my face, the one who raps, who was in the front lines of Ferguson, pepper-sprayed, teargassed, I won. My community won. The folks who look like me, who come from where I came from — we all won.

In my community, I was taught everything but how to love. I was taught how to survive. I was taught how to fight. I was taught some things that I shouldn’t have been taught. But I was never taught how to love. What taught me love was those 400 days in Ferguson. Real conversations

the Missouri Highway Patrol only took one statement at the crime scene. Trooper Dallas Thompson said no other witnesses wanted to go on record.

“We weren’t trying to hide anything,” Thompson said. “We did not know who the witnesses were at that time.” When asked why investigators had not reached out to Johnson – who identified himself on the 911 dispatch call – Thompson said that they had not yet obtained the 911 tapes. Mikel had six older siblings – mainly brothers – and his tight-knit family came out to the press conference. Mikel’s mother was active in the Universal African People’s Organization (UAPO), which organized the event.

“We feel what happened tragically Friday is a reflection of critical issues that’s impacting our community,” said Zaki Baruti, a leader of the UAPO. “Who patrols our community? Where do those officers live? Too many times, you have people coming from outside our community who don’t give a damn about our community.”

with people who, even if they didn’t come from where I come from, would stand with me now and fight with me. And that’s what’s going to fix what’s going on: talking to each other, understanding each other. Don’t stand by when you see something being done that’s wrong. Get involved, however it is you want to get involved, whether it’s politics, whether it’s community activism. No matter what it is. Giving up is not a choice for me, because when I give up on those hard conversations, when I give up on those people from the rural areas or those white folks or the Republicans, when I give up on them, in my mind, I’m giving up on being that person who changes their mind or changes their heart. My grandmother always said, “You might be the only Bible someone ever reads.” So don’t give up on even one chance to change the world around you. Bruce Franks Jr. (D-St. Louis) represents the 78th District in the Missouri House of Representatives.

“Homegrown Black Males” is a partnership between HomeGrown STL at the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis and The St. Louis American, edited by Sean Joe, Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor and associate dean at the Brown School, and Chris King, managing editor of The American

HALEY

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all the students’ mothers to go back and obtain degrees, which many did with her help.

She initiated programs that empowered the community’s most vulnerable residents.

Teachers worked to motivate high school students to explore math and science, and professional artists lent their talents to students of all ages. The center also reached entire families with its health, counseling and dental services.

“She was always looking out for people and always wanted people to do their best,” said Janina Turley, the former Project Success program director at the East St. Louis Center, who was elevated into her position by Haley. “Even when you didn’t have confidence, she built your confidence.”

SIUE Chancellor Randy Pembrook, one of Haley’s former students, said, “Her work in furthering the East St. Louis Center, and particularly arts education there, has benefitted thousands of students over the years.”

On Saturday, September 29, Haley will receive the Lifetime Achiever in Education Award from the St. Louis American Foundation at the Salute to Excellence in Education Awards Gala at the America’s Center. Proceeds from the foundation’s four annual Salute to Excellence events benefit community grants as well as scholarships for local minority students. In 2018 alone, the St. Louis American Foundation and its educational, corporate and individual supporters will foster a record-breaking $1 million in minority scholarships and community grants.

Another hallmark that stands out in Haley’s career is becoming the first woman to chair Lincoln University’s Board of Trustees.

“A couple of the men walked out of the meeting, but I was the chair for five years,” she said. Haley studied music

education at Lincoln University and graduated in 1945. She comes from five generations of college-educated people, she said, and her grandparents and parents always stressed the importance of higher education. Her father, John Randolph, graduated from Gammon Theological Seminary and was an African Methodist Episcopal Church minister. Haley’s mother, Willie Smith, graduated from Lincoln Institute, later to become Lincoln University, and worked as a teacher before she married. “I went to Lincoln University because my mother went there,” she said. “I grew up hearing all the fun times they had, and how they had to persevere to achieve what they wanted.”

Haley began teaching at

East St. Louis Lincoln High School, where she graduated in 1941. She taught in East St. Louis for three years, married real-estate broker David Haley, and then in 1950 went to work at J. Milton Turner School, a neighborhood school for African-American children in the Kirkwood School District.

When the Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court decision was handed down, Kirkwood integrated Turner School and its white counterpart, Nipher Junior High. Haley was one of four black teachers who went to teach at Nipher, and she became the vocal music director.

“There were 1,500 parents who signed a petition that said they didn’t want us,” she told SIUE students at a talk in 2017.

During the first year of school, Haley took her classroom choir to a competition in Mehlville. “One of the judges at the competition tremendously praised my choir. The next year, everybody wanted their child to be in my class.”

But there were still hardships, she said.

“Many of the teachers didn’t speak to me,” Haley told the SIUE students. “When I walked into the teacher’s lounge, they would stop talking, because they were talking about me. Don’t believe other people’s bad opinion about you. My mom always taught us to walk tall and hold our head high. And that’s what I’ve done.”

Haley spent more than 20 years at the district. Then she joined the SIUE faculty in 1972

as an assistant professor in the Department of Music. She rose through the SIUE ranks to associate professor in 1978 and to professor in 1984. She was named professor emeritus in 1993 by the SIUE Department of Music upon her retirement.

In 1994, SIUE’s minority scholarship program was named the Johnetta Haley Scholars Academy in honor of her many contributions to the university and to the East St. Louis community. Today, SIUE has 360 Johnetta Haley Scholars.

In January, Haley received the Lifetime Achiever Award from the Arts and Education Council. One of her former students, Michael Hamilton, is now artistic director at Stages St. Louis.

“My life’s work has been

in the arts,” Hamilton told the council. “I view the arts as the ultimate way to reach out into a community and the ultimate way to make contact with a human being. And Johnetta was the person who that put me on that path.”

Dwayne Buggs, dean of arts at Central VPA High School and also a former student, said, “I feel that God has gifted her with an innate radar. She can see the needs of students and goes out of her way to help them.” Haley has continued to be active in the community, dedicated to many organizations. She’s approaching her Diamond Anniversary with Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. She is a member of the Gateway Chapter of The Links, Inc. She has served on the Board of Trustees of Stillman College and served as chair of the Illinois Committee on Black Concerns in Higher Education. She held offices or served on the boards of many other civic organizations. Haley had two children, Karen Douglas and the late Michael Haley. The apples of her eye are her grandson Jonathan Haley, his wife Jessica and her great-grandson Braylon. She had a 23-year relationship with Phillip Hampton, an accomplished painter and SIUE art professor, who died in December 2016.

“Today, I can’t believe we’re still going through some of the same things,” Haley told SIUE students in 2017. “But I’m 94 (now 95), and I’ve survived, and you can, too.”

The 2018 Salute to Excellence in Education Gala will be held at 6 p.m. Saturday, September 23, 2017 at the America’s Center Ballroom, following a reception at 5 p.m. Tickets are on sale now. Individual tickets are $85 each/$850 table, and VIP/Corporate tickets are $1,500 table. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.stlamerican. com and click on Salute to Excellence, or call 314-5338000.

Johnetta Haley (right) with her daughter, Karen Douglas. On September 29, Johnetta Haley will receive the Lifetime Achiever in Education Award from the St. Louis American Foundation at the Salute to Excellence in Education Awards Gala.

Charlottesville should be remembered as a warning

By Karen J. Aroesty

For The St. Louis American

A year ago, the nation was gripped by the shocking scene of hundreds of white supremacists taking to the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia shouting racist and anti-Semitic chants.

Yes, some wore polo shirts while others waved Nazi flags, their message was clear: Non-whites and minorities have no place in today’s America.

During Charlottesville, the so-called “alt right” showed us they were no longer just an internet nuisance, but a real-world movement that could gather more than 600 extremists for an event where raw hatred was tangible. The streets rang out with racist shouts of neoNazis, Klan and agitators who put aside their differences to gather in an unprecedented show of unity. If you hadn’t see something like that before, the rally was a moment of awakening to the hatred that

Guest Columnist Karen J. Aroesty

many of us assumed was a relic of history. “Unite the Right” attracted participants from at least 36 states, including Missouri. So while Charlottesville was the geographic locus for protestors, the ideas behind the rally generated interest among people from across the country. In today’s political climate, white supremacists are more bold than ever, spreading vitriol online, on college campuses and in our communities.

The data reflects this:

A recent ADL report shows incidents of white supremacist propaganda on college campuses more than tripling in the 2017-2018 school year from the previous academic year. At least four Missouri campuses were impacted.

Much has recently been shared about the idea that Charlottesville was not the kind of victory hoped for by event organizers. Rather than serving as a unifier, the movement appears in a state

Rauner is running away from his record – and Trump

As summer begins to wind down and we ease into the autumn months ahead, I am beginning to smell the distinct aroma of the fall brawl of Illinois politricks and what may be a major beat down in the governor’s race. And if the early endorsements are any indication (minus any last-minute bombshells), then

of perpetual disarray, suffering from self-inflicted wounds.

We can’t forget that anti-racist counter-protestor Heather Heyer was killed after the protest descended into violence and a white supremacist drove his car into a crowd - an unconscionable tragedy.

One year later, the lingering effects of the postCharlottesville backlash and the division and disunity it caused within the movement are evident in white supremacist Jason Kessler’s efforts to organize an anniversary event

in Washington, D.C. The announcement led to infighting among key white supremacist figures, and many groups and individuals, including Richard Spencer, Matthew Heimbach and the anti-Semitic and racist Identity Evropa

But the movement that organized Charlottesville is hardly on its last legs. In fact, while the backlash against the so-called “alt right” hurt many of its leading spokespeople, it has not, as some have claimed, influenced a decline of the movement as a whole. Other

white supremacists have picked up the banner and continued their activities.

There is good news though: In the wake of “Unite the Right,” decent people and allies in many communities have shown a willingness to stand up and publicly reject hate groups and their messages. Regional campuses responded as well.

In November 2017, ADL joined with the U.S. Conference of Mayors to announce a joint plan to fight extremism and bigotry in response to the hate and violence in Charlottesville.

More than 300 mayors from 45 states joined this important initiative to work with public and private sectors to reject hate. We thank Brian Treece (Columbia), Eileen Weir (Independence), Sly James Jr. (Kansas City), and Lyda Krewson (St. Louis) for their commitment to the Mayor’s Compact, but there’s still work to do.

ADL will commit resources in the next year working with mayors and partners in The Fetzer Institute, The Aspen Institute, Charles Koch Institute, Center for American Progress and the

National Immigration Forum, among others. Our focus is on gathering public and private sector leaders to build capacity for local communities to challenge extremism. Ideas shared will concentrate on reconciling the First and Second Amendments and public safety; on the role of public schools and policing against extremism; on building alliances and using the bully pulpit, on “otherization” of immigrant communities; and on extremism in the context of American democracy and history. The first of these important summits will be in St. Louis at Washington University in late November. Charlottesville should be remembered as a warning: This is what happens when bigots unify. It will take ongoing and coordinated effort by public officials, private industry, corporate and civic institutions to ensure that society’s hateful elements are pushed back to the fringe where they belong.

Karen J. Aroesty is regional director of ADL Heartland, serving Missouri, Eastern Kansas and Southern Illinois.

Governor Bruce Rauner should be very worried in his bid for re-election and for good reason.

Former President Barack Obama has weighed in with a ringing endorsement of Democratic nominee J.B. Pritzker, as have U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, both Democrats.

Meanwhile, Rauner, if he were a dancer, would be in full running man mode, running away from his record as well as from the current occupant of the White House. During Trump’s recent appearance at Granite City Steel, Rauner was conspicuously and unapologetically MIA. Pritzker quickly called Rauner out, saying, “It seems to me the governor is avoiding spending any time with the president. He’s obviously avoiding Trump.” Pritzker is right. What sitting Republican governor would avoid a photo op with a sitting Republican president, in front

of a crowd of American steel workers? It’s the stuff that campaign literature is made of. Perhaps Rauner is afraid of the optics of such an appearance, especially in a blue state like Illinois, compounded by his abysmal record as governor. Trump lost Illinois during the presidential election, and Rauner has enough problems without carrying the Donald’s baggage too. In fact, even the leading conservative magazine

The National Review referred to Rauner as the “worst Republican governor in America.”

Consider that during his tenure Rauner presided over

a state budget stalemate that lasted for 2 ½ years, racked up $16 billion in unpaid bills, halted afterschool programs for the poor, closed mental health and rehabilitation facilities statewide, and cut funding to institutions of higher education, causing many to teeter on the brink of closure. Rauner can’t run on his record, so his only option is to run away from it. His billionaire pedigree as an equity investor doesn’t resonate with workers in the state. He comes across as aloof and detached from the kitchen-table issues impacting Illinois voters.

On the other hand, Pritzker, also a billionaire, has a history of creating jobs through his high-tech Chicago business incubator, which is credited for

creating 7,000 jobs and causing Chicago to become known as “Silicon Prairie.” Additionally, Pritzker has a history of public service, is passionate about expanding childcare and early childhood education, and is an advocate of a $15-an-hour minimum wage, taxing recreational marijuana to generate approximately $700 million per year, and pushing through a progressive income tax that would raise taxes on the wealthiest residents. If all of these variables come into play, then J.B. Pritzker is likely to be elected as the new occupant of the Illinois governor’s mansion come November.

Email: jtingram_1960@ yahoo.com; Twitter@ JamesTIngram.

Columnist James Ingram

League of Women Voters vows to clean up Missouri Legislature

The League of Women Voters is famous for educating the voting public without taking sides. But, look out – this highly motivated, nonpartisan group of women voters is taking a side. The League of Women Voters of Missouri held a series of press conferences around Missouri last week endorsing Amendment 1 to clean up Missouri politics on the November 6 ballot statewide.

“The League of Women Voters believes in representative government and is endorsing this bipartisan effort to clean up state politics,” said Kathleen Boswell of Sedalia, president of League of Women Voters of Missouri. “This constitutional amendment will take power away from special interests and give it back to the people. League members encourage all Missouri voters to vote Yes on Amendment 1.”

In St. Louis, the press conference was held August 15 at City Hall.

transparency, and accountability in state government:

• eliminate almost all lobbyist gifts in the General Assembly

• require that legislative records be open to the public

• lower campaign contribution limits for state legislative candidates

• require politicians to wait two years if they want to become lobbyists

• and ensure that neither political party is given an unfair advantage when new maps are drawn after the next census, by adding criteria for fairness and competitiveness of the overall map, which will be reviewed by a citizen commission and keep compact and contiguous districts.

“This is our chance to put Missourians before big donors, lobbyists and partisan games,” said Louise Wilkerson, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Metro St. Louis. “Amendment 1 will increase fairness, integrity, transparency and accountability in Missouri’s General Assembly. Because the League of Women Voters believes in good government and equal rights for all, we are proud to endorse Amendment 1 to clean up the Missouri Legislature.” Here is how Amendment 1 will increase integrity,

On those lobbyist gifts: “Politicians in the Missouri General Assembly have taken over $12 million in gifts from lobbyists who have business before the legislature,” said Kelly Wood, a past league president. “These gifts include liquor, sports events, concerts, international travel and expensive dinners.”

On those legislative maps: “Because of the way maps are drawn, candidates are essentially unopposed and they don’t have to work hard to get to know their voters,” said Ann Elwell, league board member. “They instead work hard to get to know their big donors. That’s not the way our democracy is set up.” To learn more, visit http://

www.cleanmissouri.org.

Diversity and Democrats

The effort to make the Missouri Democratic Party more inclusive of candidates who oppose the abortion option has failed.

An amendment to the party platform had been proposed by former state Rep. Joan Barry – and passed – that reads: “We respect the conscience of each Missourian and recognize that members of our party have deeply held and sometimes differing positions on issues of personal conscience, such as abortion. We recognize the diversity of views as a source of strength and we welcome into our ranks all Missourians who may hold different positions on this issue.”

State Rep. Stacey Newman (D-Richmond Heights) and St. Louis Alderwoman Annie Rice (8th Ward) were among the leaders of the pushback.

Newman wrote in a column for The American (that she later retracted, no doubt seeing a path to victory): “Did the party members voting on the platform balk at ‘diversity of opinion’ on racism, equality, voting rights, immigration or firearms? No, just women’s private reproductive decisions.”

Rice, who is also a Democratic committeewoman, pushed back with a tongue-

in-cheek amendment (which she then withdrew) asking for “diversity of opinion” on rightto-work laws.

Galloway on Ferguson

How are they doing down there at Ferguson Municipal Court – the muni court whose depredations helped spawn a revolution?

Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway issued a report following up on her 2017 audit report of the court that found disorganized, damaged and unsecured case files, as well as a lack of oversight that resulted in at least $1,400 in missing funds.

The follow-up review found that while personnel have not pursued criminal prosecution or restitution for the missing money, they have worked to implement new procedures to better prevent and detect loss or theft in the future.

In 2017, Galloway was forced to take the unprecedented step of hiring a mold remediation company to recover and preserve available records in order to complete the audit. No effort has been made to remediate the remaining records and older records continue to be housed in an unsecure location.

The municipal division has instituted new procedures to ensure independent reviews of

The League of Women Voters of Metro St. Louis endorsed Amendment 1 to clean up Missouri politics on the November 6 ballot at City Hall on August 15

records, financial activity and modifications to transactions.

The court also has a system in place to better document reviews of closed cases and dismissed tickets.

In 2016, Galloway – who is on the November 6 ballot against a Republican challenger who has her own challenged financial records – was presented with the Missouri NAACP 2016 Game Changer Award for her municipal court work.

Governor Parson on the border

The Missouri border is a long way from the Mexican border – about 1,000 miles (it’s 943 miles from the Missouri border town of Ridgedale to the Mexican border town of Reynosa). But Governor Mike Parson is strutting his stuff to look as tough on the border – the Mexican border – as President Donald “All My Campaign Operatives are Going to Prison” Trump

The news hook for Parson: Four Missouri National Guard soldiers are serving on the southwest border, providing aerial surveillance from their UH-72 Lakota helicopter. Since arriving in Arizona earlier this summer, the crew has executed approximately 400 flight hours in support of the federal border security mission.

“By patrolling our borders, we can take a proactive stand against human trafficking, violence, terrorism, and illegal immigration from spiraling out of control,” Parson said in a statement of solidarity with Trump’s border policies, which have resulted in the separation of thousands of children from their families, many not yet reunited. “Our National Guard soldiers have done a great service to their country in their

critical support role and have represented Missouri very well.” Parson is a good old boy and former county sheriff from Wheatland, Missouri – 996 miles from the Mexican border – who stands by his president, yet tries to come across a little kinder and gentler than the bull in the White House china shop. “This will always be a nation of immigrants,” Parson said in his statement, which concludes: “The American dream will never be lost.” Tell that to the Mexican children in American cages, guv’na.

Madigan sues Trump

Missourians – whose state Attorney General Josh Hawley is a Trump toady trying to gut Obama-administration protections for people with preexisting medical conditions – can only gaze across the Mississippi River at a state with an AG who knows how to stand up to this fraud of a POTUS.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit against Trump International Hotel & Tower (Trump Tower) in Chicago for violating environmental laws and jeopardizing fish and aquatic life in the Chicago River. She filed her lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court against Trump Tower for failing to comply with environmental laws that protect rivers and lakes. The suit alleged Trump Tower releases millions of gallons of water into the Chicago River per day without having conducted federally mandated studies of the impact its facility has on the river’s fish and without the required National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. “Trump Tower continues to take millions of gallons of water from the Chicago River every day without a permit and without any regard to how it may be impacting the river’s ecosystem,” Madigan said. “I filed my lawsuit to make sure Trump Tower cannot continue violating the law.”

Surgery jumpstarts journey to weight ‘wonderland’

Kaliantha Darden Riddick has lost 130 pounds following surgery and changes to her diet

By Sandra Jordan Of The St. Louis American

The last year and a half has been full of changes and realizing goals for Kaliantha Darden Riddick, starting with the fact that others see a lot less of her – now at 130 pounds and counting. When excess weight began to cause other health issues, the college financial officer decided upon gastric sleeve surgery to lose weight.

In a vertical sleeve gastrectomy, a large portion of the stomach is removed laparoscopically, and what remains is a

n “Everything about your diet completely changes, so your portions change.”

– Kaliantha Darden Riddick

banana-shaped stomach that is only about 10 to 20 percent of its original size. This weightloss procedure restricts the amount of food a person is able to consume without immediate

negative consequences (like vomiting or diarrhea). Hormonal changes as the result of the surgery reduce the risk of potentially lifethreating disease.

Darden Riddick’s procedure was performed in April 2017 at SSM Health DePaul Hospital in Bridgeton by bariatric surgeon Mario Morales, M.D.

“There are few other surgeries that can actually reverse the effects of those very difficult diseases to manage, like the diabetes, like the high blood pressure, and

See RIDDICK, A13

Healthy food fun at Obama Elementary

By Bridjes O’Neil Normandy Schools Collaborative

Like the nation’s former First Lady Michelle Obama, teachers at Barack Obama Elementary School are using gardening to teach students about health, math, and science.

Working under the guidance of teachers and Monsanto volunteers, students at Obama Elementary recently took to the school grounds to prep planting beds for fall veggies and greens native to Missouri. The volunteers were participants in the Monsanto Gives Back volunteer event held in partnership with Gateway Greening. Gateway Greening supports over 60 In-Network Youth Gardens, including at

See HEALTHY, A13

Deanne Ward, a teacher at Barack Obama Elementary School, shows a garden worm to third grade students Jamorie Dickerson, Harmoni Morton, Atlas Harrington, and DeMarion Cain. Ward and Cardelia Brand are establishing a garden club at the school. “The club will allow students to interact with the soil and discover where their food comes from,” Ward said. “They see a tomato in the grocery store, but they don’t know that they can actually grow it.”

By Joel Sjerven For The St. Louis American

Trauma-informed care offers a paradigm shift in how we treat people who have suffered from trauma. Instead of asking, “What is wrong with you?” trauma-informed care suggests we ask, “What has happened to you?”

Currently our policies punish asylumseekers for attempting to seek a better life for their family, escaping violence and poverty. What would our country look like if we replaced our punitive approach to immigration with a trauma-informed care approach? Also, how could St. Louis contrast our policies against those of Trump?

Under Trump’s presidency we read reports of massive traumas inflicted upon unauthorized immigrants in the name of the United States. Families arriving to the border seeking asylum are often turned away by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), coerced to enter illegally. When they do so, they are detained. Initially, they are held in the Icebox – a sealed truck that blasts air conditioning. This is known as hypothermic torture.

Hypothermic torture was used widely in the War on Terror after other forms of torture were stopped. At Quantico, hypothermic torture was also used against Chelsea Manning, the political prisoner who released thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks. Now, families seeking refuge in the United States are treated as prisoners of war or political prisoners.

n Having a parent removed from the house for incarceration is considered a specific type of childhood trauma.

In St. Louis, detainees have suffered a similar fate. People being held at the Medium Security Institution –better known as the Workhouse - were held without air conditioning. They faced temperatures as high as 125 degrees during last year’s summer. They were heard yelling in pain, begging for bearable living conditions. Mayor Lyda Krewson ignored their pleas until protests formed outside of the Workhouse demanding air conditioning.

Even when detention centers are appropriately climate controlled, they are neither cost-effective nor humane. Missouri prisons have a 60 percent recidivism rate. People leaving jail have been removed from society for years. They will have a harder time finding a job and are no longer eligible for subsidized housing. At the Workhouse, the average stay is 236 days, and the average bail is $20,000-25,000. Those numbers equate to 80 percent of a calendar year and 80 percent of the average annual salary in Missouri. The average detainee held here will forgo almost a year’s worth of two principle resources, although 90 percent of the detainees there haven’t been convicted of a crime.

Incarceration is particularly cruel when used to punish people fleeing violence in their country of origin. Incarcerating people based on their race is a civil rights violation, yet there are eight times as many black detainees than whites held at the Workhouse – paralleling the racist policy we see taking place on the Southern border.

After the Icebox, children are stripped from their parents. Parents are told that the children need to be questioned or bathed,

At her heaviest, Kaliantha Darden Riddick weighed 393 pounds.

So far, with exercise and sticking to a healthy and portioned meal regimen, Kaliantha Darden Riddick has lost 130 pounds following gastric sleeve bariatric surgery to lose weight.

Photo by Wiley Price

Gateway Greening, Monsanto, WUSTL partner with Normandy Schools on garden club, STEM

Photo by Bridjes O’Neil

SJERVEN

Continued from A12

leaving the parents to count the seconds until they realize their children aren’t returning. Upon separation, the children are relocated into other warehouses serving as detention centers, places such as former WalMart buildings. In these warehouses, it is reported they aren’t allowed to touch or hug siblings or cousins, and are given foil blankets with which to sleep. These detention centers have refused to allow cameras in, and initially denied entrance to U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon).

Similarly, Workhouse operations have remained obscured in secrecy. On August 4, 2017 Alderwoman Megan Ellyia Green snuck journalists and activists into the Workhouse under the guise of graduate social work students. These journalists were following up on reports of mold, rats, roaches, and broken toilets in the Workhouse. Accusations of living conditions in immigration detention and the Workhouse beg the question: What is happening to those behind these closed doors?

Research shows that trauma experienced by children before the age of 18, such as incarceration or separation from one’s parents, will change their brain development and alter their lives, setting them on a trajectory where they are more likely to become homeless, incarcerated, and have medical, mental health, and substance use conditions.

Not only does each childhood trauma change one’s life, but each additional trauma has an escalating impact. Those with more than six types of trauma can expect to die as much as 20 years earlier than their untraumatized peers. Having a parent removed from the house for incarceration is considered a specific type of childhood trauma.

Protective factors, such as the presence of a supportive parent, can help people deal with stress. When children are traumatized and removed from their parents, the impact is compounded. A petition penned by Dr. Dana Sinopoli and Dr. Stephen Soldz states, “To pretend that separated children do not grow up with the shrapnel of this traumatic experience embedded in their minds is to disregard everything we know about child development, the brain, and trauma.” The petition has been signed by over 13,000 mental health professionals.

HEALTHY

Continued from A12

Barack Obama Elementary and, soon, Normandy’s Jefferson Elementary, as well as other schools throughout St. Louis city and county. The nonprofit educates and empowers people to strengthen their communities through gardening and urban agriculture. Obama Elementary first partnered with Gateway Greening in 2011 after installing a garden at the school.

“We’re improving life-

RIDDICK

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heart disease and those types of things,” Dr. Morales says via SSM web page video. “From my perspective... this surgical intervention has a huge impact on patient’s lives.”

For weeks before her procedure, Darden Riddick was on a liquid diet to drop some weight prior to the surgery. She said her recovery was longer and more difficult due to a reaction to anesthesia,

Rather than address the causes of poverty or crime underlying illegal immigration, our border policies do the opposite - forcing more violence upon immigrants, punishing them for the trauma they’ve faced. In the same manner, the Workhouse punishes people for their poverty by jailing them if they are unable to pay costly bail.

How can largely Democratic cities differentiate themselves from Trump and the Republicans? In deep blue St. Louis, where “resist” is ubiquitous, we must insure our policies don’t separate people from their families and further traumatize vulnerable communities. We should enact a bold position of resistance and declare incarceration for what it is – an inhumane practice that disproportionately separates people of color from their families, resources, and future opportunities. By allowing the Workhouse to exist, we are complicit in a particularly cruel form of bigoted detention.

A city lead by traumainformed governance would insure that those with the greatest needs receive the most support, not the worst punishment. Trauma-informed policies work to recognize, respond to, and prevent trauma, and they can keep families together. It is time to utilize these evidence based practices to prevent social problems instead of responding to them. The group www. CloseTheWorkhouse.org is working to build resilient communities where people are less likely to experience homelessness, incarceration, disabling medical conditions, and drug and alcohol problems.

As people across the country organize to build resistance against Trump, we need people across St. Louis to organize against local policies that inflict the same harm. While people fight nationally to end family separation and detention of immigrant families, people locally must fight to close the Workhouse. Rather than funding policies that only respond to crime, we need policies that prevent crime.

As the mishandling of the immigration crisis is a problem created by Trump, so are the disparate impacts of the Workhouse, a problem created by St. Louis leadership. Both of these examples are symptoms of a systemic problem, which must be overturned. As stated by Inez Bordeaux, organizer for Close the Workhouse, “The very existence of the Workhouse shows me that this city is willing to throw people away.”

science skills and scores, putting science into practice, improving access to healthy and fresh foods,” said Lucy Herleth, school program manager at Gateway Greening. The nonprofit offers a variety of resources for In-Network Youth Gardens like seedlings, monthly educator workshops, site visits, and access to volunteers. Obama Elementary teachers Deanne Ward and Cardelia Brand, who is also a Gateway Greening Youth Garden leader, are establishing a garden club at the school. Through Gateway Greening, Ward participated in an educator workshop on how

but she got through it and her results have been beneficial.

“Everything about your diet completely changes, so your portions change,” Darden Riddick said.

However, solid food intake was slow and gradual, and she started with several more weeks on a liquid diet.

“You have to have a certain amount of protein every day – protein is your friend,” she said. “You drink protein shakes and, initially, you are in a step-up program to get back to solids.”

The long recovery made her

Criminal justice reform as public health intervention

Photo by Wiley Price

American staff

Recognizing the longterm negative health effects that high incarceration rates have on communities, Missouri Foundation for Health has formed a new partnership with the City of St. Louis to address criminal justice reform.

With support from the foundation, St. Louis is teaming up with FUSE Corp, a national nonprofit, to reduce the city’s jail population by 40 percent over the next five years and substantially improve behavioral health care at the facilities.

Through this collaboration the city will hire two external, executivelevel FUSE fellows for 12 months. One will work on bail-bond reform, aiming to decrease the number of low-risk individuals who are awaiting trial in city jails. Another will work to increase the quality, quantity, and timeliness of behavioral health services for justice-involved individuals, ultimately reducing their recidivism rates through increased mental health care access.

The city has the highest incarceration rate in the state, with more than 17,000

to help students start their own gardens.

“The club will allow students to interact with the soil and discover where their food comes from,” Ward said. “They see a tomato in the grocery store, but they don’t know that they can actually grow it.”

Paul Taylor, a fourth-grade student at Obama Elementary, said it is important for students to learn how to grow their own food.

“Because sometimes you aren’t going to have enough money to always go to store and buy something,” Paul said as he turned over soil in a planting bed.

former food temptations not so tempting.

“The shakes that I drank before— the taste of them became too much. They were too sweet,” Darden Riddick said. “Bread and potatoes were my weakness. I can still do some of the potatoes but, bread – it fills me up and I just don’t get enough protein and nourishment out of it, so that taste for bread is completely gone.”

Certain foods are not one the acceptable-to-eat list, like shredded coconut and popcorn, which she said are too hard

individuals cycling through the system every year. In January, there were nearly eight times the number of black male inmates incarcerated in St. Louis jails than white male inmates (1,064 to 138).

According to the Department of Public Safety, in January, the average length of stay for people awaiting felony charges was 236 days. The wait was 250 days for those facing parole violations, and 53 days for those charged only with a misdemeanor. These pretrial wait times can be incredibly destructive for defendants and their families, often leading to job loss and other lifealtering issues. A significant number of those held in pretrial detention would be unlikely to face jail time even if they were convicted. The social cost of these extended pretrial incarcerations is substantial, and the monetary costs weigh on the city as well.

According to the National Council of State Legislators, 64 percent of people in local jails identify as having mental health problems. A pilot project in St. Louis estimated that 87 percent of those incarcerated in the city have a history of substance abuse. These mental and behavioral health issues increase the likelihood of an inmate becoming a repeat offender, yet only one in six

The event was also an opportunity for Obama Elementary teachers to incorporate valuable lessons on STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) in a fun activity. The teachers were inspired by their participation in the STEMpact Teacher Quality (STEM TQ) Institute.

“In STEM TQ, we were taught to combine curricula into one, versus having them segregated,” said Stephanie Fomera, a fourth-grade teacher at Barack Obama Elementary. “Cross-curricular instruction is one of our biggest foci in the Normandy Schools Collaborative.”

to digest, and carbonated beverages are out as well.

Although she misses the burp sensation from a good fizzy soda, Darden Riddick said she has not been tempted to stray from the list and slow down or hinder her weight loss. She eats more frequently and eats much smaller portions. And she does not eat and drink at the same time. An air fryer is her go-to small kitchen appliance for her proteins. On the stove, it’s cooking spray and a nonstick pan. And eating out is not a problem for her. For exercise, Darden

jail inmates receive mental health treatment.

As part of the FUSE fellows’ work to increase behavioral health services, they will partner with the Department of Public Safety to help establish a criminal justice coordinating council. The council will focus on ensuring that the city and partner agencies have the tools they need to support groups working with incarcerated individuals with behavioral and mental health issues.

The council will facilitate increased data sharing, with the goal of better aligning behavioral health, physical health, and criminal justice agencies to improve outcomes for individuals, reduce the use of criminal justice resources, and improve public safety.

Collaborators include Regional Justice Information Service and National Alliance on Mental Illness, St. Louis.

Separately, another fellow will work directly with the mayor’s office, public defenders, prosecutors, judges, police, and other key stakeholders to create a riskassessment tool, in order to promote pretrial detention reform. The aim is to lower bail rates, or find alternatives to bail entirely, which will directly reduce jail populations and eliminate unnecessary barriers

The STEMpact Teacher Quality Institute at Washington University in St. Louis is STEMpact’s flagship teacher training program. STEMpact is focused on closing the achievement gap for students in STEM through innovative professional development programs. The 100-hour, year-long program focuses on “STEMitizing” everyday teaching methods. It’s available to teachers, teacher leaders, instructional coaches, coordinators in grades K-8 who teach, support, or integrate STEM.

“STEM can be implemented easily into our lessons

Riddick said it was about eight weeks out before she could start physical activity.

“I just started walking because you weren’t supposed to do a lot of strenuous activity – they encourage exercise, but in limited portion,” she said. “As you started gaining your strength, they encourage you to walking the stairs or doing a little bit more as you progress through recovery.”

On June 23, Darden Riddick checked off an important bucket-list item that she posted on social media. “Today I accomplished something I

for reentry, recovery, and reintegration to society after a conviction or an acquittal. Partners for this work include The Bail Project; Department of Public Safety; the Missouri State Public Defender System and the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court.

“As the Forward Through Ferguson report clearly states, criminal justice reform is key to promoting equity in our region,” said Robert Hughes, president and CEO of Missouri Foundation for Health. “This project is a step by our city leaders to show that they are serious about emphasizing rehabilitation over incarceration and becoming a model for justice system reform.”

FUSE Corp fellows have an average of 20 years of experience and have worked in 20 different cities throughout the country. St. Louis’ fellows are expected to begin their work this October, with the foundation’s assistance for their placement lasting 12 months. The Mayor’s Office has pledged its support for the fellows, as well as the longer-term goals of this effort.

through gardening,” said Fomera, who obtained her STEM certification after participating in the STEM TQ last year.

Ward agreed with Formera that gardening improves student access to healthier foods and helps students make STEM connections.

“They use math to measure out grids for planting beds,” Ward said. “Science helps to discern plants that grow best in sunlight or shade. They connect it to social studies when we’re talking about plants native to Missouri.”

thought not possible just a year ago ... I walked a 5K with my mom (who beat us) and sister-in-law,” she wrote. “It was for a great cause but it was awesome to be able to complete it.” Thus far, she has dropped eight dress sizes. Looking ahead, Darden Riddick wants to lose another 70 pounds, to get into what she describes as her “wonderland” weight which is any number under 200 pounds. She said, “If I can get down to ‘wonderland,’ then I’ll stop.”

Margaret Sherer protested inhumane at St. Louis Medium Security Institution (the Workhouse) last July. The Missouri Foundation for Health is funding a collaborative effort to reduce the city’s incarcerated population as a public health strategy.

Healthy Kids Kids

Think Before Your Eat!

Ask yourself these questions:

> Do I feel good most of the time?

> Do I have energy (or does your energy go up and down during the day)?

> Can I keep up with my friends?

If you answered “no” to one or more of these questions, it might be time to look at the kinds of food you eat. Food choices are important because the foods you eat are what keep your body strong and moving.

In addition to eating healthy, one of the best ways to be a Healthy Kid is to add daily exercise to your new lifestyle. Before you start—remember to:

> Check with your family doctor. Find out the right kinds of exercise for you.

> Start slowly. Let your body adjust before you gradually increase time, distance, speed, etc.

FoodDiary

Challenge: Keep a food diary for one week. In a notebook, write down every single thing you eat and drink for seven days. At the end of the week, take a look at your diary. How many fruits and vegetables are in there? How many glasses of water? How much soda? Candy? As the Healthy Kids series continues, you’ll learn some very practical, easy changes you can make to your diet that will put you on the road to feeling happier and healthier!

Learning Standards: HPE 2, NH1

> Always stay safe. Exercise in areas that are well-lit and filled with others who are exercising.

> Warm up and cool down. To get the most benefit out of exercise, spend at least a few minutes stretching, walking and bending before and after you exercise.

Want to Challenge Yourself? Set an exercise goal for your first week. On a piece of lined paper write the words “In

Health includes more than just nutrition and exercise. Smart choices, safety and happiness all affect our health. Every single day is filled with opportunities to make smart choices. Look in the newspaper for an example of someone who made a smart choice.

Summarize the article and explain why you think it was the right thing to do.

Learning Standards: HPE2, NH2, NH5, CA3

one week I will be…” and finish the sentence. It could be “I will be walking the neighborhood with my mom at least four nights a week.” After you have completed your weekly goal, go ahead and write out a monthly goal and an exercise goal for the end of the school year. Challenge yourself to increase your exercise level over the next several months.

Learning Standards: HPE2, NH6

Dr. Deonna King, Pharmacist

Where do you work? I am an adjunct professor for St. Louis College of Pharmacy and a staff pharmacist for Schnucks Pharmacy. Where did you go to school? I graduated from Madison Sr. High School and went on to earn a doctorate of pharmacy degree from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville.

What does a pharmacist do? On a day-to-day basis, my job is to make sure everyone that comes to me for help walks away with the items they need to feel better. I make sure I am that one stop shop for improving patients’ daily quality of life.

Why did you choose this career? I chose this profession because I love seeing people smile and living the healthiest life they can every day. Helping people brings me joy. Growing up, I never understood medication and how it works in the body. This profession allowed me to understand how medication works to heal the body. What is your favorite part of the job you have? My favorite part of my job is seeing the students that I mentor in my profession go off into the world and become the change this world needs to see. Seeing my students learn the profession of pharmacy then go out into the community and help change people’s lives brings me so much joy. I also love seeing my customers who felt ill return and thank me for using my knowledge to help heal them.

Learning Standards: HPE6, NH3

Beonthe Lookout...

CLASSROOM SPOTLIGHT

Gateway Elementary School 4th grade teacher

Hopgood,

SCIENCE CORNER

What Is Static Electricity?

Shuffling across the carpet, hand extended to open the door knob… zap! Did you know that is called static electricity? It’s called static because the charges remain in one area for a while, instead of flowing into another area. They are static. Static electricity is all around us—when our hair gets charged, sticks up and won’t cooperate or when our pant legs keep sticking together. How does static electricity work? Remember that everything is made of atoms. Atoms have a proton, neutron, and electron. The electrons spin around the outside. Static electricity is created when two surfaces touch each other

and the electrons jump from one surface to another—one object will have a positive charge, the other will have a negative charge. Similar to a magnet, items with different charges attract, while items with similar charges push away from each other. Want to see static electricity in action? Rub a balloon against your hair (this creates a charge) and see where the balloon will stick. Be sure to try the science experiment to see static electricity in action!

Learning Standards: I can read nonfiction text for main idea and supporting details.

SCIENCE STARS

AFRICAN AMERICAN EDUCATOR AND ENGINEER:

John Brooks Slaughter

John Brooks Slaughter was born in Topeka, Kansas, on March 16, 1934. His mother was a homemaker and his father worked several jobs to support the family. After graduating from Topeka High School in 1951, Slaughter enrolled at Washburn University, and then transferred to Kansas State University. He earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering in 1956. Five years later, he earned his PhD in engineering from UCLA, and 10 years after that he earned another PhD in engineering sciences from University of California, San Diego.

In 1960, Slaughter began his career at the Navy Electronics Laboratory in San Diego. Fifteen years later, he became director of the Applied Physics Lab at the University of Washington. In 1977, he went to work for the National Science Foundation. After serving as Academic Vice President at Washington State University, he became chancellor at the University of Maryland, College Park. While there, Slaughter developed incentives to encourage and recruit African-American students and staff.

SCIENCE INVESTIGATION Magical Electric Corn Starch

Background Information: In this experiment, corn starch will magically seem to jump.

Materials Needed:

• Corn Starch • Vegetable Oil • Mixing Bowl

• Large Spoon • Balloon • Measuring Cup Process:

q Pour ¼ cup cornstarch into the mixing bowl.

w Add ¼ cup vegetable oil and stir. Mixture will begin to thicken.

e Blow up a balloon and tie it closed.

r Statically charge the balloon by rubbing it against your hair.

t Place the charged balloon near a spoonful of the cornstarch mixture.

MATH CONNECTION

Electric power is measured in watts. If you know how many watts an appliance uses, you can calculate the cost to use the appliance. Electric meters measure usage in kilowatt hours (Kwh).

You can use the rate of electricity in your city to calculate the cost.

For example, if you have a 60 watt light bulb and you leave it on for 8 hours, it will use 480 watt hours of electricity. (60 watt X 8 hours = 480 watt hours.)

To find the number of kilowatt hours, divide by 1,000. (480 divided by 1,000 = .48.) To calculate the cost of electricity, you’ll multiply the rate of electricity in your area by the number

DID YOU KNOW?

Observations:

q As you get closer, what happens?

w As you pull the balloon away, what happens?

e What happens when you drip the cornstarch on to the balloon?

r Repeat the e steps above to confirm your observations.

Analyze: When you generate static electricity with the balloon, it has a negative charge. The cornstarch has a neutral charge. When the neutrally charged item is light enough (like the cornstarch), the negative charged object will attract it.

Learning Standards: I can follow sequential directions to complete an experiment. I can analyze the results.

of kilowatt hours used. If the rate is 11.3 cents per kilowatt hour, then running a 60 watt light bulb for 8 hours would cost $.113 x .48 = $.05

For more information on how to read your electric meter, visit: www.glps.net/meterread.htm.

Learning Standards: I can add, subtract, multiply, and divide using a formula to solve a problem.

From 1988-1999, Slaughter was president of Occidental College in Los Angeles, before transferring to the University of Southern California to accept his position as Melbo Professor of Leadership in Education. In the summer of 2000, Slaughter was named CEO and president of The National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc.

For more information about John Brooks Slaughter go to: http://www. thehistorymakers.com/biography.

Slaughter holds many honorary degrees and awards. In 1987, he received the first U.S. Black Engineer of the Year Award. Two years later, he received UCLA’s Medal of Excellence. In 1997, he received Martin Luther King, Jr.’s National Award. In 2004, he received the Arthur M. Bueche Award from the National Academy of Engineering.

Learning Standards: person who has made contributions in the fields of science, technology, and mathematics.

MAP CORNER

Use the newspaper to complete these activities to sharpen your skills for the MAP test.

Activity One — Word Choice: The newspaper is a great resource for building your vocabulary. Look through

headline of the story, the section, and the page number. Have your friend use context clues to guess the meaning of the word. Use a dictionary to verify the meaning of the word.

Activity Two — Energy Awareness: Use the newspaper to find five examples of how you use electricity in your daily life. Are there ways to complete these tasks without using electricity?

Learning Standards: I can use the newspaper to locate information. I can build vocabulary using context clues. I can make text to text connections.

Teachers, if you are using the St. Louis American’s NIE program

Mrs.

looks

of students Landen Smith, Daegen Ndiaye, Elijah Thomas and Peyton Tate as they work a STEM project from the newspaper. Photo: Wiley Price / St. Louis American

A cafe’ that helps workers with disabilities ‘Bloom’

Paraquad’s restaurant offers workforce training in food service

By Ashley Jones For The St. Louis American

“People with disabilities are employed at about half the rate of people without disabilities, so I was looking for a way to impact that unemployment rate,” Aimee Wehmeier, president and CEO of Paraquad, said of Bloom Café, which the organization opened in April. Bloom Café is a social enterprise restaurant that serves the general public and offers a threestep workforce development program, including a 12-week culinary training program, an internship in the café, and then job placement to assist with finding jobs in the community.

“We believe with the right support and the right resources, people with disabilities can work,” Wehmeier said. “We know that one of the biggest barriers for people with disabilities

n “We’ll give anybody a chance, but we have to have an end result of being productive out in the field to help the hospitality industry, which is really hurting for reliable people right now.”

– Chef Joe Wilson Jr., Bloom Café

to employment is lack of skills and lack of opportunities. When you go to Bloom Café, you are supporting job opportunities for people with disabilities. We believe that people should be working in the community.”

Paraquad’s mission is to empower people with disabilities to increase their independence through choice and opportunity.

Colby Brown participates in Bloom Café’s new pilot training program. He has a learning disability, but is flourishing through Bloom Café training classes and hopes to one day start his own business.

“Making it through this program, it just helps me a lot and builds up my confidence,” Brown said. “We are a family, we build each other up, and we all work together as a team. Everybody in the kitchen really are nice people, and they are treating us like family.”

The pilot class started on the first week of June with the goal of training people to work in the restaurant and then advance to other

See BLOOM, B6

women’s pay equity gap is growing

Reuben Reuel is designing fashion for the staff of the forthcoming Angad Arts Hotel, a boutique luxury property in the Grand Center Arts District that will open to the public in November. He is St. Louis-based fashion designer and creator of the brand Demestik. He will “outfit staff with his signature wit, bold prints, and sharp cuts.”

The Reverend Kelli Braggs joined The Gathering’s pastoral team as associate pastor. She is completing a dual degree: Masters of Divinity from Eden Seminary and Masters of Social Work from Washington University. The Gathering is a growing, thriving church with multiple sites throughout the St. Louis area. Their invitational spirit is behind everything they do — all are welcome.

Steven Harmon joined the Normandy Schools Collaborative as coordinator for School Safety. He most recently served as in-house legal counsel for St. Louis Public Schools. He is a retired St. Louis Police officer and a practicing attorney. He has attended the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Academy and has a Level 1 Certification in Kingian Nonviolence from the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolence.

Andre’ Stevens joined the Board of Directors at the Saint Louis Crisis Nursery. He is the Engagement Manager for Daugherty Business Solutions. The Crisis Nursery is committed to the prevention of child abuse and neglect, and provides emergency intervention, respite care, and support to families in crisis. “Kids are our future,” he said, “and sometimes families need help.”

Rosalind Early was named to the Rising Leaders of Color Program by Theatre Communications Group, which provides professional development and networking opportunities to early-career leaders. She is the associate editor for Washington University’s alumni magazine. She has also written for American Theatre Humanities: The Magazine for the National Endowment for the Humanities, and St. Louis Magazine

By Marc H. Morial National Urban League

Marc H.

Henrietta D. Campbell is the new Human Resource manager for Cultural Vistas with Global Program Development on the East Coast in New York. She recently graduated from Georgetown University with her Master’s Degree. She studied abroad in London, England, before completing her Bachelor’s Degree at Webster University. She is a 2012 graduate of Metro Academic and Classical High School in St. Louis Public Schools. On the move? Congratulations!

Steven Harmon

Henrietta D. Campbell

Rosalind Early

Kelli Braggs

Andre’ Stevens

Carmen Moore and Norvel Wilbourn work the counter at Paraquad’s Bloom Café. Bloom Café “gives the public an opportunity to come in and see what a really integrated workforce can look like – people with disabilities working alongside people who don’t have disabilities,” said Kevin Condon, director of marketing and public relations for Paraquad.

American staff

Brazen St. Louis launched three new Brazen Growth Groups – peer advisory groups of women entrepreneurs that meet monthly to present their greatest business challenges and work through solutions.

The three newest Brazen Growth Groups include some of the St. Louis area’s most prominent and talented women entrepreneurs and CEOs.

Brazen St. Louis launches three new growth groups

‘My inner entrepreneur is re-awakened every month’

Clarinda Schlatter of Clarinda Lauren, Jean Scholtes of KIND Soap Company, Jennifer Thoma of Total Health Integrated Clinic and Lauren Thorp of Bonboni Home & Gift Co.

n “I joined because I wanted to connect with other like-minded women in business.”

– Mia Turner of Jess MIA Collections

Growth Group 1 includes Shirlie Canup of Put Nutrition in Its Place, Karen Hoffman of Gateway Dreams, Shayba Muhammad of Mahnal, Kimberly Shane of Wee3, Toleta Thomas of Styled2atee and Patti Williams of Lex Consilio.

Growth Group 2 includes Stephanie Arndt of Klink Creative, Danelle Brown of Queen Bee Consulting, Bijal Desai-Ramirez of WEPOWER,

Growth Group 3 includes Jessica Kiesler of Visible Self, Jacqueline Lomax of Ready-SetRoll, Christina Moss of MossFinancials, Rebecca Rosenthal, Shante Smith of Shante’ Smith Fitness. Mia Turner of Jess MIA Collections and Ellen Wottrich of Meet the City. “I joined because I wanted to connect with other likeminded women in business,” said Mia Turner, owner of Jess MIA Collections and one of the new Brazen Growth Group members. “I look forward to sharing ideas with, and gaining motivation from, other women going through what I’m going through as I build my business.” The new members join

existing Brazen Growth Groups participants, including Charli Cooksey of We Power STL, Susanne Evens of AAA Translation, Ronke Faleti of Korede, Reshaunda Thornton,

UNCF recognizes Ameren Missouri for its support

The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) named Ameren Missouri its 2018 Organization of the Year in St. Louis. Ameren Missouri was recognized for its ongoing support of UNCF’s mission to support education and help break the financial barriers that prevent talented students from earning a college degree. Since 1982, Ameren Missouri has made donations to UNCF through a combination of corporate and employee-matching gifts. The contributions have been used to support UNCF’s efforts to provide financial support to young people attempting to attain a college degree.

“Through its investment in education, UNCF makes a tremendous impact not only in the communities we serve but also across the nation,” said Michael Moehn, chairman and president of Ameren Missouri. “We are proud to support the wonderful work UNCF does every day in our community to help the leaders of tomorrow access educational opportunities today.”

Owner of Better Vessel, Kasey Grelle of Gateway Blend, Tamara Keefe of Clementine’s, Kelly O’Malley of O’Malley Hansen, Suparba Panda of Tyme Machine, Jillian Tedesco

of Fit-Flavors, and Jennifer Ehlen of Brazen Global, among many others.

“Because of the structure of the Brazen Growth Group meetings, my inner

entrepreneur is re-awakened every month, nudging me in new directions,” said Reshaunda Thornton, owner of Better Vessel, who has been in a Brazen Growth Group for the past two years. “The amazing part is every time I come, I always leave with valuable takeaways; but I also get to help others with their businesses.”

Designed for women founders, presidents or CEOs of for-profit or nonprofit organizations that are independently owned and managed, Brazen Growth Groups provide an ongoing network of support. Groups meet once a month and use Brazen’s proprietary software to self-facilitate their meetings. Growth Group applications are accepted on a rolling basis, and Brazen aims to launch new groups quarterly. The next round of applications will be reviewed on September 30. To apply, visit https://brazenglobal. com/growth-groups. For more information, visit www. BrazenSTL.com.

Local cosmetics firm represented in Miss Black USA Pageant

Bridges To Beauty, a black-owned cosmetics company based in Florissant, provided luxury “green” cosmetics as swag bag gifts at the 2018 Miss Black USA Pageant, held August 12 in

Washington, D.C. The Miss Black USA Pageant is the oldest scholarship pageant for women of color. Ashli Turner represented Missouri in the 2018 Miss Black USA Pageant. Bridges To Beauty looks to

partner with local retailers to support the cause of sustainability in cosmetics. For more information, visit www.bridgestobeautyonline. com.

Applicants sought for paid summer media internships

The Emma Bowen Foundation is a media-focused diversity initiative that recruits promising students and places them in paid summer internships at some of the nation’s leading media and technology companies.

continued from page B1

senior vice president, chief lending officer, Carver Federal Savings Bank, drew cheers when she outlined the way she asked for her worth.

“I kept copious amounts of notes of everything that I was doing – every loan that I closed and the money that I made from the fees for those closed loans,” she said. “So when it was time for my performance review, I laid out, and everything that I had done. Here are all the transactions I have closed, and here’s how much money I have made for this institution. And I got a raise.”

In addition to Ebanks,

Selected students will have access to a paid summer internship, on-the-job training from top professionals, an all-expenses paid Summer Conference in New York City, need-based scholarships, a community of diverse media

and tech talent and lifelong professional networks. For more information, visit http://www. emmabowenfoundation.com . To apply, visit https://tinyurl. com/ybte6gla.

n “Black women supporting black women supporting black women: That’s how we got here, that’s how we stay here, that’s how we go further.”

– Essence President Michelle Ebanks

Dukes and Pinnock, other members of the panel were Jennifer Jones Austin, executive director, Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies; Lola Brabham, acting commissioner, NYS Department of Civil Service; Janella Hinds, vice president for Academic High Schools, UFT and secretary-treasurer, NYC Central Labor Council, and Farah Tanis, executive

director, Black Women’s Blueprint.

“What a fantastic reminder of our culture: black women supporting black women supporting black women,” Ebanks said. “That’s how we got here, that’s how we stay here, that’s how we go further.”

Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League.

Brazen Growth Group 3: Rebecca Rosenthal, Shante Smith, Jessica Kiesler, Mia Turner, Ellen Wottrich and Jackie Lomax.

n “I think the league is finally noticing the value of the running back.”

— St. Louisan Ezekiel Elliott of the Dallas Cowboys

By Earl Austin Jr.

Of the St. Louis American

Sports

Prep football seniors to watch in 2018

It promises to be another exciting year of high school football in the St. Louis metro area. As the 2018 season begins this weekend, here is a look at some of the top players to watch.

Kendall Abdur-Rahim (Edwardsville) – Talented senior dual-threat quarterback who returns after leading the Tigers to the Class 8 state semifinals.

Isaiah Azubuike (Lutheran North) – Senior linebacker who recorded 77 tackles with five sacks and two interceptions. He has committed to Arkansas State.

Earl Austin Jr.

C.J. Anderson (CBC) – Highlytouted 6’3,” 270pound defensive end who returns after missing his junior year with a broken leg. He has committed to the University of Minnesota.

Bryan Bradford (CBC) – The senior running back rushed for 1,505 yards and scored 30 touchdowns for the Class 6 state champion Cadets last season. He scored three touchdowns in the state championship game.

Jack Buford (Lutheran North) –Massive offensive tackle who anchors one of the most dominant offensive lines in the area. Has committed to the University of Missouri.

Dale Chesson (Ladue) – Senior wide receiver who had 44 receptions for 899 yards and 15 touchdowns in helping the Rams to a berth in the Class 4 state championship game.

Cam Coleman (Cardinal Ritter) – A talented senior receiver

D-1 coaches come together in St. Louis

The St. Louis Metro Area has been churning out elite basketball talent faster than Black Twitter can church out celebrity memes. Bradley Beal (Wizards), Jayson Tatum (Celtics), Patrick McCaw (Warriors), Otto Porter Jr. (Wizards), Jordan Barnett (Bucks), Jeremiah Tilmon (Mizzou), Torrence Watson (Mizzou), Terrell Ramey (Texas) and Carte’Are Gordon (SLU) just to name a few. There was a time where the top St. Louis area players couldn’t wait to hop in the first plane, train or automobile to exit the state in hopes of finding bigger and better basketball glory. Now with talented coaches and recruiters in place at the state’s five Division 1 schools, players like Tilmon, Watson and Gordon are opting to stay home.

That might help explain how Marcus Wilson, the executive director of the Monsanto YMCA, has seemingly pulled off the impossible by getting Cuonzo Martin (Mizzou), Travis Ford (SLU), Dana Ford (Missouri State), Rick Ray (SEMO) and Kareem Richardson (UMKC) together at the same time. The five men’s basketball coaches will participate in a panel discussion at the Monsanto Family YMCA’s first-annual Missouri Coaches Luncheon on Monday, Aug. 27. Tickets for the event are $45 for individuals or $400 for a table of 10. The event will take place at the O’Fallon Park Rec Complex, located at 4343 West Florissant Ave.

“It’s a testament to the coaches, as these

Mizzou men’s basketball coach Cuonzo Martin will

YMCA’s first-annual Missouri Coaches Luncheon. Martin will be joined by Travis Ford (SLU), Dana Ford (Missouri State), Rick Ray (SEMO) and Kareem Richardson (UMKC).

Photo by Wiley Price

Photo by Jeremy Johnson / Columbia Missourian

SportS EyE

With Alvin A. Reid

Devon Alexander should not box himself in, consider new career options

At 31 years old, Devon Alexander’s boxing days should be nearing an end. It might not be over, but the final rounds of a championship career have arrived.

Alexander held the unified WBC and IBF welterweight titles in 2010 and regained the IBF crown from 2012 to 2013. He was one of boxing’s young stars. He should not be ashamed that his star is dimming.

On August 4 on Fox, Alexander dropped a questionable split decision to Andre Berto in Uniondale, N.Y. Alexander (27-5-1, 14 KO) controlled the welterweight bout early, including sending Berto to the canvas in the third round. But he lost his mastery as the fight moved to the middle rounds. By the 12th round, Alexander was dominated. Yet, he could have won the fight. Berto prevailed 115112, 115-112, and 113-114, according to ringside judges. However, SB Nation’s Bad Left Hook independent card scored the fight 115-112 for Alexander.

“Although he was clearly frustrated by the early troubles, Berto went on the attack in the middle rounds. It also helped that Alexander spent much of his energy looking to land a big shot and was visibly fatigued,” wrote Sporting News online boxing reporter Andreas Hale SBN columnist Scott Christ said, “It’s hard not to feel bad for the 31-year-old St. Louis native, who has had two solid performances this year and come out of them with a nonsense draw and a questionable loss.”

“Alexander (27-5-1, 14 KO) is back to the drawing board again. He’s got a few years left to make some noise, but this is a second straight discouraging result for the St. Louis southpaw, too.”

Christ is referring to last February’s bout where Alexander was in command of Victor Ortiz but lost the momentum and was forced to settle with a draw.

Alexander should ponder a future without boxing – and the St. Louis region should assist him in any way it can. He has been a fine representative of his hometown and his battle to overcome opioid addiction and re-ignite his career has been exemplary.

St. Louis Public Schools are desperate for male teachers and staff members. Alexander would be a tremendous role model who could use his boxing experience in many ways. Maybe he won’t become

a certified teacher but it’s a worthy goal. There must be a way he can help young men and women in the school district he once called his own. It seems to be a wiser choice than risking injury in the ring.

He could also be hired by the YMCA or one of the city’s boys and girls clubs as a staff member and boxing instructor.

As Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) told boxer Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) in Pulp Fiction, with Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together,” playing in the background, “How many fights you think you got left in you anyway? Two? Boxers don’t have an old-timers day.”

It is a powerful scene that introduces the two characters –and it’s advice that Alexander should heed.

NBA leads the way

As the NFL, MLB, NASCAR, the PGA and other professional sports leagues continue to decipher falling television ratings, the NBA

saw increases in several demographics.

Could it have anything to do with the NBA being America’s most diverse sports league?

The 2018 NBA Racial and Gender Report Card (RGRC), published earlier this summer by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida, gave the NBA an A-plus for racial hiring practices and a B for gender hiring, with an overall A.

In an ironic testament to diversity, one of the positions in which the percentage of people of color did not increase was the number of players. NBA players of color decreased from 80.9 percent to 80.7 percent in the 2017-18 season.

Unfortunately, there was a decrease in women participation at the team level –although far more women work in NBA team front offices than in any other American sports league.

The percentage of head coaches of color at the

beginning of the season remained the same as the previous year – at 30 percent. However, the percentage of people of color in those positions when the 2018-19 season begins will be at 33.3 percent. The NBA leads all men’s professional leagues in this position.

Other increases include people of color holding team vice president positions (25.4), team management positions (31.2), team professional staff positions (39.5 percent), assistant coaching positions (45.7 percent), CEO/president positions (9.8 percent), general manager positions (20 percentthe highest in American sports) and professional staff positions at the NBA League Office (36.4 percent).

Minority ownership is also the highest in the nation.

Michael Jordan is the majority owner of the Charlotte Hornets. Vivek Ranadive, who is from India, is the controlling owner of the Sacramento Kings. Marc Lasry, who was born in Morocco, is an owner of the Milwaukee Bucks.

They are the first three owners of color to lead their teams simultaneously in any of the major professional sports leagues.

“The NBA has become a

progressive model for other sports leagues and shows there is tremendous value in investing in gender and racial diversity,” said Jemele Hill senior correspondent for The Undefeated.

“Not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it’s profitable. As the league continues to expand its worldwide brand, it’s vitally important that the league strengthen its diversity efforts and not be satisfied where things stand right now, even though they’ve already established a high standard.”

The Reid Roundup

The biography “Arthur Ashe: A Life” by Raymond Arsenault has been released by Simon and Schuster. USA TODAY columnist Gene Seymour calls the book a “wide-ranging, massively researched and thoroughly absorbing biography of the legendary African-American tennis champion whose activism on issues ranging from equal opportunity in America to apartheid in South Africa are as large a part of his legacy as his exploits on the court.” I can’t wait to read what Ashe’s thought were on his St. Louis years … Former St.

At 31 years old, Devon Alexander’s boxing days should be nearing an end. It might not be over, but the final rounds of a championship career have arrived.

Louis Rams receivers Torry Holt and Rickey Proehl will join host Isaac Bruce at his 2018 Gridiron Gala at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 10 at the Four Seasons Hotel. General admission tickets are $100 and guaranteed seating tickets are $150. Participating restaurants include J.Gilbert’s, Charlie Gitto’s, Ruth’s Chris, Bristol, Millie’s BBQ Sauces and Cinder House. For more information visit https://isaacbruce.org/... Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes unleashed a 69-yard TD strike to Tyreek Hill on Friday in Atlanta that has pundits gushing praise. The football traveled more than 60 yards in the air and was dead on target to a streaking Hill. “If you logged into Twitter on Friday night, you would have thought this was as big a cultural moment Friday night as man walking on the moon or the Beatles visiting Ed Sullivan; Mahomes is a gift from the football gods,” said Peter Schrager of the NFL Network… The Boston Globe reported Friday the Seattle Seahawks seek a new backup to quarterback Russell Wilson and offered a second-round draft pick to the Indianapolis Colts for Jacoby Brissett. No deal because Colts QB Andrew Luck’s shoulder health remains in question. There is a mobile quarterback available to the Seahawks. His name is Colin Kaepernick. … The new Las Vegas Raiders stadium will be equipped with a jail and a courtroom to handle unruly fans on the spot. This is not a first. Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia had a similar arrangement…

Alvin A. Reid was honored as the 2017 “Best Sports Columnist – Weeklies” in the Missouri Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest and is a New York Times contributor. He is a panelist on the Nine Network program, Donnybrook, a weekly contributor to “The Charlie Tuna Show” on KFNS and appears monthly on “The Dave Glover Show” on 97.1 Talk.” His Twitter handle is @aareid1.

Alvin A. Reid

With Maurice Scott

Flyers open season in the Motor City

There is one thing that is certain about the football program at East St. Louis Senior High School.

Head coach Darren Sunkett and his staff will never shy away from playing the best competition in the country. And this season’s non-conference schedule is no different.

East Side will take its high-powered show on the road this weekend to play Michigan powerhouse Detroit King at the Zenith Classic in Detroit. The Flyers and King will square off in the eighth and final game of the two-day event on Saturday evening at Wayne State University. Kick-off is sched-

CLUTCH

Continued from C5

Wilson believes that in order to build leaders in the community, you must bring leaders to the community. When it comes to leaders in Missouri, you’d be hard-press to find a group with higher expectations, pressure, complexity and responsibility than the five D-1 basketball coaches in the state. The coaches have more than 43 years of combined college basketball coaching experience.

In addition to discussing hoops, the coaching quintet will also dive into the business side of major college sports. After all, when it comes to D-1 basketball, coaching isn’t just Xs and Os. Coaches are responsible for making decisions regarding games, practices, workouts, scheduling, travel, sponsorships, media appearances and more. Oh, and they also have to make sure that a large group of 17-to-22 year-olds take advantage of their educational opportunities and grow from talented kids into responsible adults.

“Coaches are able to demonstrate that their programs are more than just basketball,” Wilson told The American. “They are teaching their student athletes the importance of community service and helping others.”

Hopefully, the spirit of service and benevolence in the building can help cultivate a renewal of the in-state rivalry between Mizzou and SLU.

uled for 6 p.m. The Flyers will have plenty of talent on-hand as they embark on another season. At quarterback, Sunkett will count on 6’0,” 180-pound sophomore Tyler Macon to replace Perez Hall, the sensational performer who is now at Navy. There is plenty of firepower at the receiver positions in LaWaun Powell, Jr. (6’1,” 175 pounds) and Antonio Johnson (6’3,” 190). Both are major college prospects with offers from Virginia Tech, among others. Running backs DeMonta Witherspoon and Jaylen Reed

will carry the load for the rushing attack this season. Up front, the Flyers are loaded with three starters who are Division I recruits in 6’2,” 260-pound Devon Hunt, 6’3,” 255-pound Demond Taylor and 6’4,” 290pound Iowa State commit Darrell Simmons Jr. Cameron Lovett (5’10,” 180), Cameron Clay (6’3,” 200) and Cahokia transfer Sydney Houston (6’2,” 230)will lead a linebacker corps that’s nothing short of “fast and furious.” All three

players are being recruited by Division I colleges. The defensive secondary will be led by Antonio Johnson. On Saturday, the Flyers will take on one of the top programs in Michigan in Detroit King. The Crusaders have an arsenal of talent that has everyone talking about this weekend’s featured game. King won Division 2 state championships in 2015, 2016 and advanced to the state semifinals a year ago. The Crusaders are led by dualthreat quarterback Dequan Finn (6’2,” 190) who has

already committed to Central Michigan. However, when fans of King talk about their 2018 team, they talk about the defense, which is poised to be one of the best in the state of Michigan. Leading the way is safety Marvin Grant, the 6’2,” 195-pound Purdue commit who really packs a wallop. He is joined in the secondary by cornerback Admad Gardner, who has committed to Cincinnati.

Also returning on defense for the Crusaders are Division I recruits Jalen McGaughey (Northern Illinois) and Rich Miller (Buffalo University).

The last time the Tigers and Billikens faced off on the hardwood was on Dec. 3, 2001 when the Mizzou won 69-67 on a buzzer beater by Wesley

Continued from B3

who returns to St. Louis after spending junior year at IMG Academy in Florida. Helped Vianney to the Class 5 state championship as a sophomore. Shammond Cooper (Trinity) – Outstanding senior middle linebacker who recorded a team-high 77 tackles for the Titans.

Brett Gabbert (CBC) –Excellent senior quarterback who passes for 2,862 yards and 33 touchdowns to lead the Cadets

Miami of Ohio.

Ira Henry (Trinity) – A 6’5,” 310-pound senior tackle who anchors the line play for one of the most explosive offensive units in the state.

Maurice Massey (Kirkwood) – Transfer from Howell North who had 54 receptions for 964 yards and nine touchdowns as a junior. He has committed to Mizzou.

Derrick “DJ” Miller (John Burroughs) – A talented senior cornerback who will excel on both sides of the ball this season for the Bombers. He has given a commitment to Iowa State.

Fans from each school have clamored for the teams to meet during the non-conference play,

Moses Okpala (Ladue) –A 6’7,” 255-pound senior defensive tackle who recorded a team-high nine quarterback sacks as a junior for the Class 4 state runners-up.

Jaylin Vaughn (Fort Zumwalt North) – Excellent 270-pound two-way performer at fullback and linebacker who had 83 tackles for the Class 5 state semifinalist.

Marcus Washington (Trinity) – Major college prospect at wide receiver who had 29 receptions for 637 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Scott’s Notes:

•Tickets are still available at East St. Louis Senior High for the Gateway Scholars Football Classic, which will be held on Saturday, Sept. 1 at Clyde C. Jordan Stadium. I will be previewing those match-ups next week. However, I hear all you Trinity fans talking all that talk. Let’s be clear, our schedule at East St. Louis actually gets easier next weekend when we host you guys in the ‘House of Pain.’ LOL Get Ready!!

Ishmael H. Sistrunk is the co-founder of GodFamBall, a basketball mentoring and ministry group that partners with the Monsanto YMCA. GodFamBall meets at the Monsanto YMCA Saturday mornings from 9am –noon.

Follow Ishmael and In the Clutch on Twitter @ishcreates.

Ben Watson (Fort Zumwalt East) – Excellent dual-threat quarterback who has rushed for 2,217 yards and 39 touchdowns while passing for 1,603 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Isaiah Williams (Trinity) –Electric quarterback who passed for 1,898 yards and 29 touchdowns in only nine games. The four-year starter has committed to Illinois.

Jalani Williams (Parkway North) – Talented senior two-way performer at wide receiver and defensive back who is being courted by many of the nation’s top collegiate programs.

Jameson Williams (Cardinal Ritter) – The talented senior receiver had 36 receptions for 1,062 yards and 19 total touchdowns. He is also a dangerous kick-return threat.

Kyren Williams (Vianney) –The Notre Dame commit rushed for 922 yards, caught 51 passes for 774 yards and scored 35 touchdowns as a junior last season.

Stokes.

Maurice Scott

Marcus Wilson, the executive director of the Monsanto YMCA, gathers in a prayer circle during a basketball mentoring and ministry program at the Y.

Photo by Ryan Delaney / St. Louis Public Radio

BLOOM

continued from page B1 employment.

“Right now what we’re doing is learning all different types of things in the kitchen,” Brown said. “We are learning how to do cooking methods, and we also learned how to use a dishwasher, and we also learned how to clean up the whole restaurant and make sure everything is spotless.”

After the 12-week training, Paraquad offers a paid internship either at Bloom Café or elsewhere in the community. Then a Paraquad employment specialist will help place people with disabilities find jobs in the community based on the individual’s interests and skills.

“My favorite part about this program is basically you get to learn everything that you’ve never been taught before, or basic things that you need to learn about of how to work in a restaurant,” Brown said. “If you want to own your own restaurant, there are times that you’re going to have to be professional of how to work in a restaurant.”

Chef Joe Wilson Jr., Bloom Café’s culinary director, teaches most of the classes in its training program.

“They’ve still got a ways to go, but we have made a lot of progress,” Wilson said. “They all passed a serve-safe food handler’s certificate. They’ve had to have a knife in their hands and some other challenges that they’re not used to, but they all seem pretty eager, ready to learn, and interested in the culinary field,” Wilson said.

He believes that all eight of the initial trainees will be able to find an internship to hone their skills more and find work in the field. “I think there is a place for everyone in hospitality,” he said.

Bloom Café has a team of experts that makes the program flourish. Casey Shiller, twotime winner of the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars and director of the baking and pastry program at St. Louis

Colby Brown participates in Bloom Café’s new pilot training program. He has a learning disability, but is flourishing through training classes and hopes to one day start his own business. “Making it through this program,” he said, “it just helps me a lot and builds up my confidence.”

Community College, assists with teaching, and the college was a program partner from the beginning.

“My colleagues and I got to see this from its infancy, and to see it operational and to see those students that are going to receive a fantastic training-based education is amazing,” Shiller said. “I’m so happy that we have this style of community commitment to bettering the lives of these young people.”

The prerequisites of the

program are to be 18 years of age or older, have any kind of disability, and be employable.

“We’ll give anybody a chance, but we have to have an end result of being productive out in the field to help the hospitality industry, which is really hurting for reliable people right now,” Wilson said.

“Our Paraquad team helps monitor students on their internship and find the right employment opportunities out there. With my network and some of the great people with

Paraquad, I think it’s going to be no problem to place people where they can be most comfortable and the most productive in food service.” Wehmeier had the idea for the restaurant and training program, but she credits the community with making it happen.

“I will only take credit for the idea because a lot of community support and a lot of really brilliant people made that dream a reality,” she said.

“One of the biggest lessons

I’ve learned is that community support is so necessary in making any social enterprise work, and from the very beginning we’ve had a ton of community support.”

The community has been involved in Bloom Cafe’s development from the beginning. Paraquad did a Kickstarter campaign that raised $15,000 for the café, which got its name through a public competition on Facebook. Bloom Café is located at

5200 Oakland Ave. in St. Louis and open 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. “It gives the public an opportunity to come in and see what a really integrated workforce can look like,” said Kevin Condon, director of marketing and public relations for Paraquad – “people with disabilities working alongside people who don’t have disabilities.”

For more information, visit thebloom.cafe or call 314-65BLOOM (314-652-5666).

By Kenya Vaughn Of The St. Louis American

Aretha Franklin, the defining voice of soul music with a musical legacy that spanned more than 60 years and transcended genres, passed away in her Detroit home on Thursday, August 16, from pancreatic cancer. She was 76.

“We have been deeply touched by the incredible outpouring of love and support we have received from close friends, supporters and fans all around the world,” Franklin’s family said in an official statement regarding her passing. “Thank you for your compassion and prayers.We have felt your love for Aretha and it brings us comfort to know that her legacy will live on.”

Music icon Aretha Franklin passes at 76 really want to know, is Aretha Franklin,” British singer Marianne Faithfull said during an interview for a countdown on the VH1 Network that ranked best voices in popular music history. Franklin was raised in Detroit at a time when the city’s music scene was on the cusp of changing the landscape of American music by way of the Motown era. As Motown was emerging, she honed her instantly identifiable voice in the children’s

She will be laid to rest in a private ceremony on August 31 at Detroit’s Greater Grace Temple, but public viewings at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American

n With a total of more than 100 hit singles – including 20 number one R&B hits –Franklin has the rare distinction of a hit record in nearly every decade of the past half-century.

History on August 28 and 29 will allow fans to pay their final respects.

Born Aretha Louise Franklin on March 25, 1942 in Memphis, Tennessee, she was known the world over as the undisputed “Queen of Soul.”

“I have to tell you, the voice of God, if you

Singing with The Queen of Soul

Background singer Mae Koen remembers Aretha Franklin

By Kenya Vaughn Of The St. Louis American

Just before the curtain came up at The Merv Griffin Resort in Atlantic City, Mae Koen grabbed her singing partner Diane Madison’s hand. The two locked eyes and Koen was able to get out a quick, ‘Girl, can you believe it?’ as the show was about to start. It was a moment she will never forget – Koen’s first time providing background vocals for Aretha Franklin. “Before we did the first gig, Billy had a talk with us,” Koen said. “He told us, ‘She is going to sing her butt off and you can’t get caught up in that. You are not here to be entertained. You are here to work – you have a job to do.’” In 1994, Koen was asked by William “Billy Always” Moore, if she and Madison might be interested in providing background vocals for Franklin.

n “There would be times where she would sing something, and it would go all through my body.”

wasn’t going to say, ‘let me think about it.’ And I thought, ‘I am going to answer for me and Diane – and the answer is yes.’” At the time, Koen was working at a bank. She could barely keep it together when Franklin called her on her job upon Moore’s recommendation. “She asked me two questions,” Koen said. “She asked, ‘what were my musical goals – and what church did I attend, where was my church home.’”

- Mae Koen

Out of that quick phone interview grew a nearly 25-year working relationship that grew into a friendship. Koen performed with Franklin off-and-on over the years and was acknowledged in Franklin’s book, “From These Roots.” Koen, who honed her craft by singing in community choirs like Breadbasket Push Choir, was one of a few rotating groups that Franklin used –depending on her musical taste at the time.

“I’m sure we will,” Koen responded. “I

By Nancy Fowler Of St. Louis Public Radio

In 1888, a young, African-American woman named Sarah Breedlove left Louisiana to join her brothers in St. Louis.

The future Madam C.J. Walker earned a living by doing laundry, then began selling beauty products. Eventually she founded her own company and went on to become one of the nation’s first black female millionaires. Warner Brothers, by way of a deal with LeBron James’ production company Spring Hill Entertainment, is producing a TV series for Netflix about her life.

Walker’s time in St. Louis was transformational, according to her great-great granddaughter A’Lelia Bundles, who wrote the book on which the series is based.

“If I were writing the script, and I were in total control, St. Louis would be really critical,” Bundles said.

Drawing inspiration from church

After Walker arrived in St. Louis at age 20, she became active in the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, near Page and Goodfellow boulevards. The church was an important community hub and center of activism and eventually became the birthplace of the St. Louis Chapter of the NAACP.

“It was the women of the community there who really inspired her,” Bundles said.

In St. Louis, Walker also met Annie Malone, who had already begun a beauty-products business. Walker sold Malone’s wares before creating her first signature product called “Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower.” The sulfur-based ointment was touted as a method for eliminating dandruff and healing scalp infections.

After 17 years in St. Louis, Walker moved to Denver, where she established her company before building a headquarters and factory in Indianapolis. She opened several beauty schools

Warner Brothers, by way of a deal with LeBron James’

Background singer Mae Koen with Aretha Franklin. Koen provided background vocals for Franklin, who passed away on August 16, off-and-on for several years starting in the early 1990s. The two also developed a friendship that grew out of their common love for classic movies.

How to place a calendar listing

1. Email your listing to calendar@stlamerican. com OR

2. Visit the calendar section on stlamerican.com and place your listing

Calendar listings are free of charge, are edited for space and run on a space-available basis.

concerts

Fri., Aug. 24, 8 p.m., Stifel Theatre welcomes Earth, Wind & Fire., 1400 Market St., 63103. For more information, visit www. ticketmaster.com.

Tues., Aug. 28, 8 p.m., Sheldon Concert Hall presents Seu George. 3648 Washington Blvd., 63108. For more information, visit www. thesheldon.org.

Wed., Aug. 29, 8 p.m., .Zack presents Sy Smith 3224 Locust St., 63103. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

Aug. 31 – Sept. 2, 23rd

Annual Big Muddy Blues Festival. Performances by Marquise Knox, Roland Johnson, Kingdom Brothers, Skeet Rodgers & The InnerCity Blues Band, and more. Laclede’s Landing, 710 N. 2nd St., 63102. For more information, visit www. bigmuddybluesfestival.com.

Fri., Sept. 7, 5 p.m., LouFest U. A free festival for area university students featuring local and national bands, guest speakers, and networking opportunities. Forest Park, 1 Theatre Dr., 63112. For more information, visit www.loufest. com/loufestu.

Sept. 8 – 9, LouFest Music Festival featuring Gary Clark Jr., Tank and the Bangas, Michael McDonald, Keyon Harrold, The Knuckles, Anita Jackson, Ptah Williams, Mo Egeston All-Stars, Tonina and more. Four stages with alternating performances, children’s stage and village, vendor area and food court. Forest Park, 1 Theatre Dr., 63112. For more information, visit www.loufest. com.

Fri., Sept. 14, 8 p.m., Old Rock House presents Big Sam’s Funky Nation. 1200

S. 7th St., 63104. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

local gigs

Thurs., Aug. 23, 8 p.m., The Riverboats at the Gateway Arch Blues Cruise with performance by Marquise Knox, 50 S. Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard., St. Louis, MO 63102. For more information, visit https://www. gatewayarch.com/experience/ riverboat-cruises/specialtycruises/

Sat., Aug. 25, 7 p.m., A Tribute to Kem and Chrisette Michele. Voce, 212 S. Tucker Blvd., 63102. For more information, visit www. PurplePass.com.

Sun., Aug. 26, 4 p.m., National Blues Museum presents Soulful Sunday with Kingdom Brothers. 615 Washington Ave., 63101. For more information, visit www. nationalbluesmuseum.org.

Fri., Sept. 14, 8 p.m., Sheldon Concert Hall presents Illphonics with Black Spade 3648 Washington Blvd., 63108. For more information, visit www.thesheldon.org.

special events

Through August 25, St. Lou Fringe Festival. A performing arts festival showcasing theatre and dance, storytelling and spoken word, burlesque and acrobatics, visual art and. For more information, visit www. stlouisfringe.com.

Thur., Aug. 23, 11:30 a.m., The 15th Annual Kwame Foundation Golf Tournament. Norman K. Probstein Golf Course, Forest Park, 6141 Lagoon Dr, St. Louis, MO 63112. For more information, visit www.

kwamefoundation.org.

Thur., Aug. 23, 5 p.m., 28th Annual St. Louis Crisis Nursery Celebrity Waiters Night. West County Center, 80 W County Center Dr., 63130. For more information, visit crisisnurserykids.org/events.

Aug. 24 – 26, Kinloch Forever Weekend. Commemorate the City of Kinloch’s 70th Incorporation Anniversary. Weekend includes a banquet, festival, and basketball tournament. For more information, call (314) 608-1340.

Fri., Aug. 24, 9:30 p.m., Grown & Sexy Roll Bounce. All proceeds go towards college bus tours, ACT/SAT prepping, and scholarships. St. Louis Skatium, 120 E. Catalan St., 63111. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Sat., Aug. 25, 7 p.m. (6:30 p.m. doors) KutNup Productions presents Sync or Swim Lip Sync competition Neosoul and R&B edition, Kappa League, 500 N. Vandeventer. For more information, call (314) 5657961.

Aug. 25 – 26, International

Institute’s Festival of Nations. Featuring over 40 ethnic food booths, arts and crafts, and an international shopping bazaar. Tower Grove Park, 4256 Magnolia Ave., 63116.

Aug. 26, 5 p.m., East St. Louis Heritage Festival, hosted by legendary Olympic champion Jackie JoynerKersee, Joyner-Kersee Center, East St. Louis, IL.

Tues., Aug. 28, 5:30 p.m., Community Service Public Relations Council and the Young Nonprofit Professionals host Speed Networking for Nonprofit Professionals. Llewellyn’s, 17 W. Moody Ave., 63119. For more information, visit www. csprc.org.

Sat., Sept. 1, 7 a.m., Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., Upsilon Omega Chapter and the Upsilon Omega Foundation presents The 2018 YQ Golf Tournament Eagle Springs Golf Course, 2575 Redman Ave., 63136. For more information, call (314) 853-2455.

Sat., Sept. 1, 3 p.m., AfroBeats Summer

Chapter presents the HBCU House Party. Machinists Hall, 12365 St. Charles Rock Rd., 63044. For more information, call (314) 283-8213.

Sun., Sept. 9, 10 a.m., Show Me Reptile & Exotics Show, Machinist Hall, 12365 St. Charles Rock Rd, Bridgeton, MO 63044. For more information, visit : http:// www.showmesnakes.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/ showmesnakes

Sept. 14 – 15, Great Forest Park Balloon Race and Glow. Art Hill, Fine Arts Dr., 63110. For more information, visit www. greatforestparkballoonrace. com.

Sun., Sept. 16, 3 p.m., 3rd Annual Heaven Sent Brunch and Fashion Show Fundraiser. 2668 Daman Ct., 63136. For more information, visit www.healmending.org.

Sun., Sept. 16, 4 p.m., AllN-1 Entertainment hosts a Red Carpet Balloon Fashion Show. LaunchCode, 4811 Delmar Blvd., 63108. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Fest. Featuring artist’s performances, dance performance, food vendors from various cultures, etc. Blue Dine and Lounge, 5917 Delmar Blvd., 63112. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Sun., Sept. 2, 4 p.m., Kappa Alpha Psi, Fraternity, Inc., St. Louis Alumni Chapter presents The White Party. Dos Salas, 1919 Washington Ave., 63103. For more information, visit www.eventbrite.com.

Sun., Sept. 2, 7 p.m., Forever Fly LLC presents The Art & Soul Live Exhibit. A fusion of art, music and creativity. This event features 3 levels of live bands/entertainment, live painters and interactive games. .Zack, 3224 Locust St., 63103. For more information, visit www.metrotix.com.

Tues., Sept. 4, 7:30, The Sheldon presents Dark Angel: Hidden Treasures in the Lou. Featuring music, dance and comedy, this variety shows some of St. Louis’ best hidden talent. 3648 Washington Blvd., 63108. For more information, visit www.thesheldon.org.

Fri., Sept. 7, 8 p.m., Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Omicron Theta Omega

Sat., Sept. 22, 6:30 p.m., Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Epsilon Lambda Chapter and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Omicron Eta Omega Chapter present The Phirst Phamily Paragon Awards Soiree. Renaissance Hotel, 9801 Natural Bridge Rd., 63134. For more information, visit www.facebook.com.

comedy

Aug. 24 – 26, The Laugh Lounge presents Damon Williams. 11208 W. Florissant Ave., 63033. For more information, visit www. laughloungestl.com.

Sat., Aug. 25, 8 p.m., Fox Theatre presents Bill Maher 527 N. Grand Blvd., 63103. For more information, visit www.metrotix.com.

Aug. 31 – Sept. 2, Helium Comedy Club presents Don “DC” Curry. 1151 Saint Louis Galleria, 63117. For more information, visit www. st-louis.heliumcomedy.com.

literary

Thur., Aug. 23, 7 p.m., Left

Kenya Vaughn recommends

Helium Comedy Club presents Don “DC” Curry. For more information, see COMEDY.

Bank Books hosts author Robert Horsey, author of Gifted. 399 N. Euclid Ave., 63108.

Wed., Sept. 12, 7 p.m., St. Louis Public Library hosts authors Eion Colfer, Andrew Donkin & Giovanni Rigano authors of Illegal. Ebo must make the hazardous voyage from Ghana to Europe. Schlafly Branch, 225 N. Euclid Ave., 63108. For more information, visit www.slpl. com.

Thur., Sept. 13, 7 p.m., DeRay Mckesson signs and discusses On The Other Side of Freedom. Union Avenue Christian Church, 733 Union Blvd., 63108. For more information, visit www.leftbank.com.

Fri., Sept. 21, 7 p.m., Bookfest St. Louis: An Evening with Sally Field. The actor will discuss her book, In Pieces, a memoir about being a woman in the last half of the 20th century. Chase Park Plaza, 212 N. Kingshighway Blvd., 63108. For more information, visit www.leftbank.com.

theatre

Through August 25, Union Avenue Opera presents Lost in the Stars. 733 Union Blvd., 63108. For more information, visit www.unionavenueopera. secure.force.com.

Fri., Aug. 31, 7 p.m., St. Louis Story Stitchers Artists Collective presents Pick the City Up. Featuring hip hop, spoken word and story magic on public health issues St. Louis cares about including gun violence. .Zack, 3224 Locust St., 63103. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

Sat., Sept. 1, 7:30 p.m., The Kranzberg Arts Foundation Resident Benefit Showcase: Labor of Love 2018. A unique evening of dance, theatre, music, and more to support rising stars and old favorites. Grandel, 3610 Grandel Sq., 63108. For more information, visit www.metrotix.com.

Sept. 5 – 23, The Black Rep presents Crowns. Edison Theatre, 6445 Forsyth Blvd., 63105. For more information, visit www.edison.wustl.edu.

Sept. 6 – 9, TLT Productions presents Voices: Sounds of America. .Zack, 3224 Locust St., 63103. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

Sat., Sept. 8, 12 p.m., Community Arts Festival 2018. Enjoy everything from dance and film to painting and theater. Grandel, 3610 Grandel Sq., 63108. For more information, visit www. communityartsfestival.com.

Aug. 31 – Sept. 2, The Art Fair at Queeny Park. Over 100 juried artists from more than 20 states. 550 Weidman Rd., 63011. For

Kenya Vaughn recommends

Zack presents Sy Smith. See CONCERTS for details.

more information, visit www. artfairatqueenypark.com.

Aug. 31 – Sept. 28, Fontbonne University Faculty and Staff Exhibition & Speaker Series. Artist talks will take place weekly. Opening Reception on Aug. 31 at 6 p.m. Fontbonne University Gallery of Fine Art, 6800 Wydown Blvd., 63105. For more information, visit www. facebook.com.

Aug. 31 – Sept. 28, Emerging Artists Showcase. TechArtista, 4818 Washington Blvd., 63108. For more information, visit www. facebook.com.

Sun., Sept. 2, 7 p.m., Forever Fly LLC presents The Art & Soul Live Exhibit. A fusion of art, music and creativity. This event features 3 levels of live bands/entertainment, live painters and interactive games. .Zack, 3224 Locust St., 63103. For more information, visit www.metrotix.com.

Through September 3, Color-ism by Work/Play Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 N. Grand Blvd., 63103. For more information, visit www. kranzbergartscenter.org.

Sat., Sept. 8, 12 p.m., Community Arts Festival 2018. Enjoy everything from dance and film to painting and theater. Grandel, 3610 Grandel Sq., 63108. For more information, visit www. communityartsfestival.com.

Fri., Sept. 14, 7 p.m., GLoveBoxX Arts & Ent. presents septembERotica: The Art Show. Celebrating the Black body and exploring Black sensuality. Third Degree Glass Factory, 5200 Delmar Blvd., 63108. For more information, visit www. GLoveBoxX.com.

Through September 30, Let’s Play Ball! Field House Museum, 634 S. Broadway, 63102. For more information, visit www.facebook.com.

lectures and workshops

Through August 23, Curve the Urge. A free abstinence education program to teach youth ages 12-17 to voluntarily practice abstinence. UMSL –MIMH, 4633 World Parkway Circle, 63121. For more information, visit www. curvetheurge.org.

Sat., Aug. 25, 10 a.m., The Pink Angels Foundation presents the I’m Every Woman Leadership Conference Bernnadette Stanis, Tina Landon, Olga Korbut, and Jasmine Guy share the stage. Harris Stowe, 3026 Laclede Ave., 63103. For more information, visit www. pinkangelsfoundation.org.

Wed., Sept. 12, 7 p.m., Whitaker Jazz Speaks: The Crisis in Music ft. Ted Gioia. Gioia discusses disruptions that are changing — and perhaps destroying — the music infrastructure in America. St. Louis Public Library, 1301 Olive St., 63018. For more information, visit www.slpl.org.

health

Fri., Aug. 24, 6:30 p.m., Hatz 4 Hearts Foundation presents The Pink Carpet Community Gala. A celebration of life, survivorship, and perseverance. Missouri Athletic Club, 405 Washington Ave., 63102. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Sun., Aug. 26, 8 a.m., Young Friends of the Ville presents Trap Run 5K! An infusion of hip hop music and culture into a traditional 5K walk/run event. MLK & N. Sarah St., 63113. For more information, visit www.traprunstl.com.

Wed., Sept. 5, 6 p.m., Aging in Community: A Community Forum hosted by CWEA and STL Village. The Biome School, 4471 Olive St., 63108. For more information, visit www. stlvillage.org.

Sun., Sept. 16, 8 a.m., The National Children’s Cancer Society 2nd Annual Golf Classic. Proceeds will go to families that are battling childhood cancer. Stonewolf Golf Club, 1195 Stonewolf Trail, Fairview Heights,

IL. 62208. For more information, visit www. thenccs.org/golf.

spiritual

Sat., Aug. 25, Temple of Praise Ministries presents Empowerment Day. O Fallon Park, 4322 W. Florissant Ave., 63115. For more information, visit www.topministriesstl.org.

Aug. 20 – 24, James Lee Ward, Sr. District, Eastern Missouri First Jurisdiction presents the Auxiliaries in Ministry C.O.G.I.C. Convention: Pressing Toward the Mark. Nazareth Temple COGIC, 3300 Marshall Ave., 63114. For more information, visit www. facebook.com.

Fri., Aug. 31, 7 p.m., Faith Miracle Temple Church presents Marvin Sapp. 870 Pershall Rd., 63137. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Sat., Sept. 1, 11 a.m., Bethesda Temple Church Community Day. Activities include face painting, gaming truck, give-a-ways, resource providers, and much more. 5401 Bishop JA Johnson Lane, 63121. For more information, call (314) 6884852.

Sat., Sept. 8, 4 p.m., Repreievefest Gospel Concert. Feat. local artists and special guest Sam Huddleston. Proceeds will help a local homeless shelter. New Paradise Missionary Baptist Church, 7348 W. Florissant Ave., 63136. For more information, visit www. reprievewellness.org.

Sun., Sept. 9, 2 p.m., St. Peter’s United Church of Christ invites you to their Free Community Picnic. Enjoy a petting zoo, obstacle course, bubblebus, and much more. 1425 Stein Rd., 63135. For more information, visit www.facebook.com.

Sun., Sept. 16, 5:30 p.m., Arts & Faith St. Louis Eighth Annual Interfaith Concert: Great Music of Many Faiths. The Sheldon Concert Hall, 3648 Washington Blvd., 63108. For more information, visit www.artsfaithstl.org.

film

Thur., Aug. 23, 6 p.m., Major! Film Screening and Q&A. A documentary that explores the life and campaigns of Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a formerly incarcerated Black transgender activist. The Stage at KDHX, 3524 Washington Ave., 63103. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Continued from C1

choir of at the church of her father, Rev. Dr. C.L. Franklin.

A nationally renowned gospel singer with a booming tenor voice that inspired a generation of blues singers – his daughter followed in his footsteps as a gospel recording artist at the tender age of 14.

When she turned 18, Franklin took her talent to secular music. By the time she was 25, her musical legacy was etched in stone, thanks to hits such as “Respect,” “A Natural Woman,” “Think,” “Chain of Fools” and “Baby I Love You.” In 1968, she won her first Grammy Award in the newly created category, “Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.” It would be eight years before another artist would capture the coveted award. Franklin earned a total of 18 Grammys over the course of her career, in both the Gospel and R&B categories.

She received 30 Grammy nominations total. Her last win came in the “Best Gospel/ Contemporary Christian Music Performance” category with “Never Gonna Break My Faith,” where she tied with The Clark Sisters’ “Blessed and Highly Favored” in 2008. With a total of more than 100 hit singles – including 20 number one R&B hits –Franklin has the rare distinction of a hit record in nearly every decade of the past half-century.

“For more than six decades since, every time she sang, we were all graced with a glimpse of the divine,” Barack and Michelle Obama said in a statement regarding Franklin’s passing. “Through her compositions and unmatched musicianship, Aretha helped define the American experience.”

Her rich, and unapologetically soulful voice was lauded as one of the most important in popular music. “Respect” became an anthem of the Women’s Liberation Movement. Through “Young, Gifted and Black,” she used music as an expression of love for her people.

As with “Young, Gifted and Black,” “Respect” and countless others tunes, when Franklin covered a song, she made it completely her own. Her gospel infused remake of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” her funk-laden take on The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” and bluesy, scaled down interpretation of Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man” are just a few of the selections that received her extreme makeover treatment. Through her voice and her music, Franklin became a national treasure. In addition to becoming the first woman inducted into the Rock And

Roll Hall of Fame, Franklin received recognition from three sitting presidents for her contributions to American culture. When President Bill Clinton named her as a Kennedy Center Honors recipient in 1994, she was the youngest person at the time to be bestowed with the honor. President George W. Bush presented her with the National Arts Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2008, she was selected to sing at the inauguration of President Barack Obama, the first African-American President of the United States. Franklin also sang at the funeral of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King

Jr.

“In her voice, we could feel our history, all of it and in every shade – our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our quest for redemption and our hard-won respect,” Barack and Michelle Obama said.

“She helped us feel more connected to each other, more hopeful, more human, And sometimes she helped us just forget about everything else and dance. Aretha may have passed on to a better place, but the gift of her music remains to inspire us all. May the Queen of Soul rest in eternal peace.”

SINGING

Continued from C1

There was the New York Group, The Detroit Group and The Chicago Group, which Koen was a part of. Her last gig with Franklin was September 2017. The additional performances Koen had lined up with Franklin were canceled due to Franklin’s failing health. The music legend passed away last Thursday (August 16) from pancreatic cancer at the age of 76. “Like Beethoven, like Mozart, she’s immortal,” Koen said. “There will never be another like her.”

Through her years of working with Franklin, Koen got a rare look beyond her musical legacy and superstardom. “As great as she was and as worldrenowned as she was, she was very regular,” Koen said. “She was the queen, but she was approachable.” While preparing for a gospel special, Koen was recording the rehearsal to make sure that all her notes and harmonies were on point. Franklin took it upon herself to help Koen by operating the tape recorder. Franklin and Koen bonded over a love of classic movies and as mutual fans of the OWN Network Tuesday evening soap opera, “Tyler Perry’s Haves and Have Nots.” “She called me out of the blue and said, ‘I haven’t had a chance to catch up, what’s going on? Tell me the dish’,” Koen recalled. According to Koen, Franklin was also hilarious. She was so funny, that Koen couldn’t help but chuckle as she remembered the late singer’s sense of humor. “She would keep you laughing,” Koen said. “She was funny – and very quickwitted. She was a jokester.”

There was another rehearsal where Koen found herself caught up in Franklin’s singing to the point where she couldn’t focus. “I was so stunned, my mouth was open,” Koen said. “She looked at me and said, ‘Girl please!’ And that’s what brought me back.”

That was one of the few times that Koen was caught off guard to the point where she couldn’t function, but it never happened in performance.

“There would be times where she would sing something, and it would go all through my body,” Koen said. “But I still had to keep my focus. She never sang anything the same – ever. It was so amazing. Billy told us, ‘you can’t be thrown off your square because she sounds so doggone good, because she sounds like that every time.’”

The song that made it hardest for Koen to keep her emotions in check was “It Hurts Like Hell” from the “Waiting To Exhale” soundtrack. “It’s like she takes a conglomeration of all of the pain and all of the love that she’s ever felt and puts into that song every time,” Koen said. “Every time she would sing it and I would cry – tears would be streaming down my face by the end of the song.”

She learned a lot from Franklin as an artist over her years of working with her. The biggest lessons were to let the music guide you where you want to go. Don’t be afraid to experiment, but let the music speak to your soul and respond to where it wants to take you.

Franklin’s mastery of using her music as a guide to the soul is what made her connect with people all over the world.

“I met some friends a couple of years ago that lived in a desert in Mali,” Koen said. “They were in a music group and they came here, and I got to meet them ... and they knew who Aretha Franklin was – they didn’t have the modern things, but they knew Aretha.” Her time spent with the Queen of Soul was one of her life’s greatest joys. “I’m just so thankful that I got an opportunity to know her and to work with her,” Koen said. “Hers is a star that will never be dimmed. Nobody sings like her.

“She’s the ambassador of soul – people are going to be singing Aretha Franklin as long as there is a world.”

Aretha Franklin and Ray

CharlesAretha Franklin and James Brown

Mae Koen, who provided background vocals for Aretha Franklin, with Franklin after a live taping of The Rosie O’Donnell Show in the 1990s.

around the country including one on Market Street in St. Louis. Bundles, who is an executive consultant in the series, expects it will be released in 2019. That will be nearly two decades after Bundles published her book, “On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker.” A string of films paved the way for the TV project, Bundles said.

“In the last few years, there have been some really successful movies from ‘12 Years a Slave’ and ‘The Butler’ and obviously ‘Black Panther’ and ‘Get Out,’” Bundles said. “And I think it’s very clear now that topics that involve people of color can be very commercially successful.”

The importance of black hair and black ownership

Walker’s story is much more complicated than a tale of entrepreneurship, according to Rebecca Wanzo, a Washington University professor focused on women’s studies and African-American culture.

“The treatment of AfricanAmerican women’s hair is incredibly important in the history of AfricanAmerican culture,” Wanzo said. “Inserting herself into that industry in the early 20th century really made a difference in terms of black people having a really big market share in the treatment of black hair. Previously, it was white pharmaceutical companies.”

Walker was also instrumental in providing jobs for black women.

“She also trained AfricanAmerican women to do hair, where they could be working for themselves, and working for black people as opposed to domestics for white people,” Wanzo said.

Academy Award-winning actor Octavia Spencer is producing the Walker series along with superstar athlete LeBron James. Spencer will also play the part of Madam

who spent a portion of her childhood in St. Louis, is on board to direct the first episode.

Spencer’s rise in the industry may have been a factor in launching the Walker TV series, according to Wanzo.

“Part of how projects starring black people get made is that black people have a role in being producers of properties and bringing these properties to networks and corporations,” Wanzo said.

Wanzo hopes the series will accurately portray the

many ways in which black entrepreneurs were blocked from success in the early 20th century.

“As opposed to just an ‘uplift narrative’: you know,” Wanzo said. “She wanted to build a business; she did. And there were some racist obstacles but then she overcame them.”

Published with permission of St. Louis Public Radio: http:// news.stlpublicradio.org/post/ tv-series-portrays-st-louisinspired-life-madam-cj-walkerbeauty-products-mogul

Walker. Kasi Lemmons,

Photo from Madam Walker Family Archives/A’Lelia Bundles

The class of 1939 graduates of the Walker Beauty School on Market Street in St. Louis.

A Vietnam Vet gives voice for those who can’t

By Julia Lacher For The St. Louis American

Staff at the Soldiers Memorial Military Museum have been busy preparing for its grand reopening on November 3. These preparations include collecting the oral histories of St. Louis–area veterans and their families. Some of these interviews will be featured in the new exhibits at Soldiers Memorial, and all will be available to researchers.

Clayvon Ambrose Wesley has lived in St. Louis since he was three years old. His family settled in the Mill Creek Valley neighborhood and later moved to Carr Square. In the early 1960s, Wesley attended Augustinian High School, where he was one of only three black students. After graduating, he attended Saint Louis University for a year before joining the U.S. Air Force when SLU lost his draft deferral.

In October 1969 he was sent to Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, to join the 12th Hospital Group. He returned to St. Louis in September 1970 and finished his degree in fine arts at SLU. Wesley now works as an artist and educator. His oral history became part of the Soldiers Memorial Military Museum Collections in January 2018. Here are some highlights.

On being deployed to Vietnam

While home on leave in St. Louis during the fall of 1969, Wesley got the call that he was being deployed to Vietnam. He was 22 years old.

cold, air-conditioned plane and then walking into the night of Cam Ranh Bay. “The heat and the smell rushed into the plane. It just absorbed you totally. … You could smell war and death. I mean, it was in the air.”

He was covered in sweat by the time he reached the hangar, where he was given a helmet and a bulletproof vest and driven to the barracks of the 12th Hospital Group. “It was like walking into prison. It was just a mattress and spider webs and, oh, it was terrible.”

n “We have an obligation to each other, to help the society that we live in understand that peace is better than war, and healing is better than not healing.”

– Clayvon Ambrose Wesley

“What I felt was, ‘OK, this is gonna happen.’ I wasn’t gonna run off to Canada. I wasn’t gonna run off to Mexico. I was committed to the four years. People said, ‘I’m glad you served our country.’ And I would always say, ‘Yes, thank you,’ but now I say it was an honor to serve our country because a lot of people didn’t get back, and a lot of people just didn’t make it. And a lot of people didn’t have to serve or they didn’t get a chance to serve. But as you get older, you find that when you have an opportunity to do something greater than yourself, and you’ve realized you’ve done something greater than yourself, then you feel honored that you got that opportunity.”

On arriving in Vietnam

Wesley remembers the feeling of being in a

On working in intensive care

“Every day was different. Some days there was nothing to do, and some days there was everything to do, and some days we would be so busy we would work double shifts. That was 24 hours a day.”

One death that left a lasting impression on Wesley was a black soldier brought in on a helicopter. The man’s injuries were so severe that both of his arms and legs had to be amputated. Wesley recalls starting CPR and working on him for 30 minutes.

“And I remember getting so angry, and I looked at the doctor and said, ‘We need to keep working on him!’ And I never forget what he said, he says, ‘Wesley, what kind of life would he have if he had lived? You’re in a war zone now.’”

On finishing his degree

When he returned to SLU, Wesley took an aptitude test, which showed he had a 102 percent aptitude for art. “I didn’t want to be an artist because artists, we don’t make money until we’re dead.” He had always had an interest in art, though, and was persuaded to join the art department. “And the rest is history, and now I’m a quasi-famous artist.”

On what it means to share his story

“This gives me an opportunity to have a voice for guys who don’t have a voice. And so it’s also an opportunity to create this platform for a healing process, so that we don’t feel bad about doing something that people felt we shouldn’t have done. Because we did it because we had to. We need to help each other heal … We have an obligation to each other, to help the society that we live in understand that peace is better than war, and healing is better than not healing.”

Sgt. Clayvon Wesley monitoring a woman’s wounded husband after surgery, ca. 1969. Photo courtesy of Clayvon Wesley.

Celebrations

Birthdays

Congratulations to Carolyn and Milton Proctor who celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary this month on a trip to Cancun, Mexico with family and friends. The long time St. Louis sweethearts remain inseparable and give their love and thanks for all the well wishes.

Elliott and Hazel Henry will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary with their three children, five grandchildren and two greatgrandchildren, family, friends and lots of love on August 25 at the New Northside Family Life Center.

Bishop Oscar J. Brooks and First Lady Augustine Brooks marked their 20th wedding anniversary on August 22 with a celebration in Ladue, Mo. The couple resides in Ferguson Woods, Mo.

Reunions

All reunion announcements can be viewed online!

Beaumont High Class of 1978 40th Reunion Extravaganza, Save the Date: October 5-7, 2018. Call or text Marietta Shegog Shelby at 314-799-5296 for further details.

East St. Louis Sr. High School Class of 1968 will celebrate its 50 year reunion on Friday, October 12, 2018 at the Main Street Brewing Center, 6435 West Main Street, Belleville, IL. 62223. For more information contact Linda Ward Spencer (618) 830-8221 or laws50@aol.com.

Hadley Teach classes of 1962-1963 will host their Annual Picnic on Saturday, Aug. 18 at Marvin’s Park, 4003 Camellia. Hot dogs, soda and water provided. Bring chairs, family and friends! For more information, contact: Virdell Robinson Stennis 314773-8177, Ora Scott Roberts 314-222-3662, Wilhelmina Gibson Baker 314-630-9647 or Marvin Young 314-422-5757.

Northwest High Class of 1979 is planning on cruising for our 40th class reunion and would love for you to join us! Date to sail is set for July 20, 2019 and you can feel free to contact: Duane Daniels at 314-568-2057 or Howard Day at 414-698-4261 for further information. Please don’t miss the boat!

Southwest High School Longhorns would like to announce the class reunion for the classes 1985-1989, Date: September 14-16, 2018.

For more information please contact Revitra Greco (314) 358-9522 or Kim Taylor (314) 369-3537.

St. Rose of Lima (Goodfellow & Etzel, closed 1977) will host an all-class reunion on Saturday, Sept. 8, Jewel Center, 407 Dunn Rd. See www.strosereunion.com for details.

Sumner High Class of 1979 will hold its “Bulldogs Rock the Boat” BIG 4-0 Reunion Cruise, June 22-27, 2019. For further information, email your contact information to sumner1979@ymail.com or call 314-406-4309. Join our Facebook group at Sumner High Class of ‘79.

Vashon High School Class of 1973 will celebrate its 45th reunion on Saturday, August 11, 2018 in St. Louis. We’re still in the process of rounding up all of our graduates and would love for you all to contact us. Please email us

Happy 70th Birthday to LaVerne Riney on August 21! Your family loves and appreciates you very much!

Happy Birthday to Donna (August 22) and Rufus Conner Jr. (August 24)! So thankful that we walked into each other’s lives.

at tpjgramells@aol.com for additional information. You may also RSVP and pay by going to VashonHigh1973. myevent.com. For those not on the internet, please call Terri (Bell) Johnson 314-313-2113.

Vashon High School Class of 1978 will celebrate its 40th reunion in Las Vegas, Nevada Sept. 13-16, 2018. Classmates interested in attending should contact Mrs. Vickie Young at 314-707-7053.

Do you have a celebration you’re proud of? If so we would like to share your good news with our readers. Whether it’s a birth, wedding, engagement announcement, anniversary, retirement or birthday, send your photos and a brief announcement (50 words or less) to us and we may include it in our paper and website – AT NO COST – as space is available Photos will not be returned. Send your announcements to: kdaniel@stlamerican. com or mail to:

St. Louis American Celebrations c/o Kate Daniel 2315 Pine St. St. Louis, MO 63103 FREE OF CHARGE

Reunion notices are free of charge and based on space availability. We prefer that notices be emailed to us! However, notices may also be sent by mail to: Kate Daniel, 2315 Pine St., St. Louis, MO 63103

Deadline is 10 a.m. on Friday. If you’d like your class to be featured in a reunion profile, email or mail photos to us. Our email address is: reunions@stlamerican.com

RIP to the Queen of Soul. I can’t tell y’all how heavy my heart is about the passing of music legend Aretha Franklin last week. It was made worse by that so-called homage to the Queen of Soul by Madonna, a.k.a. the Queen of Making The Absolute Most of What You’ve Got, at Monday night’s MTV Awards. But I don’t want to give that any more attention. Franklin’s music will live forever as part of essential listening that serves as the soundtrack of the black American experience and connects with people of all races from around the world. She rightfully gets props as the Queen of Soul. However, one of the other reasons I loved Aretha so much was for a talent that she never got enough credit for – and that is as The Queen of Shade. Now, before y’all accuse me of not giving her R.E.S.P.E.C.T. (or however Rev. Al Sharpton spelled it the other night on his show … I’m blaming it on bereavement), I feel in my soul that she would want me to give her all her proper for being able to read folks for filth. Of the many gems where she got folks together, my favorite was an unprovoked read – when an interviewer asked Ms. Franklin her thoughts on some of the current roster of female music stars.

Reporter: Since your latest album is about divas, I want to just throw out a few names of divas and get your one-word reaction and impression of various singers. When I say the name Adele, what comes to mind?

Aretha Franklin: Mmmm, hmmm … young singer, good singer.

Reporter: Alicia Keys.

Aretha Franklin: Ummm … young performer, good writer, producer.

Reporter: Taylor Swift.

Aretha Franklin: Okay … great gowns, beautiful gowns. She will be missed, and while I know I will never be able sing like her, my hope is that I can at least get into her stratosphere as far as shading folks for dear life. In all seriousness, we will never have another like the queen – and I’m glad to have lived to see her impact and ability to influence all genres of music over several generations.

Funk, Soul and Mathews-Dickey family at The Fox. Saturday night, I stopped by the Soul Funk Fest presented by Mathews-Dickey at The Fox Theatre. Let me start with the wonderful news that Mathews-Dickey is still doing phenomenal things as a pillar of hope for young people of color through its services that build scholar athletes who become well-rounded humans contributing to the fabric of the region and beyond. I also want to shout out the honorees who were praised at the event. Mathews-Dickey CEO Wendell Covington has so much swag sauce I can barely handle it. And though it wasn’t a part of the actual show, let me start with that barely teen Morgan Taylor’s performance of The National Anthem. Girl, you have the range! Okay, on with the concert. I was so happy to Love Jones The Band, who has been killing it at BB’s for a minute, get a chance to play the same stage as international superstars. I dug their set too – though I would have loved to hear more from Chris (no shade to Kent or Tracy). Comedian Darius Bradford’s joke about refusing to take two highways to get to one woman was one of his many bits that sat well with the audience. And did Doug E. Fresh turn the party all the way out or what? Folks were on their feet from the time he graced the stage until he said his lengthy goodbye. And let me give a special shout out to Maurice “Snoopy” Falls and Leata Trent Price-Land for always having my back when I need it. They’ll know why I’m giving them props. Okay, now on to the grand finale provided by soul/funk veterans Cameo, who headlined the Soul Funk Fest as part of Mathews-Dickey’s 3rd Annual Family Reunion festivities. When I thought about headliner Cameo’s performance, it reminded me of the “Say Something Nice Challenge” featured on Crunk & Disorderly, one of my favorite blogs that has since gone to the URL up in the sky. Let’s try this: Everyone in the crowd was a great sport about hearing their favorite jams in fair condition, and it was a great time for everyone who came out for the worthy cause of supporting Mathews-Dickey. Oh, and legendary drummer Sugarfoot was life more abundantly. Now, my soul will not be well if I don’t recommend that Larry Blackmon (the lead singer) let that catsuit and hot red jock cup go. Keep the box with the pointed bang if you must, but the rest of your get up needs to go to that costume closet in the upper room.

A Bazaar celebrating blackness. I am quietly ashamed to say that I had never attended the Annual Saint Louis African American Artifacts Festival and Bazaar before Saturday – and this was the fifth year. After making my way to Crown Square Plaza (across from Crown Candy Kitchen) Saturday afternoon, I will add it to my annual musts! It was two blocks of blackness along 14th Street and St. Louis Avenue with a stage smack dab in the middle. And when Spirit of Angela got busy with their African Dance set, it had me ready to sign up for classes. Especially when they invited folks from the crowd to join in and everybody they randomly tapped went to work when the drummers got busy. The strangers could have easily joined the troupe and not missed a step. Watching this had me seriously considering hiring a personal Dunham Technique tutor. The whole event was awesome – and while I hate I’d never been before now, trust that I’ll do my best to never miss again.

Three-peat for Trap Soul Paint. I made my way to Café Soul’s third installment of Trap.Soul.Paint Sunday at The House of Soul Sunday evening. Can I ask how are y’all about to twerk and paint at the same time while staying within the lines? I can barely twerk while twerking. But anyway, it was another full house as the folks got lit and simultaneously scratched a creative itch. For this edition, Nichol had Rhoda G. come through and bless the crowd with a saxophone cover of Drake’s “God’s Plan.” And since I’m talking about a Café Soul event, I might as well remind y’all that the 12th Anniversary show is happening on Friday, Aug. 24 at The House of Soul (1204 Washington Ave.). This year’s headliner is the one and only Dirty Muggs. Do I even have to tell y’all how they get down at this point? Something tells me that I don’t. Anyway, the party stars at 7 p.m. Considering that they’ve given a space for folks who have grown into your favorite local artists over the years to hone their craft dating back to the Lucas Schoolhouse days, it would behoove y’all to show them some love!

Tendai and Nichol of Café Soul @ Trap.Soul.Paint Sunday @ The House of Soul

Jeff, Cherise, Samantha, Jaime and hip-hop pioneer Doug E. Fresh following his set @ The Soul Funk Fest presented by Mathews-Dickey Saturday @ The Fox

Mr. “Them Yo People” Gary Boyd with Wille of Cameo backstage before the group’s headlining Soul Funk Fest performance Saturday @ The Fox

Comedians Jessie Taylor, Lady Re, Jovan Bibbs and Willie Lynch Jr. after they tore the house down Sunday @ The Laugh Lounge STL

Sir Ervin Williams III and the cast of his web series ‘It’s Complicated’ last Saturday @ Harris-Stowe State University’s Emerson Performance Center

Fashion designer Qristyl and Miguel Hall @ Martin L. Mathews Awards Program & Benefit Concert Saturday @ The Fox

Melva and Melvin Moore - bassist for Love Jones The Band - following the group’s set that opened the Soul Funk Fest Saturday night @ The Fox

Friends Royce and Roy were eager to congratulate host and comedian Darius Bradford on a job well done as host of the Soul Funk Fest Saturday @ The Fox

Rejoice and Jocelyn were just a few of the beautiful faces @ Martin L. Mathews Awards Program Saturday @ The Fox

Danielle, Darren and Tiffany soaking in black culture @ The 5th Annual Saint Louis African American Artifacts Festival and Bazaar Saturday @ Crown Square

Mathews-Dickey Boys and Girls Club CEO Wendell Covington gave Doug E. Fresh props for a job well done following the rap legend’s set as part of the Soul Funk Fest portion of the 3rd Annual Martin L. Mathews Awards Program & Benefit Concert Saturday Fox Theatre. The concert, headlined by Cameo, also featured Love Jones The Band and comedian Darius Bradford.

CHIEF DEVELOPMENT & MARKETING OFFICER

Safe Connections is seeking a Chief Development and Marketing Officer. You can view the full job description at www. safeconnections.org. Safe Connections is a well-established and innovative nonprofit leader in the St. Louis region working to reduce the impact and incidence of domestic and sexual violence. We do this through therapy and a 24-Hour Crisis Helpline for survivors and prevention education programming for youth. Safe Connections serves nearly 20,000 individuals each year, inclusive of all gender identities and sexual orientations. Safe Connections seeks and celebrates diversity in its staff and provides a dynamic team environment.Atrauma-informed culture with a high value on self-care, mentoring and professional development is an organizational hallmark. Candidates may email a cover letter and resume to Chief Executive Officer Susan D. Kidder at susan@safeconnections.org.

Full link: https://www.safeconnections.org/ job-opening-chief-development-andmarketing-officer/

REINSURANCE PLACEMENTS & CONTRACTSANALYST

Responsible for preparing and analyzing all Treaty, Facultative, and Captive Placements and Renewal

Submissions by gathering applicable data from various departments and assembling multiple exhibits and presentations for the reinsurance market. Also responsible for accurate tracking of the reinsurance placements.

To apply, please visit: https://www.safetynational.com/ careers-page/.

COORDINATORCLAIMS-EDI PROCESSING

Responsible for various technical support tasks related to: processing data into the Data repository, ClaimCenter and scorecards.

To apply, please visit: https://www.safetynational.com/ careers-page/.

REINSURANCE PLACEMENTS & CONTRACTSANALYST

Responsible for preparing and analyzing all Treaty, Facultative, and Captive Placements and Renewal Submissions by gathering applicable data from various departments and assembling multiple exhibits and presentations for the reinsurance market. Also responsible for accurate tracking of the reinsurance placements. To apply, please visit: https://www.safetynational.com/ careers-page/.

STAFF SUPERVISOR CLAIMS - EXCESS DATA

Responsible for oversight, performance and quality of work of all assigned staff and their corresponding support functions as well as duties specifically assigned.

To apply, please visit: https://www.safetynational.com/ careers-page/.

COORDINATOR - ISPURCHASING ADMINISTRATION

This position is responsible for providing professional level administrative and purchasing support to the Information Services Department. This position also develops and maintains positive working relationships with all levels of Safety National personnel and outside vendors to help facilitate the Information Services Department goals and objectives.

To apply, please visit: https://www.safetynational.com/ careers-page/.

FACILITIES SPECIALIST

The United Way of Greater St. Louis is seeking a Facilities Specialist. Please visit our website at http://www.stl.unitedway.org under our careers section for a complete job description. No phone calls please. We are proud to be an equal opportunity affirmative action employer.

COORDINATOR-PSAPOLICY OPERATIONS

COORDINATORCEDED REINSURANCE

Provide accurate tracking and reporting of ceded reinsurance liabilities and the maintenance of the file documents for the Ceded Re Department. Responsible for day-to-day Department operational needs, to include: maintaining systems data, creating and maintaining premium and claim reports, provide and distributeAM Best information and process and distribute Ceded Reinsurance billings.

To apply, please visit: https://www.safetynational.com/ careers-page/.

Responsible for providing client / customer support for the department’s operational functions to include the production of Primary and Excess Workers’Compensation, CommercialAuto, General Liability, Excess Liability and Specialty Lines transactions (New Business, Renewals, Endorsements, Cancellations, Reinstatements and Non-renewals). This position includes the accuracy in which transactions are issued, correct billing and proper distribution of final product to our customers.

To apply, please visit: https://www.safetynational.com/careers-page/.careers-page/.

NATIONALDIRECTOR OF CONTRACTING & CONSTRUCTION

This role will require heavy engagement with construction specialists throughout the industry, working with national brokers as well as regional brokers and independents, including their specialty divisions, to identify current and emerging customer needs and to craft and deliver product and service solutions that will result in differentiation and underwriting profitability over the long term. Long term coverage solutions will span both the primary and excess casualty lines, written on both an admitted and non-admitted basis, with specific line of business responsibilities to encompass WC, GL,Auto, supported Excess/Umbrella and supported Contractor Controlled/ Owner Controlled programs.

To apply, please visit: https://www.safetynational.com/ careers-page/.

LOYOLA ACADEMY OF ST. LOUIS Donor Relations Manager

Loyola Academy of St. Louis, a Jesuit-sponsored middle schools for boys, seeks a dynamic person to serve as the full-time Donor Relations Manager. Loyola Academy is committed to breaking the cycle of poverty by providing a rigorous education, extra-curricular programming, and an emphasis on personal and spiritual development to sixty students. The Donor Relations Manager is a new position at Loyola and will play a pivotal role in helping the school nurture relationships and properly steward donors. This position reports to the Director of Development and Marketing. The Donor Relations Manager will track and acknowledge donor gifts, develop new and creative approaches to communicate with donors, assist in marketing strategies and help to coordinate fundraising events. The successful candidate will have a Bachelor-level degree and a 1-2 year solid track record in development. Please submit a letter of interest and resume to Tim Plunkett, Coordinator of the Search Committee, at tplunkett@loyolaacademy.org by September 21, 2018. No phone inquiries. For additional information and a full job description, please visit the school’s website, www.loyolaacademy.org.

CITY OF ST. LOUIS

BOARD OF PUBLIC SERVICE

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS for EVALUATION OF THE DEICING

DRAINAGE AND COLLECTION

SYSTEM AT ST. LOUIS LAMBERT INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. Statements of Qualifications due by 5:00 P.M., CT, September 7, 2018 at Board of Public Service, 1200 Market, Room 301 City Hall, St. Louis, MO 63103. RFQ may be obtained from website www.stl-bps.org, under On Line Plan Room, or call Helen Bryant at 314-589-6214. 25% MBE and 5% WBE participation goals.

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS

METROPOLITAN ST. LOUIS

SEWER DISTRICT

Notice is

2350 Market Street, St. Louis,

63103-2555 until 10:00 a.m. on September 20th, 2018 to contract with a company for: Website Support & Hosting Services. Specifications and bid forms may be obtained from www.stlmsd.com, click on the “MSD AT WORK” link, (bid opportunities). The bid document will be identified as 9531 RFP. If you do not have access to the internet, call 314.768.2735 to request a copy of this bid. Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

The St. Louis County Department of Human Services, Homeless Services Program, is seeking proposals for the Continuum of Care Planning Consultant Grant FY2018. The total funding available is approximately $150,000.00. Proposals are due by 2:00 p.m. on September 13, 2018. A Pre-Proposal Conference will be held on August 27th at 10:00 -11:00 a.m. Request For Proposal details and specifications can be obtained on August 23rd at the St. Louis County Bids and RFPs webpage located at http://www.stlouisco.com/ YourGovernment/BidsandRFPs

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

METROPOLITAN ST. LOUIS

DISTRICT

SEWER

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District will receive RFQ’s in the Purchasing Division, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63103-2555 until 10:00 a.m. on September 20, 2018 to contract with a company for: Parking Lot Repavement. Specifications and bid forms may be obtained from www.stlmsd.com, click on the “MSD AT WORK” link, (bid opportunities). The bid document will be identified as 9529 RFQ. If you do not have access to the internet, call 314.768.2735 to request a copy of this bid. Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

L. Keeley Construction Co. is requesting proposals for the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District Gravois Trunk Sanitary Storage Facility (Pardee Ln and Pardee Rd). Work to be completed: Demolition, Earthwork/Excavation, Storm & Sanitary Sewer, Concrete/Asphalt, Waterline, Electrical, and Landscaping. Proposals are due via email by 12pm Wednesday, September 12, 2018 to Pete Hyatt phyatt@lkeeley.com. Pre-Bid meeting will be held at L. Keeley Construction office 9am-10am Friday, August 31st at 500 S. Ewing Ave, Suite G, St. Louis, MO 63103. Please call the L. Keeley office to view plans or with any questions. Office: 314-421-5933

INVITATION TO BID

McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. requests bids from qualified and certified MBE and WBE subcontractors and suppliers for the following project:

St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station Bid Packages 4B and 4C

For the following scopes of work:

Concrete Paving, Fire Suppression, Plumbing, Communications & Low Voltage, HVAC T&B, Conveying Equip., Masonry, Aquarium Tanks, Flooring, Painting, Exhibits & Graphics, Signage, Play Equip., Fountains, Drywall, General Work - Carpentry & Casework/Doors/ Specialties & Equip./Furnishings/Hoists, Glazing, Food Service Equip., Landscaping, Misc. Metals BIDS DUE:

September 13, 2018 by 2:00 PM CST Contact: Mary Peterein at mpeterein@mccarthy.com or 314-919-2171

Project plans and specs can be obtained through our online Plan Room at https://www.mccarthy.com/subcontractors

Prequalification is required and can also be accessed through the McCarthy website above.

METROPOLITAN ST. LOUIS

SEWER DISTRICT

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District will receive sealed bids in the Purchasing Division, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63103-2555 until 10:00am September 28th 2018 for: Final Tank 11 Collector Installation Specifications and bid forms may be obtained from www.stlmsd.com - click on “MSD At Work”, then “Bidding on Projects”. The bid document will be identified as 9532 RFQ. If you do not have access to the internet, call (314) 7686314 to request a copy of this bid.

Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

CITY OF ST. LOUIS ST. LOUIS LAMBERT INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Solicitation For Bids (SFB) for Flag Cleaning Services

Bids Wanted

Bid documents may be obtained at St. Louis Lambert International Airport, Airport Properties Division, Monday through Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., or by calling (314) 890-1802. This SFB may also be obtained by visiting our website at www.flystl.com/ business/contract-opportunites.

Robert Salarano Airport Properties Division Manager

SEALED BIDS

Advertisement for sub-contractor bids- Cottleville Fire Protection District, Cottleville, MO. The Construction Manager will receive sealed bids until 10:00 a.m. August 30th, 2018 at the Cottleville Fire Protection District Headquarters, 1385 Motherhead Rd. St Charles, MO 63304. A Pre-Bid Conference is scheduled for August 22 at 2:30 p.m. at the site address listed above. Please contact Layneco Construction Services with questions. 636-294-6245

MLAYNE@LCSCONSTRUCT.COM

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS

Great Rivers Greenway has posted a Request for Qualifications for Community Engagement Services. Check www.GreatRiversGreenway. org/jobs and submit by Monday, September 17th.

BIDS for Replace Single-Ply Roofing System, Missouri National Guard Readiness C e n t e r , C a p e Girardeau, Missouri, Project No. T180201 will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, 8/30/2018. For specific project information and ordering plans, go to: http://oa.mo. gov/ facilities

Plans and Specifications are also available for viewing or purchase at Cross Rhodes Reprographics located at 1712 Macklind Avenue, St. Louis MO 63110. All bidders must obtain a set of plans and specifications in order to submit a bid in the name of the entity submitting the bid. The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an

METROPOLITAN ST. LOUIS SEWER DISTRICT

Notice is hereby given that The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (District), the Owner, will receive sealed bids for Infrastructure Repairs (Rehabilitation) (2019) Contract A under Letting No. 12017-015.1 at its office, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63103, until 2:00 PM, local time, on Thursday, September 20, 2018. All bids are to be deposited in the bid box located on the first floor of the District’s Headquarters prior to the 2:00 p.m. deadline. Bids may, however, be withdrawn prior to the opening of the first bid. BIDS WILL BE PUBLICLY OPENED AND READ IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE BID DUE DATE/TIME AT 2350 MARKET STREET, AT A PLACE DESIGNATED.

The Work to be performed under these Contract Documents consists of: The work to be done under this contract consists of the rehabilitation of approximately 32,505 lineal feet of sanitary sewers varying in size from 8-inches to 78-inches in diameter, utilizing cured-in-place (CIPP) methods. The project is within the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District Boundaries, inside the city(ies) of St. Louis and various municipalities in St. Louis County and unincorporated St. Louis County in the State of Missouri. The work will be performed in various quantities at various sites.

All prospective bidders must prequalify in the Cured-In-Place Pipe (CIPP) category, and be certified prior to the Bid Opening. Prequalification forms for obtaining said certification may be obtained from the Owner at the above mentioned address. All bidders must obtain drawings and specifications in the name of the entity submitting the bid.

This project will be financed through the Missouri State Revolving Fund, established by the sale of Missouri Water Pollution Control bonds and Federal Capitalization Grants to Missouri. Neither the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, its divisions, nor its employees will be party to the contract at any tier. Any Bidder whose firm or affiliate is listed on the GSA publication titled “List of Parties Excluded from Federal Procurement or Non-Procurement Programs” is prohibited from the bidding process; bids received from a listed party will be deemed non-responsive. Refer to Instructions to Bidders B-27 for more information regarding debarment and suspension.

Nondiscrimination in Employment: Bidders on this work will be required to comply with the President’s Executive Order 11246. Requirements for bidders and contractors under this order are explained in the specifications.

PUBLIC MEETING/OPEN HOUSE

East-West Gateway Council of Governments (EWG) seeks comment on amendments to Connected2045, the St. Louis Region’s long-range transportation plan including the FY 2019-2022 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), and related Air Quality Conformity Document. The public is invited to view these documents and supporting materials at a series of open-house meetings. The meetings and comment period will also satisfy Madison County Transit District’s and Bi-State Development/Metro’s public hearing and program of projects requirement of the Federal Transit Administration Sections 3006(b), 5307, 5309, 5310, 5316, 5317, 5337, and 5339 programs in the St. Louis region. The public comment period begins Friday, August 31, 2018 and ends Friday, October 5, 2018 during which time the documents will be available on the website at www.ewgateway.org. Comment forms will be available on the website and at the meetings. Comments must be received or postmarked by midnight Fri., 10/5/18. Send comments to TIP@ewgateway.org or East-West Gateway Council of Governments, Attn: TIP, One S. Memorial Drive, Ste. 1600, St. Louis, MO 63102.

The open houses will be held: Mon., 9/10/18: 4:30 to 6:30 PM – The Heights – 8001 Dale Ave., Richmond Heights, MO 63117; Thu., 9/13/18: 4:30 to 6:30 PM –Fairview Heights City Hall, 10025 Bunkum Rd., Fairview Heights, IL 62208; Mon., 9/17/18: 4:30 to 6:30 PM –Pacific City Hall, 300 Hoven Dr., Pacific, MO 63069; Thu., 9/20/18: 4:30 to 6:30 PM – Hillsboro City Hall, 101 Main St., Hillsboro, MO 63050; Wed., 9/26/18: 4:30 to 6:30 PM – O’Fallon (MO) City Hall, 100 N. Main St., O’Fallon, MO 63366; Thu., 9/27/18: 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM – live chat will be held in cooperation with the St. Louis Post Dispatch at www.ewgateway.org.

Persons requiring special accommodations should notify Roz Rodgers at least 48 hours prior to the open house at 314-421-4220 or email titlevi@ewgateway.org. EWG fully complies with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and related statutes and regulations in all programs & activities. For more information, or to obtain a Title VI Nondiscrimination Complaint Form, call (314) 421-4220 or (618) 274-2750 or see www.ewgateway.org/titlevi.

ADVERTISEMENT FOR PROPOSAL

Sealed Requests for Proposal for RFP 18-194; Transportation Assistance Services to provide transportation assistance services to low and moderate income households (80% AMI) in St. Peters, Missouri are being solicited by the St. Peters Office of Community Services. The organization should have the capacity to provide round-trip transportation within St. Charles County and outside the County for medical purposes. Transportation should be provided to any person without regard to race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status or national origin.

Proposals will be received by the City of St. Peters, City Hall, One St. Peters Centre Blvd., P.O. Box 9, St. Peters, Missouri 63376 until 2:00 PM, September 7, 2018. This will be a non-public opening.

Proposal documents will be available on Friday, August 24, 2018 and may be obtained from the City of St. Peters, One St. Peters Centre Boulevard, St. Peters, MO 63376 or requested in writing to Bids@stpetersmo.net under the subject line “RFP 18-194; Transportation Assistance Services”.

All questions regarding this project shall be submitted to the City of St. Peters Purchasing Department in writing to Bids@stpetersmo.net under the subject line “RFP 18-194; Transportation Assistance Services” or by mail to City of St. Peters Purchasing Department, One St. Peters Centre Boulevard, P.O. Box 9, St. Peters, MO 63376 before noon local time, Friday, August 31, 2018.

The City reserves the right to waive any informality, and to accept the proposal most advantageous to the City.

and/or material quotations from qualifying minority

enterprises for relevant phases of work for Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, Gravois Trunk Sanitary Storage Facility, Contract Letting No. 12569015.1. Interested parties should contact the Goodwin Office at (636) 931-6084. A pre-bid meeting for all interested MBE’s will be held at Goodwin Brothers office at 4885 Baumgartner Road, St. Louis, MO 63129 at 8:00 am on Thursday, August 30, 2018. Subcontractor/Supplier bids are due September 12, 2018 at 5:00 p.m. An Equal Opportunity Employer

TO BID K&S Associates will be accepting bids for the following projects during the month of September: AVCRAD – Phase 3A Addition(Aviation Maintenance Facility), Springfield, MO 9/6/18 St. Paul’s Lutheran School-Phase 1 Building Addition, St. Louis, MO, 9/17/18 Plans and Specs can be viewed at www.ksgcstlplanroom.com Submit Bids to estimating@ksgcstl.com or Fax 314-647-5302Contact Dennis Dyes @ 314-647-3535 with questions

SEALED

Missouri, Springfield AVCRAD, Springfield, Missouri, Project No. T1824-01 will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, 9/13/2018. For specific project

n d ordering plans, go to: http://oa.mo. gov/

SEALED BIDS

for Controls Upgrades to Generator & MediumVoltage

Habilitation Center, St. Louis, Missouri, Project M1401-02No. will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, 9/13/2018. For informationprojectspecificand ordering plans, go to: http://oa.mo. gov/ facilities

SEALED BIDS

for Structural Repairs to Tunnel Way, Guhleman Forensic Buildings - East and West, Fulton, Missouri , Project No.M1804-01 will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, 9/13/2018. For specific project information and ordering plans, go to: http://oa.mo. gov/ facilities

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

The St. Louis Economic Development Partnership (the “Partnership”) solicits proposals from qualified firms to assist small and medium-size defense manufacturers in Missouri to comply fully with the cybersecurity requirements in Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) 252.204-7012.

To be considered, proposals must be received no later than 3:00 PM CST on Thursday, September 6, 2018. Proposals should be sent by email to hbean@stlpartnership.com, or to St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, ATTN: Howl Bean II, 7733 Forsyth Blvd., Suite 2200, St. Louis, Missouri 63105. DBE, MBE, and WBE firms are encouraged to bid, and a five percent bid preference may be available to certified MBE firms. The Request for Proposals may be obtained from the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership’s web site at www.stlpartnership.com. The Partnership reserves the right to reject any or all proposals and to waive informalities therein. Any questions should be directed to Howl Bean II at (314) 615-7663 or hbean@stlpartnership.com.

St. Louis Economic Development Partnership Equal Opportunity Employer

SEALED

BIDS for FORT LEONARD WOODREA

I N E S S C E N T E R , MODIFICATIONS, FIRING RANGE 18A, ST. ROBERT, MISSOURI, Project No. T1810-01 will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, 9/6/2018. For specific project information and ordering plans, go to: http://oa.mo. gov/ facilities

SEALED BIDS

for ReplaceRoof, Main Roof Area, E m p l o y m e n t Security Central Office, Jefferson City, Missouri, Project No. O180601 will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, 9/20/2018. For specific project information and ordering plans, go to: http://oa.mo. gov/ facilities

SEALED BIDS

for Construct 25 Meter Range, Camp Clark Tr a i n i n g S i t e , Nevada, Missouri, Project No. T1838-01 will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, 9/6/2018 For specific project information and ordering plans, go to: http://oa.mo. gov/ facilities

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

The St. Louis Economic Development Partnership (the “Partnership”) solicits proposals from qualified firms specializing in commercial real estate to provide brokerage and marketing services to sell its West County Business Incubator facility, located at 743 Spirit 40 Park Drive, Chesterfield, Missouri 63005.

To be considered, proposals must be received no later than 3:00 PM CST on Thursday, September 6, 2018. Proposals should be sent by email to hbean@stlpartnership.com, or to St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, ATTN: Howl Bean II, 7733 Forsyth Blvd., Suite 2200, St. Louis, Missouri 63105. DBE, MBE, and WBE firms are encouraged to bid, and a proposal discount may be available to certified MBE firms.

The Request for Proposals may be obtained from the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership’s web site at www.stlpartnership.com. The Partnership reserves the right to reject any or all proposals and to waive informalities therein. Any questions should be directed to Howl Bean II at (314) 615-7663 or hbean@stlpartnership.com.

St. Louis Economic Development Partnership Equal Opportunity Employer

bath & Kitchen, Delmar & Union Area, $420/mo 314-532-9891

SEALED BIDS

for Construct Unheated Storage Building, Missouri National Guard –AVCRAD, S p r i n g f i e l d , Missouri, Project No. T1729-01 will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, 9/6/2018. For specific project information and ordering plans, go to: http://oa.mo. gov/ facilities

SEALED BIDS

for Construct Laundry Building, Missouri National GuardCamp Crowder, Neosho, Missouri, Project No. T182501 will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, 9/6/2018. For specific project information and ordering plans, go to: http://oa.mo. gov/ facilities

SEALED BIDS

The City of Webster Groves recreation department is accepting sealed bids for fitness circuit equipment. A pre-bid meeting will be at 9am on August 21, 2018. Final bids are due to 4 E Lockwood Ave by 3pm September 4, 2018. For more information go to www.webstergroves.org/bids Questions can be directed to Miki McKee (314)963-5656 mckeem@webstergroves.org. All rights reserved.

SEALED

BIDS for Upgrade HVAC Multiple Buildings, Camp Crowder Tr a i n i n g S i t e , Neosho, Missouri, Project No. T182201 will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, 9/6/2018. For specific project information and ordering plans, go to: http://oa.mo. gov/ facilities

Project No. T1821-01 will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, 9/6/2018. For specific project information and ordering plans, go to: http://oa.mo. gov/ facilities

Public Notice of Single Source Procurement

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is proposing to procure Superior Waterproofing & Restoration Company for Window Cleaning & Restoration Services. The District is proposing a single source procurement for this service because Superior Waterproofing is utilizing the only Subcontractor that meets the District’s quality and performance standard for this service. Any inquiries should be sent to strenz@stlmsd.com

Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

NOTICE: Regarding: Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis Teen Center of Excellence

Dear Qualified MBE/WBE Contracting Firms, KAI Design & Build is seeking qualified minority and female owned businesses for subcontracting opportunities on the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis Teen Center of Excellence project located within the City of Ferguson, Missouri. KAI will be holding an MBE/ WBE/DBE outreach meeting to review the scope of the project, necessary prequalification requirements, and the documentation required by BGCSTL to meet the established diversity goals. The meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 22, 2018, promptly at 8:00 AM CST at KAI Design & Build Headquarters, 2060 Craigshire Road, Saint Louis, MO 63146. We strongly encourage interested parties to attend the outreach meeting to learn more about the project and the diversity goals set forth. Should you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact Ron Covarrubias at rcovarrubias@kai-db.com or 314.754.6388. We appreciate your interest in this project!

PROMOTIONAL T-SHIRTS

The Missouri Lottery is accepting bids for the purpose of establishing a contract for promotional t-shirts. The bid document with the specifications can be obtained by going to http://www.molottery.com/learnaboutus/bid_opportunities.shtm or by contacting Melissa Blankenship at melissa.blankenship@molottery. com or 573-751-4050.

Religion

‘Reviving Justice’ at Christ the King UCC

Rev. Traci D. Blackmon hosts revival

September 11-13

By Sandra Jordan Of The St. Louis American

“In times like these, when our national leadership lacks a moral compass, hatred is on the rise and violence is rampant, we need a revival,” said the Rev. Traci D. Blackmon, senior pastor of Christ the King United Church of Christ and the executive minister of Justice and Local Church Ministries for the United Church of Christ.

To that end, highly regarded clergy from parts south and east will speak on “Reviving Justice,” Tuesday, September 11 through Thursday, September 13 at Christ the King United Church of Christ, located at 11370 Old Halls Ferry Road in Florissant. Each night of revival begins at 7 p.m.

For the first night of revival on September 11, the Rev. Robert C. Scott is the messenger. Scott is the senior pastor of St. Paul Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Previously, he served as the longtime pastor at Central Baptist Church in St. Louis. Blackmon said of Scott that he “helped establish that church as a prophetic manifestation of the Gospel in a neighborhood where the radical love of Jesus was desperately needed, not only on Sundays, but through the week.”

On September 12, the Rev. Leslie D. Callahan, pastor of St. Paul’s Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania will bring the revival message. Callahan is the first woman pastor at St. Paul’s and “her

teaching is nationally regarded as some of the best the church has to offer,” Rev. Blackmon said.

The third and final night of revival is Thursday, September 13, when Christ the King, along with Southern Union Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis, will bring in the Rev. Gina M. Stewart, senior pastor of Christ Missionary Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Stewart is also her church’s first woman pastor, and she also pastors the youth of her church.

“Now having expanded to two locations, Dr. Stewart leads her congregation in an expended understanding of the liberating God and is an internationally sought-after preacher,” Blackmon said.

“I believe these prophetic voices are ones that will strengthen our resolve and remind us of where our hope remains,” Rev. Blackmon said. For more information, call 314-741-6808 or visit www.ctkucc.org.

Black Church to assemble for ‘Call to Conscience’

Black denominational and faith leaders have scheduled a “Call to Conscience – Day of

Action” for September 5-6 in Washington, D.C.

Events will start with a Strategic Planning Session for bishops, denominational leaders, pastors, and attendees at 9 a.m. Wednesday, September 5 at Reid Temple AME Church, 11400 Glenn Dale Blvd, Glenn Dale, Md.

That afternoon, leaders will meet with congressional leadership, and pastors and laity will visit their congressional members offices, followed with a worship service that evening at Reid Temple AME Church, where Reverend Lee P. Washington is senior pastor and Rev. Matthew Lawrence Watley serves as executive minister and managing minister.

On Thursday, September 6, the group will assemble at 9 a.m. at Lafayette Park, cross from White House, with the “Call to Conscience – Day of Action” to follow at 10 a.m. in the park.

After a 12:30 p.m. lunch at the historic Metropolitan AME Church, 1518 M Street, N.W. in Washington, D.C., the leaders will hold a 2 p.m. press conference at Metropolitan AME Church, where the Rt. Rev. James Levert Davis is servant bishop and Mother Arelis Beevers Davis is episcopal

The Rev. Robert C. Scott – senior pastor of St. Paul Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, and formerly the longtime pastor at Central Baptist Church in St. Louis – will preach Tuesday, September 11 at Christ the King United Church of Christ as part of its “Reviving Justice” revival, September 11-13.

Photo by Wiley Price

supervisor.

“In a word, we are at war. We are at war against racism, when the president pits and divides the nation according to race in order to govern, and declares there are ‘some really good people’ among white supremacists, nationalists and the Ku Klux Klan,” organizers said in a statement.

“We are at war against antiimmigration efforts, which is a disguised effort to set back and deport people of color in order to maintain white privilege and the status quo. We are at war against efforts to pervert the criminal justice system in the name of ‘law and order’ to profile and target blacks, and fill the courts with judges who will turn back gains made during the Civil Rights Movement in the name of ‘Making America Great Again.’ We must fight against, spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Organizers said the event also will also kick off efforts for the mid-term elections. “Our priority will be to register, educate, organize and mobilize our people to vote in November,” organizers said. “If blacks turn out in large numbers, we will determine the outcome in a large number of races.”

For further information please call (770)-220-1770.

The Message

God will never abandon you

As a Christian, no matter how devout, life will put you in the dumps about your particular situation or circumstance. Being a Christian does not guarantee a life void of trial and tribulation. As a matter of fact, being a Christian is tantamount to sending VIP invitations to Mr. Temptation and Ms. Test. The key to getting through it all and maintaining a sense of inner peace is knowing that God is always in your life.

No matter the situation, God will never abandon you, regardless of how lonely life gets or appears to be. I liken it to pushing a huge rock uphill. On many a day that rock becomes a boulder and that hill transforms into a very steep and treacherous mountain. At these times, one must recognize that were if not for God’s presence in your life, that rock would push back and the hill would turn into quicksand.

Within your attitude is the solution and the peace you require to keep pushing. I admit it’s easy to get down on yourself even when you are a believer. But because you’re a believer, it should impossible to stay down.

I went to two different churches recently where members were allowed to give testimony and request prayer. One church was very large and high-tech and people spoke of their real-life journeys to Christ by concluding that “Jesus is more than a story.” Each testimony of Christ’s reality in changing a life forced me to rethink my own situation and conclude, I have no right to be down.

In the other much smaller and more intimate church, member after member told stories of specific trials and tests and the need for prayer, from family situations in which a six-month-old died prematurely and a seven-yearold who suffered from cancer, to a person so allergic to life that the smell of perfume would cause excruciating pain and a life of seclusion.

In all instances, the people involved found a way to cope, to live, to survive, God gave them all hope. Remember, every testimony was relayed in church as an acknowledgement of the power and love of the Lord through whom all blessings flow. Every story was an entreaty for prayer and a public proclamation of faith. Real Christians … real life … the real world.

My real world, no matter how messed up it is, has been and can be, is never as bad as it could be without the love of the Lord in my heart, the faith of Jesus Christ in spirit and the invitation to the Holy Spirit to ride shotgun with me wherever I go. Read Psalm 23 today. Look around your valley of death and fear no evil. I’m just saying recognize, represent and be blessed.

Columnist James Washington