June 28th, 2018 Edition

Harris wants hold on Supreme Court nod

Sen. Kamala Harris keynotes St. Louis County NAACP Freedom Fund event

By Ashley Jones For The St. Louis American

St. Louis receives immigrant children

By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American

of the president’s new “zero tolerance” immigration policy rolled out in April. And more children are on the way, said Meredith Rataj, site director of immigrant services at St. Francis Community Services – the largest local organization providing legal and case management services for unaccompanied immigrant children. Under

Ashley Jones

“Part

Maxwell Artis, a life coach at Maryville University, talks with new incoming student Kiara Harris.

Photo by Wiley Price

Photo by Wiley Price

U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D-California) was the keynote speaker at the St. Louis County NAACP’s 83rd annual Freedom Fund Dinner, held June 21 at the Four Seasons St. Louis.

Photo by Wiley Price

Jackson patriarch Joseph Jackson passes at 89

Joseph “Joe” Jackson, the patriarch who launched the musical Jackson family dynasty, died Wednesday in a Las Vegas hospital. He was 89.

Grandsons Randy Jackson Jr. and Taj Jackson confirmed the news in tweets Wednesday afternoon, writing, “RIP to the king that made everything possible! I love you grandpa,” and “Joe was loved by the entire family and our hearts are in pain. Let us grieve.”

Jackson was the father and at times manager to pop stars Michael and Janet Jackson, along with the siblingsinging group, The Jackson 5. No cause of death has been released, but Jackson had

reportedly been in ill health.

On June 21, son Jermaine Jackson told the Daily Mail, “He’s very, very frail, he doesn’t have long. The family needs to be by his bedside — that’s our only intention in his final days.”

Nelly vows to cut father off financially for visiting Ashanti

STL rap star Nelly went on a social media tirade where he promised to end financial support for his father, Cornell Haynes Sr., after the elder Haynes was seen hanging backstage with Nelly’s former girlfriend, singer Ashanti, at her recent concert in St. Louis. Ashanti performed at The Pageant Saturday night, and posted an Instagram video showing Mr. Haynes backstage and complimenting him on his

“Hope it was worth it Pops,” Nelly said via Twitter. “I’m done with ya (sic). No more money from me. Let them pay your bills.”

Ashanti has since deleted the video that triggered a series of responses from Nelly.

“Just because its (sic) your DNA Don’t make you a father,” Nelly wrote. “Mine never

saw me play sports, never taught me anything, never saw me graduate and I still took care of him for almost 20 years. He never took care of me for half that. And till (sic) this day he still does whatever he wants even though I pay his bills, well use to (sic). That’s over as of tonight.”

Fellow St. Lunatic Ali to lashed at Orlando Watson of Rockhouse Ent., one of the promoters of Ashanti’s show at The Pageant. Ali seemed to imply that Watson was somehow complicit regarding the incident between Nelly and his father because Watson booked the show.

Ali made vile comments about Watson, a cancer survivor, and Watson’s mother – who recently passed away from cancer.

Jim Jones arrested on drug and gun charges

Last Thursday morning, rapper and reality television star Jim Jones was arrested in Coweta, GA, along with three others, after a car he was riding in allegedly refused to pull over for police and later crashed into a sheriff’s deputy’s car.

According to HipHopWired.com, Jim was charged with possession of a stolen gun, possession of a firearm during commission of a crime and possession of narcotics.

Marijuana, oxycodone, Percocet, vape cartridges, THC oil, two loaded pistols and cash were reportedly found inside the car.

Cardi B and Offset confirm marriage rumors

Cardi B confirmed earlier this week that she and the Migos star Offset had secretly tied the knot nine months ago, on the same day he proposed. Minister Melinda Guess has since revealed that the pair chose to say their vows in their bedroom wearing just t-shirts and underwear.

The “Bodak Yellow” hitmaker previously revealed she had no make-up or wedding gown on and that she just wanted the moment to be “private.”

“There are so many moments that I share with the world and then there are moments that I want to keep for myself! Getting married was one of those moments,” Cardi B said in a lengthy note.

Speculation that the couple were already married was sparked after Offset thanked his “wife” during his acceptance speech for Best Group at the BET Awards last weekend.

The couple are still said to be planning another wedding ceremony after Cardi B gives birth to their daughter.

Sources: The Daily Mail, OK! Magazine, AJC.com, CNN.com, Twitter.com

Nelly

Joe Jackson

Dismantling The Divide Segregation in St. Louis hurts whites too

By Adelaide Lancaster and Laura Horwitz

For The St. Louis American

St. Louis is truly a tale of two cities. Neighborhoods of high crime and high poverty eerily exist in a region that also contains communities with family-friendly attractions, beautiful housing, and good schools. This divide is well-known and historically accepted in our region.

One city deals with disinvestment so devastating, it is regularly and nationally recognized as a worst place to live. This is adjacent to another city so enriched and safe that it’s regularly and nationally recognized as a best place to raise a family.

It is this contrast that we tend to focus on most when we talk about segregation. And we should. It’s real. It’s startling. It’s damaging to our region and the people who live here. This reality alone should be enough to muster the political will to change it. But it’s not. And that has everything to do with the shadow of racial bias in the city of abundance. This shadow blinds people from seeing a national and local history of policy advantages that got them inside this bubble. It makes them complicit in policies and ways of life that put this region among the 10 most segregated in the country. We are writing from this bubble to let you know this complicity can no longer stand. It’s costing us. It’s isolating us. And it’s eating away at us from inside the bubble.

Part of the work we do as a We Stories community is to recognize all the ways systemic racism has shaped the history and landscape of our region. In less than three years we’ve engaged more than 700 families across

74 ZIP codes. We study together the formation of our tale of two cities. We also explore and attempt to take responsibility for how readily and predictably we, as white families, repeat this pattern – even among those of us that reportedly value racial diversity.

When we asked some of our white families what it feels like to live in St. Louis, they replied with responses that in no way reflected the often repeated phrase, “It’s a great place to raise a family.” Instead, they said things like: isolating, embarrassing, depressing, overwhelming. I feel guilty. I’ve become numb. This level of segregation has begun to seem normal.

This is the deeply emotional shadow of living inside the bubble.

The recent report “Segregation in St. Louis: Dismantling the Divide” revealed the full scope of our history of intentional segregation through federal, state, and local policy. Through personal interviews, the report also revealed a level of frustration and shame among whites living in this bubble. They find themselves grappling with their family’s own complicated history of white flight. They are expected to not even speak about race and privilege inside the bubble.

Whites are truly dealing with the cost of walling themselves off into isolated communities unwilling to make room for difference. This disconnection stems from not knowing and sharing life with a significant portion of our region. Indeed, the extra effort that must be invested to experience any level of diversity is actually measurable by mile markers. Make no mistake, life within the

bubble has benefits: appreciating home values; schools labeled “good;” and municipalities sustained by property tax values instead of court fees and traffic fines. We carry the social clout of our geography. But it’s a mistake to overlook the deficits of living in exclusivity. If we don’t talk about this shadow, it allows a damaging myth to flourish: that segregation is working for us white folks. We can trick ourselves into thinking that inequity and pain and destruction is actually in our own self-interest. It is not. And, if we as a region are to dismantle the divide, we must collectively challenge this myth and the patterns that maintain it.

The “Dismantling the Divide” report contained a compelling Index of Exclusivity, a regional map that used data points to quantify its 41 most

The community report “Segregation in St. Louis: Dismantling the Divide” presented an Index of Exclusivity ranking the 41 cities and areas in our region where it is most difficult for African Americans and/or low-income people to find housing. According to the report, many of these 41 exclusive areas rank high on school performance and access to employment, retail, healthy foods, and primary physician care. Historically, these mostly white neighborhoods were created through systemic governmental policies designed to keep low-income people and African Americans from buying or renting homes in them.

exclusionary cities and areas. It is very difficult for African American and/or low-income families to find housing in these places.

The report shares the tragic history of the creation of these exclusionary suburbs. But that history alone doesn’t explain why the bubbles remain. Do people of means choose to live in them because they are exclusionary? Sometimes. But our families tell us their housing choices were driven by perceived convenience rather than a desire to live apart from black and brown people. We often hear about selection criteria including “good schools” (even when it’s understood how poorly that is measured), closet space, yard sizes and garages.

The families we work with report wanting diversity while house hunting. But it loses out to other concerns. It is not until they experience the whiteness

of their schools and community spaces that the cost of this trade-off becomes real … and begins to hurt. It takes work to pierce these bubbles. But in our experience, each time we have, we have found people eager to join us. Together we are committed to dismantling the divide.

One of the report’s authors, For the Sake of All Director Jason Purnell suggests “redrawing the boundaries of opportunity.” We must. Our collective future depends on it. We are now hundreds, if not thousands, strong. But it will take even more of us to make real change, and we invite you to join us.

Adelaide Lancaster and Laura Horwitz are co-founders of We Stories, an organization that helps white families start and strengthen conversations about racism and organize in support of racial justice efforts.

Editorial /CommEntary

Two tales of one police department

There are two very different narratives emerging about public safety and policing in the city of St. Louis right now. One is that Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards and Police Chief John Hayden inherited a police department rife with civil rights abuses, racially insensitive policing, and fraudulent reporting of overtime, and have done very little to disrupt or improve the status quo. In this narrative, what St. Louis needed as Public Safety director was a proven change agent from the outside, someone with experience directing a needed turnaround of a troubled police department, and instead we got a deeply entrenched local whose previous public safety experience was from the extremely privileged and safe position of a judge. The same could be said, from this perspective, of the city’s police chief – we needed a seasoned change agent from the outside, but instead got a veteran of the department not known for making waves in a police culture where waves – indeed, tsunamis – of change have long been needed desperately.

A very different, and altogether more encouraging, narrative is emerging in the new movement being assembled by Better Family Life (BFL) and the Clergy Coalition of Metropolitan St. Louis that incorporates Edwards, Hayden and even Jeff Jensen, the new U.S. attorney for Eastern Missouri (easily the best development for St. Louis to come from the otherwise nightmarish and terrifying Trump administration).

James Clark, vice president of Community Outreach for BFL and longtime grinder on the community policing beat, describes a dream team coming together with an unprecedented range and depth of committed players.

In this narrative, the fact that Edwards and Hayden are both black men from St. Louis is an asset to change, not a detriment, but then this new coalition is not trying to change the culture of the

You were strangers in Egypt Commentary

Last Saturday, I did a brief phone interview with Keith Willis for his Saturday morning Community Connections program. I was surprised and pleased that the first thing he wanted to talk about was what going on at the border. It is Keith’s raising an issue that I’ve given some thought, but not a lot of attention, that is the motivation for this commentary.

One of the weaknesses of the African American political and public policy space is we constantly obsess about ourselves. I understand why, given the mountains of dung that have been dumped on us incessantly by our American experience. However, the failure or inability to embrace a larger world, and understand how the struggles and travails of others are connected to our plight, undermines our humanity and narrows our possibilities.

sold them to disparate parts of the country, never to be reunited. This is exactly what is happening at this moment. And in both cases, it seeks to be legitimatized as a function of American law and executed as government policy.

The nature of predatory evil is to prey upon the weakest and the most vulnerable.

At this moment, there is no weaker or more vulnerable population than the immigrants at America’s southern border.

century poet and churchman, John Donne, who wrote, “any man’s death diminishes me because I’m involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

By U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-Missouri)

Why is the City of St. Louis seeking to investigate Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner on behalf of the Greitens defense team...after he resigned?

I am very concerned about the continuing saga surrounding the resignation of former Governor Eric Greitens. In the City of St. Louis, we have the unusual scenario of the Krewson administration, through the City Counselor’s Office, continuing to fight the legal battle of the ex-Governor’s legal defense team. There are two possible explanations that come to mind for this unprecedented behavior, and they are both very troubling. The Greitens defense team undertook a vigorous strategy to attack William Don Tisaby, who served as an investigator for the Circuit Attorney’s office. It was their choice and their right to take that approach. During pre-trial motions, the defense sought to dismiss charges based on alleged missteps by Tisaby, but the trial court did not agree. In fact, the defense received all the information they sought from the prosecutor in time to prepare for trial.

Soon after, in an agreement with Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, the Governor resigned. In a letter dated June

police (or, at least, that’s not their stated priority). They are trying to change the culture of the streets and the community, trying to make people believe in law enforcement again and cooperate with the police and federal authorities in stemming an epidemic of crime and violence. It’s certainly believable that Edwards and Hayden have more skin in the game in working with the community to reduce violence and save black lives than, say (to recall not a dream but a nightmare team of public safety in the city), Charles Bryson and Joe Mokwa.

Key to this budding new police-community partnership is Bishop Elijah H. Hankerson III, the newly elected president of the Clergy Coalition, and a jurisdictional bishop in the Church Of God In Christ (COGIC) and pastor of Life Center International COGIC. Clark has tried for years to coax the pastors away from the pulpit and into the community, and in Hankerson he has found a willing, energetic ally. We believe the message coming from these committed community-based change agents is heartening and has real potential to alleviate suffering and save lives –mostly, black lives – if their movement continues to grow. But we urge Clark,

Hankerson and their law enforcement allies to heed this other, more critical narrative about public safety in St. Louis. We agree that Edwards and Hayden inherited a deeply troubled police department, but we also agree that they are not doing enough to change its culture and its credibility. Hankerson has moved to preaching the message that the community needs to abandon its “don’t snitch” policy if people want to slow the pace of crime and murder in the city. That may be sound advice, but it’s up against many lifetimes of reasonable distrust of the police based on how police often behave in black communities – and how officers often testify when one of their own stands accused of a crime. When a preacher tells someone on the street to drop the street’s “don’t snitch policy,” it’s possible to imagine a bitter voice from the streets responding, “When the police drop theirs.”

Our advice is that we won’t see one change without the other. The police accountability and save the streets movements both need each other to succeed. These two sets of signs we see in our city – Black Lives Matter, and We’ve Got to Stop Killing Each Other – are two sides of the same sign.

One of the things we never discuss is how many bad habits we have acquired as a function of our proximity to some of the worst aspects of white America. And of all the despicable traits we’ve acquired from America’s worst, none does us a greater disservice than our own xenophobia, and indifference to the suffering that America inflicts on people who don’t look like us. On the issue of separating Latino children from their parents without regard for their wellbeing, only the morally comatose would refuse to choose a side.

If you are black, with just a modicum of an emotional connection to and an understanding of our history in America, what is happening to brown babies and their parents should outrage you. Because until 1865, under the color of law, this is exactly what white America did to us. First upon our arrival, and later at birth, they separated black children from their parents and

While predatory evil does not need your cooperation or support to prevail, it cannot succeed without your indifference. The 18th century Irish politician and political philosopher, Edmond Burke put it best, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

We have been the victims of this kind of moral indifference since we first arrived in Jamestown in 1619.

I want to frame this issue around the words of two of the most eloquent ministers of the Christian tradition. I do this not because I am a Christian, I am not – but because nearly all the African American readers of the St Louis American profess to be, and at some point, what you believe has to become a function of what you do, in order for the statement of belief to have any moral authority. It is kind of like a “faith without works” sort of thing.

Foundational to the Christian tradition is the notion that all humanity is connected in the Body of Christ and all are equal before God. Nobody expressed this more clearly than 17th

Letters to the editor

U. City development is a bad deal

University City continues to move forward with a proposed $200 million development on Olive Blvd. between Woodson and I-170. Values that have long been cherished in the city - citizen participation, diversity, inclusion and concern for all citizens - are being badly trampled on by U. City officials as they push the project.

26, 2018, Representative Jay Barnes, as chair of the Missouri House Special Investigative Committee, in a letter to his colleagues, described multiple acts of misconduct and moral turpitude that he said would have led to impeachment proceedings against Eric Greitens. By any measurement, the public was well-served by Ms. Gardner’s prosecutorial expertise.

However, in the City of St. Louis, the police department (which is now firmly under civilian control) seeks to investigate the Circuit Attorney’s office, on behalf of the Greitens defense team. What a strange picture that is. The police are working against the prosecution, carrying out Greitens’ failed trial strategies, as a political attempt to shame Kim Gardner. We see where the shame really lies. In Washington, President Trump has turned law and tradition on its head. Now the same sickness of placing politics ahead of law and justice and the public good has dangerously spread to St. Louis.

There is another, even darker explanation of the City’s actions here against

Kim Gardner, the first AfricanAmerican Circuit Attorney in Missouri history. Throughout the state, citizens are thankful that she ended the Greitens trauma satisfactorily. But in St. Louis, a familiar shadow emerges to haunt us again. Any deliberative thinker can see the disturbing racial picture drawn by the actions of the City Counselor in this case. As the first female mayor, one would hope that Mayor Krewson would understand what is happening and intercede. In our recent history, the circuit attorney and their staffers have engaged in real criminal activity that resulted in criminal convictions. Where was the Mayor’s office and the City Counselor then? I don’t remember any call for a special prosecutor by the police or anyone else. Now on behalf of the disgraced ex-Governor, St. Louis wants to punish Kim Gardner.

The biggest losers here are the citizens of St. Louis. In a time of tight budgets, Circuit Attorney Gardner has to expend valuable resources to defend herself against this political and racial farce. She took on this politically charged case, showing the courage to stand up and say that everyone, regardless of their station in life, or the color of their skin, should be subject to prosecution if they violate the law. By following that strategy, we all win.

The proposal would result in nearly 70 homes, 58 apartments, two churches and a school being torn down. A neighborhood that is largely made up of African-American residents would be destroyed. Also, many small but thriving businesses on Olive, mostly owned by minorities, would have to relocate. A certain number would likely never reopen.

Just about everything on 50 acres would be bulldozed to make way for a big-box store – likely to be a Costco – and some other retailers and maybe a hotel and luxury apartments.

The developer wants a $70 million subsidy from taxpayers that is being considered by the University City Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Commission.

The Olive/ 170 development is a bad deal for those residents who would lose their homes and the small businesses who would be displaced. It is also a bad deal for University City. You don’t build up a city by tearing it down.

Tom Sullivan University City

Democracy takes a knee Jamala Rogers plucks at three of America’s exposed nerves in “Racism, sports and Trumpism.” Colin Kaepernick created a firestorm of controversy when he took a knee during the national anthem

Three hundred years later, Martin Luther King Jr. expanded and deepened this notion in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” with words that are equal to Donne’s in their eloquence and profundity, he wrote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

In the name of our ancestors, and for the sake of these children, in this spirit of human solidarity, we must pick up the burden of these children. Not just for their sake, but for ours as well. For if we ignore the tolling of this bell, we will have traveled a considerable distance toward becoming the soulless ingrates that make up Trump’s America, and like them, we’ll be unworthy of forgiveness and beyond salvation.

And for the readers of this column that consider the Bible more than a literary masterpiece that contains arguably the greatest collection of brilliant allegory and analogy translated to the English language, I would offer this admonition from Exodus, “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

Mike Jones is a former senior staffer in St. Louis city and county government and current member of the Missouri State Board of Education and The St. Louis American editorial board. In 2016, he was awarded Best Serious Columnist for all of the state’s large weeklies by the Missouri Press Association.

All letters are edited

prior to a professional football game. Faux patriots and their draft-dodging president Donald Trump went nuts. NFL owners responded to the take-a-knee issue with all the wisdom they could collectively muster by concocted a new policy for the 2018 season. Rogers nailed the policy as “not about respect for the anthem” but “about shutting down black protests of white supremacy.” It’s also about democracy, the Constitution and the survival of the United States of America.

America and Americans are divided by race, religion, ethnicity, politics and patriotism. It didn’t happen overnight or by accident. Some among us and others in faraway places have been cultivating this divide for decades. They’ve

sown the seeds of division with racism, xenophobia, hateful rhetoric of all sorts, convolution of religion, demonization of ethnic groups, infiltration of governments and armed conflicts to achieve their goals. Trump is not one of them. He is their product: a puppet. One of Vladimir Putin’s useful idiots. America is at an historic “Y” in the road: destruction of our democratic republic to the right, and to the left, rejection of that which Trump represents and the beginning of a better life in a better America. Perhaps Black NFL players will lead the way by all kneeling for our national anthem?

Michael K. Broughton Green Park

Columnist Mike Jones

Guest Columnist William Lacy Clay

Photo by Wiley Price

St. Louis Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards and Police Chief John Hayden enjoyed a light-hearted moment on January 8.

Normandy reads

SLPS Summer College and Career Center now open

This summer, St. Louis Public Schools is piloting a Summer College and Career Center where students can drop in, meet oneon-one with a counselor, and finalize plans for college, pursuing a trade, or finding a job.

According to the Lumina Foundation, starting this year 59 percent of all jobs in Missouri will require some form of postsecondary education and this percentage is only expected to rise. With this statistic in mind, recent St. Louis public high school graduates are encouraged to visit the center for college

and career counseling including deciding on the right school, making the best financial decisions, securing housing, sending transcripts and more.

The SLPS Summer College and Career Center is open now until July 26 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Call 314-345-4580 to make an appointment or just stop in. It’s located at SLPS Central Office, 801 N. 11th St. in downtown St. Louis.

STL County Library has musical instruments to check out

Four St. Louis County Library branches now offer musical instruments for check-out, including ukuleles, acoustic guitars, banjos and bongos. Patrons with a valid library card will be able to take home the musical instrument of their choice for two weeks. Instructional music books and DVDs are included with most of the instruments, along with a hard case to protect it from damage.

Learning to play an instrument has been shown to improve

memory, increase coordination and boost reading and comprehension skills. The musical instrument lending program at SLCL will allow adults and children to experiment with new instruments before deciding to purchase one of their own.

Musical instruments are available for check-out at the following locations: Library Headquarters, Daniel Boone, Florissant Valley and Grant’s View. More information is available at www.slcl.org/musical-instruments.

Donald Trump’s broken America

By Dorothy Dempsey For The St. Louis American

When I watch President Trump talk to reporters, it gives me pause to think how rude a man he is as I watch him cut the reporters off and tell them to be quiet. How respectful are you supposed to be to anyone who treats you in such a way?

Yet the reporters have jobs to do and a responsibility to their families and the public. I could not help but think of how lost a man Trump is, with a heart of stone, broken into a thousand pieces that only God can put back together again.

How sad to watch a man who has been given so much and yet it is not enough, a man whose soul yearns for more and more and cares for no one but himself. His life at a standstill waiting for the eternal glory that can only be bestowed by our God almighty.

Trump speaks of the past and what others have not done and makes deep comparisons between himself and Barrack Obama. There is simply no comparison between Trump and Obama. There seems to be a yearning in his heart to get at Obama and to somehow demean him before the world. It makes you wonder, and yet you already know that Obama’s skin color plays a major part in the way he feels.

This president plays with the American people like he’s playing a chess game, placing our minds on one thing and doing something else to distract us, jumping around from one distraction to another and then sitting back like the king that he thinks he is.

He has Rudy Giuliani – a man made from the same cloth – as one of his biggest distractions. Giuliani lies for him and does his dirty work. Giuliani will end up in the trash bin right along with all the rest of the liars and cheaters. America is in trouble, and no one seems to know how to fix it. Trump as much as told us that he is holding immigrant children hostage until Democrats come on board with him on building a wall along the Mexican border. Some of the Republicans are as greedy and dishonest as they come, and the Democrats are just not up on their game. When you have greed and vice and a weak Democratic Party, it leaves us with the flame burning very low. We had Republican Congressman Steve Scalise almost die because of guns, yet he is right up there with all the other misguided Republicans. You would think he would be the first person to want the gun laws changed.

Children died and still no changes. America has lost it sweetness forever. Because of a man named Donald Trump, America will never be the same.

Dorothy Dempsey

Students enjoy storytelling by Julius B. Anthony, founder and president of the St. Louis Black Authors of Children’s Literature Initiative, during the fourth annual Normandy Read with Me! Community Celebration at Barack Obama Elementary School in the Normandy Schools Collaborative.

CHILDREN

Continued from A1

the president’s executive order signed on June 20, children were being torn apart from their parents.

More than 2,300 children have been separated from their families and taken to detention centers, including “tent cities” in Texas and warehouses with large cages inside. This week, a lawsuit was filed alleging that children in the centers are being forcibly injected with powerful psychiatric drugs. A former center employee said the centers are understaffed and ill-equipped to handle children who experienced trauma. The administration’s policy did not include a plan to reunite the children with their parents, and hundreds of children are expected to be lost to their parents permanently, said Amy Diemer, managing attorney at St. Francis Community Services.

The children now in St. Louis are those who were connected with either relatives or people the parents knew who were willing to take in their children, Diemer said.

A majority of the families currently seeking asylum at the borders are fleeing persecution in their countries – including Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala – because of the rise in crime and gangs, she said. And the journey through Mexico is perilous and traumatic.

“They were all so confused,” she said. “They are not getting treated the same as what they had in the past. Clearly, being separated is traumatic.”

While some have claimed that the circulating pictures of children in detention centers and “tender age shelters” for toddlers and babies are old or fraudulent, Rataj told The American, “We know for a fact that it’s happening because we have clients that this has happened to. They are not child actors. They are child victims.”

The families are only

coming because they feel they have no other choice, Rataj said.

“They didn’t feel safe in their home country,” Rataj said. “These are kids, and they miss their families and their friends. They are trying to learn English and understand this new culture.”

One mother who stayed in a detention center a few years ago with her preschoolaged son told Rataj about the fear they experienced of not knowing when they’d be released.

“They had come a long way fleeing terrible violence,” Rataj said. “In small and large ways, holding children and asylum seekers in jail is intended to

demoralize and dehumanize.”

Like many people around the country, Diemer said she wishes she could do more to help these children.

“I have all these tools,” Diemer said. “I’m privileged, and I want to help and I don’t even know how to do it.”

St. Louis denounces zero tolerance

Alderwoman Annie Rice of the 8th Ward, also an immigration lawyer, shared Diemer’s sentiment and did the only thing that she felt was in her power, she said. On Friday, June 22, she filed a resolution calling for Missouri’s elected leaders in Washington, D.C.

to oppose family separation and for Gov. Mike Parson to withdraw Missouri National Guard resources from the border, as a bipartisan group of governors already has done.

Twenty-two aldermen signed on as co-sponsors, and many immigration advocates, religious leaders and elected officials stood behind her when she announced the resolution at a press conference on Friday morning. It passed unanimously.

n “The president used the word ‘infestation.’

That is a giant, waving red flag. They called them ‘cockroaches’ in Rwanda.”

The resolution states: “The City of St. Louis Board of Aldermen stand alongside our immigrant neighbors and residents and oppose the practice of family separation and the detention of children, and oppose the use of Missouri taxpayer dollars to fund this practice, particularly since many families are fleeing dangerous situations including pervasive violence, severe poverty, and the threat of death in their originating countries; and BE IT RESOLVED that we call on Governor Mike Parson to refuse to allow Missouri and St. Louis taxpayer resources to be used in any way to further these inhumane policies, and we ask Governor Parson to recall the

– Alderwoman Annie Rice

Missouri National Guard from the U.S. border immediately, as governors from both political parties have already done; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call on our leaders in Washington D.C., including Senator Roy Blunt, Senator Claire McCaskill, and Congressman Lacy Clay to oppose this practice of family separation and support clean legislation that honors the dignity of all, ends the practice of detention while immigrants await asylum hearings, and does not further disrupt legal immigration processes and or unjustly punish immigrants.”

Aside from being a moral issue, Missouri is currently in its severe weather season and sending National Guard resources away from the state puts residents at risk, Rice said.

Part of Rice’s motivation to write the resolution stems from time she spent in Rwanda, where she learned about the 1994 genocide that took the lives of about 800,000 people.

“What leads people to violently act out against our neighbors is referring to people as animals and treating them that way,” she said. “The president used the

St. Louis Alderwoman Annie Rice (8th Ward) held a press conference on Friday, June 22 to show support for the immigrant families being separated after being detained at the country’s southern border.

word ‘infestation.’ That is a giant, waving red flag. They called them ‘cockroaches’ in Rwanda. That kind of language when you start dehumanizing people – it feels like we are very much on the edge of something here.” Her resolution was meant to, at the very least, counter the hateful rhetoric that has escalated since this new administration came into power, she said.

“I wanted to come out and say we are humanizing our neighbors,” Rice said. What’s next?

Attorney Nicole Cortés, co-founder of the Migrant and Immigrant Community Action (MICA) Project, said that the president’s emergency order did not move the needle that much.

“Family detention is still upsetting, though we ended our self-induced family separation,” Cortes said. Within the order, it states that the U.S. attorney general will “promptly” file a request in federal court to modify the settlement agreement in Flores v. Session, a court precedent that limited the length of time families can remain in detention to 20 days. Prior to zero tolerance, adults were given ankle bracelets and required to check in through phone calls until their court dates for asylum status. The modification would allow the U.S. secretary of Homeland Security to “detain alien families together throughout the pendency of criminal proceedings for improper entry or any removal or other immigration proceedings” –essentially throwing out this 20-day limit.

“It’s outrageous,” Cortes said. “It doesn’t fix anything.” At the press conference, Amanda Tello, an organizer with Missouri Immigrant and Refugee Advocates, said, “Our government has stolen over 2,000 children. I urge you all to think about how these families got separated due to unjust immigration laws that target immigrants of color and have left entire communities devastated.”

Tello and other immigration advocates and attorneys recommended these ways St. Louisans can get involved:

– Continuously call your congressmen to let them know you want legislation that ends the practice of detention while immigrants await asylum hearings, and does not further disrupt legal immigration processes and or unjustly punish immigrants.

– Donate to organizations with a history of working with immigrant children. St. Francis launched a social media fundraiser on June 21. The MICA project posted on Twitter a donation link to various organizations working on the border (https://secure. actblue.com/donate/familiesborder/).

Photo by Wiley Price

MARYVILLE

Continued from A1

Louis.

“Then each of the partner institutions will get $20,000 to accelerate the work that they are already doing.”

One of the partner institutions receiving $20,000 for its Life Coaching Program is Maryville University.

“We did an extensive look at colleges in the region that were doing a good job of graduating underserved students: low-income, firstgeneration students, and students of color,” Byrd said. “Maryville was one of the five institutions that really stood out.”

Students and faculty gathered on June 1 at the university for its START (Student Testing, Advising, Registration and Transition) program, in support of the Life Coaching program that recently received funding.

“All the incoming students sign up to attend the START day, and we have six throughout the summer,” said Kirby Cooper, Orientation lead coordinator and third-year student. “They register for their classes, and they get to meet other students who will be attending Maryville with them. They also can connect with any faculty or staff members that are around all day.”

Students are provided a life coach who is assigned to them during their transitional period between high school to college, and they stick with them all four years.

“Our focus is providing comprehensive and holistic development for students,” Life Coach Maxwell Artis said. “That’s across academic,

HARRIS

Continued from A1 heard at the ballot box,” she said.

Harris gave the keynote address at the 83rd Annual Freedom Fund Leadership Dinner of the St. Louis County NAACP chapter. The event took place June 21 at the Four Seasons St. Louis, with the theme, “Strength through Diversity.”

Harris received the Margaret Bush Wilson Lifetime Achievement Award. In her remarks, Harris said this is an inflection point at a time in our history.

“I believe that this is a moment in time that is requiring us as a country to collec-

professional and personal development.”

The Life Coach model follows four focus areas: academic advising, career exploration, learning diagnostics (assessments that Maryville administers before students arrive on campus to help identify resources and support to personalize their experience), and retention support.

“The reason why I do this work is to be along

tively look in a mirror and ask this question ‘who are we’, and I believe the answer to that question is a good one,” Harris said. “Flawed we may be, imperfect though we may be; I believe we are a great country.” Harris rose to national prominence in 2016 when she was elected to the U.S. Senate, becoming just the second African-American woman and the first South Asian–American senator in U.S. history. Prior to her election to the U.S. Senate, Harris had already spent decades fighting for the rights of Californians.

“Do not despair, do not be overwhelmed, do not be tired, do not throw up our hands when it is time to roll up our sleeves,” Harris said. Harris’ background is in criminal justice. She

in a student’s journey, development, and growth,”

Artis said. “Through the Life Coach model of professional, personal, and academic development, we get an opportunity to build solid deep rich relationships with our students.”

Maryville’s Life Coach Program was implemented three years ago, meaning the graduating class of 2019 will be the first class to experience the full four-year program.

served nearly two terms as California’s attorney general after completing two terms as district attorney for the City and County of San Francisco. Previously she was an assistant district attorney in Alameda

Senior Brittney Pomile will be one of those graduates.

“With my Life Coach Brady Griffin, he works really closely with me,” Pomile said.

“Even though he might not be a biology or pre-med major, which is what I study, I was able to reach out to other life coaches. Max is previously a biology premed major, and so I was able to come to him and confide in him and Brady and be able to work on plans of academic success, as well as

County, California. She grew up during the Civil Rights movement and dedicated her career in public service to advocating for those who cannot defend themselves.

“If folks weren’t clear,

professional, leadership, and development.”

St. Louis Graduates hopes that other schools within the St. Louis Talent Hub will replicate such programs to “eliminate existing barriers for students to be able to graduate from college, including financial, social, and academic.”

“This is really important for St. Louis,” Byrd said. “Our city is dependent on producing more college graduates and more people to fit the

Charlottesville made it clear,” Harris said. “Racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, sexism are real in this country. Let’s speak that truth so we can deal with it.”

Other honorees receiving

and make sure that everyone has an opportunity to

Ashley Jones is an Emma Bowen Foundation editorial intern at The St. Louis American, supported by a grant from the Democracy Fund.

Photo by Wiley Price

awards included Jason Kander, founder of Let America Vote and former Missouri Secretary of State. He received the Medgar Wiley Evers Freedom Award.

Maxwell Artis, a life coach at Maryville University, talks with new incoming students Brittany Pomioee and Kirby Cooper.

‘No show’ McCulloch can’t prosecute his way out of the opioid crisis

St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch was a no-show at the June 26 debate organized by the St. Louis County Reform Coalition, which includes the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, NAACP and other advocacy organizations.

“It wasn’t the first debate he declined,” said Jamala Rogers with the Organization for Black Struggle, which was one of the debate organizers. “He’s not willing to defend his position. He’s not willing to go before voters at a debate.”

The coalition invited the two candidates, McCulloch and Wesley Bell, who will vie in the upcoming August 7 primary that will decide the next prosecutor – as no Republican filed for the office.

The forum, held at St. Louis University School of Law, focused on the inequalities and injustices perpetrated by the criminal justice system. McCulloch cancelled at the last minute, Rogers said. McCulloch might want to take not of the shocking defeat of Rep. Joe Crowley (D- New York), the fourthranking and 10-term incumbent member of the U.S. House Democratic leadership, who was defeated by a 28-yearold newcomer, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He was also complacent, and also skipped a debate with his opponent, who was a former Bernie Sanders campaign organizer who he outspent 8-to-1.

before released – Joe Amrine and Reggie Griffin – spoke about their experiences because McCulloch “has been zealous about the death penalty,” Rogers said.

“People don’t think this could happen, but I’m telling you that it did happen,” said Griffin, who was exonerated from a murder charge in 2013. “Take a close look at what’s going on. It can happen to one of you or one of your loved ones.”

Griffin asked Bell if he would be willing to open and review old death-penalty cases.

Bell said, “Absolutely.”

McCulloch losing the so-called drug war

Despite McCulloch’s aggressive prosecutions of drug-related crimes, the opioid epidemic that is sweeping through this country is also ravaging St. Louis County – cutting across gender, race and economic status lines. That is why the Justice Collaborative, a national nonprofit dedicated to criminal reform, has focused its attention on St. Louis, especially in light of McCulloch’s upcoming reelection.

“McCulloch continues to respond to the crisis through draconian and discredited drug policies,” according to a statement from the organization this week.

were sent there explicitly for drug treatment, not because they posed a danger to the community.

Kelly Dineen, the director of the Health Law program at Creighton University School of Law and a supporter of the collaborative, said McCulloch’s strategies are the same ones that have failed in the United States for almost a century.

“We criminalize a disease and spend huge amounts of money and just cause more harm,” said Dineen, who previously worked at SLU Law for many years.

“This was the date that his office gave us,” Rogers said. “We had it at SLU because the organizers thought having it at SLU, where he was an alum, would make him feel more welcomed. What does it take to get him to say ‘yes’?”

Bell heard from people who have been impacted by policies that McCulloch initiated or upheld. Two wrongfullyconvicted death row inmates who served decades in jail

The collaborative points out that in 2016, St. Louis County filed new 3,159 drug prosecutions, including citations, misdemeanors, and felonies. The number is up from 2015, when St. Louis County filed only 2,274 cases. Well over 2,000 of those cases were for simple possession of drugs. These cases are not resulting in community-based treatment, the group stated. Approximately 35 percent of the people sent to prison in 2016 in Missouri

This money could be instead used on comprehensive treatment options, she said, but McCulloch, and America in general, strives to punish people for what they consider a moral weakness instead of a medical problem.

“We are the only country in the world that treats addiction like a crime,” Dineen said. “And it shows. We have the worse statistics to show for it. No one is going to win the socalled war on drugs through criminal means.”

Nine out of every 10 inmates in Missouri’s correctional system need drug abuse treatment, the Justice Collaborative

stated. And not surprisingly, the rampant over-incarceration of people who are drug dependent has led to an opioid epidemic within the prison system itself. Missouri is one of a handful of states that has a rising prison population, and it has the fastest growing female prison population in the country.

The Missouri Department of Corrections is already operating at 105 percent capacity. Women are being arrested and prosecuted at alarming rates.

Between 2010 and 2015, arrests of women for drug offenses increased 49 percent.

The St. Louis region has become the leader in opioidrelated deaths in Missouri.

Between 2012 and 2016, more people have died from opioid overdoses in St. Louis County than any other jurisdiction in Missouri, the group points out.

“It remains to be seen whether McCulloch will alter his approach in light of mounting evidence that the opioid epidemic is a public health crisis, not a criminal one,” the organization stated.

Opioid taskforce

On June 26, St. Louis

County Councilman Mark Harder introduced a resolution to establish an emergency opioid task force, in what he called “a true bi-partisan non-political effort.”

In the resolution, the council requested an emergency appropriation of $1 million and other immediate resources to rapidly establish a task force and employ recommendations (subject to Council approval) to assist law enforcement and medical professionals. The task force will be established by July 3, with a plan and comprehensive road map due by August 31.

“Opioid addiction kills –indiscriminate of political party, skin color, or economic status,” Harder said. “Our citizens are suffering and dying in our streets, parks and homes every day because of this crisis. We can no longer wait for some silver bullet. We are asking for the full cooperation of the County Executive and his staff.”

Dark money

Eric Greitens resigned as Missouri Governor, but residents are being left in the dark about alleged crimes that were previously being investigated at a state and local level – which have since been dropped. A local attorney is suing a nonprofit organization believed to have been the channel for Greitens’ dark money in order to get records on behalf of state residents.

Elad Gross, a former assistant attorney general in Missouri, filed a petition in Cole County Circuit Court on June 22 against A New Missouri, Inc., a nonprofit where members of former Governor Greitens’ campaign staff and administration worked and used the organization’s nonprofit status to spend millions of dollars influencing Missouri policy.

“Unlike campaign com-

mittees, A New Missouri and other dark money organizations do not disclose their donors,” Gross said in a statement.

On Monday, the head of the Missouri House of Representatives committee that has been investigating Greitens’ various alleged schemes released a letter stating they are ending their investigation but that the chairman will file an ethics complaint against the former governor.

In a letter sent Monday to members of the House Special Investigative Committee on Oversight, chairman Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, called A New Missouri, “a criminal enterprise from its inception – designed to illegally skirt donation limits and conceal the identities of major donors to Eric Greitens and ballot initiatives relating to right to work that were supported by the former governor.”

Hours before the governor resigned, a Cole County Circuit Court judge ordered A New Missouri to turn over its records to the House committee. But days after the governor left office, the House dropped its request for records without resolving their investigation.

In addition to the Missouri House, two Missouri prosecutors dropped investigations related to the Greitens campaign, and, despite inquiries, Attorney General Josh Hawley has not opened an investigation into A New Missouri.

“Missourians deserve to know who is influencing their government,” Gross said.

“When our government serves powerful people who hide their identities, we get failing schools in poor neighborhoods, hospital shutdowns in rural Missouri, crumbling roads, healthcare for some, opportunity for the wealthy and the lucky, and far too many people who stop participating in making Missouri better because hope is a distant, faded feeling. That time is over.”

When Hello, Dolly!

made Muny history

Be a Tourist in Your Own Town

Fair Saint Louis returns to downtown St. Louis July 4, 6 and 7

By Jody Sowell Director of Exhibitions and Research Missouri History Museum

The Muny has a great deal to celebrate during its 100th anniversary season. It’s heralded as the oldest and largest continually operating outdoor theater in the nation. It’s a place that actors from across the country long to have on their résumé. And, maybe most important, it is a community institution that connects generations of St. Louisans. Its 100th season has already brought plenty of highlights, including a major exhibit at the Missouri History Museum that showcases the past 100 years. The Muny has also announced major renovations that will help shape its future.

As big as this year’s 100th season is, however, it would be okay to be a little bit jealous of those who got to witness its 50th season in 1968. That year, something unheard-of happened: A producer for a hit Broadway show decided to interrupt its season, fly its entire cast to St. Louis, and perform on the Muny stage for one week. And what a show and cast it was. The all–African American cast of Hello, Dolly! won rave reviews on Broadway—especially its two stars, Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway. (A young Morgan Freeman also made his Broadway debut in a small role.) New York Times reviewer Clive Barnes said the production was a “Broadway triumph for the history books,” especially for Bailey, whom audiences adored so much that they often couldn’t stop applauding long enough for actors to move onto the next song. “She had no trouble at all in stopping the show,” Barnes wrote, “her problem was getting it started again.” New Yorkers felt lucky to see such a powerhouse performance. And St. Louisans were lucky too. Hello, Dolly!, which originally starred Carol Channing, had been a Broadway sensation since it opened in 1964. But once Channing left the iconic role, ticket sales started to dip. Though several top actresses—including Ginger Rogers, Martha Raye, and Betty Grable—took their

turn at the lead, audiences weren’t flocking to the show the way they once were. That’s when producer David Merrick came up with the idea for an all-black production.

Merrick was a master salesman; he was also a native St. Louisan. In addition to bringing new life to the Broadway show, Merrick also struck a deal with the Muny to bring the show to his hometown for the theater’s 50th anniversary. St. Louis critics and theatergoers proved just as crazy for the show as the Broadway audiences had been. Critics raved about the “triumphant entry” of the cast onto the Muny stage, calling it the highlight of the 50th anniversary season. Crowds of more than 11,000 packed the Muny, and the show, which was not a part of the official season, sold out three weeks before it started. Pearl Bailey rewarded the crowds for their adoration. After the show, she walked into the audience to shake hands and give the occasional kiss. Then she returned to the stage for an encore where she sang a combination of “The St. Louis Blues” and the title song from Hello, Dolly!

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said the encore practically amounted to a second show—one that Muny audiences clearly loved.

Historians of American musical theatre have written that this production was a landmark moment in Broadway history. The idea of casting African American actors in shows with black themes was already a tradition, but the idea of having an African American cast take over what had been regarded as a “white musical” was largely unheard of. Also unique was shuttingdown the production and flying it halfway across the country. But thanks to the local connection of one of its producers, St. Louis audiences got to see part of history—not just Muny history, but Broadway and American musical theatre history. What a show it must have been.

The exhibition Muny Memories: 100 Seasons

Onstage is now on display at the Missouri History Museum and will be open through June 2, 2019.

Fair Saint Louis will offer many family-friendly activities throughout the day and conclude with musical entertainment and fireworks every night on July 4, 6 and 7.

By Kiara Bryant For the St. Louis American

Summer has officially arrived! Let’s celebrate with the highlight of the summer, our annual Independence Day celebration, Fair Saint Louis! We invite you to check out the fair when it takes over Downtown St. Louis July 4, 6 and 7 with music, fireworks and more. Celebrate America’s birthday at this free and open to the public celebration with the sounds of our St. Louis Symphony orchestra, pop recording artist Jason Derulo, country music singer Martina McBride and some of your favorite local bands like Dirty Muggs.

The festivities begin with the 136th annual VP Parade on Wednesday, July 4 at 9:30 a.m. in downtown St. Louis at Broadway and Market Street. Since 1878, this parade has been a tradition in the St. Louis community. The theme of the parade will be “The US Experience.” The parade will feature 12 marching bands from across the region, 17 magnificent floats, larger than life balloon characters and more. KMOV 4 will broadcast this event for millions to watch at home in 29 different markets.

Fair Saint Louis will offer many familyfriendly activities throughout the day and conclude with musical entertainment and fireworks every night. Each day, family entertainment will be provided with the Boeing Air Show, Purina/Ameren Festival Zone, The

Fairway, and the Interactive Zone. Here’s the schedule of events for this year’s Fair Saint Louis.

On Wednesday, July 4 the fair will open at the Gateway Arch National Park at noon. Enjoy the daytime family-friendly festival fun, the Boeing Air Show and musical guests Amelia Eisenhauer and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra on the main stage. The fireworks display will begin at 9:35 p.m.

On Friday, July 6, Fair Saint Louis opens at the Gateway Arch National Park at 4 p.m. In the evening, you can listen to musical performances by Dirty Muggs, Andy Grammer and Jason Derulo on the main stage. The fireworks are set to start at 10 p.m.

For the grand finale on Saturday, July 7 the fair will open at noon. During the day, enjoy a variety of family entertainment. A Salute to the Troops will take place on the main stage at 5:30 p.m. and music by Michael Ray and Martina McBride will follow. Fireworks will close the fair at 9:30 p.m.

The fair is made possible by this year’s major sponsors: Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Boeing, Budweiser, Edward Jones, Emerson and Purina in collaboration with the City of St. Louis. Find more details about the fair including a map of Forest Park, parking and transportation information at www.fairsaintlouis.org/ and enjoy your summer to the fullest by visiting www. explorestlouis.com.

Photo from Missouri Historical Society Collections

St. Louis Pageant Drama Association president John Gundlach, standing on the future site of the Muny stage, 1916

Photo by Dave Bauer

CHOICES

WGU Missouri Offers Scholarships for Adult Learners

Many adults hoping to further their careers by going back to school and earning a bachelor’s or master’s degree can feel overwhelmed when considering the financial commitment. While financial aid and tuition assistance can make a world of difference, nontraditional students often don’t realize there are also scholarships they can take advantage of to help ease the financial burden.

Finding scholarships is often as easy as inquiring with the college or university a student is attending.

WGU Missouri, for instance, maintains a robust program of scholarships for qualified students that range in value from $2,000 to $5,000. New students are encouraged to review scholarship options on WGU’s website and apply when enrolling.

Since it was established in 2013 by Gov. Jay Nixon as the state’s only nonprofit, fully online university, WGU Missouri has awarded over $1 million in scholarships to adult learners across the state. WGU students have an average age of 37 and are pursuing one of the 50 accredited undergraduate and graduate degree programs offered in the areas of business, education, IT and health professions, including nursing.

A sampling of scholarships currently available to new students is outlined below. A complete list, including options available to those affiliated with WGU’s partners and those who have served in the military, is available by visiting Missouri.WGU.edu and selecting Tuition & Financial Aid and then Scholarships:

• 2018 WGU Women in Leadership Scholarship

WGU Missouri’s 5th Anniversary Celebration Scholarship ($5,000) • Linda Knodel Leaders

and

flat-rate tuition of about $3,500 each six-month term, coupled with it’s competency-based model that lets students move quickly through material they already know and focus on what they still need to learn, allows them to graduate faster by taking as many courses as possible each term without any added costs. To learn more about the university, its programs or scholarships, visit Missouri. WGU.edu or call 855-9488493.

LaunchCode accepting applications for free coding classes

By Ashley Jones

For the St. Louis American

On May 19 at its Mentor Center, LaunchCode held the first of three informational sessions for new applicants to their free coding classes that help students ages 18+ become job-ready for a career in technology.

LaunchCode is located in four cities across the U.S. including Tampa bay, South Florida, Kansas City, and its home base in St. Louis. Classes call for a 60-minute lectures and hands-on activities.

One of the LaunchCode teaching assistants was in charge of the informational session, Lin Wang, director of Candidate Engagement.

In addition to being a TA for coding classes, Wang is responsible for running operations for their education programs.

“We do everything from secure space instructor, teaching assistants, to student communications to make sure our education programs are carried out in the best it can be,” Wang said. “Another part of our job is doing student candidate evaluation, so this happens at the end of our classes where we can tell the students if they can move up to get a new job or if they need a little bit more practice.”

This also includes approving applicants to their apprenticeship program who already have the technical skills, either by self-study or by taking the courses at local community colleges.

“Applicants admitted solely to apprenticeship program don’t need to take our classes, but they need that final boost just to help them get that first job into the door,” Wang said.

More than 80 percent of people who go through

the apprenticeship program get converted to a full time permanent job in the tech industry, Wang said.

“We are committed to creating the best programs for our students and learners,” Wang said. “We hope that everyone’s goal to start a new career in technology considers LaunchCode as an option to their job search and skill improvement.”

One of LaunchCode’s free programming classes called CoderGirl is geared to female students.

“CoderGirl started in 2014 as a meet-up for women to connect with fellow and aspiring technologists in a supportive community of likeminded individuals” Leah Freeman, public relations manager at LaunchCode, said. “By transitioning the community into a more structured education program, LaunchCode is able to provide women with the tech skills and job-readiness training that

employers are looking for. “

According to the Office of the Chief Economist (OCE) STEM Jobs: 2017 Update, Women filled 47 percent of all U.S. jobs in 2015, but held only 24 percent of STEM jobs. Likewise, women constitute slightly more than half of college educated workers but make up only 25 percent of college educated STEM workers.

“Four years and hundreds of students later, LaunchCode continues to feel it’s imperative to provide free education and job placement services to women in a safe, inclusive environment,” Freeman said.

“CoderGirl is not just changing the way technologists learn and the way companies hire, it’s truly changing lives.”

For more information on how to apply to LaunchCode’s free coding classes or get involved with their apprenticeship program go to LaunchCode.org.

Savanah Oliver jumped through the water at City Garden trying to stay cool on June 12, when the high was 90 degrees.

St. Louis has been sweltering through weeks of dangerous temperatures. The first reported heat-related death during this heat wave was in South St. Louis County and involved an elderly woman whose air conditioner was broken and was waiting to get it serviced.

Extreme temperatures call for precautions

By Sandra Jordan

Of The St. Louis American

St. Louis County reported its first heatrelated death of the season two weeks ago, and both city and county health officials want to help residents reduce and prevent heatrelated illness and tragedy by offering several tips to stay cool and safe during soaring temperatures. Try to stay inside when it is hot outside, and if you cannot, take frequent breaks in an air-conditioned environment. Avoid poorly ventilated areas and prolonged time in the sun. Of course, certain jobs require work outdoors, and those persons, along with everyone else, should keep plenty of non-alcohol and caffeine-free fluids on hand to drink. Wearing lightweight, loose fitting clothing is better during hot weather, because dark colors absorb more heat.

n “When sweating stops, that’s the early tell-tale sign that the individual may be on the verge of having a heat stroke.”

– Dr. Fred Echols, St. Louis County Department of Health

Heat exhaustion and heat stroke

Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. If someone becomes dizzy, nauseated, or sweats heavily, find a cooler location for him or her immediately. Heat stroke is life-threatening.

Dr. Fred Echols of the St. Louis County Department of Health said heat stroke

symptoms are very similar to those of heat exhaustion, with one big difference.

“Typically, victims will have symptoms such as increased body temperature, flushed skin, and sweating. However, the biggest difference between heat stroke and heat exhaustion is that the sweating stops,” Dr. Echols explained. “When sweating stops, that’s the early tell-tale sign that the individual may be on the verge of having a heat stroke, which is a medical emergency. If individuals think they are on the verge of heat stroke, they should call 9-1-1 immediately, because it is a life threatening condition.”

Dr. Echols said take possible heat stroke victims to a cool place nearby while waiting for a medical emergency unit to arrive.

“They can also provide the individual

See HEAT, A13

By Taasogle Daryl Rowe and Kamilah Marie Woodson For the ConversationUS

Do you smell it? That foul odor that floats in the air, when something you thought was dead is unearthed.

That’s the smell of ole man Jim Crow crawling back into our daily lives.

One of the most horrendous and abhorrent forms of Jim Crow violence – the racial caste system that operated between 1877 and the mid-1960s, primarily in Southern states – was the publicly sanctioned use of “racial terror lynchings.” These killings were perpetrated by those who enjoyed the protection of white supremacist social policies designed to maintain strict control of African Americans through the systemic use of terror.

Documenting those lynchings is the goal of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, or NMPJ, which opened on April 26.

But our question is: How do memorials to that dehumanizing violence help the AfricanAmerican descendants of such treatment heal from their history?

Jim Crow was grounded in the lie of black inferiority.

Dismantling the impacts of that lie on individuals and communities has been an ongoing effort of members of the Association of Black Psychologists, of which we both are members. The organization was founded almost 50 years ago so that “psychologists of African descent … can assist in solving problems of black communities and other ethnic groups.”

As psychologists, we ask the complex question: Can memorials to a dehumanizing and traumatizing history, the Jim Crow history, provide a path to restorative justice, psychologically, socially and politically?

For African Americans, history and trauma aren’t just in the past. Indeed, it would be simpler to help our communities heal if Jim Crow were but a memory.

In the last 50 years or so, black Americans thought ole Jim Crow had died. But really, ole man Crow had simply gone to finishing school and emerged as James Crow, Esq He had polished up his language and was operating in an alleged system of diversity and multiculturalism, soft-selling his system of exclusivity as “traditions.”

Those traditions were called “states’ rights” and “customs,” “school choice” and “law and order.” Then there are the Jim Crow practices that disproportionately target black Americans: mass incarceration, police brutality and the war on drugs.

One of the clearest examples of ole man Jim Crow resurfacing has been the documented public assaults and assassinations of black bodies during the last 10 years. Men, women and children of African ancestry are being beaten, bruised and executed by police across the country simply for being Black and alive. Our communities experience direct and vicarious trauma every day.

Now, to this daily terror, add historical trauma for black Americans.

Taasogle Daryl Rowe

Kamilah Marie Woodson

Photo by Wiley Price

Deaconess Nursing Scholarship expanded to $125K in annual grants

Partnership of Deaconess, Scholarship and St. Louis American foundations

American staff

The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis is expanding the Deaconess Nursing Scholarship in 2018-2019 to provide a total of $125,000 annually in scholarship grants to 15 students. Additionally, a five-year commitment by Deaconess Foundation will also allow The Scholarship Foundation to offer paid advocacy internships for Deaconess Nursing Scholars.

The scholarship began in 2012 as a collaborative effort of Deaconess Foundation, The Scholarship Foundation, and St. Louis American Foundation. The partnership promotes the nursing field as a pathway to economic mobility and advances racial equity, comprehensive health care, and family economic mobility. Since the start of the program,

HEAT

Continued from A12 with hydration – water or water-based products,” he said. “They should avoid any alcoholic beverages or any beverages that may contain caffeine because that can make dehydration worse.”

Heavy sweating depletes salt and minerals from the body. A sports drink can replace the salt and minerals you lose in sweat. However, if you are on a low-salt diet, have diabetes, high blood pressure, or other chronic conditions, talk with your doctor before drinking a sports beverage or taking salt tablets.

In hot weather, eat light. Enjoy foods that are easily digested, avoiding hot, heavy, or greasy meals. In addition, don’t leave food unrefrigerated for long – food spoils rapidly in the heat.

Never leave kids in vehicles

Hot vehicles and children or pets are a no-go. Never leave children unattended in a vehicle. Check the backseat before exiting. During extreme heat, vehicle temperatures can reach lethal levels in a matter of minutes.

Routinely check on family members, neighbors, the chronically ill, and friends. Take care of those who might not be aware of the heat danger or be able to react accordingly

HISTORY

Continued from A12

Historical trauma is the cumulative phenomenon where those who never directly experienced trauma (enslavement, rape, lynchings, murder) can still exhibit signs and symptoms of the trauma

That historical trauma can be observed in African Americans’ unresolved grief, expressed as depression and despair and their harboring of unexplained anger, expressed as aggression and rage. Often they internalize oppression by accepting the lie of inferiority, which can then lead to selfloathing.

This historical trauma must be addressed. It functions as a persistent sickness, a deadly virus – in the family, in the African-American community and in the larger society.

The establishment of the National Memorial for Peace

45 nursing scholars have received just over $1 million in scholarship grants and interestfree loans.

Rev. Starsky Wilson, president and CEO of Deaconess Foundation, crafted the initial partnership in 2012.

The St. Louis American Foundation was charged with raising visibility for the partnership and its scholarship opportunities and with disbursing the scholarships. The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis directed outreach, application, student advising, and selection processes.

“As a funder, we sought partners with complementary strengths and common goals,” Rev. Wilson said. “Now, our work is evolving to policy and advocacy. Deaconess Nursing Scholars will not just get an education; they will become agents of change.”

In each of the next five years, Deaconess Nursing Scholars will be eligible to receive grants up to $10,000 annually and interest-free loans

as needed. They will also be offered a paid internship led by Karissa Anderson, MSW, advocacy manager with The Scholarship Foundation of

Pet care in the heat

There are precautions to take with pets as well in hot weather. For pets, health department reminds that during extreme heat, it is important that pets are in an air conditioned environment. As with children, never leave pets alone in a vehicle, and if

– especially young children and the elderly. Check on anyone who may be vulnerable or do not have air conditioning. If they have air conditioning available, encourage them to use it. If their air conditioners are not working, get them to an air-conditioned location – with a family member, a friend or a cooling center – during the hottest hours of the day.

Libraries, fire stations, recreation centers and senior centers are among many locations in the greater St. Louis area, including the Metro East, that operate as cooling centers on hot days. Find the one nearest you by calling 2-1-1 on a landline, the United Way of Greater St. Louis Information Referral Line at 1-800-427-4626, or visit https://tinyurl.com/ya959nj8. The first reported heatrelated death was in South St. Louis County and involved an elderly woman whose air conditioner was broken and

and Justice (NMPJ) begins a long-awaited process of healing from the unspeakable and unacknowledged acts in our history, whose echoes can still be heard today. It is an excellent example of one step towards the process of healing historical trauma for persons of African ancestry. By accurately documenting the gravity of the massacres, the NMPJ names the nameless, counts the uncounted and frees the victims, who were savagely desecrated, from the perpetrators of the atrocities of racial terror lynching. The NMPJ was established in an effort to promote social justice that can be liberating and validating to African-American people. Its mission aligns with that of the Association of Black Psychologists, which is the “liberation of the African Mind, empowerment of the African Character, and enlivenment and illumination of the African Spirit” – all with

you see a pet in an unattended vehicle, call 911. Regularly check a pet’s water to make sure it is clean and fresh. In the heat and humidity, ample drinking water is vital to animals during these conditions. Make sure to adjust the amount of drinking for the size and number of pets in the

was waiting to get it serviced.

“You’ve got to check on your seniors and your physically disabled because, we love them, but they will never tell the truth,” said Gentry Trotter, founder of Heat Up/ Cool Down St. Louis. “You have to go to their house and knock the doors of your loved ones, your neighbors and touch them physically to see if they have a warm body and make sure that the AC is, in fact, working.”

Heat Up/Cool Down St. Louis is finding that younger people are using their cell phones, social media and the cooldownstlouis.org website to report older people who may need help, and it is making a big difference for those who need to keep cool. However, as strange as it seems, Trotter said he does not believe in cooling centers. Instead, Trotter said he believes in fixing the problem – which means turning on working air conditioners

the goal of restoring humanity, promoting optimal functioning and insuring psychological wellness.

Most trauma experts recognize that the restoration of memory is healing. Developing a story in which the victim is held blameless from the infliction of abuse is essential for rebuilding a sense of independence and self-efficacy.

In our work as psychologists, we understand that helping our clients manifest resilient, powerful stories can help them negotiate the distress of historical trauma

Focusing on strengths can help descendant African Americans learn to overcome challenges and tap into reservoirs of strength and selfdetermination. For example, understanding that many of the African Americans represented in the NMPJ were killed because they stood up for injustice, had the strength to resist and fought for the freedoms of subsequent

area. Pets can be sprayed with water to cool them off. Pet owners should provide a shady spot for pets when outdoors. A pen near trees will work or fastening a sunroom screen to the sides and top of the pen will provide shade as well. Health officials say watch for coolant leaking from

(and working with the utility on the bill later), assisting elderly, physically disabled and lowincome residents to keep their electricity on so they can run their air conditioning in these hot temperatures.

With St. Louis jumping from winter to summer temperatures with little spring in between, his organization has seen a 25 percent uptick in activity. While Heat Up/Cool Down St. Louis provides air conditioners for seniors and the disabled on a first-come, firstserved basis, it continuously seeks monetary donations as well as new or slightly used, working air conditioners to provide relief for families.

“You can’t beat the heat, but you can be around the heat to save lives, so public education is critical,” Trotter said. “We’ve asked churches and we’ve asked groups to make sure you check on your neighbors and make sure you canvass the neighborhood.

generations can be healing.

In an earlier work, we advanced an argument that there is a set of general healing goals that are important to consider for persons of African ancestry. Those healing goals, taken together, allow us to reconstruct understandings our community and ourselves.

This is done through helping us take back our individual and collective identities and stories, especially those that replicate and reflect our true and righteous African heritage. The goals also allow us to restore our spirits, sense of self, sense of wonderment and potential. We then can recognize the divine within, as well as promote our community members’ interdependence and interconnectedness –truly embodying the African proverb, “I am because we are and since we are, therefore I am.”

Recently, scholar Shawn Ginwright argued that addressing the ongoing

The first cohort of six Deaconess Nursing Scholars from 2012: Brittany Brewer, Heather Rowland, Alexandria Holmes, DaKari Burrell, Kayla Stallworth, and Barbara Harris. In 2018-2019, scholarship grants will be awarded to 15 students.

St. Louis. Anderson was herself an education policy intern when The Scholarship Foundation launched its initial policy internship program in

2013. She has developed a comprehensive cohort curriculum that advances content mastery, critical analysis, social action, and self-reflection for young leaders. In the coming year, the program will engage interns in educational and financial aid policy work, involving students in nursing, finance, and social sciences.

“It’s a gift to help young people step into their own power, to engage with the democratic process,” Anderson said, “however flawed it may be.”

To apply for the Deaconess Nursing Scholarship, go to: http:// myscholarshipcentral.org/. For more information, contact The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis at 314-725-7990.

needed to get assistance with utility bills, that requirement is waived for the elderly and the physically disabled.

vehicles, because drinking even a small amount can kill the pet.

Limit exercise with pet to early morning or evening hours and do not force a pet to exercise after a meal in hot weather. Also, never leave your pet standing on asphalt surfaces, as it can burn their paws.

Touch these seniors and see if they are all right, and some of them are too proud.”

Fans will not do

While heat takes a physical toll on everybody, Trotter said fans only blow the hot air from one place to another and the elderly are more susceptible to heat stroke and to death.

“Fans are deadly, they don’t mean nothing,” Trotter said.

“You give somebody a fan and every time in the last 10 years, you found them dead in a house – from here all the way to St. Charles, to all the way down to the Bootheel that we cover, all the way to Columbia – all the way to Illinois. They’re dead, because fans will not keep you alive.”

Heat Up/Cool Down St. Louis has a seniors-only hotline to call for assistance in keeping cool: 314-2417668. He said while in most cases a disconnection notice is

exposure of African Americans to dehumanizing experiences calls for a shift to healingcentered engagement instead of trauma-informed care. That departure shifts the focus from “what’s wrong with you” to “what’s right with you.”

For example, rather than locating the trauma within the individual, a healing-centered engagement would address the issues that created the trauma in the first place, and would view the individual holistically, highlighting strengths and resilience.

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice helps restore memories that demonstrate the violence perpetrated against black people during the horrific epoch of publicly sanctioned lynching was not the fault of the victims and survivors of African ancestry.

The memorial defies the lie of black inferiority.

The danger of accurately retelling the horrific stories of people of African ancestry in

“For senior citizens and the physically disabled, you have to feel in-threat; you have to feel uncomfortable and say, ‘I don’t know if I can keep on the air’ or whatever. We will help you with emergency funds,” Trotter said. “We have a pot set aside. We need to catch up on donations, but we have what we call emergency Ameren Fund, then we have the County HUD Fund, then we have the City Utility Fund. We depend on the generosity of the public as well.”

Trotter said new or gently used air conditioners can be donated.

“What we are trying to do is get people to donate or gift a life by donating a new or slightly used (two-years or less) AC, and drop it off at any Vatterott College,” Trotter said. Vatterott area locations include downtown St. Louis, Berkeley, Ladue, Clayton, Sunset Hills, St. Charles, and in Fairview Heights, Illinois (see http://www.vatterott.edu). Trotter said monetary donations by cash, check or money order can be given to the teller at any UMB Bank in Missouri or Illinois (see https:// www.umb.com/), or mail donations to Cool Down St. Louis, P.O. Box 868, St. Louis, MO 63188. To find out more, donate or to recommend someone to Cool Down St. Louis, visit cooldownstlouis.org.

the U.S. is that it may create new trauma. Pairing accurate histories with healing-centered engagement can limit this risk. For example, the Association of Black Psychologists, in partnership with the Community Healing Network, conducts Emotional Emancipation Circles. These national self-help groups focus on overcoming the lie of black inferiority and the emotional legacies of enslavement and racism.

We believe that the restorative memories developed in public spaces like the National Memorial for Peace and Justice create a shared story that can inoculate African Americans from ongoing dehumanization.

Taasogle Daryl Rowe is professor of Psychology at Pepperdine University. Kamilah Marie Woodson is associate professor of Counseling Psychology at Howard University.

Photo by Wiley Price

NSBE honors Jack Boatman as ‘Corporate Leader of the Year’

Passionate advocate for minority inclusion at SAK Construction

By Shantana Stewart

For The St. Louis American

The summer of his junior year in high school, Jack Boatman was asked a question that changed the course of his life: “What are you going to do when you graduate?”

Unsure of how he should respond, but still wanting to appear smart, Boatman replied to his boss, Mr. Fink: “I want to be an engineer.”

Not understanding Boatman was really referring to a train engineer, the next day Fink, a civil engineer, brought Boatman engineering books to read. The pair talked about engineering almost daily from that point on.

“I really started to like engineering and the many aspects of it,” said Boatman. That initial misunderstanding helped launch his career in and around engineering that spans more than 45 years.

“It was pure happenstance, but it was a great thing for me,” Boatman said.

That serendipitous conversation led him to earn a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from what is now Tuskegee University, master’s in management from Webster University and to serve in executive positions at what is now Boeing and Insituform Technologies, Inc. He also worked as a consultant for a company he founded, Amber Consulting, LLC. He is now senior vice

president of government affairs for SAK Construction in O’Fallon, Missouri. The company works to renew aging pipeline and expand water and wastewater systems without major deconstruction of streets.

Boatman has supported the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) since 1967, when he began his first professional job as an engineer.

Each year, the St. Louis Gateway Chapter of NSBE takes time to push the next generation of aspiring engineers forward.

This year was no different, as the group hosted its 19th annual Scholars Reception and awarded 10 local youth with scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $1,500.

NSBE also recognized Boatman, 72 –who is on the other end of the career spectrum – with its Corporate Leader of the Year Award.

Arguably, Boatman’s recognition and achievements are also pointing students in the right direction and sending the message that they, too, can make it in the world of engineering.

“This is a brand new award, and Jack is the first recipient,” said Ron Moore, director of NSBE’s Pre-College Initiative program for the St. Louis region. “Jack has had a long career spanning more than 45 years dealing with companies that are in the engineering field, and he has always been active in the recruitment and retention of

A key component of Boatman’s job involves recruiting women- and minority-owned businesses – sometimes known as disadvantaged business enterprises (DBE) – as subcontractors.

“We’re lucky to have someone with Jack’s experience in this important position,” said Jerry Shaw, SAK president. “He’s extremely well qualified to lead SAK in achieving a key mission—developing programs to address DBE objectives and to promote diversity throughout all levels of our company.” Boatman is passionate about developing workforce training so underrepresented groups become knowledgeable about working inside sewer pipes.

“It is not something that minorities know about. It is not something that they participate in, nor do women,” Boatman said. “I mean this, and I am serious about it. There must be sharing with minority- and women-owned businesses, so we do a lot of subbing. I don’t need a law to make sure that we do those kinds of things; that’s just part of the DNA.” His goal is to prepare minority vendors and local taxpayers to be in a position to earn part of the $4.7 billion worth of tunneling work he anticipates the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) will request quotes on in the next few years.

black engineers. Companies should feel the need for and have diversity initiatives and advocates. There are other people performing jobs similar to Jack’s, but he’s been doing it the longest and quite effectively.”

The son of sharecroppers, Boatman spent his early childhood years growing up on a plantation. He said his parents could not do much to prepare him for college or a career, but parents today have no excuse.

He urges parents to take “happenstance” out of the equation and intentionally

support their children by placing them in programs and exposing them to opportunities that will help them discover their skills and prepare them for college.

“Remember, I grew up in a time when there were no African-American role models in engineering, so a better way today would include organizations like the National Association of Black Engineers and Upward Bound,” Boatman said.

Even if African-American students are in unaccredited school districts or are struggling in school, he said they can succeed.

“I grew up in an all-black society,” Boatman said. “I attended Jones High School in Florida, which was all black, and I went to Tuskegee, which, though effective, did not have the resources and connections of mainstream universities like a Purdue.”

Also, he said, not only the best students succeed.

“I was not, on paper, the smartest kid in the class,” he said. “I didn’t get all A’s or B’s… but I did what I had to do, graduated and went to the top of two major corporations. No child should ever give up, because there are a lot of options once they are motivated to do something.”

Boatman has advice about how parents can spur their children’s interest in engineering.

“We have to get way from buying only dolls for girls all the time and buy LEGOs for them and other toys that would traditionally be what boys would play with,” he said. “We want everyone to be a good parent, so why not buy a boy a doll as well? Buy toys that kids enjoy but that also pique their interest in math, science and anything that spurs the imagination.”

He also recommends parents use the activities and events in everyday life to make learning fun, because that is exactly what he did.

For example, Boatman made a game out of having his daughter determine how much to tip the waiter – without using a calculator – when they ate at restaurants to teach her percentages and how to solve math problems in her head.

A day in the life of Jack Boatman

Boatman spends 80 percent of his time on the road working to develop new business and meeting with existing clients to discuss upcoming projects. He shares the information he gathers with colleagues, so the company is in the best position possible to win projects when they are made public. A typical day begins at 5 a.m. and ends around 9:30 p.m. after having dinner with clients.

For Boatman, developing solutions and parity in engineering begins with asking tough questions.

“How do you train individuals on top of the ground to face underground challenges?” he asked and then promptly answered.

“You’ve got to have a tunnel in order to train them. It’s not something you can put in a classroom. If you put somebody 100 feet underground, put them two miles in – I’m talking about going horizontal now – with one way in and one way out, that’s a challenge.”

Boatman is just finishing up plans to set up mentorship programs in 15 places in North Carolina, so when SAK wins projects minorities and women are prepared to serve as subcontractors. He does similar work in Los Angeles, Atlanta and locally in St. Louis. He said although most of the work SAK does is out of sight, it should be top of mind.

“If cities or authorities like MSD are not repairing sewer lines, then sooner or later there’s going to be a major problem,” Boatman said. “The things that we do are really benefiting the community, and I think more so than people realize. It’s underground, it goes unnoticed, but trust me, when they (sewer pipes) break it’s a mess. No pun intended.” Learn more about job openings and the opportunities referenced in this article by visiting www.sakcon.com.

Jack Boatman of SAK Construction believes the best place to learn about working inside sewer pipes is underground. He is passionate about training underrepresented groups. Additionally, Boatman is the Corporate Leader of the Year for the St. Louis Gateway Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers. Photo by SAK Construction

Business

Catherine Dennis is director of Public Safety for Ranken Technical College – the first female and first African American in this role. “My job here is all about the safety and security of the campus,” she said.

Keeping Ranken safe for students, community

Catherine Dennis: ‘My favorite part about the work that I do is communication’

By Ashley Jones For The St. Louis American

Catherine Dennis, director of Public Safety for Ranken Technical College, joined the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department in August of 1989, after doing security for loss prevention at JCPenney in Northwest Plaza, and security for a children’s home. She served on the police department for about five years before joining their K9 unit and stayed for seven years until being promoted to police sergeant. She received her bachelors of science in

Criminal Justice at Lindenwood University.

She is now enrolled in Lindenwood’s Graduate Degree Program to receive her master’s of science degree in Criminal Justice Administration.

“When I looked online I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m only five clusters away from my master’s, why would I not do it?’” Dennis said.

“For me I’m too close to being where I would love to be. I’ve been doing supervision for almost 20 years when I first got promoted to the rank of sergeant in the city, so I felt like the administration part of it is certainly something

that wouldn’t be unfamiliar to me. I want to be able to say that I went as far as I felt like I really could.”

Dennis retired from the police department three months shy of 28 years as a police sergeant. Upon retirement she went to the University of Missouri – St. Louis (UMSL) Police Department as a sergeant, where after four months she served as the interim deputy commander of Special Operations.

“My favorite part about the work that I do

See DENNIS, B6

Normandy student newspaper places second in national competition

The Normandy 7th-8th Grade Center student newspaper staff earned second place in the American Scholastic Press Association Scholastic Newspaper Awards for their publication, The Viking Times The newspaper’s publishing is incorporated into a unique curriculum called the Normandy Project Lab, led by English Language Arts teacher Inda Schaenen.

In addition to core contributing staff, submissions are accepted from any student and staff member at the center. This year, the newspaper also included submissions from Normandy High School students and staff.

Pictured here are The Viking Times core contributing staff at the Normandy 7th-8th Grade Center: Marshawn Williams, Samantha Woods, Terriona Thomas, Christina Parker, Javon Calmese, Leonard Rose, Leah Garner, and teacher Inda Schaenen.

Ken Page will be honored for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts by the Arts and Education Council. He is perhaps best known as the voice of Oogie Boogie in Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” His Broadway credits include the original Broadway cast of “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and “Cats.” His productions of “Café Chanson” and “Sublime Intimacy” as writer/director received six St. Louis Theatre Circle Award nominations, including Best New Play and Best Director. He has returned to The Muny stage almost every year since 1994.

Gloria Ratliff joined Operation Food Search, a non-profit hunger relief organization, as its director of Development. Her responsibilities include overseeing and directing all of the agency’s fundraising efforts, including annual, major and planned giving programs. Ratliff will handle all strategic communication with current and prospective donors, as well as manage individual and corporate gifts. Most recently she worked at The Salvation Army as Donor Relations director and assistant executive director of Development.

Rev. Cedric Portis Sr. received the Christian Hospital Foundation’s 2018 Carpe Diem Award, which recognizes an individual or organization who identifies a need in the community and takes initiative to address that need. He is president of the Joint Executive Governing Board of the Normandy Schools Collaborative and has served as senior pastor of Third Presbyterian Church in St. Louis since 2003. He also volunteers with the Hazelwood and Riverview Gardens school districts.

Marian Clark joined Midland States Bank as a mortgage loan originator. She is responsible for originating FHA/VA/ USDA, conventional, jumbo, and portfolio mortgages for residential real estate purchases. She also conducts one-on-one counseling and problem-solving for financial, credit, and budget issues in order to qualify clients for affordable home ownership.

Dominic Dorsey II received the Champions of Community Engagement Award from Empower Indy Inc. and Powerhouse Church of Deliverance in Indianapolis. He is director of Disability Support Services at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and founded Don’t Sleep, a non-profit organization that addresses dismantling systems of oppression. “I don’t think we should have to reward people for doing what’s right,”

Ken Page

Rev. Cedric Portis Sr.

Ann Delenela

Dominic Dorsey II

Gloria Ratliff

Marian Clark

Photo by Wiley Price

U. City’s Third Ward should seize opportunity for development

By Councilmembers Stacy Clay and Bwayne Smotherson

For The St. Louis American

The proposed Olive /I-170 development in University City offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to provide a catalytic economic stimulus and long-term tangible benefit to the Third Ward, the northern section of U City. There has been talk of developing this area since the 1960s and, until this moment, none of the conversations have been realized and the Third Ward of University City has

continued to see a decline in home values and increase in deteriorating businesses, homes and infrastructure. The Third Ward is comprised of predominantly African-American homeowners who take pride in their property and community, but we cannot ignore the reality that home values in the Third Ward have not rebounded from the last recession, while homes in other parts of University City have surpassed pre-recession values.

To put it plainly, if you live in the Third Ward of University City your opportunity to build wealth through home

By Ashley Lisenby

Of St. Louis Public Radio

appreciation is far less than your U. City neighbors who may live only two blocks to the south. That is unacceptable. Changing this circumstance will take a large, substantial development to allow the city to reinvest in the wellbeing of these neighborhoods. An incremental approach has not, and will not, alter the trajectory of the Third

Ward. To facilitate this project, University City is considering the use of a TIF. The city’s use of TIF is unique in that we have built-in funding to support projects that will benefit residents, such as low-interest home loans, street and lighting improvements, and minority business development. Additionally,

n The Third Ward of University City has continued to see a decline in home values and increase in deteriorating businesses, homes and infrastructure.

we will continue to work with the community on minority construction participation and a resident hiring plan. In a perfect world, this project could proceed without the use of TIF, but unfortunately, that world does not exist. In University City, we are using the TIF tool responsibly to do what has been talked about for the several decades. To do nothing, or more of the same, is unacceptable for the residents of the Third Ward.

Stacy Clay and Bwayne Smotherson are councilmembers in University City’s Third Ward.

STL County forms task force to study affordable housing trust fund

Chris Krehmeyer of Beyond Housing had called for establishing the fund

A key recommendation from the St. Louis Fair Housing Conference in April is prompting action in St. Louis County. The county has assembled a task force to develop recommendations for promoting housing “equity, fairness and inclusion in our region,” St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger announced at a news conference on June 20. Stenger said it was time to create a task force to address low-income housing issues. He told reporters his administration has aimed to prioritize the issue

since taking office in 2015.

“We can all say, ‘Oh, why didn’t we do it earlier? Or why didn’t our community step forward and do this earlier?’ But, you know, I think we’re wasting time saying that. I think we just need to do it,” he said.

Housing advocates have been pushing for a county housing fund for years.

Stenger said Chris Krehmeyer, president and chief executive officer of Beyond Housing, has been a leading advocate for forming a trust fund, as have The Ferguson Commission Report and a report from For the Sake of All and community partners.

Krehmeyer and St. Louis YWCA chief officer Adrian Bracy will lead the task force.

The task force will explore what kinds of affordable housing are needed in St. Louis County and how to finance the fund.

n The average sale price for a home in St. Louis County rose about 18 percent between 2013 and 2017. Even formerly affordable communities are seeing spikes.

The city of St. Louis already has such an affordable housing trust fund, administered by the Affordable Housing Commission. The average sale price for

a home in St. Louis County rose about 18 percent between 2013 and 2017. Even formerly affordable communities are seeing spikes, including Jennings, Normandy, St. John and Ferguson.

Among the greatest spikes in price in the county is Kirkwood.

Between 2013 and 2017, the mean home sale price in Kirkwood rose from about $289,000 to about $382,000 –about 32 percent.

Though residential development is happening in St. Louis County, much of the focus has been on singlefamily homes, condominiums and luxury apartments rather than low- or middle-income, multifamily rental units.

The executive order specifically names AfricanAmerican families twice in the

body of the text.

“For over a century, African-Americans in St. Louis County have endured housing policies and development strategies that have trapped generations of some families in segregated and disinvested neighborhoods,” the order states. And: “disinvestment in low-income and AfricanAmerican neighborhoods has led to significant inequities in access to quality, affordable housing in areas of opportunity; employment and health care; strong schools; nutritious food and essential household goods; effective public transportation; and critical social networks.”

Task force meeting notes outlined its goal of defining who would benefit from the trust fund. It is unclear at this point where the money for the fund would come from or how much money would be allocated to those in need.

Washington University housing expert Molly Metzger said local funds for housing assistance and resources

would create more security for residents at a time when state and federal funds are at risk.

“Low-income people in St. Louis County move often, and that’s really disruptive for kids’ education. It’s really disruptive for social relationships, for relationships with community; with political engagement,” Metzger said. “So we really need to be able to provide safe, decent, secure homes that can help stabilize our families and our community.”

The task force reports there are more than 150 similar funds around the country. The group plans to look at other models for the local initiative. The St. Louis Affordable Housing Trust Fund is about 15 years old. Advocates say they hope to see the city fund expanded over time.

Stenger is a Democrat seeking re-election in November with a primary challenger in August, Mark Mantovani.

Reprinted with permission from news.stlpublicradio.org.

Monsanto funds outdoor classroom in Ferg-Flor

Bermuda Elementary in the Ferguson-Florissant School District will have enhanced STEM educational opportunities in the classroom next year thanks to a $2,500 Dannette Ward Science Education Grant from Monsanto’s STEM Education Outreach Program. The grant will be used to purchase science materials to enhance Bermuda’s newly created outdoor classroom to offer more hands-on experiences in order to prepare students to be creative thinkers and to eliminate the nature deficit. The nature deficit, coined by the writer Richard Louv in

a 2005 book, “Last Child in the Woods,” is the idea that when children are exposed to more time outdoors, mental health and behavior improves drastically. In addition to the school’s outdoor classroom, they are also planning to add an outdoor community garden.

“The benefits of connecting to nature have been well documented in numerous scientific research studies and publications,” said Kimberly Berry, Kindergarten teacher.

“Collectively, this body of research shows that children’s social, psychological, academic and physical health is positively impacted when they

have daily contact with nature.” The Dannette Ward Science Education Grant was formed by Monsanto’s Science and Agriculture Education Outreach Program volunteers to honor the accomplishments of retired Monsanto scientist Dannette Ward, who has made numerous contributions to youth through science and agriculture education. This past year, Volunteers of the Monsanto STEM Education Outreach Program donated 725 hours in area classrooms to earn a $9,000 award from The Monsanto Company to support STEM Education in area schools.

Bwayne Smotherson Stacy Clay

n “If I can’t deliver, I’m going to step down.”

— Los Angeles Lakers president Magic Johnson, on the next two years of free agency

Sports

Surging excitement

Area athletes shine in track; head to college and the pros

The St. Louis Surge came up with their most exciting victory of the Women’s Blue Chip Basketball League season to date, with a 98-81 victory over the Atlanta Monarchs last Saturday at Washington University. With the victory, the Surge improved to 5-2 on the season, plus, they knocked the Monarchs from the ranks of the unbeaten after nine consecutive victories to open the season. One of those nine victories was a 107-99 victory over the Surge on June 17 in Atlanta, so the Surge gained some revenge as well.

Former Alton High standout Jaleesa Butler was on fire for the Surge with a game high 38 points, including a six-for-nine performance from 3-point territory and a perfect eight-for-eight from the free throw line. Top scorer Rebecca Harris added 22 points and nine rebounds while Brittany Carter chipped in with 19 points. Through seven games, the Surge is averaging an impressive 105.7 points a game. Harris is averaging 28.1 points a game to lead four players in double figures. Carter is next at 17.9 points, followed by Butler’s 16.3 points and Kristi Bellock’s 15.7 points.

The Surge will be at home again on Saturday, July 7 when they host the Toledo Threat at 7 p.m. at Washington University. They will close the regular season home schedule on July 15 against Music City.

Kyren Williams picks the Irish Standout football player Kyren Williams of Vianney gave a verbal commitment to Notre Dame last week. The 5’10” 200-pound Williams is one of the most talented players in the Class

NBA Draft winners and losers

Since the NBA Finals was essentially a scrimmage between a varsity squad and a C-team, much of the excitement for basketball fans has been in anticipation of the 2018 NBA Draft and impending free agency period. Last week, league execs gathered together to fawn over the next generation of NBA studs and duds. Here are the winners and losers:

Winners

Dallas Mavericks

The Mavs went into the draft armed with the No. 5 pick. With the level of talent at the top of the draft, they were capable of getting an impact player if they stayed put. However, the Mavs weren’t content with an impact player, Mark Cuban wanted a cornerstone. So he worked out a deal with the Atlanta Hawks and moved up two spots to nab Luka Doncic, a player that many scouts pegged as the top overall talent in the draft.

I have some minor concerns

about Doncic’s athleticism and how his game will translate to the NBA. However, Doncic is 6-foot-8 with tremendous playmaking ability and an excellent feel for the game. He and Dennis Smith Jr. should form a dynamic backcourt that will terrify opposing teams. Adding Jalen Brunson (Villanova) and Kostas Antetokounmpo in the second round was put a cherry on top of the Mavs magnificent draft day.

Orlando Magic The Magic must have been nervous sitting at No. 6 as they needed a few teams to make missteps (more on that later) to insure they would land an impact player. As it turns out, there was magic in Orlando as Texas’ Mohamed Bamba was sitting there waiting after the deal between the Mavs and Hawks. The 6-foot-11 Bamba has the potential to be the most dominant big in the draft, and that includes No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton. Bamba boasts

a 7-foot-9 wingspan and moves with agility and athleticism not often seen by men his size. I have no doubt that Bamba will one day develop into the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. Offensively, he has the capability to become a solid threat from deep and will have no problem pounding

alley oops down the throats of less-athletic defenders.

Atlanta Hawks – It’s not often that two teams involved in a trade can both be considered winners, but that’s the case with the Hawks and the Mavs. Many analysts feel the Hawks made a major snafu by

trading down

See CLUTCH, B5

Earl Austin Jr.

Sistrunk

St. Louis Surge’s Rebecca Harris (13) takes

Atlanta Monarchs’ Breanna McDonald (21), Meighan Simmons (24)

Kellindra Zackery (31) during

Photo by Wiley Price

Michael Porter Jr. could either be the next Ben Simmons or a monumental bust like Sam Bowie

The Denver Nuggets are taking the chance that it will be the former and not the disastrous latter.

Drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers, Simmons sat out the 2016-17 NBA season while recovering from a broken bone in his foot. On Monday night, he was named the 2017-18 NBA Rookie of the Year. His 15.8 points, 8.2 assists, 8.1 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game helped the 76ers reach the Eastern Conference semifinal and their first playoff berth since 2012. Bowie was drafted second in the 1984 NBA Draft by the Portland Trailblazers, a slot before Michael Jordan, but repeated foot and leg injuries cost him hundreds of games and limited his ability throughout his NBA career.

As the world knows, Porter required surgery to treat herniated disks in his back. I think we all now know that he should not have returned to play for Missouri at the end of last season. More on that later.

It’s looking like the Nuggets will follow the Simmons-76ers prescription and hold Porter out of action, possibly for most or all the upcoming season.

As Porter’s slide reached double digits, it was obvious that most lottery teams were passing on the possible superstar. Denver, the last of the lottery teams, decided to go for it. Josh Kroenke, controlling partner of the Nuggets, son of St. Louis’ dear friend Stan Kroenke and a former Missouri Tiger, learned on Thursday morning that Porter could be available.

“I said, ‘seriously?’ We poured over the medical records again and had our doctors there,” he said.

“We had quite a bit of information at our fingertips and we kind of vet as much as you can and make an informed decision,” Tim Connelly, Nuggets president of basketball operations said.

“Is it well worth the risk? Will he return to the level of play he was prior to injury? We feel good about that.”

The Nuggets nabbed Porter – but don’t know when he will see action.

“Whether … getting him ready to play next week or next year remains to be seen,” Kroenke said.

“But we’re all going to huddle up with our training staff to our coaching staff to our front office and all the way up to ownership — we all had to be in sync with a decision like

SportS EyE

With Alvin A. Reid

Has Denver found a nugget in Porter Jr., or fool’s gold?

that.”

During his introductory press conference in Denver, Porter said, “I know I can be one of the best players in this league. It’s up to me to reach that potential.

“That’s what I’m really looking forward to; working as hard as I can every day to come back 150 percent. I don’t expect health to be an issue down the road,” he said. The Nuggets will be hoping and possibly praying that Porter is correct.

What’s up, Doc?

A young, brilliant AfricanAmerican spinal surgeon has made it clear that Porter could

overcome his current ailment – but adds it could haunt him in the future.

Dr. Charla Fischer, a surgeon with NYU Langone Health, told SBNation that Porter’s pain and other symptoms is caused by small tears in the outer layers of the intervertebral disks that allowed lubricating material to leak out.

“One analogy we use a lot is when you poke a hole a jelly doughnut,” said Fischer, a USC medical school graduate who specializes in orthopedic spine surgery and orthopedic surgery.

“When you squeeze, the jelly is gonna come out. If you don’t poke a hole, it’s

going to be contained.”

She said fans should not expect “peak performance immediately,” adding that Porter probably won’t be at full strength until next yearand that his injury will never completely go away.

“The area where the jelly has come through the doughnut ... that heals over, but not with the same material you were born with,” Fischer said.

“It fills in with fibrous tissue and scar tissue and it’s similar but not exactly the same. So that area is an area of weakness.

“There’s re-herniation rates of 10-to-12 percent over the next five to 10 years. I tell patients that all the time because I want them to know that if the symptoms come back we can start from square one ... Elite athletes need to get back to playing sports. If he had that again, he’d elect to do another surgery.”

“Another surgery” are two words the Nuggets do not want to hear – even if it is in the future.

The Big O-pinion

After receiving his lifetime achievement award during the NBA awards ceremony on Monday night, Oscar Robertson asked a question that many black professional athletes and journalists have pondered.

“(Black players have) seen some injustice in the streets or wherever it might be, it might be almost anywhere, and they’re stepping up. But the only thing that really bothers me is, where are the white athletes when this is happening?” Robertson asked.

“This is not a black athlete problem. You see injustice in the world. It’s all around you. Just because LeBron (James) steps out, I’m glad he does.

I hope some other players – because this is what they believe – I mean, what do you want players to do? Shut up and dribble? I think it’s time for them to say what they want to say about life and about politics and things about the street and whatnot. And about education.”

Robertson predicted that the NFL’s mandate that players cannot peacefully protest during the national anthem will lead to more controversy.

“…I hope they all, the whites and the blacks get together. Even with the football. What do you think is going to happen when the union gets involved with the owners?” he asked.

“You think it’s going to be settled really easily? No, it’s not. It’s going to be nothing but a total mess.”

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

NBA commissioner Adam Silver congratulates Michael Porter Jr. after being selected 14th overall by the Denver Nuggets.

By Earl Austin Jr.

Of the St. Louis American

The World Cup is going strong in Russia, so it is a good time to add a little soccer to the mix. The high school girls’ soccer season just completed during the spring and there were some very talented African-American young ladies putting in work on the pitch around St. Louis. Here is a look at some of those top girls’ players.

Kendall Battle (Pattonville): The Class of 2019 forward just gave a verbal commitment to Cincinnati after a big season in which she had 21 goals and 13 assists

CLUTCH

Continued from C5

shelves in ATL the way Young jerseys will. He has ATL swag. Plus, the rebuilding Hawks picked up a lightly-protected first-round pick in next year’s draft just for dropping two spots.

Losers

Memphis Grizzlies – Sorry Grizz fans, but I’m just not sold on Jaren Jackson Jr. as an elite talent. The 6-foot-11 Jackson was an elite defender at Michigan State but his lack of explosiveness makes me question whether he can excel on the next level. My good friend Mike Dickson put it best when he stated, “All Jaren Jackson’s highlights look like he was underwater.”

Athleticism isn’t everything, just ask Zack Randolph, who was so beloved in Memphis that he should have a statue outside the FedEx Forum. Still, I’m just not drinking the Jackson Kool-Aid quite yet. Memphis fans should come to love gritty second-round pick Jevon Carter. He’s a Memphis-style player. But I have a feeling when we look back in three or four years, the Grizz will be kicking themselves for passing on Bamba.

Michael Porter Jr. – I won’t dive too deep into Porter’s slide all the way to No. 14 since my colleague Alvin Reid has that covered this week. However, Porter’s back issues caused a player who was expected to be a surefire Top 3

Continued from C5

of 2019. He had nearly two dozen scholarship offers from many of the top programs in the country. He finally chose Notre Dame over Missouri and Michigan.

A versatile talent who is equally skilled at running and catching the football, Williams has scored 75 touchdowns in his first three years of varsity football for the Golden Griffins.

As a junior, Williams scored a school-record 35 touchdowns while rushing for 992 yards

Tops in girls’ soccer

in leading the Pirates to an 18-5 record. She was an AllSuburban XII South and Class 4 All-State selection.

Jada Harvey (Hazelwood Central): The talented forward scored 27 goals and had 20 assists to lead the Hawks to a district championship. Harvey was a Class 4 All-State selection. She has already committed to Southeast Missouri State.

Naomi Ferguson (MICDS): The standout Class of 2020 forward has already given a commitment to Brown University in the Ivy League. She had 22 goals, nine assists and scored six game winning goals for the Rams this spring.

She was an AllMetro League selection.

Alexis Turner (Westminster Christian):

The just-graduated standout defender was an All-Metro League and AllState selection as she helped lead the Wildcats to a 16-4 record and a Class 3 district championship. She will attend the University of Dubuque.

Leslie Ballard (Valley Park): The Class of 2020

standout forward was a scoring phenom for the Hawks this season with 31 goals, six assists and four game-winning goals.

Cammie Robinson (Eureka): The Missouri State commit was a stalwart on defense for the Wildcats’ 20-6 team that advanced to the Final Four of the Class 4 state tournament in 2018. She also helped Eureka to the state championship in 2017.

Lauren Smith (Trinity): The multi-sport athlete was a standout defensive player for the Titans’ Class 1 district-championship team. She was selected to the AAA All-Conference Team. She Is headed to Fontbonne to play basketball next season.

Miranda Pratt (RosatiKain): The standout defensive player was an All-State performer after leading RosatiKain to a district championship and a berth in the Class 2 state quarterfinals. She signed with Missouri Baptist.

I’Lysa Walker (Hazelwood Central): The standout

defensive player was an AllSuburban North Conference selection and a key player for the Hawks’ district championship team.

Sophia Mulwa (Nerinx Hall): An excellent defensive player and an All-Metro Women’s Athletic Association selection after helping the Markers to a 21-2 record. She is also Nerinx Hall’s scholar-athlete for 2018.

Sarah Nselel (Ladue): The sophomore goalkeeper was an All-Suburban Central Conference performer for the Rams.

McCluer North wins Conference title

Congratulations to the McCluer North Stars baseball team on winning the championship of the Suburban XII North Conference in 2018. The Stars finished the conference season with a perfect 10-0 record and 16-10 overall. The members of the team are (in alphabetical order) Radford Beasley, Anthony Benz, Roman Brown, Jacob Crayne, Alex Henagean, Tyler Jenkins, Tramell Le’Flore, Cyrus Riddle, Isaac Robertson, Jacob Roberson, Raymond Straughter, Dexter Swims, Jhabre Taylor and Stanley Thomas.

pick to slide all the way to the end of the lottery. Porter’s slide potentially cost him upwards of $20 million in guaranteed salary. All is not lost for MPJ though. In Denver, Porter will be allowed time to heal and develop. He also signed a sneaker endorsement deal with Puma. If Porter’s back problems are behind him, the Nuggets got the steal of the draft.

and catching 51 passes for 774 yards. On defense, he also had 37 tackles, 3 sacks and 4 interceptions.

As a sophomore, Williams was instrumental in helping the Golden Griffins to the Class 5 state championship with 748 yards rushing, 591 yards receiving and 28 touchdowns. He broke into the starting lineup as a freshman and contributed 848 total yards and nine touchdowns.

Ashley Henderson shines at USATF Nationals

Former Hazelwood Central standout Ashley Henderson enjoyed a sparkling perfor-

World Cup fever

Though I’ve been a longtime fan of EA Sports’ FIFA video games, I’ve never been a huge fan of the World Cup. Maybe it’s because the U.S. team always finds a way to look like the Washington Generals on the pitch. With the U.S. failing to qualify this year, I’ve been able to follow and root for other countries without feeling guilty. The two teams that really captivated my atten-

mance at last weekend’s USATF Nationals in Des Moines, Iowa. Henderson finished second in the women’s 100-meter dash and turned in a personal best time of 10.96 seconds in the process. Henderson turned in a wind-aided 10.91 time in the prelims to advance to the finals.

Henderson’s performance in the 100 was a terrific bounceback from the disappointment of not advancing to the finals of the 100 at the recent NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon. She did come back to finish sixth in the 200meter dash and earn collegiate All-American honors for the

tion and admiration have been Mexico and Nigeria.

I watched nearly the entire game between Mexico and Germany. I was ecstatic to see our neighbors from the South defeat the defending World Cup champions. Then, I was almost equally as crushed to see Sweden put the smack down on Mexico 3-0, which put their future in jeopardy.

I quickly became an expert in tiebreakers, goal differentials and total goals scored in

11th time in her career at San Diego State.

Jordan Barnett signs with Bucks

Former CBC and University of Missouri basketball standout Jordan Barnett has signed

case Sweden, Germany and Mexico all finished 3-1 in group play. Luckily, handed Germany a second “L” and Mexico advanced to the knockout round. Nothing would make me happier than to see the POTUS’s face if Mexico hoisted the World Cup trophy.

Despite boasting the best kit (aka jerseys) in the tournament, Nigeria couldn’t quite ride its wave of momentum into the Round of 16. The

with the Milwaukee Bucks as an undrafted free agent. The 6’8” Barnett will play with the Bucks’ Summer League entry in July in Las Vegas. Barnett was also invited to the Bucks’ preseason training camp.

As a senior at Mizzou, Barnett averaged 13.7 points

team gave Lionel Messi and Argentina a run for its money Tuesday, but ultimately fell 2-1 and got sent back to the Motherland early. If Senegal fails to defeat Columbia on Thursday, the 2018 World Cup will be the worst showing for African nations since 1982. Egypt, Morrocco and Tunisia have also already been eliminated. Follow Ishmael and In the Clutch on Twitter @ishcreates.

and 5.9 rebounds while shooting 45 percent from the field, 41 percent from 3-point range and 89 percent from the free throw line. He helped the Tigers’ to a 20-13 record and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Kendall Battle Alexis Turner

DENNIS

continued from page B1 is communication,” Dennis said. “I got to interact with the community, I got to be involved. Being involved to me means not just being involved, but making a difference. The community now where I’m at is not just the community on the outside, but it’s the community that’s on the inside of Ranken as well.”

After serving a year and a-half with UMSL, she is now the first female and first African American to serve as the director of Public Safety for Ranken Technical College at 4431 Finney Ave., north of Delmar and south of Page – an area where she grew up and that she previously patrolled.

n “I felt like the administration part of it is certainly something that wouldn’t be unfamiliar to me. I want to be able to say that I went as far as I felt like I really could.”

– Catherine Dennis

“My vision when I left the police department was to always be able to go somewhere I could use that experience that I’ve gained in 29 years, including UMSL, and put it to use in a place that would certainly benefit from it,” Dennis said. “The experience that I’ve gained would certainly be a benefit to Ranken because my job here is all about the safety and security of the campus.” Ranken is a private, nonprofit, degreegranting institution of higher learning whose primary mission is to provide the comprehensive education and training necessary to prepare students for employment and achievement in a variety of

technical fields. “I’m hoping at Ranken to make their public safety department something that it has never been,” Dennis said. “Because of the area that we’re in, the first thing that parents think is: ‘Is it really a safe area?’ and my

ultimate goal is to be able to show every parent, not only is it safe, but to make every parent understand that while your child is here, the utmost important thing to us is to make sure your child comes home and that they’re safe the entire time they’re here.”

She is a trailblazer as well as a peacekeeper.

“Being the first female and being the first African American in this role has certainly set boundaries already, and I want to make sure that what’s expected of me is not only done, but more

than that,” Dennis said. “So that when the next person steps into this role, they’re able to do just that. Not have to start from scratch, do everything over, but be able to step into this role because I’ve left a good trail as to where we need to go from here.”

Ashley Jones is an Emma Bowen Foundation editorial intern at The St. Louis American, supported by a grant from the Democracy Fund.

Ranken Technical College Head of Security Catherine Dennis talks with officer Erika Shields on campus.

Photo by Wiley Price

Damon Davis evokes ‘Darker Gods’

‘Blake the Great’ is one of the pieces on display as part of the ‘Darker Gods in the Garden of the LowHanging Heavens’ exhibition by Damon Davis.

Expansive show at the Luminary through July 12

By Jeremy D. Goodwin Of St. Louis Public Radio

St. Louis-based artist Damon Davis works in

many forms, from visual art to hip hop records.

His profile has grown steadily in recent years.

He›s now showing a deeply conceptual, richly realized exhibition at the Luminary on Cherokee Street, that he calls the culmination of his years of art-making collaborations.

The show, called “Darker Gods in the Garden of the Low-Hanging Heavens,” is built around a series of myths and fables Davis wrote, featuring

ArchCity Defenders begins film series with KDHX

By Ashley Jones

For The St. Louis American

ArchCity Defenders, a nonprofit civil rights law firm, and KDHX began a three-month racial film series on June 21 at The Stage at KDHX. The first film in the series is “Marvin Booker was Murdered,” an award-winning feature length documentary directed by filmmaker Wade Gardner.

Following the film screening, Blake Strode, executive director of ArchCity Defenders, facilitated a Q&A with Gardner and Marvin Booker’s brother and sister-in-law, Rev. Dr. Spencer Booker and Gail Booker.

“He was a great preacher,” Spencer Booker said. “He loved to teach God’s word. He was an intellectual brother that would share all of the thoughts of kin that he learned, and he really lived the civil rights and the liberation that he preached about.”

Marvin’s younger brother, Rev Dr. Spencer Booker, is a pastor at the St. Paul AME church in St. Louis. Rev. Booker, along with his wife, Gail Booker, played a pivotal role in fighting for Marvin’s civil rights and are featured in the film.

The film uncovers how Marvin Booker, a homeless street preacher, was brutally beaten to death by five Denver jail guards. His death was captured on videotape, and witnessed by more than twenty people. Yet, the guards were neither indicted, nor reprimanded.

“How is it that you will take a man’s life and not be responsible?” Spencer Booker asked. “We see it throughout this country, even in St. Louis. We see state violence on citizens every day, and they do nothing but cover it up. It’s going to take great people in this room, the ArchDefenders, to keep on defending people’s civil rights. The fight is on.”

The film is a reflection of the life of Booker, his devout Memphis-based family, the grassroots

See FILM, C4

black deities.

This exhibition is a sprawling, multimedia affair. It incorporates photographs, sculpture, a short film and materials including two ram’s horns and a wooden case that was built to hold sewing supplies. For the gallery-goer who just happens upon the show, there’s already a lot to dig into. But to more fully unlock the layers of meaning here, it’s necessary to do some background reading. The works here all fit into a detailed mythology Davis composed, which tells the story of 12 gods – black gods who look over the black experience. They’re seen in digitally manipulated photographs Davis took of people he knows. One photo is of a man whose eyes are eerily absent. There’s a hole in his torso and his skin has a rough and weathered patina.

“He is the god of the ghetto children, of the people that’s forgotten and the people that you throw out,” Davis said. “The poor people in

R&B singer Ashanti gave St. Louis fans her best show to date when she stopped by The Pageant Saturday night thanks to Rockhouse Ent. and Clark Wilson and performed from her 15-plus year catalog of hits, including chart toppers ‘Rock Wit U’ and ‘Foolish.’

Damien Smith’s ‘Daddy’s Big Girl’ gets Real to Reel grand prize

STL native wins national filmmaking competition presented by Gentleman Jack

By Kenya Vaughn Of The St. Louis American

Upon entering Delmar Hall last Thursday for the St. Louis stop of the 2nd Annual Real to Reel Showcase, organizer Eddie Holman said he wanted to introduce me to this year’s national winner Damien D. Smith. The event is the social element of a national competition presented in collaboration with Codeblack Entertainment that gives emerging African American filmmakers an opportunity to get their work seen before a broad audience – including industry professionals and peers.

Smith also happened to be from St. Louis. He was fresh from South Beach, where he was presented with the Real to Reel national grand prize at the 2018 American Black Film Festival (held annually in mid-June) as director of “Daddy’s Big Girl.” The film was among the three screened at Thursday’s local Real to Reel event, but I knew him from another film of his

that played in St. Louis

“Oh my God, you did ‘The Mannequin Movie’,” I said with an obnoxious level of excitement after instantly recognizing him when Smith turned around. “You saw that,” Smith said, with not quite the same level of excitement, but close.

As a judge of the shorts film entries for the

Omari Hardwick, star of the Starz Network hit ‘Power’ and Real to Reel national spokesman presented St. Louis native Damien D. Smith with the grand prize for his film ‘Daddy’s Big Girl’ earlier this month at The American Black Film Festival in Miami.

St. Louis International Film Festival three years ago, I was charged with watching and rating his debut movie “About That…” I was so moved by the film that I wanted to

See PRIZE, C4

Photo by Brea McAnally

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

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

Sat., June 30, 9 p.m., Black Market Media Group presents Rich Homie Quan. Pop’s Concert Venue, 401 Monsanto Ave., Sauget, IL. 62201. For more information, visit www.ticketmaster.com.

Tues., July 3, 9 p.m., The Pageant presents K Michelle Performing Live Independence Day Kickoff 6161 Delmar Blvd., 63112. For more information, visit www. ticketmaster.com.

Thur., July 5, 8 p.m., The Ready Room presents Mobley. 4195 Manchester Ave., 63110. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

July 6 – 7, 7:30 p.m., Jazz at the Bistro presents Erika Johnson Sings the Rolling Stones. Jazz St. Louis, 3536 Washington Ave., 63103. For more information, visit www. tickets.jazzstl.org.

Fri., July 6, 8:30 p.m., Black Market Media Group presents HoodRich Pablo Juan. Pop’s Concert Venue, 401 Monsanto Ave., Sauget, IL. 62201. For more information, visit www. ticketmaster.com.

Mon., July 9, The Fox Theatre presents The Sistine Chapel Choir. 527 North Grand Blvd., 63103. For more information, visit www. fabulousfox.com/events.

Tues., July 10, 8 p.m., The Ready Room presents Slum Village. 4195 Manchester Ave., 63110. For more information, visit www. ticketfly.com.

Wed., July 11, 8 p.m., The Pageant presents Janelle Monae Dirty Computer Tour. 6161 Delmar Blvd., 63112. For more information, visit www.ticketmaster.com.

local gigs

Fri., June 29, 8 p.m., FMG presents The No Time off Tour. Feat. Tef Poe, The Knuckles, and Che. The Monocle, 4510 Manchester Ave., 63110. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Fri., June 29, 8 p.m., Music for A Cure. Feat. the Chris Black Experience. Proceeds help raise funds for the research and cure of MS. Vöce, 212 S. Tucker Blvd., 63102. For more information, visit www.thechrisblack.com.

Sat., June 30, 4 p.m., Saturday Night Live Jazz Concert. Washington Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, 3200 Washington Ave., 63103. For more information, call (314) 5338763.

Sat., June 30, 4 p.m., Hitsville USA: A Tribute to Motown Records. Feat. Roland Johnson, Eugen Johnson, Miss Molly Simms, and more. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., 63118. For more information, visit www. offbroadwaystl.com.

special events

Sat., June 30, 12 p.m., My Change is Worth Keeping! Amazing women will share their personal stories of change that will inspire us all to create and embrace change. Moonrise Hotel, 6177 Delmar Blvd., 63112. For more information, visit www.daddysheiress.com.

Sat., June 30, 4 p.m., The 5th Annual Summer Gras. A Celebration of the music & food of New Orleans. 1200 S. 7th St., 63104. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

The Guide

Kenya Vaughn recommends

Sat., June 30, 4 p.m., The 5th Annual Summer Gras. A Celebration of the music & food of New Orleans. 1200 S. 7th St., 63104. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

Sat., June 30, 9 p.m., Reggae Nites. Feat. the Infrared Rockers and Root & Culture. Rowan Community Center, 1401 Rowan Ave., 63112. For more information, call (314) 229-7018.

Tues., July 3, 10 a.m., Museum at the Gateway Arch Grand Opening Celebration. Ozzie Davis will serve as the master of ceremonies. The Gateway Arch, 11 N. 4th St., 63102. For more information, call (636) 530-1235.

Wed., July 4, 10 a.m., The Central West End Association hosts the Fourth of July Central West End Family Parade. McPherson Ave. and N. Euclid Ave., 63108. For more information, visit www.facebook.com.

July 4 – 7, Fair Saint Louis. Parade, fireworks, performances by Jason Derulo and Martina McBride, a salute to the troops, and more. Gateway Arch National Park, 11 N. 4th St., 63102. For more information, visit www. fairsaintlouis.org.

Wed., July 4, 7 p.m., Fireworks Cruise. The

Riverboats at the Gateway Arch, 50 S. Leonor K. Sullivan Blvd., 63102. For more information, visit www. gatewayarch.com.

Sat., July 7, 9 a.m., Fourth of July Kid Hip Hop Floor Battle Dance Competition. We will highlight the dance talent in our area from kids ages of 2 – 18. There will be prizes, vendors, and more. 5170 Dr. Martin Luther King Dr., 63113. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Sat., July 7, 10 a.m., Thomas Dunn Learning Center hosts a Green Festival. Join us for food and fun as you learn about living a green lifestyle from our many vendors. 3113 Gasconade St., 63118. For more information, visit www. facebook.com.

Sat., July 7, 11 a.m., Black Girls Party Harder Summer Block Party/Expo. Over 20 vendors, live performances, face painters, kid’s activities, food trucks, and more. 1400 St. Louis Ave., 63106. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Sat., July 7, 7 p.m., R-S Theatrics presents the 2018 FUNraiser. Silent auction, dinner, entertainment, and more. Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 N. Grand Blvd., 63103. For more information, visit www.facebook.com.

Through Aug. 10, Operation Food Search’s Summer Meals Program. The mobile meal vans will serve 33 locations via three routes. A daily dose of nutrition, along with a variety of games, arts, crafts, and STEM projects. For more information, visit www. operationfoodsearch.org.

comedy

June 29 – July 1, The Laugh Lounge presents Shuler King 11208 W. Florissant Ave., 63033. For more information, call (314) 921-2810.

July 6 – 8, The Laugh Lounge presents J.J. Williamson. 11208 W. Florissant Ave., 63033. Sat., July 7, 5 p.m., Laughter is Good Productions presents Darius Bradford and Friends Clean Comedy Show. Harris Stowe State University, 3026 Laclede Ave., 63103. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Thur., July 12, 10:30 a.m., United 4 Children 6th Annual Golf Tournament Fundraiser. 4-person scramble, contest and prize opportunities. Norman K. Probstein Golf Course - Forest Park, 6141 Lagoon Dr., 63112. For more information, visit www.united4children.org.

Thur., July 12, 11 a.m., GardaWorld Jobs presents the Veterans Job Fair Transitioning military, veterans, and their spouses can meet with recruiters from dozens of companies. Chaifetz Arena, St. Louis University, 1 S. Compton Ave., 63103. For more information or to register, visit www.events. recruitmilitary.com/events.

Thur., July 26, 9 a.m., Tommy Pham Baseball ProCamp. Throughout this one-day camp, Pham and our camp coaches will offer tips and hands-on instruction. Belleville East HS, 2555 West Blvd., 62221. For more information, visit www. procamps.com/tommypham.

Thur., July 26, 6 p.m., Alive Magazine presents Smoke & Mirrors. Featuring the top BBQ spots in St. Louis, craft beer, a night market featuring local craftsman, live local music, and more. Encore, 5700 Highlands Plaza Dr., 63110. For more information, call (314) 446-4059.

Sat., July 7, 8 p.m., Commit to the Bit Comedy. Feat. Tyler Ross, Heather McLaren and Dylan Scott. The Monocle, 4510 Manchester Ave., 63110. For more information, visit www.eventbrite.com.

Sun., July 8, 7 p.m., The Mad Bus Driver Comedy Show. Featuring comedian Anthony Session. Helium Comedy Club, 1151 St Louis Galleria St., 63117. For more information, visit www.themadbusdriver. com/tickets.

literary

Thur., June 28, 7 p.m., A. E. Hotchner 101st Birthday Celebration and Book Launch. Henry Schvey will interview Hotchner via streaming video about his new novel. Olin Library, Washington University, One Brookings Dr., 63130. For more information, visit www. library.wustl.edu/event.

Thur., June 28, 7 p.m., St. Louis County Library hosts Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, author of What the Eyes Don’t See. Dr. Mona proved Flint’s kids were exposed to lead. Library Headquarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., 63131. Sat., July 7, 11 a.m., Matice Ahnjamine signs and discusses her new book The Product of my Selfishness:

FMG presents The No Time off Tour. Feat. Tef Poe, The Knuckles, and Che. For more information, see LOCAL GIGS.

The Stutter and The Story

Maryland Heights Community Center, 2300 McKelvey Rd., 63043. For more information, email matice.ahnjamine@ gmail.com.

Sat., July 7, 7 p.m., An Evening With author Allisha Jones, author of There’s A Leak In This Old Building Metropolitan Artist Lofts, 500 N. Grand Blvd., 63103. For more information, call (636) 219-0045.

Tues., July 10, 7 p.m., St. Louis Public Library hosts author Dr. Lisa Corrigan author of Prison Power: How Prison Influenced the Movement for Black Liberation. 1301 Olive St., 63103. For more information, visit www.left-bank.com.

Sun., July 15, 2 p.m., Bobby Norfolk presents Scott Joplin. A combination of storytelling, music, and a demonstration of the popular time period dance, the cakewalk. Kirkwood Public Library, 140 E. Jefferson Ave., 63122. For more information, visit www. kirkwoodpubliclibrary.org.

Mon., July 16, Maryville Talks Books hosts author Rachel Devlin, author of A Girl Stands at the Door: The Generation of Young Women Who Desegregated America’s Schools. Left Bank Books, 399 N. Euclid Ave., 63108. For more information, visit www. left-bank.com.

Tues., July 24, 7 p.m., Left Bank Books hosts author Virvus Jones, author of Stalking Horse. 399 N. Euclid Ave., 63108. For more information, visit www.leftbank.com.

theatre

June 27 – July 3, The Muny Presents ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ starring Corbin Bleu and Ken Page. The Muny in Forest Park. For more information, visit www.muny.org.

July 27 – 28, COCA presents West Side Story. Edison Theatre, 6465 Forsyth Blvd., 63105. For more information, visit www.cocastl.org.

art

Through July 12, postdisciplinary artist Damon Davis presents the exhibit Darker Gods in the Garden of the Low-Hanging Heavens, The Luminary, 2701 Cherokee Street. For more information, visit http://theluminaryarts.com

Through July 15, From Caricature to Celebration: A Brief History of AfricanAmerican Dolls. Field House Museum, 634 S. Broadway, 63102. For more information, visit www.fieldhousemuseum. org.

Through August 19, Contemporary Art Museum 2018 Great Rivers Biennial Featuring artists Addoley Dzegede, Sarah Paulsen, and Jacob Stanley, Amy Sherald, and Claudia Comte. On view through August 19. 3750 Washington Blvd., 63108.

lectures and workshops

Through June 28, Psychological Associates’ Leadership Development Workshop. Charles F. Knight Center, Washington University, One Brookings Dr., 63130. For more information, visit www.q4solutions.com.

Fri., June 29, 7:30 a.m., NAHSE St. Louis Chapter

June 29 – 30, 6 p.m., Grand Center Theatre Crawl 2018 A free tasting of the best of St. Louis theater, featuring over 30 professional companies. Venues in the Grand Center Arts District, 3536 Washington Ave., 63103. For more information, visit www. stlpublicradio.org/theatrecrawl.

presents Public Safety: A Growing Spotlight on the Criminal Justice System and Healthcare Providers Forest Park Visitor’s Center, 5595 Grand Dr., 63112. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Sat., June 30, 10 a.m., Real Talk about Urban Education.195 New Florissant Rd., 63031. For more information, visit www.eventbrite.com.

Sat., June 30, 12 p.m., Legal Services of Eastern Missouri presents Free Beneficiary Deed Clinic. Please RSVP and sign up for appointment. Thomas Dunn Learning Center, 3113 Gasconade St., 63118. For more information, visit www.eventbrite.com.

Tues., July 3, 1 p.m., Declaration of Independence Talk with Professor

David Konig. Olin Library, Washington University, One Brookings Dr., 63130. For more information, visit www. library.wustl.edu/event.

Sat., July 7, 1 p.m., Little Boy Blue and the Dangerous Streets. Dr. Bonnie Stepenoff offers a glimpse of the dark side of nineteenth and early twentieth-century St. Louis. Field House Museum, 634 S. Broadway, 63102. For more information, visit www. fieldhousemuseum.org.

Tues., July 10, 7:30 a.m., Nonprofits Discuss How to Engage Board Members for Greater Success. Vue 17, 1034 S. Brentwood Blvd., 63117. For more information, visit www.csprc.org/events.

Thur., July 12, 10:30 a.m., Alive and Well Communities hosts Trauma Awareness Training. John C Murphy

Health Center, 6121 N. Hanley Rd., 63134. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Thur., July 19, 7 p.m., St. Charles History Talks: The US 56th Colored Infantry First Missouri State Capitol State Historic Site, 200 S. Main St., 63301. For more information, visit www. facebook.com.

Sat., July 21, 2 p.m., Community Conversations: Electoral College. Dr. Joseph Cernik discusses the importance of the Electoral College followed by a Q & A. Kirkwood Public Library, 140 E. Jefferson Ave., 63122. For more information, visit www. kirkwoodpubliclibrary.org.

health

Tues., July 10, 8 a.m.,

On-Site Mammograms. The Siteman Cancer Center mammography van is scheduling breast cancer screenings. Mid County YMCA, 1900 Urban Dr., 63144. For more information or to register, visit www.bit. ly/2BAIWsQ.

Sat., July 21, 11 a.m., African Community Health Fair 2018. Progressive Emporium & Education Center, 1108 N. Sarah St., 63113. For more information, visit www. facebook.com.

Thur., July 12, 9 a.m., Barnes Jewish Hospital hosts a Stop the Bleed Training. 4353 Clayton Ave., Room 128, 63110. For more information or to register, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Sat., July 21, 11a.m. Health Fair 2018, Ferguson Community Empowerment Center, 9420 West Florissant. Pre-register by calling (314) 747-9355. For more information, call (314) 4398306.

Fri., June 29, 7 p.m., The 2K18 Worship Experience. A night of worship feat. Tye Tribbett, Tasha Cobbs-Leonard, CharNelle Jones, and more. Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church, 5553 Dr. Martin Luther King Dr., 63112. For more information, visit www.friendlytemple.org.

Sat., June 30, 12 p.m., Created! Chosen! Called & Crowned Conference. 1050 Smith Ave., 63135. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

July 10 – July 12, 7 p.m. nightly, Three Church Summer Revival with Southern Mission Baptist Church (8171 Wesley Ave. in Kinloch), First Missionary Baptist Church of Kinloch (4400 Parker Rd. in Florissant) and Liberty Community Worship (11221 Larrimore Rd. in Spanish Lake).

Kenya Vaughn recommends

The Muny presents ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ starring Corbin Bleu. See THEATRE for details.

primarily black communities that figure out a way to make something out of nothing. And all of those people that you look down on, but the opportunities weren’t there for them so they figure out how to do something else. The god that cares about those people.”

Then there’s the child with three eyes, called Blake the Great. In Davis’s mythology, he was the god of creativity, but had his inspiration stolen by a pale horse who tied him down with gold chains.

“The pale horse could only mimic the creativity this child god had,” Davis said. “It’s kind of an ode to just black American culture and how it gets used by white people. How it gets stolen and re-appropriated and done, kind of like – they can learn how to do it, but the soul is always missing in a lot of these.

Popular music in the last 150 years has come from black ghettos, and it’s come from black people and ingenuity and making it up. In some of the worst circumstances, too.”

Some photographs have offerings of flowers beneath them, giving the appearance of a shrine.

‘A line to

from C1

community that organized after his death, and a landmark 2014 civil rights trial. The film shows how the city of Denver attempted to protect the blue line, instead of the constitutional rights of one of its citizens.

“We as Americans are brainwashed by our own educational system and our political system because we are taught to believe that our government

majesty and grace’

Local poet Jacqui Germain, who is contributing an essay for the show’s catalog, said Davis is taking negative stereotypes about AfricanAmericans, and the whole Western notion of darkness as something to fear, and turning all that on its head.

“Blackness is a central focal point, but it isn’t seen as a line to death or a line to evil,” she said, “it’s a line to majesty and grace and elegance and power.”

As a maker of art, Davis pretty much does it all. The film he co-directed about the Ferguson uprising, “Whose Streets?” screened at the Sundance International Film Festival last year, and he recorded an album to accompany this show. Occupying all the space at the Luminary, it is largest show of his career.

A conduit

One hallmark of Davis’ work is collaboration with other artists.

That’s on display here, from Audrey Simes, who choreographed a dance seen in the exhibition’s short film, to the folks at Citizen Carpentry, who made the black-charred wooden frames that hold some of pieces. Kevin McCoy, who is putting together the show catalog with his wife and artis-

is always going to do the right things,” Gardner said. “We are so conditioned to that – that when it doesn’t happen, we’re shocked.”

ArchCity and KDHX’s film series incorporates a strong racial justice theme and will continue through the summer.

“KDHX is proud to be partnering with ArchCity Defenders to showcase socially relevant documentary films.” said Allison Wilson, chief engagement officer with KDHX.

“By offering screenings that are free and open to the public, they are accessible to a wider

tic partner, Danielle McCoy, said it’s no surprise that Davis reached out to other folks to help him execute his vision for this show – or that they turned up to be a part of it.

“Damon has always been a person looking out for others. Creatively, physically, spiritually. [This exhibition is] just Damon being a conduit as always. He’s always trying to incorporate so many different eyes to make something great,” McCoy said.

Davis acknowledged that he’s asking a lot from viewers of this work who want to engage with it fully. But he says it’s worth it.

“Anything worth having, it got to take a little work. I had to work to make it happen, but I ask my audience to just meet me halfway. Meet me in the middle, you know what I mean? And some people will like it, some people won’t.”

“The Garden Of Darker Gods And The Low-Hanging Heavens” will be on display through July 12 at The Luminary, 2701 Cherokee St., St. Louis. For more information, visit www.theluminaryarts.com.

Republished with permission of St. Louis Public Radio: http://news.stlpublicradio. org/post/damon-davis-evokesdarker-gods-expansive-showluminary

audience. These films can be catalysts for important conversations which create more equity and justice for the citizens of the region we serve.”

The next screening will feature Damon Davis’s awardwinning documentary, “Whose Streets?” on Thursday, July 26. The third film planned for August 23, is to be determined.

Event registration is required, though all screenings are free and open to the public, with doors at 6:30 p.m., and the film beginning at 7 p.m. To register, visit www.archcitydefenders.org/events

PRIZE

Continued from C1

reach out to tell him as much, but it wouldn’t have been appropriate. I always hoped that he would keep at the craft after seeing his smartly done debut film about a man whose extreme loneliness caused him to lose grip with reality.

Upon learning he was the national winner of Gentleman Jack’s Real to Reel competition, I couldn’t help but get excited all over again that he was still making films.

“Daddy’s Big Girl,” written by and starring Latham Ford, illustrates how a father’s love can at times be stronger than life itself.

His latest film left an impression on not only me, but the entire viewing audience. And this time I was able to talk with him about it.

“Black men want to be there for their children – and black men are there for their children,” Smith said. “There a lot of negative stereotypes that claim we are not, but we are. There are a great population of black men in the world out here fighting the good fight. Negative gets more attention, but what I wanted to do with “Daddy’s Big Girl” was offer a cinematic counternarrative.”

Smith said he tries to tell human stories that feature black people, not stories that are stereotypically expected to be told about us, or even from us.

“Fatherhood, that’s a human being story. Mental Illness, that is a human being story,” Smith said. “My film ‘Second’ tackles PTSD, which is a human being story. I just address these human topics through the lens of the world I know.”

Rooted on Rosalie Smith’s film company 4910 Rosalie Productions is named after the address in the Mark Twain Neighborhood near Kingshighway and West Florissant where he grew up. He was so obsessed with film

and television that he was given the nickname “TV Guide” by family and people in his inner circle.

He would get Blockbuster rentals for gifts and absorb every element of movies from a host of genres. Soon after he graduated from Riverview Gardens High School, he took an amazing leap for the sake of pursuing his craft. Without knowing a single soul, he packed up and left the North Side for New York City to train as an actor.

“People in my neighborhood on the north side of St. Louis, we were often led to believe these choices were not options for us,” Smith said. “I had to develop the courage to be able to do something different.

All of the artists I respected and admired got their start there – Dustin Hoffman, Denzel Washington, Jeffrey L. Wright – they studied in New York, so that’s where I wanted to go and wanted to focus on.”

Smith said his upbringing in St. Louis was instrumental in navigating the hustle and bustle of New York.

“Growing up on the north side, you have to know how to read a situation,” Smith said.

“You learn how to talk – and you learn how to be quiet. Sometimes the best thing to do is to sit back, listen and learn.”

He attended the Sande Shurin Acting Conservatory and went on to perform in Off-

Filmmaker and St. Louis native Damien D. Smith discussing his latest movie, ‘Daddy’s Big Girl’ during the 2018 American Black Film Festival in Miami.

Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway and regional productions and several tours on stage. His love for film and television never left him as he maneuvered through the theater scene in New York.

After years of stage acting, he decided to move to Los Angeles to focus on film and television – and work behind the camera. “I felt like that was the next evolution of my craft,” Smith said. Soon after arriving in Los Angeles a few years ago, he hooked up with fellow St. Louisan Reesha Archibald. She has served as a producer on three of his films – including “Daddy’s Big Girl.” He has created three shorts, has a documentary about production and is working on his first fulllength feature narrative film since he added filmmaking to his creative mix.

“I’m living my dream,” Smith said. “Sometimes it’s hard and sometimes it’s a struggle. There are ups and downs. But what I can say is that I’m always happy. I get to make a living making art, both as an actor and telling the stories I want to tell as a director. That’s what allows me to keep a smile on my face.”

Smith’s film “About That…” is available for purchase on iTunes and he can be reached via social media @damiendsmith on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Celebrations

Anniversary

Byron and Renita Waters are high school sweethearts from Normandy High School and celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary on June 24. They believe God is the answer that makes their love stronger every day, and that is how they have managed to have such a long, loving marriage!

314-440-3855.

Reunions

All reunion announcements can be viewed online!

Beaumont High School Class of 1968 will celebrate its 50-year reunion June 22-24, 2018 at the Sheraton Westport Chalet, 191 Westport Plaza. For more information, please contact Vanetta Cobbs, 314869-5665 or email vanetta. cobbs@sbcglobal.net.

Beaumont High Class of 1973 will celebrate its 45-year reunion, Aug. 10-12, 2018! To register contact: Dr. Liz Franklin at, mychoice2succeed@yahoo. com or (636)293-9553. Also,

check out the BHS Facebook page.

Beaumont High Class of 1978 40th Reunion Extravaganza. Save the date: October 5-7, 2018. Call or text Marietta Shegog Shelby at 314-7995296 for further details.

Northwest Class of 1979 is planning on cruising for our 40-year 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!

Productive Futures (19842006) is planning an allgraduate reunion in July 2018. Please send your name, address and telephone number to: Productive Futures Graduates, PO Box 300322, St. Louis, MO 63130 or call

Birthdays

Happiest birthday to Jalyn Z. Braselman who will turn eight years old on June 30! You are loved by many, big boy! Your MeMaw

Happy 3rd birthday to Brandon Johnson Jr. on June 27! You are turning out just like your father and myself! Well played, karma. Well played LOL! Love Always, Mommy and Daddy

The family of Elizabeth Clark would like to wish her a happy 75th birthday on June 30! May your day be blessed and filled with joy!

Roosevelt High Class of 1968 50-year reunion is Saturday, July 7, 2018 at Schlafly Tap Room, 2100 Locust Street, 6 pm-10 pm, dinner buffet and open bar. Contact Jan Simpson for details at jsimpson@ sedeyharper.com.

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

Sumner High School Class of 1973 will have its 45-year reunion the weekend of June 22-24, 2018. More info to follow outlining the details. If you did not receive a newsletter in January, please contact Marsha Joseph-Williams (314606-8701) or Dorris SimmonsMcGhaw(314-541-2462). You can also inbox Sid S. Shurn or

Johnson

Dorris on Facebook.

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 Class of 1973 will celebrate its 45-year 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 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.

Homer G. Phillips and St. Louis Municipal School of Nursing all class reunion will be held June 22-24, 2018. All major activities will be held at the St. Louis Airport Hilton, 10330 Natural Bridge Rd, St. Louis, MO 63134. Awarding of nursing scholarships will be Saturday, June 23, at the banquet. For information please e-mail asims4@charter. net or call (314)261-2800 or (314)868-0288.

McKinley High Class of 1978 40-year reunion will take place July 27-29, 2018 at the Embassy Suites-Airport Hotel in St. Louis. Classmates from all McKinley H.S. classes are invited. Registration is required. To register, contact Barbara Lindsey, Barbara_ Lindsey@icloud.com or Marvin Woods, mwoods@ projectcontrolsgroup.com or (314) 647-0707.

FREE OF CHARGE

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

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

Brandon

Jr.

Jalyn Z. Braselman

Elizabeth Clark

Swag Snap of the Week

Alright now Ashanti. I’ll get to the bit of drama surrounding her visit in a minute, but first, let me give props for Ashanti for that show she put on Saturday night at The Pageant. People give her credit for making hits, but she has been dragged for dear life the past 15 years with opinions about her singing skills and performance capacity. If I’m keeping it real, I was low-key prepared to hate. She made that impossible after singing and dancing the stage down. I promise she came to St. Louis with something to prove. I thoroughly enjoyed it and felt bad for not giving her enough due as a performer as she twerked and twirled her way through her Murder Inc. hits. She had smoke, confetti, backup dancers (even though the high-cut, silver thong leotard was giving one of them all sorts of wardrobe malfunction) and a space-age pimpin’ hooded cape that was giving me everything. I also want to give props to NYC native Lydia Caesar for a cute little opening performance that she powered through despite a few little technical difficulties.

Ashanti’s revenge. I knew when I got wind that Nelly’s daddy, Cornell Haynes Sr was in the mix backstage at The Pageant, that it would not end well. I figured somebody would sneak a photo, it would leak and all you know what would break loose. Ashanti posting a video describing Mr. Haynes’ cat daddy suit he was wearing on the ‘gram was not the exposé I was expecting. Either way, Nelly went in on Twitter and Instagram to let the world know that he was cutting his father off financially. Now here we are days later, and folks are still going back-and-forth about Nelly putting his dad on blast for showing up there and not to his sports games or high school graduation. I’m not about to try to unpack Nelly and his father’s relationship, because that’s between them. What I will say though, is that I feel like Ashanti had at least a taste of “get back” in mind when she booked the gig. She came here to give the show of her career, get Nelly in his feelings and bounce off to the BET Awards and get about the business of living her best life. There is no longer any evidence that she was ever in St. Louis on her social channels because her work here is done. I don’t want to say that she intentionally started a family feud, or an ugly social media spat, but she knows Nelly well enough to know that he would be extremely bothered and feel betrayed by his dad showing up. And she was the one who posted about his presence. I honestly wish that the other parties involved in the drama had peeped the big picture and not given her the public display of revenge she clearly longed for – especially those who inserted themselves in the drama by jumping in against the show’s promoter. There might also be a backstory between these two, but there is a line – and saying you wish that somebody’s cancer returns and causes their death and cussing out the person’s deceased mother on Facebook definitely crosses it.

STL’s reel big win. I was glad to see Gentleman Jack bring their popular “Real to Reel” event back, but said that once again, Real to Reel spokesman Omari Hardwick didn’t visit our market. St. Louis still got a taste of what our city is producing on the cinema side when the national competition that gives emerging black filmmakers an opportunity to showcase their work came to Delmar Hall Thursday night. Hot 104.1 FM’s Princess Stormm hosted the festivities and looked super cute in her little black dress. The evening featured a handful of short films – three of them made by St. Louis natives. I’m thrilled to report that St. Louis native Damien D. Smith’s film “Daddy’s Big Girl” won Real to Reel’s top prize for 2018. That’s right y’all, best in the country for 2018. He was presented with his award (along with a nice-sized check) at this year’s American Black Film Festival in Miami. Fellow St. Louis native Reesha Archibald was a producer for the film. Those who stopped by Real to Real got a chance to see the film – and hear Damien and fellow filmmaker David Kirkman discuss their journey in filmmaking. Kirkman was named the local Real to Reel winner for his sizzle reel for his soon to be finished film “Static.”

Tony Rock had me rolling. By now y’all know I ride for Tony Rock like nobody’s business. I’m used to seeing him do 20 minutes on a nine comic-deep urban revue tour – and he almost always impressed me with that little sip of funny over the course of an exhaustingly long lineup. He proved himself to be the total comedy package at Helium. So much so that I forgave him for that bomber jacket made from that “Memoirs of a Geisha” dress material. He rehashed some of his regular material, but gave new layers of laughter with additional context. That fresh bit about him getting locked up as a passenger because of his friend’s DUI had me hollering. I also got a chance to see that he’s funny off-the-cuff too! He started acting like he was quoting Scripture and started reciting the lyrics to “Can You Stand The Rain.” I all but died when the folks all joined in as the New Edition choir – and the general population in the crowd did not have a clue as to what was happening. He then took a moment to break it down at their expense. “How do they all know this song? He must be their leader.” I thought they were going to have to start singing “Going Up Yonder” and hold my memorial service right afterwards.

Praises due to PJ Morton. Angel Shields has been cutting up with her “A Night of Soul Searching” shows. The Hamiltones tore the roof off of BBs last time and Grammy nominated PJ Morton put his foot into his set at The Ready Room. Even before he got started “The Voice” finalist Tish Haynes-Keys threw down with a medley of my favorite hits from the 1990s. It was absolute life. CJ Jefferson, the latest talented St. Louisan to join the lineup of The Temptations, had intros and interludes longer than his songs – but he still got it in and the crowd was pleased. He got my attention when he hit those Eric Benet notes. I was a wreck when I heard them start “Sometimes I Cry,” because that’s what the singer usually ends up doing instead of singing. But CJ did that. And I could talk for hours about PJ Morton left the stage smoking – and St. Louis’ musicians and singers in the crowd joined in on the harmonies of those sangin’ background duo and blew PJ Away.

BJ with comedian Tony Rock following the Friday night show of his hilarious weekend run @ Helium Comedy Club

R&B veteran Ashanti delivered a stellar performance for her STL return Saturday night at The Pageant. The concert was presented by Clark Wilson Ent. and Orlando Watson’s Rockhouse

Tastemakers T-Luv, NuNu and Dano celebrated their birthdays together Saturday night @ Dos Salas

Pat Precise and his lovely wife Tamika caught Ashanti @ The Pageant Saturday night

Filmmaker Damien D. Smith was shown hometown love by cousins Paris and Cory who caught ‘Daddy’s Big Girl’@ Real to Reel @Thursday @ Delmar Hall

Marcello and Royalty in the mix for #PridefestSTL Saturday afternoon @ Soldier’s Memorial

Fashion designers Sherell and Afton were just a few of the movers and shakers who stopped through Dos Salas Saturday night

Beauties Cynthia and Kiara stopped by the Ready Room Sunday night to check out Grammy nominated singer/songwriter P.J. Morton

Marika and Heather served high fashion fabulousness when they stopped by The Pageant to check out Ashanti Saturday night

Radio One STL’s Raven and Princess Stormm were on deck for the Real to Reel Showcase Thursday @ Delmar Hall

‘The Voice’ finalist Tish Haynes-Keys brought the heat as an opener for P.J. Morton @ A Night of Soul Searching Sunday @ The Ready Room

The Gatesworth is HIRING

Overnight Security Officer

Evening/Weekend Receptionist

SEEKING - NORTHWOODS POLICE CHIEF

The candidate for Northwoods Police Chief should be a career professional with at least five years of street patrol and administrative experience combined. He/She is required to provide administrative support to the Mayor and CityAdministrator and guide the development of the PoliceAccreditation process to completion. Aminimum of anAssociate College Degree is also required. The candidate should be able to plan, direct and supervise daily activities, projects and operation of the Police Dept. Salary and essential detailed duties will be discussed during interviews. This position is full time with benefits. Applications should be picked up at the Northwoods Police Dept.4608 Oakridge Blvd.-Northwoods, Missouri 63121. Return completed application w/your resume, Attn: Mayor-Rev. Everett R. Thomas at the address above.

CHIEF DIVERSITY OFFICER

Webster University has an opening for a Chief Diversity Officer. Please visit our website at https://webster.peopleadmin.com/ for a complete job description. No phone calls please.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity affirmative action employer. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply.

POLICE OFFICER

LATERALENTRY

City ofAlton, IL

Must have been a full-time Police Officer

See website for further requirements and link to online application www.cityofaltonil.com/careers

Deadline for applications: July 31, 2018

after 1 year. Apply at 500 S. Brentwood Blvd 63105. Call 314-725-4500

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition has several employment opportunities. For more information, go to www.foster-adopt.org/employment.

LICENSED CLINICAL THERAPIST

Serving women who are young, pregnant and homeless, The Haven of Grace provides a safe, nurturing home, educational programs and long-term support for mother and child. Founded in faith, we instill hope, dignity and the pride of independence, one family at a time. The Haven of Grace is seeking a Licensed Clinical Therapist to join our dynamic team. For more information or to apply visit: http://havenofgracestl.org/contact/ employment-opportunities/ EOE

HOMEBUYER PROGRAM MANAGER

ACCOUNTANT

Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting and at least 3 years of experience in corporate or public accounting. Skill with complex financial reconciliation, proficient in modern financial accounting principles and practices. Ability to analyze problems develop alternatives and in developing and implementing effective strategies; general ledger analysis and the preparation of financial statements and conducting internal audits of various accounting functions. Starting Salary $49,789 Annually. Apply or send resume to: St. Louis Housing Authority, HR Division, 3520 Page Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63106 by 5p, June 29, 2018 via website www.slha. org or email athomas@slha.org. A Drug Free Work Place/EOE.

Door Attendant & Concierge Car Wash Attendant Day & Evening Housekeeping Days, Evenings, and Overnights Please send your resume to recruiting@thegatesworth.com. State of MissouriDepartment of Mental Health Direct Care Openings Great Benefits! South County and St.

The Housing Partnership, Inc. has an immediate opening for a Program Manager. Responsible for the management, administration and strategic direction of the 1st Time Homebuyer Program. For a full job description go to www.thehousingpartnershipstl.org

Please submit a cover letter, resume and three references to The Housing Partnership,Inc., P.O. Box 16356 St. Louis, Missouri 63125 or via email to Patricia@thehousingpartnershipstl.org. An Equal Opportunity Employer

CITY

ADMINISTRATOR

City of Pagedale is seeking an experienced full time CityAdministrator. Annual salary $40,000.00. Send resume to City Clerk, 1420 Ferguson Pagedale, MO. 63133

EXPLORE ST. LOUIS

DIRECTOR OF CONVENTION SERVICES

Explore St. Louis is the official destination marketing organization responsible for selling St. Louis City and St. Louis County as a convention and meeting site and as

travel destination. Explore St. Louis works to attract citywide conventions, one-hotel meetings,

events, group tours and individual leisure travelers to St. Louis. More than 700 local and regional businesses are partners with Explore St. Louis. Explore St. Louis is seeking a Director of Convention Services to direct and coordinate the activities of the Convention Services Department which is responsible for familiarizing meeting planners with the St. Louis area, hospitality industry and local hospitality suppliers to assist planners with their meeting or convention in St. Louis. This position requires working successfully with representatives from various hospitality industry organizations. Also managing a team of 6 within the department. The ideal candidate will have knowledge of the City’s tourism, hospitality and convention business. Managerial experience. Must possess exceptional presentation & interpersonal skills; including verbal + written communication proficiencies. Excellent customer service, organization and planning skills. Ability to work a flexible schedule is necessary; including evenings, weekends and holidays. Must be able to maintain a valid driver’s license. Travel may also be required with this position. Bachelor’s degree from a four-year college or university in a related field or five to seven years related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience. To apply applicants will need to go online to www.explorestlouis.com click the “About Us” link at the top of the page and then click “Job Opportunities & Internships. NO PHONE CALLS! EOE.

The Brentwood School District seeks to hire the following position

FT Day Maintenance Technician 7am-3pm or 8am-4:30pm

• High school diploma or GED strongly preferred; Post-secondary trade or vocational school certificate preferred.

• Minimum 2 years verifiable experience in maintenance required.

• School maintenance experience preferred.

• Stable long-term employment with same employer preferred.

• Knowledge of all areas of building maintenance, including electrical, HVAC, plumbing, electrical and all general building maintenance duties preferred.

• Must have a valid driver’s license and reliable transportation.

• Must provide own tools.

Terms of Employment

• 12-month, full-time position.

• Board paid medical, dental, and vision for employee.

• As a condition of employment, all new hires will be required to complete a FBI, State Highway Patrol and Children’s Division of the Department of Social Services background check. Visit the following website for to apply: www.brentwoodmoschools.org Click on the Human Resources tab at the top of the page. Deadline is 11 p.m., Thursday, July 5, 2018. Only online applications are accepted. If you have applied previously you will need to reapply. Please No Phone Calls. EOE.

Public Notice of Single Source Procurement

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is proposing to procure: MAXIMO Software Licenses. The District is proposing single source procurement to IBM for this service because the District is currently using licenses but are in need of additional licenses. Any inquiries should be sent to ameyer@stlmsd.com.

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

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS

Sealed bids for 2017 West County ITS Segments, St. Louis County Project No. AR-1644, will be received at the Office of the Director of Procurement for the County of St. Louis, County Government Center Administration Building, 41 South Central Avenue, 8th Floor, Clayton, Missouri 63105, until 2:00 p.m. on July 18, 2018.

Plans and specifications will be available on June 25, 2018 from the St. Louis County Web Site (www.stlouisco.com), or by contacting County Blue Reprographics, Inc., 1449 Strassner Drive, St. Louis, Missouri 63144, (314) 961-3800.

DIRECTOR OF PROCUREMENT AND ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES ST. LOUIS, COUNTY

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS

Notice is hereby given that The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (District) will receive sealed bids for Yale Ave at Bruno Ave Combined Sewer (IR) under Letting No. 12774-015.1, at this office, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63103, until 02:00 PM on Tuesday, July 31, 2018, at a place designated. Bids will be received only from companies that are pre-qualified by the District’s Engineering Department for: SEWER CONSTRUCTION – St. Louis County drainlayer’s license required Plans and Specifications are available for free electronic download. Please go to MSD’s website and look for a link to “ELECTRONIC PLANROOM.” 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 Equal Opportunity Employer.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

The America’s Center is seeking proposals from qualified companies to provide an upgrade path for its Nortel Networks Meridian 1 telephone switch. Requests for Proposals are available between Monday, July 2 and Friday, July 13, 2018 by contacting Alan Van Bevern, 314.992.0672 or via email at avanbevern@explorestlouis.com. Mandatory proposal conference July 18, 2018 at 10:00 am CDT. Proposals are due by Friday, July 27, 2018 at 4:00 pm CDT. America’s Center reserves the right to reject any or all proposals. EOE

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS

Sealed bids for Summit Road CRS Overlay, St. Louis County Project No. CR-1575, will be received at the Office of the Director of Procurement for the County of St. Louis, County Government Center Administration Building, 41 South Central Avenue, 8th Floor, Clayton, Missouri 63105 until 2:00 p.m. on July 18, 2018.

Plans and specifications will be available on June 25, 2018 from the St. Louis County Web Site (www.stlouisco.com), or by contacting County Blue Reprographics, Inc., 1449 Strassner Drive, St. Louis, Missouri 63144, (314) 961-3800.

DIRECTOR OF PROCUREMENT AND ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES ST. LOUIS, COUNTY

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 July 20, 2018 for: CARBON MEDIA REPLACEMENT. This 9449 RFQ will be an accelerated project. Please check the 9449 RFQ for additional dates, and times. 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 9449 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.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

The St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission is seeking proposals from qualified companies to provide Copier Management/ Print Management/Resource Center Services. Requests for Proposals are available between Thursday, June 28 and Friday, July 13, 2018 by contacting Alan Van Bevern, 314.992.0672 or via email at avanbevern@explorestlouis.com. Walk thru visits are available from July 16-20, 2018. Proposals are due by Friday, July 27, 2018 at 4:00 pm CST. The St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission reserves the right to reject any or all proposals. EOE

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS

Notice is hereby given that The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (District) will receive sealed bids for Towne South and Brunston I/I Reduction (Ambs Rd and Towne Centre Dr) under Letting No. 12235-015.1, at this office, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63103, until 02:00 PM on Wednesday, August 01, 2018, at a place designated. Bids will be received only from companies that are pre-qualified by the District’s Engineering Department for: SEWER CONSTRUCTION – St. Louis County drainlayer’s license required Plans and Specifications are available for free electronic download. Please go to MSD’s website and look for a link to “ELECTRONIC PLANROOM.” 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 Equal Opportunity Employer.

St. Louis Treatment Court 22nd Judicial Circuit City of St. Louis, Missouri

Request for Proposals

The St. Louis Treatment Court is seeking proposals for the following opportunity to work with participants of the St. Louis Adult Drug Court and/or Veteran Treatment Court: • Case Manager RFP-FY18-07 A copy of the Request for Proposals can be obtained by writing to: Treatment Court Administrator, Room 526, 1114 Market St., St. Louis, Missouri 63101 or calling 314-589-6702 for a mail out copy. Interested providers may obtain the proposal specifications by accessing www.stlcitycircuitcourt.com on that website click on Drug Court to find the RFP. Proposals should be submitted no later than 4 p.m. on August 15, 2018 in Room 526, 1114 Market St., St. Louis, Missouri 63101.

CITY OF ST. LOUIS

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL FOR TEMPORARY STAFFING SERVICES

The City of St. Louis (City), by and through the Department of Personnel, is seeking proposals for the provision of temporary staffing services. The City plans to enter into a two-year contract for these services beginning approximately September 1, 2018, with a provision to extend the contract(s) for an additional two one year periods, upon written agreement of the parties. The contract(s) will be subject to termination by the City upon thirty (30) days written notice with or without cause and without penalty, damage or forfeiture. The temporary staffing services will be provided directly to the operating departments of the City.

Requests for proposals may be downloaded from the City of St. Louis website at: https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/ government/departments/personnel/documents/ temporary-staffing-services-rfp.cfm

The proposals must be delivered to the Department of Personnel on or before 4:00 p.m. Central Daylight Time, July 27, 2018. Proposals may be hand delivered or mailed to: Department of Personnel, Recruitment and Examination Section, Attention: Bryan Boeckelmann, 1114 Market Street, Room 700, St. Louis, Missouri 63101-2043

Public Notice of Single Source Procurement

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is proposing to procure: Accela Civic Cloud Hosting. The District is proposing single source procurement to Accela for this service because the annual renewal of cloud hosting is due. Any inquiries should be sent to ameyer@stlmsd.com.

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

Public Notice of Single Source Procurement

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is proposing to procure: On-line Property Quote Applications (TITLE QUOTE). The District is proposing single source procurement to Amitech Solutions Inc for this service because the application was developed by Amitech Solutions Inc. Any inquiries should be sent to ameyer@stlmsd.com.

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

METROPOLITAN ST. LOUIS

DISTRICT

SEWER

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is accepting proposals in the Purchasing Division, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63103-2555 until 10:00 a.m. on July 24th, 2018 to contract with a company for: Janitorial Services for DEC. 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 9437 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.

SEALED BIDS

for

Replace Shingle

R o o f S y s t e m s , P o p l a r B l u f f Regional Office, Poplar Bluff, MO, Project No. M180901 will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, 7/26/2018. For specific project information and ordering plans, go to: http://oa.mo. gov/ facilities

SEALED BIDS

for R e p l a c e Vi n y l Flooring, Poplar Bluff Regional Office, Poplar Bluff, MO, Project No. M1812-01 will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, 7/26/2018. For specific project information and ordering plans, go to: http://oa.mo. gov/

METROPOLITAN ST. LOUIS

SEWER DISTRICT 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 July 25, 2018 to contract with a company for: IBM Spectrum Protect Software.

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 9435 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.

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS

Sealed bids for Lucas-Hunt Road (South) ARS Infrastructure project, St. Louis County Project No. AR-1586, will be received at the Office of the Director of Procurement for the County of St. Louis, County Government Center Administration Building, 41 South Central Avenue, 8th Floor, Clayton, Missouri 63105, until 2:00 p.m. on July 18, 2018

Plans and specifications will be available on June 25, 2018 from the St. Louis County Web Site (www.stlouisco.com), or by contacting County Blue Reprographics, Inc., 1449 Strassner Drive, St. Louis, Missouri 63144, (314) 961-3800.

DIRECTOR OF PROCUREMENT AND ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES ST. LOUIS, COUNTY

Public Notice of Single Source Procurement Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is proposing to procure: SAP Business Objects Software. The District is proposing single source procurement to SAP for this service because the application meets the Consent Decree requirements for reporting to the EPA. Any inquiries should be sent to ameyer@stlmsd.com.

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

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS

Sealed bids for 2017 Southwest County ITS Segments, St. Louis County Project No. AR-1646, will be received at the Office of the Director of Procurement for the County of St. Louis, County Government Center Administration Building, 41 South Central Avenue, 8th Floor, Clayton, Missouri 63105, until 2:00 p.m. on July 18, 2018

SEALED BIDS

for CRoof Replacement, Kirksville Regional Office, Kirksville, Missouri, Project N o . M 1 7 0 6 - 0 1 will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, July 12, 2018. For specific project information and ordering plans, go to: http://oa.mo. gov/ facilities

NOTICE OF NUISANCE HEARING

Please take notice that pursuant to City of Berkeley Municipal Code Section 505.080 the Building Commissioner of the City of Berkeley, Missouri will hold a public hearing on July 10, 2018, at 1:00 PM, in the Berkeley City Hall, 8425 Airport Rd, Berkeley Missouri 63134, to determine whether the following structure is a public nuisance and detrimental to the health, safety or welfare of the residents of the City of Berkeley Missouri.

THE STRUCTURE DESCRIBED BELOW HAS BEEN DECLARED A DANGEROUS BUILDING:

The one story single family dwelling known and numbered as 8432 St. Olaf Dr, on Lot 26, Berkeley Frostwood Park, a subdivision in St. Louis County, Missouri according to the plat thereof recorded in Plat Book 22408 Page 773 of the St. Louis County Records.

The one story single family dwelling known and numbered as 8550 Frost Avenue, Lot 364, Frostwood Park, Plat 10, subdivision in St. Louis County, Missouri according to the plat thereof recorded in Plat Book 18193 Page 3435 of the St. Louis County Records.

The one story single family dwelling known and numbered as 8466 Bayberry Dr on Lot 220, Frostwood Plat 9, a subdivision in St. Louis County, Missouri according to the plat thereof recorded in Plat Book 18144 Page 1804 of the St. Louis County Records.

The one story single family dwelling known and numbered as 8046 Aline Dr, on Block 2, Lot 6 Berkeley Orchards, a subdivision in St. Louis County, Missouri according to the plat thereof recorded in Plat Book 07857 Page 0302 of the St. Louis County Records.

The one story single family dwelling known and numbered as 8055 Aline Drive, on Lot 24, Berkeley Orchards, a subdivision in St. Louis County, Missouri, according to the plat thereof recorded in Plat Book 20086 Page 4400 of the St. Louis County Records.

The one story single family dwelling known and numbered as 6127 Wulff, on lot 24, Berkeley Orchards Add, a subdivision in St. Louis County, Missouri according to the plat thereof recorded in Plat Book 17700 Page 5424 of the St. Louis County Records.

The one story single family dwelling known and numbered as 8322 Fay, on Lot 25, Nordell Hills, a subdivision in St. Louis County, Missouri according to the plat thereof recorded in Plat Book 17130 Page 1610 of the St. Louis County Records.

The one story single family dwelling known and numbered as 6013 Evergreen Ave, on Lot 13, Kinloch Park, a subdivision in St. Louis County, Missouri according to the plat thereof recorded in Plat Book 06618 Page 0238 of the St. Louis County Records.

The one story single family dwelling known and numbered as 6057 Hancock, Block 22, LOT 36, Berkeley Orchards 2Nd Addition, subdivision in St. Louis County, Missouri according to the plat thereof recorded in Plat Book 07013 Page 0023 of the St. Louis County Records.

The one story single family dwelling known and numbered as 6745 St Olaf, LOT 418, Frostwood Plat 10, subdivision in St. Louis County, Missouri according to the plat thereof recorded in Plat Book 17913 Page 624 of the St. Louis County Records.

All owners, heirs, interested parties, affected parties may be represented by counsel and shall have an opportunity to be heard. After the hearing, if the evidence supports a finding that the structure is a nuisance and detrimental to the health, safety or welfare of the residents of the City of Berkeley, the Building Commissioner and/or Hearing Officer will order the structure to be demolished and removed.

Individuals with disabilities who need reasonable accommodation to participate should contact Deanna Jones, City Clerk by phone at 314-524-3133, or email: cityclerk@ci.berkeley.mo.us in advance.

By Order of the Building Commissioner

MWBE/DBE PreBid Meeting Notice

The SITE Improvement Association is hosting a Prebid meeting for Qualified and Certified MWBE contractors to discuss working on MSD’s Webster Groves Trunk E Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation and I/I Reduction Phase III Contract Letting No. 11677-015.1

This meeting is being held on behalf of the following SITE contractor member: Fred M. Luth & Sons, Inc. 4516 McRee Ave. St. Louis, MO 63110 314/771-3892

The meeting will take place at 10:00 a.m. July 10, 2018

SITE Improvement Association 0ffice, 2071 Exchange Drive St. Charles, MO 63303

Project plans are available from MSD. For questions regarding this prebid meeting, Contact the SITE Improvement Association office at 314/966-2950.

NOTICE OF AUCTION

The following people are in debt to Gateway Storage Mall of Belleville, Columbia, & Dupo. The contents of their storage unit(s) will be sold at auction to compensate all or part of that debt. Auction will be held on site with Jersey County Auctions on June 21, 2018 at 10:00 am. A cash deposit will be REQUIRED for all winning bids. Units Bel. D03 – Changa Jones, Bel. F02/23 – David Stahl, Bel. A14 – Allen Klingelhoefer, Bel. F22 - Leeah Meeks, Bel. B05 –JaNerra Carson-Slaughter, Bel. B11 – Drew Elbe, Bel. 101 – Cecelie Holmes, Bel. 636 – Daryl Jones (Jules Johansen), Bel. 406 Rachael Hettenhausen, Bel. 638 – Michael Yakich, Bel. 510 – Reginal Rowery, Bel. 614 and 615 – Gwen Lasenby, Bel. 319 – Tameka Lilton, Col. 11 – Jamie Hurst, Col. 30 – Brian Killingsworth, Dupo 85 – Dee Jerashen, Dupo 57 and 92 – Steven Dengler, Dupo 28 –Mark Howard, Dupo 205 - Will Leroy, Dupo 117 & 118 – Kevin Mitchell, Dupo 139 – Aubrey Murden Dupo 65 – Jennifer Goforth, Dupo 70 – Mark Ratterman. For all rules, regulations and bidding process, contact Jersey County Auctions. All other questions, please call 618-421-4022 or mail PO Box 81, Dupo, IL 62239.

CITY OF ST. LOUIS

BOARD OF PUBLIC SERVICE

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS for PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FOR EVALUATION OF THE LAMBERT INTERNATIONAL BOULEVARD BRIDGE OVER COLD WATER

CREEK AT ST. LOUIS LAMBERT

INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. Statements of Qualifications due by 5:00 PM CT, June 29, 2018 at Board of Public Service, 1200 Market, Room 301 City Hall, St. Louis, MO 63103. RFQ may be obtained from BPS website www.stl-bps.org, under On Line Plan Room-Plan Room, or call Board of Public Service at 314-622-3535. 25% MBE and 5% WBEparticipation goals.

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS

Sealed bids for Clayton Road – ARS Infrastructure, St. Louis County Project No. AR-1674, will be received at the Office of the Director of Procurement for the County of St. Louis, County Government Center Administration Building, 41 South Central Avenue, 8th Floor, Clayton, Missouri 63105, until 2:00 p.m. on May 30, 2018.

Plans and specifications will be available on May 7, 2018 from the St. Louis County Web Site (www.stlouisco.com), or by contacting County Blue Reprographics, Inc., 1449 Strassner Drive, St. Louis, Missouri 63144, (314) 961-3800.

DIRECTOR OF PROCUREMENT AND ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES ST. LOUIS, COUNTY

ADVERTISE YOUR BIDS, PUBLIC NOTICES, NAME CHANGE CALL ANGELITA AT 314-2895430

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

The Missouri Historical Society is seeking RFP bids to implement a wellness platform. Please visit http://mohistory.org/about/ requests-for-proposal/ for details. Deadline for bids: July 13, 2018 An Equal Opportunity Employer

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS

Notice is hereby given that The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (District) will receive sealed bids for Dickens Avenue #470 Storm Sewer under Letting No. 11299-015.1, at this office, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63103, until 02:00 PM on Wednesday, July 25, 2018, at a place designated.

Bids will be received only from companies that are pre-qualified by the District’s Engineering Department for: SEWER CONSTRUCTION – St. Louis County drainlayer’s license required Plans and Specifications are available for free electronic download. Please go to MSD’s website and look for a link to “ELECTRONIC PLANROOM.” 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 Equal Opportunity Employer.

Local gospel singer performs with Gladys Knight in historic Mormon gala

Nekisha Rhodes sings in historic ‘Be One’ ceremony in Salt Lake City

By Rosalynde Welch

For The St. Louis American

Swaying in a tribal-inspired crimson robe as her voice crested a wave of gospel music, Nekisha Rhodes looked as if she might levitate in spiritual ecstasy. Celebrity gospel singer Gladys Knight stood in front of the gospel choir leading a soaring rendition of Kirk Franklin’s anthem

“More Than I Can Bear.” Rhodes, a St Louis native, felt right at home in the multi-racial choir singing the music that has strengthened her soul since she was a little girl reading the Bible on her own in a corner of her St. Louis home.

But on the evening of June 1, Rhodes was more than a thousand miles from home, in the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Behind the brightly colored choir rose the iconic pipes of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s organ. Rhodes, a Mormon since 2007, had made the flight from St. Louis to Salt Lake City to join with Gladys Knight, Alex Boyé, and other high-profile African-American Mormons for an historic celebration at the LDS Church headquarters.

The event, a gala evening known as “Be One,” thrilled its sold-out audience with scintillating music and dramatic performances celebrating the history and contributions of Mormons of African descent during the church’s 188 years of existence. June 1 marked the fortieth anniversary of the LDS Church’s policy change in 1978, which extended the full

range of church blessings – including ordination to the lay priesthood for men, and initiation in the temple rites for men and women – to Mormons of African descent around the world.

And tonight, for the first time, the central gathering space of the Mormon religion rang with the sounds of African and African-American music and drumming, art, dance, imagery, and language. It was historic indeed.

But for Rhodes, it was far more than a history lesson. “It was unity,” she said. “It was just unity. We were one. We really were one. I just wept. The girls next to me just grabbed my hands as we sang and we just cried. It was just beautiful.”

Rhodes’s journey to Salt Lake City encompassed more than a three-hour Southwest flight. Growing up, Rhodes didn’t attend

church with her family. Her home was often chaotic, and young Nekisha would find solace reading the Bible on her own. When her mother remarked that she was always reading scripture, Nekisha proclaimed, “I wanna be a gospel singer!” Her spiritual attraction to the Christian gospel was a constant in her life. “It was always in my heart,” she said. “It was placed there by God.” But life was messy. After giving birth to a daughter, Rhodes, now a single mother, knew she needed to search for God in earnest. She joined a friendly Baptist church, where she sang gospel as she had always dreamed. She credits that church with her first spiritual awakening. One Sunday, she said, “the pastor was talking about new wine in old wineskins. From the bottom of my feet

St. Louis native Nekisha Rhodes (first row, fourth from left), a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, sang with Gladys Knight’s choir of church members on June 1 in the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City. The choir performed in the same seats at the historic Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Despite questioning from her pastor, Rhodes pursued her spiritual investigation. She learned of the Mormon church’s complicated history of race relations. Though church founder Joseph Smith ordained black men to the young church’s priesthood in its first decades, subsequent leaders stopped the practice, citing racist Bible interpretations common in America around the Civil War. For most of the twentieth century, blacks were baptized into the Mormon church and worshiped on Sundays with white members, but could not be ordained to the priesthood or pursue the higher religious rites available in the church’s temples. Forty years ago, in 1978, that practice stopped, and blacks and Africans around the world could once again participate fully in LDS religious rites.

While this history left Rhodes confused, she couldn’t deny the feeling that she should join the LDS congregation she had visited. She questioned God. “You call me, Lord,” she said she heard in her heart. “You’re going to go back whether you understand or not.”

to the top of my head, I knew from that moment my heart was open. I woke up, I was another person. I knew I was different.”

Several years later, intrigued by a television ad promising that “families can be forever,” Rhodes sought more information. When she found that the ad came from the Mormon church, she was surprised – but something inside pushed her to learn more.

“God, I don’t want to push this off just because it’s different. I’ll visit,” she prayed. One Sunday morning she hesitantly visited the mostly white Mormon congregation on McPherson Avenue. Feeling out of place, she sat down in an empty pew. “I felt as if I had a million Peppermint Patties through my entire body,” she said. “I knew that it was the Holy Spirit. I knew it was God.”

In the years since her baptism into the Mormon church, Rhodes has developed deep friendships in the racially diverse congregation she attends. She has served in many different capacities, working with teen girls and adults, teaching and organizing and leading. And singing. Always singing. She has been invited to sing at Mormon events around the region, bringing her gospel style with her to meetinghouses that have long been accustomed to the staid traditional hymnal rather than the rousing energy of gospel music. For many Mormons, black and white, this is a welcome change. The hunger for diversity and energy in Mormon worship services is growing, and black members like Rhodes are breaking new cultural ground in Mormon meetinghouses like hers in St Louis.