Chicago Crusader 04/05/14 E-Edition

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Blacks Must Control Their Own Community

To The Unconquerable Host of Africans Who Are Laying Their Sacrifices Upon The Editorial Altar For Their Race AUDITED BY

VOLUME LXXIII NUMBER 50—SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 2014

•C•P•V•S•

PUBLISHED SINCE 1940

25 Cents and worth more

Anybody, but Rahm group looks for 100,000 voters

By Glenn Reedus Approximately 10 months ago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced 50 Chicago public schools would be closed.

His announcement was immediately followed by whispers that Chicago could not afford for the former North Side congressman to be re-elected as mayor. Now, those whispers are morphing into a full-blown movement whose theme is: Anybody, but Rahm.

Recently, a cadre of political operatives met at a South Side restaurant and declared their first step in dethroning Emanuel involves registering 100,000 Chicagoans to vote in next year’s elections.

The strategy is a major departure from the one used four years ago when a contingent of African-American activists called on the Black community to get behind a consensus candidate. That movement resulted in public squabbles; the withdrawal of some of the potential Black candidates; and former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun making a dismal showing—not winning a single Black ward.

William “Dock” Walls, one of the six candidates in 2011 and an organizer in the Anybody, but Rahm drive noted, “This time, we are looking for the best candidate – be that person Black, Hispanic or Asian.”

Rahm Emanuel Walls, former aide to the late Mayor Harold Washington, revealed the goal is to force a runoff in the mayor’s race by preventing the incumbent from getting less than 50 percent of the vote in the primary.

A linchpin in that project is reaching out and registering 100,000 new voters, including engaging the young voters, especially the 17-year-olds, who were just given legislative clearance to vote for the March 18 primary.

“Not only do we want to register them, we want them to work the polling places and help get out the vote,” stated Walls.

Fewer than 3,600, 17-year-old Chicagoans registered to vote in the recent gubernatorial election, in part, because there was no concerted voter registration drive targeting that demographic.

Bruce Crosby, another of the yet-to-benamed organization’s founding members, said the recent meeting attracted about 100 people, including some candidates from the 2011 mayoral election, potential challengers to Emanuel in next year’s race, as well as some potential aldermanic candidates. Other organizers include Crosby’s brother, William, and Lionel Nixon.

The tone of this meeting was opposite of a series of town hall meetings prior to the February 2011 election, which put Emanuel in office.

During those meetings, hundreds of people opined about selecting a consensus candidate from the Black community to run against Emanuel.

In the sea of candidates, which included Gery Chico, chairman of the Illinois State Board of Education, and Miguel del Valle, former Chicago City Clerk, former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun emerged as the consensus Black candidate. Walls and current Illinois State Sen. Patricia Van Pelt

William “Dock” Walls Watkins (D-5) were on the ballot as well.

None of the three Black candidates won a single ward in 2011. Other than Moseley Braun’s second place showing in the 21st Ward where she garnered 3,698 or 23.21 percent of the vote, none of the Black candidates netted 5 percent in any ward. None of those candidates won any of the Black wards: 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 24, (Continued on page 2)

Urban League report cites growing disparity in wealth

By George E. Curry NNPA Editor-in-Chief WASHINGTON (NNPA) – The wealth gap between African Americans and whites has expanded in recent years and is not likely to narrow without significant reductions in Black unemployment and changes in a system that favors the wealthy over poor and middle class Americans, according to the National Urban League’s 38th annual State of Black America report titled, “One Nation Underemployed: Jobs Rebuild America.”

The report was released during an April 3 news conference at the National Press Club in the nation’s capital. In a statement accompanying the report, Marc H. Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, said: “The 2014 State of Black America and corresponding Equality Index indicate that while each state and city has its own economic recovery story to tell, the

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Marc H. Morial

The Day Democracy Died In Chicago

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consistent refrain is that there is an urgent and growing disparity between the few who are reaping the rewards of economic recovery and the majority who are still reeling from aftershocks of the Great Recession.”

Morial added, “While ‘too big to fail’ corporations went into the bail-out emergency room and recovered to break earnings and stock market records, most Americans have been left in ICU with multiple diagnoses of unemployment, underemployment, home losses and foreclosures, low or no savings and retirement accounts, credit denials, and cuts in education and school funding.

We must work to restore the very essence of 20th century America – the possibility of upward mobility for all – with a focus on meaningful solutions to these pressing challenges, including job creation and training, and ensuring that Americans are paid livable wages for the work they do.”

The 2014 Equality Index is a yardstick used to measure how well African Americans are doing relative to whites. In computing the Equality Index, 30 percent of (Continued on page 3)

NEWS

Park Renamed for Homicide Victim

By Wendell Hutson A proposed park renaming is the latest honor for slain teenager Hadiya Pendleton, who was shot and killed last January a few blocks away from President Barack Obama’s Hyde Park home.

The 15-year-old King College Prep student was murdered while sitting in the Vivian Gordon Harsh Park, 4458 S. Oakenwald Ave., with some friends after school.

KING COLLEGE PREP STUDENT Hadiya Pendleton was shot and killed January 2013 while sitting in a South Side park with friends.

Alderman Pat Dowell (3rd) recently made her proposal to rename Buckthorn Park, 4345 S. Calumet Ave., to the Chicago Park District.

City officials plan to solicit pro-

posal from developers for new commercial and residential projects for six lots adjacent to the 43rd Street Green Line station.So now is a good time to propose neighborhood projects like the park renaming, said Dowell.

“A lot of the economic energy right now is around 22nd Street, Michigan Avenue and State Street,” she said. “We’re trying to connect to that activity in the South Loop.”

Hadiya’s mom, Cleopatra CowleyPendleton, said she was grateful to Dowell for her park proposal.

“I think it’s a phenomenal gesture to have the park named after our daughter,” said Cowley-Pendleton.

The Chicago Park District and Dowell are also proposing a $1.2 million expansion of the small park.

Erika Sellke, a project manager from the park district, said the city would transfer nearly two acres on Calumet just south of the 43rd Street Green Line Station. She said the community could decide what amenities it would like to see at the park, including adding an area for dogs, a spray pool for children and a walking path.

Essie Banks, a project manager for the city’s Department of Housing and Economic Development, said there are no set guidelines yet for what the city will solicit from developers, but said it will likely search for projects that are a mix of retail and residential that can take advantage of the Green Line station.

THE VIVIAN HARSH PARK is where teenager Hadiya Pendleton was shot and killed last January.

The park, 4458 S. Oakenwald Ave., is less than two miles from President Barack Obama’s Hyde Park home.

According to Rucker, there are The city is still in the process of Dowell said she had held off on expanding the park until nuisances purchasing the former liquor store more whites living in Bronzeville toaround the now-shuttered Calumet and another vacant lot and will issue day than 20 years ago.

“But that didn’t stop the killings Food and Liquors, 315 E. 43rd St., a request for proposals in about six that still take place around here,” months, according to Banks. were under control.

Bronzeville residents said they sup- Rucker added. “Dedicating a park Calumet Food and Liquors was to a homicide victim is something I closed in late 2012 for building code port the park’s renaming.

“I think it is cool to rename the think the park district should do for violations and the city is currently in negotiations to purchase the proper- park after Hadiya,” said Sheila every innocent, young person killed Woodson. “She was a pretty little on our streets.” ty, added Banks. girl. I hate that some fool killed her.”

Banks said there are no set guideAnd Alvin Rucker, who has lived in Bronzeville for 27 years, said the lines yet for what the city will solicit community has changed dramati- from developers, but said it will likeM. Daley’s last two terms, and cally since the 1990s “when it began ly search for projects that are a mix throughout Emanuel’s tenure, the its transformation to a middle-class of retail and residential that can take advantage of the Green Line station. use of Tax Increment Finance area.”

(TIF) funds has been controversial.

Walls’ assessment of the program is the tax dollars captured within a TIF district do not stay in the district as the legislation intended, and are transferred to neighboring areas, which is how funding for The wife of a West Side pas- her purse. “I handed it over Millennium Park and the protor and activist said her prevail- right away,” she added. “I posed DePaul University arena got ing thought was “wondering know I woke up the neighbors put into place. He described it as whether this would be my last with my screams,” Mrs. Hatch “rampant abuse” of TIF funding, day on earth” as she recalled said. adding these areas would not qualbeing robbed at gunpoint A Midway Park resident, ify for TIF funding otherwise. about 6:40 a.m. April 2.

Hatch said she was not physiWalls warned that Chicagoans Priscilla Hatch, wife of Mar- cally harmed, but 10 hours afcould face significant increases in shall Hatch, pastor of New ter the incident she said, “I am housing costs given that Emanuel Mount Pilgrim Missionary still shaking. I am pretty sure I has hinted city property taxes will Baptist Church in the Austin will not be able to sleep for a need to be doubled to address the community, said she was fol- few nights at least.” pension issue Chicago is facing lowing her routine when she with the Chicago Teachers’ Penleft for work about 6:40 a.m.

The Sunday school teacher sion Fund. and noticed a man wearing a and office manager said she If property taxes are raised, acreflective vest. “I thought he has never experienced anycording to Walls, rental property worked for one of the utility thing like the Wednesday owners would pass the increase oncompanies or was a Safe Pas- morning incident. The block to their tenants, so everyone will be sage worker,” she said. has become increasingly danimpacted by the change.

Instead the man crossed the gerous as Hatch’s was the third street and pressed a gun to her armed robbery on that block The groups’ next meeting is nose and told her to give him in three weeks. scheduled for April 12 at the SEIU Hall, 300 S. Ashland Suite 400.

Anybody, but Rahm movement (Continued from page 1) 29, and 34.

In that election, about 594,700 voters out of the 1.4 million registered voters actually cast a ballot.

There were runoff elections in several wards, but not in the mayoral race. The upcoming primary election is Feb. 24, 2015, a general election if needed will occur on April 7.

In getting the word out about the meeting at Luversia’s, 522 E. 79th St., Crosby identified social media, old-fashioned word-of-mouth, and networking as communication portals. Most of the candidates from the last mayoral race were invited according to Crosby.

Fred Collins, who was unsuccessful in getting on the mayoral ballot, attended, as did former Chicago alderman Robert Shaw, who announced he will oppose Emanuel.

Walls, who ran unsuccessfully for several offices, said he would not be a candidate in the upcoming mayoral race and stated that as the group progresses, members will encourage several candidates to run for mayor as well as for aldermen.

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Saturday, April 5, 2014

Crosby reiterated Walls’ point about forcing a runoff election next year.

Walls and Crosby noted the group’s registration efforts will be bolstered by union support— mainly the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).

CTU President Karen K.J. Lewis is repeatedly mentioned in political circles as a potential opponent of Emanuel in February.

While Emanuel continues to be roundly criticized about the school closings, Walls offered a litany of other reasons the former White House Chief of Staff doesn’t deserve another term.

Among Emanuel’s major shortcomings is the city’s financial picture that Walls said needs to shift to pay-as-you-go revenue system, instead of the debt fund services model that has been in place. He likened the current system to “using a credit card to pay the rent.”

The city’s infrastructure, particularly in poorer areas, does not get the same level of service and attention that downtown and North Side neighborhoods receive.

During former mayor Richard

West Side pastor’s wife robbed at gunpoint

BLACKS MUST CONTROL THEIR OWN COMMUNITY

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NEWS

The Day Democracy Died In Chicago For most Chicagoans, March 30 is just another day; but in 2003, it became the day democracy died in Chicago.

You may remember it as the day Mayor Richard M. Daley ordered bulldozers to carve giant X’s in Meigs Field under the cover of darkness. Supposedly, he had grand plans for the coveted lakefront airport. Obviously, his plans weren’t well thought out. It doesn’t take a genius to know that anything other than an airport on Lake Michigan—given Chicago’s winters— would have a use life of only three to six months at best. The airport was a revenue generator 12 months out of every year. As a general aviation airport, it had a direct and indirect economic impact of approximately $500 million a year on the city of Chicago.

It was this kind of impulsive, immature, reactionary leadership that mismanaged the city into a deficit that steadily grew to more than $700 million by the time Mayor Daley decided to leave office. Daley didn’t act alone. It is human nature to push the envelope. A complicit city council, business community, media and most of all an electorate, who decided to leave the process rather than force it to represent them, allowed absolute one-man rule for 20 years.

In 2011, when voters had a chance to elect a new mayor, who was not paternalistic and might really believe

in democracy, Chicagoans opted again for the same type of leadership. If voters want a Chicago that works for every man, woman and child in this city, we will have to take a long hard look at ourselves. The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same things and expecting different results.

In 1983, when 1st District Congressman Harold Washington ran against incumbent Mayor Jane Byrne and Cook County States Attorney Richard M. Daley, more than 1.1 million people turned out to vote in the city’s primary election. Washington received 424,146 votes in the hotly contested race. In the 1987 general election, Washington won with nearly 54 percent of the vote.

In a three way race, which included his biggest obstructionist in the City Council—Eddie Vrdolyak —the results were 600,252 to 468,444.

The reason this is significant is that by 2003, when Daley finally won a coveted 60 percent of the Black vote, he received only 363,389 votes against three poorly funded, virtually unknown Black candidates. From 1987 to 2003, voter participation declined by more than 600,000. By Daley’s final mayoral run, he received 324,519 votes out of 459,765 cast. Even though Daley kept being re-elected, he never received the enthusiastic support that Washington had enjoyed as mayor.

In fact, during the subsequent years when Daley was considered unbeatable, the number of people who failed to vote outnumbered the

(Continued from page 1) the final score is based on economics while health and education each gets 25 percent and social justice and civic engagement each receives 10 percent on a 100 percent scale.

Explaining the Equality Index, the authors say: “That means rather than having a whole pie (100 percent), which would mean full equality with whites in 2014, African Americans [with an index of 71.2 percent] are missing about 29 percent of the pie.”

In other words, the larger the Equality Index, the closer Blacks are to reaching parity with whites.

The Equality Index has declined from 73 percent in 2006, to 72.1 percent in 2010 to 71.2 percent in 2014. However, scholars caution that the overall figure might reflect progress in some areas and retrenchment in others.

Relative to last year’s Black Equality Index: Civic Engagement index improved from 99.9 percent to 104.7 percent; Economics dipped slightly, from 56.3 percent to 55.5 percent; Social justice declined barely from 56.9 percent to 56.8 percent;

Health (76.8 percent) and education (76.8 percent) remained unchanged; The report also found: Black median household income ($33,764) is about 60 percent of whites ($56,565), down from 62 percent before the recession; the poverty index for Blacks compared to whites is 29 percent – 28.1 percent of Blacks live in poverty vs. 11 percent of whites; Black-white unemployment equality is 50 percent or 2:1 and when it comes to wealth, Blacks ($6,314) have only a 6 percent Equality Index when compared with whites ($110,500).

Unlike African Americans, Hispanics saw their Equality Index with whites increase slightly, from 74.6 percent in 2013 to 75.8 percent in 2014, which was 4.6 percent higher than African Americans.

In a chapter titled, “Policies of Exclusion Perpetuate the Racial Wealth Gap,” Thomas M. Shapiro wrote: “The dramatic and widening gap in household wealth along racial lines in the United States reflects policies and institutional practices that create different opportunities for whites and African Americans. Personal ambition and behavioral choices are

By Delmarie Cobb

Delmarie Cobb mayor’s votes by nearly two to one.

Since Washington’s sudden death on Thanksgiving eve 1987, African Americans in Chicago have never regained their political footing. Losing the Fifth Floor turned out to have a devastating impact on the city’s Black residents. The effects of which have laid the foundation for 200,000 African Americans leaving the city, the loss of thousands of Loop jobs formerly held by South Side and West Side residents, the destabilization of many Black neighborhoods, and subsequently one of

the nation’s worst murder rates.

In the last mayoral race, less than 600,000 people voted out of 1.4 million registered Chicago voters.

Our current mayor won with only 326,331 votes in a six-person race.

They say, “You get the government you deserve.” Well, I don’t think Chicagoans deserve what we’ve gotten, but I do believe we are responsible.

In the recent March 18 primary election, voter turnout in Chicago was only 16 percent. Only a few of the 50 wards saw slightly more than

7,000 people exercise their right to vote. True, low voter turnout is not unusual for a primary election, but this is shameful.

Martin Luther King said, “Politics is about who gets what and how much.” If you don’t vote, then you can’t complain when you don’t get anything. If you don’t have an agenda by which to measure candidates, then you can’t complain when you don’t get anything. If you don’t do your homework on the people for whom you vote, then you can’t complain when you don’t get anything.

If you think Election Day is the end of your responsibility and not the beginning, then you can’t complain when you don’t get anything.

Power respects organized money or organized people. If we want Chicago to become the city we wish it to be, then we have to step up and assume our individual and collective responsibilities. Politicians are elected to represent, not dictate to voters.

The idea of an elected official destroying, selling off, shuttering valuable city assets or diverting public funds to his/her own personal pet projects versus where they are most needed should come with a price on Election Day. That’s when the people who they’re supposed to represent get an opportunity to have absolute rule and bring democracy to life.

Delmarie Cobb is the CEO of the Publicity Works, a public affairs and political consulting firm located in Bronzeville.

Urban League report cites growing disparity in wealth

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George E. Curry but a small part of the equation.”

Shapiro wrote, “In gross terms, the difference in median wealth between America’s white and African American households has grown stunningly large. The wealth gap almost tripled from 1984 to 2009, increasing from $85,000 to $236,500. The median net worth of white households in the study grew to $265,000 over the 25year period compared with just $28,500 for the Black households.”

He said five factors account for twothirds of the proportional increase in the racial wealth gap: number of years of home ownership, average family

BLACKS MUST CONTROL THEIR OWN COMMUNITY

income, employment stability, college education and financial support and inheritance.

According to Shapiro, home ownership accounts for 27 percent of the growth in the racial wealth gap. He said reasons home equity rises dramatically faster for whites include: White families buy homes and start acquiring equity eight years earlier than Black families because they are more likely to receive family assistance or an inheritance for down payments; a larger up-front payment by white homeowners lower interest rates; residential segregation places an artificial ceiling on home equity in non-white neighborhoods and the home ownership rate for white families is 28 percent higher than rates for Blacks.

“Hard evidence shows in stark terms that it is not just the last recession and implosion of the housing market that contributed to the widening racial wealth disparities,” Shapiro wrote. “Past policies of exclusion, such as discriminatory mortgage lending, which continues today, ensure that certain groups reap a greater share of what America has to offer while others are left out.”

No one expects the wealth gap to

narrow without some reduction in unemployment.

Valerie Rawlston Wilson, an economist in the National Urban League’s Washington bureau, noted in her introduction to the report: “More than one-third of unemployed workers have been out of work for six months or longer and one in four has been jobless for a year or longer. Though the unemployment rate declined by 1.2 percentage points from January to December 2013 – the largest decline over a single year since the recovery began – labor force participation also reached a 35-year low in December. This downward trend in labor force participation raises concerns about underutilization of America’s labor capacity, or underemployment.”

She explained, “If we factored in the number of people who want and are available for work (but are not actively looking for a job) along with the number of unemployed workers actively looking for a job, and those who are working part-time out of necessity (but would prefer full-time work), the actual rate of underemployment was 13.1 percent at the end of 2013, nearly double the official unemployment rate.”

Saturday, April 5, 2014

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EDITORIAL

EDITORIAL REPARATIONS ARE A TAXING AFFAIR

What do the Japanese and Native Americans have in common?

They have received reparations from the United States for wrongs afflicted upon them by the government. At this point, African Americans, who are still suffering from the ravages of slavery, are the only group yet to receive reparations. Examples of reparations doled out by the United States, according to Thurston El Roy Sawyer II, Executive Director of the African American Reparation Action Network, include: 1988-1999 - the Indian Gaming Regulatory Acts which made billions available to Native Americans; in 1990 the U.S. allotted $1.2 Billion or $20,000 each for Japanese Americans; in 1986 $32 Million was provided through a Treaty to the Ottawa of Michigan; in 1985 $31 Million went to the Chippewa of Wisconsin; in 1985 $12.3 Million was given to the Seminoles of Florida; in 1985 $105 Million went to the Sioux of South Dakota; in 1980 $81 Million went to the Klamaths of Oregon; and in 1971 more than a billion dollars were doled out for 44 Million Acres of Land for Alaskan Natives Land Settlement. This list is not exhaustive, as there are even more examples of groups receiving reparations around the world for crimes perpetrated against them. Germany and Switzerland, for example, are set to pay millions to survivors of the holocaust, and the Canadian government has paid reparations to Indians, Eskimos and Japanese Canadians. So why haven’t African Americans received reparations, for “repair?”

The Thurstonian African American Financial Liberation Act, Vol. I, U.S. World Slavery Crimes and Category of Violations, written by Thurston El Roy Sawyer, II, points out a number of reasons that reparations should be made to African Americans. Among these are the invasion of the continent of Africa for criminal purposes, which is a war crime and international crime against humanity; the unlawful abduction of African people; the genocide of humans not healthy enough to make the journey from Africa; the act of slavery for hundreds of years; creating the market for slavery; the unlawful behavior performed on slaves e.g., general torture, whipping, burning, hitting, kicking, cutting, chaining, hanging, raping and murder without consequences; the unlawful breeding of humans for criminal purposes; creating intentional psychological damage to humans; breaching many verbal and written contracts made by slave owners; segregation of humans because of their skin color; financial neglect from government and lending institutions; allowing the actions and criminal activities of secretive hate organizations by the U.S.; the secret operations and medical experiments performed on African Americans by the U.S. government; the neglect of the government to act during voting and constitutional crimes; and the financial and psychological damage performed on American Americans by not providing reparations to them, but providing it to many other groups in America.

A number of individuals, both white and, inexplicably, Black, are against reparations for African Americans. They cite various reasons, none of which are logical when placed in the context of other groups who have received them. It is apparent, when observing the African American community today, that the effects of brutal slavery, Jim Crow, and maltreatment even now, in spite of having a Black president, speaks volumes as to why reparations, i.e., repair is necessary. The crimes against Blacks have had a taxing impact. Because of this, in addition to other remedies, it can be suggested that “Tax Relief” be part of a reparations package offered to African Americans. That would be one strategy that might result in major benefits for America’s Black community.

Whatever the case, reparations, in whatever form they might take, are definitely overdue! A luta continua.

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Saturday, April 5, 2014

LETTER TO THE EDITOR CPS will never get it right Dear Editor: I was shocked to read the other day that Chicago Public Schools has tacked on another $5 MILLION to the cost of re-locating its administrative offices. I fully get it that the move to 1 N. Dearborn is a totally different configuration than the current central office layout. The district should be applauded for seeking new digs and stop wasting space, energy and time at 125 S. Clark.

At the same time though, it seems completely backward that whoever went looking for new headquarters didn’t take into account that the existing furniture wouldn’t fit into the new place. In real life, when a family is financially strapped like CPS is, and that family relocates to save money, it does not reduce the saving by buying new furniture.

The announcement that the district would need to spend a whopping $5 million above the original estimate speaks volumes about poor planning, and in my mind sets a good reason not to trust anything the district tells the public. CPS lied at every turn about the 50 schools it closed. After a little scrutiny it was discovered the district officials lied about how much of a savings would be realized from the closings. They also have lied about who would be allowed to purchase those vacated schools, and

now they expect us to believe they didn’t know this move would cost $9.5 million instead of $4.5 million?

To make it even worse, CPS contracted with a Massachusettsbased company to handle the move instead of a Chicago company. I suspect soon enough we will find out that either the mayor or one of the school board members has strong connections to Staples – the company that will handle the move. No matter how you slice it, CPS can’t be trusted.

Hopefully voters will turn out next year to elect a mayor who understands the importance and benefits of an elected school board.

Carl Milton

White folks are amusing Dear Editor:

probably never driven past a Harold’s Chicken Shack, much less spent any real time in our community, seems to think the preacher can deliver him votes.

Somebody should explain to Rauner that Meeks will be bogged down with questions about why he abruptly left the State Senate, whether he is under investigation by the state or the Feds, and what kind of job will Rauner give him if he is elected the next governor, as well as what will Rauner do for him if he loses. The really bold will (Continued on page 13)

CHICAGO CRUSADER (U.S.P.S. 596080)

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J.L. Smith 6429 South King Drive Chicago, Illinois 60637 773-752-2500 An independent newspaper serving the Southside Westside and Northside, printing the news impartially empowering what it believes to be right and appealling what it believes to be wrong without regard to party politics. Devoted to the Industrial, Educational, SocioPolitical and Educational advancement of Black people. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sometimes you can’t help but laugh at white folks, especially the political types who come to the community. They show up with somebody who somebody else told them was influential in the community. These politicians seem to believe that gives them instant credibility because they come to our churches or meetings with soand-so.

The latest hoot is GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner who has the Rev. James Meeks in tow.

From the looks of it, Meeks is supposed to help Rauner, who has

BLACKS MUST CONTROL THEIR OWN COMMUNITY

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COMMENTARY

Apple Strays from its Roots Beyond The Rhetoric

By Harry C. Alford NNPA Columnist Apple’s success story is a familiar one: a group of misfits who grew an unlikely startup from the confines of a small garage into the world’s largest business. From the company’s iconic logo to the offbeat leadership of the late Steve Jobs, Apple’s public image has always invited the idea that it holds an equal bite at the apple for everyone. It seems quintessentially American – except it isn’t – and the tech giant’s efforts to eliminate its competition are perilous for the African American community.

In recent years, revelations about Apple’s business practices – from evasive tax schemes to protracted courtroom battles – have gradually pulled back the veneer on a company that leaders from Washington to Wall Street have begun to question. Digging in its heels against shifting market dynamics, Apple has shown a troubling side, one prepared to disrupt competition and trample consumer interests.

This month, a U.S. district judge rejected Apple’s request for a permanent injunction on Samsung smartphone sales on grounds of patent infringement.The ruling

Harry C. Alford marks the latest chapter in a three year courtroom battle over features like autocomplete and slide-to-unlock technology. Juries have already awarded Apple nearly $1 billion in restitution.

Regardless, Apple is headed back to court again at the end of the month, this time to dispute the operating platforms of newer model Samsung phones. Its demand this go-around: a $40 royalty per phone or tablet sold, which some experts have called “objective insanity.” It doesn’t take an

economist to forecast the impact of such a levy; the fee will get passed along to consumers in the form of higher device costs.

Unable, or unwilling, to compete in emerging markets, Apple appears resolved to instead play outside the lines and drive up the costs of more affordable devices, which have gained significant traction in recent years.

According to a Pew Research study, African American and Hispanic consumers are more likely to access the Internet through their phone than others. Smartphone ownership is growing among this demographic as well, due largely to more affordable devices. Last year devices costing less than $200 made up 43 percent of all purchases, more than twice the level of 2011, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).

Coupled with greater access to broadband and wireless, the drop in smartphone prices is helping close the digital divide along racial lines. Studies show African-Americans have about a 15 percent greater ownership of smartphones than the general public and spend more time online with them. More than 70 percent own an Android phone, compared with less than 60 percent of all consumers.

Increasing mobile usage rates alone has important implications for small businesses. A Neilson

study last year found African Americans are more likely to make purchases using their phone and spend twice as much time at personal hosted websites than any other group.This has a very real impact on our small business members who have invested in websites that can handle online sales.

Apple finds itself falling behind in this digital revolution as rival phones running the Android operating system now dominate the market. One might assume Apple’s answer to its troubles would redouble focus on its product development.

Instead, the company has doubled down, mechanically rehashing and rolling out the same products. There is only a handful of Apple smartphone models on the market today, while there are several dozen smartphones that are equipped with the Android operating system. In fact, Apple hasn’t shipped a new format phone since 2012. The average price difference between an iPhone and an Android phone has grown to $374, and an Android now costs half as much as an iPhone.

So, if not through greater innovation or competitive pricing, how does Apple hope to hold its own in the marketplace? It appears by closing down its competitors’ markets through court-

room litigation. Simply put: if you can’t beat ‘em, ban ‘em.

Starting in 2010, Apple noticeably stepped up its litigation against others. The company recently appealed the court’s rejection of the ban Samsung phone sales (it was the second time the court dismissed the bid), likely as a grounds for further action against its competitor’s newer model phones.

Apple’s latest charge, that Samsung should pay a $40 fee per device, promises to drive up costs and leave consumers in the lurch if approved. The biggest impact of such a decision will fall on the shoulders of lower income consumers, who will effectively be priced out of the marketplace and then their Internet access could be limited.

Equal opportunity is tenet of the America promise. In today’s increasingly connected world, an individual’s location, race or income should not determine whether or not he or she has access to online information and resources. Let’s ask Apple to defend the same principles that fostered its success.

Mr. Alford is the co-founder, President/CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce.

Website: www.nationalbcc.org Email: halford@nationalbcc.org.

Buy Black: An Economic Empowerment Strategy

By George E. Curry NNPA Columnist Margarita “Maggie” Anderson wants to transform “Buy Black” from a leftover 1960s slogan to a modern economic empowerment strategy. And because she has lived it, there is no person better qualified to lead the charge.

Anderson and her family spent all of 2009 purchasing goods and services exclusively from Black merchants. She is author of a book cataloguing her experience titled, “Our Black Year.”

She also authored an essay in the State of Black America report issued Thursday by the National Urban League titled, “Facts vs.

Fiction: Buying Black as an Economic Empowerment Strategy.”

Like the farmer trying to get his mule’s attention, Anderson whacks us across the head in the National Urban League report with two disturbing facts.

Fact #1: “…Most of the products and services African Americans consume – Black media and entertainment, Black dating websites, Black hair and skin care, Black toys, and Black fashion –are neither produced nor www.chicagocrusader.com

distributed by Black-owned firms.

Behind this consumption are billions of dollars in business contracts, business growth, advertising revenue, entrepreneurial opportunity and economic empowerment that, while driven by Black consumer spending, are not empowering the Black community.”

Ouch!

Fact #2: “In practice, self-help economics seems to be more proactively and effectively leveraged by other ethnic groups. For example, in Asian communities, a dollar circulates among the community’s banks, retailers, and business professionals for up to 28 days before it is spent outside of the community. In the Jewish community, the circulation period is 19 days; in the White AngloSaxon Protestant (WASP) community, it’s 17 days; and in the Hispanic community, it’s 7 days.

Yet, in the Black community, the dollar lives only six hours before it leaves the community.”

Enough, I feel ya!

Anderson says we have not harnessed our $1 trillion a year spending power because our civic and religious leaders, unlike Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., are unwilling to exhort our community

George E. Curry to “Buy Black.”

In his last speech, Dr. King said: “…We’ve gotten to strengthen our Black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the [white] banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank. We want a bank-in movement in Memphis… We have six or seven Black insurance companies in Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an ‘insurance-in.’”

He explained: “We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same

time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts.”

Anderson wrote, “While ‘buying Black’ is at least as old as Emancipation, ‘buying Black’ has not been a highlight of the modern, post-Civil Rights era struggle for economic empowerment, much less a noticeable movement or public approach embraced by our community’s institutions, professional and civic organizations, universities, or churches.”

The rich irony is that our business organizations are demanding that federal and local governments award at least 10 percent of public contracts to Black businesses, yet we won’t spend 10 percent of our outlays with those same businesses.

“According to the landmark Northwestern University’s Kellogg Business School study based on The Empowerment Experiment, out of close to $1 trillion in Black spending power, maybe 3 percent of that goes to Black professionals, suppliers and firms,” Anderson wrote. “But if Black households with annual income of $75,000 or more –middle and upper income African Americans – were to increase spending with Black professionals and firms from 3 percent

BLACKS MUST CONTROL THEIR OWN COMMUNITY

to just 10 percent, we could create close to 1,000,000 jobs.”

She explained, “This 10 percent includes direct spending with local Black-owned businesses, as well as indirect spending through the support of Black vendors, agents, dealers and franchises of mainstream firms.

The new jobs would be created from the money we already have and currently spend – no government program and no corporate social responsibility outlay necessary.”

Some African Americans, especially those who like to romanticize about Black life under Jim Crow, like to say Blacks were more willing to support Black businesses in the past because of segregation. But like goods in a white-owned store, Anderson isn’t buying.

“Segregation did not compel the ingenuity, intelligence, and investment that created those businesses [North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, Black Wall Street, Madam C.J. Walker’s hair products] nor did unjust laws force Black people to believe in each other,” Anderson stated. “To accept that (Continued on page 13) Saturday, April 5, 2014

5

COMMENTARY

REVITALIZING THE REPARATIONS MOVEMENT Dr. Conrad Worrill, Director/Professor, Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies (CCICS) located at 700 East Oakwood Blvd, Chicago, Illinois, 60653, 773-268-7500, Fax: 773-268-3835 E-mail: c-worrill@neiu.edu, Website: www.ccicschicago.org, Twitter: @CCICS_ Chicago.

Dr. Conrad Worrill Our great historian and departed ancestor, Dr. John Henrik Clarke described in his classic book, Notes for an African World Revolution, that, “The idea of uniting all Africa had its greatest development early

in this [20th] century.” In this context, Reparations for African people will never die.

Dr. Clarke wrote that, “In 1900, the Trinidadian lawyer, H. Sylvester Williams called together the first Pan African Conference in London.

This meeting attracted attention and put the word Pan African in the dictionaries for the first time.”

According to Dr. Clarke, there were only thirty delegates to the conference that came mainly from England, the Caribbean, and the United States. Dr. W. E. B. DuBois led the small delegation from the United States. When we use the term Pan Africanism we must be very clear. Pan Africanism is the belief that people of African ancestry throughout the world have the same racial and cultural characteristics and the same social and economic conditions as a result of our African origin.

The Pan African component of the Reparations Movement launched its first international conference on Reparations in Lagos, Nigeria in December of 1990. After that conference, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) set up a Group of Eminent Persons (GEP), in June 1992. Its aim was to work out the

different ways in which to proceed, and secure technical advisors, who would help solve some of the difficulties associated with the claim for reparations.

A second conference on Reparations was held in Abuja, Nigeria in 1993, attended by representatives from throughout the Diaspora.

That conference issued a declaration, “The Abuja Proclamation,” which called for a national reparations committee to be established throughout Africa and the Diaspora. The African Reparations Movement (UK) was formed in 1993, as a result of this proclamation.

It is important that we understand that the idea of Reparations has caught on with the masses of African people worldwide, in spite of the opposition of the forces of white supremacy.

A delegation from the United States, led by the late Dr. Jacob H. Carruthers and the late Dr. Ron Walters, participated in Abuja’s First Pan African Conference and reported back to the leaders of the Reparations Movement, in this country, their observations and analysis of the conference.

In this connection, the Honorable Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minis-

ter of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, current Chairman of the Caribbean Community of Nations/CARICOM, will present the keynote address at a national/international forum entitled “Revitalizing the Reparations Movement” at Chicago State University on Saturday, April 19, 2014. “Gonsalves is one of the leading voices in the Americas demanding that the former European colonial powers pay reparations to Caribbean and South American countries for centuries of African enslavement, native genocide and colonial exploitation.

The forum is organized by the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW) in conjunction with the Jacob H. Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies and the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference. Detroit’s Honorable John Con yers, Sr., Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus, and sponsor of HR-40 Reparations Study Bill and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam are the specially invited guests.

A primary goal of the forum is to revitalize the Reparations Movement in the United States by revisiting the Durban Resolution on the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, present-

ing an update on HR-40, and examining the status of the reparations initiative by CARICOM’s.

The forum will be hosted by Chicago State University President Dr. Wayne Watson, CSU Provost Dr. Angela Henderson, and moderated by the Honorable Judge Lionel Baptiste.

The CARICOM leaders that met in St. Vincent on March 10-11, 2014 took one more important step in their quest for reparatory justice against European countries that had engaged in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and in slavery itself.

They unanimously adopted a tenpoint plan that would seek a formal apology for slavery, debt cancellation from former colonizers such as Britain, France, Spain, and the Netherlands and reparation payments to repair the persisting “psychological trauma” from the days of plantation slavery.”

We must always remember what Dr. Clarke taught us and that is, “powerful people never teach powerless people how to take power away from them!” Reparations for African people will never die!

Hope to see you on April 19th in Chicago at Chicago State University for this most important forum.

ATTENTION, PLEASE

By Julianne Malveaux NNPA Columnist If you missed the news about the disappearance of Malaysian Flight 370 over the Indian Ocean, you must have been buried in sand.

For two weeks we have been bombarded with theories – was it terrorism? Pilot error? Something else? Now the story has evolved.

Were pieces of the plane found? Is everyone dead? How does the families of the presumed dead feel? (This is a really stupid question. How does the clueless reporter asking such a question think the people feel)?

CNN may well have been called Missing Plane Network, as an evening of watching covered the same angle with a different host and guests. Some of the focus was certainly understandable, but other networks managed to find news of things going on that did not involve Flight 370. Still, the prevalent and relentless emphasis on the missing plane was, to me, excessive.

Couldn’t some of the airtime granted Flight 370 have been used for equally critical matter?

There were 239 people on that plane, and there were more than 6

Saturday, April 5, 2014

300 killed in 2013. I’m not suggesting an equivalency in the two types of tragedies, but I am suggesting that the media might focus more on gun violence; it’s sources and possible solutions to end senseless violence. Of course, that might anger the National Rifle Association whose specious slogan — guns don’t kill, people do — ignores the harm done by the proliferation of guns in our nation.

President Obama has challenged our nation’s educators to increase the percentage of young people attending and graduating from college, so that we might better compete with other industrialized countries. People applaud at these sentiments, but these educational goals get little media attention. Yet such coverage would raise an important issue and, perhaps, push us toward solutions.

I do not begrudge the extensive coverage of Flight 370. The disappearance of a plane is both a mystery and a tragedy. But the excessive coverage of Flight 370 reminds us of the power of the media. If something is repeated enough, and repeatedly enough, it wiggles its way into our con-

Dr. Julianne Malveaux sciousness. Thus the pilots have been tried and convicted by media speculation, without anyone actually knowing what happened.

What if such repetition were used to highlight some of our nation’s most serious social and economic challenges. What if we could get a couple of networks, just for a week, focus on reading proficiency, or the environment,

or poverty and inequality? Perhaps we can’t focus on these issues because we can’t agree on their causes, not when the likes of Rand Paul are running around excoriating the poor and the unemployed every chance he gets. Or with, despite this long and frigid winter, the global warming deniers won’t give any ground.

The media is used to rivet attention toward an issue or challenge.

Unfortunately, it has rarely been used for good, although it could be. What if viewers demanded that there is some focus on essential issues? What if there were a media campaign to encourage children to read more, and encourage parents and teachers to encourage this reading. Such a campaign might include paid advertising, but much of it might be driven by news stories.

May I have your attention please? Might I have your attention about poverty and unemployment? May I have your attention about the status of our young people? What about the literacy issue? The paucity of open space in some cities?

May I have your attention about the importance of getting out the vote? I want your atten-

BLACKS MUST CONTROL THEIR OWN COMMUNITY

tion about the effectiveness of standardized tests. I need your attention on the automobile manufacturers who sell defective cars and take a whole three years to recall them.

In the wake of the Flight 370 tragedy we will learn, undoubtedly, about those who lost their lives because of the tragedy. Only rarely, however, will we learn about the most recent victim of gun violence. May I have your attention? Please.

Julianne Malveaux is a DC based economist and author. She is President Emerita of Bennett College for Women.

Scan this QR (quick response) code to be taken to the Chicago Crusader’s web site. www.chicagocrusader.com

GOSSIPTARY

By Ima Gontellit EDITOR'S NOTE: This column is published as political satire, street gossip and humor, and therefore should not be considered as fact but rather as matter of opinion. None of the items therein are collected by the news gathering staff of the Crusader Newspaper Group. Items forwarded to The Chatterbox are kept confidential unless otherwise requested by the author in writing. For submissions please forward to: AChicagoCrusader@aol.com. Original photography and artwork are permitted.

Thank you for reading!

WE REMEMBER Dear Martin. We remember what dey done to you April 4, 1968. We apologize for being stupid and acting all brand new after Obama got elected. I do believe.

Deep in my heart. We will get it together—one day.

-ImaJUST MAYBE One mo’ name is poppin’ up in de hood as a possible contender to take on the little mean man on the fifth floor of City Hall. Dat be the name of Jackie Collins, that cute, smart little old state senator who got her callin’ papers from Father Pfleger. Short of Toni Preckwinkle jumping in there—she would win too. Apparently, Willie Delgado wasn’t the only one pushing to stop de Emperor from shutting down schools named after Negro people who lived, died, worked and cried so we could have some measure of dignity. Looks lak Senator Collins was also standing with him as two lone wolves in Springfield wondering what happened to their roll dogs in the IL General Assembly.

They say that the paper work to

Jackie Collins www.chicagocrusader.com

stop Emanuel from going Atomic Bomb on little Negro Children’s schools was held hostage in committee by none other than the most powerful white man next to Santa Clause —Mike Madigan.

In between time, Sen. Collins is the only one making any kind of sense, mostly because she come from a background in which lying, cheating and being stuck up is a sin. Unfortunately, she, Rep. Monique Davis and one other Hispanic lady are the only people down there willing to at least let out a squeak when the white folks come up with these laws and plots and schemes to tear up de Black community. Even smart-talkin’ Collins is afraid dat if the people don’t wake up, they will find themselves stuck with high tax bills, no jobs and no health care.

MEEKS AGAIN James Meeks may be coming out of the closet. A source close to the former elected official, well known preacher, and pretend independent, claims that the Baptist clergyman is going to finally announce he is a member of the Tea Party.

This news comes as a slap in the face to the Country Preacher who took Meeks by the hand and lifted

Bulls. But we do be hearing some stories that may be coming out real soon that spells out how much and what kind of financial trouble the so-called church/basketball stadium is really in.

-ImaEMMA MITTS Had better figure out how she plans to tell her staff they will be out of a job in less than a year—if Marian Stamps daughter has her way. Tara Stamps has been telling everybody on the West Side that she hopes Mitts got a back up plan

12-year-old schoolgirl with a purple Now and Later.

-ImaIT’S OVER

RUN JACKIE RUN! -ImaJames Meeks

FIGHTING IRISH Now we hear that the Irishmen are trying to knock some sense into Sen. Cullerton’s head or at least pull it from out Rahm’s little behind. We hear the epic war is going

John Cullerton on and its based on caste and class and what clan these folk come from. The Irishmen are banning together to protect “their interests,” and they intend to show the Emperor what they’re made of.

They say Madigan is now facing a major problem given that the Bald Eagle refuses to take advice and has a right-wing person as his Democratic running mate. The bigger problem facing them is that Bruce “I AM WISCONSIN” Rauner is tied to the hip to the mayor of Chicago and Mr. Cullerton and if he wins, Madigan loses his power, authority and ability to rule the world.

-Ima-

Christian Mitchell

him up as some sort of independent Democrat with the interests of the people in mind. Meeks has been anything but independent.

As an elected official, he used his gift of Ebonics to push policies that women, gays, Blacks, Latinos, Asians, the poor, children, and formerly incarcerated people don’t like. We hear when he holds his press conference he will be sipping some Earl Grey.

Another source be saying Meek’s religious institution called the “House of Hope” is having severe financial trouble and dat’s why a rich, sneaky millionaire like Bruce Rauner is able to manipulate the preacher whose I.Q. is in question.

One lady claimed they saw Meeks in one of this tight cotton sweaters running out of a meeting with Rauner and Rahm shortly after the Primary. We don’t know nothing

Emma Mitts cookin’ chitlin’s at MacArthur’s because she’s coming for that ass in Feb. 2015. This one is a wait and see. Who knows if dat Stamps girl will even make it on the ballot.

-ImaCHRISTIAN MITCHELL Will someone tell this child to wipe his nose in public? It has been dripping and running all over the place. Recently, he was standing with State Sen. Kwame Raoul as his nose ran and snot formed on his upperlip. We hear one man passing by “went off ” on the young political leader who somehow is so smart and so good that all de rich white folks give him money to do their bidding. What they need to do, said one man in a red shirt, is “buy him some Kleenex to wipe his nose.” Last time Mitchell was spotted he was running down a hall giggling like a

Rahm Emanuel about no money trouble with the House of Hope building that some people used to say was really owned by the white man who owns the White Sox and the

BLACKS MUST CONTROL THEIR OWN COMMUNITY

Is what de young folks is saying to the po-leece. You can’t shoot us in de back, plant drugs and guns on us, and then stand around on TV ackin’ lak you done something good for the city. The residents of the Woodlawn community say Leon Finney and Bishop Brazier’s son can’t sell them out and they will not sit back and let white folks and the system just run all over them. That’s why they have been secretly getting it together and the results of an impromptu riot was on full display when the police unloaded in the back of a 20-year-old boy who was running away from the drama when he was gunned down. One young person with dredlocks and sagging pants said this, “Oh they want to turn up on us. We gone turn up on them! It’s on. Vulture City! Chiraq. Up. Be. One.” (If anyone can interpret what the child say, please let us know.)

-ImaCONCEALED FOOLISHNESS Some near-sighted, off-balanced, short-tempered fools are out here, armed and dangerous and completely legal. Yes, that would be Ima.

Call 773-752-2500 to order your subscription to The Chicago Crusader Newspaper Saturday, April 5, 2014

7

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

BLAIR THOMAS & COMPANY TOURS A PIANO WITH 3 TALES ADMISSION FREE AT SIX CHICAGO PARKS THROUGH MAY 3: The acclaimed Blair Thomas & Company delights family audiences with magical puppetry and a live piano recital of masterworks in A Piano with 3 Tales select Saturdays through May 3 at six Chicago Park District field houses. All performances are admission free and are recommended for children ages 412. There will be performances on Saturday, April 5, at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. at Broadway Armory Park, 5917 N. Broadway Avenue. A Piano with 3 Tales is a classical piano recital masquerading as a puppet show. Pianist Mary Rose Norell performs three pieces for piano in their entirety: Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition; Frederic Chopin’s Scherzo in b flat minor; and Montague’s Mirabella a Tarantella (for toy piano). The music is paired with various handmade puppets, from bunraku dolls to larger-than-life human-sized costumes. This delightful family show exercises the imagination and reveals the magical power of wordless music The cast includes puppeteers Sam Deutsch, Sarah Fornace, Dan Kerr-Hobert, Tully McLoughlin and Missi Davis.

Puppet design is by Blair Thomas, Jesse Mooney Bullock and Andrea Everman. A Piano with 3 Tales is created and directed by Blair Thomas. For more information, please visit www.chicagoparkdistrict.com or contact the Chicago Park District at 312-742-PLAY or 312-747-2001 (TTY).

PASTOR CHRIS HARRIS’ 40TH BIRTHDAY WEEKEND CELEBRATION: Bright Star Church presents P.C.H.’S 40th Birthday Weekend Celebration, a Chicago Revival with 3 nights of praise, power and prophecy. It will be held at Life Center Church of God in Christ, 5500 S. Indiana Avenue, Chicago IL 60637. Special guests include: Pastor Darryl Hill on Saturday, April 5, at 6 p.m.; Dr. Jamal Bryant on Sunday, April 6th at 6 p.m.; and Prophet Todd Hall on Monday, April 7th at 7 p.m.

You won’t believe the music ministers that are coming too! For more information, visit www.brightstarchurchchicago.com MSI HOSTS LARGEST NATIONAL ROBOTICS WEEK CELEBRATION IN THE U.S.: In celebration of National Robotics Week, the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago (MSI) will host the largest event in the country— demonstrating approximately 20 different robots from around the world! This Robot Block Party will take place from Saturday, April 5 to Sunday, April 13 in the Muse8

Saturday, April 5, 2014

um’s Rotunda and Main Floor.

MSI is located at 5700 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL. Some of the robots on display throughout the week will include: EduBot: Developed as an education and research tool, this briefcase-sized modular robot can traverse difficult terrain, jump over small obstacles and turn itself right-side up as it treks along its path; R-One SWARM: These robots communicate with each other, moving and behaving like a flock of birds or an army of ants. When given commands such as “disperse,” “group” or “follow the leader,” they will autonomously carry out the functions maintaining set distances from each other and aligning without human assistance; Baxter - Baxter is an entirely new type of robot that redefines the way they can be used in manufacturing environments. It performs a variety of repetitive production tasks, while safely and intelligently working next to people.

Snake - Snake Robots can use their many internal degrees of freedom to thread through tightly packed spaces, accessing locations that people and machinery cannot use. The true power of these devices is that they are versatile, achieving behaviors not limited to crawling, climbing and swimming. Creators of several of these robots will be on hand to discuss them with guests. Student demo teams, from schools including University of Wisconsin and the Illinois Institute of Technology, will also be at the Museum on weekends, showcasing their robotics projects. All robot demonstrations and presentations throughout the week are included in Museum Entry: $18 for adults; $17 for seniors; $11 for kids 3-11. Robots and times will vary; check http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/events/ nat ional-robotics-week/ for the complete schedule.

FINANCIAL LITERACY PROGRAMS OFFERED AT CPL NEIGHBORHOOD BRANCHES DURING MONEY SMART WEEK: The Chicago Public Library (CPL) joins the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the Money Smart partners in hosting the Money Smart Week, Friday, April 5 through Saturday, April 12. During the eight days of Money Smart Week the public will have numerous opportunities to participate in free financial literacy seminars, workshops and other programs designed to help people understand the business of money, gain control of their finances and overall wealth management. Such programs help families learn to reduce debt and provide practical money skills for life.

The following Money Smart Week programs are just two that are scheduled at Chicago Public Library branch locations throughout

the city. On Saturday, April 5 at 10 a.m., at the Logan Square Branch, 3030 W. Fullerton Avenue, Women and Money, presented by the Financial Planning Association of Illinois Certified Financial Planner, Khloe Karova, from Modern Capital Concepts, discusses what women need to know at each life stage to grow their income and wealth. Career tactics, budgeting, saving and retirement planning will be covered. This program is for women at all career stages and income levels. On Monday, April 7 at 12 p.m., in the Cindy Pritzker Auditorium at the Harold Washington Library Center 400 S. State Street, award-winning financial journalist Terry Savage, author of the bestselling The Savage Truth on Money series, speaks about what everyone should know about financial and retirement planning. Also, planners from the Financial Planning Association of Illinois will offer one-on-one planning sessions immediately following Ms. Savage’s presentation. In addition, all CPL locations have books, periodicals and online information which allow Chicagoans to learn about financial planning, investing and organizing their finances.

For more information, please call 312-747-4050 or visit chicagopubliclibrary.org.

REMEMBER HIS RIDE ––– Chicago Police Officer Brian McDevitt was struck by a motorist while crossing an intersection on his bike. He remained unconscious at Advocate Christ Medical Center for 10 days before succumbing to his injuries.

Brian passed away on June 21st of last year. Brian is survived by his wife and two young children. He was a dedicated Police Officer who was a recent Award of Valor recipient. A fundraiser and benefit to help Brian’s family is being held on April 13, 2014 at 115 Bourbon Street Entertainment Complex located at 3359 West 115th Street in Merrionette Park from 2 to 7 p.m.

Tickets are available at the door for $25 or before the event for $20. For further information please contact Tom Carey at 773 715-9622; Bob White, 773 230-7454; Marty Robin, 708 3516531; Russ Willingham, 773 320-4702; Jason Gutierrez, 773 962-1304 or Ray Piwnicki, 773 882-8278.

Extended Coverage can opener.

Seasonal storms are on their way.

Are you and your home ready? *** Good home maintenance and a few upgrades can help prevent damage—and may even trim insurance premiums. Add storm shutters and caulking around windows to protect against wind and water. *** High winds are a main concern.

Make sure the roof is securely attached to the walls and the walls are securely attached to the foundation.

Grooved ring shank nails hold wood more firmly than smooth ones; metal braces are even more effective.

Milton E. Moses

*** Brought to you as a public service by the protection and insurance folks at Community Insurance Center, Inc., 526 E. 87th Street, your insurance headquarters. We have been serving the community since 1962. For more information about the services we provide, call (773) 651-6200. You can also reach us via email at: sales@communityinsurance.com or visit the website at www.communityins.com.

*** If you must evacuate, bring important documents in a fireproof safety box. Bring enough storebought bottled water for at least two days and food for at least one day.

Bring phone numbers of contacts to call or text to let them know you’re okay. *** If you are unable to evacuate, stay in a safe room with food and water for three to seven days, flashlight, radio and batteries and a manual BLACKS MUST CONTROL THEIR OWN COMMUNITY

www.chicagocrusader.com

BUSINESS

CFPB Turns its Attention to Payday Lending Consumers being hurt, not helped, with high-cost loans

By Charlene Crowell This week the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) focused on those little loans that come with triple-digit lending rates: payday loans. On March CFPB convened a public forum in Nashville that coincided with the Bureau’s release of a new research report. After analyzing 11 months of borrowing at 12 million storefront locations, CFPB’s findings again confirm that the industry relies not on individual borrowers’ ability to quickly repay, but on their inability to repay, resulting in individual borrowers taking out many loans each year.

In other words, the business model for payday lending is a debt trap.

With numerous storefronts often concentrated in communities of color, many consumers are drawn in by convenient locations and promises of quick cash with no credit checks.

All too often, borrowers discover that the terms of the small dollar loan cause even more financial stress and deepening debt.

Commenting on the Bureau’s payday loan focus, Director Richard Cordray said, “Our concern is that all too often those loans lead to a

perpetuating sequence. That is where the consumer ends up being hurt rather than helped by this extremely high-cost loan product.”

Unlike most lenders, the payday industry needs and relies upon customers who cannot repay their loans. For every payday borrower who must renew a loan, the lender can then with each renewal charge more lucrative fees. In many cases, borrowers are repaying more in fees alone than they initially received from the loan.

Two additional key findings by CFPB: • Four out of five payday loans are rolled over or ‘renewed’ within two weeks of when the borrower paid off a prior loan; and • Over two-fifths of payday borrowers who were paid on a monthly basis — most of whom were public benefits recipients, such as those on Social Security – sought 11 loans in the 11-month study period.

Cordray’s concern about the payday loan debt trap is also shared by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL). In a recent guest column in

Michelle Simmons appointed to Calumet City Chamber of Commerce River Oaks Center recently announced Michelle Simmons, assistant director of marketing and business development, has been appointed to serve on the Calumet City Chamber of Commerce.

Simmons was selected last month and will represent River Oaks Center at monthly board meetings for her yearlong term. She has also volunteered to maintain the Chamber’s website, and will be working with the Chamber of Commerce to bring their Classic Car Show back to River Oaks this September.

“As an individual and a professional in Calumet City, I am not content to just remain an audience member,” said Simmons. “I can’t wait to work with the Chamber of Commerce to help grow our local businesses, and I’m proud to represent River Oaks Center for our community.”

The Calumet City Chamber of Commerce is an active organization that has been the leader of area business firms for more than 60 years.

The Chamber is working toward a healthy business climate in Calumet City with goals to advance the general welfare, economic development, and diversity of the city to help all local businesses prosper.

For more information about River Oaks Center, visit www.Facebook.com/RiverOaksCenterMall or follow the mall on Twitter @RiverOaksCenter. www.chicagocrusader.com

Charlene Crowell Nashville’s daily paper, Mike Calhoun, CRL President, reminded readers that this country has suffered enough from predatory lending.

“As it is now, predatory payday loans are weakening working families and eroding communities that are still struggling to recover from the bad lending of the recent past,” said Calhoun.

CRL’s earlier and independent research found that payday borrowers are annually charged $3.4 million in fees alone. The typical borrower takes out 10 payday loans in a year at interest rates averaging 391 percent

over a year’s time.

Across Tennessee and in Nashville, where CFPB convened the forum, a two-week payday loan carries an annual percentage rate of nearly 460 percent. CRL estimates that each year, Tennesseans pay $199 million in fees.

Tennessee is also emblematic of many of its neighboring states. The South has the highest concentration of payday loan stores and accounts for 60 percent of total payday lending fees.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that no state has authorized payday lending since 2005. Twentytwo states, including the District of Columbia, ban or impose significant restrictions on high-cost payday lending. And in instances where state legislatures have not enacted payday reforms, a growing number of cities —- including Austin, Birmingham and Dallas —- have looked to curb payday lending through zoning ordinances.

Despite these consumer victories, much work remains to be done to address payday lending. CRL Legislative Counsel Oneshia Herring testified at the field hearing in Nashville. Noting existing protections afforded military members and their families, as well as payday’s long-term cycle of debt, Herring urged CFPB to set new limits.

“While the CFPB cannot limit in-

terest rates, it can and should limit the length of time lenders can keep borrowers in debt and require that lenders evaluate a borrower’s ability to repay the loan,” said Herring. “It is time to end these debt trap loans and promote fair and affordable small-dollar products that bring financial stability rather than financial agony.”

There is hope that the days of unbridled payday lending are numbered. During the Nashville forum, Director Cordray made it known that a new rule on payday lending could come out in the near future.

Already, CFPB’s track record of enforcement has improved transparency and fairness in consumer lending. In just three years, CFPB has returned over $750 million to consumers who were victims of various violations of consumer protection laws and has assessed more than $40 million in related penalties.

As CRL’s Calhoun has said, “We need to end the debt trap model to make more room for affordable and responsible loan products that both benefit lenders and leave their customers better, rather than worse, off.”

Charlene Crowell is a communications manager with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at Charlene.crowell@ responsiblelending.org.

Seaway Bank offers special loans for small businesses in Maywood New Appointee, Terry A. Johnson, Oversees Commercial Loan Programs

Michelle Simmons About River Oaks Center River Oaks Center is known throughout South Suburban Chicago and Northwest Indiana as the place for quality shopping. Located on the corner of 159th Street and Torrence Ave., the shopping mall boasts more than 125 specialty retailers. Among the variety of stores River Oaks Center features: Macy’s, JCPenney, Victoria’s Secret, F.O.G Cosmetics, Aeropostale, Foot Locker and more! For more information visit www.shopriveroakscenter.com.

Seaway Bank and Trust Company recently announced the re-launch of the Business Façade Micro Loan Program. The program is part of a partnership with the Village of Maywood and serves to promote the renewal of commercial corridors by providing affordable loans for small businesses for building improvements and additions. With the relaunch of the program, Seaway Bank welcomes a new face with the appointment of Terry A. Johnson as the assistant vice president and commercial loan officer who will oversee all loan programs at the Maywood Branch.

“Our partnership with Seaway Bank and Trust Company has been a true testament to a public and private collaboration that promotes business development and improvement,” said Village of Maywood Project Manager Angela Smith.

“The Village of Maywood welcomes Terry Johnson, and we look forward to a continued partnership with Seaway Bank.”

Through the Business Façade Micro Loan Program, small businesses in the Village of Maywood will now have the opportunity to refresh

the appearance of their business through improvements such as awnings, signage, exterior lighting and façade renovations, aiding in the continued development, stability and growth of the Maywood business community.

“I am proud to be a new member of the Seaway Bank family,” said Johnson. “With the reestablishment of the Business Façade Micro Loan Program, we are looking forward to helping small businesses located within the village grow through this

BLACKS MUST CONTROL THEIR OWN COMMUNITY

endeavor. The growth of small business bodes well for increasing employment opportunities and additional revenue for the Village of Maywood.”

With 25 years of experience as a banking professional, Johnson’s past accomplishments include influencing a 15 percent increase in new business development, negotiating and structuring a $35-million credit facility for a local medical group and establishing long-term business relationships with several commercial lenders in the Chicago market.

Through his dedication to supporting small business development and community improvement, Johnson aims to help create jobs and stimulate economic growth within the Village of Maywood, by using the Micro Loan program as one of the tools to accomplish those goals.

For detailed program requirements or additional information about commercial lending, contact Terry A. Johnson at 708-450-4101, Ext. 343.

About Seaway Bank and Trust Company

Terry A. Johnson

Seaway Bank and Trust Company is a Chicago-based community bank serving families, churches/ (Continued on page 17) Saturday, April 5, 2014

9

EDUCATION

Project Syncere gets $25,000 from transportation firm Cubic Transportation Systems, Inc., recently announced the company gave $25,000 donation to Project SYNCERE (Supporting Youth’s Needs with Core Engineering Research Experiments). The Chicago-based nonprofit provides educational programs to youth in Chicago to increase the number of minority, female and underserved students pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

“We are proud to support Project SYNCERE and hope our gift can equip more students with the skills needed to succeed in the global market. By expanding the pool of technical talent right here in Chicago we can help fuel the growth of numerous technology incubators springing up across the region,” said Bob Deiter, regional director at Cubic Transportation Systems.

Project SYNCERE will use the donation to support its elementary and

high school programs, summer STEM camps and workshops. Cubic presented the check to Jason Coleman, co-founder and executive director of Project SYNCERE, at Wendell Green Elementary School on Chicago’s South Side. The Longwood Manor Elementary School partners with Project SYNCERE to implement its in-school enrichment program.

“This donation will allow us to support more students in underserved communities with free and low-cost STEM educational programs,” said Coleman. “We appreciate Cubic’s support in helping achieve our mission of empowering more of Chicago’s youth to succeed in these critical, growing fields.”

Cubic is the main provider of Ventra, the CTA and Pace’s new open fare system. The company helps make a difference in the community by supporting a wide range of nonprofit organizations throughout the

PROJECT SYNCERE CO-FOUNDER and executive Jason Coleman (left) shakes hands with Cubic’s Michael Loeffler.

CUBIC CHICAGO’S MICHAEL LOEFFLER (far right) and Monica Onate (far left) presented a big check to Project SYNCERE co-founders Jason Coleman and George Wilson at Wendell Green Elementary School in the Longwood Manor neighborhood. country. Cubic has an especially Cubic® Transportation Systems, transportation payment transactions strong commitment to organiza- Inc., is a leading integrator of pay- are processed using Cubic payment tions that promote education in the ment and information technology and information systems worldwide. fields of technology and engineer- and services for intelligent travel so- Cubic has delivered over 20 regional ing. lutions. Cubic delivers integrated back office operations which togethsystems for transportation and traf- er integrate over 130 transport operfic management, delivering tools for ators and serve over 38 million peoAbout Cubic travelers to choose the smartest and ple every day in major markets easiest way to travel and pay for their around the world. Active projects inTransportation Systems journeys, and enabling transporta- clude London; Brisbane (Southeast Cubic® Transportation Systems, tion authorities and agencies to Queensland) region, Australia; New Inc., is part of Cubic Corporation. manage demand across the entire York/New Jersey region; WashingCubic Corporation is the parent transportation network – all in real- ton, D.C. /Baltimore/Virginia recompany of three major business time. Cubic specializes in design, de- gion; Los Angeles region; San Diego segments. Cubic Defense Systems is velopment, manufacture, supply, in- region; San Francisco region; Mina leading provider of realistic com- stallation, integration, services and neapolis/St. Paul; Chicago; Atlanta bat training systems and secure information. Services provided by region; Miami (South Florida) recommunications systems. Mission Cubic include on-site management, gion; Vancouver and Edmonton, Support Services is a leading pro- central systems, operations support, Canada; Sydney (New South vider of training, operations, main- patron support, business support Wales), Australia; Germany; and Scandinavia. tenance, technical and other support and field services.

Every year, more than 24 billion services for U.S. and allied nations.

HON. DOROTHY BROWN (CENTER, LEFT), Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, and Hon. Timothy Evans (Center, Right), Chief Judge, Circuit Court of Cook County, are surrounded by the more than 50 women judges and justices of the First District Appellate Court and the Circuit Court of Cook County who were honored during the Clerk’s Office’s Women’s History Month event that recognized “Outstanding Women in the Judiciary.” The judges received trophies and certificates during the program which was held in the Chase Tower Auditorium and sponsored by PennCredit, Harris & Harris, and Prestige Home Healthcare, and presented by Clerk Brown, the Clerk’s Office’s Women’s Advisory Committee and JP Morgan Chase and Company.

10

Saturday, April 5, 2014

BLACKS MUST CONTROL THEIR OWN COMMUNITY

www.chicagocrusader.com

COMMUNITY COMMUNITY

Summer Program slots still available through ParentPowerChicago Anyone who was unable to attend ParentPowerChicago’s free Summer Program Fair at McCormick Place March 29, may still be able to find slots for their children for programs this summer. There are hundreds of programs in the organization’s network for pre-K through high school students—from tutoring and mentoring to music, sports, recreation and internships. You can find them on their website, www.parentpowerchicago.org.

An estimated 2,000 parents attended the Summer Program Fair; so fewer spots are open. Dozens hovered at the entrance, waiting for the 10 a.m. start. Some were able to enroll their children onsite. When they left, many said it was like being a kid in a candy shop.

Johnnie B. Williams, president of the 81st and Green Block Club and grandmother of three, spent three hours visiting booths. “It was amazing! The various vendors had so much good information about the different programs available for young people,” she said. “My neighbors and friends are going to be thrilled when I share this information.”

The huge turnout fulfilled the organizers’ expectations. “There’s this misconception that parents

in certain communities aren’t interested in their kids’ success,” said ParentPowerChicago Resource Hub Director Tara Nance. “We believe that all they need is access to the resources. This fair proved it: We delivered and they came in droves.”

“I am so, so grateful for this!” said Juanita Scott of Hyde Park.

“The vendors were very knowledgeable and helpful. There was something for every age, in every part of the city. I even found a program for my daughter, who wants to be a veterinarian. I certainly didn’t expect that.”

Exhibitors said they were delighted by the turnout and diversity of the parents’ interests: “I couldn’t believe how many people wanted financial literacy classes for their kids!” remarked Harlette Washington of the Southside Community Federal Credit Union.

Many of the children’s programs are free; several offer special discounts to ParentPowerChicago members. Organization member-

ship is free.

Parent Power Chicago is an independent non-profit organization that connects parents and guardians with educational and cultural resources to support their

children’s success in school. The organization’s mission is to help anyone rearing children in Chicago to fulfill their role as child’s primary educator. For more information, visit parentpowerchicago.com.

“We must have spoken with 100 people today,” said representatives from Mad Science Chicago.

ParentPowerChicago is actively seeking more programs located on the city’s West Side to include in its expanding online resource hub. The organization also has a 24-hour Helpline staffed by representatives who can answer par-

PARENTS ATTENDING THE recent summer programs exhibit learned there are a number of sports, academic and cultural activities to keep their youngsters engaged.

PARENTS SHOPPED FOR the perfect summer program for their children during a program fair sponsored by the ParentPowerChicago. www.chicagocrusader.com

ents’ questions: (773) 907-2777.

THE SUMMER PROGRAM offered by ParentPowerChicago attracted nearly 2,000 South and West side residents who were looking for activities for their children. More than 100 programs throughout the city were on exhibit. Parents can still explore programs at the organization’s website – www.parentpowerchicago.org.

TEENS VISITED THE ParentPowerChicago fair to learn about more than 100 summer programs targeting students on the city’s South and West sides. Organizers said students and parents were surprised at the number of offerings.

BLACKS MUST CONTROL THEIR OWN COMMUNITY

Saturday, April 5, 2014

11

ENTERTAINMENT

By Elaine Hegwood Bowen, MSJ

By Raymond Ward Brian Culbertson (www.BrianCulbertson.me) was a 20-year-old music major at the DePaul University School of Music recording demos in the bedroom of the crowded Chicago apartment on Fullerton Avenue that he shared with three roommates when the three tracks he sent to a record label exec in Los Angeles landed the student playing trombone in the university’s jazz ensemble a 6-album record deal. Since then, the massively popular keyboardist-producer-songwriter has racked up 27 No. 1 Billboard singles, including the aptly titled first cut, “Fullerton Ave.,” from his newly released 14th album, “Another Long Night Out,” a reinterpretation of the debut disc, “Long Night Out.” On Saturday, April 5, Culbertson will return to DePaul to play a short set from the new collection - his sixth album to debut at No. 1 - in the same rehearsal room where he performed for the first Brian Culbertson time as a keyboardist 20 years ago.

The Chicago visit is part of the distinguished alum’s “Another Long Night Out: Brian Culbertson’s 20th Anniversary Concert Tour” currently playing shows throughout the U.S. and will include a 10-night stand in London, England. The intimate setting at DePaul can only accommodate 120 lucky guests comprised of students, fans and VIP school donors. Attendees of legal drinking age will be able to taste the newly uncorked Culbertson Pinot Noir, which the artist blended in partnership with Jamieson Ranch Vineyards and Reata Wines of Napa, California where Culbertson founded and serves as creative director for a star-studded wine and jazz festival, Napa Valley Jazz Getaway, taking place for the third time June 11-15, 2014.

Jonathan Butler “Another Long Night Out” is the type of album Grammy voters love to embrace. It showcases Culbertson at the height of his creative power as a multi-instrumentalist, producer and arranger. Instead of playing most of the instruments himself as he did with the shoestring budget he had to record “Long Night Out,” this outing stars the contemporary jazz royalty that inspired Culbertson to make the first recording, including Lee Ritenour, Chuck Loeb, Jonathan Butler, Rick Braun, Candy Dulfer, Russ Freeman, Steve Lukather, Eric Marienthal, Nathan East, Paul Jackson Jr., Ray Parker Jr., Will Kennedy, Jimmy Haslip, Patches Stewart, Jeff

Lots of female bonding in ‘The Single Moms Club’ “The Single Moms Club” is a female bonding movie where five single mothers who have children at the same private prep school find themselves working together on a school event.

Nia Long plays May; Wendi McClendon-Covey plays Jan; Amy Smart plays Hillary, Cocoa Brown plays Lytia and Zulay Henao plays Esperanza.

While watching this film, I immediately thought of the 1996 movie “The First Wives Club” with Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton and others, as these newly divorced wives joined in solidarity to wreak havoc on their ex-hubbies.

“The Single Moms Club” really grew out of a first meeting for the planned fundraiser for the prep school, an event that had been assigned them to atone for their children’s bad conduct. While planning the event—and even getting to know each other better—the women decided that they desperately needed time away from their kids. So it began that one mother would watch all the other kids for a Saturday night, while the other moms went out on the town. The next weekend, they would switch up. The women didn’t all get along initially, because some were from well-to-do households and a few more were really struggling trying to make ends meet. Sort of Whole Foods meets Aldi.

I liked this movie enough, and since it is a Tyler Perry production— sans Madea—Tyler worked himself a part in it, along with actor Terry

NIA LONG AND Massai Z. Dorsey, as her son Rick, share a lighter moment.

Crews. Perry played T.J., a guy who during most of the movie between owns a lighting and staging compa- Lytia and Branson. ny, which comes in handy once he Of course, then there is the stereoand May made acquaintance with typical “snobbery” exhibited by the each other. May is trying to take care white women in the movie, even of her teen son, while keeping him though one is ill-equipped to take guarded from the fact that his father care of her three children—since she has a drug problem. had been assisted by a nanny, until Crews plays Branson, a suitor of her funds ran out. The other mom is Lytia’s, who just didn’t want to have a “super-mom,” who works entirely anything to do with him and loudly too much, but is slowly losing a hanand brazenly lets him know this. I dle on her teen daughter. And yet get the problems associated with sin- another mom is having trouble gle moms raising children, and par- starting a new relationship and ticularly these problems are magni- keeping it from her ex-hubby who is fied when the children are just footing most of the bills unruly. And I guess we couldn’t have In the end, all is well, and the a movie about single moms and pro- fundraiser turns out to be an “enduced by Perry, without there being chanting” success, but I would the sassy mom who is straight from much rather have seen a repeat of the “other side of town” and just “The First Wives Club”—as it had a gives the only man who seems to be bit more bite. “The Single Moms paying attention to her a hard time. Club” is playing in theaters everyThat is the relationship portrayed where.

Ray Parker Jr.

Ricky Lawson 12

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Kashiwa, the late Ricky Lawson and Ricky Peterson along with a 33piece orchestra playing arrangements

by David Benoit and Culbertson.

The musicianship is masterful on the lushly produced and arranged tracks.

WENDI MCCLENDON-COVEY, Cocoa Brown, Zulay Henao and Amy Smart have a night out on the town in “The Single Moms Club.”

BLACKS MUST CONTROL THEIR OWN COMMUNITY

www.chicagocrusader.com

ENTERTAINMENT

NOAH A Review by Bonnie DeShong Most of you have read or have heard the story of Noah and the Ark. The story spans from the 6th through the 10th chapters of Genesis. If you are planning to see this

mind with no preconceived notions.

Writer/Director Darren Aronofsky and writer Ari Handel have stepped out on faith with this version of the story.

This film starring Russell Crowe

A SCENE FROM Noah, released Friday, March 28 in theatres, (l to r) Russell Crowe (Noah), Anthony Hopkins (Methuselah) and Gavin Casalegno (Young Shem). film expecting to see the tradition- as Noah is a decent film. It would al depiction of the biblical story of be an interesting story that one Noah, don’t do it. Go with an open could buy into and believe that de-

THE DEPICTED VERSION of the ark, based off the story in the Bible, which was built by Noah to save the people and two of every animal from the great flood. in which the heritage is passed picts the end of mankind if it was THE story of Noah and the Ark. According to Genesis, Noah was down, the tips of the fingers light set in the future or in a parallel uniwell into his 500th year on earth up E.T. style. verse. Instead it has been sold as when GOD told him to build an ark. Since his grandfather, MethThis film is interesting, dark, uselah (Anthony Hopkins) lived to thought provoking, action packed, be 969 years old, Noah would have and good if it was intended to be a probably looked as fit as Russell science fiction film.

Crow at the young age of 500 plus.

The problems with the film are: Aronofsky had good intentions the E.T. finger light up, the flair to pay homage to the wonderful guns, the costume designs, the biblical story. He created the ark in stone watchers, and the large break the dimensions of those given in from the original story. the bible. He takes the time to conCostumes – This is old world. tinuously remind of us the creThe women wore dresses. In the ation, Adam and Eve’s fall from film they wear pants. Not baggy grace, and the first murder. He pants but tight fitting pants and skillfully builds the characters of blouses with skin showing.

Noah, his wife, and sons to make The villain, Tubal Cain (Ray Win- us understand their choices and stone) who is the descendent of even choose sides.

Cain, has a flair gun. The fallen angels that are now known as “The I say SPEND THE MONEY Watchers” are stone walking crea- and see NOAH in the theaters, but tures. don’t go with preconceive notions.

There is a magical ember that Go with the intention of seeing a makes fire and during a ceremony good, entertaining film.

JENNIFER CONNELLY (Naameh – wife of Noah) and Russell Crowe (title character Noah) in “Noah.”

Buy Black: An Economic Empowerment Strategy (Continued from page 5) the viability of a consumer-driven economic empowerment strategy depends on segregation or oppression of a community is to fall prey to the notion that the Black community must be forced into greatness…On the

contrary, I believe we can bring back the economic empowerment that sustained the Black community before and until integration.”

To do that, however, we need to leverage modern-day technology.

“It is now easier than ever before to

learn about, mobilize, seek and support Black-owned businesses,” Anderson wrote. “Therefore, technology enables us to involve consumers in an economic empowerment strategy by educating, inspiring and facilitating their practice of self-help economics.”

Now, does she have your attention?

George E. Curry, former editorin-chief of Emerge magazine, is editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service (NNPA.) He is a keynote speaker, moderator, and media

Call

LETTER TO THE EDITOR (Continued from page 4) ask what is Rauner going to do for the Black community if he wins.

Politicians, regardless of race, often make the mistake that Black preachers with large churches or megachurches can deliver large numbers of Black votes. What these pols don’t seem to get is most people go for www.chicagocrusader.com

spiritual rather than political guidance. Meeks’ Salem Baptist Church may have 20,000 members on its roster, but given the pathetic voter turnout in recent elections, it would be a miracle if half of those 20,000 actually voted. Rauner certainly is not the one who can cause a rush at

the polls. Had he decided to ditch the intermediary and come directly to the people, which would truly be different, and then he might have the attention of the Black community.

Already his approach has created a divide between Black preachers and the experienced political operatives on the GOP side. That will make the

preachers even more ineffective. Unless Meeks and other Black preachers can begin telling the community what backing a GOP candidate means for the community, and not just the preachers, those preachers will soon be on the outside (of both parties) looking in.

BLACKS MUST CONTROL THEIR OWN COMMUNITY

coach. Curry can be reached through his website, www.georgecurry.com. You can also follow him at www.twitter.com/curry george and George E. Curry Fan Page on Facebook.

Marcus Brown

773-752-2500 to place your Classified Ad Saturday, April 5, 2014

13

ARTS AND CULTURE

Mark Rucker, baritone, to perform at Emmanuel Baptist Church

By Barbara Wright-Pryor Mark Rucker, internationally acclaimed baritone, will be the guest artist in a recital featuring selected works of renowned composer and educator Rev. Dr. Lena McLin in Emmanuel Baptist Church’s sixth annual observance of Women’s History Month. “Celebrating African American Female Composers of Sacred Music” will be held Sunday, April 13, 2014 at 4:00 p.m. in the church sanctuary at 8301 South Damen Avenue. Admission is FREE. The performance will feature the works for voice and piano written by Dr. McLin.

Dr. McLin, an internationally renowned composer and retired Chicago Public Schools music educator, was Rucker’s high school music teacher at Chicago’s Kenwood Academy High School who continually told him, to his disbelief, that some day he would be performing onstage at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. That prophecy came true during the 200405 Metropolitan Opera season when Rucker was engaged to perform the role of Amonasro in Giuseppe Verdi’s “Aida” and which this writer and other family members attended.

Mark Rucker has performed at

other major opera houses nationally, including performances as Renato opposite tenor Luciano Pavarotti (Gustavo) in Verdi’s “Un ballo in masquera” with The Philadelphia Opera, and has performed on opera stages throughout the world, but never in his own hometown of Chicago. Chicago- ans are yet awaiting his debut “at home,” his national and international reputation notwithstanding.

Mark Rucker

Rucker will return from Liege, Belgium where he is currently appearing as Amonasro in performances of Verdi’s “Aida” in order to salute Dr. McLin.

The musical celebration is annually presented by the Music Ministry and Friends of Music of Emmanuel Baptist Church to recognize African American female composers of sacred music. This year’s program is a retrospective observance of Women’s History Month which is celebrated annually during the month of March.

Avon E. Walker is Project Director; Dr. Rogers W. Jackson is Pastor; and Dr. L. K. Curry is Pastor Emeritus of Emmanuel Baptist Church. For further information, please call the church office at 773239-6828.

Soli Deo Gloria presents the Chicago Bach Project in the St. Matthew Passion Grammy Award-winning conductor John Nelson returns to Chicago to lead the fourth annual Chicago Bach Project in a one-night-only performance of J. S. Bach’s soaring St. Matthew Passion Friday, April 11 at 7:30 p.m. at a new venue for the Chicago Bach Project, the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, at Millennium Park, 205 E. Randolph St. “The Chicago Bach Project is thrilled to come to the Harris Theater with its central location, its fabulous acoustics, and its perfect size,” Nelson says. “Bach’s glorious music will be heard clearly and powerfully in this space.”

This year’s presentation features soloists Nicholas Phan, Evangelist; Stephen Morscheck, Jesus; Lisette

Oropesa, soprano; Lawrence Zazzo, countertenor; Colin Ainsworth, tenor; Matthew Brook, bass-baritone; Tobias Greenhalgh, baritone; and The Chicago Bach Choir, Donald Nally, Chorus Master; The Chicago Bach Orchestra; and Anima-Young Singers of Greater Chicago, Emily Ellsworth, Artistic Director.

Many consider The Passion of Our Lord According to St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, the most moving of all sacred works, portraying the musical narrative of the greatest story ever told. Maestro Nelson’s recent release of the work on DVD has garnered high praise from BBC Music magazine, Gramophone, American Record Guide and music critics alike.

Soli Deo Gloria’s Chicago Bach

Project has staged world-class productions of J. S. Bach’s monumental sacred masterworks each spring since 2011. The project launched with a sold-out performance of the St. Matthew Passion conducted by Nelson at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Lincoln Park. Nelson, Soli Deo Gloria’s founding artistic director, also conducted the project’s 2012 St. John Passion and 2013 Mass in B Minor.

John Nelson/Photo by David Zaugh

Ticket prices are $25-$55; $12.50 – Students with ID and can be purchased at the Harris Theater Box Office, by telephone at 312-334-7777, and online at HarrisTheaterChicago.org. For group student discounts, contact Soli Deo Gloria at 630-9844300. For more information, visit ChicagoBachProject.org.

Congratulations to the Sphinx Junior Division Winners 1st Place: Sterling Elliott - cello Fourteen-year old Sterling Elliott began his cello studies at the age of three under the direction of Suzuki Cello teacher Susan Hines.

Sterling, the youngest of 3 siblings, did not originally want to play the cello; he wanted to play the violin like his older brother and sister. After a bit of encouragement, he made The Elliott Family String Quartet perfect by learning to play the cello.

Sterling performs frequently with his siblings and mother in the Elliott Family Quartet/Trio.

2nd Place: Mira Williams - viola Mira Williams, 15, studies viola with Marko Dreher. Under the baton of James Setapen, Mira is principal violist for the Academy of the Music Institute of Chicago, a pre-college program for gifted, young musicians. She has been a William Warfield Scholar at the Academy from 2009 to the present. Mira performs regularly with Academy members and has participated in master classes and private lessons with Almita and Roland Vamos, Kirsten Docter, Heidi Castleman,

Rachel Barton Pine, Steve Tenenbom, Mark Jackobs, Caroline Coade, Jeffrey Irvine, Roberto Diaz, David Bowlin, Paul Neubauer, and Robert Rozek, who called her “a big international talent with world class instincts.”

3rd Place: Hannah White - violin Hannah, age 13, has been playing the violin seven years. A fellow, she is in her fourth year as merit scholarship recipient and member of the Music Institute of Chicago’s Academy, a pre-college training program for highly gifted

musicians where she studies with MIC artist faculty members Dr. Hye-Sun Lee and Almita Vamos.

Hannah is also a recipient of the William Warfield Memorial Scholarship.

The annual Sphinx Competitions were held in Detroit during February, 2014.

For information about The Sphinx Organization, a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of young Black and Latino classical musicians based in Detroit, Michigan and founded by violinist Aaron Dworkin, visit Sphinxmusic.org (Contributing: AfriClassical.com)

Sterling Elliott, Mira Williams and Hannah White 14

Saturday, April 5, 2014

BLACKS MUST CONTROL THEIR OWN COMMUNITY

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SPIRITUALLY SPEAKING

A Moment to Super Size Your Thinking

By Effie Rolfe Spiritual Interventions. Congratulations to Pastor Kimberly Ray, international speaker and Pastor of Church on the Rock who will celebrate 8 years on June 2nd. We recently chatted about her recent engagement and latest book, Spiritual Interventions on Karisma House. “It was released January 7th and the reprinting was 4 weeks later.” She feels the book is unique because “It’s not just another book on prayer, it addresses the top 10 prayer requests from people around the world and gives you how to intervene when you invite God through the power of prayer and agreement to intervene in major situations that are facing people all over the world. I have been overwhelmed by the response from people reading the book. Each chapter talks about how to deal with different trauma and situations, and teaches mature intercessors on how to effectively pray for an individual so they too can receive deliverance.

It’s not in a shallow way but how to be delivered,” said the Televi-

Effie Rolfe sion host and Pastor.

The author admitted until recently that she has been a happy single Pastor, “I’ve been so busy pastoring and ministering. It’s been daunting in that my travels

have kept me isolated…but it’s been wonderful. I’ve been a happy single person and now I am happier and engaged.” Pastor Ray met her fiancé last April, “I was sitting in a brand new restaurant—my sister Denise had mentioned to me days before. I was reading my bible and studying in the restaurant preparing to speak in Milwaukee. Actually, I was waiting to meet my producer who was delayed with his production and asked me to give him more time. This wonderful man came to the table and spoke. He was very gracious and masculine and asked to be allowed to introduce himself. It was brief because he did not want to dominate my time. He left, paid for my meal and left his card,” she said smiling.

The date is close to being chosen, but we’re waiting for confirmation on the location. The scripture states, ‘… the man that finds a wife, finds a good thing.’

Our responsibility is to seek to please the Lord and in the book of Corinthians seeks to please him in body and in spirit and pursue the things of God. When

it’s time to be found, God will anoint the person to find you.

Chapter 8 intervention for single women gives biblical content of our roles while waiting. It gives pitfalls for women not to fall into. Not to put your life in a holding pattern, understanding when a man is going to commit and when he’s not. The times have changed because our single successful women are having difficulty being found, because men have changed their desire to pursue women to have that alternative lifestyle. It is true that some men are players because their resources are many women.”

When asked if she thought God desires all people to be married, Pastor Ray said, “I believe that God made woman for man, it is His will for us to be married and have families and to proceed in his blessings. Yet God has given us free will. There are some women who have no desire to be married. Some men want to pursue women but would rather have financial stability first without any distractions. There are some variables there but I believe God made woman for man.” She

also shared that it’s ok for people of different ethnicities to marry as long as you are of like faith, Christians are not unequally yoked spiritually. “It’s fine to marry someone who is not of your nationality.”

Her message of encouragement to people is “During times of prayer in Isaiah, the Lord gave me a revelations about the eagle, he goes into the valley—loses its feathers. Calcium is built up on his beak and he loses his grip and also has a tendency to lose its desire for food. During the time of

The Crusader Gospel Corner Apostolic Faith Church celebrated Bishop Dr. Horace E. Smith and Lady Susan D. Smith in the 34th year pastoral anniversary this past Sunday. The celebratory services were held this past Sunday with guest speakers including Bishop William Hudson, III and Pastor Jacqueline McCollugh of New York.

As pastor of the Apostolic Faith Church and an attending physician specializing in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Children’s Memorial Hospital, Dr. Horace E. Smith has treated bodies and souls for three decades. Since he was appointed pastor of Apostolic Faith Church in 1980, the membership has grown from 200 to over 3,000. The physician and pastor also authored Blood Works. For more information about the ministry call 773-373-8500.

The Youth of Upright MB Church present their 5th production of the Holy and Acceptable Youth Fashion Show entitled Pure Royalty: Heirs To The Throne on Saturday, April 19 at the AFC Center Revelations Hall, 7859 S. Ashland Avenue in Chicago at 6 p.m.

The event will include an open reception and vendor viewing and 7 p.m. fashion show with some of Chicago’s hottest designers and boutiques along with special musical guests. Also, the church will raffle a free prom dress and tuxedo rental supplied by one of the featured designers. Tickets are $10 for youth ages 6-17 and $20 for adults 18 plus. A portion of all proceeds will www.chicagocrusader.com

be donated to the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention. Upright Missionary Baptist Church, 1155 East 93rd Street, Chicago. For more information call 773-7313888 or email: uprightmbchurch@yahoo.com.

Pastor Corey Brooks received people from the Chicago land area for the Women’s Conference Intensify held March 27-30. Anointed women pastors, leaders and psalmist came to share in the four-day conference, including Pastor Kimberly Ray, Patrice Washington, Tiff Joy, Tera Carissa Hodges, Marissa Farrow, Terri Owens, Vivian Matos and

Pastor Corey Brooks Sharon Ruff. The radio host and activist posted on social media, “Thank you all for joining us at our 2014 Intensify Women’s Conference! An incredible impact was made that touched hearts and changed lives!” Brooks is the host of

the Community Hour on Inspiration 1390 at 2 p.m.

NBC5 Chicago presented a Townhall Meeting “Making a Difference” from 12:45 to 2 p.m. at Josephine’s Cooking, 436 E. 79th Street in Chicago. NBC executives, on air staff along with executive producers from the Steve Harvey TV and radio show participated in a presentation and discussion about programming to cover more positive events as well as partnering within organizations concerning the African American community. Also, ministers and leaders from around the city were in strong attendance and suggestions regarding reporting techniques. For more information about this or upcoming events contact Deborah Brown Farmer at 312-836-5611.

Happy 30th birthday celebration to Chicago musician and choir director, Sidney Buckner. The celebration is April 5, 7 p.m. at Pilgrim M.B. Church, 8220 West 91st Street in Hickory Hills. The founder of Youth in Unity has invited family and friends as his special guests to help celebrate his special day. Pilgrim Combined Choirs, the Soulful Southernairs, David Richardson, Jr. and True Worship, One 4 Christ, The Allegro Metro Mass Choir of GMWA, D Andre Ovaile Short and Travis Crockett and Powerful Voices of Praise. All are welcomed. For more information call 708-5681714 or e-mail blessyourheartproductions@gmail.com.

The Seven Last Words of Christ The Sixth Grace Presbyterian Church is hosting several events leading up to its Easter Worship Service. Starting on Thursday, April 17 at 7:00 p.m. attend the “Maundy Thursday Services and Agape Feast in the church at 600 East 35th Street. “The Seven Last Words of Christ – A Sacred Cantata” is presented on Saturday, April 19 at 4:30 p.m. with a reception immediately after the service in the Register Hall.

The public is invited to come back and join the church for its Easter Worship Service the next day, Sunday, April 20 at 11 a.m. For more information call the church at (312) 225-5300.

Grace Central Church celebrates its 5th Year Anniversary The public is invited to join the Grace Central Church in celebrating their 5th Year Church Anniversary during the entire month of April. Pastor Clay Evans of Fellowship M.B.C. will be the keynote speaker and one of the many ambassadors of God attending to impart their wisdom and encouragement to the them of “Against All Odds.” The banquet for the anniversary event is 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 19 at Grace Central Church, 10216 Kitchener Street, Westchester, IL 60154 where Darius Brooks is the Senior Pastor and Madeline McGhee-Absher is the Anniversary Chairperson.

BLACKS MUST CONTROL THEIR OWN COMMUNITY

Pastor Kimberly Ray standing in the sun, the eagle is replenished, restored and revived and as he waits in the sun he regains his strength. Then he’s prepared to go back into flight. Some people have suffered through the process of the valley. God is going to use the strong wind and tumultuous winds of life and propel people back into a place of soaring. While you are waiting—He’s renewing your strength. Things are about to get better,” shared Ray. Lastly, to those who have endured down through the years she said, “He has not forgotten and will reward the faithful for your labor of love. The youth will faint and be weary: the young men will utterly fall…(Isaiah 40:30) The book is available online and wherever books are sold. kray@angierayministries.com or angierayminstries.com or pastorkimberlyray.com.

Do you need a spiritual intervention...? ©Effie Rolfe is the author of “Supersize Your Thinking,” a Media Personality and Motivational Speaker. You can visit my website: effierolfe.com or follow me at twitter.com/effiedrolfe.

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HEALTH

Advocate Trinity Hospital’s Doctors’ Week Whether it was celebrating their accomplishments with a large luncheon featuring an out-of-state choir or offering health and educational seminars throughout the week, Advocate Trinity Hospital showed appreciation to its physician for their hard work as part of National Doctors’ Week. An annual tradition, hospital officials wanted to acknowledge the tireless work that hundreds of doctors perform daily to make Trinity a better place for doctors to practice and patients to receive care.

One of the main events was a luncheon where doctors took some time to talk with colleagues, receive a gift and have a special meal in the hospital’s solarium.

“There is so much incredible work every one of you do everyday to elevate this hospital. We appreciate all the care you give to our patients,” said Michelle Gaskill, Advocate Trinity president, during the luncheon.

Those who attended were treated

to the musical styling of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology a capella choir. Dressed in red and black, they performed modern and Christian songs. The group, which was on spring break, drew applause after their three-song set. There was also a Physician Information Technology Fair in the Bi-Room that educated doctors on new technology and practices.

In addition, Dr. Zachary Fainman, chairman of the Advocate Physician Advisor Council, provided physicians with a brief seminar on hospital collaboration in a changing world. He talked about best practices for making appropriate level of care decisions under the 2-midnight rule. The new federal policy states a patient whose hospital stay does not span over two midnights will be considered as receiving outpatient services, and the hospital will be reimbursed at the lower rate. The review period will start in September. He also talked about other initiatives that are tak-

ADVOCATE TRINITY HOSTING a luncheon for its doctors during Doctor’s Week. ing precedent now.

“Documentation will be one of the most important aspects any

doctor can focus on,” said Fainman.

The weeklong festivities ended in an ice cream social inside the Light on a Hill cafeteria.

About Trinity Hospital Providing healthcare on the Southeast Side of Chicago for over 115

years, Advocate Trinity Hospital is a 193-bed not-for-profit health care facility. Part of Advocate Health Care, Trinity offers a full range of inpatient and outpatient services as well as a variety of community outreach programs. For more information on Trinity, please visit www.advocatehealth.com/trinity.

ADVOCATE TRINITY PRESIDENT Michelle Gaskill hugs retiring Dr. Herman Leo Morgan.

In the background is retiring Dr. Michelle Bonin.

DR. VINITHA RAGHAVAN and her daughter, Varsha, a senior at M.I.T. enjoying time together.

ADVOCATE TRINITY SENIOR leadership serving food to doctors during Doctor’s Week.

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DR. RICHARD EGWELE and Dr. Dianna Grant sharing a moment during Doctor’s Week.

BLACKS MUST CONTROL THEIR OWN COMMUNITY

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HOUSES FOR SALE

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BLACKS MUST CONTROL THEIR OWN COMMUNITY

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SPORTS

Chicago entrepreneur is basketball legend

By Glenn Reedus For someone who has never shot a free throw in a professional game, blocked a shot or was on the scoring end of a fast break; Kandais Conda has serious basketball chops. The lifelong Chicagoan and former owner of the now-defunct Women’s Basketball Association (WBA) team was recently inducted into the African American Hall of Fame in Peoria.

The 50-something entrepreneur also is in line to be inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame,

KANDAIS CONDA continues to operate her own consulting business that includes her daughter, a local radio personality as a client. Conda also is the former owner of the Chicago Twisters women’s basketball team.

but that decision is at least three years away Conda said. The possible induction also parallels her inclusion in the Hall of Fame, when the process took so long she had forgotten she had been nominated. Conda laughed about the memory lapse and quickly adds, “The African American Hall of Fame is the big win because someone thought of me enough for it to be important to honor me. They stepped up first and for me that is the summit…anything after that is just gravy.” She added, “I was African American first.”

Her memory is fine when it comes to relating how she moved from the spectators’ seats to the front office of the Chicago Twisters-predecessors to the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Chicago Sky. Part of her downtime as an airman in the United States Air Force in the late 1980s was spent watching all kinds of sporting events as well as playing on the base’s soccer team.

Conda’s post-military career led her to marrying two major interestssports and writing. The result was a basketball-themed magazine, one that put her on the fast track to immersing herself in the sport. Most of her stories were about lesser known sports figures and teams, and impressive enough to have a local women’s basketball team to ask her to help raise its visibility.

The marketing acumen Conda brought to the Honey-Bees caused the owner to believe she was the key in helping the team secure the Chicago franchise in the soon-to-be WNBA league. But the aspirations of the owners clashed with the realities of the admission to the WNBA, including a daunting amount of administrative work as well as a $40,000 entry fee with $10,000

KANDAIS CONDA’S CHICAGO Twister women’s basketball team was able to capture a league title in 1995 after only two years in existence. The Twisters were part of the former Women’s Basketball Association.

CHICAGO ENTREPRENEUR KANDAIS CONDA wears her championship ring daily as a reminder of her historic role as the first African American woman of a pro sports franchise. down. There also was the matter of a scarcity of women for the new team. Ultimately the Honey-Bees opted to continue as an exhibition team.

Conda was soon on her way to making history as the first African American female to own a pro basketball team. In 1993 her team, a www.chicagocrusader.com

blend of players from the Indiana Stars and Iowa Twisters women teams along with a coupe of HoneyBees became the Chicago Twisters.

The team attracted top-tier talent, including its coach Stephanie Rivera, wife of former Chicago Bears standout defensive lineman Ron Rivera. Mrs. Rivera and two Twister players – Diana Vinies, who has a DePaul pedigree and Bolivia Gayton-Thompson were in the WBA’s inaugural All-Star game representing the American Conference, In 1995 Conda’s team won the league championship. Today she still wears her championship ring.

Even a championship didn’t blunt the hurt Conda recalled, “it was extremely tough. It was very emotional,” she related. Her hopes to continue her basketball career stayed alive for about nine months as there was industry talk about the new American Basketball League replacing the WBA, but that league folded in less than a year. The league had tried to bring her on board but she wasn’t interested in relocating her family to California.

Conda’s basketball recollections are replete with positives about people who helped her along the way, particularly the father-daughter team of former NBA player Harvey Cathcings and his daughter Tamika, of the Indiana WNBA team. She said the younger Catchings was always receptive to helping her at bas-

BLACKS MUST CONTROL THEIR OWN COMMUNITY

ketball camps and clinics, while Harvey has been a source of inspiration and one of the people who penned a letter of recommendation for the basketball hall of game.

Although she still ran her consulting business after leaving pro ball, Conda stayed in basketball by working for a joint operation between the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago Park District. She was the coordinator of the project’s late night basketball league. Almost immediately she noticed the 18-24-year-olds in the program needed a lot more than a place to hang out and hoop. Conda incorporated life skills into their activities and soon the players were getting advice on tax preparation, healthy eating and several other components. She explained “the Bulls and the park district wanted an educational component so I brought in everyone who had a service I thought could help the young people.”

Today Conda finds herself working with a variety of small businesses, helping them brand themselves.

She also takes a keen interest in the career of a WGCI-FM radio personality Demi Lobo, as Lobo is her daughter. Conda applies her expertise to raising awareness of the Lobo brand.

Her professional advice to her daughter and all other women in business is “celebrate every win as if it is the big win.”

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