Cover illustration by Jess DuBois

Transcription

Cover illustration by Jess DuBois
starts friday, july 20
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*Double points do not apply to travel units or other rewards. International orders excluded. | Connect with us:
MESSAGE FROM THE PUBLISHER
Volume 26 Number 4
July 2012
PUBLISHER
Rosalind J. Harris
GENERAL MANAGER
Lawrence A. James
MANAGING EDITOR
Sheila Smith
FILM and BOOK CRITIC
Kam Williams
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Martin J. Rios
Shaughnessy Speirs
Sheila Smith
ART DIRECTOR
Bee Harris
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Gillian Conte, The Creative Spirit
Jody Gilbert, Kolor Graphix
PRODUCTION AND OFFICE ASSISTANT
Cecile Perrin
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Cecile Perrin
Lens of Ansar
A’ Star’s Photography
ADVERTISING SALES CONSULTANTS
Rodney Sturgeon
WEB SITE ADMINISTRATOR
Tanya Ishikawa
DISTRIBUTION
Glen Barnes
Lawrence A. James
Ed Lynch
The Denver Urban Spectrum is a
monthly publication dedicated to
spreading the news about people of
color. Contents of the Denver Urban
Spectrum are copyright 2012 by
Rolado, LLC. No portion may be reproduced without written permission of the
publisher.
The Denver Urban Spectrum circulates 25,000 copies throughout
Colorado. The Denver Urban Spectrum
welcomes all letters, but reserves the
right to edit for space, libelous material,
grammar, and length. All letters must
include name, address, and phone
number. We will withhold author’s name
on request. Unsolicited articles are
accepted without guarantee of publication or payment.
Write to the Denver Urban Spectrum
at P.O. Box 31001, Aurora, CO 80041.
Office address is 2727 Welton St.,
Denver, CO 80205.
For advertising, subscriptions, or
other information, call 303-292-6446 or
fax 303-292-6543 or visit the Web site at
www.denverurbanspectrum.com.
Tackling Troubling Times – It’s Time to Put Out the Flames
It’s July – Summertime in the Rockies – a time for summer vacations, family reunions, and picnics in the park – a time
to live and love life.
Sadly for some, this summer will be remembered as one of sorrow and pain. It’s a hot time in Denver and temperatures
are rising and tempers are flaring. And, for good reason.
Last week, Rep. Angela Williams called for an emergency community forum for input from the five P’s – Parents,
Police, Preachers, Politicians, and the Public – seeking answers on how to stop the violence. Having recently lost a young
cousin to gun violence, she is one who will remember this summer with somber memories.
And over the Memorial Day weekend, the Denver community experienced yet a double murder that again proved to be
senseless and more so painful for family and friends.
Williams meeting was followed the next day with yet another community gathering hosted by the NAACP in a house of
prayer where, disappointedly, only a handful of people were in attendance.
Are we headed for another summer of violence like in 1993 when Geronimo Maestas was killed simply over a Bronco
Jersey and when Broderick Bell was caught in the line of fire at the tender age of six? Today, at the age of 25, he still carries that memory literally, by way of the bullet, in his head.
Once in awhile, when God seeks everyone’s attention – he gets it. There comes a time when community has to come
together. This was one of those times. And it’s always at the sacrifice of someone else. This sacrifice was Celena Hollis –
a 32-year-old African American female Denver Police officer, and single mother.
Celena has brought community together. It may not have been her plan, but it was God’s plan. The compassion and
love expressed at the District 2 Police station will outweigh any and all pain.
By the time you read this, much will have happened – more meetings, more talk and Ms. Hollis will have been laid to
rest. What will NOT have happened is the unrest, the pain, the sadness, and the feeling of hopelessness.
As you read this issue and read about the “Summertime in the Rockies” upcoming fun events, take a moment and read
between the lines of messages. It’s time to wake up Denver! Reach out to someone – anyone. Talk to a youth, volunteer
somewhere, donate to a cause, thank a police officer, spend time with an elder – just do it. Pain is silent
and very difficult to hear.
The temperatures will eventually go down. With a concerted effort the tempers will dissipate also if we
come together as we are designed to do.
Peace and blessings...
Rosalind J. Harris
Publisher
MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR
Denver Urban Spectrum
One of our own, a sister, will now be added to the Police
Department
E-mail Addresses
Station District Two’s Fallen Heroes wall. How sad is that, espeDenver Urban Spectrum
cially when a Black female officer was only trying to do her duty to
[email protected]
protect and serve.
Violence has already rocked this city several times this year,
Publisher
involving the deaths of young Black men. This shouldn’t be [email protected]
er hot summer of gang violence and the loss of more of our young
Editor
Black youths.
[email protected]
It pained me further to read a comment by someone who was at the Jazz at the
News & Information
Park event when Officer Celena Hollis was shot in the head.
[email protected]
The person told the reporter, “We’re used to shootings; we grew up in the hood,
Advertising & Marketing
but we’re angry that an officer was hurt in this shootingI. That’s the sad part.”
[email protected]
Well the real sad part is we shouldn’t be used to it and our community continues
Graphics & Design
to let it happen instead of saying enough is enough and being proactive in finding a
[email protected]
real solution to end all of this violence.
Distribution & Circulation
State Senator Mike Johnston and Brother Jeff Fard and others organized a
[email protected]
meeting at the District Two police station the next day after the park shooting,
where many members of the community turned out. Everyone shared their condolences over the loss of Hollis, who was a single mother and veteran with the Denver Police Department since 2005.
Terrence Roberts, founder of the Prodigal Son Initiative, works in the community educating youths about gang violence.
“The same thing happening here (in Denver) is going on in Los Angeles, New York and other cities,” he said. “Kids
don’t have jobs and are traumatized. Kids are afraid of each other, afraid to leave their community. So we are having all
this drama and trauma going on in our city.”
Another person at the meeting said, if anything, Officer Hollis’ death has brought the community and law enforcement
closer together - it’s no longer us and them (police).Someone else added how too many young people are hurting and
something is wrong when they have to start shooting into a crowd of elderly, children and other young
people. “Enough,” is all Denverite John Marsh stated.
While it is a thankless job being a police officer, the community owes these police officers a debt of
gratitude for all they do in the line of duty.
Our community is hurting and traumatized over Officer Hollis’s death but her spirit will live on with us.
Sheila Smith
Managing Editor
Denver Urban Spectrum — www.denverurbanspectrum.com – July 2012
3
With Art Reflects Nature,
CBAF Nourishes Artists, Art, and Life
Perry Ayers with longtime festival volunteer
Rosalyn Washington
W
hen Perry Ayers, his
brother, Oyedele Oginga, and a group
of artists from the community came
together to start the Denver Black Arts
Festival in 1986, there were a lot of
things they didn’t yet have to contend
with. For starters, he could count the
number of summer festivals in the city
on one hand, meaning he did not have
to compete for funding or attendees.
Things didn’t cost as much as they do
now. And while there was a dearth of
African American cultural organizations at the time, in some ways, it
could be seen as a blank slate for such
a creative group.
Twenty-six years later, things have
gotten much more complicated for
event planners and cultural organizations on the whole; and yet the festival
still ticks on – a testament to the
resourcefulness and creativity of its
guiding forces.
This year, the Colorado Black Arts
Festival expanded in having more
artists with fresh faces from farther
away and taking place July 13-15 in
Denver’s City Park West. It’s a daunting task trying to make up for a cultural lack of value and focus on the
arts, especially art from and for the
Black community, but Ayers has never
been one to balk at that challenge.
And why he really started the festival
in the first place.
In 1986, he says, “there were (very
few) African American cultural organizations. They weren’t necessarily
reaching their audience. My brother
and I looked at the picture: we don’t
have a cultural center; we don’t have
galleries; we don’t have theaters.”
“There wasn’t much to count on.
The arts were getting left out...I’d say
that a lot of communities celebrate our
culture sometimes more than we do,”
he acknowledged. “We thought that
was kind of a misplaced energy.”
Ayers and his brother asked, “How
can we bring that all together all at
one time?”
By Shaughnessy Speirs
The answer was the very first
Denver Black Arts Festival. They invited artists from the cultural community
to come and showcase their work. The
first festival took place August 1987,
and, of course, it ended up raining the
whole weekend.
They weren’t ready to give up on
their idea, not yet. But the next year
saw an attendance of 2,500 Denver
residents. The event kept growing into
the tens of thousands. By the 1990s it
had reached 100,000.
From the beginning, it hasn’t been
easy maintaining a festival of this size
and providing room for it to grow.
“No doubt, funding has been one
of the toughest challenges in regards
to producing the event,” Ayers
admits. “When we first started out,
costs of things were nowhere near
what they are today. Keep in mind
back in 1986 you could count the
number of festivals on one hand –
now there are over a hundred. They’re
all vying for the same resources.”
Being around the longest certainly
works in the Colorado Black Arts
Festival’s favor when it comes to competing for funding, but there’s never
any guarantee. They have had to be
resourceful, figuring out how to
organize a large-scale celebration and
invite the whole city all on a shoestring budget.
Festival planners have faced this
challenge with aplomb, expanding the
event through the difficulties, which is
even difficult for Ayers to believe how
they did it.
“It became more than we expected,” he admits. “New ideas, fresh
ideas, folks coming aboard – that was
really encouraging for us to continue.
A lot of organizations got their birth at
the festival.”
“The festival put new energy into
the community about celebrating the
arts on a year-round basis.”
With an eye toward further expansion, what was once called the Denver
Black Arts Festival was renamed the
Colorado Black Arts Festival in an
effort to draw in artists from all across
the Front Range. Ayers hopes the
growth won’t stop there. His vision
for Colorado Black Arts Festival is to
be a regional event, bringing in artists
even from surrounding states.
As an artist himself, Ayers has a
personal connection to the event. He
was once a dancer for Cleo Parker
Robinson Dance in the ‘70s. But he
went through a transition, and now
focuses more on visual arts – mainly
metal sculpture. Oginga, is also a visual artist, and likes working in media
like paint and wood to create images
that bring out his African descent
through folk art but embrace a modern African American identity as well.
Visual art has been a major player
in the lives of these two brothers. Until
now, the visual arts were not given a
unified platform in the festival. “Over
the years, we have been hosting visual
arts and a mix of a lot of other things
in the festival,” says Ayers on the festival’s history with exhibiting visual
work. “This year, we’re making a
stride to separate the visual arts.”
Rather than being scattered in various exhibits throughout the maze of
the festival, some of the best fine art
by Black artists in this state will be
hung in a well-lit gallery.
4
“We wanted to make it a focal
point,” says Ayers. “We’ve invited
some of Denver’s best visual artists in
all media to participate – wood relief,
carvings, pencil, and ink – a real serious mix of media.”
When asked if readers would recognize any of them, he rattles off a list of
names, such as his brother, Oginga and
Jack Price, whose oeuvre consists largely
of emotional, vividly imagined portraits.
“A lot of these artists have got
works you’ve never laid eyes on,” he
says. “They’re bringing out their best
work to exhibit in this gallery.”
Considering the cuts to funding for
arts programming in schools, young
people are arguably the ones most in
need of exposure to the arts and a
home for their creative work. It is
somewhat fitting that they should be
the first in a lineup of a long, full
weekend of arts that is for the Black
community. Each year, around 1,500
youths take part in the Colorado Black
Arts Festival. Friday is devoted to
these young artists who usually perform on three stages, all booked well
in advance, from dance teams, step
teams, drill teams, musicians and
given space to exhibit their visual
work. Hopefully, all of it will add up
and help make up for all of the arts
education that these young people
have already lost, as well as give them
a platform for their creative work.
The youths will also get the chance
to learn more about art at the
Opalanga Pugh Children’s Pavilion
for Art and Learning, named for the
late Denver storyteller. The Pavilion
will house an exhibit of dolls called “A
Doll House,” a maze, and an arts and
ence for festival-goers is the parade,
which will commence at 10 a.m. on
Saturday, July 14.
The parade is one of the most wellattended events. It will comprise of
dance companies, step teams, drum
and drill teams, and a cavalcade of
colorful parade floats, as Channel
9News Reporter TaRhonda Thomas
will be the Grand Marshal.
Mural art is growing in popularity
in Denver, and will be another facet of
the festival that seeks to unite
Denver’s Black muralists into a single
endeavor called the Community Art
Project. Over the course of the weekend, commissioned muralists will
crafts station, among many other children-friendly features.
Ayers hopes the positive effects of
the festival will encourage the arts
back into educational system in this
city, and said, “Showing people in the
community how essential it is that the
arts become part of the curriculum. I
think when we have all the people
come out, it puts us in a position to
work with them and say, ‘hey, our
kids are lacking.’”
Each year, the festival planners
choose a theme for the event, helping
create a unifying thread in the artists’
exhibits and performances. This year
theme is “Art Reflects Nature.”
“We’re paying attention to our natural surroundings,” Ayers says of the
theme. “A lot of times, folks don’t realize many of our elements – wood, glass,
paper, minerals – that‘s all from nature.”
It goes deeper than just the media,
though, it’s about how artists use those
media to illustrate ideas about our ties
to nature. “The music reflects how we
are connected to natural things,” Ayers
says, citing song lyrics like
“Summertime, and the living ain’t
easy,” among others. “How we adorn
our bodies, what we eat, how we speak,
all kinds of things that reflect our connection with the natural world.”
The festival’s goal is to acknowledge
relationship of nature to art and life.
A farmer’s market will be offered
for the first time this year – a practical
way of alluding to the community’s
relationship with nature. Local farmers will have the opportunity to provide lighter fare, like fruits and vegetables, referring to the nourishment
that nature provides while the arts
feed us, too.
While enjoying the exhibits and
performances at the Colorado Black
Arts Festival, patrons will be offered a
number of experiences – some timehonored, some brand new – engaging
them in communal celebration of their
culture.
And of course, the biggest experi-
complete an 8-foot-by-32-foot mural,
which will be given back to the community to enjoy year-round.
Opalanga Pugh, for whom the
Opalanga Pugh Children’s Pavilion is
named, is not the only Denver figure
to be honored in the festival. The Joda
Village Stage and Compound, modeled on the appearance of a Nigerian
village, is named for the late Adetunji
Joda, a drummer, choreographer, and
teacher of African dance. Joda passed
away in October of 2011 and was
nothing short of beloved in this city. A
drum circle on Sunday will celebrate
his life. The gospel stage is named for
the late Freeman “Cosmo” Harris,
5
who died in 2001; the stage will be a
platform to celebrate the brilliant voices of gospel music. Darrell Anderson,
painter and mosaic artist, will be honored with the Louise Duncan Lifetime
Achievement Award.
These are the people that the
Colorado Black Arts Festival is working
for – the Black artists who have committed themselves to bringing color, culture, and love to their neighborhoods,
and making those neighborhoods into
places that nurture and feed art.
“That’s what the arts do, you
know what I mean?” Ayers asks.
“Soothing the beast; and bringing out
the wonderful things of a person.”
Gold Star
Wives…Even
More Relevant
Today
who have lost their spouses in the military on active duty or as the result
service related cause. We are a support group.” says national president,
and Aurora, CO resident, Jeanette
Early. “We have a legislative body
that is concerned about the benefits of
the survivors that are due to the survivors.”
This is a season where we recognize America’s principles and symbols. We acknowledged the military’s
fallen on Memorial Day; the symbol of
our country is recognized on Flag Day
and on the same day the U.S. Army
celebrated its 237th birthday; the
independence and freedom we
hold so dear is celebrated on
July 4th. Veterans of every
ethnicity have fought for
these freedoms and many are
laid to rest in national cemeteries from Arlington to the Golden
Gate, and spouses receive a ceremonial flag as a tribute to their loved ones
service.
A military survivor, in the aftermath of the loss of a loved one faces
daunting challenges and questions.
How will I go on with my life without
my spouse? What about my children?
These concerns have the same relevance through the ages of conflicts
since World War II. There have been
nearly 400,000 battle deaths since
World War II. Early lost her husband
in Viet Nam. When the ultimate sacrifice is made, long- standing benefits
have been available to surviving
spouses and their families; education,
insurance and health care benefits provide the needed support for survivor
families to make it through.
Countless veterans have benefited
from the G.I. Bill of educational benefits when they return from conflicts,
but surviving spouses and their children are also eligible to take advantage of this benefit to make their lives
better and whole. Gold Star Wives
functions as a watchdog and advocacy
organization focused on the continued
modern application of these benefits.
Essentially the same, as time has
passed these benefits have evolved.
“From years past, there have been
improvements or extensions of benefits for education of the children and
for the surviving spouses too. It used
to be that you were eligible for educational benefits up to 10 years after the
spouses’ death and now they have
extended that to a 30-year period,”
says Early. “That is a great benefit,
because many times if the surviving
spouse has children, it may be inconvenient for them to go back to college
or school if they are trying to take care
of their small kids. So extending that
time for benefits for education was a
really good thing.”
With an active government rela-
Jeanette Early
The evening news has traditionally
By Charles Emmons
reported the casualties of war. To date
nearly 6,500 lives have been lost in
Afghanistan and Iraq. Most of us have
only seen the scene played out in
movies. Many times Hollywood has
shown us the emotional moment
when a new military widow receives
news about the death of a loved one in
service to our country. In reality, those
who most relate to this difficult sce-
nario are those who have experienced
it. Many women who lost military
spouses have found some solace in
Gold Star Wives of America, Inc., a
federally chartered non-profit national
support group for military widows
and widowers.
Established in 1945 by three
women in a Manhattan, NY,
apartment, Gold Star Wives of
America’s numbers have dwindled to 10,000, and most are seniors, having lost a spouse in Viet Nam
or before. Similar to other federally
chartered organizations, like the Red
Cross, Gold Star Wives provides services and support where the government cannot. The organization
received its federal charter in 1980,
under Title 36 (Patriotic Societies and
Observances). As the current conflicts
wind down, it continues to have relevance today. “Women should join
Gold Star Wives because it is a support organization for women and men
A BENEFIT FOR
natalie
COLE
Oct. 12, 2012 8pm PARAMOUNT THEATRE
Transplant Surgery
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO
ANSCHUTZ MEDICAL CAMPUS
4 5/8” x 5 ¾”
6
Activities of Gold Star Wives
Color the Hill Gold – Members meet
with congressman to advocate the
modern application of survivor benefits.
Memorial Day and Veterans’ Day
Parades – Members ride in local
parades to bring attention to Gold
Star Wives
Snowball Express – An annual activity, usually in December, just for the
children where they take them out to
a resort, like Six Flags.
Stay-At-Home Tea – A tea bag is
mailed to each member. She is asked
to enjoy a cup of tea, alone in her
home or with friends, or at a Chapter
Tea Party; then mail her donation to
the Fundraising Chairman who is a
member of the Board of Directors.
Donations benefit Gold Star Wives programs.
tions committee in the Washington
D.C. vicinity, Gold Star Wives has
leveraged access to congress and policy makers to ensure important benefits are still available for survivor families. According to Early, some in congress don’t fully understand the needs
of military widows and widowers.
Recent changes in this area were
advised. “That has not been very long,
maybe about 5 or 6 years. These are
things when policy is set, they are sitting behind a desk; they may not really know what is going on outside,
says Early. “So it’s a group, Gold Star
Wives is a cohesive group and we
have a legislative body that will go in
and give testimony about the hardships and undue inconveniences that
the survivor is going through, that
they aren’t aware of, and that is one of
them.”
When there is a policy change,
Gold Star Wives uses every means at
their disposal to communicate them to
its members. There are 52 chapters in
various cities in eight geographical
regions across the country that have
monthly meetings, an annual convention, this year being held in Dayton,
OH, and monthly newsletters on both
a regional and national level. The 2013
convention is slated for Denver. Those
that are not members of a local chapter are designated members at large,
and receive their updates in regional
and national monthly newsletters.
Other tools utilized by Gold Star
Wives include the telephone and surveys. Early notes indicate there are
other support groups for survivors.
There are Survivors Military Widows,
and some Gold Star Wives are Gold
Star Mothers as well, women who
have lost sons or daughters. But for
Early, the thrust and main purpose of
Gold Star Wives is what sets it apart.
There are numerous organizations,
non-profits, and foundations emerging
Did You Know...
•In June, it was reported that 2,000
lives had been in lost in Operation
Enduring Freedom. Over 4,500 have
been lost in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
•According to a February 26, 2010
Congressional Research Service
Report on American War and military
operations, roughly 77 percent of military casualties in Operation Iraqi
Freedom and Operation Enduring
Freedom were under the age of 30.
Approximately 8.5 percent were
African American and 8.8 percent
were Hispanic.
to serve the various needs of veterans
and survivor families. In the modern
era, there seems to be a disconnect
with the public to the conflicts in Iraq
and Afghanistan. There is no national
shared sacrifice, but when the ultimate
sacrifice is made, Gold Star Wives has
always been on point to make sure
that the level of support is consistent
with the need. Early notes that within
the government agencies with the survivors they contact, there is sometimes
misinformation. “Our thing is persistence; you have to be persistent,” says
Early. “When you know and have
heard this is what it is, and then you
go into an office and someone tells
you, Oh no…that’s not right, you go
back to another person, but you
always get that first person’s name so
you won’t go back to them.”
Gold Star Wives helps military survivors cut through the morass of policies and regulations that are supposed
to help them, but which are sometimes a hindrance. As National
President of Gold Star Wives, Early
wants to continue to improve the
organization with new talent and
ideas. Paradoxically, this is not a club
anyone wants to join. The loss of a
loved one in war is not wished upon
anyone. But Early believes new military survivors will only strengthen
Gold Star Wives, and as the numbers
decline, she encourages young widows to join the organization. The
shared experiences of new and older
military survivors will only make it
stronger.
“No matter what amount of money
from insurance, no matter what town
or city, it is so very important to make
a connection with someone who has
walked in your shoes, someone who
really does understand and someone
who has made the journey,” notes
Patti Sampers, the Denver, CO
Chapter President of Gold Star Wives.
“That is what I think Gold Star Wives
has to offer these young widows.”
Sampers recently met with new military survivors in Colorado Springs
who said the women only found out
about Gold Star Wives through their
Internet searches. She invited them to
the Denver chapter meeting in June
and hopes that the young women will
find some benefit in joining the organization.
“The younger women have so
much to bring to the table; they have
very good skills. Many of them are
very good communicators, and these
are skills that we need in the organization, because everything is getting
very technical now as far as getting
things out in the media. They are all
on chat lines and tweeting, etc.,” says
Early. These are things that we need
to instill and incorporate in the organization, which is an asset when we
bring on the younger widows who
have these skills and knowledge.”
Before taking on the national presidency of Gold Star Wives, Early was
the Southwest Regional president and
Denver chapter president. In her journey, she sees the need to evolve the
old with the new as the greatest challenge. Because most current members
are seniors, many women are set in
their ways as far as activities and ways
of doing things together. Supporting
survivors is a social process, and initially widows relish the camaraderie
found in the common experience.
Early has found some push back in
this area as older widows and the
younger ones interact. The seniors
sometimes are not able or not interested in participating in the activities
with the younger widows. Early has
seen a new chapter of younger widows develop in the Washington DC
area and sees this as a positive development, because all chapters contribute to the thrust and strength of
Gold Star Wives.
The ‘generational gap’ and the need
to reach survivors in outlying areas
are the most important issues according to Early and that is why outreach
is so important. She wants communities to know about and embrace Gold
Star Wives. “We want everyone to
know that each person in the organization is very important, and that
whatever their concerns are we want
to address that, no matter where they
are, where they live, who they are,
what conflict, what rank, the deceased
person was, we just want them to
know that we are all in this boat
together,” she says.
Editor’s note: If you know someone who has
ever had that visit, there is support for him
or her. Early would like to bring them on
board. For more information about Gold
Star
Wives
of
America,
visit
http://www.goldstarwives.org, or contact
Jeanette Early, National President at 303617-7937.
Editor’s note: Charles Emmons is a freelance journalist living in Aurora, CO.
Email him at [email protected].
7
Young Inspiring
Colorado
Journalists Take
On The Big Easy
I
By Sheila Smith
t’s no longer about recruiting or
maintaining Black journalists in newsrooms around the country but the
competition of getting the scoop using
social media sites with IPads to smart
phones is an ever changing technological world.
Colorado Springs’ Gabrielle Cox is
a senior at University of Colorado in
Boulder and attended the National
Association of Black Journalists conference June 20-24 in New Orleans, La.
She is also president of the Rocky
Mountain Student Association of
Black Journalists.
It was her first experience going to
a conference of this magnitude and
networking with more than 2,500
Black journalists.
Cox said she was impressed with
getting advice from media professionals on how to land her first job. “It
was inspiring to be
with those broadcast journalists
who are in front of
the camera. I like
communicating
and storytelling
9News Veteran Reporter
and the idea of
TaRhonda Thomas
being a watchdog
for the community,”
she said.
Most journalism students have
already grown up in this digital age and
adapt quickly to the new technologies
surrounding them. As Cox admits, “it’s
not as much of a shock to us compared
to those in the industry who have to
learn and make that change.”
Danielle Nelson, a senior at Pikes
Peak Community College in Colorado
Springs, also went to the NABJ convention in New Orleans.
She enjoyed getting more insight
into the different options available of
the different medians of journalism –
print, broadcast, radio, the web to
freelancing.
“I received good feedback from
speakers and media professionals that
helped me with learning those first
steps of breaking into the industry.
Learning about freelancing and honing certain areas you want to write or
report on was so valuable,” said
Nelson who is looking to become an
entertainment broadcast reporter.
Black media professionals from
across the country came together to
network and discuss ongoing trends
important to their craft in this informational age. The convention’s theme
was “New Platforms. New Directions.
New Orleans.”
NABJ highlighted this year’s presidential election by having Vice
President Joe Biden speak at the convention.
Biden, of course, addressed why
President Barack Obama needs to be
re-elected and moving the country forward.
“A job is more than just a paycheck.
It’s about your dignity,” stated Biden
as he talked about the country coming
out of a recession and rebounding.
Emphasizing how the middle class
is the backbone of building this country, Biden added, “Redefining the
middle class is the defining moment of
our time…middle class folks don’t
have cabin dreams.”
Biden did not leave without a last
word of warning and saying, “This is
not your father’s Republican party; it’s
a throwback to the 1950s.”
However, the one major question
being dropped during panel discussions at the convention was will we
see a decrease in the number of
African Americans coming out to the
8
polls to vote. Are the Democrats going
to rejuvenate the Black masses and
young people again in a new way to
get President Obama re-elected?
The parents of Trayvon Martin
along with the Rev. Al Sharpton were
at the NABJ convention to talk about
media coverage of their son’s death.
The story of the shooting of Trayvon
Martin was tweeted about and hit
Facebook before the local and national
media picked up the story.
“Something is wrong with America
when we as African Americans can’t
be loving parents,” said Tracy Martin
about how the media his portraying
his son’s character. “Why is it when
our kids are killed, they have to be put
on trial?”
Getting a major story and gathering
the facts is something all journalists do
every day – especially when it comes
to covering our own Black communities. But telling the story in a meaningful, truthful way using new technical
tools at our fingertips is something
journalists are finding is making an
even bigger impact.
As a veteran reporter, TaRhonda
Thomas with 9News in Denver,
knows too well how to get the story
and was honored with an award for
her piece “The Real O.G.” during
NABJ’s Salute to Excellence Awards
Banquet. Diana Castro:
A Soulful Gem and Hidden Jewel
By Sheila Smith
N
estled in the heart of LoDo
is the original jazz club, El
Chapultepec, recognized for catering
to many jazz legends. Known simply
as the “Pec,” Denver’s oldest jazz club
offers live jazz nightly in a noisy,
friendly atmosphere. It’s often standing-room only, with a hearty helping
of local color – young and old, poor
and rich, in equal measure. A small
burrito kitchen and poolroom adjoin
the club.
But it also has been harboring one
of Denver’s best kept secrets for the
past seven years – contemporary funk,
R&B and jazz diva Diana Castro and
her band.
Castro sits down at a booth inside
El Chapultepec just before she’s to
perform. Surrounding her on the walls
are pictures of those legendary greats,
such as Billy Tolles, Eddie Harris, Phil
Woods and even former President Bill
Clinton blowing the saxophone.
She reminisced about the owner,
Jerry Krantz, 77, who died on May 29.
“Jerry was a trailblazer by having
the first original jazz club,” Castro said
about Krantz who opened the Pec in
1933.
“Jerry saw things changing around
him in LoDo,” she added. “Jazz can be
daunting at times, but he wanted to
keep live music going and keep it progressive. That is when he hired me
because I had a more contemporary,
funkier R& B sound.”
focused on her passion by being on
the Bourbon Street circuit singing with
a three girl group called the Cat’s
Meow. She snickered a bit and shook
her head when talking about that
band. “This band was made up of a
big Jewish girl, Zelda Rose, another
Texas white girl, Sally Townes, who
played the keyboards, bass and a
drum machine and then there was me,
this African-American girl,” she said
as the band had a steady gig at the
Seaport Café on Bourbon Street.
A year later, Castro put together
her own band called Diana and the
Big Time, while still singing with the
Cat’s Meow, as well.
Castro has had some ups and downs
during her career span as any other
artist trying to make it in the music business. She took her band to Dallas and
later regretted it. “I was young back
then and stayed in Dallas for 10 months
as the house band at Dallas Alley
Westend Market (an indoor/outdoor
shopping and entertainment complex).
But, when I came to do a seven week
tour in Colorado, I fell in love with the
state,” she explained.
She and her band finally relocated
permanently to Denver in 1991.
No doubt Castro is a seasoned and
polished professional entertainer who
sings a range of songs, reaching each
note to perfection and captivating her
audience in wanting to hear more.
She admitted she loves singing songs
by males and adding her own special
touch, especially those songs by artists
Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins
Krantz saw Castro playing with the
Tony Black Summit Band and immediately fell in love with her musical
talents. “You got to come play at my
club,” was his exact words she
recalled.
Ever since then, Castro has been
belting out those jazz and R&B selections every Tuesday evening at El
Chapultepec.
Castro is truly a New Orleans girl
with her southern roots and singing in
the church choir as a child. By age 18,
she had moved out of her parents’
home and started working at a clothing
store in the French Quarter, thinking she
wanted to be a fashion designer.
“I grew up singing in the choir. But I
realized at 11 years old that I had something. And I remember singing this one
song, “Father Stretch My Hand to
Thee,” and this lady named Miss Rose
got up out her seat because she was so
emotional over the song. Miss Rose was
always stoic and never acted like that in
church – but I moved her.”
It was during this time, the clothing
store owner introduced her to her longtime drummer, Marion Edwards. The
store owner already knew Castro’s true
gift after constantly hearing her sing in
the store and doing her thing.
By the time Castro was 23, she
9
and Steve Perry.
During one of her shows at the Pec,
Castro works in harmony with her
band even when she goes into a jazz
mode scatting: “Oh baby…. sha ba, sha
ba, do do do dah. Oh hush little baby now
don’t you cry…”
Soon she switches gear to sing
Bobby Caldwell’s song, “What you
won’t do for love… I got a thing for you
and can’t let it go.”
You can tell her excitement in feeling
the song as she stretches her hand to the
ceiling and that big voice takes over
Michael McDonald’s classic, I Keep
Forgettin’ (Every time You Are Near).
Her band members are crucial in
keeping pace with the sultry Castro.
They include Edwards on drums,
Robert McDaniel on keyboard and
Christopher Harris on bass.
Edwards smiled behind all the
years that he and Castro have been
together, from Bourbon Street, Dallas
to Denver.
“Ever since we hooked up, it’s been
the right kind of combinations,” he
said. “In 1992, we did this world tour
and went to Germany, Azores Islands,
Lisbon, Belgium and Holland.”
So far this city is definitely the best
fit for him and Castro, as he
expressed, “Denver appreciates live
music and that is what drew us here,”
Edwards said.
Castro can effortlessly go from a
two-piece set, where it’s just she and a
piano player performing twice a
month at Del Frisco’s in the Denver
Tech Center to her regular three-piece
band at El Chapultepec, which
includes the drummer, keyboardist
and bass player, or even a six-piece
band performing at different venues.
However, she likes to get a little
more elegantly dressed when at Del
Frisco’s and said, “It’s a great gig, just
me singing and the piano player doing
songs that are jazz standards. They are
songs near and dear to my heart.”
Right now, Castro who has been in
the business for a long time is looking
to redirect some of her musical energy
by writing songs. “I am so inspired to
record my own CD because I have so
much to say musically,” she stated in
wanting to be more than part of a
working band but a creative band.
“Before I leave this planet, I will
have a CD with all original music that
I wrote. And I thank God for this technology and music age, where I can
execute it on my own without any
musicians. I can write and sample my
own music with tools right on my
computer.”
Castro’s gratitude and humbleness
shows when she mentions how much
those in Colorado have supported her
over the years. “So many musicians
don’t fare well in the bigger cities. But
I am here.” O
n nearly any night in Denver it
is possible to find great music that is
both diverse and engaging. If jazz is
your flavor then Jazz@Jacks is one of
several spots you can go to hear great
live and local
jazz, mixed with
a little soul and
funk. If you
plan carefully
you can make it
on one of the
nights where on
stage behind the
drums you’ll find Tarell Martin keeping
time, coolly but ferociously pounding
away.
Martin, 30, is locked in while
onstage and you would never guess
by the spectacle before you that somebody so dialed in is nervous. And he
admits it. In fact, the smaller the
crowd it seems the more nervous he
becomes. Still, he makes playing the
drums look so effortless.
Martin grew up in California, the
third child of six children – all of them
currently work in the music industry,
including twin brother, Timothy, who
is a gospel singer.
Jammin’ with Tarell
By Martin J. Rios
He got his start with music when
he was three years old. Inspired and
encouraged by his father, he picked
up those sticks and has rarely put
them down since. While he’s always
loved music, he admitted during that
particular time it was actually basketball preoccupying his thoughts.
He went on his first professional
tour playing drums at 11-years old.
After that it, he realized music was
what he wanted to pursue as a career.
“When I did my first tour there were
about 1200 people there. I’d never seen
that many people in one room just to
see a group I actually played for. After I
was done so many of them came to me
and told me how I inspired them and
touched their hearts through my playing,” he said. “People were saying that
if I could do it and sound so good at
such a young age then they can do it to.
That’s when I knew that this is what I
was born to do.”
Martin has worked with a wide
range of musicians, including jazz saxophonists and composers Nelson
Rangel, Jeff Kashiwa
and Paul Taylor.
Through these and
other affiliations, he
became very adept as
a writer, composer
and arranger. Skills
that make him
sought after and in
demand today.
Those skills were
honed while working
with one of contemporary jazz’s premier bass player Vernon Barbary who
says, “Working with Tarell Martin is a
pleasure. He has a musical sensibility
about him that’s way beyond his
years. As exciting as it is to watch
him, it’s just as exciting to play with
him.”
Tarell is committed to his music.
He’s also a music director and owns
his own studio and production company called Tmar Entertainment. He
is working on a Christmas album with
another local favorite, Opie Gone Bad,
as well as producing an album for
smooth jazz artist Tony Exum Jr.
Martin’s upcoming shows performing with his youngest brother on July
10
19 at Jazz@Jacks. “He sings with a lot
of great artist such as Tyreese, Fred
Hammond, Dave Hollister, PJ Morton,
Chaka Khan, Kem, Stephanie Mills
and a whole lot more,” Martin proudly said.
Other scheduled performances include June
30 with Tony
Exum Jr. at
Funkapalooza
starring Cameo;
July 7 at the
Cherry Creek
Arts Festival
with Opie Gone
Bad; July 13 with
Opie Gone Bad
at Colorado
Rockies; July 20 for the Tony Exum
CD Release Party; and Aug. 12 at
Jazz@Jacks from 5 to 7:30 p.m., for A
Michael Jackson Tribute
Besides his demanding music
career, he is the father of three children.
However, it’s still wonderful to see
how much he enjoys sitting behind the
drums and playing. You can hear it in
every drum kick and every snare
hit.
Editor’s note: For more information on
Martin or to get a complete list of performances, email [email protected] or
[email protected]. You can
also visit him on Facebook at
Tmarentertainment or Twitter at
TmarEnt1.
1219_KSURB
P1
We are Proud
to Support
Local Farmers
Harold Whitfield Vies For 2nd District Seat
Former Kirkwood City, Missouri Councilman Eyes Seat of GOP Stalwart Todd Akin
By Don Corrigan
Editor’s note: The following article is
reprinted by permission from the WebsterKirkwood Times. It was first published on
May 11, 2012.
In 2010, Arthur Lieber was the
Democrats’ sacrificial lamb running
for Congress in a Republican-heavy
2nd District. In 2012, Kirkwood’s
Harold Whitfield vows he’ll show that
he can win in a “tough neighborhood”
for Democrats.
“This district is winnable,” said
Whitfield of an area long-represented
by GOP stalwart Rep. Todd Akin. “It
has been redrawn and it is more middle class. And I think people are tired
of having a sign hung on the district
that ‘‘this district is owned by the
Republicans.’
“I have been going door-to-door in
Kirkwood, which I am always told is a
Republican lock,” added Whitfield.
“But I am hearing people concerned
about affordable health care, college
loan cuts, and Social Security’s future
– issues that I can run on and win.”
Of course, Whitfield, a former
Kirkwood City Councilman and a
planning and zoning liaison for the
city must first get past the August primary. Three other candidates are filed
in this year’s election race for the
Democratic nomination to Congress in
the 2nd District.
Those candidates are: Marshall
Works of Ballwin, George “Boots”
Weber of Eureka and Glenn Koenen of
Oakville. Koenen is well known in
Valley Park, where he was executive
director of Circle of Concern, a local
charitable organization.
In the Republican primary race, the
candidates are: Ann Wagner of
Ballwin, John Morris of St. Peters,
James Baker of St. Peters and Randy
Jotte of Webster Groves. Incumbent
Todd Akin is vacating the seat and is
now running in the GOP primary for
U.S. Senate.
“I decided to get in the race on the
Democratic side after talking with
some friends who are very frustrated
about the gridlock in Washington,”
said Whitfield. “Words like ‘reason’
and ‘compromise’ seem to be dirty
words in Washington now. Unless
voters turn to reasonable people in
November, we’ll get more of the same.
“Ann Wagner, the likely nominee
for the Republicans, may be a nice
person, but she helped write the book
on Republican policy. She’s part of the
establishment and will follow the
party line,” said Whitfield. “That’s a
Harold Whitfield, a former Kirkwood city councilman and planning and
zoning liaison for the
city, will face Democrats
Marshall Works, George
“Boots” Weber and
Glenn Koenen in the
District 2 Congressional
primary in August.
Photo by Diana Linsley
reason I wouldn’t write off Randy
Jotte, her opponent in the primary. He
may not have a million dollars in the
bank like Wagner, but he is not part of
the party establishment and people
are tired of the establishment.”
Soured On Tea Party
Whitfield said he thinks the 2010
election saw many Republican Tea
Party candidates win, because people
are worried about jobs and national
debt. However, he thinks much of the
electorate is now soured on the Tea
Party revolt, because it has simply led
to more shouting, gridlock, and blaming union workers and public education for an economic mess.
“I think reduction of debt is a big
problem and we need to go back and
look at the Simpson-Bowles study on
how to reduce it,” said Whitfield.
“That may require some reasonable
discussion: a modest tax increase and
some changes to age eligibility in the
future for Social Security.
“What we don’t need in addressing
the debt crisis is a lot of politicians just
yelling at each other,” Whitfield noted.
“We don’t need them yelling ‘extremist’ and ‘communist’ at each other
when with a little compromise we can
solve this problem.”
Whitfield said he is not afraid to
support government programs in the
face of those who want “to drown
government in the bathtub.” He also
said he unabashedly supports two key
Democratic constituencies that have
been under fire as of late: labor and
public education.
Public education is highly valued
by Whitfield, who points to his time at
Booker T. Washington Elementary
School and Kirkwood High School. He
said this schooling prepared him well
for a bachelor’s in business and
finance, as well as a law degree, from
Washington University.
“Public education is much under
attack these days,” said Whitfield.
12
“And it seems like Republicans want
to privatize everything, from the Post
Office, to our Social Security to the
schools. The average people I talk to
just aren’t so hostile to the people who
deliver their mail or who teach their
kids. I think the millionaires need to
sit down and talk to regular people
and find out what they think.
“I also don’t understand all the hostility for unions,” said Whitfield.
“Historically, labor unions have been
responsible for decent hours, decent
wages and a middle class in this country. We don’t want that now?”
New 2nd District Lines
Whitfield points to the redrawn
2nd District lines and explains why he
thinks he will be competitive. The new
district now has more of South
County stretching through Affton,
Mehlville and Oakville; and it has less
of St. Charles County.
“I’m very hopeful because for people in this area, the Republican brand
has gotten to be so bad,” said
Whitfield. “What does it offer poor
people and the middle class? If you’re
a millionaire it’s fine. I know this
opens me up to being accused of class
warfare, but what can you say about
politicians who want to cut schools,
Pell Grants and college loans?”
Although a number of Democrats
across the country are putting some
distance between themselves and
Barack Obama at the top of the ticket
in the 2012 election, Whitfield said he
will have none of that.
“I am not going to be like Al Gore
in 2000 who ran away from the man,
Bill Clinton, who brought him to the
dance,” said Whitfield. “Obama is
going to help me and this area is
going to go for Obama even more
than it did in 2008. People are pretty
smart. They know the mess that he
inherited. They appreciate that he’s
done pretty darned good with what
he has had to deal with.”
Beaus Recognized At
Second Annual CBI
Gala Dinner
M
others danced with sons to Nat
King Cole and Natalie’s Cole
Unforgettable and fathers danced with
daughters to Luther Vandross’s Dance
With My Father but the highlight of the
evening was recognizing and
applauding the academic excellence,
leadership and achievement of some
of Colorado’s finest college-bound
high school juniors and seniors.
Thirty young men were honored at
the 2nd annual Colorado Beautillion,
Inc. (CBI) gala, Positioned for Excellence,
on Sunday, June 10, at the Marriott
Hotel, DTC. Highlighting the accomplishments of 60 male and female high
school students, the formal gala began
with an elegant reception hour followed with dinner and a formal presentation.
Special guests speakers and presenters included Reginald Fowler,
Minnesota Vikings owner/chairman
and CEO of Spiral Inc.; Coach Bill
McCartney, former University of
Colorado championship football coach
and founder of the Promise Keepers;
Lafayette “Fat” Lever,
former Denver
Nuggets guard and
Sacramento Kings
Director Player
Development; Walter
Davis, former Denver
Nugget and Nuggets
Community Liaison;
Derrick Martin, NFL Player and backto-back Super Bowl Champion; and
Jovon Bouknight, Utah State receiver
coach.
The aspiring and inspiring young
participants were honored for their
academic accomplishments, dedication and commitment to community,
and leadership potential. The
“Beautillion” dinner and recognition
celebration marked the culmination of
an intensive, innovative, motivational and
educationally
enhanced program
designed to cultivate
leadership skills of
the young participants. All of the program seniors have
plans to enter college in the fall.
The CBI mentoring program began
in October, 2011 and featured lectures,
seminars and workshops that emphasized spiritual, educational, moral
character, social skills, and economic
values. Additional workshops
explained etiquette skills, social
graces, grooming, college readiness,
interview tips, human sexuality, substance abuse, public presentation
skills, cultural enrichment, and social
enhancement.
The young men recognized for outstanding achievement are: (2012 Senior
Class) Dorian Adams (Overland),
Krishnor Ali (Denver School of Science
and Technology), Sir Michael Boston
(Thomas Jefferson), Rovel Berhe (Thomas
Jefferson), King Burtt (Smokey Hill),
Elisha Butler (Gateway), Maliek
Combs (Smokey Hills), Jeremiah Falope
(Hinkley), Jordan Gaskin (Denver East),
Dallas Jackson (Denver South), Robin
Love (Denver South), Tyler Marshall
(Vista Academy), Daniel McQueen III
(JK Mullen), Devon Reese (Hinkley),
Demari Reynolds (JK Mullen), Samuel
Singleton (JK Mullen), Azlan Williams
(Montbello), Conrad Williams
(Montbello), Rashad Williamson
(Thomas Jefferson); (2012 Under
Class) Cameron Brown (Thomas
Jefferson), Khalil Combs (Smokey Hill),
Joshua Heath (Overland), Jordan
Johnson (Eaglecrest), Lamar Lee, Jr.,
Josiah Martin (Eaglecrest), Trei Major
(Smokey Hill), Myles Simmons
(Overland), Preston Thomas (George
Washington), Abraham Woldu (Thomas
Jefferson), and Dawit Woldu (Thomas
Jefferson). Editor’s note: For more information on the
Colorado Beautillion, Inc. or to sign up for
the 2012/13 program, call 720-217-8291 or
visit www.colobeautillion.net.
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13
Genuine Jazz
& Wine Lets
YOU Mingle
With The Stars
Where can Colorado jazz fans enjoy
great music, wine and relaxation all in
one week-end? At the 28th Annual
Genuine Jazz & Wine festival at the
Copper Mountain Resort of course!
This year’s event, featuring international and national artists will be
Friday through Sunday August 24-26
with a stellar lineup of national and
local jazz talent featuring Ronnie
Laws, Paul Taylor, Nick Colionne,
Alex Bugnon, Dotsero featuring
Steve Watts, Julius, Greg Goodloe
and Joel Rodney Siemion.
Jazz enthusiasts are sure to have a
good time at this year’s festival.
Attendees have the pleasure of enjoying a beautiful mountain resort as well
as the music and presence of their
favorite jazz musicians. In addition to
amazing live jazz music, festival goers
can sample some of the country’s best
wines.
Copper Mountain has gorgeous
scenery and lodging and it is only an
hour away from Denver. Concert
attendees can expect a surprisingly
affordable and relaxing scenic resort
with a weekend of spectacular shows
where they can be up close and personal and say hello to their jazz
heroes.
This month DUS showcases four of
the jazz artists. In August, you can
read about the others.
Ronnie Laws
Ronnie Laws’ name is virtually
synonymous with good music. True
Laws fans know this gifted contemporary music artist is by no means a new
comer to the business. A native of
Houston, Texas, born October 3, 1950,
the third in a famous line of four
musicians that include his classically
trained Jazz flautist brother, Hubert,
and his vocalist sisters, Eloise and
Debra. Laws taught himself to play
alto saxophone at the age of 11, and
after an eye injury sidelined early
dreams of a career in professional
baseball, partially to fulfill his mom’s
dream of playing the horn, his instrument became his all-consuming passion. He studied music in high school,
at Stephen F. Austin State and Texas
Southern University, developing a
progressive mastery and technique.
In 1970, he moved to Los Angeles,
where he found work under the tutelage of such legendary talents as The
Jazz Crusaders and Hugh Masakela.
His formative training also included
stints with jazz pianist Walter Bishop
Jr. and organist Doug Cann. He was a
member of the 70’s much-revered soul
group Earth Wind and Fire, where he
played tenor and soprano sax for a
two-year stint, before finally venturing
out to pursue a solo career.
Assisted by immortal jazz great
Donald Byrd, he soon signed his first
recording contract with Blue Note
records, resulting in the impressive
debut album “Pressure Sensitive”
(1975), produced by family friend,
Wayne Henderson, (a founding member of the contemporary jazz pioneers
The Crusaders), which rapidly
emerged to become the longest selling
album, at that time, in the 42 year history of the label. “Pressure Sensitive”
was followed by his second album
“Fever” (1976).
Controversy quickly erupted
around him, with so called jazz
“purist,” criticizing Laws’ inventive,
non-traditional, “Jazz Fusion” style.
Laws promptly answered his critics by
also scoring unprecedented cross-over
success in R&B and pop, in addition to
jazz, and receiving multiple awards
for originality in the process.
Laws is a proven natural at combining the exploratory heart of Jazz
with the broader reaching strains of
soul and pop music. His first hit,
“Always There” (credited as Ronnie
Laws and Pressure on the original 45),
was one of the most popular, sax-driven, cross-over hits of the 70’s JazzFunk Fusion era. He ushered in the
“sensualization” of the soprano sax
with Quiet Storm gems such as Grace,
Karmen, and Just Love. Pressure
Sensitive, Fever, and Friends and
Strangers– also the title track of his
third album (Blue Note 1978) – all propelled to gold status.
Ronnie’s current release, Dream A
Little, boasts yet another sound in the
multi-talented artists’ already expansive repertoire and expertise in pursuit
of newer, broader and unexplored ter-
ritory, “Urban Contemporary.” The
single, Old Days/Old Ways, is so
tastefully done that music fans will
unanimously attest that this will add
another exciting chapter to Laws’
already successful career, and graciously honor us with another opportunity to give audience to his exceptional gift.
For more on Ronnie Laws, visit
www.ronnielawsmusic.com/.
While a student at Berklee, he performed with local bands at clubs in
and around the Boston area. During
that period, he also performed in
church with many gospel groups. In
1985 he moved to New York where he
spent four years working as a session
musician and touring with urban and
jazz luminaries such as Patti Austin,
Freddie Jackson, James Ingram, Earth
Wind and Fire, and Keith Sweat.
Alex Bugnon
Alex Bugnon has created one of the
most recognized styles in today’s contemporary jazz piano. It is a sultry
mixture of contemporary jazz, funk,
and R&B with hints of gospel. Even
the titles of his CDs create anticipation
for a musical experience that is delivered with passion. His latest album,
FREE, reunites him with Atlanta
based keyboardist and producer Phil
Davis. After recording FREE and his
last album, Southern Living, in Atlanta,
Bugnon calls this city his second musical home. FREE is a refreshing blend
of exotic rhythms with haunting, soulful melodies and the signature Alex
Bugnon piano sound.
Growing up in Montreux,
Switzerland — the home of the
Montreux Jazz Festival — Bugnon
started playing classical piano at age
six. Guided by his father, a jazz guitarist and classical opera singer,
Bugnon acquired a love for a wide
range of music from Scott Joplin,
Thelonious Monk, and Bill Evans to
Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, and
Joe Sample. Once a year for an entire
month, Montreux becomes the crossroads of the musical world, and
Bugnon went to his first concert at age
seven to see none other than Aretha
Franklin!
He studied at the Paris
Conservatory and the famous Mozart
Academy in Salzburg, Austria. At age
nineteen, he moved to the U.S. and
attended the Berklee School of Music.
Bugnon began his recording career
in 1989 with his debut album, “Love
Season” which reached the pop charts
and the Top 40 of the R&B charts as
did his 1990 recording, “Head Over
Heels”. He intrigued his fans again in
1991 with”107 Degrees In The Shade,”
“This Time Around” (1993), and
“Tales From The Bright Side” (1995).
Five years later, Alex Bugnon signed
with Narada Jazz and recorded his
sixth album, “Alex Bugnon…As
Promised,” followed in 2001 with
“Soul Purpose,” which remained on
Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz chart
for 23 weeks. In 2003, Alex recorded
for the first time in Atlanta with some
of that city’s greatest musicians and
titled his album “Southern Living.”
“After exploring the entire sophisticated and progressive funk that
helped me find my sound, I knew I
needed to get back to a sound that
was more laid back and straight to the
point, where the songs, rather than
fancy production, are the focus,” he
says. “With the success of artists like
Norah Jones and Alicia Keys, it’s clear
to me that, like me, people are tired of
the overproduced, heavy machine-oriented music that excited them in the
past. These are complicated times we
live in, and it’s inspiring to see a trend
towards making life simpler and
focusing on the more important
things.”
For more information on Alex
Bugnon, visit www.alexbugnon.com.
14
Gregory Goodloe And The Light
Years Ahead Band
“I dedicate all my success to my
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ because
without him there would be no me,”
says Greg Goodloe.
At a very young age Goodloe says
he knew he would be a musician.
Strumming to the music of Wes
Montgomery, George Benson,
Norman Brown and any other artists
or group that would capture his ear
and heart to the world of music,
inspired him to get where he is today.
As a self-taught musician and
Denver native, Goodloe attended
Thomas Jefferson High School where
he received a music scholarship to
Paul Quinn (formerly Bishop College)
in Dallas, Texas.
He came from a family that also
had musical talents including a grandfather who played the guitar and a
father who played the sax. He is also
proud to claim blues singer Vernon
Garrett as his uncle.
“I’ve had the joy of opening for
many artists including R&B’s “Tank”
Candy from the group Escape and
B2K; smooth jazz artists Norman
Brown, Dave Koz and Friends/with
Michael McDonald and James Ingram;
jazz legends Roy Ayers and Spike
Robinson; and gospel greats Angela
Spivey, John P. Key and The Rance
Allen Group – just to name a few.”
The Light Years Ahead Band
includes some of Colorado’s finest and
talented musicians: Michael White on
bass, Raymond Richardson on keys,
Desmond Washington on drums,
Michael Wilkerson on saxophone,
along with Goodloe who is the leader
of the band and plays guitar.
“We express ourselves by playing
various forms of music from R&B,
Rock n Roll, funk, jazz and hip hop to
create what we call “hip jazz.” We
cover many artist including Michael
Jackson, Anita Baker, Phil Collins,
Earth Wind & Fire, Kool & the Gang,
T. Pain and many others,” Goodloe
said.
He says the Light Years Ahead
Band is a very competitive group of
musicians playing live music, writing
and creating beats and grooves, in
addition to producing, engineering
and recording music. Goodloe recently released his current cd “It’s All
Good” which is available on iTunes
and cdBaby.
In addition to his very busy schedule, he also plays with the Now Faith
Christian Center Breakthrough Choir.
Gregory Goodloe and The Light Years
Ahead Band will be performing at the
Colorado Black Arts Festival in July.
“We’re looking forward to taking
music one Light Year Ahead,” says
Goodloe.
For more information on Greg
Goodloe and the Light Years Ahead
Band, visit
www.reverbnation.com/gregorygoodl
oeandthelightyearsaheadband.
Joel Rodney Siemion
Joel Rodney Siemion grew up in
Pleasantville, New York. He graduated from the University of Iowa with a
degree in Communications and
Broadcasting. After working at IBM
for 11 years, he moved to Colorado in
1989. Since then, Siemion‘s wide range
of experiences includes working in
both radio and television. Siemion was
a disc jockey at 102.7 KIKX in
Colorado Springs and Smooth Jazz
104.3 in Denver. In television, he
worked as a newscast director at
KWGN Channel 2 Denver, and a producer/director at TV8 in Vail. Siemion
has played guitar since the age of
seven and began the path of his
heart’s desire, studying jazz in 1990
with long time jazz master and recording artist Dale Bruning.
For more information on Joel
Rodney Siemion, visit
www.joelrodney.com/.
Editor’s note: For tickets, information,
lodging
and
schedules,
visit
www.genuinejazz.com or call (970) 4182121.
C
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15
Enrolling Now!
Learn. Achieve. Graduate.
(-YLL7\ISPJ:JOVVS7YV]LU
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• Individualized Curricula that meets or exceeds state
content standards
• Instruction from highly-qualified teachers and face-toface Mentor support at authorized community based
Learning Centers
• Learning Centers located throughout Colorado
Call 720-402-3000 or visit www.HOPEonline.org.
Turning
Toward HOPE
By Heather O’Mara and
Ruth Márquez West
E
very spring, HOPE seniors cross
a stage, culminating what has typically been, for each of them, a series of
hurdles en route to the high school
diplomas they have earned. In
HOPE’s seventh year, this tradition is
the academic norm rather than the
exception. Each graduating class is an
example for the students who follow,
genuinely influencing generations
within families and neighborhoods – a
worthy cause for community celebration. Yet, the individual stories of
turning toward hope are inspiring in
their own right, as well.
Take Armandell, the valedictorian
of the Graduating
Class of 2012, for
example. His
motto is “If you
set your mind to
being great, then
you will be great.”
He turned toward
hope to demonstrate that he
could, in fact, be
both an academic leader and a talented athlete.
Marissa is a praiseworthy role
model for strong young women. A
champion in persuasive argument writing,
oral presentation
and tough decision-making,
Marissa turned
toward the hope
of achievement
and prioritized
personal values over popular opinions. “Others don’t influence what I
do,” Marissa asserts – something her
successful path confirms.
Tonaisha, raised by her grandparents, turned toward the hope offered
by encouraging
and academicminded friends.
She also found
that HOPE’s
smaller learning
environment
helped her cope
when things
“just got hard,”
and a well-established support system will help
Tonaisha progress in her formal education.
16
Then, there is Tionna, whose apathy about school
intensified after
the death of her
younger sister.
Her mother
turned toward
hope when her
daughter could
not; and, with a
supportive
Learning Center
mentor, Tionna overcame her grief.
“Eventually, I had to choose between
just getting school over with or finding the right school and making the
most of it,” she explains.
Marco, rising nobly to the challenges of teen fatherhood, kept a roof
over his family with “no excuses”
commitment. The traits of successful
people – ambition, strong motivation
toward achievement, focus, responsibility for actions and willingness to
work hard – are right in sync with
Marco’s attributes and convey the
hope he turned to while managing
significant responsibilities.
Finally, there is Jared, the Class of
2011’s valedictorian, whose triumph
over bullying and chronic shyness was
chronicled in these pages last year.
Jared, on break from his studies at the
University of Northern Colorado,
cheered his former classmates as they
took their moment crossing this year’s
stage.
The crowd of 2,000 at the HOPE
graduation enthusiastically celebrated
the accomplishments of graduates, but
they were, themselves, part of the
larger achievement – a united community ushering young people into a productive future because they, too, are
turning toward hope.
500+ Small Business
Owners Learned,
Connected, Got Inspired
At The 2012 Success
Summit
standing event – full of helpful, practical information that was well-presented.”
This year’s sponsors were The
Office of Economic Development, Xcel
Energy, Wells Fargo, US Bank, First
Bank, Community Financial Services
Association, UPS, CenturyLink,
Denver Black Pages, Layer Cake
Creative, Colorado Biz Magazine, and
RNR Design.
Keynote speaker George C. Fraser
Mayor Miichael B. Hancock, Carla Ladd, Moses and Gwen Brewer
O
n Thursday, June 7, more than
500 people representing a diverse
spectrum of business owners, community leaders, and corporate professionals from across Colorado gathered for
the 7th annual 2012 Success Summit:
Critical Connections for Business Success
at the Colorado Convention Center.
Presented by Mountain Region Black
Economic Summit (MRBES), this daylong event gave participating minority
and women business owners a chance
to network, meet one-on-one with
service providers and procurement
representatives, and draw inspiration
from local leaders and nationally
renowned speaker George C. Fraser.
Attendees benefited from the Speed
Meeting Expo; 20-minute sessions
with business service providers and
procurement representatives including
Colorado Department of
Transportation (CDOT), Colorado
Procurement Technical Assistance
Center (PTAC), and Denver Public
Schools, among many others; and
learned about social media and online
marketing, MBE/WBE/DBE certification, business opportunities, winning
government contracts, funding, franchising topics, and building networks
at the Learning Opportunities sessions.
The luncheon keynote speaker was
George C. Fraser, chairman and CEO
of FraserNet, Inc., which brings
together diverse human resources to
increase opportunities for people of
African descent. Fraser is considered
by many to be a new voice for African
Americans and one of the foremost
authorities on economic development,
networking, and building effective
relationships. Fraser delivered a rousing call to action, urging his audience
to connect and network with each
other both within their communities
and across the world, to become more
powerful.
Notable attendees included the
Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock,
District 7 Rep. Angela Williams, former Denver Bronco & pro-bowl wide
receiver Rod Smith, Denver Chief of
Police Robert White, creative dance
director Cleo Parker Robinson, and
Court Administrator at Aurora
Municipal Court Zelda DeBoyes who
also served as the emcee.
Comments from attendees were, “It
was a great event! I left feeling encouraged and uplifted.” “Both workshop
sessions I attended were very beneficial and George Frazier’s keynote was
really on point.” “This was an out-
About MRBES: Established in 2005,
the Mountain Region Black Economic
Summit (MRBES), a 501(c) 3 non-profit
organization, has produced the annual
economic summit and expo that brings
together the various financial, business
and human resources to stimulate
learning and growth among Colorado
minority and women-owned businesses. MRBES’ mission is to provide a
venue for minority communities in the
Mountain Region to share information
for improving the economic standing
of our businesses, civic organizations
and families through increased business ownership, increased professional
leadership, and increased family
wealth. For more information, visit
www.mrbes.com.
"When you leave your job...
don't leave your money behind!"
Myra Donovan, CLU, ChFC, CFP
Financial Adviser
3200 Cherry Creek Drive South, #700
Denver, CO 80209
303-871-7249 - www.myradonovan.com
"Call Today for a FREE
Consultation!"
George Frazier, Denver Chief of Police Robert White and Carla Ladd
"When you leave your job...
don't leave your money behind!"
Myra Donovan, CLU, ChFC, CFP
Financial Adviser
3200 Cherry Creek Drive South, #700
Denver, CO 80209
303-871-7249 - www.myradonovan.com
"Call Today for a FREE
Consultation!"
17
Second Annual
Destination Health:
Walk/Run/Learn Set
For July 28
Multi-generational, familyfriendly event returning to
Denver’s City Park
Happy and Anna Jo Haynes with race participant
The Center for African American
Health will host its second annual
Destination Health: Walk/Run/Learn
on Saturday, July 28 in Denver’s City
Park. Destination Health is an educational and entertaining experience for
the entire family.
Former Denver Bronco Haven
Moses, 2011 event chair, is returning
to co-chair this year’s Destination
Health with Allegra “Happy” Haynes,
Vice President and At-Large Member
of the Denver Public Schools Board of
Education and a former Denver City
Councilwoman. “Destination Health
not only benefits those who participate on the day, but also the larger
Denver community that is served
year-round by the Center for African
American Health,” Moses says. “Last
year more than 400 people came out to
help raise funds for the Center’s programs. With last year’s success, we
look to double, even triple that number with the help and support of the
Denver community.”
The half-day event features a 5K
run/walk plus shorter routes for families with young children, physicallychallenged individuals and older
adults; an expo area filled with facts
about healthy lifestyles and vital
health matters; a special Children’s
Health & Safety Zone with activities
and information for youngsters; and
great entertainment by Denver’s own
Mary Louise Lee Band.
“By our example, we must teach
our children the value of a healthy
lifestyle and the importance of taking
responsibility for our own health,”
says Haynes. “Destination Health provides an excellent opportunity for
Denver families to get the facts they
need to make informed decisions
Rep. Rhonda Fields (far right) with Destination Health team
about good nutrition and exercise, to
learn about prevention and management of diseases that impact the
African American community, and to
have fun as a family participating in
the various multi-generation-friendly
activities.”
Participants will receive their tshirt, timing chip and bib at the registration area in the City Park beginning
at 7:30 a.m. Runners and walkers are
invited to join in a pre-event warm-up
including line dancing at 8 a.m. just
west of the Denver Museum of Nature
and Science. The 5K Walk/Run and
the one mile “Senior Shortcut” will
begin promptly at 8:30 a.m., with the
“Mocha Mile Fun Walk” starting at 9
a.m. An award ceremony is scheduled for 9:30 a.m., followed by jazz,
R&B, and pop hits from the ‘60s to the
present performed by the Mary Louise
Lee Band.
Plan now to take part in
Destination Health, and encourage
your family, friends and coworkers to
join, too, by forming a team. Register
at www.caahealth.org and create your
team’s own fundraising page online
for a greater impact. Registered participants will receive a Destination
Health t-shirt.
Pre-event registration fees are $30
for adults; $25 for children 6-17 and
seniors 50-plus; $10 for children 5 &
under (with shirt) or free for children
five and under (no shirt); and $25 per
person for walk/run teams of four or
more participants. On July 28, the onsite registration fee will be $35.
Destination Health:
Walk/Run/Learn is being presented
with support from lead sponsor Eli
Lilly, Gold sponsor DaVita, volunteer
sponsor KeyBank, entertainment and
stage sponsor University of Phoenix,
Children’s Health and Safety area
sponsors the Piton Foundation,
Denver Health, Wells Fargo, Denver
Museum of Nature and Science; senior
shortcut sponsors include COPIC,
University of Colorado Cancer Center
and the Colorado Trust; supporting
18
stage sponsor Colorado Access; silver
sponsors include the Colorado Health
Foundation; supporting sponsors are
AARP, LiveWell Colorado, Caring for
Colorado Foundation, Denver Water,
Safeway and media sponsors CBS4,
Denver Urban Spectrum, 5 Points
News and Jammin’ 101.5,
If you would like to join the Center
for African American Health volunteer team to assist with Destination
Health, email [email protected].
Determined and successful race participants
About the Center for AfricanAmerican Health
The Center for African-American
Health is on a mission to make the
120,000 African Americans living in
metro Denver healthier. As a group,
African Americans suffer from greater
illness, disability and premature death
from diseases such as diabetes, heart
disease and cancer. The Center offers
free programs and services focused on
preventing diseases and also on
improving the lives of people with
chronic health conditions. The Center
partners with black churches and
other organizations in the African
American community to provide free
health screenings, health classes, and
health education materials aimed at
improving health literacy and promoting active and healthy lifestyle behavior. For more information about the
Center for African American Health
visit www.caahealth.org.
Even
Obama’s
Dog draws
Racial Fire
By Earl Ofari
Hutchinson
The racial
pillorying of First Lady Michelle
Obama was bad enough. The occasional snide digs and ugly depictions
of the Obama’s daughters were even
more despicable. But now the presidential family’s pet Portuguese Water
Dog, Bo has taken heat. A Brown
University social scientist used polling
experiments and an independent survey to identify a series of issues that
have been bitter and contentious
between Obama and the GOP and
that are seemingly race neutral such as
tax policy, health care reform,
Supreme Court appointments, and
political party identification. He found
that those with a racial antipathy
toward blacks were more prone to
oppose anything that Obama supported. That racial antipathy even extended to his dog. To test this, the Brown
researcher showed a picture of the
Obama’s dog to one half of the test
group. He showed the same picture to
the other half but told them that it was
a picture of the late Senator Ted
Kennedy’s pet Portuguese Water Dog,
Splash. Those hostile to Obama were
much more likely to express disdain
toward Obama’s dog than that of
Kennedy’s presumed pet.
At first glance, it seems, trite, silly
and well petty. But it is anything but.
The never ending assault on the
Obama’s has been the one constant
from the moment that Obama
declared his presidential candidacy in
2007. It did not hamper his drive to
the White House in part because GOP
presidential rival John McCain categorically forbade any use of overt or
subtle racial appeals by his campaign
team during the campaign. The disgust, revulsion, and apathy of many
GOP leaning voters and conservative
independents toward the domestic
and foreign policy bumbles and stumbles of Bush, and the GOP’s sex, and
corruption scandals, and giveaway to
Wall Street, neutered the overt racial
animus of many voters. But even that
was misleading.
The final presidential vote in 2008
gave ample warning of the potency of
the GOP’s conservative white con-
stituency when aroused. While
Obama made a major breakthrough in
winning a significant percent of votes
from white independents and young
white voters, McCain still won a
majority of their vote. Overall, Obama
garnered slightly more than 40 percent
of the white male vote. Among
Southern and Heartland America
white male voters, Obama made
almost no impact. In South Carolina
and other Deep South states the vote
was even more lopsided among white
voters against Obama. The only thing
that even made Obama’s showing
respectable in those states was the
record turnout and percentage of
black votes that he got. They were all
Democratic votes.
A Harvard post-election assessment
of the 2008 presidential vote found
that race did factor into the presidential election and that it cost Obama an
added three to five percent of the
national popular vote. Put bluntly, if
Obama had been white the election
would have been a route.
The quick surge of the Tea Party in
the aftermath of Obama’s election
with its thinly disguised race baiting
digs, taunts, slogan, offensive parodying, posters, and depictions of Obama
and Michelle Obama were early warning signs that race was not off the
presidential election table. During the
GOP presidential primary campaign
GOP presidential candidates made
sure of that with the stream of racetinged references Newt Gingrich, Rick
Santorum, and Mitt Romney made to
food stamps, welfare, work ethics, and
an entitlement society. Then there
were the racially-loaded newsletters
from Ron Paul that resurfaced. The
candidates when challenged ducked,
dodged, and denied any racial intent,
or in the case of Paul’s newsletter, that
he even penned them.
GOP presidential candidates for the
past three decades have crunched the
voter numbers and the statistics. The
GOP base is the white South and the
Heartland. They deliver more than
one-third of the electoral votes needed
to bag the White House. These are the
also the voters that GOP presidents
and aspiring presidents, Nixon,
Reagan, Bush Sr. George W. Bush, and
John McCain and legions of GOP gov-
ernors, senators and congresspersons,
banked on for victory and to seize and
maintain regional and national political dominance. They haven’t disappointed them. Racial code talk has
been a key weapon in the GOP’s campaign arsenal. It has been the spark to
reignite the GOP’s traditional conservative, lower income, white male loyalists. A legion of well-heeled GOP
Super PACS will spend millions on
below the belt hit ads on Obama
before November. Almost certainly
some of them will go even lower into
the gutter and dredge up the bogus
birth certificate ploy and his long severed relationship with his former pastor Jeremiah Wright.
The Brown University survey simply reconfirmed the horrid fact that
President Obama’s public policy
stances and battles have been relentlessly clouded, obstructed and
opposed by subtle and overt racial
perceptions and animus. It’s no surprise then that the Obama’s family
dog has drawn racial fire too. Editor’s note: Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an
author and political analyst. He is a frequent MSNBC Political Contributor and
weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on
American Urban Radio Network. He is the
author of How Obama Governed: The Year
of Crisis and Challenge. He is an associate
editor of New America Media. He is host of
the weekly Hutchinson Report.
Blockbuster Stars Ride Into
Retirement Sunset
By Nicole Tiggemann, Social Security Public Affairs Specialist in Denver
Summertime is here, and that means blockbuster movies are in season. This summer —
and throughout the end of the year — moviegoers can catch some of the usual heroes on the
silver screen.
Take Batman. He’ll be back on the big screen in another surefire blockbuster. The superhero first gained fans in the comics back in 1939. He could be taking advantage of delayed
retirement credits — the power to receive bigger payments for delaying retirement benefits
beyond one’s full retirement age. The credit could be worth as much as eight percent a year
until age 70. Learn more about this super power available to anyone at
www.socialsecurity.gov/retire 2/delayret.htm.
Dark Shadows will be making a big screen debut, based on the popular television series.
The main character, Barnabas, is more than two centuries old. Surely, he would qualify for benefits if he would just go online and apply.
Then there are the marvelous superheroes of the “silver age” of comics, several of whom
are appearing in The Avengers. Captain America was born in 1941, making him not only fit for
leading but also ripe for retiring. The Hulk and Thor both came onto the scene in 1962; Iron
Man and Nick Fury joined them in 1963. They, along with 1962’s Spiderman (also enjoying a
movie reboot this year) don’t qualify for retirement benefits yet, but they might want to plan
ahead by taking a look at the online Retirement Estimator at www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator,
where they can get an instant, personalized estimate of future retirement benefits.
From Batman to Spiderman, Captain America to The Hulk, making a decision to retire
does not mean hanging up your costume. Today’s retirees are more active than ever, even as
they collect benefits.
If you’d like to learn more about your own future retirement benefits, take a break from the
big screen and take a look at your computer screen. Visit www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator to
receive a picture of your own future retirement.
Ready to start the sequel now? Let the opening credits on your retirement begin; apply for
benefits right over the computer. Just visit www.socialsecurity.gov and click the “retirement” tab.
19
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day Event Shines Spotlight On Speaking Up And Mandated Reporting Law
yet many incidents go unreported. It’s
just as important to protect our kids,
as it is to protect our seniors. I urge
you to look out for one another and
call Adult Protection if you’re worried
about the safety and well-being of a
neighbor, loved one or friend,” Penny
May, manager of Denver Human
Services said.
treatment of elderly populations by
establishing the Elder Abuse Task
Force,” said Sen. Hudak. Over the
next year, the Elder Abuse Taskforce
will convene and make recommendations for creating a system for mandated reporting of at-risk adults in
Colorado. Currently, Colorado is one
of four states throughout the nation
providers and enjoyed a complimentary lunch.
To spot abuse, neglect or exploitation, keep in mind the acronym
SPEAK UP, which stands for:
Sudden changes in behavior,
finances or lifestyle
Physical injuries, dehydration or
malnourishment
John Allen, Creative Services Director at
Senior Source at 9 News, discussed the
importance of picking up the phone and
asking Adult Protection Services to check
to the welfare of an at-risk adult.
Public officials urged people to
speak up and report suspected elder
abuse and exploitation during the
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day
event on June 15.
Colorado Adult Protective Services
(APS) received nearly 11,000 reports of
suspected elder abuse, neglect and
exploitation in 2011. Yet, it estimates
only one in 10 incidents of at-risk
adults and seniors being harmed are
reported.
“Adult Protective Services receives
calls from people every day who are
concerned about someone they know,
The harmony group, Raging Grannies, entertained guests at
the It’s Okay to Speak Up event by singing fun songs including
Cheers, Our favorite Things and Short Term Memory.
Sen. Evie Hudak and Rep. Sue
Schafer discussed Senate Bill 78, which
Gov. Hickenlooper recently signed
into law.
“Elder abuse is a statewide issue.
This legislation will combat the mis-
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Caretakers, seniors and providers were entertained by the
Raging Grannies and listened to officials discuss the importance of reporting suspected elder abuse, neglect and exploitation at the It’s Okay to Speak Up event.
that does not have an elder abuse
mandated reporting law in place.
Making sure seniors are protected
and cared for is critical to the strength
of the Denver community.
Denver DA Mitch Morrissey talked
about helping a woman whose family
members were financially preying on
her. His office was able to help by connecting her to housing and support
services. He went on to say that his
office sees a lot of elders that are financially exploited by family members
that have drug and gambling addictions. “We also receive many calls
from postal workers on their routes
who are concerned about seniors
becoming isolated,” he said.
While the event shined a spotlight
on a serious, but important matter, the
Raging Grannies performed lighthearted songs. Additionally, attendees
were connected with aging information from various community service
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Art (Barrett Ohene)
20
Extreme withdrawal, depression or
anxiety
Absence of basic care or necessities
Kept away from others
Unsanitary living conditions
Personal items or missing money
To report suspected abuse, neglect
and exploitation among at-risk adults
over the age of 18, please call the
Denver County APS hotline at 720944-2994.
If you live in another county, call
your local county APS hotline.
The It’s Okay to Speak Up event
was supported by Senior Source at 9
News, the City and County of Denver,
Denver Health, Juniper Village at The
Spearly Center, VITAS, 50 Plus
Marketplace News, Prime Time for
Seniors Newspaper, Denver District
Attorney’s Office, and several other
local businesses and organizations. Stopping The
Violence Means We
Find Our Denver
Moment
Do we own the
By Representative Angela Williams
violence that grips
Denver? Have we
made it personal
enough to prompt
collective action from
our entire community?
The emotion of my young cousin’s
death to the gunfire laying siege on
Denver is still raw. Each day I wait for
our city to step up in a way that will
truly put a stop to these senseless acts.
Denver is better than this – smarter.
We must tap into crafting creative
solutions centered firmly in a citywide
philosophy of Safety, Awareness,
Prevention, Jobs, Intervention,
Inclusiveness and Education.
This is why I urged an emergency
meeting of Mile High City’s Five Ps:
Parents, Police, Preachers, Politicians
and the Public under the banner of the
2012 Gang Violence Initiative
Community meeting. Bringing the
Five Ps together can raise the alarms
on violence in our great city.
Our community pillars should be
unified and ready to implement.
But, more importantly, it’s time to
tap into the true potential of our young
people and to engage them academically, intellectually and spiritually.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach
to addressing the crisis. We are not looking for conventional thinking or solutions that are the most convenient for
the mentor - or the easiest to put in
motion. It won’t be easy, and our young
people deserve the heavy lift.
We need innovative solutions that
will fundamentally change and alter
their lives. Empower our children by
providing an opportunity to bring
them closer to realizing a truly successful, productive and fruitful life.
Not only should we identify and
strengthen existing programs, but pursue newer ones that can face our
budgetary challenges while engaging
our kids. A real solution is multifaceted and nurturing, and it includes
a public/private partnership – from
collaboration with the multitude of
public, private and for-profit colleges
and universities in Denver to finding
ways to plug our children into a
diverse range of programs that are
doing more than simply filling up
time during the course of the day.
Denver is the village that raises the
child, a rich intersection of science,
technology, the arts, music and an
unlimited array of small to large businesses, educational institutions and
museums all eager for the chance to
give back.
This is our Denver moment. Let’s
discover the leaders of our tomorrow,
expose them to newer possibilities and
the chance at being model citizens and
stewards of our community. Not only
will we stop the violence, but we’ll
manage to make Denver an even better place, too. Sen. Mike Johnston addresses the crowd at the
District 2 Police Station where a community meeting
was held to address the issue of violence after the
death of Police Officer Celena Hollis.
Photo by Lens of Ansar
Editor’s note: State Rep. Angela Williams
represents House District 7 and lives in the
Stapleton neighborhood.
After a very emotional and tearful meeting at the District 2 Police Station, the crowd gave a standing ovation to the Denver Police for their support of the community; expressing their love, pain and
support for the loss of fellow police officer.
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21
Editor’s note: The following words are from
the Reverend Otis Moss, Senior Pastor of
Trinity United Church of Christ in
Chicago, Illinois concerning President
Obama’s recent public endorsement of Gay
Marriage.
My Brother:
Tell your brethren who are part of
your ministerial coalition to “live their
faith and not legislate their faith” for
the Constitution is designed to protect
the rights of all. We must learn to be
more than a one-issue community and
seek the beloved community where
we may not all agree, but we all recognize the fingerprint of the Divine upon
all of humanity.
There is no doubt people who are
same-gender-loving who occupy
prominent places in the body of
Christ. For the clergy to hide from true
dialogue with quick dismissive claims
devised from poor biblical scholarship
is as sinful as un-thoughtful acceptance of a theological position. When
we make biblical claims without
sound interpretation we run the risk
of adopting a doctrinal position of
deep conviction but devoid of love.
Deep faith may resonate in our position, but it is the ethic of love that
AN OPEN LETTER FROM REV. OTIS MOSS III TO THE BLACK CLERGY...
forces us to prayerfully reexamine our
position.
The question I believe we should
pose to our congregations is, “Should
all Americans have the same civil
rights?” This is a radically different
question than the one you raised with
the ministers, “Does the church have
the right to perform or not perform
certain religious rites.” There is difference between rights and rites. We
should never misconstrue rights
designed to protect diverse individuals in a pluralistic society versus religious rites designed by faith communities to communicate
a theological or doctrinal perspective.
These two questions are answered in
two fundamentally
different arenas. One
is answered in the
arena of civic debate
where the Constitution
is the document of
authority. The other is
answered in the realm
of ecclesiastical councils where theology,
conscience and biblical
mandates are the
guiding ethos. I do not
believe ecclesiastical
councils are equipped to shape civic
legislation nor are civic representatives
equipped to shape religious rituals
and doctrine.
The institution of marriage is not
under attack as a result of the
President’s words. Marriage was
under attack years ago by men who
viewed women as property and children as trophies of sexual prowess.
Marriage is under attack by low
wages, high incarceration, unfair tax
policy, unemployment, and lack of
education.
Marriage is under attack by clergy
who proclaim monogamy yet think
nothing of stepping outside the bonds
of marriage to have multiple affairs
with “preaching groupies.” Same-gender couples did not cause the high
divorce rate, but our adolescent views
of relationships and our inability as a
community to come to grips with the
ethic of love and commitment did. We
still confuse sex with love and
romance with commitment.
My father, who is a veteran of the
civil rights movement and retired pastor, eloquently stated the critical
nature of this election when speaking
to ministers this past week who claim
they will pull
support from the
President as a
result of his position. He stated,
“Our Ancestors
prayed for 389
years to place a
person of color in
the White House.
They led over 200
slave revolts,
fought in 11 wars,
one being a civil
war where over
600,000 people
died.
Our mothers
fought and were
killed for women’s suffrage, our
grandparents were lynched for the
civil rights bill of 1964 and the voting
rights act of 1965…my father never
had the opportunity to vote and I
believe it is my sacred duty to pull the
lever for every member of my family
who was denied the right to vote. I
will not allow narrow-minded ministers or regressive politicians the satisfaction of keeping me from my
sacred right to vote to shape the future
for my grandchildren.”
“The institution of marriage is not
under attack as a result of the
President’s words.”
Gay and lesbian citizens did not
cause the economic crash, foreclosures, and attack upon health care.
Poor underfunded schools were not
created because people desire equal
protection under the law. We have
much work to do as a community,
and to claim the President of the
United States must hold your theological position is absurd.
He is President of the United States
of America not the President of the
Baptist convention or Bishop of the
Sanctified or Holiness Church. He is
called to protect the rights of Jew and
Gentile, male and female, young and
old, Gay and straight, black and white,
Atheist and Agnostic. It should be
noted the President offered no legislation, or executive order, or present an
argument before the Supreme Court.
He simply stated his personal conviction.
If we dare steal away from the
noise of this debate, we will realize as
a church we are called to “Do justice,
live mercy and walk humbly with
God.” Gay people have never been the
enemy; and when we use rhetoric to
suggest they are the source of our
problems we lie on God and cause
tears to flow from the eyes of Christ.
I am not asking you to change your
position, but I am stating we must
stay in dialogue and not allow our
own personal emotional prejudices or
doctrines to prevent us from seeing
the possibilities of a beloved community.
November is fast approaching, and
the spirits of Ella Baker, Septima
Clarke, Fannie Lou Hammer, Rosa
Parks, A. Phillip Randolph, James
Orange, Medgar Evers and Martin
Luther, King Jr. stand in the balcony
of heaven raising the question, “Will
you do justice, love mercy and walk
humbly with our God?” Emmitt Till
and the four little girls who were
assassinated in Alabama during worship did not die for a Sunday sermonic sound bite to show disdain for one
group of God’s people. They were
killed by an evil act enacted by men
who believed in doctrine over love.
We serve in ministry this day
because of a man who believed in love
over doctrine and died on a hill called
Calvary in a dusty Palestinian community 2,000 years ago. Do not let the
rhetoric of this debate keep you from
the polls, my friend.
Asking you to imagine a beloved
community, your brother and friend,
Otis Moss, III
Senior Pastor, Trinity UCC
Chicago, Illinois
22
Obama Is
Playing To His
Base On Gay
Marriage (But
It Isn’t Blacks)
While cam-
By Derryck Green
paigning for the
U.S. Senate in 2004,
Barack Obama was
asked about his
views on gay marriage. At that time, he stated: “What I
believe, in my [Christian] faith, is that
a man and a woman, when they get
married, are performing something
before God, and it’s not simply the
two persons who are meeting.”
Four years later, running for president, during a forum at Rick Warren’s
Saddleback Church, Obama repeated
that he thought marriage is “between
a man and a woman.” He also said,
“Now, for me, as a Christian, it’s also
a sacred union. You know, God’s in
the mix.” Senator Obama was quite
clear that he wasn’t somebody who
promotes same-sex marriage, but that
he believed in civil unions.
Now, citing the very same faith that
influenced his decision against gay
marriage in the past, President Obama
now says his faith and the Golden
Rule persuade him that gay marriage
should be legalized.
Obama’s most his recent “evolution” on gay marriage has generated
criticism from some of his most vocal
supporters – black Americans. More
specifically, black churches and their
presiding ministers are taking issue
with Obama’s new stance. This raises
questions about how black congregants will react and if it will divide
Obama’s political base.
According to a 2009 Pew Research
Poll on Religion and Public Life, black
Americans are more religious than
Americans as a whole. This should, of
course, be seen as a contributing factor
as to why so many blacks oppose
legalizing gay marriage.
Black ministers opposing the
President’s new policy position should
be applauded for not sacrificing their
religious integrity while continuing to
embrace biblical truths. On the other
hand, those ministers supporting the
President on gay marriage should be
confronted about how they could support a position that contradicts what is
found in the Bible.
Beyond questioning whether faith
or politics now drives President
Obama when it comes to gay marriage, another thing that must now be
considered is who really constitutes
the President’s base. Black Americans
may be his most loyal supporters, but
they are not the people Obama seeks
to please most. Black Americans have
never been his base in that sense. One
only has to look at his life story to confirm this fact.
Barack Obama was born in Hawaii.
He was raised by and around rich, liberal whites. After time spent in
Indonesia, he returned to Hawaii and
attended Punahou School – surrounded by wealthy white people.
Obama later attended Occidental
College, transferred to Columbia
University and, after a charade as a
community organizer around the
South Side of Chicago, attended
Harvard Law School. Again, he was
surrounded by liberal white people a
good portion of the time. This isn’t a
bad thing in and of itself – it’s simply
reality.
Even as he ran for the Illinois state
senate, the U.S. Senate and the White
House, Barack Obama’s main con-
stituency has been rich, liberal white
people. Black folk supported him
along the way, but their loyalty of
support does not necessarily constitute
a political base.
Aside from that short stint as a “community organizer” and attending Trinity
United Church of Christ – it would
seem to build his “street cred” and
“authenticity” among those who would
be his most loyal supporters – it’s
Barack Obama never spent a significant
amount of time around black people.
Barack Obama’s announcement of
his evolution in favor of gay marriage
won’t splinter his base once one
understands who his base is. And it
isn’t black people. Editor’s note: Derryck Green, a member of
the national advisory council of the Project
21 black leadership network, received a
M.A. in Theological Studies from Fuller
Theological Seminary and is currently pursuing his doctorate in ministry at Azusa
Pacific University. Comments may be sent
to [email protected] .
Published by the National Center for
Public Policy Research. Reprints permitted
provided source is credited. New Visions
Commentaries reflect the views of their
author, and not necessarily those of Project
21, other Project 21 members, or the
National Center for Public Policy Research,
its board or staff.
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23
Julius
Joel Rodney Siemion
Greg Goodloe
Change
Anyone?
By Quincy Hines
T
he crowd was small but the
energy was high at the Saving Our
Young Black Men roundtable, sponsored by the Denver Branch of the
NAACP (National Association of the
Advancement of Colored People) on
Thursday, June 21 at Now Faith
Christian
Center Church
in Montbello.
All the likeminded attendees came with
one thing in
mind – concern
for our young
Jim “Dr. Daddio” Walker
men who have
been seen on so many city block corners doing God knows what.
The panelists included Dedrick
Sims (Sims Fayola International
Academy), Lola Morris (Family
Against Violent Acts), Terrence
Roberts (Prodigal Sons Initiative),
Pastor Ron Wooding, Brother Jeff Fard
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Conservation Starts Here
(Bro Jeff’s
Cultural
Center), Ryan
Ross and
Denver Chief of
Police Robert
White.
Moderator for
the event was
Terrence Roberts
the very vocal
Jim “Dr. Daddio”
Walker, past owner of KDKO who can
now be heard on AM760.
Walker said, “I stopped attending
meetings such as these because all
people did was talk and meet to meet
to meet and rather than waste my
time I decided I would sit them out.
But this issue is very important to
me.”
The panelists started by giving reason why they were in attendance and
all agreed that we, of African decent
Americans, should be more prepared
than what we have been – promoting
more entrepreneurship, educating our
youth, building networking connections and supporting one another.
Panel comments were varied and
powerful. Brother Jeff requested that
people stop begging, spending unnecessary money especially on outside
influences and start spending money
within our own community.
To reiterate what he said, in an article written by Tisha Davis, a
Willingboro small business examiner
for Examiner.com, showed the dollars
spent by African descendent
Americans was over $95 billion in
2010 considering we make up roughly
12.6 percent in the United States’ population.
The question “How do we start”
was answered by Terrence Roberts
stating, “We need to learn to support
one another better. There are too
many warehouses that can support
and give jobs to people who need
them between Peoria and Chambers
and yet they are not employing us.
The Bloods and the Crips, without any
501c3 and an official registered organization name have recruited more than
3,000 members in Colorado alone.
They were able to win over our youth
because they were in the streets
recruiting. The Bloods and the Crips
have Bar-B-Ques, get-togethers and
drive by shootings,” he said.
One concerned attendee stated that
the NAACP has a corporate report
card which gives businesses an ERI
(Economic Reciprocity Initiative)
grade which focuses on industries
such as automotive, telecommunications, financial services, general merchandizing and hotel and lodging.
Her opinion was we should start boycotting local businesses who are not
equally employing ethnic groups.
One young lady who had to be
24
about 16 years
old expressed
her desire to get
a job and her
concern on how
to get one. She
felt that it’s not
that easy being
a young lady
Lola Morris
looking for a
job. She has
tried and has yet to find one and
asked how can she get one.
With that desire and determination,
the floor erupted
and Fard stated
that he was a
small business
owner who
employs about
10 people, but he
would make
room for one
Denver Chief of Police
more. She would
Robert White
have a job if she
wanted one. He also challenged other
people from the audience to help him
pay her salary and several stepped to
the plare and accepted the challenge.
Dr. Daddio asked the panel, “How
do we develop our youth and keep
them engaged and or interested?”
Sims stated that he is keeping the
students engaged at Sims Fayola
International Academy with over 150
male students with one one mentors
who serve as good role models. He is
looking for more men to help.
The dialogue was strong and powerful but unfortunately it was like
preaching to the choir. The panel
members are all engaged and working
with one another. But there is so
much more work to be done. Get
involved because a small change can
make a big difference.
Editor’s note: Quincy Jones and Theo
Wilson AKA Lucifury host Barbershop
Talk where these issue and other topics are
discussed. Join BST’s Quincy Hines and
Theo Wilson AKA Lucifury @
JoinBST.com
on
Facebook
@
www.facebook.com/JoinBSTCO or on
Twitter @BarbershopTalk1
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Truth, Justice,
and the
Zimmerman Way
Op-ed by William Gamble, April 26,
2012
T
hose over 60 years old will
probably recognize, “Truth, Justice,
and the Zimmerman Way,” as a parody of “Truth, Justice, and the
American Way” popularized by DC
Comics in the 1930’s in describing its
super human character, Superman,
who fought for these staples of righteousness. Concerning race relations in
the U.S., truth is ever in a state of flux,
justice is somewhat ethereal, and the
American Way is more like the
George Zimmerman way, especially
for people of color, a way of distrust,
suspicion, and inequality.
When
Pilate asked
Jesus in
John’s Gospel
Chapter 18,
“What is
truth?” he
never gave
Jesus a chance
to answer as
if his question
was so deeply
rhetorical that
no answer would satisfy. As Pilate
misunderstood the need for good relationships between Romans and Jews,
so too have we derived a false notion
of truth as pertains to race relations.
The truth for the Romans was that
Jews and their Jesus were inferior
beings that needed to be controlled,
and furthermore had no inherent
rights as persons of their own. Like a
bad disease, “these people” had to be
controlled or eliminated, the latter step
being attempted by Adolf Hitler with
his solution for the “Jewish problem.”
In one sense as we look at the history of the U.S., I think one can legitimately ponder the rectitude of our
current state-of-affairs as it pertains to
race relations, particularly between
Blacks and whites. Notwithstanding
the progress that has been made,
George Zimmerman’s “truth” (and
others like him) regarding Trayvon
Martin was that “Trayvon was one of
those people who have no rights, and
must be controlled, and I, the superior
being must do it.” Some might believe
this (the killing of Trayvon Martin) to
be just an example of aberrant behavior by Mr. Zimmerman, and not reflective of today’s America. But reality is
that even in the year 2012, Black mothers and fathers still instruct their children, especially their sons on “how to
act” and to “watch your back” regarding race relations – a sad commentary
of our times. “Why,” we must legitimately ask, “is this kind of thing still
happening?” Why in the year 2012 do
we still experience a KKK syndrome
whereby Blacks are assaulted and
killed because of the color of their
skin? Is the dream of Dr. King and my
generation so remote that it bears no
relation to reality or truth? What is
truth in this context?
Mr. Zimmerman asserts that he
shot Trayvon in self-defense under
Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law,
thus asserting that he has no guilt (he
pleaded innocent to the murder
charges against him), and therefore no
justice need be meted out to him.
Again, Mr. Zimmerman’s justice is a
far cry from the justice of Superman in
the latter’s dealing with good versus
evil. Justice is fleeting for the disenfranchised in America. If justice in its
simplest
form means
making
things right,
then we
have a steep
hill to climb.
If anyone
could claim
innocence
in this
whole
affair, it
would be
Trayvon. His only mistake was
“walking while being black in
Sanford, Florida,” which George
Zimmerman determined was needful
of his justice, to accuse, assault, and
ultimately kill under a cloak of “stand
your ground.”
Lastly, the “American way,” while
much improved for African
Americans over conditions that existed as late as 1950, is still a work in
progress. By every measure, social,
cultural, economic, educational, and
others we trail the majority. The
American way favors those not of
color, and not much is being done to
change the scenario for the masses of
people of color, America’s black and
brown population. As the “haves”
and “have-nots” in today’s America
grow further apart, the “have-nots”
(the disenfranchised and marginalized
who are mostly people of color) accelerate at a faster rate. In fact, the current economic paradigm tends to
make true the adage that, “the rich get
richer, and the poor (people of color)
get poorer.” Yet we fight on in the
hope that better days lie ahead.
Glimpses of hope and reflections of
light are utterly destroyed when the
“George Zimmerman Way” overshadows truth and justice. Legal Lines
Teens and Sexting
Question: My child received a text from a friend that contained a graphic picture of
a partially nude teenage girl. Can he get in trouble for this?
Answer: Yes, he can get in trouble. This type of texting is where the term “sexting”
comes from. There is no crime in Colorado called sexting. This type of conduct, however, can be a crime called Sexual Exploitation of a Child. It is a felony and is considered
a “sex offense.” Just having the sexually explicit photo on the phone of someone under
the age of 18 is a felony. It is also a felony to send the photo to anyone else.
That means that if an individual, including a juvenile, is convicted of Sexual
Exploitation of a Child, the individual would most likely have to register as a sex offender and receive offense-specific counseling.
If anyone receives this type of text, the first thing he or she needs to do is delete the
text without forwarding or replying to the text. The individual should then send a separate text message to whoever sent the text, telling that person to please never send this
type of text to the individual ever again. Should there be any kind of investigation initiated, this procedure creates a record showing that the person who received the text did
not forward the text to anyone and deleted it from his or her phone.
The Colorado Bar Association welcomes your questions on subjects of general interest. This column is meant to be used as general information. Consult your own attorney
for specifics. Send questions to the CBA Attn: Sara Crocker, 1900 Grant St., Suite 900,
Denver, CO 80203 or email [email protected].
About Legal Lines: Legal Lines is a question and answer column provided as a public service by the Colorado Bar Association. Attorneys answer questions of interest to
members of the public for their general information.
About the Colorado Bar Association: The Colorado Bar Association is a voluntary
bar association with nearly 18,000 members – almost three-quarters of all attorneys in
the state – founded in 1897. The bar provides opportunities for continuing education, volunteering and networking for those in the legal profession while upholding the standards
of the bar. The bar likewise works to secure the efficient administration of justice, encourage the adoption of proper legislation and perpetuate the history of the profession and
the memory of its members. For more information, visit www.cobar.org.
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Find it again at the
United Church of Montbello!
Come as you are and get connected to your best self through
great fellowship and the love of Jesus Christ!
Sunday Worship: 8:00am (Traditional) and 10:30am (Gospel)
4VOEBZ4DIPPMBNr8FEOFTEBZ#JCMF4UVEZQN
Rev. Dr. James E. Fouther, Jr., Pastor
4879 Crown Blvd., Denver, CO 80239 303-373-0070
http://ucm.ctsmemberconnect.net
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25
“Tell them I sent you...”
~Bee Harris
The Black
Immigrant And
The 21st Century
Black Struggle
By Dedrick Muhammad
Senior Director of the NAACP
Economic Department
The term “African American” has
become a catchall to describe black
Americans in the
United States. But
it obscures the
more nuanced realities of black immigration to the
United States.
Black immigrants,
whether they hail
from Latin America, the Caribbean,
and the African mainland, often come
to the United States to escape poor
conditions and find economic opportunity. As this nation struggles with
immigration reform, the black immigrant community will play a prominent role in developing a socially just
immigration policy.
About eight percent of black immigrants are Afro-Latino, or Black
Latino. Many Spanish-speaking countries have massive Afro-Latino populations, including Brazil, Columbia,
Haiti, Dominican Republic and Cuba.
These Latinos are diverse not only in
their history and background but also
in their struggles, so their reasons for
migrating to the United States are
many. However, the majority make
the move to seek better economic
opportunities for themselves and for
their families.
Afro-Caribbeans also immigrate to
the United States to seek expanded
opportunity. The term applies to people with African ancestry whose
native countries are located in the
Caribbean. The first wave of AfroCaribbean voluntary migration to the
U.S. began in the 1930’s and has continued to this day. According to the
Schomburg Center for Research in
Black Culture, this growth can be
attributed to “the increasing economic
hardship and disenchantment in the
British West Indies and the simultaneous expansion of the U.S. economy
with its relatively high wages and
growing employment opportunities.”
Finally, the rate of African immigration to the United States has steadily increased. According to figures
from the Immigration and
26
Naturalization Service, the number of
African immigrants to the United
States more than quadrupled in recent
years, from just over 100,000 in the
1960’s and 1970’s to over 500,000 in
the 1980’s and 1990’s. Today’s African
migrants are increasingly interested in
establishing permanent residency in
the United States, a stark contrast to
immigrants from the 60’s and 70’s
who often intended to return home
and contribute to nation-building
efforts after acquiring an American
education.
It is no coincidence that Black
immigration to the United States
greatly increased after the 1960’s,
whether from the Caribbean, Latin
America, or Africa. Just as outright
racially discriminatory laws in the
United States limited the progress of
African Americans throughout the history of the US, outright racially discriminatory immigration policies limited the numbers of people of color
who could legally immigrate to the
United States. The great influx of
black immigrants in the latter half of
the twentieth century is largely attributed to the liberalizing of immigration
policies that occurred during the
height of the civil rights movement.
The Immigration and Nationality Act
of 1965, one of the lesser known civil
rights bills from that era, ended the
national origins quota system and
opened the door for large-scale Asian,
African and Latin American immigration.
Over the last fifty years the children
of black immigrants have become a
growing part of the African American
population. This can be seen in the
election of the first African American
president, himself the son of an
African immigrant. The diversity of
the black community will continue to
grow in twenty-first century America.
As we continue to make advances
against racial inequality in the United
States, the connection between today’s
black freedom struggles will necessarily be connected to immigration and
immigration policy. Discover NEW Delights from
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Movie Reviews
By Kam Williams
ExcellentIIIII.
Very GoodIIII..
GoodIIIIII...
FairIIIIIII..
PoorIIIIIII.
No stars
REEL ACTION
proverbial “happily ever after” ending. But in the more nuanced and
multilayered world of Changing the
Game, entre to the Ivy League merely
signals the start of a new set of challenges to be faced by this naive innercity refugee.
After graduating, as warned by his
wise, rapidly-expiring grandma,
Darrell finds himself still tempted by
the Devil and having to negotiate his
Changing the Game
Changing the Game
Ambitious Ghetto Orphan
Tested in All Ways in
Sobering Coming-of-Age
Saga
D
arrell Barnes (Sean Riggs) was
dealt a horrible hand as a baby, having been abandoned by his mother
after his father was shot dead on the
rough streets of North Philly. At least
he was lucky enough to be taken in by
his paternal grandmother (Irma P.
Hall), a Bible-quoting Christian who
did her best to insulate the boy from
the host of evils permeating their
crime-infested neighborhood.
Heeding her admonition to trust in
the Lord, Darrell stuck to the straight
and narrow as a child. He did his best
to keep out of trouble, excelling in
school, where he cut a sharp contrast
to his best friend, Dre (Dennis L.A.
White), a clueless victim of social promotion allowed to slip through the
academic cracks at an early age.
So, it’s no surprise that juvenile
delinquent Dre would eventually drop
out to become a drug kingpin, and
rationalize operating such a reprehensible enterprise by liberally quoting
misanthropic lines from Machiavelli
like, “Kill enemies before they kill
you.” Meanwhile, Darrell did good
and Grandma Barnes proud by gaining admission to the prestigious
Wharton Business School.
In most coming-of-age sagas, the
empathetic underdog’s making his
way out of the ghetto would herald a
way through a different gauntlet of
wickedness. With both Jesus and
Machiavelli’s teachings competing for
control of his mind, he goes into business with a corrupt classmate
(Brandon Ruckdashel) against his better judgment.
The tension builds as Darrell lets
greed get the better of him to a point
of no return where it’s gonna take a
miracle for the ambitious brother to
escape with his soul intact. Touching
on a litany of timely themes, this modern morality play of Shakespearean
proportions packs an emotional punch
while sending a sobering message
about what really matters most.
Rated: R for sexuality, nudity, violence, ethnic slurs, drug use and pervasive profanity.
Running Time: 103 minutes
Distributor: Barnholtz Entertainment
To see a trailer for Changing the Game, visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMxR9DZ-suM
Ikland
1/2
Redemptive Documentary
Rectifies Image of MuchMaligned African Tribe
40
years ago, Colin Turnbull
gained widespread recognition as the
author of “The Mountain People,” an
eye-opening book about a little-known
tribe living in a remote region of
Northern Uganda near the country’s
border with Kenya. His damning ethnological study indicted the Ik as selfish, loveless, sadistic monsters who
bred indiscriminately, never sang,
deserted their elders, laughed at each
other’s misfortunes, and even fed their
offspring to wild animals.
Because Turnbull was the only
Westerner who had studied these
ostensibly-depraved natives in depth,
no one was really in a position to
question the veracity of the British
anthropologist’s shocking findings. At
least, until recently, when Cevin
Soling decided to conduct his own
research to determine whether the
horrifying accounts of barbarism he
had read in the 7th grade were really
accurate.
So, he assembled an intrepid film
crew before embarking on a perilous
trek across some very dangerous terrain marked by civil war and inaccessible by automobile in search of the
selfsame natives Turnbull had dubbed
the worst people in the world. The
upshot of that herculean effort is
Ikland, a redemptive documentary
which sets the record straight about
the much-maligned tribe.
For, as it turns out, lo and behold,
the Ik are a civilized and perfectlypolite clan, who love their neighbors,
the elderly, as well as their young,
judging by all the suckling babes
being fed by bare-breasted, pipesmoking women in front of huts.
Soling, who not only directed but narrates the film, also interviews a few
Ikland
28
village elders about what they remember of the visit decades ago by a Brit
detractor who might have had an
agenda.
Because the Ik are so normal, what
makes the picture fascinating is the
filmmaker’s taxing ordeal trying to
reach them. The ending soon after his
arrival is almost anticlimactic, since
the subjects are fairly ordinary folks,
judging by African standards.
A caravan to the middle of
nowhere proving it’s still the same all
over, good people everywhere you go.
Unrated
In English, Ik, Swahili, Karamojong and Dodoth
with subtitles
Studio: Spectacle Films
Distributor: Quad Cinema
To see a trailer for Ikland, visit:
http://www.iklandmovie.com/?id=trailer
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Carefree Cherub Laments
Climate Change in
Enchanting Cautionary
Parable
S
ix year-old Hushpuppy
(Quvenzhané Wallis) is being raised
under the radar in “The Bathtub,” a
backwoods bayou located on the
swamp side of a Louisiana levee. The
self-sufficient tomboy divides her days
between attending to her sickly father
(Dwight Henry) and living in harmony with a handful of other hardy
refugees from civilization.
Hushpuppy feels sorry for children
growing up on the land in nearby
New Orleans because they eat fish
wrapped in plastic and have been
taught to fear the water. And while
those city kids were caged in strollers
and baby carriages during their formative years, she’s been free to explore
surroundings teeming with vegetation
REEL ACTION
Magic Mike
and a menagerie of wildlife.
Yet, her existence is far from idyllic,
given how much she pines for the
mother her ostensibly-widowed
daddy explained simply “swam
away” one day. The heartbroken little
girl tries to fill the void via flights of
fancy coming courtesy of a vivid
imagination that enables her to carry
on imaginary conversations with her
long-lost mom.
Hushpuppy’s vulnerability is further amplified by her father’s failing
health and by an ominous foreboding
that climate change could destabilize
the eco-system of her natural habitat.
For, she’s been warned by Miss
Bathsheeba (Gina Montana), a sage
soothsayer who also serves as her surrogate mother, that “The trees are
gonna die first, then the animals, then
the fish.”
So unfolds Beasts of the Southern
Wild, a compelling, coming-of-age
parable marking the extraordinary
directorial debut of Benh Zeitlin. An
early entry in the Academy Awards
sweepstakes, this surreal fairy tale
about the prospects of the planet so
richly deserves all the accolades
already heaped upon it at Sundance,
Cannes and other film festivals.
Considerable credit must go to
newcomer Quvenzhané Wallis, a talented youngster who not only portrays protagonist Hushpuppy but narrates the film as well. Like a clever
cross of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry
Finn and Al Gore’s An Inconvenient
Truth, the movie repeatedly reminds
us of a pre-pollution, pre-digital era
when children were still encouraged
to plunge headlong into nature to
experience the world firsthand rather
than artificially through electronic
stimuli.
A visually-enchanting fantasy shot
from the perspective of a naïve waif
magically untouched by the 21st
Century.
Rated: PG-13 for profanity, mature themes,
child imperilment, disturbing images and brief
sensuality
Distributor: Fox Searchlight
To see a trailer for Beasts of the Southern Wild,
visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA6FFnjvvmg
Magic Mike
Channing Tatum Stars as
Reluctant Stripper in Riveting,
Character-Driven Drama
C
hanning Tatum held a number
of odd jobs before he became a matinee idol, including a brief stint as a
male stripper which he might not
exactly be proudest of. But rather than
deny that embarrassing detour on the
road to superstardom, the hunky
heartthrob has opted to embrace that
chapter of his checkered past by making a semi-autobiographical movie
recounting his daring foray into the
adult entertainment industry.
The upshot of that effort is Magic
Mike, a raw and revealing characterdriven drama directed by Oscar-winner Steven Soderbergh (for Traffic)
who previously collaborated with
Channing on the action-thriller
Haywire. The two also just finished
shooting A Bitter Pill, a crime caper set
for an early 2013 release.
Here, Channing stars as Mike
Martingano, an erotic dancer who
goes by the stage name Magic Mike
when titillating the ladies at a seedy,
Tampa dive called Xquisite. The place
is managed by Dallas (Matthew
McConaughey), a silky smooth operator who has promised his most popular performer 10 percent equity to follow him when he relocates the club to
Miami.
Trouble is Mike isn’t getting any
younger, and his big plans for himself
definitely don’t include stripping into
his 40s like Dallas and the other members of the aging revue: Tito (Adam
Rodriguez), Tarzan (Kevin Nash), Ken
(Matt Bomer) and Big [bleep] Richie
(Joe Manganiello). Instead, he dreams
of saving up enough seed money to
set himself up as a custom furniture
designer, and maybe settling down
with Brooke (Cody Horn), the sister of
the 19 year-old (Alex Pettyfer) he’s just
recruited for Dallas.
Unfolding over the course of a
long, hot Florida summer, Magic Mike
is such an unpredictable and palpably
raw-edged adventure that you soon
forget that you’re even watching
actors performing on sets. In that
regard, the picture is rather reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino’s similarly
super-realistic Jackie Brown (1997), a
masterpiece which also featured a
flawed protagonist ensnared in a
sticky predicament at an unpretentious oceanfront setting.
Will Mike summon up the requisite
resolve to extricate himself from the
stripping game and thereby save his
soul? Or will a financial setback cause
him to rationalize moving to Miami,
leaving his hopes and girlfriend
behind for the sake of easy money?
A compelling character study not to
be missed, if only to witness the gutsy,
career performance delivered by the
ever-improving Channing Tatum.
Rated: R for profanity, drug use, brief graphic
nudity and pervasive sexuality.
Distributor: Warner Brothers
To see a trailer for Magic Mike, visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMU7s6cwxEM
Prometheus
Prometheus
Archaeologists Search for
Birthplace of Humanity in SciFi Horror Flick
D
ateline: Scotland, 2089. While
spelunking along the shores of the Isle
of Skye, archaeologists Charlie
Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green)
and Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi
Rapace) discover an ancient painting
etched into the ceiling of an abandoned cave. The uncanny researchers
immediately discern that the primitive
picture is an invitation from aliens to
visit a moon located in a remote con-
29
stellation that might very well have
been the birthplace of humanity.
Fast-forward a few years and we
find the curious couple already en
route to LV-233 on a daring expedition to find proof that people were
created not by God but genetically
engineered by sentient beings from
another galaxy. It is unclear how
unearthing such evidence will affect
the faith of Dr. Shaw, a devout
Christian who always wears a cross
that was a gift from her late father
(Patrick Shaw).
As the spaceship Prometheus
approaches its destination, Captain
Janek (Idris Elba) and his crew of sixteen are roused from a cryogenic state
of hibernation by a doting, concrete
blond android named David (Michael
Fassbender). Upon landing, however,
command of the operation is assumed
by Meredith Vickers (Charlize
Theron), a coldhearted, corporate
executive employed by Weyland
Corporation whose late CEO (Guy
Pearce) underwrote the trillion-dollar
mission.
The trip is just a job to the jaded
Vickers who is skeptical about what
she refers to as “the scribbling of dirty
little savages in caves.” In fact, she
orders the disembarking explorers to
refrain from making any direct contact
with aliens.
Of course, contact with alien life
forms is precisely the point of
Prometheus, a high body-count, horror flick directed by three-time, Oscarnominee Ridley Scott (for Gladiator,
Black Hawk Down and Thelma &
Louise). At this juncture, the picture
proceeds to divide its time between
raising probing philosophical questions about the intersection of science,
religion and ethics, and gratuitous
graphic depictions of body invasion,
mutation, and gruesome vivisection.
Although initially conceived as a
prequel to Alien (1979), also directed
by Scott, the movie was ultimately
released as a stand alone adventure.
Regardless, this riveting, visually-captivating and thought-provoking sci-fi
is well-enough executed to recommend for avid sci-fi fans, even if the
heavy-handed, faith-based symbolism
(“Where’s my cross?” and “After all
this, you still believe!”) gets to be a bit
much.
A thinly-veiled intro to the Alien
franchise revising that classic’s tagline
to suggest: In space, no one can hear
you scream, except perhaps God.
Rated: R for intense violence and brief profanity.
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
To see a trailer for Prometheus, visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1byZkbNB3Jw
Langley Family Charitable Trust
Scholarship Foundation
The Drs. Joseph and Alice Langley
Scholarship Foundation hosted
an awards reception at the Blair
Caldwell Library on Saturday, June 9.
Briana Nealey, Aliyah Montgomery, and
Rachel Baiyee-Cady (not shown) each
received checks for $1,000 to be used
for the college or university of their
choice.
Mayor Hancock Appoints
Rowena Alegría As
Communications Director
Mayor Michael B. Hancock
appointed Rowena Alegría as Director of
Communications.
Alegría recently
served as Editor and
Publisher of The
Denver Post’s Viva
Colorado and has
more than 20 years
of experience in the
fields of journalism
and communications.
Since 2006, Alegría has been leading efforts to make Viva Colorado the
most influential multimedia news outlet for local Latinos. Through her leadership and management, she transformed the publication into an awardwinning and respected news outlet
within the City of Denver and the
Latino community.
As Director of Communications,
Alegría will oversee all media relations and craft and execute the administration’s internal and external communications. She began on Monday,
June 18.
Alegría served in several capacities
over her initial 12-year career with the
Denver Post, including copy editor,
assistant copy desk chief and assistant
business editor.
Alegría is active in the Denver community, serving as president of the
board of Servicios de la Raza, as a
member of the Hispanic Advisory
Council at Florence Crittenton High
School and on planning committees
for various community events. She
graduated from Lincoln High School
and earned her Bachelor of Arts
HATS OFF TO...
degree from Metropolitan State
College of Denver, Magna Cum
Laude.
Anthony Sanford Selected For
Summer Programs At Emory
University And CU-Boulder
Anthony Sanford, a member of
Project Greer Street and junior at East
High School, has been selected for the
Pre-College
Program at Emory
University in
Atlanta, Georgia.
Hosted by one of
the top 20 universities in the country,
the Program considered more than
600 applicants
throughout the United States. This
unique summer academic program
provides rising high school juniors
and seniors with an exciting glimpse
of academic and residential life at a
top-ranked national university.
Sanford was also accepted into the
Business and Leadership Program at
the Leeds School of Business at the
University of Colorado at Boulder.
The Business and Leadership Program
chose a group of 35 students from
across the country to participate in a
summer enrichment program focused
on the development of business and
leadership skills. The Program
includes an image campaign project
with the opportunity to win a college
scholarship.
Last summer, Sanford was accepted into the prestigious Telluride
Association Sophomore Seminar program at the University of Michigan at
Ann Arbor.
For more information regarding
Project Greer Street, email [email protected]
Denver Health Receives $19.8
Million Innovation Award
Denver Health continues to make
great strides in the world of health
care and announced that it received a
$19.8 million award from The Center
for Medicare and Medicaid
Innovation. Through this award, the
community’s integrated health care
system will transform its primary care
delivery system to provide individualized care to more effectively meet its
patients’ medical, behavioral and
social needs.
This model, known as Denver
Health’s 21st Century Care, will provide team-based care, coordinate care
across health settings and offer selfcare support between visits enabled
by health information technology
(HIT) and team-based patient navigators who will reach out to patients in a
variety of ways. It also integrates
physical and behavioral health services in collaboration with the Mental
Health Center of Denver in existing
primary care settings and creates new
high-risk clinics for the most complex
patients.
Once in place, 21st Century Care
will improve both access to quality of
care for Denver Health’s largely lowincome population and lower costs by
reducing avoidable emergency room
and hospital visits. In addition, the
new care models enable Denver
Health to serve an additional 15,000
patients. Moreover, this innovative
care model is projected to result in
over $40.4 million in savings over a
three-year period, including $12.8 million in federal savings, $3.9 million in
state savings, and $23.7 million to be
reinvested in the care model.
Coraima Chavez Accepted
To Flight School
Coraima Chavez, a member of the Fly
Girls Bessie Coleman chapter has been
accepted to the Legacy Flight
Academy (LFA), July 8-22 in
Tuskegee, AL.
The Legacy Flight Academy (LFA)
is a unique, two-week aviation experience for students’ age16-19 who have
already demonstrated a sincere interest in aviation. Based
in historic Tuskegee,
Alabama, the LFA
seeks to inspire
minority youth
towards a military
career in aviation,
following in the legacy of the pioneering
Tuskegee Airmen. Students will reside
on campus at Tuskegee University
and will receive flight instruction at
Moton Field – the same site where the
Tuskegee Airmen first trained over 70
years ago.
WFOC Announces 2012 Girls’
Leadership Council
The Women’s Foundation of
Colorado (WFCO), a statewide organization committed to building
resources and leading change so that
every woman and girl in Colorado
achieves her full potential, has selected
10 sophomore high school girls for the
2012 Girls’ Leadership Council (GLC).
The GLC is an innovative and prestigious program created by the WFCO
that inspires girls to be future leaders
and philanthropists.
The 2012 Girls’ Leadership Council
includes: Viviana Andazola, York
International High School, Thornton;
Darylann Aragon, Pueblo Centennial
High School, Pueblo; Audra Burke,
Edison High School, Rush; Virginia
30
Sharoyn Creager, Frederick High
School, Longmont; Ashlen Lemon,
Heritage High School, Highlands
Ranch; Nefretarie Eudora Lockley, Regis
Jesuit High School, Denver; Aztzin
Lopez, Denver Center for International
Studies (DCIS), Denver; Kimiko
McBryde, Denver School of Science &
Technology, Denver; Navil Perez, York
International High School, Thornton;
and Jigyasa Sharma, St. Mary’s
Academy, Highlands Ranch.
The girls will participate in a oneweek intensive residential summer
program on the University of Denver
campus to take place July 29 through
August 4.
At the end of the GLC program,
two exemplary participants will be
selected to each receive a $1,500 Dottie
Lamm Leadership Award.
Miller Wins Cover Girl Honor
Jocelyn Miller, former Miss Black
Colorado 1984 and professional freelance model is a
recent Cover Girl
recipient in the
May/June edition of O
Magazine. As
one of four winners of “The
Beauty of Giving
Back” contest,
sponsored by Cover Girl, Miller won
for her efforts to help the community
and surrounding areas through her
nonprofit agency, The Robert A. Miller
Educational Resource
Center/RAMERC; where she assists
families who have difficulties in communicating with one another.
Miller also volunteers countless
hours for high school students with
Drum line program which she started
at East High School. Other honors
include receiving the 7 Everyday Hero
in 2009; a “Living Portrait of an
African American Woman” by the
National Council of Negro Women in
2010 and the Kathy Hill-Young Spirit
of the Community award.
Reese Jones Walker-Dilworth
The Walker - Dilworth Insurance
Agency is proud to announce the
addition of it's
new member to
the agency,
Earnest Reese., Jr..
With over 25
years of insurance underwriting experience,
Earnest will contribute his knowledge and vision
towards an agency that has been a staple in the community since 1992.
In May, 12 girls completed The Dr.
Justina Ford Math & Science Club,
marking a successful end to the inaugural school year. The club is a collaborative effort of the Friends of the
Black American West Museum and
Single Mothers of Color Inc., with the
expressed purpose of providing support to participants in math and science. The club meets bi-weekly during
the academic year and provides tutoring, review of math and science basics
including hands on activities. The
club’s overall goal is to encourage and
expose girls, ages 8-12, to the various
options and opportunities in these
fields.
Continuing the theme this summer,
BAWM will present the 2nd annual
Dr. Justina Ford Math and Science
Camp for Girls on July 23-27. The goal
is to increase the awareness of science
The International Summer Dance
Institute (ISDI) “One Spirit Many
Voices” provides expert instruction in
various techniques of Jazz, Ballet, Hip
Hop, Modern, African and Cultural
Dance at the Cleo Parker Robinson
Dance School. Four weeks of intensive
dance training are offered Monday,
July 2 to Friday, July 27. Advanced,
pre-professional and professional level
teen and adult students will find
themselves challenged by daytime
classes, while beginning and intermediate level dancers will find themselves in the evening classes.
A week long Children’s Week Day
Camp for dance students ages 3 to 12
runs Monday, July 9 to Friday, July 13,
from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
This year CPRD will host a new
week long Pre-Teen Intensive for students ages 11 to 13 beginning
Monday, July 9 to Friday, July 13 from
9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Information, fees, registration and a
full schedule of classes are available
online at www.cleoparkerdance.org.
Adult classes begin at $20, and
Children’s Week Day Camp is $300,
plus a $20 registration fee. Partial
scholarships are available based on
individual need.
For more information, call 303-2951759.
Invest In Comfort And Earn $750
Or More For Community Group
The City and County of Denver
received a grant from the U.S.
Department of Energy to promote
energy efficiency improvements in
Denver for at least 6,000 residents and
Join The Crowley Foundation
Scholarship Fund on their 2nd annual
5k walk/run Saturday, August 4, at
Central Park in Stapleton. This will be a
non-competitive, non-timed walk/run
for all ages. The walk begins at 8 a.m.
with check in at 7:30 a.m.
The Back 2 School 5K Family
Walk/Run was created to provide a
friendly and healthy environment to
raise money to support our young
people wanting to advance their education. The Fund is one of many ways
to support youth success and to build
a partnership.
We are seeking sponsorship from
all businesses, especially colleges and
universities within Colorado. This
walk will be educational and fun for
everyone. Come out and enjoy music,
face painting, jumping castles and
much more. Funds from this event
will support our scholarship fund as
well as help us purchase school supplies for youth throughout the city.
To participate in this great educational wellness event, call Kenneth D.
Crowley at 720-935-6465 or visit
www.crowleyfoundation.biz for more
information.
JAZZ
BLUES
DENVER
A FUNK ABOVE THE REST
MAHOGANY SOUL CHILD
Girls’ Math & Science Camp
Slated For Late July
CPRD Host Annual International
Summer Dance Institute
2nd Annual Back2School
5K Family Walk/Run
ROCKIN’N’RHYTHM
The Black American West Museum
(BAWM) presents the 2012 Jamboree
on Saturday, July 14 from 8 p.m. to
midnight at St. Cajetan’s Event Hall at
Auraria Campus. Entertainment will
be Rudy Grant and the Buffalo Riders.
Western attire, fancy hats and dancing
boots are suggested but not required.
Instructor Charles Doss will teach line
dancing. Light refreshments will be
served.
Tickets are $40 per person in
advance at the BAWM (3091
California St.) and $45 at the door. For
more information, call 720-242-7428.
African Methodist Episcopal (AME)
Rocky Mountain District Women in
Ministry will give free women’s suits,
dresses, coats, hats, purses, shoes, jewelry, children’s books and toys, and
men’s clothing on Saturday, July 21
from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 3520 Monaco
Parkway, Denver, CO 80207.
For more information, call
Reverend Margaret McCaskill at 303321-3729.
R&B JUKE BOX
BAWM Hosts 2012 Jamboree
6th Annual Ultimate Garage
Free Give-Away of Women’s
Clothing And Accessories
1,200 businesses by May 2013 through
the Denver Energy Challenge.
The Denver Energy Challenge is a
free residential and commercial energy program provided by the City and
County of Denver to help residents
and businesses cut energy waste, save
money and improve indoor comfort.
Participants receive free energy advice
and access to exclusive rebates and
financing for energy upgrades made
to their home.
The Center for ReSource
Conservation (CRC) is partnering with
the Denver Energy Challenge to provide energy advising services and will
pay local community or neighborhood
groups $15 for each participant who
signs up for the program.
CRC’s work is focused on single
family homes in the Berkeley,
Gateway/Green Valley Ranch,
Montbello, Regis, Sloan’s Lake,
Sunnyside, and West Highlands
neighborhoods. CRC is looking for
community groups in these areas who
would like to earn $750 or more by
having their volunteers talk to their
neighbors and friends about the program.
For more information, call
Francesca Sanstistevan at 720-663-1436
or email [email protected].
GOSPEL TRAIN
The Julius Show kicks off the
Summer Concert Series with a special
free 4th of July concert at Green Valley
Ranch Amphitheater on Wednesday,
July 4 from 8 to 9:30 p.m. The concert
is followed by a spectacular fireworks
show over the lake that is choreographed to popular music.
The Julius Show provides an
extraordinary range of dance and pop
favorites, including R&B, Jazz, Rock,
Pop, Hip-Hop, and Latin in an energetic, choreographed presentation.
Vocalist Julius Williams not only sings
some of America’s favorite ballads,
but he also impersonates the voice of
the artists who made the songs
famous resulting in a riveting evening
of entertainment.
The Summer Concert Series continues on Wednesday nights July 11
through Aug. 1. For more information,
visit
http://www.skylineusa.com/oakwoo
d.htm or call Skyline at 303-595-8747.
and its relevance in everyday life. A
maximum of 15 girls, ages 8 to 13, will
be accepted for the camp that will feature workshops facilitated by professionals in the math and science industry. Each day will run from 8 a.m. to 4
p.m. The week-long camp fee is $95.
For more information, contact
Deborah L. Sims Fard
at [email protected].
COLORADO
July 4th Community Concert,
Fireworks Scheduled At Green
Valley Ranch Amphitheater
COMMUNITY NOTES
ALL BLUES
ORIGINS:
ORGY IN RHYTHM
NEWS
SO WHAT:
THE RADIO SHOW
.89225*.9-=25*
31
ETEENTHJAMES
: ANVA
HEdward
OLIDAYParker
James
ANFRICAN
BUREN AMERICAN
flecting On The Past And Planning For The Future
March 19, 1935 – June 4, 2012
James Van Buren was born March
J
May 10, 1931 – May 25, 2012
May 22, 2006.
ames Edward Parker, the third
though, would be quick to tell anyone
James Edward Parker departed this
child of John Edward Parker Jr. and
he was the most
passionate with
19, 1935 in Arrow Rock Missouri. He Bythat
LisaMarie
Martinez
life
on Friday, May 25, 2012. He was
Drucilla Wilder Parker was born May
regard to his theocratic activities as
was born to Thelma Huff and William Photos
by LisaMarie Martinez
proceeded
in death by his grandpar10,
1931,
in
McCloud,
Oklahoma.
one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. James
H. Van Buren. While in his teens he
ents,
his
parents,
one daughter, Joetta
James
received
his
formal
educasymbolized his dedication to Jehovah
left Arrow Rock and moved to Kansas
Laverne Foxtion
in
on January 18,
legally
profit
organization founded
in 1963 to
bster Dictionary
Ward, two sons,
City to pursue
a granted absolute power of conOklahoma.
1992. James was an
trol over their “human property.” It
promote
economic
development,
colThomas
During
his
high
a formal instruavid student of the
career as a musician.
also represents a time when the ances- laborated
with
Big
Al
to
host
Calhoun and
school
years
he
Bible and loved to
While
City
ce or transfer
ofin Kansas
Stephen Paul
tors of African Americans experienced Juneteenth.
played the posishare what he
he
met
and
married
Parker, and
els.” It further
the pain of instilled fear, inhumane
tion of tackle for
learned with othHelen M. Fuller
and
grandson,
discipline, unconditional submission,
ers. This he demon- the Dunbar
ves, ones that
Darryl C.
they had seven
chil- dependence on another
Bears football
strated when after
and total
vient to a domiChandler; two
team. James’
his retirement, he
dren. In 1956
Jamesbeing.
human
granddaughgrandmother,
se represent
just the “Blues
became a regular
founded
ters, Sharon A.
Juneteenth In Denver
Margie
Wilder,
pioneer (full time
rican-American
Kings” to playThe
the “father” of Juneteenth in
Lewis and
carried
him
to
minister), devoting
type of music
that he
Nakeyia Brownecting upon
church
with
her
Denver
was a gentleman from
70 hours or more
McNeal. Left to
loved
listening
to
as
a
as
a
child,
conseCleburne, Texas by the name of Otha
each month to
of “Juneteenth
cherish his
quently
he
gave
sharing the Bible’s
child. James
createdRice (1916-1993) and known as
Patrick
he historic Five
memories are
his
life
to
Christ
message with peo“Otha.”
Every year beginning in the
an unforgettable
style
his wife, Nancy
at
the
Mt.
Olive
ple
throughout
the
ltural center
1950s, he would put out a galvaand sound,early
not just
Parker; three
Baptist Church
Denver area. Many
nized
in Denver.
with his voice,
buttub full of red pop, watermelon,
sons: Ricky
of those hours were in McCloud. Mr.
and
items
that
depicted
freedom
in
James (Amy)
also as a drummer.
Parker served
nce
spent conducting
Sarah
Lee Foster, a former
Texas.
He
practiced
this
ritual
every
Parker,
James played with such legends as
eight years
Bible studies with
individuals
who
ebration of June
employee
of Charlene’s
House
of in
Memphis TN;
June
19th
at
his
business,
Rice’s
T. Bone Walker, Big Joe Turner and
the United
were incarcerated
or recently
released
n Texas first
Beauty
located
in the heart of the
Clarence
and Oven at
St.,
Lou Rawls.Taproom
Later he participated
in 2800 Welton
States Army and
from incarceration. James was also a
Pres. Abraham
James E. Parker,Edward
originally
fromParker and Brandon
Points
at
2820
Welton
St.,
reflected
on
(Gwen)
group andwhich
duet collaborations
with
was
given
an
honorable
discharge.
he sold in 1968.
regular early morning fixture at busEmancipation
Oklahoma,
came to Denver
in the ‘60s.
this time during the late ‘60sMr.
and
into has eleven
Parker, Denver,
CO; five daughters:
talents such asInIrene
Reid, Good
Parker
children
a June1993
interview, Pearl
stops and park-n-ride locations, as he
was enacted
two
He
ran
the
American
Legion,
Wally
the
‘70s.
Foster
recalled
the
countrySharon
Viola
(Kennedy)
Millsap;
Rockin’ Brown,
Pat
Metheny,
Richie
from
previous
marriages.
When
James
others endeavored to share the
Hayes Rice said that she hadand
never
ment representSimpson
Post
#29,
for
18
years
on
the
Celestine
Smith;
Vera
Ann
(Melza Sr.)
wide
rioting
and
the
Black
Panther
Cole, Teddy
Edwards
and
John
moved
to
Denver,
he
continued
his
message with early morning
heard of Juneteenth until sheBible’s
married
Jordan;
Kathleen
(Clyde)
Williams,
all
ry when Gen.
corner
of
27th
and
Welton
streets,
movement
and
how
it
was
not
until
Harris.
walk
with
the
Lord,
most
recently
commuters.
James was truly an
Otha, that the food and drinks
were
of Jolietplace.
II and Tayatania Brownnto Galveston,
served
as a meeting
Colorado jazz and blues fans got to
with that
Abundant Lifewhich
Baptist
Church
the
late
‘70s
through
the
‘90s
extraordinary
example
of
courage
and
free and that everything was confined
McNeal,
Denver,
CO, three brothers:
Morning When
Star Baptist
Church
icial noticeknow
that him well when he moved to
asked
about the
race riots
in the
faithfulness as Juneteenth
he spent as much
time
peaked
underand
thethen
shared
to
the
nightclub
and
restaurant.
She
John
E.
(Opal)
Parker
was a faithful
of “It was a rough peri- Jr., Witchita, KS;
ary wouldDenver
use in the early 1980’s. In 1985,
in the ministryleadership
as his healthofwould
‘70s, member
he recalled,
herself, Bigwhere
Al andheJames
remembered
that
there
was
a
lot
of
Lawrence (Georgia) Parker, Los
the Male Chorus until
was no
allow up until two
weeks before his
cessary toJames formed his own label and
od. he
Things
happened that should not
E. Parker.
red
soda
pop
and
western
attire
durlaunched his debut album “We Will
longer able to serve.
Parker
(as he was Angeles, CA, and Jerome B. Parker,
death on June 4, 2012.
have
happened.”
“Big Al took care of the streets and
Oklahoma City, OK; one sister, Essie
ing
Otha’s
Juneteenth
celebration.
be Together Again.” His second
called) was affiliated with Centennial
James is survived by two sons:
became the
first
During their Juneteenth
celebrabooths;
myself
and
Parker
did
the
B. Harkey,
Phoenix, AZ, a son-in-law,
album, “It’s All
Over”
earned
James
Lodge #4, The American Legion and
When illness struck Otha,James
Albert
M. Van Buren and Eric S. Van
xas – called
tions,
he
said,
“We
never
had
a Ward,
prob- Grenada, MS; thirground
work,
decorations,
and
fundHerman
D.
national recognition
with
the
album
the
Five
Points
Lions
Club
of
which
“Big Al” Richardson, a Dallas
native,
Buren,
two daughters Valarie J. Van
be celebrated
lem.
We
worked
well
with
the
fire
ing,”H.said
Foster.
making thetook
Top over
20 listthe
on celebration
National
he was the last living charter member. ty-five grandchildren and fifteen
and Marsha
Alcala,
two sibandBuren
it continor years, only
the police
department,
great-grandchildren
and a host of
Everything
about
the
celebration
Public Radio
(NPR).
His
third
album,
Parker met and department,
fell in love with
lingsceleBobby Joe Van Buren, and
ued its growth. Big Al, who had
other
family
members
and friends.
ouisiana knew
and
the
manager
of
safety.
The
viohad
increased,
from
the
attendees
to
“I Ain’t Doin’ Too Bad” moved James
Nancy
Monton.
They
were
married
brated Emancipation Day in Theresa
Texas, Habernal, and
t is now celelence
that
did
occur
was
due
to
Blacks
to even higher levels of recognition
the
sponsors.
Over
a
three-day
period,
came to Denver in 1946. His grandchildren.
long lists
with the song “Three Handed
f the country.
fighting Blacks in Five Points.”
they had a senior luncheon, pageant,
of
businesses
in
Five
Points
include
being one of his top selling
uneteenthWoman”
is a
His view on how one should hanscholarships, Gospel Fest, and venthe Minute Spot, A&J’s Coffee Shop,
Hurricane season is here for some areas of the country. Other regions
Summertime’s
The
Right
Time
For
Electronic
Payments
songs.
n-American
dle the
potential of violence at
dors.
the
Arcade
and
The
Top
Hatters
bear
the brunt of flooding. Some areas of the nation are plagued by tornaBy
Nicole
Tiggemann
when African-Several albums followed, each as
Juneteenth
was based upon the philosFoster
attributed
their
success
to
does, and still others must deal with wildfires, severe thunderstorms, or even
Supper
Club.
In 1966,
and
diverse
as the
last. the Five Points Social Security Public Affairs Specialist in Denver
regarded enjoyable
as
ophy
of
his
theenough
former
everyone
“working
as
a
team,”
despite
earthquakes. Ifgrandfather,
you are unfortunate
to be in the path of a natural disJames’s talents
eventually
led to tours
Business
Association
(FPBA), a nonWhen you arethe
awaylack
from home,
one
thing
you
don’t
want
to
worry
about
wners wereof various cities in Europe, giving him
mayor
of
McCloud,
Okla.,
who
wasto be interrupted because of
of funding.
aster, the last thing you want is for your income
is how you will receive your next monthly Social Security payment. That is involved with the event.
“We coordinated the effort without
an evacuation or a missing mailbox. With electronic payments, you know
a global fan base. Fans from around
why it is important for everyone receiving Social Security or Supplemental
AbouttheJuneteenth
2008
“I say
have
celebration
andnoifmatter what.
your
money
will bethe
in your
account on time
funding.
We
never
got
paid,”
she
said.
world know that
James’s music
Security Income (SSI) benefits to sign up for electronic payments.
When
on
vacation,
an
electronic
payment
someone
breaks
the
law,
then
takeensures payments will be
Nevertheless,
they
had
the
support
always
reflected
feelings
from
his
The Rebirth” is on Saturday, June 14 in the
his-days, almost everyone gets benefit payments electronically.
These
deposited
into That’s
your account
on my
time, grandfaso there’s no reason to worry about the
them
to
jail.
how
heart and sounds from his soul. As
of
Mayor
Federico
Pena
in
the
‘80s
om 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It will extend from Today,
24thabout
to 90 percent of all Social Security and SSI beneficiaries receive safety of your benefit or to ask a neighbor to look out for your check when
one fellow musician described it, “the
ther ran the city of McCloud,
and Mayor
Webb
in the
their
payments
electronically.
That Wellington
number is increasing
because
the law
Weltonone
Street.
There
be isthree
you are away. said Parker.
thing I like
aboutwill
his style
that pavilions:
‘90s.1,Despite
the benefit
fact that
not all
busi-Social Oklahoma,”
requires that by March
2013 all federal
payments,
including
an added bonus, many banks offer free checking accounts for people
, and History.
Entertainment
will
include
both
you can hear
him smiling.” All
who
AsAsone
of the organizers of
Security and SSI payments,
be made electronically.
Whether you
receive
nesses supported
it, Juneteenth
was
who
use
direct deposit because it saves the bank the cost of processing
knewas
him
would
that performers.
performers
well
as certainly
not as agree
familiar
Social Security or profitable
SSI, you can depend
on your payment
arriving into
your
Juneteenth,
Parker saw how it evolved
for everyone,
according
paper payments.
James did indeed have a smile and a
account
on time, every
time.
If
you
don’t
already
receive
electronic
payy activities
such as a carnival, games, rides,
storyinto
a
celebration
and
said
a payment faster, and
Foster. She expressed a deep sense of
Skip the line at thefor
bank,all,
save
money,
getin
your
hearty laugh that could light up a
ments,
there
are
many
good
reasons
to
sign
up.
For
one,
less
money
and
1998
interview
with
the
Denver
Urban
e-enactments
gratitude to the countless sponsors
know you can depend on your payment being in the bank no matter what
room. of the African American culture,
time spent driving to the bank to cash your check helps you save. Second, Spectrum, “When I first came to
like
Coors,
Budweiser,
Colorado
happens or where you are. You can do all of this with electronic payments.
he route ofForthis
year’s
parade
will
begin
at
Fuller
all his passion for music, James
fewer paper checks, envelopes, and stamps, and less fuel to deliver the
Denver,
Juneteenth
was only celebratLearn more
about it at www.socialsecurity.gov/deposit.
National Bank, Norwest Bank, First
ue and Williams Street and end at 24th Avenue
checks mean savings for the government.
ed by Blacks. Now people from all
Interstate
Bank,
Bank
One,
Denver
Street. There will be food and retail vendors as
walks of life come to the Points to celeDenver
Urban Spectrum — www.denverurbanspectrum.com
Police
Department,
Fire Department,– July 2012
organization booths. An official program of the
brate.”
and many others. She felt
32 that “withnd times will be handed out at the event. For out the support of the city and safety
He later became the president of
WHO’S WHO “AROUND TOWN” SEE MORE @
WWW.DENVERURBANSPECTRUM.COM
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is pictured with Congresswoman Diana DeGette and Rep. Angela Williams. Waters was
in Denver for HD 7 Unity dinner on Saturday, June 23. The outspoken congresswoman’s keynote speech focused on the
GOP “Attack on Women” as Waters rallies Democrats to work hard to re-elect President Obama and to ensure Democrats
recapture the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and Colorado House of Representatives.
On Saturday, June 23, 2012, The
Daniels Fund presented 257 college
bound young people from Colorado,
New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming with
scholarships to attend college. Mayor
Michael Hancock (Denver) served as
the keynote speaker sharing with
those in attendances that the Daniels
Fund has awarded $93,000,000 to
deserving students. Mayor Hancock
spoke about his growing up in Denver
and the difficulties that life dealt to his
family. The Mayor further talked about
how he continued to see himself being
successful, going to college and
defeating the odds.
Photo by A’ Star’s Photography
First Lady Michelle Obama was
in Colorado encouraging voters
to support President Barack
Obama in November. Before a
filled auditorium at Arapahoe
High School in Centennial, she
spoke about health care, education, employment, family and
stressed the importance of supporting, her husband, Barack
Obama.
Photo by A’ Star’s Photography
Vern Howard
Around
Town
Denver
June 2012
Actress Alfre Woodard was in Denver on the campaign trail for President Barack
Obama. She is pictured with Happy Haynes and Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock.
Photo by Janis Mosley
Charles Burrell was the man of the hour when
several hundred spectators came out to pay tribute to his contributions at at City Park Jazz
Festival.
Rosaries, Gangs
And The Battle
Over Religious
Symbols In
Schools
By Charles C. Haynes, First
Amendment Center
When Jake Balthazor was sent to
the office by his teacher last week,
imagine his surprise.
After all, Jake hadn’t disrupted
class, failed to do his homework or
committed any other offense that
might lead to disciplinary action at
Coon Rapids High School near
Minneapolis.
The problem, it turned out, wasn’t
with what the 15-year-old was doing,
but with the black-and-silver rosary
beads he was wearing. (Rosary beads
are used by many Roman Catholics to
offer prayers to the Virgin Mary.)
What Jake sees as a religious symbol worn to honor his sick grandmother, the school district views as a possible gang symbol that could threaten
school safety.
Rosaries were added to the list of
prohibited symbols in Coon Rapids
after the school district reportedly
received a memo from the local police
department in May saying some
gangs in the area used rosary beads as
a symbol of affiliation. Although no
rosary-bead gang was disrupting the
school, administrators decided to
make a preemptive strike.
Coon Rapids school officials aren’t
alone in their determination to censor
rosaries and other symbols to counter
gangs. Many school districts now have
broad bans on head coverings, clothing, jewelry and other objects that
might in some way be connected to
gang membership. Rosary beads are
often on the list.
Much to the dismay of school
administrators, religious students are
pushing back. Last year, 14-year-old
Jonae Devlin sought legal help after
she was suspended by her Houston
school district for wearing a rosary in
memory of her grandmother. Two
years ago in Schenectady, N.Y., 13year-old Raymond Hosier’s family
filed suit after being told Raymond
couldn’t wear rosary beads to honor
his older brother, who had died in an
accident.
The Catholic rosary isn’t the only
religious symbol caught in the wide
safety net cast by public school anti-
gang efforts. In 1999, for example, a
Mississippi school district barred Ryan
Green, a Jewish 11th-grader, from
wearing the Star of David. In 2003, an
Oklahoma school district suspended
6th grader Nashala Hern for wearing
her hijab, a head scarf she wore to
observe her faith.
After calling in lawyers, all of these
students eventually won the right to
wear symbols of their religion to
school. It’s likely that Jake also will
prevail should his family challenge the
rosary ban in Coon Rapids.
Students win these cases because
the U.S. Supreme Court famously recognized in 1969 that students “do not
shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the
schoolhouse gate” (Tinker v. Des
Moines Independent School District).
According to the Court, school officials may censor student religious and
political expression only if they can
demonstrate or reasonably forecast
that the expression will cause a substantial disruption of school.
The Court recognized the important interest schools have in ensuring
safety. But as Tinker made clear,
“undifferentiated fear or apprehension
of disturbance” is not sufficient
grounds to deny students their First
Amendment rights.
It goes without saying that administrators can and should act to keep
gang activity out of schools. But
sweeping prohibitions on religious
head coverings, rosary beads and
other religious symbols in the name of
school safety is wrongheaded and
unconstitutional – without strong evidence that wearing a particular symbol has caused or is very likely to
cause a substantial disruption.
After a school district in Nebraska
told 12-year-old Elizabeth Carey last
fall that she could no longer wear a
necklace that resembles a rosary, a
spokesman for the Omaha Catholic
Archdiocese summarized the confusion and outrage felt by many parents
and students.
“I don’t think Christians should
have to forfeit what is the symbol of
love of Christ because a few people
want to misuse that symbol,” Rev.
Joseph Taphorn told the press. “One
ought to be able to figure out whether
she’s trying to promote a gang,” he
added. “If she’s not, why would she
be punished for her right of religious
freedom and religious expression?”
Amen to that.
Editor’s note: Charles C. Haynes is director
of the Religious Freedom Education Project
at the Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave.,
N.W., Washington, D.C., 20001. Web:
firstamendmentcenter.org.
E-mail:
[email protected].
Apartment For Rent
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income eligible persons aged 62
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Palace Construction
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and suppliers for the project below.
Subcontractors will be expected
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for an application to be mailed to
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72-unit Wood-Framed Apartment Project
Bids are due on July 10th, 2012 at 2:00 P.M.
Phone 303-777-7999 Fax 303-698-4195
7 S. Galapago St., Denver, CO 80223
For access to bid documents, contact
Bob Wilson, Project Estimator
at 303-777-7999 or
email to [email protected]
SMWBE subcontractors and vendors
are encourage to bid
Applications will be processed by
ndate and time as received, 303427-4406.
Palace Construction is an
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STORIES THRU IMAGERY
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medicine!
34
Gooch’s
Transmission
Specialist
Myron Gooch, Manager
760 Dayton Street
Aurora, CO 80010
303-363-9783
Making transmissions well
for 22
25 years
years..
for
Are you in need for a
specialized service?
Is your business looking
for more business?
Look no further…
Bizzy Bee Enterprises is a consulting and marketing firm designed to assist
small businesses, providing business opportunities through various promotional and advertising opportunities.
Services currently available:
•Graphic Design
•Website Design
•Photography
•Security
•Transportation
•Security
•Catering
•PR and Publicity
•Video Production
•Entertainment Booking
•Printing
•Distribution
•Event Planning
•Publishing
•Copy Writing and Editing
•Bookkeeping, Accounting and Tax
Preparation
•Makeovers
•Cleaning Services
and more…
Join us if you would like your business to be
part of this growing venture.
Let Bizzy Bee Enterprises connect you with professionals who
get the job done!
For more information, visit
bizzybeeenterprises.com or
give me a buzz at
720-849-4197.
What have you got to lose but more business?

Cover illustration by Jess DuBois

Transcription

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