Apr 29 2009
Yesterday was crazy. A 16-year-old was shot and killed in Homewood, but that was only part of it. The citywide outbreak of weirdness provided a backdrop for a mayoral candidates' town hall meeting yesterday evening. I learned about that forum too late to make it there, but Rich Lord has a piece about it.
I am in no way, shape or form ready for another election in Pittsburgh. But it's coming, anyway. The lack of a Republican candidate makes it less interesting than it could be, but at least Mayor Ravenstahl has some challengers for the primary. If only someone could galvanize Pittsburgh's disaffected voters and potential voters the way that Barack Obama did last year.
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Apr 28 2009
For you out-of-towners who may not have heard yet, the weather here has been absolutely gorgeous for the past few days. It started Friday; I didn't want to go home after work. After Pittsburgh's gray season, I felt like Clark Kent busting out of a kryptonite jail.
We had a great day for redding up Saturday morning. I wound up not going to Baxter Parklet because the Save Race Street Committee piggybacked off the Redd-Up event to to do our own cleanup on Race Street. It went well; which is to say that we - seven adults and one child - gathered enough trash so that the street looked better when we were done.
My co-workers were still picking up when I left for Addison Behavioral Care's community spelling bee at Holy Rosary School. About 50 kids participated, and there were tears and cheers and high-fives and trophies. I've placed calls to Addison to request a photo or two to share.
The spelling bee was scheduled to run til 3 p.m., but we were out by 2. My wife and I sat in the car at the front of Westinghouse Park, enjoying the day while I ate lunch. Started to go to the panel discussion on jazz at the Union Project, but decided to insure domestic tranquillity by going back home instead to do some redd-up on my front porch.
So, went home, changed into funky clothes, worked on the porch, changed back into nice clothes, went over to Bethesda for the "Pull Your Bible Out" video shoot. It was 5:30ish when my friend Greg "25 Ways to Reinvent Your LIfe" Olszewski and I went over. The shoot was scheduled to wrap at 6, which Greg said meant that it would wrap at 9, because, well, that's how the world of film and video works. To our shock and disappointment, they had wrapped at least an hour before we got there. But we did get to meet J.E. Gamble, which was cool.
Greg and I then moseyed to Katie's International Restaurant (which I think I'll just refer to as Ms. Sheba's place from now on), where we feasted on pork chop dinners. I am not a restaurant critic, so I'll just say this: the biggest dang pork chops I have EVER seen, tasty, two of 'em on your plate, with sides, for less than $10.
At that particular time, we were the only ones dining there, although several folks did come for carryout orders. Ms. Sheba served us herself; she spoke about possibly hiring more help soon.
I wound up bringing food home in a takeout box. Spent a quiet evening watching DVDs.
Just another day in the 'hood.
Were you at the main Redd-Up event? Did you participate in the video shoot? Did you make it to the panel discussion on jazz? Tell us about it!
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Apr 24 2009
J.E. Gamble is planning to shoot at least a couple of hundred people in Homewood this weekend.
Over the past week or so, the homepages and walls of local Facebookers have lit up with invitations to one and all to participate in an open video shoot today and tomorrow in and around Bethesda Presbyterian Church, where Gamble is youth director. The video is for the song, "Pull Your Bible Out," by the local hip-hop group N.O.U. (Not Of Us).
I headed over to the group's MySpace page with some trepidation - in my experience, MySpace pages tend to be maddeningly slow in loading, and to automatically fire up tracks of rap that I find incomprehensible (I have never been as offended as some folks are by rap lyrics because I can't tell what rappers are saying 80 percent of the time. Dang, i've become my father..)
ANYWAY, I checked out "Pull Your Bible Out" and was relieved that on the very first hearing, I did not have to strain my ears to make out most of the words, and that I'm not afraid to suggest that folks of all ages show up at Bethesda for the shoot. Note that "of all ages" part; it's been reported that Police Chief Nate Harper will pullin his Bible out on set....
The message of the video Gamble is producing for the song is as simple as its title.
"What we're trying to do is to tell young people to make more positive moves," he said. "Instead of pulling out a gun...pull out a Bible."
"This is our piece for peace."
Gamble posted the schedule on my Facebook wall, so all I'll say here is, 3 p.m. - 6 p.m. today, 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. tomorrow.
I've never been in a video before, and I do have a pocket-sized Bible, so I'll be there sometime tomorrow to pull it out.
See you there?
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Apr 22 2009
Okay, maybe it was a mistake for me to leave town this past weekend and miss all the stuff happening in Homewood.
This weekend offers another mixed menu for the civically/artistically-engaged, beginning with students. On Friday students will kick off a community clean-up event by redding-up their campuses (during school hours) at Lincoln Elementary, Lincoln Intermediate, Faison Arts Academy, Faison Intermediate, Westinghouse and the Student Achievement Center.
On Saturday, grownups get to join the fun. The Redd-Up Coalition, which consists of residents from the Homewood, North Point Breeze, Point Breeze, Squirrel Hill and Park Place communities, will sponsor a street clean-up in Homewood from 9 a.m. to noon. As usual, folks will gather at Baxter Parklet, Braddock and Frankstown Avenues, to pick up supplies and instructions, then fan out to pick up trash, and reconvene at the parklet for food and drink (FREE! - well, unless you count your labor).
Picking up trash is not glamorous, but when that trash can include small arms ammo, it becomes incredibly important.
I plan to be there for the first hour or so, but will need to leave for...
A community spelling bee, sponsored by Addison Behavioral Care, Inc. and being held at 11 a.m. at Holy Rosary Catholic School, 7120 Kelly Street. If youv'e seen either the documentary "Spellbound" or the feature "Akeelah and the Bee," with Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett, you have an idea how challenging and exicitng a spelling bee can be for the participants, their families, and (if we choose to care enough) their communities. Yours truly will be there as one of the pronouncers. Admission is FREE
Saturday afternoon, the Union Project, at Stanton and Highland Avenues, will host an event featuring two of the leading figures in Homewood's cultural life.
Harold Young, whose Jazz Workshop Inc. has offered musical instruction at the Homewood Carnegie Library for longer than I can remember and sponsors the free monthly jazz concerts at the library, and Dr. James Johnson, head of the Afro-American Music Institute, will pariticpate in a panel discussion on "The State of Jazz in the Community."
The Jazz Appreciation Month event, presented by the African American Jazz Preservation Society of Pittsburgh, will run from 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. Admission is FREE.
And we haven't even gotten to Sunday yet. The Redd-Up Coalition will finish out the weekend with a clean-up in Squirrel Hill. Since members from other Coalition neighborhoods are likely to assist in Saturday's effort in Homewood, Sunday is an opportunity for Homewood residents to return the favor. 9 a.m., in front of Carengie Library, Forbes and Murray Avenues.
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Apr 17 2009
I need to ask a favor.
There's a bunch of stuff happening in Homewood tomorrow. Jazz at April's on the Avenue, an Operation Better Block meeting focusing on the Sterrett-Collier complex, a Meet-and-Greet by the Save Race Street Committee. I think there's even a candidates' forum in there somewhere.
I will miss all of it, because I'm heading out of town for the weekend. The favor I'm asking is for anyone who attends any of these events to drop me an email saying how it went. When you do, our email system will tell that I'm not in, but when I get back Tuesday, I'll read them all and post them here. That way, we'll at least have some account of the weekend.
To anyone out there who does that for me - or I should say, for us - a great big ol' "Thanks!"
See you Tuesday!
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Apr 14 2009
Now there's a phrase I never thought I would say with a straight face. But yes, I mean it. If you are a City of PIttsburgh resident, and especially if you have kids - and ESPECIALLY if you are Homewood resident with kids, sit down in front of your TV at 7:30 p.m, when four local stations will air a documentary about the Pittsburgh Promise.
We're talking about our kids being able to go to college for free. How crazy an opportunity is that? But I suspect that a lot of us, despite extensive media coverage, still don't even know about it. So take half an hour and find out, ok?
Sorry about the extremely short notice (but then, if you read the PG Friday, you already knew).
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Apr 10 2009
This morning, my wife said something that caught me by surprise.
"One day it's sunny, the next day it's chilly," she said.
What suprised me was the way she said it, with a sigh, as if remarking on something remarkable.
I don't understand Pittsburghers who allow themselves to be taken by surprise by spring in this city. I am an immigrant, and I learned many years ago that the T.S. Eliot line, "April is the cruelest month," could apply to spring in Pittsburgh - not because the weather is unrelievedly harsh, but because it is so erratic. At the beginning of this week, trees bloomed. Then the blossoms froze.
That is Pittsburgh's version of spring.
Nothing to do about it, of course, but to enjoy the nice days as they come and to get through the rest. But come on, PIttsburghers. Stop acting surprised when the 'Burgh just do what it do.
Now, about that stimulus money...
Last evening, there was a meeting scheduled at the former Reizenstein school to talk about how the Black community could take advantage of some of the stimulus money that has begun to flow. I was caught up in the moment of the police officers' funeral procession, and missed that meeting. If any one reading this was there, please chime in and let us know how it went.
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Apr 09 2009
I hope that your letter to the editor in today's PG inspires many others to follow your example.
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Apr 09 2009
I nearly lost it a little while ago. I was in the PG snack bar,
watching the funeral procession for the three Pittsburgh police
officers gunned down Saturday - Eric G. Kelly, Stephen J. Mayhle and
Paul J. Sciullo II - and failing, once again, to comprehend the grief
of all those who knew them, but feeling enough to short circuit the
process of ordering lunch, leaving me standing there in the middle of
the room, transfixed by a sorrow that began to transform into a strong
indignation, if not into rage, felt on behalf of the families and
friends. On their behalf, I wanted to scream at legislators, both state
and federal, "NOW can we get some laws to keep assault weapons out of
the hands of nut cases?"
Colleague James O'Toole has a piece today anchored with a photo of
President Obama and my favorite line from his nomination speech, "Don't
tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out
of the hands of criminals." And, I would add, of the mentally
unbalanced. But the story is as discouraging as its headline, "Gun control efforts going nowhere."
Our community loses kids, the wider community loses men devoted to
protecting us all, and we can't get laws that at least make it harder
to get an AK-47 - because our lawmakers are afraid of the NRA? One lobby
holds the entire country hostage?
How long? How long? When is enough, enough?
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Apr 03 2009
Harry Belcher, known for decades as one-half of the tap duo the Dancin' Demons, died Wednesday of a massive heart attack. His viewing will be held this evening at White's Funeral Home, at the intersection of Thomas Boulevard and Homewood Avenue, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., and his funeral at Monumental Baptist Church, 2240 Wylie Avenue, at 11 a.m. tomorrow.
Mr. Belcher and his long-time dancing partner Nazeeh Hameed were the subject of a 2002 feature by Erv Dyer when the Manchester Craftsmens Guild honored them with a tribute celebration.
Sadly, Mr. Hameed died just before that celebration. Now that Mr. Belcher is gone, the question of history arises. If a history of the arts in Pittsburgh is written a decade or two hence, who will ensure that the Dancin Demons are appropriately noted?
Speaking of history...
Speaking of history, the National Black Opera House, the nonprofit project to restore the Apple Avenue home of the National Negro Opera Company, now has a website, at www.nationaloperahouse.org - take a look.
CALENDAR NOTE:
The Save Race Street Committee is doing a clean-up on Race Street tomorrow, beginning at 8 a.m. Troops will gather at the parking lot of Baptist Temple church, at Race and Sterrett. You don't need to bring anything other than your willingness to work. We'll even have refreshments.
What if...???
When I met with Min. Terry Fluker last night to grab my official Save Race Street Committe T-shirt, we fell into conversation about this and that, and he told me a couple of related stories.
Story #1 comes from years back. One morning he passed by a group of church folks who had gathered to pray for the community, which they did on a regular basis, and as he passed by, he noticed that nobody spoke to him, and he stopped and challenged them. From the time that I've known him, I can't imagine him raising his voice, so I assume he said it gently: "You're all Christians? And you can't even say 'Good morning,' 'Praise the Lord?'"
Story #2 is more recent. He was at a meeting convened by the Community Empowerment Association, and a young brother, speaking to the older folks present said, in effect, "You talk about us, and what we should and shouldn't do, and when you see us on the street, you don't even speak to us."
So here's the what if....what if we make this, April of 2009, a month of greetings? What if, for one month, in Homewood, we all say, "Good morning," "Good afternoon," "Good evening?" when we see each other?
In response to an earlier post, one reader wrote that in years past, when he and his wife visited the DQ in Homewood, "as a white couple, we had many strange looks and often unpleasant comments." What if we extended courtesy to everyone in Homewood??
This would not require a business plan, a grant proposal, government funding, or a majority vote in City Council. And here's the real kicker: if we decided to do it, no person or force could stop us.
I know plenty of folks are already pretty good at greeting others, so this is mainly for those of us who need some work. And yes, I'm saying "us" to include myself. We can do this.
I'm gonna go for it. April, the month of greetings.
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