Bernie Hayes You’re the Answer..pg. # 32

ChinaDr. Jerry Ward pg. #8

PoetryRuth - Miriam-Garnett pg.#34

The New Nationwide Model pg. # 8

RussellTirzah

RussellTirzah

RussellTirzah

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IN THIS ISSUE:Featured:

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Poet

In The News - Basmin Nadra...........................pg. 4

Live,Work, Play ................................................pg. 14

Johnson L. - My People are... pg. 6

Tirzah Russel Interview pg. 54

BIO

Ruth-Miriam Garnett is a poet, author, and essayist. Her debut novel, Laelia, was published in 2004 by Simon & Schuster/Atria (New York). She is author of a poetry collection, A Move Further South (Third World Press, Chicago) and, Concerning Violence, New & Selected Poems, published in 2010 (Onegin, St. Louis, New York). A new novel, Chloe’s Grief, will be published in fall 2014 (Onegin). She is currently at work on a memoir, Hiatus. A nonfiction collection, The American Essays, published in the St. Louis American newspaper between 2009 and 2014, will be available in 2015. Ms. Garnett is a 1992 recipient of the National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship. In 1981, 1985 and 2001 she received grants from the Missouri Arts Council (BAG II Series) and was a Cave Canem Fellow in 2002. Her project, “African Diaspora Poets Read for Peace,” created following 9/11, was funded by the Institute for African and African American Studies at Columbia University in 2001 and by

the Ford Foundation Peace & Social Justice Committee in 2002. From 1993 to 2000, Ms. Garnett published the Harlem Arts Journal, a quarterly review. Her poems have appeared in Black Scholar, Callaloo, Essence, New Rain, Pivot, River Styx, Steppingstones and in the anthologies, In Search of Color Everywhere (Stewart, Tabori, Chang, New York, NY 1995), Drumvoices Revue (SIU 1996) and Beyond the Frontier: African American Poets in the 21st Century (Black Classic Press, Baltimore, MD, 2002). Ms. Garnett holds a BA in Social Anthropology and English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University and has done further work in Social and Cultural Anthropology at Columbia University and Dance Studies at Washington University. She has taught Creative Writing and Composition at the City College of New York, New York University, Webster University in St. Louis County and the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute.

EDUCATION Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; BA, Social Anthropology. Distribution of course work in English and American Literature and Language. Columbia University, New York, Graduate Study, Social and Cultural Anthropology. Washington University (St. Louis), Dance Studies, Graham Technique. Foreign languages: French and German.

PUBLISHED WORK

Books: Chloe’s Grief, novel (Onegin 2014); Concerning Violence, New & Selected Poems (Onegin 2011); Laelia, a novel (Simon & Schuster 2004); A Move Further South, poems (Third

World Press1987). Anthologies: Beyond the Frontier: African American Poets In The 21st Century, (Black Classic Press 2002); New Rain (Blind Beggar Press 1999 and 1983); In Search of

Color Everywhere (Stewart, Tabori, Chang 1995). Journals: Black Scholar, Callaloo, Essence, New Rain, Pivot, River Styx, Steppingstones, The Green Magazine, The Daily Challenge, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The St. Louis American. Other Media: Co-Writer, Annie and the Madam,

screenplay, option, Disney Company); Writer, Black Cohosh, 90-Minute Teleplay, ITVS, Reginald Woolery, Producer; Actor, Langston Hughes, Dreamkeeper, Voices &Visions (PBS),

St. Clair Bourne, Producer, 1981.

Ruth M.G. - Concerning Violence pg. 34

In The News

pg. 4

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014

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Aaron Dixon takes the reader on a journey from a relatively stable childhood in Illinois, to his puberty and coming of age in Seattle amidst the turbulent electric atmosphere of a racially divided Ameri-ca being confronted by the Black Power movement.

His story of a rapid rise through the ranks of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense with the blessing of his teenage peers, and co-founders Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, portrays a tidal wave of change. It is a wave that sweeps Dixon along, pummeling him emotionally, challenging him mentally and thrusting this raw yet eager then 19-year-old into the leadership of the Seattle chapter of the party. Dixon admits that he was far from prepared for the role that history placed before him but he took on the task with a zeal and urgency that mirrored the times in which Dixon and many others drawn to the party lived.

The memoir is a gripping account that deposits the reader in the middle of key events and in a balanced way introduces major historical figures, and previously nameless and faceless unsung heroes of the panthers. Dixon makes it clear that the Black Pan-thers benefitted from a massive groundswell of volunteers number-ing in the thousands who channeled their frustrations with police brutality, systemic racism and socio-economic deprivation into tangible gains for the communities where the Panthers established chapters.

This is an important book that augments the existing body of work evaluating the organization (a dozen books, several docu-mentaries and at least one feature length theatrical film). Dixon provides much needed insight on the inner workings of the party, liberally sprinkling brief profiles and amusing vignettes to present

what amounts to a personal yet dispassionate appraisal of the iconic group’s battle against oppression.

Dixon includes 20 pages of archival photographs and supporting documentation that offer an unprecedented perspective of the commitment and dedication solicited from party members.

While the book itself is a quick read, Dixon does not neglect issues like the east coast/west coast schism of the party that gave birth to the Black Liberation Army, the role of the FBI’s counterintelligence program (COINTELPRO), the murder of Chicago Panther Fred Hampton, and the party’s transformation from an armed direct action group into a social services agency that wielded great political influence in Oakland, California and the surrounding bay area. Dixon is unflinchingly honest about his break from the party during its decline in the 70s, his down-ward spiral into crime and his rebounding from a dark period in his life.

Now 65, Dixon has not stopped his activism and community involvement. He runs a transitional housing program for troubled youth called Central House, co-founded a senior assisted living center called Cannon House and ran for U.S. Senate on the Green Party ticket in 2006.

This book should be required reading for activists, history buffs and students of the movement for social change.

Author provides snapshot of the

60’s 70’s &

Book Review: My People Are Rising Memoir of A Black Panther Party Captain by Aaron Dixon

Foreword by Judson Jeffries Published by Haymarket Books, $17.95 paperback-346 pagesReviewed by: Johnson Young Lancaster

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

pg. 8

Teaching and Learning inCHINATeaching graduate students in the School of Foreign Languages, Central China Normal University, is rewarding. I learn more from them about how to embrace new perspectives than I can teach about African American literature and culture. They are less jaded and more receptive than their American peers, more conscious that a university education is a privilege rather than an entitlement dispensed by a secular god. Lacking familiarity with America’s democratic hypocrisies and noteworthy disdain for humanistic inquiry, most Chinese students bring innocence to the study of foreign literatures. They are better situated to appreciate the entanglements of language and literature in historical and international contexts, despite their having been nurtured by a peculiar diet of Western misinformation. The challenges and pleasures of helping them to increase their knowledge of black writing or African American literature are governed by the need to deconstruct American mythologies. Teaching in China gives one distance from the fountain of myth and encourages a rigorous re-examination of the purposes innate in what a useful education might be. During my current stint as an Overseas Professor at CCNU from September 16 to November 16, I am conducting a seminar on four African American texts: Douglass’s 1845 autobiography, DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folk, Toomer’s Cane, and Ellison’s Invisible Man. The students and I are immersed in close reading of these texts which are crucial for the study of African American male writers, gender-angled ideas, and selected responses to change in American society. Our focus is on the use of such genres as autobiography, poetry, short fiction, the essay, and the novel to characterize the racially-marked history of the United States from the enthrallment of slavery to the deceptive freedom of modernism. One objective is discovery of how the rhetorical successes and failures of genres enable male writers and their readers (immediate and remote) to become aware of spatial and temporal locations, of complicated historicity . An ideal version of the seminar would give equal attention to texts by African American female writers, to Harriet Jacobs, Anna Julia Cooper, Zora Neale Hurston,

and Toni Cade Bambara. The ideal seminar would multiply cold facts about American and African American histories as narrated, gendered processes, about the instability of what is multicultural, and about racialized patterns of reading. Unfortunately, time and lack of ready access to texts prevented the ideal and necessitated being pragmatic. The students are aware of the shortcomings, aware that much more work is needed to acquire a balanced view, aware that our inquiry is incomplete. My students are encouraged to acquire background information from various sources, including The Cambridge History of African American Literature. To maximize primary engagement with the texts, we give minimal attention to the large body of scholarship and criticism germane to the study of the four texts. What I am advocating does have its own disadvantages. It limits breadth of understanding some ideological aspects of black writing. On the other hand, the procedure increases depth of self-reliance and relatively independent critical thinking, a stronger sense of how reading black writing must navigate the imaginary spaces between subjectivity and objectivity. The losses are offset, to a small degree, by the gains of absorbing the texts. Or, to quote one of my students without correcting her English, “DuBois’s stress on the humanistic education to realize all-around development of people also fit China.” Earlier in her response paper on Chapter III of The Souls of Black Folk, she made a striking comment on educational progress: “The overemphasis on the practical subjects and ignorance of humanistic subjects mold students to be machines without thought.” This is modest evidence of the contemporary value of dwelling with ideas in classic black writing and using those ideas in cross-cultural dialogues. As we move from Douglass to Ellison, I am learning from real experiences with my Chinese students why discovering parallels and differences between cultures is an important 21st century enterprise, although the discoveries offer only momentary relief from the dreadful global problems that human beings insist on manufacturing with

Teaching and Learning inCHINA

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

Teaching and Learning inCHINAperverted alacrity. I am also re-learning why making connections among black texts has not outlived its potential to make us a bit wiser. Consider how DuBois uses a few of Douglass’s autobiographical strategies to address the problem of the twentieth century (which remains a problem for the twenty-first century); how it might be argued that Toomer’s recovery efforts and vexed modernism concretize some of DuBois’s insights and forecast aspects of Afro-Futurist discourses; how Ellison’s novel may be a tacit exploitation of Toomer’s artistry as well as a silent echo of Toomer’s post-racial agonizing. Our seminar is an experimental stepping out of the prison of romanticized realism into the combat zones of untamed actuality.

One hidden dimension of the seminar is preparing Chinese students to deal with how black literature sharpens perspectives on such current events as the tragedy of Ferguson, August 9, 2014 and how Ferguson is an instance of recurring domestic terrorism, the hatred for and hunting down of young black male citizens in the 21st century. The students can become more astute in understanding the alacrity of American mass media for listing all of the flaws in the Chinese body politic and the reluctance of the same media to name the viruses that do not inspire respect for what my country propagates. During what I call my temporary exile in China, I am learning what the real power of black writing can be.

Jerry W. Ward, Jr.October 26, 2014

BIO:Jerry W. Ward, Jr., a literary critic, Richard Wright scholar, and author of THE KATRINA PAPERS: A Journal of Trauma and Recovery (2008) and The China Lectures: African American Literary and Critical Issues (2014), is currently a Distinguished Overseas Professor at Central China Normal University (Wuhan) . His work-in-progress includes READING RACE READING AMERICA: Social and Literary Essays and Richard Wright: One Reader’s Responses.

Teaching and Learning inCHINA

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pg. 12

www.ajuma.org

Ajuma MuhammadAuthor of 101 Proven and Effective Strategies

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f o r E m p o w e r i n g B l a c k B o y s

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f o r E m p o w e r i n g B l a c k B o y sf o r E m p o w e r i n g B l a c k B o y s10Strategies Strategies

1. Black boys should maintain a healthy relationship with God.

2. Black boys should honor and always respect their parents.

3. Black boys should embody greatness in everything they do.

4. Black boys should take pride in their history and culture.

5. Black boys should empower their community through leadership and service.

6. Black boys should be role models in their communities.

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8. Black boys should work to establish an economic foundation in their communities.

9. Black boys should travel internationally to better understand their place in the world.

10. Black boys should love themselves!

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Bro. Shahid

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Activist, Agitator and Servant of Allah

pg. 14

Nate K. JohnsonABR,CRS,GRIBroker/OwnerReal Estate Solutionsnate@livingstl.comwww.livingstl.com

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I hope that you are doing well.

What a wonderful autumn we are off to. The Nobel Prize winning author Albert Camus once said that “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” That is certainly true in St. Louis as the leaves falling to the ground represent the beautiful changing of the guard from warm to cold. I know that you are busy and I’d hate for you to miss out on some of the wonderful things that St. Louis has to offer this time of year, so I have a few sugges-tions for you.

CLICK HERE to WatchHERE IS ST LOUIS II

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014

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On Friday, you can enjoy checking out the all-inclusive Halloween Fright Night @ Ballpark Village event for one of the scari-est parties in town. If that is not your vibe, then perhaps you would enjoy a play. The Repertory Theatre in Webster Groves is host to two of them this weekend. The final weekend of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is on stage, which coincides with the opening weekend of the raw and emotional play, A Kid Like Jake. If you don’t want to sit still for a play, you can head over to opening night at the St. Louis Art Museum for Cur-rents109, the new exhibit by Nick Cave. His sculpture, fashion, and performance art captivates the viewer as he merges fantasy, nostalgia and whimsy with social conscious-ness.

On Saturday, you can join me over at Lafay-ette Park for The St. Louis Brewers Guild Harvest Festival. The festival features 23 local breweries, music, costume contests,

food trucks, and silent auction. On Satur-day night, This American Life’s Ira Glass co-wrote, and stars in Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host at the Edison Theater’s Ovation Series at Washington University. This is the 41st and final season of the Ovation Series. For a different flavor, you can check out The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra as they perform the live score to a screening of the film, ‘Gladiator’ on Sat-urday and Sunday at Powell Hall. Also on Sunday, if you want to be swept back in time with an interesting history lesson, you can check out the ‘D-Day: Normandy 1944’, film, which is playing at the St. Louis Sci-ence Center. If you’re bringing the kids, you can send them in to watch the ‘Island of Le-murs: Madagascar’ which is also playing at the Science Center. For a fun theatrical ex-perience, how about a little Dirty Dancing on Sunday night at The Fox Theatre. If you’re

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looking for a bit of comedy on Sunday, Dave Cha-pelle is playing at The Pageant in The Loop.

Next Friday, on the 7th, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, is performing at the Touhill Performing Arts Center at UMSL. Also, the opening of Victor Wang’s Dreaming of a Journey with Sunflowers will be taking place at The Atrium Gallery. I know that after two weekends of Halloween you are done with being scared by now, but the Creepy-world Haunted Screampark is on Friday and Sat-urday in Fenton, and if it wasn’t the largest haunt-ed attraction in America, I wouldn’t have brought it up. Also on Friday, KDHX presents Art Attack 6: at the Moto Museum in Midtown. This chaotic art auction supports KDHX and puts the fate of 32 lo-cal artists in your hands. A night of fine art, drinks and destruction will ensue as original artwork by St. Louis artists will be auctioned off to the public, and any paintings that don’t sell will meet their fate on the Wheel of Destruction. The Hawthorne Players present the Pulizer Prize winning play, The Rabbit Hole, on Friday night at the Florissant Civic Center Theatre. On Saturday morning, you can take the kids (5-12ish) to Family Days at the World Chess Hall of Fame for a kid-friendly tour of the current exhibits and related art. On Satur-day night, you can check out the Money.Power.Respect exhibit at UrbArts, which explores the relationship between Hip Hop History, Fashion, & Beauty. On Saturday, you might also want to stop by the Duane Reed Gallery to check out Andrew Brandmeyer’s exhibit which depicts the cityscape of St. Louis in an interesting way. This emerging artist’s take on urban chaos is breathtaking. While you are at the Duane Reed Gallery on Saturday,

be sure to check out the dynamic glass sculp-tures of Jiyong Lee. Also on Saturday night, EarthDance presents Farmers Formal, its 7th annual fundraiser, which is a farm-inspired gala featuring a locavore feast, spectacular live & silent auctions, & toe-tappin’ live mu-sic! Feast, bid, & dance the night away at the Sheet Metal Workers Grand Hall on Chou-teau. On Sunday, the 9th Annual Cranks giv-ing food drive and family friendly bicycle ride to benefit Food Outreach will be hosted at Schlafly Bottleworks.

On Thursday, the 13th, Better than Ezra is playing at The Pageant . On Friday, you can join me while I try to flex my trivia muscle at the Charlie’s Angels Trivia Night, to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The Green Ball is also taking place on Friday at The Moon-rise .On Saturday, The St. Louis Symphony is playing All-Beethoven, with the works of Beethoven, of course, at Powell Hall in Grand Center on the 15th and 16th. The Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival is taking place through next weekend at the Tivoli, in The Loop.

On Thursday,the 20th check out 112 and host Vivica Fox , along with Dirty Muggs at the I’m a Survivor Cancer Benefit Concert at The Pageant. On Friday, the 21st, Motown is play-ing at The Fox Theatre and you can enjoy the true American dream story of Motown founder Berry Gordy’s journey from featherweight box-er to heavyweight music mogul who launched the careers of Diana Ross, Michael Jack-

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son, Smokey Robinson, and many more. Also on Friday, The Emerson Free Family Night at The Magic House is a perfect way to enjoy a night out with the family- they offer more than 100 hands-on exhibits for the kids, and free of charge. If you enjoy wine tasting and pairings, you must check out the Around the World Wine Dinner - Old World and New World: Country French Cuisine and American Wine at the Missouri Botanical Garden, also on Friday. St. Louis’ own jazz pianist, Peter Martin, brings jazz to the Lou on the 21st at The Sheldon Concert Hall & Art Galleries in Grand Center, and the Garden Glow Holiday Light Exhibit is going on Saturday and Sunday at the Missouri Botanical Garden- a great opportunity to stroll through the garden at night and see hundreds of thousands of beautiful lights adorning some of the garden’s most iconic locations. If you have your dog along, you can enjoy the Winter Wonder Walk at Tilles Park over the weekend. They allow dogs on leashes, strollers, wagons, and driving the family car. The Polar Express Train Ride at Union Station begins on Sat-urday and goes through December 28th. Set to the sounds of the motion picture soundtrack, you will relive the magic of the story while reading along with the book, and enjoy-ing hot chocolate and treats with your little ones.

Don’t miss The 30th Annual Ameren Missouri Thanksgiv-ing Day Parade on the morning of the 27th. The Midwest’s best holiday parade features colorful floats, bands, story-book characters, carriages, and Santa Claus of course! A St. Louis favorite, The Urge, will be playing at The Pageant on Friday, the 28th. St. Louis Zoo Wild Lights is another fun place to take the kids to check out the holiday wonder-land of spectacular light displays on Saturday and Sun-day. Ghost Brothers of Darkland County are playing at the Peabody Opera House on Saturday. It’s a haunting tale of fraternal love, lust, jealousy, and revenge, performed by 15 actors and a four-piece live band, compromised of mem-

bers of John Mellencamp’s band.

Yes, it looks like another great month to enjoy St. Louis. Hopefully you will join me in participating in some of the great opportunities that are offered in our region. Take care, and let me know if there is anything that I can do for you. ~Nate

pg. 18

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!!!!!ATTENTION!!!!!!: ANNOUNCING: THE INAUGURAL BLACK COMIX ARTS FESTIVAL/SAN FRANCISCO!!!

I’m EXTREMELY pleased and honored to be a co-organizer of this event with the NORCALMLK Foundation of San Francisco! Our committee has put in a lot of work over the last few months to make this happen. NORCALMLK puts on one of the largest MLK Day events in America. Each year tens of thousands of people gather at Yerba Buena Gardens in the heart of San Francisco to celebrate the continuing legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The theme this year is THE MARCH TO FREEDOM due to the fact that it’s the 50th anniversary of the historic Selma/Montgomery march and the passing of the Voting Rights Act. Also, this year the BLACK COMIX ARTS FESTIVAL (THE BCAF) is proud to become a part of NORCALMLK’s numerous festival events! BCAF’S mission is : “to celebrate the creativity and subjectivity of African Americans in the comic arts and popular visual culture.” It’s going to be amazing!! You can find out more about NORCALMLK at: norcalmlkfoundation.org and more on THE BCAF at: bcaf.norcalmlkfoundation.org! PLEASE SPREAD OFTEN AND WIDELY…

pg. 22

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S . L . A . M .St. Louis Art Museum

Admission to the Museum is free every day.

Hours: Tuesday–Sunday, 10:00 am–5:00 pm | Friday, 10:00 am–9:00 pm | Closed Monday

One Fine Arts Drive - Forest Park, St. Louis, MO 63110-1380314.721.0072

w w w. s l a m . o r g

ART COLLECTIONS EXHIBITS EVENTS

pg. 24

Below is information about this weekend’s classes, plus how to book a meditation party!

Be on the lookout for special treats in November! On Tuesday November 4 from 6-8p, Certified Life Coach and Healer Simone Phillips will be teaching a specialty class on how to manifest abundance with your words, then on Saturday November 15, Psychotherapist, Healer, and Spiritual Consultant Victor Farwell will teach a specialty class on how to awaken and develop your spiritual gifts. Registration will open for all November classes next week.

Looking forward to seeing you in classes this weekend! REGISTER TODAY.

Peace, Love & Light,

SJ

BOOK YOUR PRIVATE MEDITATION PARTY!

So one of my students is celebrating her birthday next month by sharing the gift of meditation with her girlfriends. She’s booked a meditation party with me featuring a guided meditation session, energy healing, intuitive readings, food, music, and inspiring conversation with a group of her friends at The Meditation Lounge. What an awesome way to celebrate life!

www.selenaj.comvisit us online for more information.

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AFRO WORLD’S CULTURAL EXPLOSION

AS A PEOPLE, WHAT DO WE NEED MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE? THIS SHOUT-OUT IS TO AFRO WORLD FOR THE ORCHESTRATION OF THEIR MAJOR TRANSFORMATION, IN THE DIRECTION OF A CULTURAL EXPLOSION.

SINCE THE LITTLE-FORREST FAMILY’S AWESOME JOB IN HELPING TO POSITION OBAMA IN THE WHITE HOUSE, THEIR ENERGIES HAVE

CONTINUED TO SOAR IN THE DIRECTION OF CULTURAL AWARENESS. AFRO WORLD CONTINUOUSLY BLASTS INFORMATIVE LECTURES VIA DVD’S ON THEIR IN-STORE LARGE SCREEN. ALMOST, ON A MONTHLY BASIS, AFRO WORLD COLLABORATES WITH LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS FOR “MEET AND

GREETS,” AS SPEAKERS COME TO STL FOR WORKSHOPS, ETC. EACH MONTH, AT LEAST ONE CELEBRATION TAKES PLACE. IN ADDITION TO THE TRADITIONAL HONORS GIVEN TO PAST AND PRESENT AFRICAN AMERICAN LEADERS, AFRO WORLD HOSTS AN ANNUAL, SOULFUL SANTA, KWANZAA CELEBRATION, AND HATTITUDE, TO NAME A FEW. YOU ARE LOOKING GOOD

AFRO WORLD, TO ME ANYWAY! THIS IS REDINA MEDLEY, A FRIEND OF AFRO WORLD SAYING “THANK YOU, AFRO WORLD,” AND REMINDING EVERYONE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CUSTOMER APPRECIATION with Give A Ways and refreshments and buy one item at regular price and get the second for 1/2 price on Saturday November

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pg. 26

The Art and ScienceThe Art and Science of Questioning and Living the Examined Life

by Dr. Tracey McCarthy, Psy.D., DCFC, J.D., M.A. Psychologist, Attorney, Associate Professor

Webster University - Legal Studies Department www.drtraceymccarthy.com

“The key to wisdom is this - constant and frequent questioning, for by doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth.”

-Peter Abelard

If I teach my students nothing else, my goal is to impart the necessity of the meaningful questioning of life. The mindful and reflective study and examination of oneself, intimate others, and the very world in which we exist is an often neglected but crucial discipline. Regardless of any other study in life, we need to develop proficiency in making critical observations about the self and the world, in developing rational hypotheses regarding the self and the world, in testing facts involving the self and the world, in seeking truth concerning the self and the world, and in responsively creating meaning.

The Science of Life Interrogation

One of the things I find compelling about my disciplines of psychology and law is that inherent to the disciplines is the constant reflective questioning of the conclusory deductions that govern our world and our lives. The study of psychology and law tends to involve an analysis of facts, hopefully in search of truth. Important questions revolve around the purpose and usefulness of a fact or a matter of fact. To this end, we ask whether a thing is valid, reliable, relevant, material, circumstantial, direct, or derivative. In asking and answering questions of the law, the mind, and behavior, we understand that ultimate facts don’t necessarily equal ultimate truth. We are, also, keenly aware that beyond what is obvious and, presumably, factual may exist that which is implausible, yet wholly true.

“The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he's one who asks the right questions.” ― Claude Lévi-Strauss

In psychology and law, we understand the necessity of asking the right question, at the right time, and for the right reason. When we ask wrong or irrelevant questions, we generally get useless and irrelevant answers. When we don’t understand the nuance of a situation, we develop flawed or less than optimal understandings. The result is that we make erroneous decisions and follow directions based upon shaky foundations. When we don’t ask the right questions, we are unable to accurately determine the true nature of problems and circumstances. When we don’t understand the accurate nature of a challenge, authentic resolution becomes elusive or impossible.

of Questioning&Livingthe Examined Life

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The Art and SciencePsychology, in particular, approaches the general understanding of thought, emotion, spirituality, and behavior through the interrogation of life. This includes considering our pasts and our presents and contemplating how both serve to inform our hope for the future. At the end of the day, and the end of life, the choices we have made as individuals and collectives should reflect authentic “answers” to authentic questions we have asked ourselves regarding our divine purposes, directions, and destinations.

The Unexamined Life

In our homes and schools, too little time is spent on studying one of the most important subjects we encounter in life – the self. In fact, we are encouraged to glorify self-ignorance, to relish in “unselfish” external focus, and to allow others to unquestioningly conduct the trains of life on which we each ride. With all of our teaching and learning focus of everything from astronomy to business to computers to zoology, we spend dangerously too little energy on deeply and broadly understanding and intimately knowing ourselves.

“…dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.” ― Primo Levi

When those who serve as teachers, parents, and business leaders have never been encouraged to know themselves, it is virtually impossible for them to show the way to those who follow their lead. Social focus on high stakes test scores and blind obedience to authority serve to undermine the necessity of children, youth, and adults truly knowing and understanding themselves, anyone else, or the world in which we co-exist.

With all that we have to do in the course of any day, there often appears no time to actually think about, question, and meditate on the lives we are living. For many, the energy required to simply exist leaves little room for esoteric endeavors such as querying the soul for meaning, right focus, and purpose-filled direction. If we are to fully live the lives capable of being lived through us, we must, however, create the time, however large or small, to question and study ourselves.

The very lack of time to study oneself is question provoking. One might ask, “What, in my life, is more important than getting to know myself and the world in which I live and evolve?”

The Virtuosity of Authenticity

Sometimes, we don’t question ourselves, or intimate others, because the potential truths are too painful, too confusing, too difficult, too challenging, too reality-bursting, and too dissonance-producing to bear. We, sometimes, refuse to question ourselves and others because, in the depths of our hearts and our

pg. 28

intuitive cores, we believe ourselves, our relationships, and the relevant circumstances, incapable of surviving the fallout of actuality.

Questions have the potential to lead to truth. We often fear truth, about ourselves, intimate others, and our world, because truth can be a very hard and nasty pill to swallow. It is the very thing, however, that many need to seek and embrace in order to be set free.

If we are to understand the deeper meaning of things in life, and direct ourselves accordingly, we have to question beyond the simple what, when, who, and where. We need to delve, inferentially, and ask what we really know about the things we accept and believe, about ourselves, intimate others, and the world in which we are co-creating.

In going beyond questions and answers of convenience and comfort, we need to ask questions of timeliness, necessity, and relevance. We need to ask ourselves deep questions about ourselves and the local and global worlds in which we live. For instance, how does the world really work? Why is the world in the state it is in today? Who does the chaos and trauma benefit and burden? What role does our collective yesterday play in our collective tomorrow? Who are the true local and world power brokers and who, and what, are they truly brokering? Who are the true pawns in our social and political systems and to what purposes are they sacrificed in the chess game of life? What is my true place in the world today? How do my actions, and inactions, and my questions, and lack of questions, impact the way the world evolves? Am I my brother’s or sister’s keeper and what does it mean to be so?

“Courage doesn’t happen when you have all the answers. It happens when you are ready to face the questions you have been avoiding your whole life.” ― Shannon L. Alder

It is not enough to direct questions to the larger external world, we must, also, engage in questioning of the self and intimate social others in order to better understand, more precisely, why we and close others think, feel, and behave in the ways in which we do. We need to question the purposes of our perspectives, our cognitions, our emotions, and our behavioral outgrowths. As students of the self, we need to take time to examine the choices we make, or fail to make, and the implications of how we choose to perform our personal, professional, social, academic, and political lives.

The Art of Self Seeking

The questions we ask ourselves about our lives actually help determine the quality of the lives we lead. Questions, and their answers, help us to determine if we are on the best life path or whether we should consider a new life path, direction, or destination. We can begin by looking simply at the way in which we treat ourselves and ask ourselves the following questions. Do I eat the types

The Art & Science cont.

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

of foods that lead to health or morbidity? Do I think well of myself and find reasons to celebrate and appreciate some aspect of myself and my life every day or am I more likely to find never-ending fault with everything that I am? Do I dwell more on the positives of any day or on all of the possible adversities I may encounter? Do I trust myself to do that which is best for me? Do I miss opportunities and blessings due to fears of both success and failure and the social evaluations of others? Do I make daily choices that truly honor my body, my mind, and my spirit? Do I accept treatment from others that is less than honorable, for whatever reasons? Do I allow myself the freedom to change? Do I love myself the way I want to be loved? Do I know my purpose in life? Do I do something every day in furtherance of living out my purpose or discovering my reason for being?

“An empowered life begins with serious personal questions about oneself. Those answers bare the seeds of success.” ― Steve Maraboli

How we understand ourselves in the context of others and how we engage the world of others are deep questions that help to provide insight into how we truly view ourselves and our divine purposes. We learn the most about ourselves, and how and why we tick, in the context of our engagements with others. Friends, family, co-workers, enemies, and even strangers encountered on the street, have the ability to serve us in understanding where we are developmentally and how far we have to go. Questions we should be asking ourselves about our social selves may provide answers to why we are in certain situations and whether we should remain in such or gracefully and boldly transition out.

We need to, regularly, ask ourselves whether we are in professions, places of employment, housing situations, spiritual spaces, friendships, romantic relationships, academic spaces, and social circles that serve the continuance of our positive growth or set the stage for our physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual demise. Because of the sheer amount of life force devoted to our professional lives, it is crucial that we ask ourselves why we are in our professions. Are we living out of “calling” or out of simple convenience? In answering that question, it helps to ask the following. What are my gifts and what is the best space to live out those gifts? We should ask ourselves whether our current workplaces encourage our continued growth and development or cause our stagnation and soul death. When we are not occupying authentic vocational callings, we disserve ourselves and those we pretend to serve. This is felt most detrimentally with those mismatched into service professions such as teaching, police work, law, ministry, parenting, and medicine or healthcare.

Vocations and social relations have much in common in terms of energy, motivations, and outcomes. Accordingly, one should be asking oneself, almost

pg. 30

daily, whether one’s current romantic relationship, marriage, or partnership is a healthy, nurturing, supportive, and growth inspiring relation? If it is not, we should ask ourselves why we remain and be prepared to engage the truth of the matter to be found in our answers. How much do our current relations reflect a stagnation and arrested development growing out of difficulty with understanding, appreciating, and moving beyond early developmental traumas and patterns of relational functioning?

If we are to live out the healthiest and most fulfilling lives available to us, we must openly, honestly, and directly consider to what extent we may be allowing less than healthy pasts to consume, taint, and destroy our hope for a future in our personal, social, professional, and spiritual life walks? We have to look squarely at the patterns and processes of our families of origin and our early school environments to better understand why we may be inclined to view and engage the world the way we do. We must, also, be prepared to question the extent to which our earlier lived experiences, and important persons, taught us truths or falsities about who we are and how the world actually operates or should operate.

Past is Prologue…not Epilogue

We do not have to allow less than optimal pasts to dictate the essence of our futures. If fact, with the right questions, we may find that a less than optimal past was a necessary stepping stone to a supremely optimal present and future. The deep, honest, and reflective questions we ask ourselves, in the here and now, have the power to transform us into the individuals we were, before birth, bound and determined to optimally become.

Getting to know oneself intimately is not a destination; it is a moment by moment, day by day, and year by year, process of inquisitive self-knowing. It is an activity wherein we honestly, and reflectively, learn to authentically know, authentically love, and authentically appreciate where we have been, where we are, and where we are heading during our very brief time on this earth.

The self-examined life has the capacity to be a surprisingly pleasant, affirming, and lifelong exercise that can be started at any age and time. Self-study can be done individually or even in small groups. It can begin today…at this very moment. Simply start with one question of life consequence. Write it down. Pray for openness to answers. Explore your patterns, practices, thoughts, and emotions for answers. Prepare your mind, body, and emotions for your truths and the calls to affirmative action that will, likely, grow out of your new insights and revelations.

“At the end of the day, the questions we ask of ourselves determine the type of people that we will become.” ― Leo Babauta

The Art & Science cont.

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SAVE THE DATE

SUNDAY

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

5:00pm - 9:00pm

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pg. 32

Why is it in November, 2014, that the heartbreak of the killing of 18 year African American Michael Brown by white Ferguson police officer Darren Wil-son unexpectedly initiated a debate about low voter

participation among blacks in thisNorth County community? The role of black voters should have been the decisive advantage in races where the African-American population is in the major-ity long before this tragic incident. Attention should have been drawn to Ferguson and similar areas of North County as well as St. Louis City long before the demonstrations.

If the enthusiasm among the young protesters who are operat-ing in the streets of Ferguson would inspire them to register to vote, they themselves could bring about the changes they are demanding to that city’s government and police department. But I am certain, even with the voter registration campaign that is taking place there, voter apathy will prevail, but the question is why?

Nearly fifty years ago, some black people were demanding the right to take part in an election, but somewhere along the way it seems the struggles of the era have been forgotten or the con-flicts had no meanings.The dignity and self-respect that devel-oped from the struggles of the sixties, in many instances, have evaporated.

The voting rights and voter registration movement was self-mo-tivated and energetic, such as the movement in Ferguson, with many cities electing African American mayors and other officials.

Fifty years ago, Fannie Lou Hamer got “sick and tired of being sick and tired” so she and other members of the Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party set out to integrate the Democratic Party at the1964 Democratic Convention in Las Vegas. This year the Fannie Lou Hamer Society endorsed a Republican for St. Louis County Executive.

Such low enthusiasm among Black voters for Democratic candi-dates is striking in mid-term elections because I believe they do not think these elections are important.

The media, elected officials, civic organizations and the ACLU lets us know that states across the country are passing mea-sures that make it harder and harder for Americans, particularly African-Americans, the elderly, students and people withdisabilities, to exercise their funda-mental right to cast a ballot.

These measures include requiring a government-issued photo ID to vote and proof of citizenship to register, cutting back on early vot-ing, eliminating Election Day reg-istration, new restrictions on voter registration drives and additional barriers to voting for people with

criminal convictions. Yet some will not take the time or make the effort to defeat these tactics, or make lives better for themselves or their fam-ilies and friends.

Let us remember Bloody Sunday, at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. In 1965, 15,000 Blacks were eligible to vote in Selma but only 355 were registered. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), led by Stokley Carmichael (Kwame Ture) and John Lewis had been working in Selma to increase Black voter rolls for over a year. Eventually they invited the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) led by Dr. Martin Luther King, and theNation of Islam’s Malcolm X to help in the effort.

In his famous speech ‘The Ballot or The Bullet’, Malcolm X stimulated black Americans to form a united bloc that could serve as a swing vote and expressed skepticism that voting could bring about equality. It once worked. We once had, but lost, Black Mayors of Chicago, Cleve-land, Los Angeles, and other major metropolitan communities. In St. Louis we once boasted and felt proud of having an African American mayor, police chief, fire chief and school superintendent. Now only Kel-vin Adams holds one of these coveted positions. What happened?

A recent nonpartisan congressional study concluded states that tough-ened their voter identification laws saw steeper drops in election turn-out than those that did not, with disproportionate falloffs among black and younger voters. Will African Americans again be lulled to sleep and wake up to the entire region being modeled after Ferguson? Will the demonstrations be in vain? Will we miss an opportunity to display unity and strength? Maybe so. Only you have the answer.

The Bernie Hayes Show

PUT SOMETHING CLEAN ON YOUR TV!

Talk and interviews about affairs of the day with a St. Louis slant.

The Bernie Hayes Show can be seen:

Friday’s at 9 A.M. Saturday’s at 10:00 P.M. Sunday’s at 5:30 P.M.

Bernie Hayes

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

The Bernie Hayes Show

pg. 34

PoetryFeatured

Submission

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

Poetry Ruth - Miriam Garnett

RUMINATION ON SHELLEY (In Memoriam, James Brown) "...what happens when a new work of art is created is something that happens simultaneously to all the works of art which preceded it" — from "Tradition and the Individual Talent," essay, T. S. Eliot. "...the stock of such seventeenth-century poets as John Donne and Andrew Marvell went sky-high in the early twentieth century while the stock of the Romantic stalwart Percy Bysshe Shelly plummeted and has never fully recovered." — from The Oxford Book of American Poetry, David Lehman, Editor "A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed One too like thee: tameless and swift and proud." —"Ode to the West Wind," Percy Bysshe Shelley You have to have suffered, crossed the water and seen the slayings, the violations. You have to have been at the vanishing point, under water drowning., gurgling your last breaths without gills, cursing the air you were made for. You have to have had your belly full, then emptied through retching, had your skull ache from rotund imaginings made mockery of by the daylight's cordoned dreams, by nightmares, ensconced in the face of cohorts brandishing knives. You have to have known these things and swallowed guilt whole, felt its oozing swathe the gums and repulse the tongue, to know that what is joined is joined, that in all life grief harvests joy, that apart from the hard bones eroding and apart from agony, the soul lingers, the soul opens up.

pg. 36

GRANDMOTHER OLIVIA I February 20, 1914 I received your letter today at noon and was glad to hear from you as I always am. And especially so this time because you delayed so long. I had just planned to write an inquiring letter today, to ask why you had delayed my correspondence so long. I was feeling quite bad on the receipt of your letter from the effects of a cold, but was made to feel somewhat better when the landlady presented a letter from My Darling. You seem to forget that I love to hear from you, and really quite often. Your delay in correspondence will cause me to worry more than my delay will cause you worry, because of the fact that you are where you are well known, and I am far from home and my dear acquaintances. You must endeavor to spend more time, for if you have a will to write me, you have to write only a few lines each night. Try and see if you can't make your correspondence a little more regular. As I am not under the supervision of an English teacher now} I cannot find in my vocabulary the flowery words with which to express my longing for you. It has been about a month since I last heard from you, but still I have kept the lovelight aglow in my heart from you, because I had not known you to be any other way than true and felt tha there was some reason for your delay. To fortify my trust in you, I removed your picture from the wall and placed it in the center of the tie rack which you made for me and on which I keep my ties, and which I use regularly every day; and therefore am forced to look at your image and think of the days past. Please allow me to admit that I endeavor to make my love for you known and to fortify same by my actions towards you. Thomas Howard Garnett 481 Elm St. NW Washington, DC

Concerning Violence cont.

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

II I lent you my weakness, Man. Find it. It is somewhere inside the grapes you liquefy and store in decanters with long necks. Our elegant house is ornamented to dispute bent blinds. In our children's eyes are questions, because always, if the tongue is strapped, there is much dead language. Bottled, it spills upward. My screams ferment. And oh, the purple night, it amplifies them. The screams are my mother's and her twin's, clinging to folds of their mother's skirt. The white woman leading them to flee by boat from her home, from his home, to emancipate his lust for flesh he could own, rape, sire. A man who owns an island is subject to believe he ejaculates to fill the ocean circling his kingdom like a moat. Though, in truth, the muddied ground erases footprints, and softens the foundations of his house. Women who are caged do not love each other more than animals. Yet, a woman can love slavery, if it is cordoned by stately things and the flicker in other women's eyes, I have no sight beyond need of you, my longing for your limbs and lidded gaze. My daughter hears my aria nightly heaped upon her shapely shoulders: The woman you brought North with us, the daughter you gave her.

I am in you, Man, you in me. And what I recall from ancestry, flight, is the terror of it. The shame shackling me in linen, beaded dress, this fine house of yours, its strangled crystal, is what I know. Nothing is bequeathed to me from children who greeted the stranger, Night, trusting an enemy to set them free. There is no mistress to lead me out of myself. And truly, one who is brave would not hand over to you what can chain her; but sail away with her back to you, naked if need be, and carrying her offspring like any wild species, steer them to legacies of a womb that will anchor them, always free. I am released by this fruit, I am caught in its vine, entangled in the long years. The wine aging with us, moistening lies. Your death coming quick, it readies me. Luxuriant elixir; sealant for our tomb.

pg. 38

CONCERNING VIOLENCE (for Frantz Fanon) Because of how we are wed, enjoined, huddled; our herd of faces and eyes to one of ascots and blunt hairs, we do not recognize this war. We are merely the survivors who have slept in the crevices of God's palm. There are reasons for our madness, its explication notches down the length of a totem; for our fear of iron dogma, and of the mask that spits and smiles alternately, transporting us noiselessly to burial. For such offense, we kill with our bare hands. This war is like no others. I have stood to face them, talking their language. I have stood, facing them, with squared repugnant shoulders. I have been a cough more silent than breath, awaiting shares of a religion that rants and rages and spits its fanaticism of debris, of paper weighted greater than rock. I have said: My People, come with me under these leaves, this civilization. Burial is all the same, though bereavement is sent by the wrong gods, and the hand held out to supply us is emptied of touch. I have rehearsed feeling, preparing for wars that history deadlocks. I have in the same skull grown two minds. One is the other's warden.

Concerning Violence cont.

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

WARRIOR CLASS (for Kevin Johnson) “The Strong men keep comin’ on, strong men, getting stronger.” —Sterling Brown You do not under any circumstance under any sea of stars or pitch-black blanketed dark mess with my momma. You do not under fallacious assumption operate without clarity, without clear-sighted, nay, prescient expectation of consequence of answered violation of amended cognition. You do not fuck with blood. The strong men keep a'comin. If momentarily stopped, recall the tide. It ebbs, it thrashes. Whoot, there it is: again, again, again.

Kevin Johnson, 22, a native of Kirkwood, Missouri, was sentenced to death on February 1, 2007 for the

murder of police officer, Sergeant William McEntee, who caused the death of Johnson’s health-impaired younger brother Joseph during a police search of the family home in summer 2005.

Family members were forced to leave the home as Joseph lay dying of heart failure, and Johnson’s mother was blocked by McEntee in her attempt to see her dying child. Officers who came to the scene admitted under oath that they walked around and over Joseph and attempted no life-saving efforts while they searched the house.

A monument to McEntee has been repeatedly vandalized by white youths from Kirkwood since its erection.

The strong men keep a'comin. I call on my ancestors. The strong men keep a'comin. I call upon kings: Hotep, Sundiata, Menelik, Shebaka. I see Nzingha smile in the eyes of my mother. The strong men keep a'comin. Strong men, gettin' stronger. It bes that way. I am righteous. I am one.

pg. 40

LEGACIES We are kind if they are settled, knowing their place. And for some, many, that keeps them transfixed. They wish to have our affection and approval, so much more immediately gratifying than the remote visions of a world they sometimes imagine, where they are the dynamic center of their own universe. So, in our sitting rooms, mending our clothes, or moving about the opulent artifacts owned by us that they maintain, dusting, polishing and repairing, they feel comfortable and at home. Perhaps they feel they are themselves a part of the sumptuous decor, an objectification not alarming as it might be for the more discerning; certainly it would be for any of us. The contradiction of our enlightenment and their servitude: a coarse symbiosis. If they are dissatisfied, insolent, it enrages us, arouses our barbed, even savagely indignant, response, because we are so fragile in our unfairness. It is an obvious circumstance, but one we depend on gravely, as on the silence foisted by our numerous customs allowing us to feign civility in the face of slaughter.

Concerning Violence cont.

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

pg. 42

WHILE GRIEVING "Sorrow is better than laughter, for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. – Ecc. 7:3 "Say not thou what is the cause that the former days were better than these? For thou does not enquire wisely concerning this." – Ecc. 7:10 I Somehow, we are in dis-place, dis-life; hanging barely here. A clothesline filled with tatters: you think you see, you think you see. You think. You see. Secrets of a city. Lover, capable of every sin. Nobody knows where beyond this point; but we are here to begin again on crusts, spare sentiment, increments of flesh, failed ceremony. No matter, blood rains down and sickens every right mind. See our lips, twin halves of a mouth, hurt breath. A profile of feet, thickness spread over stench and slime crystallized in human form. Hurt hearts mangled like wrecked cars. I doubt the sky is vaster than our pain, our gobbled language. II The winter has been the gray walls of a cell. Gulls fly level with this window, out toward Jersey. The thick trees bordering the river are scalped by the bridge. Their conversation is wise. They say the country is a vast plain harboring currents that are like siblings, that have resemblances: husky storms, swarthy tornadoes, suns scorching like puberty. New York is one season of footsteps trampling children's faces. It would be less hard starving in an arid place. Harlem is an open sore.

Concerning Violence cont.

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

ON THE WAY HOME Two cities hide beyond unkempt grassy fields across Missouri. This is good and bad, the fact that there are two: Kansas City on the Missouri River, bordering west; St. Louis on the Mississippi, east. It is confusing, the borrowed nomenclature: Missouri, Kansas, Amerindian; St. Louis, French; and the odd poundings of history, Lewis and Clark manifesting their destiny and ours. Perhaps not ours. Most definitely not mine. I have said, the arch is stupid. I take that back. On the train, heading south from Chicago, I see it, stunning, sleek, as architecture. As history, it is quite fraudulent, depending on your take on gateways, on freedom, on blood, articulate as churning river currents, the Mississippi's, that is. My ancestors were sold on its banks, and there is no sadder circumstance if one can choose one's own haunting and, of course, one cannot. But I can hear the singing, that is, my people singing, if listening to my heart, the place where ancestors have lain down rods, insisting that I claim all this as debt, as retribution, as love.

pg. 44

BIO

Ruth-Miriam Garnett is a poet, author, and essayist. Her debut novel, Laelia, was published in 2004 by Simon & Schuster/Atria (New York). She is author of a poetry collection, A Move Further South (Third World Press, Chicago) and, Concerning Violence, New & Selected Poems, published in 2010 (Onegin, St. Louis, New York). A new novel, Chloe’s Grief, will be published in fall 2014 (Onegin). She is currently at work on a memoir, Hiatus. A nonfiction collection, The American Essays, published in the St. Louis American newspaper between 2009 and 2014, will be available in 2015. Ms. Garnett is a 1992 recipient of the National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship. In 1981, 1985 and 2001 she received grants from the Missouri Arts Council (BAG II Series) and was a Cave Canem Fellow in 2002. Her project, “African Diaspora Poets Read for Peace,” created following 9/11, was funded by the Institute for African and African American Studies at Columbia University in 2001 and by

the Ford Foundation Peace & Social Justice Committee in 2002. From 1993 to 2000, Ms. Garnett published the Harlem Arts Journal, a quarterly review. Her poems have appeared in Black Scholar, Callaloo, Essence, New Rain, Pivot, River Styx, Steppingstones and in the anthologies, In Search of Color Everywhere (Stewart, Tabori, Chang, New York, NY 1995), Drumvoices Revue (SIU 1996) and Beyond the Frontier: African American Poets in the 21st Century (Black Classic Press, Baltimore, MD, 2002). Ms. Garnett holds a BA in Social Anthropology and English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University and has done further work in Social and Cultural Anthropology at Columbia University and Dance Studies at Washington University. She has taught Creative Writing and Composition at the City College of New York, New York University, Webster University in St. Louis County and the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute.

EDUCATION Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; BA, Social Anthropology. Distribution of course work in English and American Literature and Language. Columbia University, New York, Graduate Study, Social and Cultural Anthropology. Washington University (St. Louis), Dance Studies, Graham Technique. Foreign languages: French and German.

PUBLISHED WORK

Books: Chloe’s Grief, novel (Onegin 2014); Concerning Violence, New & Selected Poems (Onegin 2011); Laelia, a novel (Simon & Schuster 2004); A Move Further South, poems (Third

World Press1987). Anthologies: Beyond the Frontier: African American Poets In The 21st Century, (Black Classic Press 2002); New Rain (Blind Beggar Press 1999 and 1983); In Search of

Color Everywhere (Stewart, Tabori, Chang 1995). Journals: Black Scholar, Callaloo, Essence, New Rain, Pivot, River Styx, Steppingstones, The Green Magazine, The Daily Challenge, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The St. Louis American. Other Media: Co-Writer, Annie and the Madam,

screenplay, option, Disney Company); Writer, Black Cohosh, 90-Minute Teleplay, ITVS, Reginald Woolery, Producer; Actor, Langston Hughes, Dreamkeeper, Voices &Visions (PBS),

St. Clair Bourne, Producer, 1981.

Concerning Violence cont.

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

pg. 46

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

LyricalLifeA

Born in St. Louis in 1884 to prosperous parents, Sara Teasdale experienced a pampered and protected childhood due to her sickly nature. Af-ter early home-schooling, she began her elementary education at age nine. A reflective teenager, she started composing poetry while a student at Mary Institute and later, Hosmer Hall.

In 1904, Teasdale became a member of a St. Louis women’s group with literary and artistic ambitions knows as the Potters. These young and talented women shared their passion for the arts. Teasdale’s early poems appear in the Potter’s Wheel, a monthly magazine created by a group that featured members’ works. William Marion Reedy, a St. Louis editor, took special notice of Teasdale’s poems. In 1906, he published selections of her work in the Mirror, his weekly magazine. Two years later, with financial assistance from her parents, Teasdale self-published her first book of poetry, Sonnets to Duse and Other Poems. The Poetry Society of America that was founded in 1910, invited Teasdale to be-come a member with the most prestigious poets of the time.

The lyrical quality of her poems woven through themes of beauty, love, longing and even death resonated with her readers. Her volume of acclaimed work continued to grow as she became associated with and influenced by the most noted writers and poets of her era. In 1918, she was awarded the first Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (actually the Columbia Poetry Prize, which evolved into poetry’s Pulitzer Prize) for her collection titled Love Songs. Her appealing style, praised for its beauty, simplicity and poignancy, made her a beloved and popular poet at the height of her career.

From Love Songs:

Enough

It is enough for me by day

To walk the same bright earth with him;

Enough that over us by night

The same great roof of stars is dim.

I do not hope to bind the wind

Or set a fetter on the sea –

It is enough to feel his love

Blow by like music over me

Many of Teasdale’s poems have been set to music based on their lyrical verse and translations of her work have delighted readers around the world.

Reprinted with permission from Famous Firsts of St. Louis: A Celebration of Facts, Figures, Food & Fun by Diane Rademacher. Copies available at more than 30 locations throughout St. Louis. To find a locaton near your, visit the Famous First Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/famousfirstsofstlouis You can also order by emailing firststl@aol.com.

Sara Teasdale

Lyricalby: Diane Rademacher

pg. 48

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“Hands Up” by Anna Asche

Statement: My name is Anna Asche. I was born in East Berlin, Germany and went through my first 10 years of school in the East German dictatorship. I was one of the younger generations in the middle of the revolutionary wave in 1989 and experienced actively the Fall of Communism and the Berlin Wall. As it is known world-wide my country leaves an ineradicable trace of racism and murder in the history books of planet earth and carries a very heavy burden of guilt and shame on its shoulders. As a child I was taught all about the crimes under Hitler and the World Wars and taught that racism belongs in the past. I learned that the generations from today learned from the mistakes of the past.

For the last 12 years I’ve traveled and lived in the United States. I’ve experienced this big country in many different places and many different facets of social structures. In the first weeks of being in this country I realized that racism is very alive and couldn’t understand why. I could not comprehend to which depth and dimensions these issues actually exist in “the land of the free”. Racism is an inconvenient scar on the United States that seems to have always been ignored and not talked about in hopes that it just goes away.Only after 12 years being here and a big media outburst of the happenings in Ferguson on August 9th, I got to see a glimpse into the hard issues and structures of this very racialized country; the law enforcement agency’s total disregard for the lives of African-Americans. The actions of the police represent just one outward expression of this disregard. Life is devalued and it reflects everywhere. Worst of all is the silence about these issues in between communities. If something happens in the black community – the American reality is, the white community “doesn’t know” because they don’t live there. They only see what’s reported by the news. Ferguson is not a single case, the United States has seen many cases where young black and Latino men have been killed or abused and the world doesn’t get to know about it.

About the Art: I have always found language to be a very limited means of expression. I understand and translate the world around me visually and through direct experience of feeling and sensation. The August 9, 2014 killing of 18-year old Michael Brown, Jr. by a Ferguson, MO police officer, and its aftermath are shocking eye-openers for me and reflect in my painting “Hands Up”.

pg. 50

Voting to retain a judge can mean the difference

in the life of someone you know.....

It could be your own life!!!

On Tuesday November 4th, Vote to Retain

Judge Paula Bryant Judge Judy Draper Judge Barbara Peeples

On Tuesday November 4th Vote Yes!!! Judge Barbara Peeples

Judge Judy Draper

Judge Paula Bryant

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CONGRATS TO... Model #40 BRITTANY WEST

Model #46 MALYZJA GREEN

Model #47 AUNDREA BERRY

Model #44 RJ POWELL

Model #45 BRANDON WOODS

Model #24 TASLIM BARRERA

Model #25 KHALIL BARRERA

Model #56 EMA REMTULA

Model #15 ALICIA MAYES

Model #53 SAHOI MCLEAN

New model: DEANDRE TURNER

New Model: GWENDOLYN CAROTHERS

Returning Model: CAROL MENTRIA

#walkortreat

Voting to retain a judge can mean the difference

in the life of someone you know.....

It could be your own life!!!

On Tuesday November 4th, Vote to Retain

Judge Paula Bryant Judge Judy Draper Judge Barbara Peeples

On Tuesday November 4th Vote Yes!!! Judge Barbara Peeples

Judge Judy Draper

Judge Paula Bryant

pg. 52

Art

of

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ali

ng

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Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

Sista

StrutWATCH NOW!

http://www.kimloveproductions.com

pg. 54

Featured

SubmissionPhotography

TirzahRussell

NEW Nationwide Model

TirzahTirzah

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

Photography

TirzahRussell

NEW Nationwide Model

TirzahTirzahIt’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon. The salon in Clayton,Missouri is packed and people are every where! The vibeis busy and positive. The new Nationwide Model, TirzahRussell, sits under the hair dryer with a smile on her face.She’s always smiling and she never stops laughing!

I’ve been working in this industry for many years and I amstill captivated by the sweet positive energy that she givesoff so effortlessly. I’m excited to start this interview!

Kimberly Marie: How did you start modeling?

Tirzah Russell: I started modeling when I was eight yearsold. My mom picked me up from school one day and tookme to a local agency and said “We’re going to try this out!”I did a photo shoot my first day and fell in LOVE withmodeling. I’ve been modeling nonstop since then.

Kimberly Marie: You’re now 17 and have been in themodeling industry for 9 years. Tell us about all the projectsyou’ve worked on.

Tirzah Russell: My first agency I did a modeling talentconvention in Las Vegas called iPOP. I performed amonologue, modeling and dancing. I won dancer of theyear. Since then, I’ve been involved in more local runwayshows based in the St. Louis and surrounding area.

Kimberly Marie: Tell us how you heard about ESGmodeling agency’s St. Louis division.

Tirzah Russell: I was referred to the agency by the 2014nationwide model, Brittany West, and her sister, ImaniWest, during a fashion show I participated in at thebeginning of the year.

Kimberly Marie: What did you expect and what did youexperience after entering ESG?

Tirzah Russell: I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I reallyexpected more of a competitive type environment, butwhen I finally had the opportunity to meet everyone I feltmore of a family type environment. It was more positiveand I felt very comfortable during my first booked event. Icould tell there was something different about working witha Christian based agency.

Kimberly Marie: Your first runway show was in anunderground cave in Crystal City, Missouri. Explain thatevent to us.

Tirzah Russell: That experience was amazing! It was reallydifferent. I’ve never experienced anything like that! It was

INTERVIEW

pg. 56

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

really creative! The temperature was 50 degrees and thecave was full of sand. For most segments we walked barefoot. I’m a creative person, so I really enjoyed how theproduction was completed in the cave.

Kimberly Marie: How many shows were you booked forthis modeling season?

Tirzah Russell: I was booked and participated in 5 showsin 5 months for the agency’s five year anniversary.

Kimberly Marie: What was your favorite show you werebooked for?

Tirzah Russell: The April shower’s runway show. I lovedthe classic, elegant and fun hairstyling!I also enjoyed the Beauty Rocks the Beat runway show!The hair and wardrobe styling was very edgy and trendy.

Kimberly Marie: After you completed five shows in fivemonths what were you expecting during the 5 yearanniversary celebration that would announce the new2015 nationwide model?

Tirzah Russell: Before even attending the five yearanniversary event- I was remaining humble. I was hoping Ireceived a big award, but I didn’t want to overthink orassume anything. Therefore, going into the ceremony Iwas thinking everything would work itself out for the mostpart. I was hoping the agency liked what I brought to thetable this year.

Kimberly Marie: Once your name was announced how didyou feel?

Tirzah Russell: I was guessing with my mom on whichother models would be chosen prior to my name beingannounced. Once I heard my name I was shaking! I wasso shocked! I didn’t know what to do or what to think! Itwas simply amazing!

Kimberly Marie: How is it now that you have the newnationwide model title, but do not start your official workuntil January 2015?

Tirzah Russell: Just knowing that this is a Christian basedagency I’m really just trying to become a better personbefore I even experience being the nationwide model forESG modeling agency. I’ve been working on how tobecome a better leader, remain humble and positive whileholding my new title. I’m just praying that I can be the bestnationwide model after the previous title holder, BrittanyWest. She was definitely a role model for me. I’m hoping I

Tirzah Russell cont.

pg. 58

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

can take what she did and impact people the way she did!

Kimberly Marie: Before you were announced to be theofficial 2015 nationwide model you were selected out of60+ models to be on the flyer for the upcoming CommunityHalloween Runway show in the St. Louis division. Nowhow does it feel to see your flyer and advertisementcampaign centered around you?

Tirzah Russell:It’s very empowering and I feel like it will only get betterfrom here! I feel like it’s time to show what I have to offerand be a light! I want to show other young girls andmodels that modeling is more than just image!

Kimberly Marie: Give us a sneak peak at your costumesyou’ve selected for the Halloween show?

Tirzah Russell: My costumes are all different in manyways. Many different styles and very fun! I hope thecommunity comes out that night to join us!

Kimberly Marie: Any aspiring words for upcoming modelsor anyone reaching for life’s dreams?

Tirzah Russell: Stay humble in your walk and in anythingyou’re trying to achieve! There is always room to growand learn. That’s why staying humble is so important!Stay tuned next month. As Tirzah catches us up after theHalloween Runway show and explains her upcomingphoto shoot and preparation for her upcoming show inAtlanta, Georgia!

Written by:Kimberly MarieNationwide DirectorESG modeling agency

Photographer: Peter Wochniak with Pro Photo STL

Tirzah Russell cont.

pg. 60

Sponsored By:

Centene Corporation

Ameren Missouri Centric Group

Fifth Third Bank First Bank

Ken & Nancy Kranzberg First NationalBank of St. Louis

Major Brands Missouri Lottery

Wells Fargo

Click below for you- tube preview http://youtu.be/ypVLc70oTxI

Tickets Now Available Call (314) 289 – 7523

www.cwah.org Metro tix: (314) 534-1111

Tickets Now Available

Call (314) 289-7523 www.cwah.org

Metro Tix

314-534-1111 www.metrotix.com

Coming Soon!

The of FOOD

ARTContact us to have your submission included.

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

pg. 62

 As  a  Hedge  Against  Racist  Police  Practices  -­‐-­‐  Hire  More  African  Americans    

   Unless  you  live  in  the  remotest  part  of  the  world,  you’ve  heard  about  an  unarmed  

Black  teenager,  Michael  Brown,  gunned  down  August  9  by  Officer  Darren  Wilson  in  

Ferguson,  Missouri.    The  callous  disregard  for  a  young  Black  male’s  life,  lying  in  the  

street  like  road  kill  for  more  than  four  hours,  set  off  a  firestorm  of  outrage,  

condemnation  and  mass  protests  which  are  not  going  away  anytime  soon.    For  one,  

Darren  Wilson  has  yet  to  be  arrested.  

 

When  asked  about  the  reason  there  were  so  few  African  Americans  on  his  force,  Chief  

Tom  Jackson  unwittingly  said,  something  to  the  effect  of:    We  can’t  find  enough  who  

are  qualified.    

 

The  department  has  54  commissioned  officers  of  which  only  three  are  African  

Americans  in  a  town  that  is  67  percent  Black.    In  an  ostensibly  racist  community  such  

as  Ferguson,  these  are  grounds  enough  to  argue  that  an  over-­‐representation  of  White  

officers  in  a  predominantly  Black  area  does  not  make  them  qualified  to  serve  and  

protect.      Constant  cultural  diversity  training  could  help,  but  this  sort  of  begs  the  

question.      In  addition,  the  University  of  Missouri-­‐St.  Louis,  right  up  the  street  from  

Ferguson,  has  a  highly  ranked  Criminology  Department  which  they  could  readily  

recruit  Black  criminology  graduates.      

 

-- Hire more AFRICAN AMERICANSAs a Hedge Against Racist Police Practices

by: Dr. Malaika Horne

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

-- Hire more AFRICAN AMERICANS

 Put  another  way,  there  are  too  many  White  policemen  in  Black  neighborhoods.    It’s  a  

formula  for  disaster.      Many  of  these  officers  don’t  have  a  clue  as  to  how  to  relate  to  its  

African  American  citizens  except  drop  the  hammer  at  every  turn,  instilling  fear  and  

terror,  in  the  officers’  minds,  to  keep  them  in  line.      Chief  Jackson  looked  the  other  

way  when  his  police  wore  armbands,  stating:    “I  am  Darren  Wilson.”    The  U.S.  Justice  

Department  had  to  intervene,  requesting  them  to  desist  with  this  incendiary  practice.      

And  so  police  chiefs  who  are  blind  to  racially  incompetent  police  are  themselves  

incompetent.        

 

Not  only  do  we  need  to  hire  more  Black  police,  we  need  to  hire  more  women  across  

ethnicity.    While  Black  male  officers  are  woefully  under-­‐represented,  women  are  even  

fewer  among  the  ranks.    Specialists  assert  that  women  officers  generally  have  better  

people  skills;  they’re  calmer  and  use  less  force.    The  police  state  created  by  

predominantly  White  male  cops  (racist  and  testosterone  fueled)  has  been  tantamount  

to  occupied  Palestine.    This  may  be  the  reason  Palestinians  could  so  readily  relate  to  

the  Ferguson  upheaval,  quickly  expressing  solidarity  and  giving  tips  via  social  media  

such  as  using  milk  to  ease  the  sting  of  pepper  spray  and  tear  gas  sprayed  into  the  eyes  

and  faces  of  protesters.      It  is  no  question  that  ordinary  citizens  taking  photos  on  their  

devices  has  shed  a  great  deal  of  light  on  police  misconduct.    Until  recently,  the  

established  media  have  by  and  large  ignored.  

 

Which  brings  to  mind  the  militaristic  approach  that  law  enforcement  initially  used  to  

quell  the  unrest,  treating  citizens  like  enemy  combatants.    It  was  an  eerie  version  of  a  

As a Hedge Against Racist Police Practices

pg. 64

bad  Robocop.      Tanks,  combat  gear,  assault  rifles  confirmed  its  over-­‐the-­‐top  reaction  

and  showed  total  disregard.    Gross  incompetence  and  willful  ignorance  were  

staggering,  so  much  so  until  it  shocked  the  conscience  of  people  around  the  world.    

Optics  and  media  depictions  were  horrendous  and  the  Ferguson  police  chief  seemed  

oblivious.    

 

The  mishandlings  of  the  Michael  Brown  tragedy  are  too  many  to  list.    If  nothing  else,  it  

reveals  a  bungling  Keystone  Cops-­‐like  culture  sans  the  humor,  but  brutal,  clumsy  and  

embarrassing.    What’s  more,  it  seems  to  be  a  pattern.    Recently  52  year-­‐old  Henry  

Davis  said  four  Ferguson  police  officers  beat  him  then  charged  him  for  damaging  

government  property  because  his  blood  got  on  their  uniforms.    

 

According  to  a  recent  government  survey  of  hundreds  of  U.S.  police  departments,  

Whites  officers  are  more  than  30  percentage  points  higher  than  the  communities  they  

serve.      People  of  color  (African  Americans,  Latino  Americans,  Asian  Americans  and  

Native  Americans)  are  seriously  under-­‐represented  in  police  forces  throughout  the  

country.    A  culturally  diverse  police  force  not  only  enhances  a  department’s  

perception  of  credibility,  it  creates  a  more  positive  image  in  sync  with  the  

community’s  ethnic  composition.  

 

So  when  Chief  Jackson  talks  about  not  being  able  to  find  enough  qualified  African  

Americans,  it  smacks  of  the  old  saw  of  Black  intellectual  inferiority,  which  is  racist,  

...Hire More African Americans cont.

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

AAA Insurance SalesThe Road to Success Starts Here

AAA offers the following:� Pension plan and employer-matched 401(k)

� Forgivable draw plus commission� Rewarding career advancement opportunities

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WE’RE HIRING!If you or someone you know is interested in learning more about

our AAA Insurance Sales Agent opportunities, apply online at

AAA.com/careersor call Insurance Business Manager Chris Raymond

at (314) 862-8021 ext. 103

pg. 66

The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. State Celebration Commission

of Missouri

www.thejazzedge.com

has selected The Jazz Edge Orchestra as the recipient of

the Commission’s Year 2015 Community Service Award. The award is being given

in recognition of The Jazz Edge’s wonderful achievements and for its continuing

efforts to exemplify Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s ideals and commitments. This year’s

theme is “Emerging Leaders Called to Action-A Time for Healing”.

The award, publicly acknowledging The Jazz Edge’s outstanding

service, will be presented at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. State Commission

Celebration at Harris-Stowe State University on Saturday, January 10, 2015 at 6:30

p.m. in the University’s main auditorium.

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

has selected The Jazz Edge Orchestra as the recipient of

the Commission’s Year 2015 Community Service Award. The award is being given

in recognition of The Jazz Edge’s wonderful achievements and for its continuing

efforts to exemplify Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s ideals and commitments. This year’s

theme is “Emerging Leaders Called to Action-A Time for Healing”.

The award, publicly acknowledging The Jazz Edge’s outstanding

service, will be presented at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. State Commission

Celebration at Harris-Stowe State University on Saturday, January 10, 2015 at 6:30

p.m. in the University’s main auditorium.

DIVERSIFY THE WAY: Less grass, more gardening

By Nate AntonNate Anton is a recent graduate from the Missouri School of Journalism. He studied convergence journalism with an emphasis in hu-manitarian journalism. He’s currently pursuing a freelance career and interested in collaborating with like minded individuals.

“I hate grass,” a frustrated friend once declared during a solution focused conversa-tion. “I just wish there could be gardens everywhere instead!” 

This may sound like an ambitious feat, but it’s not an impossible one. The more I contemplated the idea, the more plausi-ble it began to sound. 

I always found it ironic that naturally grown and organic foods were labeled as such and outnumbered on supermar-ket shelves by flashy advertised alternatives. 

“You are what you eat,” the aphorism goes. So does consuming “unnatural” food transform us into unnat-ural beings? How can we reestablish cultural norms to inspire communities to grow locally and think twice before con-suming anything orally?

It all boils down to eduction and feasibility, and the goal behind this micro farming idea is to ad-dress both. While I’m still ironing out the details of this initiative, my current vision is two fold. 

First and foremost, it’s about education. I want to educate individuals, families and communities about the impor-tance of naturally grown, healthy food. Second, I want to make micro farming as feasible as possible for the average fami-ly. To do so, I’d like to offer a personalized micro farming service to families and communities of interest. 

With escalating concerns of food insecurity and the projected rise in food costs, the timeto change our current mod-el of thinking is now. We need to start depending on ourselves and our neighbors—not corporations or big business. 

If this sounds like a project you may be interested in, I encourage you to reach out. Send me an email at news4nate@gmail.com. Let the collaboration, education and nourishing begin.

pg. 68

I’m a 38yr old direct care professional. I was born and raised in St Louis Mo. I’ve been a victim of racism and witnessed others treated as less than by law officials. It’s common to avoid certain areas purposely but if you live there how can you or why should you? I wrote a poem that speaks on my response to this worldwide problem.

Salicia Black

Today Pain is on the rise… Pain is risen so high we have to beg for assistance for everyday necessities like Gas, Electric, Water, even Food. Our kids are going to bed hungry… We’re Disrespected, neglected, with worse treatment than an animal and Reminded daily basis that our value is less than.Where unarmed children are gunned down and left for dead by the same one’s warranted to protect us, where mother’s are burying their children, father’s sharing prison cells with their sons, where celebrations are given when a kid makes it to the University vs. The Penitentiary. Where there is an obvious betrayal from the Red, White and Blue with laws that allow them to huff and puff and blow our communities down. Where there is disparity causing mistrust amongst All. Where we run in fear from rubber bullets and scream from tear gassed eyes…Their superiority hovers over us to keeping us in our “place”…

As I said understandably, pain is on the rise from where I come from. A silent tear of Sadness, turned to anger & resentment turned into a pure rage from generations of INJustice and just the fact that no one ever seems care. Or give a damn, No One!!! A time for action has spread outside the segregated walls of this community we’ve been trapped behind.

I come from N. City, S. City, Ferguson, Florissant, Hell America !!! Where our hearts have been shattered one time too many. We raise our hands in the position of surrender no longer to the law but to a Higher Power no man can ever touch. I pray for our strength and guidance that none of this shall go in vain. As, I’ve looked through photos of freedom marches and heard speeches from one’s that fought for equality. I shake my head that our past hangings is our today’s shootings and sing…

“We shall overcomeWe shall overcomeWe shall overcome someday Oh, deep in our heartsI do believe that we shall overcomeSomeday”...

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

TMHTEENSMAKEHISTORY

HIS

TORY C

OMMUNITY EDUCATION HISTORY

CO

MM

UN

ITY EDUCATION HISTORY COMMUNITY E

DU

CA

TIO

N

M I S S O U R I H I S T O R Y M U S E U ML i n d e l l & D e B a l i v i e r e i n F o r e s t P a r k

3 1 4 . 7 4 6 . 4 5 9 9 m o h i s t o r y . o r g

The Missouri History Museum is in Forest Park at Lindell and DeBaliviere. It is located at 5700 Lindell Boulevard, one block from the Forest Park–DeBaliviere MetroLink station.W

HEN

?

WH

ERE?

INTE

REST

ED?

If you have questions, please contact Ellen,

the Teens Make History coordinator,

at (314) 746-4436 or ekuhn@mohistory.org.

Successful applicants will be contacted to set up a

time for a formal interview in December. Final selections

will be made by Friday, December 19, 2014.

The Missouri History Museum seeks teens in their sophomore, junior, and senior year of high

school for positions in the Teens Make History Academy.

The Academy will run from Saturday, January 17, to Saturday, March 7, 2015. It will be held on Thursdays from 3:30–5:30pm and on Saturdays from 10am– 2pm.

Applications are due Friday, November 21, 2014. Visit www.mohistory.org/tmh/apply to fill out the online application. Paper copies are also available by request.

The Teens Make History Academy is an eight-week intensive workshop that explores different areas of the Museum like research, exhibitions, and theater. Teens meet Museum staff, conduct weekly challenges, and complete a capstone project with teammates. Successful graduates of the Academy will be considered

for a limited number of paid apprenticeships with the Museum.

pg. 70

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

John JenningsBy John Jennings

Associate ProfessorVisual StudiesSUNY Buffalo

tumblr: http://jijennin70.tumblr.com/

ArtistFeatured

Submission

pg. 72

OP

PO

RTU

NIT

IES

Follow us @ArtsTodayez

#artstodayEZ

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

pg. 74

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

pg. 76

ALLIANCE OF BLACK ART GALLERIES St. Louis, Missouri

Hands Up, Don’t Shoot: Artists Respond Exhibition October 17 - December 20, 2014

18 Venues in St. Louis City and St. Louis County, including Ferguson, Missouri

Paintings ∙ Drawings ∙ Photography ∙ Collage ∙ Fiber Art ∙ Film ∙ Sculpture ∙ Glass Fusion

The Alliance of Black Art Galleries has organized an historic art exhibition with artists from across the country responding to Hands Up, Don’t Shoot. The story of the Movement, spurred by the August 9, 2014 killing of Michael Brown and subsequent events in Ferguson, MO and across the country, will be told by the visual art works in this Exhibition. Plan to visit each of the 18 venues to be announced, see some amazing and thought-provoking visual art, and appreciate the therapeutic properties of art. Details on all participating artists, venues and Opening Receptions scheduled for October 17 & 18 will be announced October 4th. All Exhibition venues are free and open to the public. The Exhibition is family-friendly. Mark your calendars!

Art work will be for sale through Alliance Member Galleries.*

10th Street Gallery*

14th Street Artist Community Gallery*

Central Library Carnegie Room

Exodus Gallery*

Ferguson Municipal Public Library

The Griot Museum of Black History

L. D. Ingrum Gallery & Studio*

Portfolio Gallery & Educational Center*

Opportunities! The Alliance of Black Art Galleries is inviting volunteers to assist with receiving art, installation, and gallery talks & tours for the Exhibition. Volunteer Docents & Assistants will receive reference materials and must attend a one-hour training session. ~ ~ ~ Non-visual art forms (e.g., dance, poetry, spoken word, theater, music, etc.) will be presented at each Opening Reception program. Would you like to participate?

For more information, please contact Freida L. Wheaton allianceofblackartgalleriesstl@gmail.com

Saint Louis University Galleries

Scott Joplin House State Historic Site

St. Louis Community College - Florissant Valley - gallery ADMIN

University of Missouri - St. Louis - Gallery FAB

Vaughn Cultural Center

Regional Arts Commission

Four additional venues will be selected

Katrin Butler Powell (Kuumba) Silent Prayer, 27” x 21”

The Alliance of Black Art Galleries was founded August 20, 2013 in St. Louis, Missouri. The Alliance received a St. Louis Magazine 2014 A-List Award in recognition of its collaboration in the arts community.

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

Volunteer Art Performers Hands Up, Don’t Shoot: Artists Respond

Alliance of Black Art Galleries (St. Louis, MO) Visual Art Initiative on the Michael Brown Killing !The Alliance of Black Art Galleries thanks you for your interest in participating in one or more Opening Reception programs for the visual art exhibition Hands Up, Don’t Shoot: Artists Respond. The Alliance recognizes that other art forms have also responded to the killing of Michael Brown and the numerous issues raised through their art. !

We want to partner with you. !Please review this information and confirm that you are able to volunteer as outlined below. Your role in making the Exhibition a good experience from the start for the audiences is very important. If you have any questions, please contact: Freida L. Wheaton at 314.494.4660 !Eligibility for Volunteer Art Performers • If under age 18, parent or organized Group Leader must consent • Individual performer or Group • Has experience performing publicly • Has reliable transportation either directly or provided by others • Has mobile/cell phone and email address !Expectations of Art Performers • Provide opportunity for the Alliance to see you perform/audition privately or publicly on or before Wednesday,

October 8th. You must contact us to schedule an audition at least 2 days prior. We can provide space, if necessary. • Arrive at Opening Reception venue at least 15 minutes prior to the event. • Call at least 2-hours prior to the event if you have an emergency which prevents you from attending. • Perform at one or two of the Exhibition Opening Receptions being held on October 17th (starting at 1:30 pm.) and

October 18th in different parts of St. Louis City and County • Give a maximum 5-minute performance as part of the Reception Program, which is timed for no more than 15

minutes total. The performance will be within the first 30 - 45 minutes of the reception. !The Alliance of Black Art Galleries • Will provide space, if necessary, to audition your art performance. • Will provide an Alliance Member as contact person for any follow-up questions or issues that might arise • Will provide a complete schedule of the Exhibition Venues and Opening Reception times and locations. !Please confirm your interest in participating as a Volunteer Art Performer to: Freida L. Wheaton at allianceofblackartgalleriesstl@gmail.com !NAME: Mobile/cell phone number: Email address: Please indicate: _____Individual or ____ Group Individual Performer Name _______________________Group Name: _____________________________________

Type of Art Performer: ___ Poetry ___ Spoken Word ____ Singer _____ Music

___ Dance ___ Theater ___ Other (specify): _________________________

When can you be available to perform?

Fri. Oct. 17th: 1:30 - 3 pm // 3:30 - 5 pm // 4 - 6 pm // 5 - 7 pm // 6 - 8 pm // 6 - 9 pm

Sat. Oct. 18th: 2 - 4 pm // 3 - 5 pm // 4 - 6 pm // 5 - 7 pm // 6 - 8 pm

!Thank you!

pg. 78

Volunteer Docents & Assistants Hands Up, Don’t Shoot: Artists Respond

Alliance of Black Art Galleries (St. Louis, MO) Visual Art Initiative on the Michael Brown Killing The Alliance of Black Art Galleries thanks you for your interest in working on the exhibition Hands Up, Don’t Shoot: Artists Respond as a Volunteer Docent & Assistant. Please review this information and confirm that you will volunteer & assist as outlined below. Your role in making the Exhibition a good experience for the audience is very important. If you have any questions, please contact: Freida L. Wheaton at 314.494.4660 Eligibility for Volunteers Age 19 and older Artist, art student, or currently work in the visual arts Ability to communicate to public audience Has reliable transportation either directly or provided by others Has mobile/cell phone and email address Expectations of Volunteers Attend a one-hour training session on Sunday, October 5th at 4:00 pm or Monday, October 6th at 6:00 pm Assist with verification of delivery of art to up to three Exhibition Venues on October 9th and 10th Assist with installation of art on October 13th , 14th , and/or 15th Attend at least three Exhibition Opening Receptions being held on October 17th and 18th Serve as a host of Exhibition Opening Receptions, representing the Alliance: assist in set-up of Exhibition

materials, greet guests, provide program guides/catalogs to all guests, and answer questions about the Exhibition.

Give a three-minute gallery talk at Opening Receptions attended as part of the Reception Program, which is timed for no more than 15 minutes

The Alliance of Black Art Galleries Will provide an information packet to each Volunteer prior to the training session. The information packet

will contain: o Background information on the eight Alliance galleries o Overview Information on the Exhibition Hands Up, Don’t Shoot: Artists Respond: why organized;

who are the participants; who has assisted in the Exhibition o A bullet point overview of the three-minute gallery talk o Q & A’s to assist in answering questions

Will provide a one-hour training session Will provide an Alliance Member as contact person for any follow-up questions or issues that might arise Will provide a schedule of the Exhibition Venues and Opening Reception times and locations. Please confirm your interest in participating as a Volunteer Docent & Assistant. Provide the requested information by Wednesday, October 1st and return to: allianceofblackartgalleriesstl@gmail.com Name: Preferred Training Day: ____ Sun 10/5 at 4pm or ____ Mon 10/06 at 6pm

Are you age 19 or older? ____ Yes ____ No Current art status: ____ artist ____ art student ____ work in visual art Mobile/cell phone number: Email address: Do you have reliable transportation? ____ Yes ____ No

Thank you!

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

The

Study Group (NAPSG)

is an organization dedicated to the empowerment and education of our community through book study and our lecture series. We have brought many African scholars to St. Louis to awaken our people and to get on one accord to face the challenges in our community.

The NAPSG is in need of your help so we are currently seeking new members to help us continue to be able to meet the demands of our lecture series and our study group.

Our study group meets every 3rd Sunday at Sabayet, 4000 Maffit, St. Louis, MO. at 4:00 p.m. Please join us on our journey for knowledge of self, our gods, and our Ancestors.

Contact James Steward at (618) 977-8191

for more information.

Also, Like us on FaceBook.

New African Paradigm

pg. 80

Lifelong Learning @UMSLA Commitment to Community Enrichment

through Personal Growth, Education & Recreation

The Pay Equity Symposium, hosted by Lifelong Learning @ UMSL, will commence with a keynote address by Atty. Donna L. Harper, Sedey Harper, P.C. The keynote will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Sally Ebest, director, UMSL Gender Studies. The symposium will end with three breakout sessions and report-outs.

Get a jump on Halloween: Attend in period or current dress reflective of the topic (optional). Prizes for best costumes.

Lifelong Learning @ UMSL promotes the love of learning and civic engagement. While it serves older adults (over 50), it includes intergenerational learning, building social capital, creating stronger social networks, and mobilizing and strengthening communities across all age groups. All ages are encouraged to attend this symposium.

Place: J.C. Penney Conference Center Time: 8:00 AM—12:30 PMDate: Friday, October 31

Early Registration before 10/19: $15Registration after 10/19: $25Student Registration $5

A hearty breakfast will be served.

Panelists: • Lydia Padillia, owner/operation, TRC Staffing• Ann Plunkett, principal, WorkPlace Partners, Inc• Anne E. Winkler, PhD, professor, UMSL Economics & Public Policy Administration

PAY EQUITYRealities, Challenges,

Opportunities

Sponsored by Zonta Club of St. Louis

& UMSL Gender StudiesIn cooperation with AAUW

For more information, contact Malaika Horne, PhD,Director, UMSL Executive Leadership Consortium(314) 516-4749 | hornem@umsl.edu

Overall, women in the U.S. are paid 78 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts. Despite legislation, progress moves at a snail’s pace. For Latinas and African American women,the gap is even larger.

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

Lifelong Learning @UMSLA Commitment to Community Enrichment

through Personal Growth, Education & Recreation

The Pay Equity Symposium, hosted by Lifelong Learning @ UMSL, will commence with a keynote address by Atty. Donna L. Harper, Sedey Harper, P.C. The keynote will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Sally Ebest, director, UMSL Gender Studies. The symposium will end with three breakout sessions and report-outs.

Get a jump on Halloween: Attend in period or current dress reflective of the topic (optional). Prizes for best costumes.

Lifelong Learning @ UMSL promotes the love of learning and civic engagement. While it serves older adults (over 50), it includes intergenerational learning, building social capital, creating stronger social networks, and mobilizing and strengthening communities across all age groups. All ages are encouraged to attend this symposium.

Place: J.C. Penney Conference Center Time: 8:00 AM—12:30 PMDate: Friday, October 31

Early Registration before 10/19: $15Registration after 10/19: $25Student Registration $5

A hearty breakfast will be served.

Panelists: • Lydia Padillia, owner/operation, TRC Staffing• Ann Plunkett, principal, WorkPlace Partners, Inc• Anne E. Winkler, PhD, professor, UMSL Economics & Public Policy Administration

PAY EQUITYRealities, Challenges,

Opportunities

Sponsored by Zonta Club of St. Louis

& UMSL Gender StudiesIn cooperation with AAUW

For more information, contact Malaika Horne, PhD,Director, UMSL Executive Leadership Consortium(314) 516-4749 | hornem@umsl.edu

Overall, women in the U.S. are paid 78 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts. Despite legislation, progress moves at a snail’s pace. For Latinas and African American women,the gap is even larger.

Pay Equity Symposium Addresses Persistent Problem

Closing the pay gap continues to be a vexing problem, particularly for women. Disparities persist,

despite legislation such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963. So, why has it been so slow? On October

31, Lifelong Learning @ UMSL will put on a symposium to address the issue that has recently taken

center stage.

Overall, women in the U.S. are paid 78 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts. Despite

legislation, progress moves at a snail’s pace. For Latinas and African American women the gap is

even larger.

The Pay Equity Symposium will commence with a keynote address by Atty. Donna L. Harper, Sedey

Harper, P.C. Harper recently represented a high profile pay equity case. The keynote will be followed

by a panel discussion moderated by Sally Ebest, PhD, director, UMSL Gender Studies. Panelists are:

Lydia Padilla, owner/operation, TRC Staffing; Ann Plunkett, principal, WorkPlace Partners, Inc. and

Anne E. Winkler, PhD, professor, UMSL Economics & Public Policy Administration. The symposium

will end with three workshops and report-outs.

Get a jump on Halloween: Attend in period or current dress reflective of the topic (optional). Prizes for

the best costumes.

Lifelong Learning @ UMSL promotes the love of learning and civic engagement. While it serves older

adults (over 50), it includes intergenerational learning, building social capital, creating stronger social

networks, mobilizing and strengthening communities across all age groups. All ages are encouraged

to attend this symposium.

For more information contact: Malaika Horne, PhD, director, Lifelong Learning @ UMSL, 314-516-

4749 or hornem@umsl.edu. Fee: $15 before October 19; $25 after and $5 for students. Includes

hearty breakfast.

To register, go to:

http://pcscatalog.umsl.edu/modules/shop/index.html?action=section&OfferingID=343&SectionID=1072

Exhibitor Table: $45 (includes two registrations at no cost — for promo code, call Malaika Horne, 314-516-4749)

http://pcscatalog.umsl.edu/modules/shop/index.html?action=section&OfferingID=343&SectionID=1074

Sponsored by Zonta Club of St. Louis & UMSL Gender Studies, in cooperation with AAUW.

pg. 82

THIS SEASON’S MUST-SEE DANCE FALL INTO DANCE:

Dance St. Louis presents two big shows this fall that are a must see for anyone who loves dance and movement on stage.

lovesdance

movement

New Dance Horizons III:

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

dance

November 7-8Friday and Saturday,

A Harlem Renaissance: Dance Theatre of Harlem returns to St. Louis after 10 yearsThe country’s first African-American ballet company returns to St. Louis in all its splendor, glory and magnificence as Dance St. Louis presents Dance Theatre of Harlem on Friday and Saturday, November 7-8 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. It’s been a decade since Dance Theatre of Harlem performed in St. Louis, and the company itself took an eight-year hiatus in 2004. Now, the newly relaunched company with a 45-year history performs an eclectic, demanding repertoire at the highest level, ranging from new and classical to neoclassical and contemporary. Enjoy a new ballet by one of America’s most diverse and sought after choreographers, Darrell Grand Moultrie, as well as a performance of Ulysses Dove’s Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven (Odes to Love and Loss) to much more. The scheduled St. Louis program is diverse and beautiful.

Since its relaunch Dance Theatre of Harlem has received outstanding accolades, critical acclaim and extensive media attention. Under the artistic direction of the remarkable and esteemed Virginia Johnson, former Dance Theatre of Harlem principal dancer and founding member, the company continues to take the world by storm. Upon its founding in 1969, Dance Theatre of Harlem was considered “one of ballet’s most exciting undertakings” (The New York Times, 1971), and it has been said that the company definitively debunked historical stereotypes and opinions that African Americans could not dance ballet. Now, decades later, St. Louis audiences have the chance to witness the resurgence of the globally acclaimed dance institution. Tickets are $40-65 and available at the Dance St. Louis box office, by calling 314-534-6622, or by visiting dancestlouis.org.

pg. 84

at The Touhill

MA

DC

O, S

aint

Lou

is B

alle

t and

Th

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ig M

uddy

Dan

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ompa

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ance

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Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

at The Touhill

Portfolio Fundraiser

Moves to Artist's Studio

Janet Riehl's "Women & Wardrobe: The Riehl Collection" exhibit has finished it's successful run at The Portfolio Gallery and Education Center. It brought in $2,000 to

help with much-needed building repairs. Many people went home with framed ($150) and unframed ($50) prints they love, and a good time was had by all.

Folks have said they would have loved to have seen the show, and were sorry they missed it. Janet has decided to host At Home evenings on Wednesdays from 5:30 to 8:00

p.m. so you can! Come visit, enjoy the work, and of course buy whatever calls to you. Any profit realized will continue to benefit Portfolio Gallery.

If you'd like to come, please contact her at janet.riehl@gmail.com.

Janet and Robert Powell, director of Portfolio Gallery and Education Center appeared on Fox 2 news.

http://fox2now.com/2014/07/29/women-wardrobe-and-art-on-a-cell-phone-at-portfolio/#

Janet and her art was featured in the Alton Telegraph.http://www.thetelegraph.com/news/home_top-lifestyle-news/50095336/Artists-work-

makes-Riehl-results#.U-Tbf1Ao7qC

Come on out! Meet some new people and enjoy some playful, colorful, and sensuous art inspired by African Women.

pg. 86

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

pg. 88

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

Awakening Your Supernatural Abilities w/Victor Farwell (Saturday, November 15th from 12 pm - 2 pm),

Yoga (instructed by Raquel Hunter or Phoenix Amrita Kaur) and much more!

pg. 90

so reel

YWCA Metro St. Louis3820 West Pine Blvd.St. Louis, MO 63108(314) 531-1115

www.ywcastlouis.org

november 2014

St. Louis’s Truth and Reconciliation

Ferguson: Healing and Moving Forward

Wednesday, November 12 5:30 pm PromptlyRegional Arts Commission6125 Delmar Blvd. (Across from The Pageant)Light Dinner will be servedFree Admission

Questions?Contact Amy A. Hunter314-531-1115

The shooting of Michael Brown by Ferguson Police Offi cer Darren Wilson happened nearly three months ago and the systemic problems exposed in the aftermath are far from being remedied. Yes, the dialogue has begun but it is clear from the continued protests that nothing short of substantive change will be meaningful. So, how do we bridge the racial and political divides that separate us and create a more just and caring community for everyone? How do we forge trust where none exists?Those are the questions we’ll explore in this special So Reel. Bring your voice to the table; we are listening.

Volume 1.9October 31, 2014www.the-arts-today.comCopyright © 2014 - All rights reserved.

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