Category: Racial Justice

When Uganda’s very first satellite was launched into space last week on Nov. 7, Bonny Omara, the lead engineer on the satellite development team, was filled with emotion.

“I was watching it on TV, together with my Honourable Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation,” he says. “It was really amazing and we hugged each other! To see my baby takeoff from the ground headed for the International Space Station — it’s really a great feeling of my life.”

The satellite developed by Omara and his team, named PearlAfricaSat-1, was launched aboard a Northrop Grumman Cygnus resupply spacecraft, which lifted off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. In addition, the rocket was also carrying ZimSat-1, Zimbabwe’s first satellite.

Both satellites were developed through the Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Project 5, BIRDS-5, in collaboration with the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan. Omara, when asked about collaborating with engineers from Zimbabwe and Japan, says, “I feel really great to work with our neighbors in Africa … to have a team of engineers and great men joining hands to work together towards attaining a common goal.”

Uganda and Zimbabwe join an ever growing number of African countries that are building up their space technology capabilities. To date, 52 satellites have been launched by 14 African countries, including the two launched last week.

The satellites, which have by now reached the International Space Station, are set to be deployed over the next few weeks, depending upon environmental conditions.

It is a historic moment for the two countries, who now hope the data collected by the satellites will help improve life on the ground.

Big things come in small packages

Many of the modern devices we use every day function because of satellite technology — something that’s often taken for granted.

“Space technologies are essentially the backbone of the modern economy,” says Kwaku Sumah, founder of SpaceHubs Africa, a service company that helps stimulate the African space ecosystem. “You sometimes don’t even know that you’re using them. But for example, if you’re using Google Maps … or even things like Zoom, or broadband communication, that’s all powered by satellite services.”

Sumah and SpaceHubs Africa were not involved in the development of the recently launched satellites.

However, Uganda and Zimbabwe’s satellites won’t be providing wireless services to anyone. Instead, they’ve been developed for the purposes of earth observation.

“[The satellites] have a multispectral camera, which allows the satellite to essentially take pictures of the Earth,” says Sumah. Multispectral cameras can take pictures that capture information from wavelengths of light not visible to the human eye.

What this does is provide data that can help determine the health of land for the agricultural sector, among other things. Omara says the multispectral camera will be used to “perform analysis of water quality, land use cover, and soil fertility.” That information will then be provided to citizens so that they can make the best use of the natural resources in their countries.

But there are still possibilities to do even more with the satellites. Sumah says that one of the main purposes of a satellite Ghana launched in 2019 was to “monitor illegal mining that was occurring in the north of Ghana.”

And all of those capabilities are made possible by a satellite that only measures 10cm in each direction. They’re called CubeSats — and their small size and low cost to develop makes them perfect first satellites for nations developing their space technology sectors. But don’t let their size fool you. While small – only a bit larger than a Rubik’s cube — CubeSats can still pack a big punch.

However, there is one downside to CubeSats. Their lifetime of operation is only about 24 to 30 months. So unless Uganda and Zimbabwe commit to building and launching more of these satellites, the benefits will be short-lived.

One small step for Africa, but giant leaps still needed

The satellites launched by Uganda and Zimbabwe aren’t the first satellites launched by African nations, and they won’t be the last. According to Sumah, “Ethiopia is looking to launch a new satellite, as well as Nigeria and Ghana,” all hopefully within the next year.

Despite plans for future launches by African nations, Sumah is a bit hesitant to suggest bigger things are unquestionably on the way. “I’m hoping that these are not just one-off events that are just used for PR, but that there’s a sustained momentum that helps lead the charge for Africa to really maximize the use of these new technologies,” he says.

At least with respect to Uganda, Omara believes one thing will help make sure this new foray into space will be sustainable. “A couple of countries have launched their first satellite, or even many, by paying money to other institutions who then give them the satellite,” he says. “But Uganda is unique in the sense that we participated, we have now got three engineers who are fully grounded in the process of developing satellites.”

Even though the human capital is there to provide sustainable development of satellites, Omara thinks there’s still more political and social investment needed before space technologies in Africa can fully mature.

“In the field of science and technology on the African continent, we are still limping,” he says. “The reason is very simple — it’s because we do not believe in ourselves. I always tell everyone that we can make it, we have every single resource that we need. The only thing is us believing in ourselves.”

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/11/20/1137657845/the-first-satellites-launched-by-uganda-and-zimbabwe-aim-to-improve-life-on-the-

New York’s first Black Latina-owned movie theater is ready to grow, owner says

Stuart Cinema & Cafe owner Emelyn Stuart is a solution-oriented person. If there’s a problem, she says there has to be a way to fix it. That’s what led her to start the first Black Latina-owned movie theater in New York – and why she’s now preparing to build a multiplex in another location.

Having produced films for a decade, Stuart was frustrated with the obstacle of getting distribution. She said the higher-ups who would decide her projects had no audience, like when she met with a “gatekeeper” while trying to get her movie The Turnaround into theaters.

“I remember walking out of there and thinking, so that’s it. So my entire investment, the investment of all these people, the work of all these writers, directors, actors, is void. Because this one guy in this one place made this decision, why does he get to decide that?” she said. “I said, I’m going to build my own movie theater, and I will decide what people should watch.'”

She found a warehouse in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Greenpoint that had trucks parked in it, signed the lease in April of 2018, built her theater from scratch and opened by Sept. 1 that same year.

“The electricity, the floor, the carpeting, the walls – everything I built from scratch,” she recalled. “I could have bought a theater that was already built that was going out of business that was vacant. But I didn’t want that […] Because I’m essentially buying somebody else’s dream, right?”

Stuart struggled to get a loan, and investors who had supported her past films weren’t interested in contributing. So she liquidated her assets – houses, cars, she said – and paid for everything with cash.

Stuart, who is Dominican, had a vision for her theater to be different. She wanted to be able to eat empanadas, a lamb burger and tres leches cake. “I like to eat dinner, I don’t want to have a hot dog,” she said.

Her contractors and architect were doubtful, saying her building plans wouldn’t work for a theater and this was going to be “different.”

“Yeah, that’s the point,” she said.

The project was a massive learning process, she explained. She had to learn how to get movies from studios and how to serve food. But she could tell people liked what Stuart Cinema was doing.

The 50-seat theater does more than just show movies in English and Spanish. It has seen five film festivals, including Stuart’s own Ocktober Film Festival. It also hosts church services, meditations, panels, meetings, video game sessions and comedy shows.

Now, Stuart said her single screen at Stuart Cinema is maxed out. There’s a waitlist for the space, so she’s decided to build a multiplex.

“I’ve accomplished the things I wanted to accomplish with the space,” she said. “I’m ready to expand and do it, you know, four times over – because I’m going from one screen to three screens, one location to two locations, a cafe to a full restaurant, and I’m even including a bookstore, because I love books.”

She’s working to build the new project in the neighborhood where she grew up in Sunset Park.

“When I was looking to open the multiplex, I thought, ‘Well, why not build it in my childhood neighborhood?” she said. “They haven’t had a movie theater in over 30 years in that neighborhood, and it’s predominantly Latinos.”

Stuart said that as much as she’s a business owner, she’s a community leader, and she’s a servant at heart.

“I’m Black-Latina. I’m a woman, I’m also a veteran,” she said “Like, I can’t be any more of a minority. But I feel like in many ways, it’s transparent. And that’s what I want, right? Yes, I’m a Black owned business. And yes, I’m Latina. And yes, I’m a veteran, and all these things. But most importantly, it’s a business that you enjoy coming to.”

During Stuart Cinema’s Black history month series, she said she was honored that the theater was filled with white people there to see great films like Malcolm X.

“I love the fact that despite the fact that I am a Black-owned business in a white neighborhood, the people in the neighborhood embrace the business because of the service that we provide,” she said.

On Wednesdays, movies are $8 and popcorn is $3, because she feels everyone should have access to watch movies on the big screen. There are also special “mommy and me” movies for young kids who might be disruptive during other movies. Stuart worked out a way to pick up seniors in the community to come to the theater for their own screenings.

Especially since COVID, Stuart said, the number of people going to the movies has decreased. If there weren’t other sources of income built into the business, like offering affordable catering services, it would be struggling.

During the pandemic, Stuart Cinema & Cafe upgraded its filtration system and hand sanitizers. It made computers publicly available for people to file for unemployment. People could also rent the theater to watch their loved ones’ funerals and burials via livestream.

“There was nowhere else where people could safely get together like that. And so I didn’t charge people. I said, whatever you can afford,” she recounted. “Some people can only afford $50. Other people could afford $5,000.”

Stuart Cinema also hooked up DVD players in the homes of senior citizens, and dropped off DVDs to keep them connected to movies.

The businesses ended up making more in 2020 than the year before.

“Nothing prepares you for success,” Stuart said. Growing up without a lot of money and with English as her second language, Stuart said she felt she didn’t have everything needed to be successful, but she could work hard.

“I certainly feel a sense of responsibility. Because I feel like if I fail, it’s not going to be like, ‘Oh Emelyn failed, I feel it’s going to be like Latinos and Blacks and small businesses […] and veterans because I check off so many boxes,” she said. “Sometimes I have to just check myself and say, ‘You know what, you’re going to make mistakes.'”

There are moments that remind Stuart why she created the theater. She recalled when a program brought in a group of kindergarten-age children from an underrepresented neighborhood. For some kids, it was their first time ever in a movie theater.

“And they were so happy,” she said, remembering what it felt like to watch them. “I was just like, ‘Wow, this is – this is what it is. It’s these experiences that they get to have.”

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/18/1137580684/new-yorks-first-black-latina-owned-movie-theater-is-ready-to-grow-owner-says

Name: Jerome Avery

Sport: Track and Field

Discipline(s): Track and Field

Event(s): 100m, 200m

Classification: Guide Runner

Height: 5-9

Weight: 170

DOB: 12/22/1978

Birthplace: Lemoore, Calif.

Hometown: Lemoore, Calif.

High School: Lemoore High School (Lemoore, Calif.) ‘97

College: Fresno City College ‘01, Kinesiology (Associates)

Paralympic Experience

• Four-time Paralympian (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016); Three-time Paralympic medalist guide runner (2 gold, 1 silver)
• Paralympic Games Rio 2016, gold (100m – David Brown)
• Paralympic Games London 2012, 12th (200m – Josiah Jamison)
• Paralympic Games Beijing 2008, gold (100m – Josiah Jamison)
• Paralympic Games Athens 2004, silver (Long jump – Lex Gillette)

World Championship Experience

• Most recent: 2019 – semifinals (100m – David Brown)
• Years of Participation: 2006, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019
• Medals: 6 (3 gold, 3 silver)
• Gold – 2017 (100m – David Brown), 2015 (100m – David Brown), 2006 (100m – Josiah Jamison)
• Silver – 2017 (200m – David Brown), 2013 (4x100m relay – Josiah Jamison), 2006 (Long jump – Lex Gillette)

Personal: Jerome Avery has been a guide runner with U.S. Paralympics Track & Field since 2004, guiding Paralympians such as Lex Gillette, Josiah Jamison and David Brown. He is currently the guide for Paralympic champion and world record holder David Brown, nicknaming themselves “Team BrAvery”. An Olympic hopeful himself, Avery finished in the top 20 in the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials and in the top 15 in the 2004 Olympic Trials. In high school, Avery was his school’s MVP all four years, and he was ranked fifth in the state of California in the 100-meters. He competed two years at Fresno City College before training at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Center (CVEATC) under Brooks Johnson. Bound by a tether, Avery and Brown sprint in lanes side-by-side, communicating by touch and sound with every synched stride as Avery tugs the tether to keep Brown in line to reach the finish line. They train at the CVEATC where they are coached by Brazilian Olympic middle distance champion Joaquim Cruz…Son of Bonnie and Jerome Avery…Has four siblings, Dominque, Jacques, Jaelin and Zonyea…His hobbies include shopping, watching movies, running, relaxing, beach, fishing, making music and dancing.

https://www.teamusa.org/para-track-and-field/athletes/Jerome-Avery

WICHITA, Kansas — Peggy Jones-Foxx knows what it takes to raise a baby.

“It’s the hardest work I’ve ever done,” she says.

At the Dellrose United Methodist Church in Wichita, she teaches pregnant women, particularly Black women, about that work — with the understanding that, statistically, their babies are less likely to live to see their first birthday than white children.

So she coaches them on how to stay healthy during pregnancy: Are they taking their prenatal vitamins? Do they have strategies for managing stress? Do they know what resources exist if they need help buying healthy food?

On a recent fall afternoon, Jones-Foxx, a licensed practical nurse and president of the Wichita Black Nurses Association, lingers on a PowerPointslide about the importance of communicating with their doctors. She tells the small group of women to write down any questions they might have ahead of a checkup, and insist that they get answers.

“Sometimes that can be pretty intimidating because we’re all a little shy when it comes to professionals,” she tells her class. “They ask if you have any questions as they’re already walking out the door — but that’s your time to ask those questions that may be weighing on you.”

After all, she says, it can make a big difference when it comes to keeping Black mothers and their children alive.

These “Baby Talk” prenatal education classes represent a new partnership started this year between the nurses association and the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita’s Center for Research for Infant and Birth Survival, or CRIBS. Participants meet for two hours every Wednesday over a six-week period.

Infant mortality declined to a record low nationally in 2020 but rose significantly in Kansas

Nationally, infant mortality declined to a record low in 2020, but in Kansas, it rose 19% — and for Black babies, it surged 58%. Black infant mortality in Kansas is now three and a half times the rate of white infant mortality.

That disparity exists to a lesser extent across the U.S., where the mortality rate for Black babies is more than double that for white babies.

Experts say why such stark disparities exist lie in racial differences in the causes of infant deaths. White and Hispanic infant mortality is most commonly caused by birth defects. Black infant deaths more frequently stem from complications related to being born too early and being underweight.

“The rate of preterm birth is usually about double, consistently, over decades in the U.S.” in Black communities, says Dawn Misra, a professor at Michigan State University who studies adverse birth outcomes among Black families. “And even as we’ve seen the preterm birth rate go down, the disparity remains.”

Misra says that, across the U.S., racism is a fundamental factor that contributes to more frequent premature births in Black communities.

“It affects things like segregation of housing, which affects neighborhood environments,” she says. “It has all of these different downstream effects.”

A pregnant person’s pre-existing health issues and challenges accessing prenatal care are also factors.

Sharla Smith,a University of Kansas Medical Center professor who directs the Kansas Birth Equity Network, says both can stem from bias within the medical field. Research shows doctors are less likely to diagnose Black women with endometriosis or refer them for cardiac treatment and are more likely to ignore their pain.

“This is not just about getting an appointment,” she says. “Black women are just not heard.”

Focusing on the health of Black mothers will be crucial to addressing Black infant mortality going forward, she says.

Public health officials are trying to understand why Kansas saw such a big surge in 2020

One key change that’s helped reduce infant mortality in other states is the expansion of Medicaid. Research shows that between 2013-2017, states that expanded Medicaid saw a 50% larger reduction in infant mortality than states that didn’t. Experts attribute the decrease to greater access to health care for women of childbearing age. Kansas is among the states that has not expanded Medicaid and has long seen higher rates of infant mortality than the rest of the country.

Now, public health officials are trying to understand why Kansas saw such a big surge in 2020, during the first year of the pandemic. Most suspect the virus played a part – whether from direct impacts to fetal development or stress from job loss and isolation.

Smith says those experiences were more common in Black communities because African Americans were more likely to get COVID-19 and they tended to feel the pandemic’s vast economic fallout more acutely.

“All of this has just contributed to the stress on the Black body,” she says.

Researchers say poverty can play a role in infant mortality too, but it’s far from the only reason. A 1992 study found a stark infant mortality gap between babies born to Black and white parents even when both were college-educated. Among that group, Black babies were nearly twice as likely to die as white babies. And a 2019 paper found an even larger gap: babies born to Black college-educated women died at over three times the rate of those born to college-educated white women.

“If you’re only saying it’s poverty, then you’re missing a huge piece of this,” says Michelle Redmond, a Kansas University School of Medicine-Wichita professor and Smith’s collaborator at the Kansas Birth Equity Network. “You really have to look at what we define as social determinants of health — it’s social, environmental, economic, educational.”

Nonprofit offers holistic approach to improve both maternal and infant health to reduce mortality

A few miles away in North Wichita, Sapphire Garcia-Lies is trying to tackle those factors through the Kansas Birth Justice Society, a nonprofit that serves Black, Latino and Native American families. Its approach is holistic, focused on improving both maternal and infant health.

“We can’t separate the two,” says Garcia-Lies, who founded the center during the pandemic. “They’re two sides of the exact same coin.”

So the center provides supplies that low-income families might struggle to buy. The building houses a room stacked floor-to-ceiling with free diapers and baby clothes, a community fridge, and a lending library full of books about the birthing experiences of women and queer people of color. There’s also a meditation room and a meeting area for parent support circles.

The organization also recruits and trains lactation consultants of color.

“This is the first space in the Wichita area that has lactation consultants of color on staff,” Garcia-Lies says. “Because people need culturally affirming care. They need to feel like they belong.”

The goal is to help Black, Native American and Latino families, who breastfeed at lower rates than white and Asian families, continue breastfeeding past the newborn stage. Research indicates that extended time reduces the risk of infant death.

“It provides protection from infectious diseases and sudden infant death syndrome,” says Lisette Jacobson, a KU School of Medicine-Wichita professor who studies the relationship between breastfeeding and infant health. “To optimize those benefits, you want to be exclusively breastfeeding for at least six months.”

Kansas Birth Justice Society will pair families with doulas to offer support from pregnancy to infancy

For families of color, meeting that target often involves navigating more roadblocks than white families do.

“Lots of times, the biggest obstacle is that they have to go back to work really early,” Garcia-Lies says. “For some of them, it’s two weeks or less after they give birth.”

This year, the Kansas Birth Justice Society will pair around 75 families with doulas who’ll support them throughout pregnancy, birth and infancy. That can involve advocating for patients during doctor’s visits and ensuring they aren’t pressured into medical interventions in the delivery room, like labor induction or C-sections.

It’s an issue close to Garcia-Lies’ heart. She lost her second daughter to stillbirth in 2013 after, she says, a doctor brushed aside red flags she’d brought up about the pregnancy.

“By the time I went for a second opinion, she had passed away,” she says. “I was full-term. We were days from her due date.”

“And it didn’t just happen to me — it’s continuing to happen all the time.”

Now, she works so that fewer families have to go through that heartbreak.

Reducing racial disparities around infant mortality, she said, requires community-driven support for Black and brown families in a world that’s hostile to them.

“We know that as soon as they walk outside these four walls, they’re going to face all the same things that they walked in with,” she says. “But when they’re here, we love on them and we nurture them. And we try to make sure that everyone who walks through those doors understands that they matter.”

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/17/1135835982/too-many-black-babies-are-dying-birth-workers-in-kansas-fight-to-keep-them-alive

Alice Augusta Ball was born on July 24, 1892 in Seattle, Washington with James Presley and Laura Louise (Howard) Ball. Ball was one of four children. She had two older brothers, William and Robert, along with a younger sister named Addie. Her family was considered middle class to upper-middle class, as Ball’s father was a newspaper editor, photographer, and a lawyer. Her grandfather, James Ball Sr., was a famous photographer, and was one of the first African Americans in the United States to learn to daguerreotype, which is a process of printing photographs onto metal plates.

Alice Ball and her family moved from Seattle to Honolulu during Alice’s childhood in hopes that the warm weather would help with her grandfather’s, James Ball Sr.’s, arthritis. He died shortly after their move and they relocated back to Seattle only after a year of living in Hawaii. After returning to Seattle, Ball attended Seattle High School and received top grades in the sciences. She graduated from Seattle High School in 1910.

Ball studied chemistry at the University of Washington, While she was at the University of Washington she earned a bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical chemistry and two years later she received a second degree in pharmacy two years later. With her pharmacy instructor, she published a 10-page article in the prestigious Journal of the American Chemical Society titled “Benzoylations in Ether Solution.” This kind of accomplishment was very rare for not only African American women, but women of any race.

Following her graduation, Ball was offered many scholarships. She had offers to attend both the University of California Berkeley and the University of Hawaii. She decided to move back to Hawaii to pursue a master’s degree in chemistry. While she was studied at the University of Hawaii she studied chaulmoogra oil and its chemical properties. While chaulmoogra oil had previously been used for leprosy, however Alice Ball revolutionized it and made it injectable by discovering the ester ethyl form, meaning that it was water-soluble and able to dissolve in the bloodstream. In 1915, she became the first woman and first African American to graduate with a master’s degree from the University of Hawaii. Alice Ball was also the first African American and woman chemistry professor at the University of Hawaii’s chemistry department.

In her postgraduate research career at the University of Hawaii, Ball investigated the chemical makeup and active principle of Piper methysticum (kava) for her master’s thesis. From 1866 to 1942 whenever a patient was diagnosed with leprosy they were arrested and sent to the Hawaiian island of Molokai. Dr. Harry T. Hollmann was a doctor during the time at Kalihi Hospital in Hawaii. He was one of the few physicians that was not satisfied with the inconsistent results of the Chaulmoogra oil in its natural form. He needed an assistant to help develop a method to isolate the active chemical compounds in chaulmoogra oil and reached out to Alice Ball who was working on her thesis The Chemical Constituents of Piper Methysticum.

Chaulmoogra oil had previously been used in the treatment of Hansen’s disease (leprosy) with mixed results and every form of the treatment had problems. Chaulmoogra oil was first used as a topical straight from the tree in eastern medicine starting in the 1300s. However, it was originally too sticky to be used effectively as a topical and it was extremely painful to be used as an injection. However, some hospitals still attempted to use it as an injection even though the sticky consistency of the oil caused it to clump under the skin and form blisters. These blisters formed in perfect rows and made the skin “look as if the patient’s skin had been replaced by with bubble wrap.” Ingesting the oil was not effective either because it had an acrid taste that usually made the patients vomit upon attempting to swallow it.

At just the young age of 23, Ball developed a technique that would allow the oil from chaulmoogra tree seeds to become injectable and absorbable by the body. Her newly developed technique involved isolating ethyl ester compounds from the fatty acids of the chaulmoogra oil. This isolation technique, known as the “Ball Method”, was the only treatment for Hansen’s disease that was effective and “left no abscesses or bitter taste,”. Unfortunately, due to her untimely death, Alice was unable to publish her revolutionary findings. Arthur L. Dean, a chemist and the president of the University of Hawaii, continued her work, published the findings, and began producing large quantities of the injectable chaulmoogra extract. Dean published the findings without giving credit to Ball, and renamed the technique the Dean Method, until Hollmann spoke out about this. In 1918, a Hawaii physician reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association that a total of 78 patients were released from Kalihi Hospital by the board of health examiners after treatment with injections. The isolated ethyl ester remained the preferred treatment for Hansen’s disease until sulfonamide drugs were developed in the 1940s.

Alice Augusta Ball died on December 31, 1916, at the age of 24. She had become ill during her research and returned to Seattle for treatment a few months before her death. A 1917 newspaper article from the Pacific Commercial Advertiser suggested that the cause may have been chlorine poisoning due to exposure that occurred while teaching a laboratory. It was reported that Ball was giving a demonstration on how to properly use a gas mask in preparation for an attack since World War I was raging in Europe. However, the cause of her death is unknown as her original death certificate was altered, giving the cause of death as tuberculosis.

Alice Ball’s work directly impacted the eight thousand people that were diagnosed with leprosy and taken out of their homes. Because of her research patients were no longer exiled to Kalaupapa, Molokai; instead they were able to be treated out of their own homes. Families no longer had to hold funerals for their loved ones before they were exiled because there was no cure, and they had Alice Ball to thank for this.

Although her research career was short, Ball introduced a new treatment of Hansen’s disease which continued to be used until the 1940s. The University of Hawaii did not recognize her work for nearly ninety years. In 2000, the university finally honored Ball by dedicating a plaque to her on the school’s lone chaulmoogra tree behind Bachman Hall. On the same day, the former Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii, Mazie Hirono, declared February 29 “Alice Ball Day” which is now celebrated every four years. More recently, Ball was honored by the University of Hawaii Board of Regents with a Medal of Distinction in 2007 by mounting a plaque in her honor on the only chaulmoogra tree on the campus. In March 2016, Hawai’i Magazine ranked Ball in a list of the most influential women in Hawaiian history.

https://scientificwomen.net/women/ball-alice-121

Lenora Higginbotham, MD, is senior associate in the Department of Neurology at Emory in Atlanta, Georgia and a 2018 Edmond J. Safra Fellowship graduate. From her own personal connection to Parkinson’s, she deeply understands the value of diversity in research to truly grasp disease variability. Dr. Higginbotham’s care for her grandmother, Ruby “Mamere” Higginbotham, sparked her professional curiosity, but also her work to raise awareness for neurological disorders in minority communities:

“As a movement disorder specialist working with minority populations through diversity programs, it’s not just about bringing people into research or giving them the best care. It’s also about making sure these communities have access to information and resources. Drawing parallels from my grandmother’s experience, I’m not sure if race had to do with her delay in diagnosis, but many people in my family had no prior exposure to the disease and we just thought it was old age. Now looking back on it and hearing from minority patient experiences in delayed diagnosis, I’m not surprised.”

https://www.michaeljfox.org/news/mjff-celebrates-black-history-month-community-reflections-representation-parkinsons-research

Clinical Research Training Scholarship in Lewy Body Diseases

Dementia with Lewy bodies (LBD) is the most common form of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease, yet there is still no reliable diagnostic test, and many cases are either missed or misdiagnosed. LBD shares similar symptoms found in other brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and can also occur alongside these diseases. A biomarker could help distinguish LBD from these other diseases, but because of the overlap between them, such a diagnostic test will likely require three or more markers.

Dr. Higginbotham’s project will use network-based proteomics, which enables the mapping of complex biological systems, to develop a marker for LBD diagnosis.

This research is funded by The Mary E. Groff Charitable Trust, the Alzheimer’s Association, and the American Brain Foundation, in collaboration with the American Academy of Neurology. Dr. Higginbotham is a Senior Associate in Neurology at Emory University.

https://www.americanbrainfoundation.org/lenora-higginbotham/

Dancer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, of Urban Bush Women, wins prestigious Gish Award

A pioneer in the world of dance has been awarded one of the largest cash prizes for artists in the United States.

Jawole Willa Jo Zollar founded the dance ensemble Urban Bush Women in 1984. It was one of the first major dance companies composed entirely of female African-American dancers. Almost immediately, it was a sensation in the dance world. Revolutionary at the time – and still cutting edge — Zollar’s choreography synthesizes movement from modern dance and traditional folk African dance styles with the kind of text and shouted language the company describes as “the urgent dialogue of the 21^st century.”

Zollar, who grew up in Kansas City, Mo., can trace her artistic lineage to Katherine Dunham, one of the most influential dancers, choreographers and educators of the 20th century. (Zollar studied with one of Dunham’s former students). Like Dunham, Zollar emphasizes community engagement and combining activism and dance. Now in her seventies, Zollar continues to perform, collaborate and choreograph and her company still thrives.

The Lillian and Dorothy Gish Prize was established in 1994 from the will of early screen actor Lillian Gish. It comes with a cash prize of approximately $250,000. Other recipients have included Sonia Sanchez, Ava DuVernay, Gustavo Dudamel, Suzan-Lori Parks, Spike Lee, Anna Deavere Smith, Maya Lin, Trisha Brown and Chinua Achebe.

“I became aware of the Gish Prize when Bill T. Jones received it, back in 2003,” Zollar said in a statement. “It’s amazing now to have my name included in the extraordinary list of Gish Prize winners, and above all to be recognized both for the work onstage and for the impact I’ve sought to have as an organizer and activist in the community. We artists don’t work for the sake of validation, but when you get the Gish Prize, it’s another way to keep moving forward.”

Just last year, Zollar was recognized with a MacArthur “genius” grant; her numerous other prizes include a Guggenheim fellowship and a Doris Duke Performing Arts award.

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/18/1112133099/jawole-willa-jo-zollar-urban-bush-women-gish-prize

As a kid Harvey Matthews cut through the Moses Macedonia African Cemetery on River Road in Bethesda, Md., on his way to school, and remembers playing hide-and-seek there.

“I know Moses. I lived across the street from it. Where did the bodies go?” asks Matthews.

Originally, the cemetery was called White’s Tabernacle 39. Developers bulldozed it in the late 1950’s to give way to a high-rise tower and a parking lot. It’s owned by Montgomery County’s Housing Opportunities Commission (HOC), the county’s housing agency.

In the 1700’s there were several plantations along River Road, and after emancipation, a community of Black people flourished for almost a century – they built homes, a school, ballfields, a church and a cemetery.

“It was a prosperous, vibrant community,” says Matthews, describing the Black enclave where he was born in 1944.

Matthews gets emotional talking about the past.

“It bothers me to think about what happened to the River Road community,” he says. “It’s the lost colony.” An upscale supermarket is now where Matthews’ family home once stood.

Today, the Black cemetery is the center of a legal fight between the descendant community of River Road and the HOC. Local officials want to sell the property to a commercial developer. Descendants want to memorialize the site.

Battlegrounds of memories

It has largely fallen to descendants and volunteers to fight to preserve historically Black burial sites, such as the Durham Geer Cemetery in North Carolina, the East End Cemetery in Virginia, and the United American Cemetery in Ohio.

But in some cities, historically Black cemeteries are being re-discovered and protected.

In Portsmouth, N.H., city workers discovered an 18th-century Black burial site in a downtown street when working on a sewer line in 2003. The city built the Portsmouth African Burying Ground to honor those interred there.

In the 1950’s, according to the Little Falls Watershed Alliance, commercial developers got their eyes on the River Road corridor. Harvey Matthews says his family couldn’t afford to keep its land and was forced to move to the District of Columbia when he was 11. His community was “stolen and erased,” he says.

The last standing remnant of the once-thriving post-Civil War community on River Road is the tiny Macedonia Baptist Church wedged between a towering apartment building and a Bank of America branch.

In 2019, after years of trying to dialogue with the county to memorialize the cemetery, the descendant community of the church, led by minister Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, founded the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition.

And last fall the Coalition filed a lawsuit in the county’s circuit court against the HOC when it tried to sell the property to a developer for $51 million dollars. About 500 bodies of enslaved people and their relatives are interred at the cemetery, the lawsuit states. Harvey Matthews is one of the plaintiffs.

“They refused to talk to us, to negotiate in good faith,” Coleman-Adebayo says. This year she and others wrote The Bridge that Carried Us Over, the history of the Black community of River Road.

Arguing for equity

“We want to reclaim our history,” Coleman-Adebayo says.

Maryland has statutes that go back to the 19th century that protect the sanctity of cemeteries, and the court alone decides if a property where a burial ground sits can be sold and under what conditions.

In her written opinion, Judge Karla Smith ruled that the HOC did not get permission from the court before selling the property as required by state law.

In 2017, the Montgomery County Planning Department approved a historical investigation and cemetery assessment of the land along River Road. It was conducted by the Ottery Group, an archeological consulting firm.

It concluded that a Black cemetery is buried under the property’s parking lot, that there’s no evidence the cemetery was formally moved. It recommended the HOC develop a mitigation plan to stop any construction, or if construction moves forward, the agency must have protocols in place to safely remove human remains.

Lyle Torp is the Ottery Group’s managing director. Torp says that development and gentrification have forced many historically Black communities around the country, like the community along River Road, to uproot and disperse.

After their buildings are bulldozed, Torp says, “and their histories and heritage erased, cemeteries are the only tangible evidence that their communities existed.”

Attorney Steve Lieberman is an expert on cemetery desecration and he represents the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition pro bono.

“We are still not treating people equally,” says Lieberman. “The people who are buried at Moses are not of equal dignity.”

Lieberman says that during court proceedings, “the HOC’s maintained a respectful distance from the truth.”

According to the court hearing transcript last September, the HOC argued the land at issue no longer contains human remains. “It’s an assumption,” Frederick Douglas, who’s one of the attorneys representing the agency argued. “We can’t look at that parking lot and say, here lies the remains.”

A spokesperson for the HOC declined NPR’s request for an interview, citing the ongoing legal case. Gov. Larry Hogan’s office and county council members did not respond to NPR’s request for interviews.

Marc Elrich, Montgomery County executive, says he supports memorializing the site, but he’s certain HOC “will not give up the property.”

“I can’t force the HOC to give up the property,” he says.

It’s important to memorialize historically Black cemeteries, Lieberman says, because for Americans to understand the full historical scope of Montgomery County, including its shameful history of slavery and the slave trade, there need to be markers.

“People need to understand what took place before the Civil War, what took place before and after emancipation in the county,” Lieberman says.

It’s hard to know the extent of the problem

There is no national database for African American cemeteries. Currently there is pending legislation in the U.S. Congress. The African American Burial Grounds Preservation Act, if passed, would create the first program at the National Park Service that would identify, preserve and restore African American burial grounds.

“It could be in the thousands,” Alan Spears says, referring to Black burial sites in the country. He’s director for cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit that supports the legislation. It was created in 1919 to advocate for the National Parks System.

“It is about restorative justice,” Spears says.

“The country has conveniently been too comfortable in associating racism to the South,” says Spears. “We’ve got to come to grips with that legacy in the north and in the East and in the West.”

Slavery too is mostly associated with the South, but the oldest and largest Black cemetery where mostly enslaved Africans are buried was discovered in New York City in 1991. Today, the African Burial Ground National Monument sits in that location.

Michael Blakey is a professor of anthropology, Africana studies and American studies at the College of William & Mary. He was also principal investigator for the research and analysis of the African Burial Ground National Monument, and he advocates on behalf of the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition in Maryland.

Resistance to honor these burial grounds include financial interests, says Blakey.

“White supremacy is not only intentional use of violence and strong words,” Blakey notes.

“Montgomery county is dismissing the humanity of that descendant community,” Blakey says. “And that is wrong.”

Segregated in life and segregated in death

“It’s all about money,” says Geneva Nanette Hunter, 62. Some of her ancestors are interred at Moses on River Road, including her great-great grandaunt Cora Botts and her husband, Jeremiah, as well as others. Hunter is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

Growing up, her parents didn’t speak about their ancestors and slavery.

“It was shameful,” Hunter says. The Columbia, Md., resident says she only learned that some of her relatives were part of the River Road community a few years ago.

“It’s a lot to carry,” Hunter says. “They were openly disrespected in their daily lives, and now in death.”

She’s become more curious about her ancestors’ genealogy and lifestyles.

“I’m trying to be a soldier for the battles,” she says, her eyes getting moist.

She says the lawsuit has taken a toll on her, but “I owe it to Cora and Jerry and the Clippers, the Parkers, and all the people that are buried there,” she says.

Her hope, she adds, is that the site of the Moses Macedonia African Cemetery is turned into a memorial, “a place of reflection and meditation.”

The county is appealing Judge Smith’s decision. The next court date is set for Oct. 6th.

https://www.npr.org/2022/10/03/1119809474/slavery-descendants-fight-to-memorialize-a-cemetery-in-maryland

Loretta J. Ross is a reproductive justice and human rights activist reframing reproductive rights within a broader context of human rights. Over her decades of grassroots organizing and national strategic leadership, Ross has centered the voices and well-being of women of color.

Ross is a key architect of the reproductive justice movement, which places reproductive decision making within social, economic, and political contexts. In 1994, Ross and other women of color designed the reproductive justice framework. It has three key tenets: the right to have a child, the right to not have a child, and the right to parent children in a safe and healthy environment. The framework includes access to clean air and water, affordable housing, food security, education, and maternal and infant healthcare. At the time, reproductive rights activism was overwhelmingly focused on abortion and the pro-choice/pro-life debate. This reflected the priorities and priviliges of middle- and upper-class White women, who have economic means for and access to abortions and reliable medical care. With the reproductive justice framework, Ross and her fellow activists sought to account for human realities and address the systemic barriers childbearing people face across race, class, and other identifiers. In her co-authored textbook, Reproductive Justice: An Introduction (2017) Ross outlines the legacies of harmful legal and medical practices that inform the movement’s emphasis on reproductive autonomy. Black, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous people and people with disabilities were subjected to racist and White supremacist reproductive policies, including forced breeding of enslaved people and forced sterilizations of Indigenous and Black people. In 1997, Ross co-founded SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective to unite reproductive justice organizations across the country around the shared mission of educating policymakers about the newly articulared reproductive justice principles.

In addition to her seminal work in reproductive justice, Ross has contributed to many other social justice movements through her writing, speaking, and advocacy. She founded the National Center for Human Rights Education to offer education and training in combating racism, antisemitism, and White supremacy. More recently, Ross has turned her attention to social media and our increasingly fractured civic discourse. She models a more compassionate and inclusive approach to movement building and argues that education and dialogue around how to address harms that have been committed can bridge seemingly impossible gaps and advance social justice causes. With her pragmatic approach, political acumen, and strategic vision, Ross provides essential guidance on ways to improve the lives of the most vulnerable in our society.

Biography

Loretta J. Ross received a BA (2007) from Agnes Scott College and pursued doctoral studies (2008–2009) at Emory University. Since 2019, she has been an associate professor in the Program of the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College. Ross has held previous appointments at Hampshire College (2017–2018) and Arizona State University (2018–2019). From 2005 to 2012, she was the National Coordinator for SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. Ross is the co-author of Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organizing for Reproductive Justice (2004) and the co-editor of Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundations, Theory, Practice, and Critique (2017). Her forthcoming book, Calling in the Calling Out Culture, is due out in 2023.

https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-2022/loretta-j-ross#searchresults

Nataki Garrett is the Artistic Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, one of the largest theater-producing organizations in the U.S., and is widely recognized as an innovative and influential arts leader. Across her career, Garrett has fostered and developed new work—having directed and produced the world premieres of vital contemporary playwriting voices including Katori Hall, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and Aziza Barnes—and has been at the vanguard of adapting and devising new ways of performing the classics. 

Since becoming OSF’s Artistic Director in 2019, she has led the 85-year-old institution through one of the most cataclysmic periods in its history, raising $19 million while mobilizing federal support for the non-profit theater industry during the pandemic. At the start of her tenure, she conceived an interactive and immersive digital platform, O!, which became all the more vital in live theater’s absence as a source of groundbreaking performance, art, and discussion. 

Her approach to revitalizing classical theater is driven by both an appreciation for these works and a desire to expand their visions and audiences with new models of access. She explains, “I love Shakespeare because…he tried to teach the people that the world was always evolving and always changing, and their job was not to try to hold onto the way things were.” She has said, “I’m actually really blessed to be one of the gatekeepers, because I’m going to hold that gate open as wide as I can for as long as I can for as many people to come through.” 

Her credits at OSF include directing Christina Anderson’s How to Catch Creation. She was in the process of producing OSF’s 2020 season when the COVID crisis forced the theater to shut down. That season featured the world premiere of Karen Zacarias’ The Copper Children and Upstart Crow’s brilliant adaptation of the Henry VI trilogy performed in two parts with an all-female cast. Garrett served as the acting artistic director for Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company (DCPA) during the $66 million organization’s 18-month leadership transition. There, she produced a provocative Macbeth—which became the most successful production in the Space Theatre’s 40-year history—and initiated and negotiated the first co-world premieres in ten years for two DCPA-commissioned plays. Garrett was former associate artistic director of CalArts Center for New Performance. 

Garrett is a recipient of the first-ever Ammerman Prize for Directing, given by Arena Stage. She also received the National Endowment for the Arts and Theatre Communications Group Career Development Fellowship for Theatre Directors. She has served on nominating committees for countless awards supporting artists around the world. She is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and a member of the board of directors for Theatre Communications Group; a company member at Woolly Mammoth; and an advisory board member for Mixed Blood Theatre.

https://www.natakigarrett.com/about-1