Monday, August 25, 2014

Jackie Robinson West Are Big Stars At Little League World Series

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Making Progress; Moving Forward!
Mo'ne Davis and Jackie Robinson West
Simeon Electricity Shop Restored
Listen To The Parent Revolution
Ambassadors of PEACE Rally
Black Star Community PTA Meeting
Distinguished Gentlemen of Spoken Word
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This girl throws like a girl...70 mph!!!
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Philadelphia's Mo'ne Davis 
And Chicago's Jackie Robinson West Are Big Stars At 
Little League World Series
Mo'ne Davis (Photo provided by The Black Star Project)
By JOHN McGONIGAL
August 18, 2014  

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) - An African-American female pitcher from Philadelphia and a team from Chicago have created a buzz at the Little League World Series.

Philly's Mo'ne Davis and the Jackie Robinson West squad are the talk of the series; professional athletes and politicians alike are following their every move. They've Skyped with the Los Angeles Dodgers, had shout-outs from NBA star Kevin Durant on Twitter and the Pennsylvania governor was in South Williamsport on Friday.

Davis, one of two girls in this year's tournament, is the unquestioned fan favorite. The crowd cheers her every pitch and at-bat. Canada's Emma March also felt the support before her team was eliminated Saturday.

The all-black Chicago squad shows there is still interest in the game in urban communities, even though African-Americans accounted for only about 8 percent of major league teams' opening day rosters this year.

"She's unflappable," said Philadelphia manager Alex Rice, adding it's "highly likely" that Davis will pitch Wednesday. "All the attention - she's getting a little tired of the same questions and we're getting past that - but the attention and everything isn't getting to her. She's having a blast."

Davis received standing ovations from the crowd of more than 15,000 en route to becoming the first female pitcher to throw a shutout in Little League World Series history.

"She, as a young lady, has opened doors for many other young ladies to participate not only in baseball, but also in softball," said Stoker. "She has proven that girls can compete with the guys, and the guys know there's a new girl on the block."
America's Team!!!  Jackie Robinson West - 2014 U.S. Little League Champions (photo provided by The Black Star Project)
Jackie Robinson West is a rare group of guys in the tournament. The Chicago group dominated its first game, but were blown out by Las Vegas on Sunday.

Still, the second team from Little League's Urban Initiative to make it to the series has created a buzz of its own and has done its part to put the tournament on a bigger stage.

Stoker makes a good point, but Davis and Jackie Robinson West have already elevated interest in this series - and in them.

Click Here to Read Full Story 

Simeon Electricity Shop 
Program Restored
State Senator Jacqueline Collins told CPS officials "if the program was not reinstated they should not come to Springfield asking for more money".
Simeon Vocational Career Academy Local School Council Meeting
By J. Coyden Palmer 
August 23, 2014

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) officials announced Wednesday afternoon they will be reinstating the Electricity Shop Program at Simeon Vocational Career Academy after weeks of being under duress from community leaders, Black politicians, students and the Black media. According to the release, CPS will be partnering with Local Union 134, which has committed to offer jobs to students who complete the three-year electricity program at Simeon, the only program of its kind in the District. 

"We are looking forward to helping train and recruit the next generation of electricians," said Terry Allen, Business Manager for IBEW 134. "IBEW is committed to offering employment towards apprenticeship and helping Chicago's next generation workforce find job security and a path to the middle class."

In a Crusader exclusive on July 17, the newspaper broke the story when it learned the program had been terminated via the program's teacher Latisa Kindred. CPS officials said the decision was made by Simeon principal Sheldon House.

"We are grateful for this partnership with IBEW that will provide our students with an opportunity to continue to learn valuable skills," said CPS CEO Dr. Barbara Byrd-Bennett in a press release.

State Senator Jacqueline Collins, along with State Rep. Mary Flowers, LaShawn Ford and State Senator Donnie Trotter, pushed for the program to be reinstated. Collins told CPS officials if the program was not reinstated they should not come to Springfield asking for more money. She said this situation shows what can happen when citizens, local community news outlets and elected officials work together.

"We're glad CPS took the advice of the Simeon alumni, students and parents and reinstated the program," Collins told the Crusader via telephone Wednesday evening. "This is a lesson of what can be accomplished when the community works in conjunction with their legislators for a program that benefits us all."

Kindred thanked the Crusader for notifying the public what was taking place and believes without the news story last month; the results would have been a lot different. She said she is excited to get back into the classroom and work with her students.

The three-year program will have the capacity to enroll 28 students each year, beginning in a student's sophomore year. Students enrolled in the program last year are eligible to return. The electricity program is one of more than 40 different Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, which offers industry-focused coursework for high school students to pursue, in addition to required core courses.

Click Here to Read Full Story 

Note: Electricians in IBEW 134 will earn $50.00 per hour in the next three years. 

New Violence Reduction Strategy: Teach Young Black and Latino Men To Earn Jobs and Start Businesses
The Black Star Project's Shark Tank Interviews Are A Major Success for America 
Young Black Star mentee handles the pressure of a "Shark Tank Interview" with three top business people in Chicago.
(Left to right) Orlando Ceaser, Rev. Dr. Leon Finney, standing, and Commander Ronald Holt, top business leaders in Chicago, take time out to share with mentees keys to success for young Black and Latino men to earn jobs and start businesses.
Well-dressed, well-prepared Black Star Mentees wait their turn for interviews in the "Shark Tank"!  The top 8 interviewees were awarded cash prizes. 
More than 30 Black Star mentees participated in "Shark Tank Interviews". Seat in front of some of the mentees are some of the 12 interviewers (left to right) James Nelson, Renard Jackson, Atty. Lawrence Kennon, Commander Ronald Holt, and Eric Knowles, Jr.
We Thank Our Black Star
Shark Tank Celebrity Interviewers
 

 
Row One - Rev. Leon Finney, Otis Monroe, Commander Ronald Holt, and Orlando Ceaser.  Row two - LeAlan Jones, Renard Jackson, Cecile Johnson and Eric Knowles, Jr.  Also participating were Captain Mark Stevenson, Attorney Lawrence Kennon, Garry Smith, James Nelson and Harold Davis.

The Black Star "Interview Shark Tank" teaches young men of color how to "ace" an interview, get jobs anywhere in America or start their own business.  Black Star's Shark Tank teaches young men of color about confidence, skill-development, high-motivation, high-energy, effective communication and professional dress as they apply for work.

Violence in Chicago is directly and inextricably related to economics and joblessness in Chicago.  A community where most of the young men of color are not working is necessarily a violent community.  A 2012 study by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Massachusetts reported that in the last decade, only 7.4% of low-income African American teens in Chicago were working.   We cannot stop violence in Chicago as long as young men of color cannot secure jobs in the companies and organizations of Chicago.  

The violence in Chicago cannot be stopped by the CPD (Chicago Police Department), the ISP (Illinois State Police), the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency), the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Fire Arms), the ING (Illinois National Guard) or the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation).  The violence in Chicago can only be stopped by H.O.P.E. (Hope)!  The Black Star "Interview Shark Tank" delivers hope!  
Please call 773.285.9600 for more information.

Ambassadors for PEACE Rally
Mandrake Park
900 East Pershing Road
Chicago, Illinois 
August 31, 2014 - 2pm to 5pm 


Join The Black Star 
Community PTA (BSCPTA) 
Parents Must Take Control of Their Children's Education.
Our Next Meeting Is:

Thursday, August 28, 2014, 6:30 pm
at The Black Star Project
3509 South King Drive
Chicago, Illinois


The BSCPTA is recruiting 500 members from around the country. You can become a member of the BSCPTA by sending your membership dues of $10.00 from anywhere in the country to:  
Black Star Community PTA
3509 South King Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60653


or call 773.285.9600 for more information.  Please include your name, address, email and phone number with each membership.  For more information about the National PTA, visit www.pta.org.

 
Click Here to Learn How to Establish a Community PTA

Help Send the Distinguished Gentlemen of Spoken Word to The White House by Clicking Here.
As America struggles with death of several more young Black men by the hands of police in the past week and the death of hundreds of young Black men at the hands of other misguided young Black men, the Distinguished Gentlemen of Spoken Word have risen above America!
Top Row - Michael Brown, killed in Ferguson, Missouri; Eric Garner, killed in New York City, New York; and Trayvon Martin, killed in Sanford, Florida.  Bottom Row - Jonathan Ferrell, killed in Charlotte, North Carolina; Oscar Grant, killed in Oakland, California; and Jordan Davis, killed in Jacksonville, Florida.
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Listen to the Distinguished Gentlemen of Spoken Word use spoken word to move America forward and to make America better.  Listen especially at the 6 minute 30 second mark where they speak the famous quotations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  They deserve a national stage. Please help them get it by clicking on here and recommending that they visit The White House with their strong message of brotherhood, struggle, overcoming the streets of America, and the celebration, joys and accomplishments of being a young Black man in America.
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Click Here to See and Listen to the Distinguished Gentlemen of Spoken Word.
Click Here to recommend that the Distinguished Gentlemen of Spoken Word visit The White House with their strong message of hope for America.
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Friday, August 22, 2014

I'm sorry I'm not Idris Elba

http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2014/02/idris-elba-responds-im-sorry-im-idris-elba-poem/

9 years boy assassinated!

Please read the below Chicago Tribune articles and pass to OTHERS in the community.
By John Kass

Antonio Smith, 9 years old, was assassinated the other day.

He was Chicago's youngest fatal shooting victim this year. He was shot at least four times and fell in a backyard on the South Side.

And when I went out there on 71st and Woodlawn less than 24 hours after he was murdered, here's what I didn't see:

I didn't see protesters waving their hands in the air for network TV cameras. I didn't see the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson playing their usual roles in the political race card game.

I didn't see white college anarchists hiding behind their white plastic Guy Fawkes masks talking about being oppressed by the state. I didn't see politicians equivocating. But the worst thing I didn't see was this:

I didn't see the theatrical outrage that you see in Ferguson, Mo. A white cop in Ferguson — a place most people never heard of just two weeks ago — shoots a black teenager and the nation knows what to do. The actors scream out their roles on cue.

But in Chicago, a black child is assassinated, and Attorney General Eric Holder isn't on his way here. There are no hashtag campaigns saying #saveourboys. And instead of loud anger, there is numb silence.

"It's only the second day. I don't know what will happen," said Helen Cross, 82, a neighbor who lives down the street from the shooting. She's lived in the neighborhood for 49 years.

"Everybody says it's a shame," she said. "It was terrible. But nobody's … nobody is …"

Her voice trailed off.

Angry?

She nodded.

"A lot of people don't want to be involved until it happens to their family," said her son, Lewis Cross. "And that's the shame."

The screamers and the race hustlers buzzing in Ferguson like flies have it easy: White cop/black victim is a script that sells, and the TV cameras come running.

But in Chicago, young African-American and Latino men and boys and girls are shot down far too regularly, by neighbors, meaning other black and Latinos.

Venting outrage at police is easier, and it's politically advantageous. Venting at neighbors is a bit more complicated and dangerous. The neighbors will still be there on the block long after the columnists and the TV cameras leave. People are afraid. They don't want their children to pay for anything they might say.

"This city is crazy," said neighbor Arnold Caffey, a mechanic from Detroit. "I mean, Detroit is better than this."

We were sitting on his porch out of the rain.

"A baby has been assassinated, and where's the anger?" he asked. "When that child was shot, some people out there were still drinking, I'm saying a baby has been assassinated, they're like, well, they don't care."

What if the shooter had been police officer — a white police officer?

"You know what would happen, the whole Ferguson thing," Caffey said. "But it's not."

The Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor at St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church, has consistently condemned the violence in Chicago. He doesn't flit in or out of town. He's always here and was scheduled to lead a neighborhood prayer vigil Thursday evening.

"This 9-year-old boy — in my mind — when you get multiple shots for a 9-year-old boy in a back alley, that's an execution," he said in a telephone interview before the event. "That's not a drive-by, that's not an accident. That sounds like an execution."

He's been outspoken about Ferguson, but he knows that moral outrage is undercut if there's silence over the assassination of a child.

"We cannot simply be outraged about something that happens someplace else and get immune to what happens at home," he said. "This is pure evil.

"We have to be absolutely outraged. And we have to say, 'We're going to find out who you are, and we're going to turn you in because you're not going to get by with this. You can't kill a 9-year-old kid and go home and eat McDonald's and watch TV.'"

Antonio Smith was shot in a backyard that borders a railroad viaduct on 71st Street. To the east, the gang that runs things is called Sircon City. To the west, a group called Pocket Town runs the show. Police say he was not a gang member.

Cynthia Smith-Thigpen, a retired Chicago Public Schools teacher, talked about the lack of public outrage.

"There's shamelessness to the silence over this boy's death," she said. "It's like, 'Oh, another child dead in Chicago.' Perhaps we're all numb to what goes on in this city."

In the alley, on hot, rainy afternoon, three men sweated through their suits. They weren't politicians or cable TV screamers. They were detectives working a heater case.

Out there was a concrete pad where a garage once stood, and thick grass in the yard and bushes around the edges. And there was the rain and the silence in Pocket Town.

I stood off to the side and pictured Antonio in my mind. Was he running? Were his hands raised the way activists said Michael Brown's hands were raised in Ferguson?

Antonio was a baby. He didn't allegedly steal cigars or threaten a shopkeeper or punch a cop. He was 9 years old. He was targeted. He was murdered.

"People need to be angry, but this isn't TV, and some people really don't care," said neighbor Tony Miller, who has a son about Antonio's age. "And people who don't live here don't want to know, but people get killed all the time."

Stay Safe and Alert!!!
Later, Leroy Duncan
Beat Facilitator
25th District Police Department

Men on Higher Learning


Monday, August 18, 2014

An African Development Plan - A Conversation on Thoughts, Action and...

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Making Progress; Moving Forward!
Links:The Black Star Project's website:
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Tune in to hear
Cecile Johnson

 
discussing
African Development Plan
The Black Agenda - Why we need a Needs Assessment done of our local communities?
  
THE VISION
 
A 50 Year Development Plan for Africa and all
Diaspora  communities worldwide.  The issues of Africa and its Diaspora are complex. They must take into account and address a number of things simultaneously.

1. Formation of a Brain Trust of people willing to actively create and implement a 50 year comprehensive plan that addresses every aspect of Africa's challenges and a course of action to address them.  
2. Creation of an International Leadership Academy which develops current leaders, future leaders, and the next generation (youth) based on best practices and African models for all of our communities worldwide.
3. Create a database of people in the Diaspora and the skills they have so we can tap into this resource. Match the need with the resources. We must catalog the Brain Drain and understand how instability in Africa benefits everyone but Africans.
4. Develop a comprehensive needs assessment of every African country and community, utilizing standards included in the African Union's goals and objectives, the Ibrahim index, UN Development Plan, UNICEF and Millennium Development Goals.
5. Develop a database on all NGO's and organizations doing work in Africa and an assessment of their efficiency. A certification system should be developed and ineffective agencies removed.
6. Develop an online African History and Maafa Museum. Develop scholars willing to collect our history in many formats. Artist, musicians, poets and cartoonist etc so that we make learning our history accessible to all ages.
7.Build 21st Century educational institutions in the African Diaspora and Africa, featuring African centered curriculum.
8. Support the African Union's vision for a United States of Africa, for one currency, for shared resources and a vision that includes all the people North and South of the Sahara. We are not two continents, we are one people. 
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Saturday, August 16, 2014
6:00 pm central time
On WVON -1690 AM   
  
Join us at 7:00 pm Eastern; 6:00 pm Central; 5:00 pm Mountain; 4:00 pm Pacific; 3:00 pm Alaskan; 2:00 pm Hawaiian. Call-In number at 773-591-1690
  
Listen to The Black Star Project's
Internationally Acclaimed Radio Program
The Parent Revolution
Every Saturday on WVON 1690AM
  

For more information about the African Development Plan, please click here.
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The Black Star Project thanks the Board of Directors of The Field Foundation of Illinois, the Board of Directors of Woods Fund of Chicago, Illinois State Senator Jacqueline Collins, Illinois State Senator Kimberly A. Lightford, Chicago Alderman Will Burns and Melody Spann Cooper of WVON for their generous support for our parenting programs.
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The Black Star Project | 3473 South King Drive, Box 464 | Chicago | IL | 60616


Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Monday, August 11, 2014

Tony Hogues promo for The Manhattans in Chicago at International Festival of the Arts 2014




bucket boys







bucket boys
Lucas Brothers

SNEAK PEEK at Bucket Boys

Chicago filmmakers, the Lucas Brothers launched a Kickstarter campaign to complete Bucket, a feature length documentary about kids from Chicago who put their percussive drummer skills to work for everyday survival. Eighty-percent of the film is complete but funds are needed for the remaining twenty-percent. The documentary will only be funded if the pledge amount is reached by Tuesday, August 19th of this year.
Bucket captures the life of many of the hundreds of bucket boys on Chicago's Southside. They put to use their fascinating drumming skills as they fight for survival. As the cameras follow these talented and young black male teens they learn that they're more than just the entertaining skills they display to the public. Following them on their journey they discover that growing up in poverty, they're faced with numerous obstacles in their community and in homes. Overall, they witness that "the bucket" is more than just a tool. Not only has the bucket become their source of income, but has become their lifestyle and a culture.









Men Taking Responsilbilty


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