2020 October Oak Cliff

CONTENTS

UP FRONT

10 Mr. Battie’s ‘big ask’ How SOC works to uplift the community.

14 Shingle Mountain The Oak Cliff church seeking environmental justice.

16 Taco cliff Dip into Del Sur tacos.

FEATURES

18 Social justice warriors They fight for what’s right.

24 Ladies who book club Multicultural reading materials.

26 You better walk The 30th-annual LifeWalk.

The seal of South Oak Cliff High School. Photo by Danny Fulgencio

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ABOUT THE COVER

Ravens Pharmacy vacated Jefferson Boulevard several years ago, but the building’s owners kept the iconic sign.

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We can’t stop talking about…

RACHEL LINDSAY, formerly “The Bachelorette,” is all over our TVs this fall. Lindsay, who grew up in Oak Cliff, was working as a corporate lawyer when she auditioned for the ABC show. Now she’s married to the winner of her season and lives in Los Angeles. She’s also the co-host of “Ghosted,” which returned for a second season on MTV. She recently became a correspondent for “Extra.” Search “bachelorette” at oakcliff.advocatemag.com to read more.

BY THE NUMBERS

HERE’S WHAT WE SPEND ANNUALLY ON SWEETS:

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$1.4 million CANDY AND GUM

$501,000 CAKES AND CUPCAKES

$227,000 PIES, TARTS AND TURNOVERS

$851,000 ICE CREAM

$1.1 million COLA

Source: U.S. Census and Bureau of Labor Statistics based on ZIP codes 75208, 75211 and 75224. Numbers are derived from 2010 U.S. Census data with projections to be accurate as of Jan. 1, 2017.

Learn more on page 14.

How are you able to morally say, ‘We can’t clean up this toxic waste,’ when we know people are breathing in fiberglass? Forget the politicking and morally do the right thing.

—DANIELLE AYRES OF FRIENDSHIP WEST BAPTIST CHURCH

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DALLAS COUNTY BUILDING

Dallas County broke ground on a $33-million government center at 702 E. Jefferson Blvd. in August. The two-story, 43,000-square-foot building is expected to open in summer 2021. It also will have a three-story parking garage with 240 spaces. The building will house Dallas County Justice of the Peace, truancy, constable and tax departments.

COMING AND GOING

[+] CocoAndré Chocolatier is now CocoAndré Chocolatier and Horchatería. The locally owned business started selling horchata, a Mexican drink made with rice milk and cinnamon, a few years ago, and it became a curbside-service hit during the pandemic. The “dirty horchata,” which is topped with a shot of espresso, is popular. The shop also serves horchata in flavors like matcha, prickly pear, strawberry, piña colada, mocha, marzapan, pecan and cacao. They’re all made in house by master chocolatier Andréa Pedraza. Housemade aguas frescas come in hibiscus or tamarind, which can be served with a shot of espresso.

[+] A ghost kitchen operating out of the Local Oak will bring meatballs and polenta fries to your door. Meatball Kitchen serves parm-style subs, pastas and comfort food sides. Delivery is available through Uber Eats, DoorDash, Favor and Grubhub.

[+] The Tamale Co. opened a grab-and-go bodega in Duncanville this summer. It is the family owned company’s first physical location after 13 years of pop-ups, catering, delivery and grocery-store sales. The shop at 626 S. Cedar Ridge Road offers readymade family meals, such as pozole, brisket gorditas, sopa de fideo and sour cream chicken enchiladas, from an ever-changing menu.

Only in Oak Cliff…

AFTER SOMEONE tore down Meagan and Matt Abendschein’s Black Lives Matter sign on Tyler at Winston, their neighbors surprised them with homemade signs to replace it. Oak Cliff native Sean Allen, who owns two Fast Signs stores, brought them a new vinyl sign later that day.

Derrick Battie graduated from South Oak Cliff High School in 1992, and he returned as the school’s community liaison, a position he still holds, in 2002.

In between, he was one of the most highly recruited high school basketball players of his class. He started for Temple University in Philadelphia all four years of his college career, playing in the Elite Eight tournament under hall-of-fame coach John Chaney. And he played in the NBA for a few years before blowing out his knee and returning to Oak Cliff to take care of his grandmother.

More recently, Battie was among the SOC alumni who pushed for a

$64-million renovation of the school, completed last year.

While a taxpayer-funded Dallas ISD bond paid for the project, Battie and others made sure it was spent sensibly and that the design of the building was perfect, from moving dumpsters away from the student entrance to providing power outlets for the student lounge and creating spaces for robotics practice. Battie’s is one of the first faces SOC’s 1,300 students see every morning, and they know to be looking sharp when they cross his path. “You better have your pants pulled up,” he says. “You better not be smelling like no cigarettes or marijuana.”

Battie also is a leader that the school’s approximately 50 homeless students and their families can lean on for help.

SOC’s two resource centers, one with shelves full of snacks and school supplies funded by Frito Lay and Feed the Children, and one with a clothes closet provided by Friendship West Baptist Church, are open to the entire school community, Battie says.

Why SOC should be one of the best schools in Dallas ISD:

When we start thinking and speaking that, it becomes reality. We all can agree that there should be no school with the ceilings falling in and rats running

Interview by RACHEL STONE | Photography by DANNY FULGENCIO

THESE ARE THE PEOPLE IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD

around. We should do everything we can to make sure this environment is totally set for academic growth. No drugs. No guns. No gangs. No bullying. We don’t want that in our building. We have to get [students] ready in four years, and we just don’t have enough time for that. What we do is try to handle it in the community. That way, when they get to school, then the familiar conversations are there.

On community safety:

Our issues are with students having too much trauma because of what goes on in their communities, what goes on in their households, at their parks, at their recreation centers and even at their schools. There was a shooting at [the Ellis Davis Field House] recently. South Oak Cliff High School and Kimball High School were playing a basketball game. So we’re talking about how that emotionally effects children and causes behavior to spiral out of control without social and emotional support.

Putting pressure on leaders:

I’m not emotional about it. I can be friends with you and tell you that you’re not doing a good job. Because what you’re doing affects a whole lot of children who come here, and if they don’t have what they need when they come here, then they couldn’t possibly be ready to exit here in four years. If they’re at home struggling, bullets are flying around their head, there’s no technology. We’re in a technology desert. There’s no access to green grocery stores. There’s a food desert. Look at the schools. Here at South Oak Cliff High School, the alumni and students had to protest in order for them to make an investment into a school in a predominantly Black and Hispanic community. It wasn’t a given. The district is working hard to mend its relationship with this community, and I’m thankful that their leadership is reaching out in an effort to create equity. We haven’t gotten there yet. But at least they’re putting things in place to help.

Addressing homelessness and poverty:

It’s a matter of numbers on a check that can fix that. We have five families right now that are facing eviction. The moratorium is ending, and they don’t think they can catch up because they owe back rent. They just can’t get ahead. The only thing that ends homelessness is economic investment in jobs. You cannot beg your way out of homelessness. It just doesn’t work that way. We have to get these people jobs. We’ve got to get them careers. That means education. Whatever the path is, that’s the key out of homelessness, a job. Period.

On pushing for more money for social services:

They say, “Mr. Battie, that’s a big ask.” You need a big ask. That’s a big problem. You can’t ask for a little ask for a big problem. That’s asinine. So yes, sir, Mr. Mayor, I’m asking for a big fix to this problem, because it is a big problem. I don’t get a lot of pushback, I guess, being a former athlete. They know I’m not political. I don’t care about your ambitions for running. All I care about is, when I walk out my doors, when I send my kids home on buses, that they get there safely and they get back to us the next day prepared. We don’t want them coming in saying, “The wifi went out in our community.” When I go home to Plano — my kids stay in Plano — it goes to 5G. Automatically. I looked at my phone, I said, “I didn’t even know I had a five on here.” Certain communities don’t have that support technology-wise. And right now, with everything virtual, and everyone streaming online, how do you think that’s running?

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

“The only thing that ends homelessness is economic investment in jobs.”

DERRICK BATTIE AND ‘THE BIG ASK’

‘Intentionality’ is the word for 75216 

MEET VANESSA ULLMANN

HEAD OF SCHOOL AT THE KESSLER SCHOOL

Proudly serving the Oak Cliff community and happy children for over 20 years

The Kessler School has put in considerable effort to prepare for an exciting and uniquely challenging year ahead. This is my sixth year as Head of School at TKS, and each year I find myself increasingly impressed with the work of our faculty and staff. The perseverance and diligence evident in our teachers to simultaneously manage educating students at school and home goes unmatched. It is obvious now more than ever, that our teachers are the children’s true heroes.

Prior to beginning my opportunity at TKS, I spent 8 years as an international educator in China allowing me to gain a better understanding of global education. My ultimate goal for The Kessler School is that we develop students’ skills to engage with diverse peers and promote actions students can take as citizens of the world. We strive to incorporate learning about culture, history and current issues regularly within our core content areas.

We pride ourselves in our implementation of a vertically

aligned curriculum in reading, writing, math, science and social studies. Common teaching practices occur starting in PreK all the way through Middle School. A considerable amount of our operating cost goes toward teachers’ training and professional development. Teachers work with staff developers to train in our curriculum on campus as well as out of the state. The TKS language arts curriculum comes directly from Teachers College at Columbia University where our classroom teachers are sent for training.

Other unique opportunities TKS provides for students, is the exposure to working with specialists outside of our school during the daily schedule. Our STEM lab class comes from Mad Science Inc, the art program is provided by Oil & Cotton, and Oak Cliff Dance leads the creative movement class. We have also integrated Action Based Learning (ABL) in our daily teaching practices to allow students the ability to use movement and brain activities to promote academic growth.

The Kessler School community collaborates in equipping our students with skills and values that help develop self-sufficient, high achieving learners and aspiring leaders.

We remain committed to growing our school, meeting the needs of our community and

are excited about our future, as we look toward the opening of a new campus in the coming years.

I welcome you to learn more about our school, our teachers and our community by visiting thekesslerschool.com.

What Our Parents Say About The Kessler School!

“You will be happy to know, that in our opinion developed through our research, TKS has the best academic rigor balanced with the most opportunity for enrichment through specials (Spanish every day, PE/recess, art program, etc.) and alternative learning programs, like OWLs. And I found TKS testing methodology to be by far the most advanced in terms of individual bench marking and informing teachers to individual learning styles. In short, you should feel extremely proud of what you all have built to be a shining gem in our neighborhood, more over our city.”

LESLEE MALLINSON, TKS PARENT

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MOVING A MOUNTAIN

JOINING THE FIGHT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

MAJOR ERIC JOHNSON addressed Shingle Mountain for the first time in September.

“We are moving forward with the cleanup of Shingle Mountain. A request for bids from contractors was issued today. This has been in litigation since I became mayor, and I am pleased to see the cleanup of this environmental injustice move forward. Our city is not a dumping ground.”

Even after homeowner Marsha Jackson sued and a judge ordered Blue Star Recycling to clean up the 100-foot-tall pile of hazardous material that stands 50 feet from her home, it remains.

A newspaper story brought attention to the illegal dump in southeast Dallas in 2018, and last summer, an Oak Cliff church stepped up to amplify the message. Friendship West Baptist Church bends toward social justice. Pastor Danielle Ayres became the church’s social justice minister in 2005, shortly after moving to Dallas.

The ministry’s first mission was taking on a 24-hour adult megastore that was under construction in Red Bird, near a charter elementary school, A.W. Brown Fellowship Leadership Academy. The owner scrapped those plans in 2007.

The church also gives assistance to those freed from prison as part of former Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins’ exoneration program. It owns a credit union that serves church members and communities where predatory lenders are more

prevalent than banks. The church fights hunger and homelessness with food pantries, clothes closets and caches of supplies in schools and community centers around Oak Cliff and South Dallas.

Friendship West staged some creative protests around Shingle Mountain this summer, including a parade, which called city leaders to the carpet. Ayres answered some of our questions about the work.

ON GETTING SOME RESPONSE FROM THE CITY OF DALLAS:

The city has and, I will say, continues to drag their feet to remove the toxic waste while Marsha every day is dying slowly. So we talk about the physical violence in the streets. When people are out in the streets protesting about police brutality, they should understand that there’s this structural violence that people deal with every day. That is killing more Black folks than the physical violence. Because you’re killing people slowly, right? In areas where the air quality is bad, the water is not fresh. They don’t have access to fresh produce, and they don’t have access to a living wage.

THE WORK:

It’s a never-ending push for what I would call a just world. Material impoverishment is so great, and we know that’s not

Story by RACHEL STONE | Photography by DANNY FULGENCIO

Pastor Danielle Ayres, left, social justice minister at Friendship West Baptist Church, with Marsha Jackson, who lives near Shingle Mountain.

by accident. It’s because of broken social structures. So, what can we do in our lifetime? How do we capture the kairos moment when we sense that it’s our turn and our time to make a difference to create a better world?

I think of Angela Davis. One of her new books, the title is “Freedom Is a Constant Struggle.” This fight for a just world is part of an ongoing struggle. Each generation does its part, hopefully, to push us further.

THE MESSAGE:

We’ve been trying to ask Marsha and Southern Sector Rising what we can do for them. We wanted to do whatever we can, use whatever resources and whatever platforms we have to join them. When we have an opportunity — if we’re preaching or we’re doing a Bible study or if we have events outside of the church — we always bring up Shingle Mountain to keep it at the top of mind.

THE MORALITY:

How are you able to morally say, “We can’t clean up this toxic waste,” when we know people are breathing in fiberglass? Forget the politicking and morally do the right thing. When you know people are slowly dying and choking to death, not being able to breathe … to “other” her like that, as if her life doesn’t matter, is very problematic, not just for her, but for many others. I’m grateful to everyone who has helped to expose Shingle Mountain as much as possible and keep the human side of it live. This is about a person who is suffering daily. Every day that Shingle Mountain is there, her health is suffering, and that will never come back.

THE RESPONSE:

The mayor has never bothered to go out there. The mayor has never bothered to call [Marsha Jackson]. The mayor never said one word about Shingle Mountain until [Sept. 11] in a tweet, as if they’re doing this out of the kindness and goodness of their hearts. The fact is that it’s the ongoing persistence of Marsha and Southern Sector Rising and many others who have been lifting their voices for the past three years. It’s been the press conferences and phone calls and attending City Council meetings and lifting our voices. For the mayor and certain City Council members to come across as if they’re leading the charge, I think it takes away from the fact that people power pushed this to this point, and we have to keep it right there.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR SHINGLE MOUNTAIN:

The bids will close Sept. 24, and the work is supposed to begin Oct. 5, but we will see. Marsha has heard that before.

HOW NEIGHBORS CAN GET INVOLVED:

You don’t have to be a member to be a part of our justice efforts. They can just email justice@friendshipwest.org. You don’t have to be a member in order to party with us. Or they can just go to southernsectorrising.org and become involved that way.

The environmental hazard exposes neighbors’ skin and airways to fiberglass particles.

“People power pushed this to this point, and we have to keep it right there.”

OAK CLIFF SPIRIT

THIS TACO JOINT IS A NEW FAVE

SOME OF OAK CLIFF’S FAVORITE haunts are ghosts now, but a new prospect is vying for your TexMex heart.

Del Sur Tacos offers $1 tacos and $3 margaritas every Tuesday, and there are usually mariachis performing in the evenings.

That’s enough to get us in the door, but it’s what makes us stay that’s magical.

Huge breakfast burritos with house-made chorizo served every day, cochinita pibil that melts in your mouth and “super tacos” such as Del Norte, topped with an egg and cheese.

Story by RACHEL STONE | Photography by KATHY TRAN

Del Sur Tacos recently added birria tacos to the menu.

Texas Monthly once named the chile relleno taco its “taco of the week” and gave them high marks for using superior corn tortillas.

Q&A

Lauren of Cadilac Law , PLLC, answers your questions about the law.

Q: What do I need, to be prepared, in the times of COVID-19?

A:

Besides a lot of patience and masks, you need to consider the “what ifs” for yourself, your family, and your business. For you and your family consider at these two Power of Attorney’s first- Statutory Durable (power over your money and assets) and Medical, so that if anything happens to any of you, you’re already prepared and won’t need a Court’s intervention. Other important documents include will and/or trust, declaration of guardianship (for you and your kids), and other such documents. For your business, make sure you are properly incorporated (or set up as an LLC) and that you have bylaws and agreements in writing. Declare a successor for continuing the business, and consider a trust owning the business, for even more ease, as well as Court avoidance after death. While you can do many of these documents online, however, we suggest you consult a legal professional, as they understand how the law works and how best to protect you, your family, and your business.

You can reach Lauren to discuss your needs at 972.845.1200 or through her website: www.cadilaclaw.net

Olmy and Ismael Sanchez, who live in Oak Cliff, opened the first Del Sur in McKinney in 2015. The Oak Cliff location opened in July last year. Nine months later, they temporarily closed it after the pandemic hit.

“We are so happy to be open again and seeing our customers,” Olmy Sanchez says. “Oak Cliff has been so good to us.”

They took advantage of the downtime to add a full bar and covered patio, perfect for postcoronavirus dining.

Ismael Sanchez also added birria tacos to the menu. These are the crispy, cheesy tacos that are served with a side of beef consommé for dipping. The Jalisco-style dish became a darling of food critics in 2020.

On the weekends, a big bowl of menudo costs $13. If you’re ordering delivery, try the Cali Burrito ($9), which comes with choice of meat, guacamole, rice, beans and pasilla sauce. Tortas come with avocado, refried black beans, crema, chiles, lettuce and tomato.

“We always use the best ingredients we can,” Olmy Sanchez says. “We love to see people happy.”

Del Sur Tacos, 720 E. Jefferson Blvd., delsurtacos.com.

Cadilac Law was recently endorsed by Carolyn King-Arnold, Dallas City Councilwoman- District 4.

www.cadilaclaw.net

972-845-1200

GRILL Enchiladas

Reunite virtually with family, friends, and the neighborhood with a block party! Everyone can order individually and enjoy all the fun of a block party while staying safe from afar. Reach out to Tony Waldrop by email at tony@waldropfamily.biz or by phone at (214) 532-7000.

“We always use the best ingredients we can. We love to see people happy.”

NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE

NEIGHBORS WHO WORK FOR A CAUSE

Everyone must register to vote in the November election by Monday, Oct. 5. It is easy to do at votetexas.gov/ register. Vote early, from Oct. 13-30, at any Dallas County polling location, or at your precinct on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3. And may these Oak Cliff activists inspire even more community involvement.

Interviews by RACHEL STONE | Photography by DANNY FULGENCIO

NATIVE COMMUNITY: TEXAS’ AMERICAN INDIAN HERITAGE DAY STARTED HERE

wo Oak Cliff women are among those who made American Indian Heritage Day happen in Texas.

Peggy Larney originated the bill in the Texas House of Representatives calling for the last Friday in September to be a day to recognize the historic, cultural and social contributions of American Indians.

Jodi Voice Yellowfish helped write the bill in 2017, and the Texas Legislature approved it so quickly that they were surprised with congratulatory calls. After that, Yellowfish lasered in on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

She stays home as the fulltime parent in a household that includes her husband, her older sister, a niece and two nephews.

The rest of her time is spent watching city

council meetings and doing volunteer work for Our City Our Future, a coalition of women of color who advocate for their communities at city hall.

She grew up in Arcadia Park after her family wound up here as part of the Indian Relocation Act of 1956, which encouraged Native Americans to leave reservations and assimilate into urban areas.

Listen to her explain that legacy on episode No. 44 of De Colores Radio podcast.

American Indian Heritage Day

There was this need to celebrate the culture but also to uplift contemporary victories and work. That was something we hadn’t seen. It’s not just a celebration of culture and heritage. We’re often relegated to this very romanticized past. And we have to deal with this education exhaustion. We can’t just talk about our struggles today and what our communities are fighting for, we

also have to educate and explain our history, and I don’t see that for anybody else. People want to know about the sad struggle of our history and show the regalia and song. But the contemporary struggles and victories are often overlooked. It’s something people don’t realize. We’re not just what our culture has been in the past. We’re an ever-evolving group of people.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

Our country was colonized with violence, and it’s never really stopped. We still have to deal with these issues of violence. We still have these historical traumas, but being in a huge city like Dallas and sometimes not having the resources is a struggle

that we continue to deal with. We’ve really opened a lot of doors and found resources to help MMIW families fill in the gap. It’s sad, and it’s very traumatizing work for groups like ours, but there are small victories every time we help a family.

What the work is

There was a grandmother in our community. I didn’t know her personally, but I knew of her, and her granddaughter went missing. That really sparked the conversation. We were raising awareness, but we weren’t prepared for a rapid response protocol. We just went with our gut, and by that evening, I was with her and her family trying to figure out how we

could help. She needed her people to help because she was reliving past trauma that happened to her. Her granddaughter [was later found and brought to safety] but we saw that we needed to look at the broader picture. There was trauma that had been passed along through generations. Not only were we having to navigate her case, but we were also having to see what we could do for the grandmother as well because it was triggering and re-traumatizing. She’s now an active member with our group, and she’s become a very beautiful and strong voice in this work. We deal with a lot of people running away, and that’s deeply rooted in sexism and racism that doesn’t get handled in a meaningful way. We’re raising awareness on domestic violence and helping people find resources. Sometimes people are fleeing for their lives, and they’re looked at as runaways.

Future worries

I’m seeing for the American Indian community, but also for everyone, a lack of resources in so many ways. I see a lack of getting basic needs met and constantly being in survival or crisis mode. We shouldn’t all have to live with that stress. Living through a pandemic and the domestic violence situations that can come from that is very worrisome.

Her motivation

I’ve always been fortunate and blessed to have resources for my family. A lot of people can’t handle the stigma around mental health and needing to handle emotional and stressful situations. I see how my family needs that kind of help. And it breaks my heart thinking about people who may not have the strength to ask for help or the ability to find resources.

CAMPAIGN FOR THE PEOPLE: KNOCKING ON DOORS THAT POLITICIANS SKIP

amiro Luna Hinojosa became an activist 12 years ago in support of “dreamers,” undocumented residents who immigrated to the United States as children.

Luna, who was reared in Oak Cliff, spent more than four years on “hard-core activism,” he says, going on a seven-day hunger strike, performing civil disobedience and getting arrested for the cause.

But when the proposed Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, or D.R.E.A.M. Act, failed by five votes in the U.S. Senate in 2010, he had a “shift in consciousness,” he says.

“We can do almost anything under the

sun, and these elected officials are not going to change their minds. Their beliefs are fundamentally different from ours,” Luna says. “I thought, ‘Why don’t I get involved in trying to get them out of office?”

He spent a decade working on political campaigns, going after some of the most antiimmigrant politicians in America, including Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was unseated in 2016. Luna also helped Democrat Victoria Neave win a longheld Republican seat in the Texas House of Representatives in 2017.

This year, the 36-year-old started Somos Tejas, a nonprofit that engages voters in overlooked neighborhoods.

The idea behind Somos Tejas

I decided to take my 10 years of experience in campaigning and help create a nonprofit where we did campaigns but without a candidate, focusing on the ’hoods and the marginalized communities.

The goal of Somos Tejas

Ultimately, I want to see South Oak Cliff turn out just as much as North Oak Cliff. We want to see Pleasant Grove turn out just like a Highland Park precinct would. As a 10-year campaign manager, campaigns are not necessarily designed to focus on the precincts with the lowest turnout. I’ve seen that happen time and time again, and those were the same neighborhoods that I grew up in. To me that was always bothersome.

The basics

A lot of times there’s a big gap of knowledge to understanding basic information on why it’s important to vote, what City Council does, what state representatives do. Where do I need to vote? What does voting by mail look like? We’re nonpartisan. We don’t tell them who to vote for, but we explain how to vote and that voting is necessary.

Where they focus

We look at precincts that that have below 8% voter turnout, precincts that are typically 10% lower than neighboring precincts.

What they do

Our goal was to knock on more than 50,000 houses the first year, and then COVID hit, and we had to restructure ourselves. We

took a break for several months, and then we started knocking on doors again [in June]. The same precincts we’re hitting are the same communities that are hardest hit by COVID, and it’s so telling about how this is systematically made this way. They’re the ones with less broadband, less access to fresh food, fewer resources overall. Our people have so many barriers to overcome, and I think one of the best ways to overcome them and uplift your voice is through voting and civic engagement.

In the bag

We’re dropping off care kits with a surgical mask, hand sanitizer, a one-pager on COVID safety and information on voting and the U.S. Census.

How it’s funded

Typically if you run a campaign, you have a few thousand dollars at least to be able to purchase all of the things you need, so you can pay a team, pay for literature. For us, since it’s so new, and we’re not backing any candidates, everything is coming out of pocket. Everyone is working for free. I decided to get another job [this summer] because the resources are not there to survive. But eventually, I would love for this to be a fulltime job.

How you can help

We are always looking for any type of support. If you can’t donate, volunteer to block walk. If you have any other resources to provide: face masks, stickers, even coming out to events, sharing our work. Doing anything to spread the word.

CONNECTING THE DOTS: ONE PERSON CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

hen Leslie Cannon found out in early summer that her ZIP code had the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Dallas County, she had to do something about it.

Her two children attend Louise M. Kahn Elementary, and one is medically fragile.

“This felt really personal,” she says. “Our community already has more high blood pressure and diabetes.”

So she created a flyer with the latest statistics on COVID-19 for the 75211 ZIP, tips on prevention and information about testing sites.

“I printed it on my home printer, and with a mask on, walked around to my neighborhood and passed them out,” she says. “That was the first thing I did, and then I was like, ‘What are the resources that I have that can help people?’ ”

Cannon works in community engagement for Be the Match, which connects patients who need bone-marrow or blood stem-cell transplants with donors. She knows people.

So she reached out to friends at El Centro’s nursing school and the Martin Luther King Jr. Family Clinic in South Dallas to find a way to provide more testing in her neighborhood.

The MLK clinic had tests and a mobile unit available, and 30 El Centro students volunteered their time. City Councilman Chad West’s office provided generators, tables and chairs for a pop-up testing site at Super Mercado Monterrey on Westmoreland Road.

They tested 178 people.

“The numbers from our site will be released, but they were really high, and I was shocked,” she says. “This community has to have more testing. And if we’re going to be sending our kids back to school, it’s imperative that we all get tested so that we can know our status.”

More recently, she arranged testing for teachers and staff at Arturo Salazar Elementary.

Cannon also got the Better Block and Methodist Health System to donate six handsanitizing stations to be placed at shopping hubs in her neighborhood.

All of this started because of a project she and her kids, ages 10 and 4, started to engage their community on answering the U.S. Census.

“It’s my responsibility to be that advocate because I have the resources to do it,” she says.

OK, BOOMER! GENERATIONS UNITE IN VOTING

eighborhood women frustrated by the state of American politics started Indivisible Oak Cliff, a Facebook group, in 2017, and it wasn’t about memes and shouting into the echo chamber.

Some of them became volunteer deputy registrars and started registering voters at events they organized. Then they decided to focus on high schools. Soon they realized that a Dallas-based nonprofit had already been doing that work since 2015.

So Valerie Walraven and others joined March to the Polls, helping to bring voter engagement to high school seniors all over the Dallas area. Walraven is retired and spends much of her time educating and registering voters in high schools and community colleges. They publish and pass out booklets in English and Spanish about voting, which is a big part of Walraven’s volunteer job. In normal times, she spent about three days a week inside schools.

She and her daughter also started txvoterzines.org as part of a class project when her daughter was a high-school senior in 2016, and it’s still updated every voting cycle.

Educating high-school seniors on voting

Kids are so honest, and they can break your heart. This one time, a guy stood up and said, “I have no power. I’m not a citizen.” It’s heartbreaking to see someone feeling so powerless. Us older white retired people learn a lot about people that we couldn’t have without that kind of contact.

How they engage students

We schedule visits to government or economics classes and do short

presentations and have discussions about why to vote and how to vote. Then we register them and try to motivate them and get them to lead the discussion. Most students are very animated and interested in voting.

What they’re doing now

With COVID, we haven’t been able to go into the classrooms since before spring break. We go to community events and register whomever we can register. We’ve done some back-to-school events. Normally, we’re going to libraries and public places, but we’re not able to do that as much now.

How you can help

March to the Polls is always looking for volunteers. I did not start any of this. I just joined in, that’s all.

Starting the Next Chapter

A neighbor’s multicultural book club is multiplying to confront social issues across Dallas

Story by JAIME DUNAWAY-SEALE | Photography by DANNY FULGENCIO

OAK CLIFF NEIGHBOR PAM FIELDS worked for years to engage communities in crosscultural understanding through her nonprofit. But the fight against racism can be exhausting, and she needed an outlet to share her struggles without the burden of leadership.

She found the allies she needed in the Multicultural Women’s Book Group.

Shannon Cerise of Oak Cliff and Jean McAulay of East Dallas started the group in 2017 after attending the Questions of Color panel hosted by The Dallas Morning News following the sniper killing of five police officers at a Black Lives Matter march in 2016. After hearing people of color share their experiences at the event, they sat in the parking lot thinking, “We lead such segregated lives.”

They wanted to continue the conversation. As members of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, where the panel discussion occurred, they used the organization’s email list and social media channels to recruit new members throughout Dallas.

The book group is open to anyone, regardless of race, age, religion or sexual orientation, but membership is restricted to women.

“We don’t have anything against men, but we feel women, most often, are the community builders,” McAulay says. “They forge relationships with neighbors.”

Each meeting begins with an icebreaker, followed by a poem and book discussion. They started with “American Dervish,” which tells the story of a Pakistani-American boy who struggles with his identity and religion while growing up in the Midwest.

Other books have delved into race,

white privilege, immigration and politics, which starts conversation about difficult social issues. The first discussion of Robin DiAngelo’s book “White Fragility” was so contentious that members had to pause and regroup for a second discussion later.

Ground rules for respectful participation keep most meetings civil. Members are asked to “practice the pause” if the conversation becomes tense or emotional and to assume the best in each other. If someone says something insensitive, members are encouraged to teach without reprimanding.

Discussing books isn’t the sole purpose of the group. It was never meant to be an intellectual pursuit, McAulay says. It’s about building relationships that create real community change. Members meet regularly outside of book club to go bowling or attend lectures.

“The more cross-cultural relationships we build, the better we understand, the more our hearts and minds are transformed and we can be advocates for each other,” Fields says.

Membership is kept small. When women want to join, Cerise and McAulay help them establish their own book groups. A second chapter that meets at Southern Methodist University formed about a year ago, and a third chapter started in Lakewood in August.

Interest in the Multicultural Women’s Book Group grew after Black Lives Matter protesting ramped up in late May.

“Especially among white women, we saw a strong interest in learning more,” McAulay says. “We can be amazingly clueless on issues of race and the experiences of people of color in whitedominant culture. The protests and the

The Multicultural Women’s Book Group Reading List

• Homegoing

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

• Retablos: Stories from a Life Lived Along the Border

• First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers

• The Accommodation: The Politics of Race in an American City

• Your House Will Pay

• Hidden Wound

• American Spy

• Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World and Become a Good Ancestor

• Educated

• Boy, Snow, Bird

• Secrets of the Casa Rosada

• Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing

• Just Mercy

• Maid

murder of George Floyd brought that to the fore. The next step is, ‘How do I make this better?’”

Everyone in the group participates by volunteering to bring snacks, select the books or lead discussion. They focus on listening and learning from personal experiences, not trying to change opinions. Engaging in the experiences of others is the best way to recognize personal biases and advocate for systemic change, members say.

The women put their money where their mouths are. After reading “Just Mercy,” the story of a lawyer who founded the Equal Justice Initiative to defend the unjustly accused, they collected money and sent a donation to the organization.

“I’m developing muscles about how to talk about race, not just understand it,” Cerise says. “I don’t think it’s ever going to be easy, but I’m finding words and language to go along with it.

KEEP IT MOVING

THIS YEAR’S LIFEWALK IS TOTALLY VIRTUAL

Story by SAMUEL MAUDE

The annual LifeWalk holds sweet memories for Marvin Green. The pool parties with 100 people. Selling raffle tickets at gay bars, and enticing drag queens to perform at events. He started the Green Team 29 years ago, with just two friends, and now the fundraising team numbers about 20.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of LifeWalk, but there are no pool parties or large events. Most bars and restaurants are closed or operating under limited capacity, and LifeWalk will be online.

The annual fundraiser began in 1991 as a response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As the epidemic began affecting LGBTQ+ communities, various organizations began popping up to raise money, curb the stigma against the disease and protest the government’s response to the spread. Oak Lawn Community Services, which later became Prism Health North Texas, began the walk as a way to raise money to combat HIV/AIDS and provide “hope, compassion and care” to those affected.

LifeWalk is more of a season than a singular event, says Terry Walker, Prism Health’s event coordinator. The festivities begin in February or March and continue until the event in October.

This year, the Oct. 11 walk is entirely virtual, but it harkens back to its first few years with a ’90s theme.

Participants are asked to walk, bike, swim or run 5 kilometers. A livestream will feature various speakers, events, surprises and performances to celebrate the 30th anniversary.

“We’re talking to some team members about possibly going down to Turtle Creek Park where the walk would normally start

and going down and walking some and videotaping it,” Green says. “Our team is a little older, and with COVID they’re real scared, but we can put our masks on and go try it.”

For Green, the event is not just a fundraiser but a way to remember those who have died from HIV/AIDS. Green lost about 25 friends from the virus. Dan Gueths, former chair of LifeWalk and 24-year participant, became involved because of friends he lost.

“There were two people that I worked with at the American Heart Association that became sick with HIV/AIDs, and both had subsequently died within the first couple of years that I was involved in LifeWalk,” Gueths says. “That was kind of the driving force that got me more involved with it, because of a personal connection with the people that I knew.”

Green says one of his best memories is walking with his friend Eddie in the late ’90s. Eddie was HIV positive, and he died about a year later.

“He was just a great friend, and we lost him, but he got out there and walked in the heat and could barely do it,” says Green. “But he did it.”

The Green Team has raised about $352,805 for LifeWalk over the years, all without the help of corporations.

Donations have decreased this year, and Walker says more supporters are needed to fund housing, testing and support to those affected by HIV/AIDS.

The 30th anniversary of LifeWalk is totally virtual on Oct. 11. Donate and learn more at lifewalk.org

This year marks the 30th anniversary of LifeWalk. Photo courtesy of Prism Health North Texas

WORSHIP

By SCOTT SHIRLEY

The saint of loneliness

Oh, how we miss each other

I’m an irregular contributor. In most things, but I’m referring here to this column. I had planned, when the editor first approached me, to write something every month – I’ve got lots of ideas! But one of my character flaws is that I only want to do things when the mood strikes. The upside is that I’m very passionate about whatever I’m doing; the downside is that I don’t do very much. It has gotten worse since the pandemic. I understand that everyone is experiencing this malaise.

I have a strong tolerance for being alone and a pretty active interior life. I have always dreamed of having time to myself, with nothing but books and painting and writing. Now I mostly have it, and it’s pretty empty. I stay busy; there’s a rhythm to my life that I never had before. I just have very little to say about it.

Every month, I sit down to dutifully write this column and every month, I get a little way through the chaotic, incoherent mess and I ask: What’s the point? Where does this come from and to whom is it addressed? I can’t remember anymore.

My church is very small and we are like a family. Every church says that, but in our case it is actually true. We spend a lot of time together, often eating and drinking, sometimes singing or playing games. And, well, church stuff, I guess. So there is an emotional loss in not being able to be with them. I miss laughing and crying together. But I also miss their ideas and experiences.

It has been hard to move forward as a church. We were doing some good work on anti-racism and spiritual development. We were making plans. But those ideas were generated around the table, face-to-face, without an agenda, just people sharing their lives and generating a common life that was bigger than the pieces.

For example, each year we canonize our own saints. We usually have a lot

of nominees, and the campaigning has become quite vigorous. I was considering switching to a round robin format. This year, we had to beat the bushes to generate nominees. That’s because our nominees in the past have come from conversations over dinner. Someone will start talking about a song they love, or a biography they just read, or some odd story about a Catholic saint. And we all say, “Hey, they should be a saint. Remind me of that when nominations come around.” It’s very personal and also very communal.

Video can’t provide that sense of community; we’ve tried. There is fecundity in sitting and talking together in person, a generous spirit in the room. The only person I sit and talk to now is my wife, which is lovely, but she’s heard my stories. We’ve heard each other’s stories. Without those other connections, there just aren’t many inputs and few new experiences.

Christian theology, at its root, is relational. The Trinity is less about three persons and more about the relations between them. The cross calls out to us to identify with the marginalized and mistreated, to walk alongside those who suffer. Communion binds us together as one body with many members.

Theoretically, we can sink into those abstract relations of God, but there’s a reason we say that God came to us in a person, as an incarnation. Bodies matter. Materiality matters. It’s important to live face-to-face and hand-to-hand with other bearers of the image of God. And not just a few. Life is generated in the muck and mess of actual people. I miss the muck.

WORSHIP

BAPTIST

CLIFF TEMPLE BAPTIST CHURCH / 125 Sunset Ave. / 214.942.8601

Serving Oak Cliff since 1898 / CliffTemple.org / English and Spanish

9 am Contemporary Worship / 10 am Sunday School / 11 am

Traditional

GRACE TEMPLE BAPTIST Come to a Place of Grace!

Sunday Worship: English Service 9:30am / Spanish Service

11:00am

831 W. Tenth St. / 214.948.7587 / gracetempledallas.org

CATHOLIC

ST. CECILIA CATHOLIC PARISH StCeciliaDallas.org / 1809 W Davis St.

M-F masses at 8am in English and 5:30pm in Spanish

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST

EAST DALLAS CHRISTIAN CHURCH / 629 N. Peak Street / 214.824.8185

Sunday School 9:30 am / Worship 8:30 am - Chapel

10:50 am - Sanctuary / Rev. Deborah Morgan-Stokes / edcc.org

EPISCOPAL

CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH / ChristChurchDallas.org

Sunday School: 11:15am /Mass: 9am & 10am English, 12:30pm

Español

Wednesday Mass: 6pm English, 8pm Español / 534 W. Tenth Street

METHODIST

KESSLER PARK UMC / 1215 Turner Ave./ 214.942.0098 I kpumc.org

10:30am Sunday School/11:00 Worship /All welcome regardless of r eed, creed, color, culture, gender or sexual identity.

NON-DENOMINATIONAL

KESSLER COMMUNITY CHURCH / 2100 Leander Dr. at Hampton Rd.

“Your Hometown Church Near the Heart of the City.”

10:30 am Contemporary Service / kesslercommunitychurch.com

TRINITY CHURCH OAK CLIFF / Love God. Love Others. Make Disciples.

Sundays 10:00 am / Worship & children’s Sunday School

1139 Turner Ave. / trinitychurchoakcliff.org

PRESBYTERIAN

PARK CITIES PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH/ 4124 Oak Lawn Ave

Sunday Worship 9:00 & 11:00 A.M.

To all this church opens wide her doors - pcpc.org

SCOTT SHIRLEY is the pastor of Church in the Cliff. The Worship section is underwritten by Advocate Publishing and the neighborhood businesses and churches listed here. For information about helping support the Worship section, call 214.560.4202.

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By ALEX GONZALEZ

Ghost on the tracks

Inside Elmwood Recording Studio

When bands and musicians come to Dallas for studio sessions, one of the first spots on the list is Elmwood Recording. Founded in a former funeral home in 2007 by producer John Congleton, the studio has served artists including St. Vincent, Suuns and Nelly Furtado.

Many local artists enjoy working in this Oak Cliff studio as well. Oak Cliff native Ariel Saldivar, aka CAMÍNA, recently recorded her debut EP, “Te Quiero Mucho” at Elmwood. Saldivar, like many of the artists who have cut tracks there, loves the studio because of an abundance of unusual recording equipment. She recorded her debut single “Cinnamon” through a toy megaphone to give her vocals an echo effect.

“He has an abundance of toys in there that aid in creating unique sounds,” Saldivar says. “From his analog Mackie board to his extremely detailed bussing system through custom made synths and pedals. It’s every musician’s dream.”

One of the go-to pieces of equipment at Elmwood is the Neve 53-series console, an audio engineering board that allows producers to mix and edit vocals with various effects. Elmwood’s Neve 53 was originally used on Saturday Night Live.

While the idea of recording in an old funeral home may sound creepy, the spooky element is what draws some artists. Saldivar’s “Te Quiero Mucho” is about death, she says, so she found the idea rather fitting.

“It does have a cavernous element to it where you can get lost in time and space,”

she says.

Saldivar didn’t work on the EP with Congleton, who now lives in Los Angeles, but she found musical chemistry with her producer, Oak Cliff-based Donovan Jones, and the studio’s current operator, Alex Bhore, who mixed the album.

Bhore started working as Congleton’s assistant in 2012.

Now, he is “producer, engineer, mixer, musician, composer, faux-therapist, barista and janitor.”

Like Saldivar, Bhore embraces the funeral home past of Elmwood.

“I’ve been lucky to work at the studio as both a player and a producer over the

years and it’s always felt really cozy and calm to me,” Bhore says. “If any spirits are hanging out in there, they seem to be — and I hope that they are — supportive of what’s going on.”

Bhore hasn’t recorded a session at Elmwood since the pandemic struck in March. Fortunately, he picked up a scoring gig that allowed him to remain creative.

While he can’t narrow down a single favorite memory of working in Elmwood, he values the opportunities.

“I’ve just spent so much time there, both by myself and with so many amazing, inspiring artists,” Bhore says.

The entrance of Elmwood Recording. Photo by Alex Gonzalez

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