Houston Style Magazine vol 31 No. 5

Houston’s Premiere Weekly Publication

January 30 – February 05, 2020

Volume 30 | Number 5

Complimentary

Jesse Jackson

Let Us Not Censor Dr King’s Life Even as We Glorifty Him

Human Trafficking Coming Out of the Shadows of The Sex Trafficking Industry

KOBE BRYANT: Bigger Than Basketball Words by Demez White – Photography by CNN.com

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TX Senator Borris Miles – Celebration of Life

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UNITY In The Community – A Success!

Freje Randall Houston Teen Performs with LIZZO at the Grammy Awards

Oscar & Preston Celebrate

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January 30 – February 05, 2020

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Sylvia Garcia in the middle of Trump Impeachment

Social Media Editor/Videographer Reginald Dominique reggiedominique@me.com

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Sports Editor Brian Barefield

NATIONAL WRITERS

Jesse Jackson jjackson@rainbowpush.org Roland Martin www.rolandmartin.com Judge Greg Mathis www.askjudgemathis.com

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The 5 Stages of Grief

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January 30 – February 05, 2020

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COMMENTARY

Let Us Not Censor Dr. King’s Life Even As We Glorify Him

By Jesse Jackson, National Political Writer

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s another year passes with celebrations marking the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, I worry about the dangers of neutering Dr. King’s life, turning him into a “dreamer” who became a martyr. We shouldn’t forget that Dr. King was a leader, a man of conscience and of action. He sought to transform America, that forced him to be a disrupter -- and to bear the wounds of being unpopular in a just cause.

With segregation the law of the land and voting rights suppressed, Dr. King understood the only way change would come would be by disrupting an unjust system. He believed in nonviolence, but not in passivity. One of my favorite quotes of Dr. King was when he was asked what his favorite demonstra-

POLITICAL

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he chosen seven strode across the U.S. Capitol rotunda before the eyes of history and a live television audience. It was late in the afternoon on Wednesday, January 15. On their way to the Senate to formally deliver impeachment charges against Donald Trump, six of the impeachment managers appointed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi walked in pairs. The seventh followed by herself.

To be among that group was an opportunity to take center stage in a landmark moment of American politics, to burnish one’s oratory gifts from the well of the Senate live on prime cable news in the political equivalent of American Idol.

No surprise, then, that Democratic House members from across the country intensely lobbied Pelosi, coveting such a shot at political stardom.

But the one Texan to earn Pelosi’s nod, the one who walked alone that day, didn’t ask for the job.

A veteran Houston politician mid-way through her first term in Congress, U.S. Rep. Sylvia R. Garcia has

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tion was. “This week’s,” he responded, even as he planned for the next week’s demonstrations.

Dr. King opposed those who equated quiet with peace. We were told to be quiet at the back of the bus, quiet in the face of oppression. He understood that true peace came only with justice, and justice could not be achieved without disruption.

He was not an idle dreamer; he was clear about wanting to amass power.

He emphasized the drive for the Voting Rights Act, to protect the power of the vote, because that would give African Americans the power to change their conditions.

Consider the 2016 election, where Donald Trump lost the popular

vote nationally, but won the electoral college by the margin of less than 80,000 votes in three key states -- Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. In Michigan, 10,704; 22,177 in Wisconsin; 46,765 in Pennsylvania.

In each state, eligible African American voters could have changed the election if they had turned out to vote. In 2020, Dr. King would be leading efforts to register new voters in numbers larger than those margins as a measure of their power. There are more 18-year-old voters than 81-year-old voters. If they register and vote, they can change the course of history.

Dr. King was fearless in the cause of justice. He realized early that the war in Vietnam was an unjust folly that would not be won. The cost of that war was draining the funds from the war on poverty at home. He came out publicly against the war in a dramatic speech at Riverside Church, publicly criticizing the Democratic president, Lyndon Johnson, with whom he had worked to achieve the end of segregation and the Voting Rights Bill.

He was savaged by the establishment media, criticized by leading liberals. Black leaders spoke out against him. At the height of the controversy, he was seen unfavorably by three-fourths

of whites, and as “irrelevant” by a majority of blacks. The FBI intensified its covert operations against him, deeming him a national security threat. He was deluged with threats of assassination.

He knew he would spark a fierce reaction but realized that he had no choice but to speak. The Vietnam debacle would divide the country and eliminate any hope of rebuilding at home.

Dr. King, of course, was proved right. He was right about the injustice of segregation and of efforts to suppress voting rights. He was right about the need for economic justice in the United States, for basic economic rights that would extend to people of all races.

Let us not censor Dr. King’s life even as we glorify him. What made him remarkable wasn’t his dream, but his willingness to sacrifice, to act, to work to make that dream real. Those who would seek to emulate Dr. King would be well advised to launch voter registration and get out the vote drives. re of this newspaper or by email at jjackson@ rainbowpush.org. Follow him on Twitter @RevJJackson.

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Texas US Representative Sylvia Garcia in the middle of the Impeachment

By CNN/StyleMagazine.com Newswire

repeatedly told reporters she did not lobby for the post. Instead, Pelosi approached her, grabbed her hands, pressed Garcia on why she had not sought the assignment and asked if she would accept the post if it was offered.

“If I’m called upon, I’m ready to do it,” a Garcia aide recounted Garcia telling the speaker.

Now as the president stands trial before the Senate, Garcia is literally at the center of the country’s latest three-ring throw-down.

“It’s been a very personally exhausting and emotion-filled week,” Garcia told reporters on a Sunday conference call.

The first Texan ever to serve as a presidential impeachment manager was a virtual unknown in national politics, a quiet freshman not noted for flash or self promotion, one who hasn’t logged hundreds of hours on cable news shows

January 30 – February 05, 2020

like others on the impeachment team.

But back home in Houston, the 69-year-old is a political giant, and even some of her closest allies find themselves forgetting that she only recently finished her first year in the U.S. House.

Garcia got to Congress, and landed in this impeachment role, through quiet competence, resilience amid the rough and tumble nature of Harris County politics and an ability to develop key relationships with friends and rivals alike, according to interviews with over a dozen Texas Democrats.

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She made history as one of the two first Texas Latinas to serve in Congress. Born in 1950, Garcia grew up in Palito Blanco the eighth of ten children.

The town is about an hour west of Corpus Christi, and was so small at the time that her immediate family constituted about one-fifth of the town’s population.

She met one of her closest early political allies, former Houston Mayor Kathy Whitmire, at the 1973 National Women’s Political Caucus convention in Houston, when Garcia, was a recent graduate of Texas Woman’s University in Denton. Garcia went on to law school at Texas Southern University, a historically black public university, and spent the 1970s deeply enmeshed in the feminist movement and the push for the Equal Rights Amendment.

We a r e a l l s o p r o u d o f how she is perfrming and do wish her with all of Gods blessings.

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January 30 – February 05, 2020

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1/15/20 12:20 PM

BRIEFS FROM MIKE BLOOMBERG ON BLACK HISTORY MONTH

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s we begin Black History Month this year, we must confront an uncomfortable truth that we have avoided for far too long: For hundreds of years, Black Americans were systematically robbed, exploited, and excluded from economic opportunity — not only through slavery, but through segregation, Jim Crow, and redlining. That legacy is still with us, and we can see it in a disturbing statistic: the typical Black family owns only one-tenth the wealth of a typical white family.

“Black history is American history, and we have much to celebrate this month, but we also have many wrongs to right. During this years’s holiday weekend celebrating Dr. King, I went to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to announce a comprehensive and ambitious plan for tackling economic inequality head on.

We call it the Greenwood Ini

tiative, in honor of the prosperous Black community in Tulsa that was destroyed by a racist white mob in 1921. Our Greenwood plan will help one million Black families buy a home, double the number of Black-owned businesses, and help Black families triple their wealth over the next decade.

union activist Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez.

The Harvard alum’s drive and passion for helping Houstonians even impressed Beyonce’s mom Tina Knowles-Lawson.

Texas Slips Slightly in National Rankings for Racial Integration and Progress

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“To create a future where race and wealth are no longer related — and where even more Black families can live the American Dream — we must make economic inequality a top priority. And as president, I will.”

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Houston.Culturemap.Com

ach year as Martin Luther King Jr. Day approaches, WalletHub does its annual check-in on racial progress across America. After measuring the gaps between black and white citizens across 21 key indicators of equality and integration in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, the personal finance site has determined that Texas is slipping — slightly. Last year, the Lone Star State was ranked second overall. This year, it’s fallen to fourth in racial integration, behind New Mexico, Hawaii, and Wyoming. But the news isn’t all bad — Texas ranks second overall in racial progress, in a promising spot behind Wyoming. To reach these standings, WalletHub totaled the states’ scores in employment and wealth, education, social and civic engagement, and health. Texas also shows up in the top five for lowest gap in percentage of adults with at least a high school diploma.

January 30 – February 05, 2020

COMCAST presents Black In Space: Breaking the Color Barrier

www.smithsonianchannel.com

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merica’s experiences during the Civil Rights Movement and the Space Race are well documented. However, few know about the moment these two worlds collided, when the White House and NASA scrambled to put the first black astronaut into orbit. This is the untold story of the decades-long battle between the U.S. and the Soviet Union to be the first superpower to bring diversity to the skies, told by the black astronauts and their families, who were part of this little known chapter of the Cold War. Comcast is hosting a screening on Tuesday, february 4, 2020 at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. – SOLD OUT!

Doris Miller.

Hispanic Parents Voice Concerns About Language Barrier in BISD

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BeaumontEnterprise.com

he Beaumont Independent School District held a meeting at El Cristo Rey Catholic Church Monday to address Hispanic parents’ concerns about a lack of bilingual employees throughout the district and at school meetings. Despite the growing Hispanic population in BISD, many parents in attendance felt their concerns are being ignored. Perez said she believes the lack of bilingual employees is part why many meetings are poorly attended. According to Texas Education Agency, in the 2018-19 school year, 25% of BISD students were Hispanic. That was a 9% increase from 2010. Currently, 79.5% of Fletcher Elementary’s student population is Hispanic — the highest percentage among all BISD schools. To address the lack of bilingual workers in the district, BISD this school year began offering increased pay for those who fill positions that seek bilingual applicants.

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Amanda Edwards

Houston’s Amanda Edwards Could Be Texas’ First Black Wtroman U.S. Senator TheGrio.com

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manda Edwards is on a mission to become the next Democratic U.S. Senator from Texas, replacing Republican incumbent Sen. John Cornyn. But she’s also vying to become the state’s first Black woman to hold the post. Edwards, 37, has a unique approach to leadership. For her, it’s not about sitting on a high horse, she says it’s about hands-on, results-oriented service leadership and empowering people to get the results they deserve. The Democratic primary takes place on March 3rd and Edwards is facing a field of 11 other candidates, which could head toward a runoff. Much of her support could come from Houston voters, but she’s also competing with rivals like former Rep. Chris Bell, state Sen. Royce West, and

Williams and Gauff

Navy to Name Aircraft Carrier For Black Pearl Harbor Hero Doris Miller

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BlackAmericaWeb.com

he U.S. Navy r expected to honor a World War II hero when a ne3w aircraft carrier is named for Mess Attendant 2nd Class Doris Miller. The announcement is expected to be made at Pearl Harbor Monday, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Friday. Miller was the first African American to receive the Navy Cross for valor. Miller was recognized for manning a machine gun on the USS West Virginia and returning fire against Japanese planes during the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. USS Miller, a destroyer escort, was previously named in his honor. Two of Miller’s nieces are expected to be at Pearl Harbor for the announcement on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Miller, then 22, was collecting laundry when the attack alarm sounded. His normal battle station in an antiaircraft battery magazine was destroyed by a torpedo.

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January 30 – February 05, 2020

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FEATURE

KOBE BRYANT: Bigger Than Basketball

By Demez White, Feature Writer

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n a foggy Sunday morning in the hills of one of the most beautiful suburbs in LA three families were taking their daughters to play in a basketball game. Along for the ride were an assistant basketball coach and the pilot.

For reasons we don’t yet know the plane crashed and everyone on board died.

An entire community devastated for what was supposed to be just another afternoon ride like they have done time and time before.

But this ride would be different.

This ride would be etched in the minds of millions and leave the world in shock and sorrow.

Kobe and Gianna Bryant (An NBA legend and humanitarian, his daughter) John, Keri and Alyssa Altobelli (A legendary junior college baseball coach with ties to the University of Houston, his wife, and daughter) Christina Mauser (A woman’s basketball coach) Ara Zobayan (The pilot) Sarah and Payton Chester (A mother and daughter)

Parents, daughters, coaches, and a pilot were all gone in a split second. Parents, children, and loved ones waiting at the sports complex for the helicopter carrying those nine individuals to arrive got news they never will forget. “We regret to inform you that your loved ones have perished in a helicopter crash.” Denial sets in first. Then unbelievable pain as reality comes into focus. Shock takes over as one replays the last moments in their head to make sure this was not a dream. Finally, acceptance creeps in as tears begin to fall and questions that will never have answers begin to form.

“Why them?” ”Why now?”

“Why so soon?”

“Why, why, and why?”

The “whys” come from the families, the friends, the colleagues, and the world. School officials try to explain to young minds not yet developed enough to understand the meaning of death. Friends and colleagues try to comprehend what happened while families are just numb to it all. Families from the same community are broken.

Sunday, January 26, 2020

The day was just an ordinary Sunday for me. I took pleasure in watching my son play on the floor with his toys. I watched my wife prepare for an interview for later that evening. The dogs were running around, the sun was shining, and I was getting things lit on the grill as I prepared meat to go on the pit. Playing in the background was a college basketball game when my Sunday was interrupted. Big as day across my cell screen on TMZ’s twitter feed were the words, “Kobe Bryant dies in a helicopter crash.”

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Kobe Bryant

But that can’t be, right? That can’t be real? He’s Kobe, the KOBE, Kobe doesn’t die, he goes on to build movie studios or buy professional basketball teams. He watches his daughter take women’s basketball to another level. I rubbed my eyes to refocus them and I take another look at my phone.

“Kobe Bryant and Rick Fox die in a helicopter crash?” I say to myself.

Rick Fox? Rick Fox and Kobe together? Wait!

I look to see my wife, who is always up on entertainment news, looking puzzled at the distraught look on my face, “What’s going on she asks?” I show her my phone, she puts her hand over her mouth, grabs her own phone, and we both shared the same flustered look.

“Oh my GOD, they’re saying all his daughters were on the plane!”

We scroll social media feeds looking for information, we turn on the news for confirmation. All the news is scattered with differentiating details except one.

Kobe Bryant is dead at 41.

Is this real?

At some point, the realization sets in that Kobe Bryant, superstar player for the Los Angeles Lakers, is, in fact, dead.

Rick Fox tweets he isn’t dead.

More details emerge. It’s not Kobe’s entire family, which one can be grateful for, but that is nothing to celebrate.

However, one of Bryant princesses is gone, the one that loved basketball, Gianna.

A girl and her dad Gianna, the middle child with the Mamba mentality,

January 30 – February 05, 2020

was the one to carry on the baller legacy.

She reintroduced her dad to basketball and gave him a new reason to love the game. She was the one he traveled with, trained, coached, and the one who was most like him. He wore #24 and as a chip off the old block she dropped the #4 to just wear #2. She wanted to be just like him and he wanted her to be better than him. We will never know her true potential. We will never see her wear that #2 Husky jersey (Uconn was her favorite college team). We will never know her other talents for young Giana would die alongside her father on the way to do something she loved and what they shared.

Play in a basketball game.

The husband, The father, The man

The journalist in me knows I should tell you about all his basketball accomplishments. I should talk about my favorite moment on the court when I knew he was my favorite player. I should recall the championships, the awards, and other accolades but that was just a portion of the man that was a giant for more than basketball. The points, awards, and accomplishments that seemed bigger than life only seem insignificant now.

I watched an interview he gave to high school kids when he was maybe twenty-one years old. He told them how he defined success - working hard, finding a woman that you love, and having a family that loves you back. One of the kids laughed and told him that made him soft. Kobe laughed back and told him, “I’d still whip your ass on the court.”

Those weren’t just words he said. That was his mantra. He married

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the love of his life, Vanessa, and though some of their struggles were public knowledge they stayed the course and created four beautiful daughters. His life with Vanessa and his daughters was everything to him. In fact, it was one of the reasons he traveled by helicopter.

He wanted to train like a beast but still wanted to take and pick his daughters up from school. For ten years or more he’s been on helicopters flying around LA like the Superman he was.

Kobe represents greatness to me. He was willing to walk away from everything after winning three straight titles because he knew his legacy wasn’t complete unless he did it without Shaq.

He lost games and won games but didn’t stop until he was a champion again.

As men, we aren’t supposed to be emotional, especially not about a basketball player that we only know from watching him on television. However, finding out Kobe died hurt me in a way that has only hurt when I lost someone I loved.

I won’t apologize for being a fan, for appreciating greatness, for celebrating his Oscar win like it was for all of us. Read the Instagram captions, read the articles, listen to the stories - He was an amazing man. A man that lived his life without fear of failure, a man that was kind and courteous to everyone he came across.He wasn’t on a helicopter with an entourage or a security team.

He wasn’t on his way to Vegas or the Grammy’s. He was on a helicopter with coaches and parents who had a vast love for their children on a Sunday morning going to support their kids at an AAU basketball game. Listen to him talk about his daughter, listen to him talk about his players, listen to the way he spoke about his daughter and listen to the love in all the answers.

His love for his children was great. In my heart, I believe his love for Vanessa was even greater because she gave him that those girls he adored.

I can’t begin to imagine how she feels now. You lose a husband; a daughter and you have three other daughters at home that you have to explain why daddy and their sister are not coming home.

They don’t understand what’s going on or the concept of death. You must be their rock of understanding, support, and love. The world is expecting you to be Jackie Kennedy, the gracious grieving widow, when all you want to do is close your eyes, shut them out and hope what you are going through is just a very bad nightmare.

Vanessa doesn’t owe us anything. Instead, we owe her. We owe her thanks for all those nights Kobe shared with us while missing out on quality family time. We owe a debt of gratitude for all those times Kobe inspired our children instead of spending time with his own.

The 5 Stages of Grief: How to Get Through It BlackDoctor.Org

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eath has a bad name in our culture, and it is all too often that a grieving person is told to “get over it”, “carry on”, or “be strong” in the midst of their grief.

While these bromides may be easy to say, they are generally unhelpful and can short-circuit or interrupt the very healthy grieving process of someone who’s lost a loved one.

Last week, my wife’s father died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 75. Diabetic, overweight, and prone to various dietary indulgences, his death was not entirely unexpected in the bigger picture, but one always feels that there’s more time, more visits, another Christmas, another family vacation or reunion down the road. His death was shocking on some levels, and the grieving began from the moment my wife received the call from her mother that he had indeed died.

The 5 Stages of Grief

As developed by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in the 1960s and 1970s, there are generally five widely accepted basic stages of the grieving process, and these include denial, anger, depression, bargaining, and acceptance. This process, however, is not cut and dry, and these stages can occur in any order over an enormously variable amount of time.

Some individuals may cycle through all five stages in the course of a single afternoon, while others may remain in one stage for weeks or months, “stuck” in depression or “stalled” in an overwhelming feeling of anger.

A Multitude of Emotions

While these stages may seem somewhat simplistic on a certain level, their simplicity belies the notion that, hidden within those five stages are a multitude of feelings and emotions that contribute to the overall sense of loss

that each stage communicates.

The depressed person may isolate, but the angry person may also do the same, and while one person bargains with God, another may simply move into a feeling of acceptance, only to be overwhelmed with grief when the next birthday or holiday rolls around.

Grieving…While Still Living Your Life Most professionals who work with those who are grieving would agree that the grieving process is long, sometimes lifelong in its depth and breadth. Feelings of loss can come and go, and the grieving individual may even experience moments of elation, laughter, liberation, and peace.

Even then, that same individual may also experience guilt, sensing somewhere in his or her mind that laughter and joy somehow dishonor the dead and lessen their importance and the significance of their passing. This guilt is indeed misplaced, but it is a normal part of the grieving process and is widely experienced by those grieving the loss of a loved one, whether sudden or expected.

While some widows and widowers report that the first year is the hardest, others find that the second or third year is even more difficult to navigate, especially as other family members move on with their lives and the widow

or widower remains alone with their memories and their pain.

There is no cookie-cutter answer or map that can chart the course of a grieving individual’s experience.

We know that the grieving individual will experience an enormous range of emotions over the short- and long-term, and we must honor the fact that every person’s reaction to the death of a loved one will be unique.

Read the full story online at

If I could do one thing, I’d tell the world she counts.

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9 PM January 30 – February 05, 2020 1/15/20 4:11

EAT WITH STYLE

A Classic, Slow-Cooked Meal

By Culinary.net/Family Features

W

hether you’re looking for a family meal or a dish to feed a different type of crowd, taking advantage of kitchen tools like your slow cooker can help take the effort out of preparation. Flavored using cranberries and oranges, this Cranberry-Orange Pork Loin is a classic dish that’s perfect for entertaining any type of group.

Find more recipes at Culinary.net.

Cranberry-Orange Pork Loin 1 tablespoon oil 1 pork loin (4 pounds), tied at 1-inch intervals 14 ounces cranberry sauce 1 cup dried cranberries 3/4 cup orange juice 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon 3 strips orange zest salt, to taste pepper, to taste In skillet over medium heat, heat oil.

Sear pork loin on all sides.

In slow cooker, stir cranberry sauce, dried cranberries, orange juice, cinnamon and orange zest until combined.

Set pork loin in middle of sauce mixture and drizzle sauce over meat.

Cover and cook on low 4 hours, or Cranberry-Orange Pork Loin

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January 30 – February 05, 2020

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until meat reaches 140-145 F. Transfer pork to cutting board. Remove twine.

Strain cranberries from slow cooker; set aside. Pour strained liquid into skillet. Add salt and pepper, to taste.

Simmer 7-8 minutes.

Spoon cranberries and sauce over pork loin.

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LIFESTYLE

Top 5 Signs You Need a Personal Renewal W

By Dr. Kimberly McLeod, Feature Writer

elp. The scale is not a liar. When did your clothes stop fitting?

Where did that extra weight come from? Why won’t it just go away?

Stress eating, binge eating, pot luck eating, snack eating, fancy eating, just eating up any and everything. You’re not even hungry. You’re just eating to be eating. You need a new start.

walk, brisk walk it really doesn’t matter.

Just move your body. All of that negative energy your body is storing needs to be released. Release it – physically.

Take a walk.

While walking think about whatever is causing you pain and walk harder.

Keep pressing all of that negative energy out, until you can think about it and you aren’t sick in the stomach.

Exercise has been flipping the remote control. You know better, but you just don’t have the will to do better. You know exactly what you need to do.

You know the perfect time in your busy schedule to get it done. You just don’t do it because you need a break. You don’t just need a break you need a revival.

You take off work for your “mental health day” and it just doesn’t do it for you anymore. You don’t get recharged, you actually get more tired and more reluctant to go back and get into the swing of things. You took a day off, but what you really want is an escape.

Anxiety steals your smiles. You try to enjoy the simple things in life and even that is short lived. Your body feels lost, even while you are following the

When your negative energy escapes.

Let it go. Let it all go. Replace that with the first step you are going to take to move life forward. Don’t plan all the steps, just the first one. Then take it. The next steps will follow.

Dr. Kimberly McLeod

exact same daily routine. You’re moving through life, but joy, peace and growth are not moving with you.

Effort towards almost anything seems unlikely to happen. Not today at least; and tomorrow isn’t looking so good either.

If you’ve felt any or all of these in your right now life, its time for a right now renewal. You are in the great be-

yond and you need to move to the right now. Nothing you are experiencing is uncommon to humanity. Nothing. I love it when people say “Don’t worry, this too shall pass.” Indeed it will. Your friends that tell you that, are absolutely right; but while it is passing you need to survive the storm. Survive the storm with your personal renewal. Three tips to get you started.

Walk it off. Take a long walk, short

Dr. Kimberly McLeod is a 25-year education professional , motivational speaker and an expert consultant in the field of cultural responsiveness. To read and engage with her more, visit www.

CreativeEnergy.co. Connect with Dr. McLeod on Twitter @mcleodkr, FB/drkmcleod, Linkedin/KimberlyMcLeod or email DrKMcLeod@gmail.com. Share this story online at www.stylemagazine. com.

Visit the All of Us Journey

Wednesday, January 30 at the Houston Texans YMCA Stop by and visit the All of Us Journey. This traveling educational exhibit is heading to local areas across the U.S. The goal of All of Us is to speed up breakthroughs in health research by learning how differences between us might lead to different types of treatments. This is a new research program from the National Institutes of Health.

The All of Us Journey exhibit will be onsite at the Houston Texans YMCA on Thursday, January 30 from 10 am-4 pm and offers activities to help you learn about the program. Please consider joining us to learn more as we aid this effort to secure a healthier future.

joinallofus.org Precision Medicine Initiative, PMI, All of Us, the All of Us logo, and “The Future of Health Begins with You” are service marks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

HOUSTON TEXANS YMCA 5202 Griggs Road Houston, TX 77021 713-748-5405 ymcahouston.org

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January 30 – February 05, 2020

11

ENTERTAINMENT

Lets Talk with TAYLOR PARX

By Kayla Simmons, Features

H

ave you ever had some news that you couldn’t wait to share? News that you’re sure everyone would want to know. News that would go viral in an instant and have everyone’s ears on pins and needles. Houston Style Magazine has that news and, Houston, let’s just say we need to talk.

Talk about the Grammy-nominated singer and creative who is the first female songwriter to have three simultaneous top 10 songs in the Billboard Hot 100 since 2014. Let’s chat about the lyricist behind Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings” and Panic! At The Disco’s “High Hopes.” Speak about the multifaceted phenomenon that was encouraged to pursue singing and acting by the famed Debbie Allen. Discuss the talents displayed by the then twelve-year-old Taylor Parks that made her acting debut in the film adaptation of Hairspray. Let’s talk about Tayla Parx.

Taylor Parks, known by her stage name Tayla Parx, is a dynamic

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force in the music industry that has had her share of success on many billboard albums. In fact, if you are a fan of music, she’s likely had her creative juices flow onto your favorite song. But before there was music there was television and film for the young entertainer.

After her big break on the silver screen, the Dallas, Texas native made several appearances on the small screen on a variety of shows. She played in roles for hit TV shows like Everybody Hates Chris, Gilmore Girls, and a reoccurring role on True Jackson VP. However, music has always been Parx’s first love and she decided to take a back seat from acting to focus on her music career.

Parx started her career behind the scenes being the creative muse for some of the most requested songs on the airwaves. She has worked with such artists as Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys, Kanye West, Fifth Harmony, The

January 30 – February 05, 2020

Internet, Jennifer Lopez, Janelle Monáe and so many more. Soon her name was among those known as the go-to for writing hit after hit.

Now that Parx has proven her music abilities she is ready to create a lane for herself with the debut of her highly anticipated new album We Need To Talk. Boy, does she have a lot to talk about! She has a new album, a new tour, and a new passion for her craft. Let’s get talking with Tayla Parx.

Kayla Simmons: I have had your We Need To Talk album on repeat and let me tell you, it’s such a great album with a unique vibe. What inspired your We Need To Talk album?

Tayla Parx: All of my albums are little entries of my diary. I wait and I allow my life to just happen, and that’s when the album begins to naturally form. This time, it was really me diving into all of my masculine and feminine qualities, while also expressing the experience of falling in love for the first time and getting my heartbroken for the first time.

My music reflects what I went through and how I feel about it. Now people can hear my story and what I’ve experienced with love. I started doing that back with the TaylaMade mixtape in 2017. My albums have interludes that lead to the next song and allow the story to move along. I’m telling you a little bit more about myself through music.

KS: Let’s talk about the We Need To Talk tour. What is something your fans can expect from your performance here in Houston?

TP: I’m really excited to be coming back to the south! I’m excited to take the same things that you can imagine I would do with all of the neon colors and really bring my colorful world onto that stage. Being on tour with other artists; like when I was on tour with Lizzo or Anderson Paak as an opening act; you can’t really make your stage up the way that you would like to make it. So, I’m excited to be headlining my first tour and really showing my fans this is how I do it!

KS: After this tour, what are your future plans? Could we possibly see you on the big screen again?

TP: After this tour, I’m super excited to expand and continue to evolve as an artist, songwriter, and an overall creative. I kind of miss acting right now so you can definitely expect to see me

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getting back into that.

KS: I want to talk about your merchandise. You have the Trailer Parx merchandise. Where can we purchase it? Will it be available to purchase during the tour?

TP: Yes, we’re actually going to have some exclusive merchandise that you can only get at the show as well as some items that will be going up online. You can go to taylaparx.com or trailerparx. com to get the merch as well. I’m actually going to be diving deeper into the Trailer Parx line in 2020 and dropping more items.

Architectural Peer Review Services RFQ Houston First Corporation requests Statements of Qualification from experienced firms able to provide architectural and structural peer review services in connection with the development by a third party of a 308-room hotel on a pad site atop Partnership Tower.

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BOOK REVIEW “By and By: Charles Albert Tindley, Tindley, Father of Gospel Music

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By Carole Boston Weatherford, Illustrated By Bryan Collier • Review By Terri Schlichenmeyer

very Sunday morning, you get to do your favorite thing. You get to sing.

You know the words to all the songs without even looking. Every tune is one you’ve sang before, one your Mama’s known since she was little, one your Grandma sang once upon a time. All you need is to hear the first few notes and your voice is lifted high, and as in the new book “By and By” by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Bryan Collier, your praise rises beyond the clouds.

Though you’ve always liked to sing, Charles Albert Tindley’s entire life was a song.

It started as a sad song, when he was born in Maryland nearly 170 years ago: his father was a slave and his mother was a free woman. The law said that Charles was free like his mother and so, when she died and because his father had no rights, the boy suddenly had no parents! His aunt took him in, and sent

him to work on nearby farms.

The work was hard, but singing gave Charles something to think about.

He first learned “chants in the field” and then he heard spirituals sung between the crops. This inspired him to want to learn and so, by the light of an oil lamp and fire in the hearth, he taught himself to read the newspaper and then, a Bible.

Young Charles was inspired!

Soon, he started looking for a church to attend and when he found one, he went – and even though he had no shoes, the preacher there welcomed him and let him testify before the congregation.

Charles promised himself that nothing would ever come between him and God, ever.

As he grew with God, Charles Albert Tindley became Reverend Tindley, who had a wife and a church and a congregation all his own. His church helped people during the Great Depression. They had an orchestra. And every Sunday, the songs that Reverend Tindley

wrote were lifted up to God – just as they are now, this week, perhaps, in your own church…

If your household is like most, music surrounds your child from a variety of sources: oldies, new artists, classics, and hymns. Some come from what may be a surprising source, and “By and By” tells the tale.

And yet, use caution when introducing this story to your kids: for the smallest reader, the story of “The Father of Gospel Music” might need a bit more explaining. Author Carole Boston Weatherford’s poem-biography tells a lot but perhaps not enough so that preschoolers will easily understand, particularly in its significance. Parents and grandparents will find notes at the end of the book to be of further help – or, alternately, you can let the lush artwork from Bryan Collier teach your child everything he needs to know for now about this inspiring tale.

The 4-to-8-year-old child who

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loves to sing, who loves to dance, and who loves her church will want you to read this book. “By and By” could become her favorite thing.

Share this story online at: www.StyleMagazine.com.

January 30 – February 05, 2020

13

2020

SENATOR BORRIS MILES CELEBRATION OF LIFE EVENT

BORRIS MILES - CELEBRATION OF LIFE Photography by Vicky Pink enator Borris L. Miles invited family, friends, and supporters to his Celebration of Life Fundraising Reception. Senator Miles expressed how it was an honor and privilege to serve as the State Senator Senate District 13 and to fight for the people. Some of the hosts of the event were Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Congressman Al Green, Rep. Shawn Thierry, Rep. Ron Reynolds, Senator John Whitmire, Senator Carol Alvarado, Senator Senfronia Thompson, Rep. Jarvis Johnson, Mayor Sylvester Turner, Rep. Harold Dutton, Rep. Garnet Coleman, Commissioner Rodney Ellis, Commissioner Grady Prestage, and Commissioner Theldon Branch.

2020

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RESOURCES FOR LIVING FAIR UNITY COMMUNITY CHURCH

UNITY IN THE COMMUNITY

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Photography by Vicky Pink

nity of Houston Church opened their doors to host the Resources for Living Fair. This free, family-friendly event combined fun with learning, while providing individuals the assistance to meet their basic needs. Thirty-five local service providers, as well as city and county departments, were part of the event. Attendees received medical, vision, and hearing screenings and referrals. Other services included immunizations, immigration guidance, library and Metro information, nutrition programs, children’s dental assessments, and much more.

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January 30 – February 05, 2020

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2020

OSCAR, PRESTON & DERALD BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION PHIL & DEREK’S BAR & GRILL

OSCAR MCGAR & PRESTON MIDDLETON

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Photography by Vicky Pink

2020

parkles popped off at the triple birthday celebration for Oscar McGarr, Preston Middleton and Derald Crawford. Family and friends put on their best all black threads to celebrate another year of life with the fabulous three. Entertainment was provided by Choppa Law and the Above the Law Band. Some in attendance were Richard Howard, Dr. Milton Moore, Lanease Fuller, Cam Hill, Vicki, Karen Miles, Clarence Miller, Shelly White, Sharp Davis, Conte Terrell, Norma Williams, Durrell Ewing, and Bobby Scott.

SONIA WHITE’S BIRTHDAY HILTON AMERICAS-HOUSTON

SONIA WHITE’S BIRTHDAY FUNDRAISER

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Photography by Vicky Pink

It was a great celebration for Sonia White’s birthday and her friends that attended to support the nonprofit organization, The Smith Foundation, Inc. White used the affair to raise funds for the foundation. To date the Smith Foundation has awarded $108,200.00 in scholarships over the past two years to college students.

The Founding partners include Harry Leonard Smith and Mya Smith-Edmonds (his daughter) established the nonprofit to reach, uplift, support, enhance the lives and empower all people to reach their full potential. Proceeds from the Harlem Nights themed affair benefited scholarships for students. Some in attendance were State Rep. Ron Reynolds, Dr. Jonita Reynolds, Oscar McGarr, Cam Hill, Verna and Emanuel Caddie, Sam Turner, Sharilyn Fisher, Darla Horn, Bridget Sandlin,

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January 30 – February 05, 2020

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