Houston Style Magazine Vol 32 No 46

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November 11, 2021 - November 17, 2021

Houston’s Premiere Weekly Publication, Since 1989

Volume 32 | Number 46

Complimentary

Jesse Jackson

The Tragedy at

Our Criminal Justice System Needs Reform

Will Smith

Kicks Off New book Tour in Philidelphia

By: Brandon Caldwell Photo Credit: Michael Anthony

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$626 Million For Families In Flint Water Crisis

Paula Harris

New Executive Director of Houston Astros

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N E W S | C O M M E N TA R I E S | S P O R T S | H E A LT H | E N T E R TA I N M E N T Support Black Owned Businesses

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Publisher Francis Page, Jr. fpagejr@stylemagazine.com Associate Publisher Lisa Valadez lisa@stylemagazine.com Managing Editor Jo-Carolyn Goode editorial@stylemagazine.com Social Media Editor/Videographer Reginald Dominique reggiedominique@me.com 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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"Infrastructure Week has finally arrived." Biden called the package a “blue-collar blueprint to rebuilding America.”

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COMMENTARY

OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM NEEDS DRAMATIC REFORM

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By Jesse Jackson, National Political Writer

he In the civil rights movement we were constantly reminded to keep our eyes on the prize. What’s the prize? Equality of opportunity and results, which requires equity in every facet of our lives — education, housing, home ownership, job training, employment, political access, and especially in the criminal justice system.

Our criminal justice system needs dramatic reform. Blacks make up more than 40 percent of the prison population, but only 13 percent of the nation’s population. The geographic numerator changes — north or south — but the denominator remains the same — an unjust criminal justice system nationwide. Three current incidents illustrate: Jelani Day in Peru, Illinois; Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin; and Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia.

Jelani Day, a 25-year-old Black medical student at Illinois State University, was a "bright light" in his family, who, along with his sister, were competing to become doctors. He disappeared on August 24. The family and a professor reported him missing on August 25. His car was found two days later in a wooded area near where his body was later discovered in Peru, Illinois, miles from where he was last seen.

LaSalle County law enforcement officials discovered his body on September 4 "floating near the south bank of the Illinois River approximately a quarter-of-a-mile east of the Illinois Route 251 Bridge.”

The parents continue to be critical of the investigation because little focus was initially put on his disappearance. It occurred in the context of the vanished and subsequent death of Gabby Petito, which was receiving national coverage.

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There are inconsistencies, a high degree of incompetence and a lack of collaboration between various law enforcement agencies surrounding the case. There is still no closure about what happened to Jelani Day. Rusten Sheskey, accompanied by two other white police officers responding to a domestic complaint by the fiancée of Jacob Blake, a Black man, shot Blake seven times in the back, with his children looking on in the back seat.

Blake, they say, refused to obey the officers, so they opened his car door and reached inside.

Blake was left partially paralyzed by the incident.

Racial violence followed in Kenosha. Officer Sheskey was not charged with a crime.

As disturbances continued, a white 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse decided to take the law into his own hands, left home in Antioch, Illinois, with his mother driving him to Kenosha with a loaded military-style semiautomatic rifle (illegal for a person his age) “to assist the police in protecting businesses.” He killed two protesters and wounded another but walked freely past police officers and military vehicles even as onlookers shouted that he had just shot several people. The next day, Rittenhouse was arrested and is now on trial for five felonies and a misdemeanor.

A white judge, Bruce Schroeder, who has a history of controversial behavior from the bench, seemed unfair as he told the prosecution they could not refer to the victims of the shooting as victims, but that the defense could refer to them as rioters and looters, if they had such evidence. One juror has already been removed from the jury for making a racial joke about Jacob Blake. The judge has also attacked the press in court as unfair in its coverage, and the trial has seemed unfair from the start.

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Ahmaud Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper, Octavio Jones/Pool Photo via AP Ahmaud Aubery, an unarmed Black jogger, was shot and killed by three white vigilantes. The jury was seated last week with 11 white jurors and only one Black juror in a city that’s 25 percent Black. Defense attorneys used preemptive challenges to remove multiple potential Black jurors who were asked question like what they thought of Black Lives Matter and whether there were racial problems between the Black community and the police. Their answers were then used to remove them from the jury.

Additionally, the defense seems to be trying to put Mr. Aubery on trial by showing pictures of him looking around in buildings under construction, claiming there had been recent robberies in the community, and the defendants were only trying to make a citizen’s arrest and hold him until the police came – like they were protecting the community.

The simplest way to demonstrate the racial dimension of all three incidents – and one could add the events of January 6 at the U.S.

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Capitol — is to reverse the racial roles of everyone. Imagine the actual victims as white and the alleged perpetrators as Black. What these cases show is a pattern – a lineage of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, George Floyd, Michael Brown, the Charleston nine — that we cannot accept as normal. Would we see these incidents in the same way if they were reversed? Obviously not. The only solution is to engage in mass action and mass voting that will allow the truth to come out.

You can write Rev. Jesse Jackson by email at jjackson@rainbowpush.org Follow him on Twitter @RevJJackson

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POLITICAL: BIDEN’S INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN WILL SET ASIDE ABOUT $35 BILLION FOR TEXAS PROJECTS

By Bethany Irvine and Kalley Huang, www.ReformAustin.org

Houston Skyline (Reform Austin Images)

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he White House estimates that Texas will receive about $35.44 billion over five years for roads, bridges, pipes, ports, broadband access and other projects after federal lawmakers passed a long-anticipated national infrastructure bill on Friday.

The influx of capital is set to advance existing transit plans, pay for much-needed repairs and could lay the groundwork toward increasing transportation options for Texans.

U.S. House lawmakers gave the roughly $1.2 trillion measure final approval late Friday after a series of negotiations and concessions to get the bill passed. President Joe Biden is expected to sign the bill into law soon.

“The need for action in Texas is clear,” a White House fact sheet read.

“For decades, infrastructure in Texas has suffered from a systemic lack of investment.”

The funds expected to come to Texas were determined by the White House through the bill’s state allotment formula. Texas will also have the opportunity to apply for grants in a variety of categories in addition to these funds.

It’s unclear how the money will be spent or what projects it will fund at this point, but the dollars will be set aside for a variety of new and maintenance projects, from highway expansions and broadband access to modernizing public transit throughout the state.

Here is the breakdown of the funds that Texas is expected to receive based on estimates from the White House:

• Federal highway programs:

$26.9 billion • Public transportation: $3.3 billion • Drinking water infrastruc

ture (and removing lead

pipes): $2.9 billion • Airports: $1.2 billion • Bridge replacement and re

pairs: $537 million • Electric vehicle charging net

work: $408 million • Broadband expansion: $100 million • Wildfire protection: $53 million • Cyberattacks protection: $42 million The White House also estimated that $3.5 billion will be invested to

weatherize the country’s energy infrastructure, but it wasn’t immediately clear how much of that money would go to Texas or how those plans could combine with measures approved by the Texas Legislature this year in response to February’s devastating winter storm.

U.S. Rep. Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, D-Houston, said the massive spending bill will help revitalize projects across the state and jumpstart new ones — as well as stimulate the state’s economy, which is still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

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NATIONAL: FEDERAL JUDGE RULES TEXAS SCHOOL MASK BAN VIOLATES AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

By Raja Razek and Christina Maxouris - www.CNN.com

Kindergarten teacher helps student with hand sanitizer. (@shunterra)

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federal judge has ruled that Texas' ban on mask mandates in schools violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to court documents filed Wednesday in US District Court for the Western District of Texas.

The ruling follows months of clashes between state and local leaders over mask mandates in schools -- not just in Texas, but across the country. Similar mandates became the topic of heated debates earlier this year as the Delta variant sent Covid-19 case numbers surging once again and schools across the United States began to reopen while many students were still ineligible for a vaccine.

According to the court documents filed Wednesday, Texas independent school districts could choose whether to implement mask mandates for in-person instruction during the 20202021 school year. But before the new school year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an order which, among other things, prohibited public schools from requiring students, staff and visitors to wear masks in their facilities.

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"Texans, not government, should decide their best health practices, which is why masks will not be mandated by public school districts or government entities," Abbott had said in May. "We can continue to mitigate COVID-19 while defending Texans' liberty to choose whether or not they mask up."

But as the state grappled amid a nationwide spike in cases and hospitalizations over the summer, some school districts sought out ways around the ban or chose to ignore the governor's order in hopes of curbing the spread of the virus.

Disability Rights Texas, an advocacy group, filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of several Texas families against the governor, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath, claiming the spread of the virus was posing "an even greater risk for children with special health needs."

Children with certain underlying conditions who contract COVID-19 are more likely to experience severe acute biological effects and to require admission to a hospital and the hospital's

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intensive-care unit," the lawsuit said. "This includes children with conditions including, Down syndrome, organ transplants, lung conditions, heart conditions, and weakened immune systems."

The ruling signed by US District Court Judge Lee Yeakel says that "at issue is whether Governor Greg Abbott's Executive Order GA-38 violates Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990."

The evidence presented by Plaintiffs establishes that Plaintiffs are being denied the benefits of in-person learning on an equal basis as their peers without disabilities. The court concludes that GA-38 violates the ADA," the ruling said.

Following the judge's decision, the Texas attorney general wrote on Twitter, "I strongly disagree with Judge Yeakel's opinion barring my office from giving effect to GA-38, which prohibits mask mandates imposed by government entities like school districts."

"My agency is considering all legal avenues to challenge this decision," the attorney

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general wrote.

The ruling also follows a September announcement from the US Education Department's civil rights enforcement arm that it was opening an investigation to determine whether the state's school mask mandate ban was preventing school districts from "considering or meeting the needs of students with disabilities."

At the time, the department said in a letter to Morath it was "concerned that Texas's restriction on schools and school districts from putting masking requirements in place may be preventing schools in Texas from meeting their legal obligations not to discriminate based on disability and from providing an equal educational opportunity to students with disabilities who are at heightened risk of severe illness from COVID-19."

For more Information visit:

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NATIONAL: JUDGE GIVES FINAL APPROVAL OF $626 MILLION SETTLEMENT FOR PEOPLE AFFECTED BY FLINT WATER CRISIS

By Laura Ly and Michael Besozzi - www.CNN.com

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Victims of the Flint, Michigan lead-tainted water crisis has been given final approval by U.S. District Judge Judith Levy. (Ryan Garza /Detroit Free Press)

federal judge has given final approval of a $626 million settlement for people affected by the Flint water crisis, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

US District Judge Judith E. Levy wrote in her order the settlement is a "remarkable achievement for many reasons" and said it "sets forth a comprehensive compensation program and timeline that is consistent for every qualifying participant."

The details of the settlement, which is expected to provide compensation to "tens of thousands of people who were impacted by exposure to lead, legionella, and other contaminants from the City of Flint's municipal water supply system," were first made public in August 2020.

At the time, the interim co-lead counsel for victims of the crisis said in a news release the settlement was "the result of 5 years of litigation and 18 months of court

supervised negotiations," adding that "Interim Co-lead Counsel will continue to pursue claims against the remaining defendants on behalf of certain residents and local businesses in the City of Flint harmed by the water crisis."

Flint declared a state of emergency over the water crisis in 2015, a little more than a month after the Environmental Protection Agency published a report saying it had found dangerous levels of lead -- which can affect the heart, kidneys and nerves -- in the water flowing into residents' homes.

A focus on younger victims The settlement will establish a court-monitored victims compensation fund that will provide direct payments to Flint residents -- with nearly 80% of the money going to those who were younger than 18 at the time of the crisis, according to the terms of the settlement. Minors who were 6 years old or

younger will receive the biggest share.

In addition, $35 million will be set aside for "future minor claimants" to accommodate children who did not file claims immediately, according to the court documents.

These children will be given the opportunity to file a settlement claim before they turn 19 years old, subject to available funds.

"This distribution recognizes that those who were exposed to contaminated Flint Water at a younger age will experience the more harm than older people," Levy wrote.

Affected adults will be allocated 15% of the funds, property owners and renters will receive 3%, business owners and operators will receive 0.5%, and 2% of the funds will be set aside for "programmatic relief," which will provide special education services for qualifying individuals, according to court documents.

Levy noted that the defendants par-

ticipating in the settlement do not include all individuals involved in litigation regarding the water crisis, so the settlement is "only a partial settlement of the Flint Water cases."

About $600 million of the $626 million settlement will be paid by the state of Michigan and other defendants associated with state agencies, making it "one of the largest settlements in the State's history," Levy wrote.

The remaining portions will be split between the city of Flint and its associated defendants, McLaren Healthcare, and Rowe Professional Services Company, the order states.

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VETERANS DAY LEGISLATION TARGETS GI BILL RACIAL INEQUITIES

By Aaron Morrison and Kat Stafford , www.AP.com – Newswire

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Major James A. Ellison, left, returns the salute of Mac Ross of Dayton, Ohio, as he inspects the cadets at the Basic and Advanced Flying School for Black United States Army Air Corps cadets at the Tuskegee Institute in Jan. 23, 1942. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

tor Veterans Day, a group of Democratic lawmakers is reviving an effort to pay the families of Black service members who fought on behalf of the nation during World War II for benefits they were denied or prevented from taking full advantage of when they returned home from war.

The new legislative effort would benefit surviving spouses and all living descendants of Black WWII veterans whose families were denied the opportunity to build wealth with housing and educational benefits through the GI Bill.

Since 1944, those benefits have been offered to millions of veterans transitioning to civilian life. But due to racism and discrimination in how they were granted through local Veterans Affairs offices, many Black WWII veterans received substantially less money toward purchasing a home or continuing their education.

The Senate bill was to be introduced Thursday by Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, the son of a WWII veteran.

“We’ve all seen how these inequities have trickled down over time,” Warnock said, adding that the bill “represents a major step toward righting this injustice.”

A House version was introduced last week by Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the Democratic majority whip, and Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts.

“This is an opportunity for America to repair an egregious fault,” said Clyburn. “Hopefully it can also begin to lay a foundation that will help break the cycle of poverty among those people who are the descendants of those who made sacrifices to preserve this democracy.”

Moulton, a Marine veteran who served four tours during the Iraq War, said: “There are a lot of Black Americans who are feeling the effects of this injustice today, even though it was originally perpetrated 70 years ago.”

“I think that restoring GI Bill benefits is one of the greatest racial justice issues of our time,” he said.

The legislation would extend the VA Loan Guaranty Program and GI Bill

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educational assistance to Black WWII veterans and their descendants who are alive at the time of the bill’s enactment. It would also create a panel of independent experts to study inequities in how benefits are administered to women and people of color.

Lawrence Brooks, who at 112 years old is the oldest living U.S. veteran, was drafted to serve during WWII and assigned to the mostly-Black 91st Engineer General Service Regiment.

The Louisiana native, who has 12 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren, always believed that serving his country was the only way he could leave behind his life as the son of sharecroppers, said his daughter, Vanessa Brooks.

But after he was discharged in August 1945 as a private first class, he did not realize his dream of going to college, working instead as a forklift driver before retiring in his 60s. “He always wanted to go to school,” his daughter said.

And when he bought his home, he used his retirement fund, not GI Bill benefits, she said.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act into law in 1944, making generous financial subsidies available to 16 million WWII veterans pursuing higher education and buying their first homes. Irrespective of race, veterans who served more than 90 days during the war and had been honorably discharged were entitled to the benefits.

But after returning from the war, Black and white veterans faced two very different realities.

Because the GI Bill benefits had to be approved by local VA officers, few of whom were Black, the process created problems for veterans. This was particularly acute in the Deep South where Jim Crow segregation imposed racist barriers to homeownership and education.

Local VA officers there either made it difficult for Black veterans to access their benefits or lessened their value by steering them away from predominantly white fouryear colleges and toward vocational and

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other non-degree programs. Meanwhile, the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities saw such a significant increase of enrollment among Black veterans that the schools were forced to turn away tens of thousands of prospective students.

Sgt. Joseph Maddox, one of two WWII veterans Moulton and Clyburn named their bill after, was denied tuition assistance by his local VA office despite being accepted into a master’s degree program at Harvard University.

“When it came time to pay the bill, the government just said no,” said Moulton, who himself attended Harvard on the GI Bill.

“It actually is pretty emotional for vets who have gone through this themselves and, like myself, know what a difference the GI Bill made in our lives.”

The bill is also named for Sgt. Isaac Woodard, Jr., a WWII veteran from Winnsboro, South Carolina, who was brutally beaten and blinded by a small-town police chief in 1946 after returning home from the war.

The acquittal of his attacker by an all-white jury helped spur the integration of the U.S. armed services in 1948.

In contrast to the treatment of Black veterans, the GI Bill helped home ownership rates soar among white veterans in a postwar housing boom that created a ripple effect their children and grandchildren continue to benefit from today.

Of the more than 3,000 VA home loans that had been issued to veterans in Mississippi in the summer of 1947, only two went to Black veterans, according to an Ebony magazine survey at the time.

The Federal Housing Administration’s racist housing policies also impacted Black WWII veterans, undoubtedly fueling today’s racial wealth gap. Typically referred to as redlining, realtors and banks would refuse to show homes or offer mortgages to qualified homebuyers in certain neighborhoods because of their race or ethnicity.

Preliminary analysis of historical data suggests Black and white veterans accessed their benefits at similar rates, according to Maria Madison, director of the

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Institute for Economic and Racial Equity at Brandeis University, who has researched the impact of racial inequities in the administration of GI Bill benefits.

However, because of institutional racism and other barriers, Black veterans were more limited in the ways in which they could use their benefits. As a result, the cash equivalent of their benefits was only 40% of what white veterans received.

After adjusting for inflation and for market returns, that amounts to a difference in value of $170,000 per veteran, according to Madison. Her ongoing research seeks to put a dollar amount on the wealth loss to Black families caused by racism and GI Bill inequities.

Black WWII veterans who were lucky enough to have gained full access to GI Bill benefits succeeded at building good lives for themselves and their families, said Matthew Delmont, a history professor at Dartmouth College. It’s a clear argument, he said, for why the new legislation is necessary.

“Because the GI benefits weren’t distributed more evenly among Black veterans, we lost an entire generation of Black wealth builders,” Delmont said. “After the war, we could have had even more doctors, lawyers, teachers and architects.”

Dovey Johnson Roundtree, a Black woman who was a WWII veteran, attended Howard University’s law school with GI Bill benefits. She then became a nationally known Washington criminal defense attorney who played a pivotal role in the desegregation of bus travel.

And WWII veteran Robert Madison, who served as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, credited his GI benefits for his success as a renowned architect.

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LOCAL: PAULA HARRIS NAMED NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF ASTROS FOUNDATION T By www.StyleMagazine.com

he Houston Astros today announced that Paula Harris has been named the new Executive Director, Astros Foundation and Senior Vice President, Community Affairs.

Harris brings over 33 years of experience working in the Houston community, both professionally as an executive with Schlumberger Ltd., and personally with a passion for civic interest and volunteerism.

“I am honored to be joining the Houston Astros as the Executive Director of the Astros Foundation,” said Harris. “Working throughout the Houston community, I have always respected the work of the Astros Foundation with their five pillars of youth baseball and softball, military, childhood cancer awareness, homelessness and domestic violence awareness. I can’t wait to continue to foster our relationships in the community while extending our reach to help more Houstonians.”

On the hiring of Harris, Astros Owner and Chairman Jim Crane said, “Paula stood out to us during our search for this position because of her extensive work and dedication to the Houston community over three decades. We are proud to have her join our team and continue to champion our longstanding commitment to this community.”

Harris has extensive connections throughout the Houston community, as she currently serves on the boards of Chart Industries (GTLS), The Vantage Group, Children’s Museum Houston, the Petroleum Club of Houston, the Independent Petroleum Association of America’s Energy Education Center and the Energized for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering

Paula Harris brings over three decades of experience as a Houston community leader and Math) Charter School. She is a founding member of the Young Women’s College Preparatory Academy, an all-girl’s engineering school serving primarily minority communities in Houston with the goal to graduate girls prepared to attend top engineering universities. Harris has a particular passion for advancing STEM education and career opportunities for all communities, but especially for women and underrepresented minorities.

Previously, she served on the boards of the

Houston Independent School District, the Permian Strategic Partnership in Midland, TX, the Space Center Houston and numerous other education and outreach associations. In 2020, Harris received the Women Who Mean Business Lifetime Achievement award from the Houston Business Journal. In 2019, she received the Women on the Move award from Texas Executive Women and the United Nations Global Citizenship Award.

During her 33-plus years in the international oilfield services with Schlumberger Ltd., Harris, educated as a Petroleum Engineer, worked in many roles over three decades with the company. She worked her way up from working on offshore rigs as a Field Engineer to leadership positions such as Director of Community Affairs from 2010-2015, and, most recently as Director of Global Stewardship.

A native Houstonian, Harris graduated with a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University and a Master’s of Education in Technical Instruction and Learning from Abilene Christian. The owner of her own publishing company, Harris has authored, published and distributed four books, including When I Grow Up I Want To Be An Engineer. The book was translated into four languages and over 150,000 copies were distributed globally to schools, museums and non-profits.

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The Tragedy at

By Brandon Caldwell, Special To www.StyleMagazine.com

Travis Scott, pictured here, has spoken out again about the tragic incident that claimed eight people’s lives and injured hundreds.

I The first text message I received arrived around 10:53 PM on Friday.

“Why are all the ambulances and firetrucks there?”

I

couldn’t imagine exactly why the question made me ponder. My body had left from night one of Astroworld Festival, feet and legs tired from walking a mile from the festival grounds back to my car. I immediately fired back a text saying the only reason ambulances and firetrucks would be eating up pavement and freeway to get to NRG Park was due to one more rush of fans trying to leave. Their bodies had been there for hours, some long and sinewy, others compact with Travis Scott insignias and branding abound. When I finally fell asleep around 1 AM, I thought nothing serious had occurred.

Three hours later, the flood of text messages, DMs and more began to arrive. I realized something was wrong.

Social media beamed like a searchlight on my phone. At least eight people were dead and hundreds were injured, including a 9-year-old boy.

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How? Hours prior, fans were giddy, almost overzealous about their desire to enter the festival after a near year plus hiatus. Now there were messages scrawled all over Instagram and Twitter. First-hand accounts read more like reports from war, a close tower of people seemingly collapsing on one another, struggling for breath, fighting to make it out. A surge of people, most have referred to it as. One that didn’t appear as if it would end.

The end of Friday night gave way to a far darker, more heartbreaking story than the one initially set out to be told. The festival was supposed to be a culmination of a week’s worth of philanthropy and dedication. Of two days where Earth Wind & Fire meshing in between sets by 21 Savage, Chief Keef and Young Thug would make complete sense. Instead, it created a new question about festival culture, humanity and most of all - empathy.

The layout of the festival once more featured outstretched ideas of years prior. A blowup of Scott’s head - similar to the one from the 2018 Astroworld album cover - served as the entrance point. In 2019, it was painted in terms of skulls

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and crossbones. This year, it was outfitted white with a neon glow - missing any soul but able to be made into whatever you needed to be. Everything, from the drink booths to the installations blended the shuttered amusement park of yesteryear and Scott’s current position as a too big to fail artist. The drink stations, where water sold for five bucks, were branded with Cacti, his hard-seltzer which could be spotted in numerous spaces on the grounds.

At one point, I stared at Utopia Mountain, the nickname for the massive set reportedly costing upwards of $5 million. A monument where pyrotechnics constantly shot out and graphics displayed hues of purple and green and flatly said it was something out of Scott’s vision. It was his payoff for being a corporate raider with a pulse on youth culture. According to Forbes, corporate sponsorships to such brands as McDonald’s, Nike and Anheuser-Busch made him hip-hop’s most prominent pitchman in 2020, all based upon a frenetic, high-energy stage performance with singles that at times feel disposable and others omnipresent.

For 75 minutes of Scott’s set, it didn’t matter if he played

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Travis Scott posted a response to the Astroworld tragedy to Twitter: "I’m absolutely devastated by what took place last night. My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at

Astroworld Festival. Houston PD has my total support as they continue to look into the tragic loss of life. I am committed to working together with the Houston community to heal and support the families in need. Thank you to Houston PD, Fire Department, and NRG Park for their immediate response and support. Love You All.

Below are the names and available photos of the eight victims who lost their lives:

John Hilgert, 14, was a ninth grader at Memorial High School

Brianna Rodriguez, 16, was a junior at Heights High School Houston

Jacob "Jake" Jurinek, 20, was a junior Southern Illinois University

Franco Patiño was 21, engineering student at the University of Dayton

new songs from his Utopia album or festival rockers from prior albums - there was a noticeable pause. The usual roar after the conclusion of songs felt muted. Not even Drake, whose self-awareness has made him the man in hip-hop, could overcome the audible pocket of silence.

From 9:15 on Friday night, something felt wrong. It felt careless after watching some attendees jump over the fencing area to get into the VIP section. Even from afar, you could see the flashing lights of a medical cart trying to cut through thousands of people in order to save lives. Scott would pause the show on two separate occasions to call out people who needed help - a common routine at his shows - along with shoutouts to fans who climbed on whatever to get a better view.

Later, we’d learn some of the fans attempting to save lives didn’t know CPR but simply wanted their humanity to be recognized over the show. It became less about the rage - and more about living to see another day. Two different energies tried to coexist in the space - one wanting to party and another wanting to survive. The chaos had become too paramount to ignore.

Before the festival even started, Scott fans who didn’t do the snaking through NRG Park through a security checkpoint, a COVID-19 vaccination checkpoint and wristband checkpoint, toppled one another to be on the grounds merely. A similar incident occurred at the 2019 festival, where three people were hospitalized.

Were they there to be first in line for merchandise where it could go for hundreds, if not thousands on the resell market? Who knows. As I entered sometime late in the afternoon, the guardrails

Axel Acosta, 21 was a computer science major at Western Washington University

Rodolfo "Rudy" Angel Peña, 23, was a student at Laredo College

Madison Dubiski, 23, from Cypress she worked at Rhino Marketing

Danish Baig, 27, was scheduled to be married next month

trampled earlier in the day were placed atop one another near the main entrance - evidence of the demand to be among the “highest in the room.”

As the night drew to a close and the news of death began swarming local news and national programs, I wondered aloud about a kid I met while walking in. His name was Dougie, a twenty-something Hispanic kid with a brown shirt, blue shorts and wavy hair to his shoulder. We both remarked how it wasn’t worth bum-rushing security when everyone was trying to get inside. He was nervous about the sack of bud he had in his sock and chalked it up as why he didn’t get to the festival sooner. Most of all, he was worried he couldn’t get his vape in. I held it for him and told him to relax.

After we made it through the gate, we daped one another up and he told me, “If I see you later tonight, or whenever, let’s party.”

That’s what Astroworld was supposed to be about on Friday night, of seeing older acts return to the festival scene after a prolonged absence and for Scott to let the world hear something new from Utopia. It was supposed to be the prelude to a far more eclectic. Instead, it became the scene for flowers and a makeshift memorial site. A moment to remember a 16-year-old Heights HS student who loved to dance, or two best friends who traveled from Illinois for a fun night in Houston. Or the fiancée who saved the love of his life but lost his in the process.

As time fades away, few will recall SZA’s stunning performance despite feeling under the weather and needing an IV

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shortly after leaving the stage. Or Lil Baby continuing his meteoric rise from being one of the talented members of the Atlanta-based label Quality Control to its defacto star. Or Master P proving curation done right by performing ‘90s southern rap hits mixing the gutter of New Orleans with pen and pixel grandiose.

Instead, they’ll remember the videos passed around on social media. Of concert attendees demanding those filming Scott’s headlining set stop to help those in need. Driving past the scene on Saturday, the traffic posts held a message which seemed unfathomable less than 24 hours ago: “ASTROWORLD CANCELED.” Festivals may undergo a complete makeover in the wake of Friday’s tragedy, as do the calls for anything when tragedy strikes a hip-hop show. Restrictions are presented as a quick solution, venues beef up security deposits and moral finger-wagging becomes the aplomb method of defense. But the eternal question above all replays over in my mind, beyond the need for a “Boogeyman” to lay blame: if Altamont, the 1969 “free” concert which ended in violence spelled the end of late-1960s American youth culture, what happens after Astroworld? What happens when the term most famously associated with a beloved Houston theme park - is now forever linked to tragedy?

This story is developing and will be updated accordingly at

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LOCAL: A HOSPITAL SOUGHT A BLACK EXPERT'S HELP TO DIVERSIFY. THEY FIRED HIM OVER HIS STANCE ON RACE Curtis Bunn, www.News.Yahoo.com

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oseph B. Hill was four days from starting a new position as vice president, chief equity, diversity and inclusion officer at Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston, when he received an email that changed the trajectory of his career.

The two-sentence note from Memorial Hermann’s human resources vice president, Lori Knowles, which was obtained

by NBC News, read, “We regret to inform you that we are rescinding the offer of employment dated July 21, 2021. ... We appreciate your interest in the position and wish you much success going forward.”

“It was a shock, to say the least,” Hill said. “I was floored.”

He said he was dumbfounded further when his lawyer, Mark Oberti of Houston, was told two weeks later over the phone the reasons Memorial Hermann invalidated its offer: that Hill “was not a good fit,” although he went through more than a dozen interviews over six weeks before he was offered the job. Hill said Oberti was also told by the company’s lawyer that it was uncomfortable with Hill inquiring about hiring staff to build his team; that Hill wanted a larger

Joseph B. Hill relocation budget; that he rented and charged a luxury car to the company; and that “I am too sensitive about race issues.”

“The reasons they listed were just as shocking as rescinding the offer,” Hill said.

He felt that way because, he said, much of what Memorial Hermann indicated was “false and nonsensical,” but also because “they didn’t even contact me to discuss their so-called issues.”

Executives at Memorial Hermann declined to comment but issued a statement that read, in part: “We continue to make great strides in enhancing equity, diversity and inclusion within our system, but we know there is always more that can be done — which is why we are recruiting for a Chief EDI Officer.” Through a lawyer, the hospital system also said that “no one acting on behalf of Memorial Hermann ever criticized Mr. Hill for

being ‘too sensitive about race issues.’”

Hill’s case draws into focus concerns some experienced Black DEI officers expressed about the overall commitment by employers to making internal changes. After the social justice movement following the murder of George Floyd, many business leaders announced plans to address diversity imbalance in the workforce by hiring DEI personnel.

However, the pledge to do so has gone unfulfilled on the director level, according to a report examining diversity in 2,868 American workplaces. The report indicated the percentage of Black DEI directors barely increased: from 11.3 percent in 2020 and 11.5 percent for 2021.

More concerning to specialists in the diversity space is that the efforts are not sincere and the hiring practices are “misguided,” they say.

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POP CULTURE: CASTING BLACK ACTORS IN PERIOD PIECES ISN’T DIVERSITY. IT’S HISTORY.

By Helena Andrews-Dyer, WashingtonPost.com - Newswire

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here is a moment in “The Harder They Fall” that director Jeymes Samuel can’t stop smiling about. It arrives with a locomotive around the end of Act 1 and subsequently barrels through every preconceived notion of what a western is supposed to be.

In the scene, a White male character gets just the tip of a racial slur out of his mouth before he’s cut down by the outlaw Treacherous Trudy, played to woman-in-the-black-hat perfection by Oscar winner Regina King. Trudy’s fellow gunslinger, Cherokee Bill (played by an impossibly cool LaKeith Stanfield), feigns admonishment.

“He might coulda said ‘nincompoop,’” says Bill.

“We ain’t no nincompoop,” counters Trudy as she fixes her bowler and stalks toward the train the gang is about to rob. “If they say something that even starts with an ‘n,’ they gonna meet the same fate.”

"That’s probably one of my favorite lines from the entire film,” Samuel confesses. Is Trudy talking to Bill? The audience? Movie studio executives? The entire “period piece” genre? Yep. The moment stabs at the heart of “The Harder The Fall," a western with an all-Black cast led by King, Stanfield, Idris Elba, Jonathan Majors, Delroy Lindo and Zazie Beetz. The film concerns itself not with what its few White characters think

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Regina King and LaKeith Standfield (Photo: David LeeNetflix) but with what its central Black characters do. The story has no time to spare for those who might have finished the racial epithet, which is to say that Blackness is neither played up, played down or played off. It simply is. That is a rarity for any mainstream movie set in the distant past.

From “Gone With the Wind” to “Tombstone,” period films as a whole — whether set in the Old West or Victorian England — have rarely been kind to non-White characters, who are cast as set pieces (if at all). Historical accuracy is usually the explanation offered when fans point out the glaring

November 11, 2021 - November 17, 2021

lack of diversity, as if women and people of color didn’t exist before 1960.

That omission, said Samuel, is based on lies that even he believed as a child.

“I don’t know if there is a person alive that loves westerns more than me,” said the director and musician, who has been a mega-fan of the good-guy-versus-bad-guy genre since he was a kid growing up in London. When he started to look for himself in his favorite shoot-’em-ups, he explained the absence away, giving the genre a pass: “We just probably didn’t exist.”

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“If they show anyone of color or Black, they always have to give a reason for us being there,” said Samuel. “For me that’s the most frustrating thing about westerns and frustrating about myself, actually. That it took me until I was 13 or 14 to be like, ‘Hang on a minute, something is amiss here.’”

Three decades later, the director rights that wrong for anyone else watching. In its very first frames, “The Harder They Fall” announces itself on-screen without question with the title card “These. People. Existed.” The classic revenge plot of the film is fictional, but nearly every character is based on a historic Black figure who, yes, actually existed in the Wild West. There’s Trudy, Nat Love, Rufus Buck, Bass Reeves and more — Black frontiersmen and women who probably wouldn’t recognize the whitewashed West depicted in the genre’s classics.

“I hate when people say I remixed, re-envisioned or reimagined the western," said Samuel. “I haven’t. You guys reimagined the Old West. I just brought balance to the force, like Luke Skywalker.”

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CULTURE: UNIVERSITY MUSEUM AT TEXAS SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY BI-ANNUAL ALUMNI “HOMECOMING”’

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By Kathleen Coleman, Arts and Entertainment Editor - www.StyleMagazine.com

very other year, the University Museum brings together a dynamic group of dedicated artists to pay tribute to the creative individuals who once enrolled as the Department of Visual and Performing Arts students. This year we celebrate the tenth installation of “Homecoming,” honoring over 70 years of visual arts at Texas Southern University. The exhibition showcases a definitive collection of creative works offering varied interpretations of reality and fantasy presented across various mediums, including fashion, sculptures, and mixed media. The art is a testament to the legacy of African Americans in visual arts. In addition, the exhibition offers a great reflection of our vision of the past and dreams for the future.

FEATURED ARTISTS Moses Adam Jr. Tyler Allen Joshua Ghandi Arthur Andrew Blank Lucretia Lyons Bluiett Mack Bishop Jade Cooper John C. Davis Rickey De Paul Donato Nathaniel Donnett Lottie Dyer Karl E. Hall

Tony McMillian Robert E. Meyers Prinston “Taddy” Nnanna Kingsely Onyeiwu Klo Lay Pla Keila Perez Jazmyn Proctor Justin Ransburg Robert Riojas III Shunshieva Jesse Sifuentes Johnetta Tinker Charles L. Thomas

Kurt A. Hill Jr.

Roy Vinson Thomas

Ramaj Jamar

Brittany Torres

Cynthia Veline Jetson

Bradley Ward

Earl Jones

Janice Warren

C. M. Lewis

Tarmarick Williams

Waltinett Lewis

Richard L. William

Johnetta Tinker, Featured Artist Painting, "Arriving on a Nightmare"

Vernon

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https://bit.ly/3oiVHTi

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BOOK REVIEW: WILL SMITH’S BOOK TOUR KICKS OFF WITH QUEEN LATIFAH AND DJ JAZZY JEFF

By Penguin Random House - www.StyleMagazine.com - Newswire

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Will Smith and Queen Latifah have a conversation about Smith's new memoir, "Will," at the Met in North Philadelphia

ne of the most dynamic and globally recognized entertainment forces of our time opens up fully about his life, in a brave and inspiring book that traces his learning curve to a place where outer success, inner happiness, and human connection are aligned. Along the way, Will tells the story in full of one of the most amazing rides through the worlds of music and film that anyone has ever had.

Will Smith thought, with good reason, that he had won at life: not only was his own success unparalleled, his whole family was at the pinnacle of the entertainment world.

Only they didn't see it that way: they felt more like star performers in his circus, a seven-days-a-week job they hadn't signed up for. It turned out Will Smith's education wasn't nearly over.

This memoir is the product of a profound journey of self-knowledge, a reckoning with all that your will can get you and all that it can leave behind. Written with the help of Mark Manson, author of the multi-million-copy bestseller The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Will is the story of how one exceptional man mastered his own emotions, written in a way that can help everyone else do the same. Few of us will know the pressure of performing on the world's biggest stages for the highest of stakes, but we can all understand that the fuel that works for one stage of our journey might have to be changed if we want to make it all the way home. The combination of genuine wisdom of universal value and a life story that is preposterously entertaining, even astonishing, puts Will the book, like its author, in a category by itself.

Will Smith's transformation from a fearful child in a tense West Philadelphia home to one of the biggest rap stars of his era and then one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood history, with a string of box office successes that will likely never be broken, is an epic tale of inner transformation and outer triumph, and Will tells it astonishingly well. But it's only half the story.

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SEASON FINALE

DOCTOR NATIVO

NOV. 12 7 PM www.StyleMagazine.com

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ENTERTAINMENT: SOCIETY FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS PRESENTS: NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON By www.StyleMagazine.com

Astrophysicist Neil De Grasse Tyson's “Astronomy Bizarre.”

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ociety for the Performing Arts (SPA) welcomes the return of astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, on Monday, January 17, 2022, 7:30 PM at Jones Hall. The theme of the evening’s program will be “Astronomy Bizarre.”

ABOUT THE PROGRAM The list of cool things in the universe is long and occasionally scary: Black Holes, Dark Matter, Dark Energy, Diamond Stars, Gamma Ray Bursts, White Holes, Worm Holes, Multiverses. Join Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, head of NYC’s Hayden Planetarium and host of FOX’s Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, for a review of all that bends minds the most in the cosmos.

ABOUT THE ARTIST In addition to dozens of professional publications, Dr. Tyson has written, and continues to write for the public. From 1995 to 2005, Tyson was a monthly essayist for Natural History magazine under the

title Universe. And among Tyson’s fifteen books is his memoir The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist; and Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, co-written with Donald Goldsmith. Origins is the companion book to the 2004 PBS NOVA four-part mini-series Origins, in which Tyson served as on-camera host.

For five seasons, beginning in the fall of 2006, Tyson appeared as the on-camera host of PBS NOVA’s spinoff program NOVA ScienceNOW, which is an accessible look at the frontier of all the science that shapes the understanding of our place in the universe.

Now also a popular podcast, for three years it enjoyed a limited-run television series on the National Geographic Channel. StarTalk combines celebrity guests with informative yet playful banter. The target audience is all those people who never thought they would, or could, like science. In its first year on television and in three successive seasons, it was nominated for a Best Informational Programming Emmy.

More recently, Tyson published Astrophysics for People In A Hurry in 2017, which was a domestic and international bestseller. That

was followed in 2018 by Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military, co-authored with Avis Lang, in 2019 by Letters from an Astrophysicist, both New York Times Bestsellers, and in 2021 by Cosmic Queries: StarTalk’s Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We are Going, coauthored with James Trefil.

Tyson served as Executive Science Editor and on-camera Host & Narrator for Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, the 21st century continuation of Carl Sagan’s landmark television series. The show began in March 2014 and ran thirteen episodes in primetime on the FOX network and appeared in 181 countries in 45 languages around the world on the National Geographic Channels. Tyson reprised his role as on-camera host for the next season of Cosmos—Cosmos: Possible Worlds, which premiered on the National Geographic Channel in March 2020 and on the FOX network in September 2020.

Tyson is the fifth head of the world-renowned Hayden Planetarium in New York City and the first occupant of its Frederick P. Rose Directorship. He is also a research associate of the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History.

To deepen the patron experience, Society for the Performing Arts has partnered with Harrison County Public Library to launch Pages & Stages, the SPA Book Club. Readers are invited to attend a pre-show conversation at Jones Hall on Dr. Tyson’s book, Cosmic Theories.

Pages & Stages participants will hear from a special guest speaker and meet fellow science and literature fans. Details and registration

Learn more at

www.SPAHouston.org

ENTERTAINMENT: STAR WARS LIFE DAY AT CHILDREN'S MUSEUM By www.StyleMagazine.com

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o need to wait until Thanksgiving to celebrate this November! Embrace your inner-Wookiee and commemorate Star Wars “Life Day” at Children’s Museum Houston. But if you’re not familiar with “Life Day,” fear not. “Life Day” debuted in 1978’s Star Wars Holiday Special; like many Earth holidays, “Life Day” is about family. For nomads like Chewbacca, this meant a dangerous family reunion on Kashyyyk - his Wookiee home world.

Come on down to the Museum, dodge some Imperial stormtroopers along the way while you and your family get together for an intergalactic adventure! ♦♦♦PHOTO OPP♦♦♦ PHOTO OPP♦♦♦ SPECIAL EVENTS: Star Wars Meet-and-Greet: Travel to a galaxy far, far away to meet with Star Wars-inspired characters.

Event Time: From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. around the Museum.

Baby Yoda Ears: Channel The Child with a pair of Yoda-inspired ears.

Event Time: All day in Junktion.

Dark Side Masks: Dare to join the inter-

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planetary dark side.

Event Time: All day in Junktion.

HOURS/COST: • NEW MUSEUM HOURS: Tue. – WHEN: Star Wars “Life Day,” Nov. 20, 20 Sat.; 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

21 • Included with general Museum ***Activities, events, and times subject to admission: $12 per person and $11 for change. seniors 65+. Children under one and Museum Members receive free admission.

WHERE: Children’s Museum of Houston, 1500 Binz St., Houston, TX 77004

November 11, 2021 - November 17, 2021

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For More Information

call: (713)-522-1138 or vist www.CMHouston.org

MOVIES: HOW 'PASSING' AND SIMILAR STORIES FORCE US TO RECKON WITH IDENTITY

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By Harmeet Kaur, www.CNN.com

here's a scene in Rebecca Hall's film "Passing" in which the character Irene Redfield vents to her husband about a childhood friend.

The friend is Clare Kendry, a lightskinned Black woman who for years has been living as White. Since the two reconnected during a chance encounter in Chicago, Clare has been writing to Irene in hopes of meeting again and fulfilling a desire to be among Black people once more. Irene, who is also fair-skinned but lives a firmly Black middle class life in Harlem, is irritated that Clare wants it both ways -- having acquired the privileges of Whiteness, she now longs for the community of Blackness.

In the film "Passing," Clare Kendry (played by Ruth Negga) is a light-skinned Black woman living as White.

"You'd think they'd be satisfied being White," Irene remarks to her husband, seemingly referring to Clare and other Black people living as White.

He replies, "Who's satisfied being anything?"

The exchange in the film, now on Netflix and based on Nella Larsen's 1929 novel of the same name, alludes to many

Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson as Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield in Rebecca Hall's "Passing," a film adaptation of Nella Larsen's 1929 novel of the questions that drive narratives about racial passing -- questions about the fluidity, incoherence and performance of identity, and what they can tell us about ourselves and society.

The term "passing" has historically referred to mixed-race Americans without visible African ancestry who posed as White

to escape oppression or to gain access to social and economic benefits. Since the 19th century, writers both Black and White have explored the phenomenon through their work -- Hall's film adaptation of "Passing" is the latest such project in a long canon of stories on the topic.

For Hall, the subject of passing is

personal -- her maternal grandfather was an African American man who passed as White for much of his life. Larsen's novel, and the process of adapting it for the screen, helped her make sense of her family's complicated history, she said.

"The act of passing calls into question the stuff we talk about when we say race is a social construct and what that means," the English writer-director told CNN. "But underneath that construct, it also points out how powerful it is and how real and human it is to long to be part of a category, even if it is limiting."

From James Weldon Johnson's 1912 book "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man" to Fannie Hurst's 1933 "Imitation of Life" to Brit Bennett's 2020 bestselling novel "The Vanishing Half," stories about racial passing have captivated us for generations.

Though instances of passing don't appear to be as common today, our interest in the phenomenon endures.

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COMING SOON TO HOUSTON Starting November 13, 2021, at the Sam Houston Race Park Buy your tickets now at cirquedusoleil.com/alegria

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November 11, 2021 - November 17, 2021

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2021

SEE MORE + PHOTOS AND EVENTS

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H The Conrad Johnson Orchestra Emancipation Park H The Conrad Johnson Orchestra was formed by legendary Texas jazz educator and saxophonist, Conrad Johnson, in the 1960’s.

The Conrad Johnson Orchestra performed a musical Tribute to Nelson Mills III in Emancipation Park. Nelson L. Mills III was born in Houston, Texas and began his career playing trumpet professionally at the age of 13. In the 1970s, Mills joined the popular band, The TSU Toronados; the creator of the chart topping song "Tighten Up" while backing Archie Bell & The Drells. Mills has arranged over 60 charts for The Renegade's, Conrad Johnson, Ronnie Renfrow Big Band and The Calvin Owens Orchestra.

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READY TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS PROPERTY EVENT PRODUCTS YOURSELF

CALL KATHY CLASSIFIEDS

832-416-3118

READY TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS PROPERTY EVENT PRODUCTS YOURSELF

CALL KATHY CLASSIFIEDS

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