Choreographer Karen L. Charles brings powerful personal stories to the stage MORE ON PAGE 5
October 14 - October 20, 2013
Vol. 40 No. 42 • The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com
Grant supports MUL Financial Opportunity Center
Wells Fargo, one of America’s leading community banks and the nation’s largest home mortgage lender, recently announced that it is making a $80,000 donation to the Minneapolis Urban League. With the grant, the Minneapolis Urban League will operate a Financial Opportunity Center offering clients a set of focused services in three overlapping areas: • Employment – including assistance with job readiness, job placement, occupational skills training, education and career advancement. • Benefits and work supports – helping clients gain access to public benefits, tax credits, financial aid and other benefits to improve their financial security. • Financial services – workshops, classes, one-onone counseling and access to well-priced financial products and services to help clients improve their household finances and build assets. The grant is funded through the Wells Fargo’s N e i g h b o r h o o d L I F T SM program that was launched in 2012. For the Twin Cities, Wells Fargo is providing $575,000 in grants to promote financial and neighborhood stability, and affordable housing, in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The program is an innovative effort created to help stabilize neighborhoods and help people buy homes by making properties more affordable with down payment assistance available for eligible
MayKao Fredericks, Vice President Community Affairs, Minnesota Region and Scott Gray, President and CEO, Minneapolis Urban League
FARGO TURN TO 11
Biking for transportation and exercise By Debra Stone, TC Daily Planet On a rainy Saturday morning two women are at bike work stations receiving hands-on learning about the ins and outs of bicycle mechanics. These two women are not white or Lycra clad, nor would you confuse them with the “creative class” that is associated with the biking community. They are learning bike maintenance skills at SPOKES Bike-Walk Connections (1915 E. 22nd Street) in the Seward Minneapolis neighborhood. According to their bulletin, this organization is an innovative community bike and walking center with a goal of getting more people biking and walking for transportation and exercise. On their wall is a picture of bicycle parts written in Amharic, Eritrean, Ojibwa, and Oromo translations. Fatima Omer, a thirtysomething Somali woman, is one of the two women working on a donated but still in good condition bike. She never rode a bike as a child. “I learned to ride a bike in July 2013 in the Learn-
BIKES TURN TO 12
Debra Stone
Fatima Omer’s first time riding a bike was in July 2013 with the Learn-to-Ride Program.
Health
Man Talk
Breast cancer disparities
Lessons from my pastor
PAGE 3
PAGE 10
Photos courtesy of Tamiko Edwards and Pamela Weems
Telling their stories, top: Tamiko Edwards, bottom: Pamela Weems
Edwards, Weems survive breast cancer; happy to be alive By Harry Colbert, Jr. Contributing Writer Pamela Weems is a wellknown trendsetter in the Twin Cities and she is hoping to start a new trend of talking openly about breast cancer awareness, screenings and early detection. Weems, who has been an icon in the Twin Cities nightclub and promotions scene for many years is using her local celebrity to promote awareness following her two bouts with the deadly disease. And she is not standing alone. Several women are joining the cause and are telling their stories to hopefully prevent future deaths by promoting regular screenings in efforts of early detection. “When you hear that word (cancer), it’s just darkness,” said Weems, who was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997. “My first thought was death. I stopped breathing. I literally stopped breathing.” After getting over the initial shock of the diagnosis, Weems said she found her reason to fight on. “I started looking at my children and I said, ‘hey, you got to shake this’ and my whole attitude just flipped and I turned myself into a fighter,” said Weems. “I wasn’t going down without a fight.” According to the effervescent Weems, known for pushing fashion’s limits,
Plan Your Career Is this bothering anybody?
PAGE 11
she took every negative of her cancer and turned it into a positive. That in turn, transformed her life. “I made everything a positive – even my bald head. I would go out with my bald head and people thought I was just being fashion forward,” said the two-time survivor, who got a second diagnosis in 2010. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, African American women are more likely than all other women to die from breast cancer. The reasons are their tumors often are found at a later, more advanced stage, so, there are fewer treatment options. The department’s Office on Women’s Health said other reasons for this might include not being able to get health care or not following-up after getting abnormal test results. Also, research has shown that African-American women are more likely to get a form of breast cancer that spreads more quickly. Thankfully, Tamiko Edwards did not become a death statistic. But putting off seeing her doctor nearly cost her life. “I found a lump in January of 2009 and I was like it’s a lump, but it will probably go away,” said Edwards. “On the first of April it got huge
CANCER TURN TO 12
Voting Minnesota rolls out online voter registration
PAGE 12