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EGACY Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.

INSIDE Mentoring black men - 2 Ferguson is America - 7 “Made in Church Hill” - 10 1st person- why we fear police - 12

WEDNESDAYS • March 11, 2015

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Mercedes Binns, who has been to Selma 17 times because of its civil rights history, walks on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, on Sunday.

walk along the Edmund Pettus Bridge before the beginning |People of the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march.

March on Selma bridge marks ‘Bloody Sunday’ WIRE REPORT

ens of thousands of people paraded across a Selma, Alabama bridge on Sunday to commemorate the 1965 “Bloody Sunday” march, not waiting for dignitaries who had planned to lead them in marking the 50th anniversary of a turning point in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. In contrast to the police violence that marked the original march half a century ago, the mood was often celebratory, at times festive, as an estimated 70,000 demonstrators cheered, sang “We Shall Overcome” and carried signs as they walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Bloody Sunday on March 7, 1965, took its name from the beating that roughly 600 peaceful civil rights activists sustained at the hands of white state troopers and police who attacked them with batons and sprayed them

with tear gas. “It’s very crowded but at the same time it's fun and really great to see everybody coming together all races, all people,” one woman said as marchers began moving across the bridge. A large throng of people started walking across the bridge at the appointed time, before dignitaries could be brought to the front to lead them. Among the throng were demonstrators who took part in the 1965 march, as well as others calling for immigration and gay rights. President Barack Obama visited Selma on Saturday and declared the work of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement advanced but unfinished in the face of ongoing racial tensions. “Fifty years from Bloody Sunday, our march is not yet finished, but we’re getting closer,” said Obama, the first black president of the United States. The anniversary comes at a time of renewed

focus on racial disparities in the United States and anger over the treatment of black civilians, among them 18-year-old Michael Brown, whose killing by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, last year sparked widespread protests. On Friday, Tony T. Robinson Jr., a 19-yearold black man who appeared to be unarmed, was shot dead by a white police officer in Madison, Wisconsin, sparking protests there on Sunday. U.S. Representative John Lewis, who led the march across the bridge 50 years ago and was knocked out by a state trooper, said on Sunday that the events of that day had led to lasting progress in civil rights. “When I go back, I remember the bridge for me is almost a sacred place,” the Georgia Democrat said. “That’s where some of us gave a little blood and where some people almost died.” More coverage on Page 14

2 • March 11, 2015

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News

Va. AG: Statewide network of outreach coordinators will better connect Virginians A new structure for the Virginia Attorney General’s office expanded Community Outreach program will, for the first time ever, put a community outreach coordinator from the office in every region of the state, said Attorney General Mark R. Herring.These coordinators will help connect citizens, civic groups, small businesses, and law enforcement with the services offered by Herring, including crime prevention programs for seniors, teen education, consumer protection services, and resources for survivors of domestic violence. The Central Virginia community outreach coordinator is Johnetta Guishard, and the Hampton Roads cordinator is rae Pearson Benn. Guishard, a Central Virginia native, will work out of the attorney general’s Richmond office serving and area that extends from Buckingham County east to New Kent, and Albemarle south to the North Carolina border. “I look forward to leveraging my military background, experience in substance abuse education and work with at-risk youth to create a positive impact by connecting people to services and programs offered by the Office of Attorney General Mark Herring,” said Guishard, who served 16 years in the U.S. Army as a drill sergeant and human resource specialist and spent four years working as a clinical assistant with the Richmond Adult Drug Treatment Court program. Community outreach coordinators will serve as a key source of two-way communication within the Office of Attorney General. They will help spread important public safety and consumer protection information throughout the Commonwealth while also providing OAG senior leadership with information on local and regional concerns or emerging public safety threats. Coordinators are available to work with or present to school groups, homeowners associations, civic

groups, organizations for seniors, law enforcement, human services providers, and others on crime prevention, educational programs and services including: •Law enforcement resources such as trainings, prosecution and enforcement partnerships to combat multi-jurisdictional or complex issues, a computer crime unit that connects local law enforcement with computer forensics resources and much more. •Triad to help reduce crimes against the elderly by providing education and assistance. From helping senior citizens connect with community resources, to educating and providing information about known scams, Triad has served as a model promoting the safety of older Americans through community partnership for nearly 20 years. Community outreach coordinators can help localities start their own program, or support existing ones. •Virginia Rules: Virginia’s lawrelated education program to help middle and high school students make good decisions, avoid breaking laws, and become responsible, active citizens within their schools and communities. Virginia Rules’ interactive modules are easily accessible and engaging for young people. With numerous modules from dating violence, to gang awareness, to keeping a driver’s license, Virginia Rules is a great resource for schools, community groups, and faith-based programs. Community outreach coordinators can present the modules themselves, or help train teachers, law enforcement, or community leaders to become Virginia Rules instructors. •Resources for Survivors of Domestic Violence: Community outreach coordinators can assist with training law enforcement on lethality assessment protocols, an important tool in preventing further victimization. The OAG also operates an Address Confidentiality Program,

a confidential mail-forwarding service for domestic violence victims who have relocated to a location unknown to their abuser. •Identity Theft Passport Program: Community outreach coordinators can help victims of identity theft acquire an Attorney General's Identity Theft Passport, which provides them with identification that can be used to show they are the victim of an identity crime. The passport ensures that individuals cannot use stolen information to

obtain a driver’s license or state identification. •Community Based Safety Programming: Community outreach coordinators can talk with groups about the latest consumer or public safety concerns emerging in your area and how to access resources to prevent victimization. A coordinator can also review local needs so that appropriate assistance from the Attorney General’s Office can be targeted to agency partners and the public.

Portsmouth church event will tackle mentoring In light of recent tragic events where African American youth have lost their lives, mentoring has come to the forefront as a way to solve some of the problems facing our communities. On Monday, March 16, at 7 p.m., Grove Church, located at 5910 West Norfolk Rd., will present an instructional and interactive session for men on mentoring. This session will center on sharing practical tools, personal experiences, biblical foundations and opportunities for men to positively affect their families, church and community through mentoring. Trevor Lucas, co-producer and host of the Vadio Show, and a panelist at Grove’s Men’s Forum (“Beyond the Media: Real Men, Real Talk”) held last December, will share some personal insight and tools to help lay the groundwork for men to develop concrete solutions aimed at remedying some of the problems plaguing our communities. Lucas, an articulate and passionate speaker, is fast-becoming

Trevor Lucas a ‘voice of reason’ throughout the Hampton Roads’ community as his Vadio Show—which he dubs the ‘People’s Show’— tackles timely and relevant issues affecting the community through stimulating, thoughtful and engaging dialogue. The Vadio Show’s mission is to educate, motivate, and uplift the community by “making positivity and progress cool again.” “Our men can and must play a key role in changing the education, health and socio-economic disparities in our communities,” said Dr. Melvin O. Marriner, senior pastor of Grove Church. “We don’t just want to talk about what is happening in some neighborhoods or point the finger at anyone or anything; we want to be a part of the solution.” The event, sponsored by Grove’s Men’s Ministry, is free and open to all.

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New program to provide financial support to student entrepreneurs A new program at Virginia Commonwealth University will provide financial support to entrepreneurial students who have promising business ideas and the ambition to launch their own companies. The Go For It! program, announced last week, will provide qualifying students in the College of Humanities and Sciences with a stipend of up to $5,000 in private funds over the summer to take part in an intensive pre-acceleration program that aims to help them develop their business plans and get their companies or products off the ground. “Creating your own job by being an entrepreneur requires both passion and taking personal risks,” said Jim Coleman, Ph.D., dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences. “But many VCU students don’t have the financial flexibility to take an entrepreneurial jump, needing to work, often in low-wage jobs, to finance their tuition and living costs. “We hope that the Go For It! program will provide just enough of a safety net for passionate and driven students to take the jump and to learn how to start a business by doing.” The program will launch this summer and is open to any enrolled student who is pursuing or has a degree from the College of Humanities and Sciences. This, according to VCU, includes roughly 14,000 currently enrolled students, including just under 60 percent of all undergraduates at VCU and just under 50 percent of all VCU students. Additionally, many students who received a degree in the College of Humanities and Sciences are now pursuing graduate or professional

degrees in VCU’s other schools, such as the School of Medicine. Students may begin applying this month, according to VCU. The program will be led by VCU Innovation Gateway in the Office of Research and Innovation, in partnership with 804RVA and Lighthouse Labs, which operates an accelerator program for the Richmond area. As part of the program, which will run from early May to the beginning of August, participants will take part in a series of labs focusing on topics such as customer development, defining a minimal viable product, prototype development, customer validation and how to develop a pitch to investors. Each of the students will be partnered with a dedicated mentor, all of whom will be entrepreneurs or investors from the Richmond region. They will also be introduced to various other mentors as part of each lab. The pre-acceleration program will conclude with a demo day, in which each of the participants will present the idea they have developed and pitch it to a room of local entrepreneurs, investors and faculty from VCU. “It’ll essentially be just like an investor pitch,” Colomb said. Entrepreneur Eric Edwards, M.D., Ph.D., an alumnus of the Department of Biology in the College of Humanities and Sciences, said programs such as Go For It! are “critical for shaping a community and culture of entrepreneurship on campus.” “Things have shifted dramatically over the past few years at VCU as students across disciplines are being encouraged and empowered to innovate, gain skills

March 11, 2015 • 3 in entrepreneurship and create ventures,” said Edwards, the chief medical officer and vice president of research and development for the pharmaceutical firm Kaléo. “As a diverse, urban university where opportunities for mentorship, networking, creativity and

entrepreneurial education are becoming increasingly a part of VCU’s DNA, Go For It! is another example of a program sending a strong message that VCU is serious about being seen as a leader in the development of a university-based entrepreneurship ecosystem.”

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Hopewell joins forces to improve James River water quality

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have such a huge impact on nutrient reduction efforts in Virginia. “This project represents important state and local cooperation, as well as public/private partnerships, that will help us achieve our environmental improvement goals,” said Ward. As a major contributor of nitrogen to the James River, the Hopewell wastewater facility has conducted studies for almost 20 years to determine the most economical and technologically feasible method to remove nutrients from its wastewater and to meet nitrogen permit limits. Because of the unique wastewater characteristics, conventional methods of treatment were not feasible and new methods needed to be explored. The result is a system that separates some of the industrial wastewater that enters the plant to enable more efficient nitrogen removal. The sources of the wastewater include Honeywell, RockTenn, Virginia American Water Co., Evonik Goldschmidt, and Ashland Inc. The remaining flow comes from Fort Lee, Prince George County and Hopewell.

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HOPEWELL – Gov. Terry McAuliffe recently joined officials from the city of Hopewell and other partners today to break ground for an innovative project that will significantly improve water quality in the James River, and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay. The $76.3 million project – an upgrade to the Hopewell region’s wastewater treatment system – will result in a meaningful reduction in the amount of nutrient pollution entering the James. The improved nutrient removal system will reduce nitrogen, one of the key pollutants affecting the Bay and its rivers, by 575,000 pounds per year. “This project is a fantastic example of how Virginia businesses and industries can work in partnership with localities to improve the quality of our water,” said the governor. “Hopewell has been able to attract industrial growth and expansion because of this regional facility, and this new project will ensure a tremendous positive impact on the local and regional economy.” Secretary of Natural Resources Molly Ward said the project will

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6 • March 11, 2015

The LEGACY

Op/Ed Looking back at the GA DEL. DAVID TOSCANO Republicans would have you belief that this General Assembly session was one big lovefest. They even celebrated the fact that we adjourned one day early, as if that fact itself was enough to prove that they should be trusted with governing the commonwealth. To be sure, the working relationships with Speaker [William J.] Howell and House leadership are generally civil, far superior to Washington, and a good thing. There were some measures about which we can all be proud -- passing a budget on time, investing in job creation and workforce development, providing raises to teachers and state employees, educational reform, attacking problems of campus sexual assault. These were enacted by broad bipartisan majorities, and supported by our constituents across the state. And all of these will be used by Republicans as they seek to maintain their majorities in the House and the Senate elections this fall. With the end of the McDonnell ethics trial and no vaginal probes populating late night television, it was a less controversial and more civil session First, let's remember that this is an election year and that the Republicans were smart enough not to push a tea party agenda that has taken hold of their party nationally and that has so dominated Virginia’s legislature in recent years. They could avoid this in 2015 because they did their greatest damage in earlier years, whether it was over transvaginal ultrasounds - a term The LEGACY NEWSPAPER Vol. 1 No. 6 Mailing Address 409 E. Main Street 4 Office Address 105 E. Clay St. Richmond, VA 23219 Call 804-644-9060 • 757-244-5654 Online www.legacynewspaper.com

few of us would have uttered in political discourse a mere two years ago, much less debate in a public forum, TRAP regulations, repealing the one-gun-a-month handgun purchase law, allowing citizens to carry guns into bars, railing against the children of immigrants, trashing reasonable EPA regulations designed to make air cleaner and our planet more secure, making voting more difficult, or bottling up a way to bring our taxpayer dollars back to Virginia to create jobs, help our hospitals, and provide insurance to 400,000 Virginians by embracing Medicaid expansion. The Republican leadership had a game-plan from the beginning. It first involved going soft on social wedge issues. For example, the so-called personhood bill, which would have created constitutional rights for unborn fetuses, and sailed out of the House last year, was sent to a subcommittee where it died an unceremonious death. And Republican bills that would arm teachers and put guns in airports experienced a similar fate. Leadership was even able to derail a darling of a significant segment of the right wing, the proposal to convene a new U.S. constitutional convention, on the House floor without taking an embarrassing vote that would have lead to its defeat. The plan also required criticizing the president at every opportunity. The Republicans were anything if not united, especially when it came to the EPA and “war on coal.” Every measure that attempted to poke the president in the eye was embraced The LEGACY welcomes all signed letters and all respectful opinions. Letter writers and columnists opinions are their own and endorsements of their views by The LEGACY should be inferred. The LEGACY assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. Annual Subscription Rates Virginia - $50 U.S. states - $75 Outside U.S.- $100 The Virginia Legacy © 2015

unanimously by a party which has a hard time using the word “science” in a sentence. And that included even those who fancy themselves as moderate, but remain fearful of a primary challenge from the right. And finally, the Republican plan sought to downplay and bury Democratic proposals. One need only look at the initiatives Democrats proposed that never got a hearing much beyond small subcommittees which met at times when few citizens could attend, took few recorded votes, and which are controlled by a small number of conservative Republicans, where two or three delegates essentially decide the fate of the legislation. Almost all of the reasonable gun safety bills were consigned to a small subcommittee of the Militia and Police committee, a group largely controlled by the NRA and by its even more conservative cousin, the Virginia Citizen Defense League. The bills were unceremoniously killed in one meeting without ever getting to full committee. Even my bill for voluntary background checks, a measure that would have simply allowed a private gunseller at a gun show the right to ask the Virginia State Police to run a background check of an individual before making a sale, ran afoul of the Republican litmus test opposing any gun safety measure. The same fate befell the numerous bills designed to take the partisanship out of redistricting, or

at least lessen its influence. In this case, it was a subcommittee of the Privileges and Elections committee jettisoning both House and Senate bills that would have restored the idea that constituents should choose their legislators rather than the other way around. This same committee, however, found a way to again make it harder to vote absentee. If you can't win at the ballot box, just change who can cast votes. And when the Republicans had the chance to vote to make nondiscrimination in the workplace part of state law, they flinched rather than embrace equality for all Virginians. There is little doubt that Democratic control would have fundamentally changed the budget. For starters, we would not have left money on the table that could have been used to fund core services, particularly education. Medicaid expansion alone would have replaced approximately $105 million in state appropriations for hospitals and other medical care with federal dollars, thereby freeing monies for other core purposes. We would have capped, if not eliminated, the massive taxpayer subsidies flowing to the utilities and coal companies (over $600 million over the last twenty years) through two coal tax credits, which the commonwealth’s own independent audit committee, JLARC, concluded do not work for (continued on page 7 )

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March 11, 2015 • 7

P.T. Hoffsteader, Esq.

Ferguson is America The Department of Justice (DOJ) failed to indict former Ferguson, MO. officer Darren Wilson for racially profiling and brutally killing Michael Brown, even while finding Ferguson and the St. Louis police guilty of widespread abuse and misconduct. Despite the disappointing nonindictment, DOJ is rightly calling on Ferguson to change its raciallydiscriminatory practices or face a federal lawsuit. But Demos research shows the problem of underrepresentation isn’t limited to Ferguson. One in every six African Americans lacks full representation on his or her local council, compared to just one in 66 whites. The reality is, Ferguson is America and President Obama must be held accountable. It’s time for national action. Will you join with our allies at Color of Change by emailing the White House and urging President Obama to sign an executive order enforcing and expanding federal bans on discriminatory policing and strengthening police accountability mechanisms nationwide? The DOJ demonstrates how economic, democratic and racial inequality are reinforced in Ferguson. While Ferguson is twothirds African American, its police force and political establishment are almost entirely white. This unequal representation leads to real consequences for people of color.

From the DOJ report: While 85 percent of the [Ferguson Police Department’s] vehicle stops are of African Americans, 90 percent of FPD’s citations are issued to African Americans, and 92 percent of all warrants are issued in cases against African Americans. Strikingly, available data shows that of those subjected to one of the most severe actions this system routinely imposes—actual arrest for an outstanding municipal warrant—96 percent are African American. The DOJ’s shocking findings on the racial discrimination and abuse of St. Louis and Ferguson law enforcement is a direct result of the growing new civil rights movement nationwide. And across the country, Americans are rising up to create a country where black lives are valued, police treat all communities with respect, and militarized policing isn't funded over education and social services. The DOJ made the case that system-wide reforms are necessary to prevent the next Darren Wilson in Ferguson, and the president can use his executive authority to stem this tragic tide nationwide. Urge President Obama to sign an executive order today. Heather McGhee

(from page 6) their intended purposes. This would have raised at least $20 million this year alone. Having a government that works better and utilizes business principles means gathering those resources available, using them wisely, and not investing in programs that no longer work. Democratic pushing and prodding made the budget better, but this is not the budget we would have passed had we been in charge. Democrats would likely have captured more of the cost of government by linking fees to the services being provided for inspections that protect the public. The Republican aversion to anything that raises revenue allows them to starve agencies that serve the public good; the result is that there are fewer dollars for initiatives in core services like education and public safety. And, speaking of education, Democrats would not have supported the undermining of public education through education tax credits. And we would have expanded pre-K to more youngsters throughout the commonwealth. Democratic control would have meant more economic initiatives to get resources into the hands of working people and the middle class. We were happy to support the job creation efforts of the Governor that were embraced by both parties in the House. But we would have done more; our members supported both the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a program that Ronald Reagan said was the most effective way to end poverty in America, and an increase in the

minimum wage, an initiative that not only would help working families but get more money into circulation, thereby providing a stimulus for growth. These two economic initiatives never got to committee level, much less to the floor of the House. To be sure, there were some good things in the budget, particularly in the area of higher education and raises for public employees. But it did not go far enough in meeting the core needs of the Commonwealth in the way a Democratic budget would. Finally, there was ethics reform, which Republicans wanted desperately in response to the McDonnell scandal. At the last minute, however, the package began to unwind as the pressure by House Republicans to adjourn early began to take precedence over the deliberative legislative process. In the end, the deliberative process lost, and a bill was forced through at 8:00pm Friday without enough time for careful reflection and amendment. And we are now seeing that there are problems with the bill, particularly in terms of its enforcement provisions and the total amount of gifts legislators may take. While many of us voted for the bill, a Democratic majority would have created an independent commission and given it some real teeth. While we may have operated with more civility and comity in Richmond this year than in Washington, don't be distracted by the so-called Lovefest; the Democrat vision for the state is fundamentally different from our Republican colleagues. But we will not be able to showcase it until we increase our numbers in the House of Delegates.

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8 • March 11, 2015

Keeping the Faith For fools and drunks Marvin had spent more than two weeks in the hospital trying to clear up a clogged lung. When the final test results arrived, he had more than respiratory issues. He had cancer. Marvin wasn’t surprised. I visited him as he recovered from the minor surgery that placed a plastic tube into his chest. This tube will deliver the cancer-killing chemicals to his malignant lung. And while the treatments will not cure Marvin, these will give him a few more months. “Look here preacher,” he greeted me holding the end of his newly inserted chemo-line. “They can plug me right into the cappuccino machine now!” We had a great laugh, spoke of lattes, espresso, and how decaffeinated coffee was a waste of otherwise good water. “Let me tell you a story,” Marvin said. So I pulled up a chair. On previous visits, Marvin had begun to weave the tapestry of his life for me. He had recounted a number of very bad decisions. He spoke of terrible mistakes. And he shared regrets over a life of addiction and squander. “I was hung over one Sunday morning when my friends came to get me to help them find a lost canoe in the river. We went down to the river, and like fools, plunged in without a thought. It wasn’t long until they were all asleep on the bank, exhausted. But I kept looking for that canoe. “By myself in the river I got caught in a vortex, and it sucked me under the water. I fought for what seemed like an hour, but I know now it was only for a few minutes. I could see daylight, but couldn’t reach it. I knew I was going to drown. It was then God spoke to me: ‘Son, go on down,’ He said. But I kept fighting. He spoke again, ‘Son, go on down.’ “Finally, with water filling my

lungs I gave up and let the vortex suck me down into the river. I popped right out on the surface and just feet from the bank and lived to fight another day.” Marvin then fell silent for a long time. When he broke the silence he said, “I guess it’s true. God looks out for fools and drunks; because I’ve been both of those.” Marvin will not be cured, but he sure is getting well. He’s healing. There is a difference between the two. A cure is a quick fix, an alleviation of suffering, an elimination of symptoms. A cure will help the body and might add days to life. But getting well, healing, being made whole – this is something different altogether. Getting well may not help the body, but it can restore the soul. And Marvin, he is getting well. I love the New Testament story where Jesus encountered a man not unlike Marvin. The man had been an invalid for nearly 40 years. Jesus asked him one question: “Do you want to get well?” The man immediately began speaking of his powerlessness, his useless body, his lack of assistance with his disease and with a cure. Jesus ignored these protests and told the man to rise and walk. He was cured, but as the story unfolds, he was also made well. He leaves the pages of the New Testament testifying to the transformation that had overtaken him; a transformation that reached far beyond the physical. My buddy Marvin left the recovery room testifying himself, about a restored faith in people, in himself, and in his God. I refused to entertain the notion that he was “terminal.” At that moment, with a new diagnosis of cancer and difficult days of treatment ahead, he was very much alive and well. I hope I get a few more visits with Marvin before his Ultimate Healing. I want to hear more of his stories. I want to learn, once again, of the relentless pursuit of God’s grace. And I want to scrape together the clues of how we can all be healed. “God looks out for fools and drunks.” Amen, Marvin. He sure does. McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, pastor, and author/ronniemcbrayer.me.

RONNIE McBRAYER & MORE

Faith-based aid groups face a hurdle... the faith that drives them WASHINGTON (RNS) -- Leaders of Christian and Jewish international aid groups say their efforts are often met with twin suspicions: That the real purpose is to proselytize and that a religious message is tied to material aid. Not so, say Pastor Rick Warren, who has led Saddleback Church to donate millions of dollars and hours of labor in Africa, and Ruth Messinger, president of American Jewish World Service. The two were keynote speakers at a discussion on “Proselytism and Development in Pluralistic Societies,” sponsored by the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World

Affairs, at Georgetown University. Both acknowledged at the event last week that their motives — “living like Jesus,” said Warren, and “pursuing justice,” said Messinger — are questioned. Rebecca Shah, a research fellow at the Berkley Center who moderated the session, began with examples such as a Hindu nationalist leader in India who claimed Mother Teresa’s hidden motive in aiding the dying was a desire to convert them to Christianity. Katherine Marshall, a senior fellow at the center and former World Bank aid expert, said, “The first words (continued on page 8 )

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From left to right: Moderator Rebecca Shah, a research fellow with the Berkley Center; Asoka Bandarage, a member of the steering committee for Interfaith Moral Action on Climate; Kent Hill, senior vice president of World Vision; and Katherine Marshall, a senior fellow at the Berkley Center, participate in a panel discussion at Georgetown University last week. (from page 8) out of many mouths are ‘Hezbollah, Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas’” — all groups that mix Islamist politics with various development projects. The great stumbling block, Marshall said, is fear of religious coercion. Messinger observed that the Jewish people had been on the “wrong end” of religious coercion for millennia. The way to avoid it is to pay attention to the power dynamic, she said. She starts with guidance from the “most commonly said Jewish prayer, the Shema, which begins with the Hebrew word ‘listen.'” That shifts the power to the developing community, not the aid agency with its material resources and outsider ideas. “People should

never have to feel they must abandon some belief or adopt some new behavior to continue getting help,” she said. Warren, who has led evangelical churches into development work through his P.E.A.C.E. initiative, agreed emphatically. “All compassion should be without strings. If it is not unconditional, then it’s not compassion,” said Warren, who works with aid agencies of all faiths on common ground issues, such as health care. But, Warren argued, all actions have a motivation and no one should be “the motive police.” Saddleback stepped up, particularly in battling AIDS in Africa, “because we love Jesus,” Warren said. “I believe in sharing what I deeply hold. Jesus told me to share the good news,

and I believe in both the good news and the common good and that we can keep them both in balance. … I don’t believe in coercion, but I do believe in persuasion. Everybody is trying to persuade everybody else — but it has to be fair.” Messinger immediately countered: “What’s fair when one group (the development agency) has all the money and power?” She gave a poignant example of how a failure to pay attention to the help people say they need most can lead to good intentions going astray. Insecticide-laden fine-mesh bed nets distributed to poor villages to ward off malaria-carrying mosquitoes are used instead for fishing nets by people who were more desperate to feed their children than to prevent disease.Yet, no one knows whether fish caught in those nets will be harmful to eat, and the fine-mesh scours the waters, scooping up other fauna and flora essential to the ecology.

Real social change and effective development overseas requires change back at home in more prosperous countries, said Messinger. She called for everyone to combat greed and selfishness in their own lives as a step toward facing down corruption in underdeveloped nations. That resonated with Kent Hill, senior vice president of evangelicalbased aid powerhouse World Vision and a veteran of international aid experience with numerous governmental and nongovernmental aid agencies. “If you don’t address the root causes of conflict and poverty, you aren’t serving people,” said Hill. “Religious groups have something to say to greed, sin and conflict in this world.” While coercive use of the assistance to spread the faith is always wrong, Hill said, “converting people from selfishness to a concern for the common good is a form of proselytizing, too.”

10 • March 11, 2015

The LEGACY

Visitors view photographs exhibited as part of “Made in Church Hill”.

Students collaborate on ‘Made in Church Hill’ exhibition Richmond’s Church Hill neighborhood has long held a special place in the heart of the Virginia Commonwealth University community, notes Leila Ugincius of the university’s public affairs office. The historic area comprises unique eateries, spacious homes and St. John’s Church, made famous by Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech. Throughout the years, VCU faculty and students have increasingly chosen to live in the area — a bike ride away from both the MCV and Monroe Park campuses.

“Students who don’t engage with the city where they are attending college are missing an important part of their education.” So when Traci Garland, gallery coordinator and collections specialist, and Michael Lease, head of exhibitions and design, both of the VCU School of the Arts’ Anderson Gallery, were approached about teaching a service-learning course to students in the VCU Departments of Art History and Photography and Film, they knew they were going to be part of something special.

“From our perspective, the intention of this project was to provide a platform for people to share their experiences and stories about a particular place, and to provide new experiences for a group of talented and dedicated VCU students,” Garland said. The course, Social Practice in the Museum, became part of the larger community project, “Made in Church Hill: A CommunityCrafted Collaborative Exhibition,” a multimedia exhibition by and about people from the historically AfricanAmerican Church Hill neighborhood as it undergoes gentrification. The exhibition opened in January at the Valentine Richmond History Center's new community galleries. “Students who don’t engage with the city where they are attending college are missing an important part of their education,” Lease said. “Many of our students were not from Richmond and to them Church Hill was largely a place where they might get some pie (Proper Pie), or some bread (Sub Rosa) or splurge on a nice dinner (The Roosevelt). “… This class was important because it got VCU students out of their comfort zone and interacting with — often older, lifelong — citizens of Richmond.”

During the fall 2014 semester, VCU students taught photography and descriptive writing skills to high schoolers from Church Hill Academy so they could create portraits of neighbors, neighborhood landscapes and treasured objects evocative of the neighborhood. Undergraduates from the University of Richmond partnered with the same group of Church Hill Academy students to collect oral histories from their neighbors and create spoken word poetry. Written excerpts of these oral histories are paired with the portraits, giving insight into the changing nature of

the neighborhood as experienced through multiple generations. “The road to an exhibition is always a winding one,” Garland said, “but part of the adventure is meeting challenges, questioning misconceptions and celebrating the people you meet while creating a show like ‘Made in Church Hill.’ Working together with students from University of Richmond and Church Hill Academy, these dedicated and talented VCU undergrads crafted a remarkable exhibition. This project was truly a collaborative effort, and the journey was just as interesting as the destination.”

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

March 11, 2015, • 11

Carmen Ejogo on playing Coretta Scott King twice

build this complex relationship,” said Ejogo. “What we discovered was that the more specific we got, we got a better sense of the bigger picture. “So it was about capturing the details of the moment. There you see the intimacy of this couple and also the domestic role that she has to

Ask k Alma

take on. While she’s dressed in this regal attire, she's also expected to be representative of people who were struggling for dignity. “David and I were also dumbstruck by how rare it was that you see black characters looking that sophisticated on-screen.”

❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖ ❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖

An unfair request

It’s rare for an actor to portray the same historic character in more than one project, but Carmen Ejogo (above) has taken a second shot at getting into the skin of Coretta Scott King. Ejogo stars in director Ava DuVernay's civil rights film “Selma” 13 years after portraying Scott King in HBO’s miniseries “Boycott.” The actress, who comes from a Scottish-Nigerian background, says she knew as soon as she read the “Selma” script that the part was worth fighting for, so she flew from New York to L.A. on her own dime to audition for the director. “I got myself fully prepared, made myself up to look like Coretta with pearls on and the right shade of lipstick,” she recalled recently. “I went the whole nine yards.” A week after having dinner with DuVernay, she got an email, which was simply a photograph of herself pasted next to a photo of Scott King and the words “This is a dream come true” typed beneath them. “I immediately burst into tears because I knew it was such a great privilege and responsibility to play this character,” she says of the film that also stars David Oyelowo as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and concentrates on the 1965 marches from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. Asked how she approached this pivotal role, which she had played successfully more than a decade ago, Ejogo said that when she first played Scott King in “Boycott,” she did the

traditional research work that one does for historical figures. “There were lots of books to read and archival footage to watch,” she said. “This time around, David and I were trying to read between the lines by looking at the raw footage from that time. It was quite telling to see how the Kings acted when they weren’t aware of being filmed, or how Coretta reacted when the cameras were turned on. “I felt like I was honoring [Coretta Scott King] by fleshing her out and presenting a more human face.” Coretta Scott King, who died in 2006, approved of Ejogo’s performance in “Boycott”. “I was very fortunate to have been given the ultimate blessing,” said Ejogo. “I took that with me into ‘Selma.’ It made me feel more certain about revealing the stress of their married life, and I didn't feel pressured about avoiding certain kinds of truth. She was a great manipulator of her own image and was very good at keeping certain things hidden to protect herself, her husband and his legacy. I felt like I was honoring her by fleshing her out and presenting a more human face. Ava DuVernay said that one of the most important scenes in the movie is when Ejogo and and Oyelowo are getting dressed before a speech and Ejogo is helping him tie his ascot. “David has an entire movie to reveal this complete persona, and I had very few moments to try and

Dear Alma, I’m a single mother supporting my three children with no help from my ex-husband. I am thankful to have a great job that I like very much. I referred my friend’s husband to the company who has since become a regular employee and he is very happy here as well. Once you pass the 90-day probation, the employee who referred you is given a referral bonus. My friend’s husband recently approached me and said boldly in my face that he expects me to split the money with him. Needless to say, I was shocked. My friend has a full time job and they know it’s just me caring for my kids. I’m not sure how to handle him and maintain our friendship. What should I do? E.S., Jackson, Miss. Dear E.S., Double-check your forehead. Did you miss seeing “sucker” tattooed between your eyebrows when you washed the sleep from your eyes this morning? Now, double, double-check the conversations between the two of you, replaying them in your mind’s eye. Did you fist bump on an agreement in advance? You know how it goes when you’re fast talking, excited and all. For example, when discussing the vacancy, did you jokingly say, “If you get hired, I’ll split the bonus with you.” That’s the only reason I can see him expecting a few coins heading his way. In all honesty, I don’t get the feeling that’s what happened here. You didn’t mention it did, in your very detailed email. Seems to me, you feel like you’re caught between a rock (your friend) and a hard

place (her husband), not wanting to disturb the friendship. That’s o.k., I understand. This incident isn’t a reason for this friendship to be shaken. If anything, he’s trying to take advantage of the relationship. Because he is your friend’s husband, dismiss him. You owe him nothing! Don’t allow him to manipulate and get you all in a tizzy. Stand tall, shoulders straight, pumps pointed forward, ready to deal with him directly. Say it once, you don’t even need to practice. This should come off as sweet as pineapple pie. Repeat after me “I’m not splitting any money with you.” That’s it, don’t ever discuss it again. You don’t owe him a reason, excuse or justification for your response. Nope, nada, nothing. Let me remind you that in this economy, jobs are tough to come by. The best reference anyone can have is an employee, who’s a friend that already works for the company. His act of appreciation should be nothing more than, “Thank you for helping me get a job,” cause that my friend, is priceless. ***** Want advice? E-mail questions to alwaysaskalma@yahoo.com. Follow her on Facebook at “Ask Alma” and twitter @almaaskalma *****

12 • March 11, 2015

The LEGACY

Yes, black America fears the police. Here’s why. NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES PROPUBLICA -- Last July 4, my family and I went to Long Island to celebrate the holiday with a friend and her family. After eating some barbecue, a group of us decided to take a walk along the ocean. The mood on the beach that day was festive. Music from a nearby party pulsed through the haze of sizzling meat. Lovers strolled hand in hand. Giggling children chased each other along the boardwalk. Most of the foot traffic was heading in one direction, but then two teenage girls came toward us, moving stiffly against the flow, both of them looking nervously to their right. “He’s got a gun,” one of them said in a low voice. I turned my gaze to follow theirs, and was clasping my 4-year-old daughter’s hand when a young man extended his arm and fired off multiple shots along the busy street running parallel to the boardwalk. Snatching my daughter up into my arms, I joined the throng of screaming revelers running away from the gunfire and toward the water. The shots stopped as quickly as they had started. The man disappeared between some buildings. Chest heaving, hands shaking, I tried to calm my crying daughter, while my husband, friends and I all looked at one another in breathless disbelief. I turned to check on Hunter, a high school intern from Oregon who was staying with my family for a few weeks, but she was on the phone. “Someone was just shooting on the beach,” she said, between gulps of air, to the person on the line. Unable to imagine whom she would be calling at that moment, I asked her, somewhat indignantly, if she couldn’t have waited until we got to safety before calling her mom. “No,” she said. “I am talking to the

police.” My friends and I locked eyes in stunned silence. Between the four adults, we hold six degrees. Three of us are journalists. And not one of us had thought to call the police. We had not even considered it. Nikole Hannah-Jones, at front; with her friends Carla Murphy, left, and Monifa Bandele; and her husband, Faraji Hannah-Jones, in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. PHOTO: Ben Baker/Redux We also are all black. And without realizing it, in that moment, each of us had made a set of calculations, an instantaneous weighing of the pros and cons. As far as we could tell, no one had been hurt. The shooter was long gone, and we had seen the back of him for only a second or two. On the other hand, calling the police posed considerable risks. It carried the very real possibility of inviting disrespect, even physical harm. We had seen witnesses treated like suspects, and knew how quickly black people calling the police for help could wind up cuffed in the back of a squad car. Some of us knew of black professionals who’d had guns drawn on them for no reason. This was before Michael Brown. Before police killed John Crawford III for carrying a BB gun in a WalMart or shot down 12-year-old Tamir Rice in a Cleveland park. Before Akai Gurley was killed by an officer while walking in a dark staircase and before Eric Garner was choked to death upon suspicion of selling “loosies.” Without yet knowing those names, we all could go down a list of unarmed black people killed by law enforcement. We feared what could happen if police came rushing into a group of people who, by virtue of our skin color, might be mistaken for suspects.

For those of you reading this who may not be black, or perhaps Latino, this is my chance to tell you that a substantial portion of your fellow citizens in the United States of America have little expectation of being treated fairly by the law or receiving justice. It’s possible this will come as a surprise to you. But to a very real extent, you have grown up in a different country than I have. As Khalil Gibran Muhammad, author of The Condemnation of Blackness, puts it, “White people, by and large, do not know what it is like to be occupied by a police force. They don’t understand it because it is not the type of policing they experience. Because they are treated like individuals, they believe that if ‘I

am not breaking the law, I will never be abused.’” We are not criminals because we are black. Nor are we somehow the only people in America who don’t want to live in safe neighborhoods. Yet many of us cannot fundamentally trust the people who are charged with keeping us and our communities safe. As protest and revolt swept across the Missouri suburb of Ferguson and demonstrators staged die-ins and blocked highways and boulevards from Oakland to New York with chants of “Black lives matter,” many white Americans seemed shocked by the gaping divide between law enforcement and the black (continued on page 13)

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

March 11, 2015 • 13

(from page 12) communities they are supposed to serve. It was no surprise to us. For black Americans, policing is “the most enduring aspect of the struggle for civil rights,” says Muhammad, a historian and director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York. “It has always been the mechanism for racial surveillance and control.” In the South, police once did the dirty work of enforcing the racial caste system. The Ku Klux Klan and law enforcement were often indistinguishable. Black-and-white photographs of the era memorialize the way Southern police sicced German shepherds on civil rights protesters and peeled the skin off black children with the force of water hoses. Lawmen were also involved or implicated in untold numbers of beatings, killings and disappearances of black Southerners who forgot their place. In the North, police worked to protect white spaces by containing and controlling the rising black population that had been propelled into the industrial belt during the Great Migration. It was not unusual for Northern police to join white mobs as they attacked black homeowners attempting to move into white neighborhoods, or black workers trying to take jobs reserved for white laborers. And yet they strictly enforced vagrancy laws, catch-alls that gave them wide discretion to stop, question and arrest black citizens at will. Much has changed since then. Much has not. Last Fourth of July, in a few short minutes as we adults watched the teenager among us talking to the police, we saw Hunter become a little more like us, her faith a little shaken, her place in the world a little less stable. Hunter, who is biracial and lives with her white mother in a heavily white area, had not been exposed to the policing many black Americans face. She was about to be. On the phone, she could offer only the most generic of suspect descriptions, which apparently made the officer on the other end of the line suspicious. By way of explanation, Hunter told the officer

Malcolm London of the Black Youth Project says that every 28 hours police kill a black life. she was just 16. The police called her back: once, twice, then three times, asking her for more information. The interactions began to feel menacing. “I’m not from here,” Hunter said. “I’ve told you everything I know.” The fourth time the police called, she looked frightened. Her interrogator asked her, “Are you really trying to be helpful, or were you involved in this?” She turned to us, her voice aquiver. “Are they going to come get me?” “See,” one of us said, trying to lighten the mood. “That’s why we don’t call them.” We all laughed, but it was hollow. My friend Carla Murphy and I have talked about that day several times since then. We’ve turned it over in our minds and wondered whether, with the benefit of hindsight, we should have called 911. Carla wasn’t born in the United States. She came here when she was nine, and back in her native Barbados, she didn’t give police much thought. That changed when she moved into heavily black Jamaica, Queens.

Carla said she constantly saw police, often white, stopping and harassing passersby, almost always black. “You see the cops all the time, but they do not speak to you. You see them talking to each other, but the only time you ever see them interact with someone is if they are jacking them up,” she said. “They are making a choice, and it says they don’t care about you, it tells you they are not here for your people or people who look like you.” Carla herself was arrested at a young age—because she was present when her cousin pushed through a subway turnstile without paying. The teenagers were cuffed, thrown in a paddy wagon, booked and held overnight. At 15, Carla, then a student at The Dalton School, a prestigious private academy in Manhattan, had an arrest record. That experience, along with many others, informed Carla’s decision on July 4. “I am a responsible adult, but I really can’t see having a different reaction. Isn’t that weird?” she told me. “By calling the police, you

are inviting this big system—that, frankly, doesn’t like you—into your life. Sometimes you call and it is not the help that comes.” “So, no, I wouldn’t call the police,” she said. “Which is sad, because I want to be a good citizen.” I moved to the historic BedfordStuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn in 2011. Before then, I had been living in Portland, Oregon, and when I chose my new home in the gritty big city, it was partly because it was only a block away from a police precinct. That proximity made me feel safer—I figured crime would be less common with so many police nearby. Inadvertently, however, I also picked a prime target area of the city’s stop-and-frisk program—a system of policing that caught so many innocent black and brown men in its dragnet that a federal judge found it unconstitutional in 2013. My block is fairly typical of BedStuy. My neighbors, until recently, were all black and included everyone from laborers to college professors. Both immaculately kept brownstones (continued on page 15)

14 • March 11, 2015

The LEGACY

Obama signs law awarding medals to civil rights marchers SELMA — Participants in three civil rights marches a half century ago are being recognized with Congressional Gold Medals, the highest honor awarded by Congress. President Barack Obama signed legislation awarding the medals into law as he flew to Selma, Ala., for commemorations of the Black Sunday protest march of March 7, 1965. On that day, many in a crowd of 600 were beaten bloody by state troopers as they tried to cross Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge on their intended march to Montgomery, Alabama. Shocking scenes of the brutality helped to galvanize the nation against racial oppression in the South and hasten passage of the Voting Rights Act that year. Two more demonstrations followed in Selma. In the last one, the

demonstrators completed their march to Montgomery. Thousands of people gathered on Saturday morning ahead of a speech by President Obama at the 50th anniversary of a landmark event of the Civil Rights Movement. Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and about 100 members of Congress are converging on the town of roughly

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www.LEGACYnewspaper.com (from page 13) and boarded-up townhouses line my street. We have block meetings and a community garden. Police are a constant presence, speeding down the street to the precinct or walking the beat. Sometimes, I escort my daughter to the store underneath police watchtowers with tinted windows that pop up around the neighborhood with no warning, then disappear just as suddenly—their entire existence ambiguous yet alarming. I have witnessed from my window, countless times, police stopping someone, usually a young man, who is walking down the street. These men are often searched and questioned as they go to the bodega or head home from work or school. A few months ago, a police officer approached my neighbor as he was leaving the bodega and began questioning him. My neighbor is quiet and respectful, but he also is poor and transient. He tends to look disheveled, but the worst thing I’ve seen him do is drink beer on the stoop. When he asked why he was being stopped, the police grabbed him and threw him to the ground. As someone recorded the incident on a cellphone, police shot my neighbor with a Taser gun and then arrested him. He was never told why police stopped him. The only thing they charged him with was resisting arrest. But this arrest cost him his job and a fine he will struggle to pay. If he doesn’t pay, a judge will issue a bench warrant, and instead of preventing crime, the police will have created a criminal. Across the street and a few doors down from me, my neighbor Guthrie Ramsey has his own story. Guthrie was born in Chicago and grew up in a family that did not emphasize the obstacles their children would face. “I was socialized to believe that the police were our friends,” he said. Yet one night, some years ago, while driving his teenage son to a soccer game, Guthrie was pulled over by police. Within minutes, he and his son were sprawled on the ground, with guns drawn on them. The police believed Guthrie fit the description of a suspect. Guthrie, a short, easygoing guy with a contagious laugh, managed to point the police to his

University of Pennsylvania faculty ID. That’s right: He’s an Ivy League professor. And a noted musician. “It was so frightening. It was humiliating. You get so humiliated that it’s hard to even get to the anger,” he told me. “You just don’t get to experience interactions with the police as a garden-variety circumstance.” These types of stories in black communities are so ubiquitous as to be unremarkable. If my husband is running very late and I cannot get hold of him, my mind does not immediately go to foul play. I wonder if he’s been detained. This fear is not unjustified. Young black men today are 21 times more likely to be shot and killed by police than young white men. Still, it’s not that black Americans expect to die every time they encounter the police. Police killings are just the worst manifestations of countless slights and indignities that build until there’s an explosion. Since 1935, nearly every so-called race riot in the United States—and there have been more than 100—has been sparked by a police incident, Muhammad says. This can be an act of brutality, or a senseless killing. But the underlying causes run much deeper. Police, because they interact in black communities every day, are often seen as the face of larger systems of inequality in the justice system, employment, education and housing. In the months since Ferguson, many pundits have asserted that black Americans deserve this type of

policing, that it is a consequence of their being more likely to be both the perpetrators and victims of violent crime. “White police officers wouldn’t be there if you weren’t killing each other,” former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani argued on Meet the Press as the nation awaited the grand jury decision in the Michael Brown shooting. It should be noted that Giuliani oversaw the NYPD during two of the most notorious cases of police brutality in recent memory, the sodomy of Abner Louima and the death of Amadou Diallo, who was unarmed, in a hail of 41 bullets. Both were black men. What Giuliani was saying, in essence, is that law-abiding citizens deserve to be treated with suspicion because they share racial traits with the tiny number among them who commit crimes. Black communities want a good relationship with law enforcement because they want their families and property to be safe. After all, it is true that black communities often face higher rates of crime; in 2013, more than 50 percent of murder victims across the country were black, though only 13 percent of the total population is. But it’s also true that crime reduction efforts by black people in black communities have contributed to the recent, historic drop in crime across the country. So why are black Americans still so often denied the same kind of smart policing that typically occurs in white communities, where police seem fully capable of discerning between law-abiding citizens and those

committing crimes, and between crimes like turnstile-jumping and those that need serious intervention? “You can be protected and served,” Muhammad says. “It happens every day in communities across America. It happens all the time in white communities where crime is happening.” During the height of the “Black Lives Matter” protests, a mentally ill man shot and killed two police officers a few blocks from my home. I lay up that night thinking about those two men and their families. No one wants to see people killed. Not by police, not by anyone. The next morning, my husband and I took food and flowers to the grim brick precinct right around the corner from us that the officers were working out of when they were killed. The officer at the front desk did not greet us when we came in. And he looked genuinely surprised by our offering, his face softening as he told us we didn’t have to do this, but thank you. That people who should be allies somehow felt like adversaries troubled me. The next day, I drove by the precinct on my way to the store. It had been cordoned off with metal barricades. Two helmeted officers stood sentry out front, gripping big black assault rifles, and watching. The message felt clear. They weren’t standing out there to protect the neighborhood. They were there to protect themselves from us. Nikole Hannah-Jones (above) is a reporter covering race and inequality for ProPublica

16 • March 11, 2015

Calendar 3.12, 9 a.m.

The next Richmond Regional Planning District Commission Board meeting will be held on Thursday, March 12, beginning at 9 a.m. in the RRPDC Board Room, 9211 Forest Hill Ave., Richmond. For more information, call 804-323-2033.

3.13, 5 p.m.

The Junior League of Charlottesville (JLC) will be accepting applications from local non-profits during its 2015 Spring Grants cycle until Friday, March 13, at 5 p.m. The JLC will be providing community grants, up to $2,500, to support a project or immediate need for an organization. A committee of JLC members will review the applications and select the award recipients in the spring. For more information, email communitygrant@jlcville.org

3.14, 7 p.m.

The third annual A Time to Break Silence presented by Castleton in Performance is honored to host Emmy-winning actor Alec Baldwin as guest speaker for a night of music, photography, and activism. He will talk about animal rights abuse and related issues. The multimedia event will take place on one night only, Saturday, March 14 at 7 p.m., and proceeds will benefit Mercy for Animals (MFA), the Darfur Women Action Group (DWAG), and the Castleton Festival. Conceived by Orson Maazel, son of Lorin and Dietlinde Maazel, A Time to Break Silence is an annual series that brings celebrated speakers and musical performers together for one night to shine a spotlight on a range of social issues. For more information or tickets, go to www. castletonfestival.org.

The LEGACY

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES & EVENTS

Peninsula arts center events The Peninsula Fine Arts Center will celebrate the last month of its exhibition, “Looking Both Ways” with special events highlighting poetry, music and family-friendly crafts. The exhibit closes March 22. PFAC has partnered with the Newport News Arts Hank Willis Thomas’ “The Cotton Bowl” Commission and Newport News Public Schools to present Artistic Verses, a poetry event, from 11 a.m. on March 14. This annual program invites high school students to tour PFAC’s exhibit “Looking Both Ways” and participate in a poetry workshop with acclaimed writer Nathan Richardson. At the Artistic Verses program, the students share the poems they’ve written inspired by the exhibition. The program is free and open to the public. On March 19, PFAC’s quarterly Art After Dark concert series will welcome back The Fuzz Band, one of the most dynamic groups performing in Hampton Roads. The Fuzz Band’s unique blend of soul, R&B and funk and high energy performances routinely move crowds to their feet. The concert will be free and guests will enjoy a last opportunity to view “Looking Both Ways,” exploring contemporary African American art and its cultural past. Families are invited to enjoy a free day of fun and crafts during PFAC’s Community Day from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 21. The Community Day will kick off with a rededication of the Hands On For Kids Gallery, newly refurbished with custom art-inspired games, a LEGO wall, a reading corner and more. After the ribbon cutting, families can complete art projects inspired by African and African American artists. In addition, cupcakes will be sold by Couture Cakes by Nika and the Hampton City Schools Steel Drum Ensemble will perform. For more information, call 757-596-8175 or visit www.pfac-va.org.

A documentary on cancer

The Byrd Theatre in Richmond , 2908 W. Cary St., will host a special onehour preview of the upcoming PBS documentary on cancer, followed by a discussion with local cancer researchers, doctors, survivors and advocates about cancer in our community and the research advances and resources available. Presented by WCVE’s Community Idea Stations, American Cancer Society, Central Virginia & Virginia Volunteer Center and VCU Massey Cancer Center, the event is free; first come, first served. The PBS documentary “Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies” is a threepart, six-hour TV series from preeminent documentary filmmaker Ken Burns that is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer”, by Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee. This “biography” of cancer covers its first documented appearances thousands of years ago, through the epic battles in the 20th century to cure, control and conquer cancer. It will air locally on WCVE/WHTJ on March 30 - April 1, 2015, at 9-11 p.m. For more information, contact Liza Bishop - ebishop2@vcu. edu - or call 804-628-1829. Submit your calendar events to calendar@legacynewspaper.com and include contact infomation that can be published.

3.14, 1 p.m.

The Crater Small Business Development (SBDC) of Longwood University is hosting a free four part Boot Camp Session for Women Entrepreneurs. The second part tackles the lending process. Lauren Welch, an accredited financial counselor and owner of Thrive Financial Counseling will offer her expertise. Other upcoming boot camp topics will tackle financing through the eyes of a lender, the importance of having a business budget and steps to accessing business loans. Sessions will be held at Petersburg Public Library, 201 West Washington St. RSVP required at www.sbdclongwood.com or 804-518-2003.

3.18, 6:30 p.m.

Reynolds Community College will host its 11th Annual Science Night on Wednesday, March 18, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Lipman Auditorium of the Massey Library Technology Center on the Parham Road Campus, 1651 E. Parham Road in Richmond. This event is free and open to the public. Science Night will include three panel discussions from Reynolds’ science professors, Dr. William Mott, Professor Shalini Upadhyaya, and Dr. Jerrod Hunter. The professors will delve into various science topics including, “Making Sense of Senescene: Aging with Dignity, Style, Grace and Confidence,” “Just in Case You Need It: An immigrants humble request to stay ahead of the game,” and “Mouse Party: The Neuroscience of drugs and abuse.” There will also be hands-on activities for participants that include physics demonstrations. There will be light refreshments served throughout the night, provided by the Culinary Arts Program at Reynolds. For more information, visit www.reynolds.edu.

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