V15n47 - JFP Interview with Robert Blaine

vol. 15 no. 47

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YMCAS FOR SALE Fradette, p 10

ROAD TRIP TIPS Helsel, p 18

MARCEL P. BLACK: BUILDING BRIDGES Smith, p 26

The JFP Interview with

Robert Blaine

Running Jackson: New CAO Shares His Vision Kelly III, pp 14 - 16

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JACKSONIAN Patti Reiss courrtesy Patti Reiss

D

uring the Christmas holidays in 2012, then-teacher Patti Reiss met the Mississippi Children’s Museum Chief Executive Officer and President Susan Garrard at Mistletoe Marketplace. Having previously taken her third-grade class on a field trip to the museum, Reiss says she had already started to think that it was a place she could see herself working at in the future.

“(Susan) told me to send her my resume ... that night, and that’s exactly what I did,” Reiss says. “I got an interview scheduled and then came on in.”

After teaching for nine years in Forest Municipal School District, Jackson Public Schools and St. Anthony Catholic School in Madison, the Jackson native began her time at the Mississippi Children’s Museum in December 2012 as a part-time visitor assistant.

“(I would) engage with guests who are experiencing elements of our exhibits,” Reiss says. “We’re the ones reading the stories, weighing the catfish and building the sandcastles. I did that because that’s what was open at the time, and within a few weeks, a full-time position came up.”

After looking over the qualifications for the open position of the front-desk coordinator position, Reiss says she told her boss, “I can do everything on this job description but one thing, and I am willing

contents

to learn that one (the company’s financial software).”

As the new front-desk coordinator, Reiss greeted guests, managed membership files and answered questions that the museum guests had. Though she didn’t know how to run the company financial software at first, she picked up on it quickly.

Reiss became the museum’s assistant director of programs in 2015. “I had conquered a lot of stuff up here (as the front desk coordinator),” she says. “I had solved issues that any new business would have, let alone us who have a multiple milliondollar budget and see over 300,000 people a year. And if I wanted to get back into the education side, this was that chance.”

Along with her other duties, including coordinating with schools for field trips and summer camps, Reiss, 35, says her current major project is working on the Mississippi Science Fest on Sept. 23, which the museum is doing in conjunction with the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum, and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame & Museum.

“It makes me happy that we’re fostering that here in the city of Jackson,” she says, “because we’ve never done a large-scale four-museum project like this before.”

—Tyler Edwards

cover photo of Robert Blaine

by Imani Khayyam

6 ............................ Talks 12 ................... editorial 13 ...................... opinion 14 ............ Cover Story 18 .................. Road Trip 20 ........... food & Drink 22 ......................... 8 Days 24 ........................ Events

6 Progress at Henley-Young

The Hinds County juvenile justice center has made significant strides since a judge approved the 2016 consent decree, cutting way back on the number of kids behind bars.

20 Ice Cream Truckers

A new food truck is in town, and this one is serving up something different: ice cream.

24 ....................... sports 26 .......................... music 26 ........ music listings 27 ............................ Arts 28 ...................... Puzzles 29 ......................... astro 29 ............... Classifieds

27 Marcel P. Black: Building Bridges

“I told myself that once I had the platform and once I had the resources, I would do my part. … On top of creating this type of platform for artists like myself, I wanted to teach and mentor some of the young artists coming up, so they wouldn’t feel pressured to take a bad deal, so they could learn to just take care of their art.”

—Byron Marcel Williams, “Marcel P. Black: Building Bridges”

July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

4 ............ Editor’s Note

courtesy Green Market Fair Trade; Imani Khayyam; Imani Khayyam

July 26 - August 1, 2017 | Vol. 15 No. 47

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editor’s note

by Amber Helsel, Managing Editor

Grow Roots, Wings Where You’re Planted

O

nce upon a time, I was one of the young people who wanted to get out of this place. In early high school, I imagined that after college, I would travel everywhere, living somewhere for two years at a time. I would go to England and France and Japan and see more of the U.S. than I had before.

But when I was in college, my sister had my niece and nephew, and that made me realize how unhappy I’d feel if I had to be far away from all of my family.

I’d have to miss watching the kids grow up, and I didn’t want to do that.

So after college, I moved back home, and ever since then, my living situation has been in limbo.

When my mom calls me a Gypsy, she’s not really joking. Even though I haven’t traveled all over the world, I’ve moved from place to place ever since I was 19 years old. Before college, I lived with friends, then later with my aunt, and then I moved back home. I lived in a dorm during my first year at the University of Mississippi, and in my last few years there, I lived in an apartment. I then moved back home after college, and after my parents sold their house, I moved in with my grandparents. When they sold their house, I moved into a house in Pearl with my sister. A few months after that, I moved into my apartment in Brandon.

And finally, around April of this year, I moved back in with my parents to save money as I searched for a house.

With my living situation always being somewhat in flux, “home” has been a temporary term to me. Even when I was living in my apartment, I knew that, at some point, I’d have to leave. It was just too small for someone who likes to spread

out (and whose middle name probably should be Messy). The idea of owning a house had crossed my mind a few times, but at that time, it felt like a pipe dream.

It wasn’t until my mom encouraged me to talk to someone about mortgages that it became clear: This could actually happen, and much sooner than I thought.

Weirdly enough, it did happen. A little more than a week ago, I got the keys to my new house.

mail for a package, but really, I was just going to look at my new home (and to also check and make sure nothing had happened, because that’s a thing now).

As millennials, I think a lot of us can forget how nice it is to have a real home sometimes—not just a roof over our heads, but a place where we can grow and have room to grow.

We live in a fast-paced world, and we want different things than previous

Grow where you’re planted.

It’s been an adventure. In my first week, the refrigerator’s water filter and a valve in my laundry room both started leaking; the hot-water handle on my bathtub broke off, so for now, I have to use pliers to turn it on and off; and the other day, a couple of neighborhood cats decided to fight underneath my bedroom window at 1:30 in the morning.

Homeownership isn’t easy, and I’m sure a few more mental breakdowns over stuff breaking are probably in my future. But even through the harder parts, I know that I made the right decision.

The house isn’t perfect. It’s older, which means it has a few annoying quirks, but so do I. The more time I spend in it, the more I realize how much it’s starting to feel like home. I even went to my house over lunch the other day to check the

generations. We’re getting married much later in life, with a median age of about 30, Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research shows—that is, if we marry at all. A 2014 Pew Research Center survey found that about 67 percent of people ages 18 to 29 agree that society is just as well off if we don’t have marriage and parenthood as high priorities.

Even without the issue of crippling debts, a lot of us don’t want to own a house. Last year, the United States Census Bureau reported that only about 34.1 percent of Americans ages 18 to 34 are homeowners, which is the lowest percentage since 1965. Meanwhile, the number of people renting is slowly on the rise. A lot of us don’t want to be attached to big things. We are the first digital natives, and so much of our world

is stored in clouds, so not wanting something permanent like a car or a house makes sense.

And there’s this whole idea of brain drain the JFP has long reported on— Mississippi’s young people, even the ones who are going to college here, often leave in search of better employment opportunities. To a certain degree, it is true that we could probably find more opportunities in places that have more resources.

Then again, the need for more resources has always been part of my reason for staying. I want to help fight for Mississippi and Jackson, to build a better reputation for my home.

I want to help fight for us to have the resources to fix infrastructure and education, and to help change, at least a little bit, the ultra-conservative mindset that keeps us at the bottom of good lists and the top of bad ones.

I think part of me has always been worried that I would never find my place in the world, and actually, that’s still a murky topic. But at the very least, I firmly planted my feet in one spot and said, “This is where I’m going to grow.” Grow where you’re planted, right? I didn’t always want to stay here, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that it’s worth it to stay—at the very least, for the people I know and love.

These days, the plan is to travel the world and bring back what I can to the metro area while also keeping myself grounded in one place—roots and wings.

Managing Editor Amber Helsel is a Gemini who loves travelling, art, photography, music, anime, cats, snacks and more. She recently joined the Four Eyes Club. Email story ideas to amber@ jacksonfreepress.com.

July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

contributors

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William H. Kelly III

Arielle Dreher

Imani Khayyam

Tyler Edwards

Micah Smith

Kimberly Griffin

Kristin Brenemen

Todd Stauffer

City Reporting Intern William H. Kelly III is a student at Jackson State University and is originally from Houston, Texas.

Send him city news tips at william@jacksonfreepress.com.

He wrote the cover story.

News Reporter Arielle Dreher is working on finding some new hobbies and adopting an otter from the Jackson Zoo. Email her story ideas at arielle@jacksonfreepress.com.

She wrote about juvenile justice in Jackson.

Staff Photographer Imani Khayyam is an art lover and a native of Jackson. He loves to be behind the camera and capture the true essence of his subjects. He took the cover photo.

Events Editor Tyler Edwards loves film, TV and all things pop culture. He’s a Jackson native and will gladly debate the social politics of comic books.

Send events to events@jacksonfreepress.com. He wrote about Jacksonian Patti Reiss.

Music Editor Micah Smith is married to a great lady, has two dog-children named Kirby and Zelda, and plays in the band Empty Atlas. Send gig info to music@jacksonfreepress.com. He wrote about hip-hop artist Marcel P. Black.

Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin is a fitness buff and foodie who loves chocolate and her mama. She’s also Michelle Obama’s super secret BFF, which explains the ongoing Secret Service detail.

Art Director Kristin Brenemen is a meganekko with a penchant for dystopianism. She’s gearing up for next convention season by starting to learn leather crafting for two space heroines. She designed much of the issue.

President and publisher Todd Stauffer is the author of more than 40 technology books on Macs, HTML, blogging and digital video. He grew up in Dallas and is a Texas A&M graduate. He worked hard in his executive hoodie.

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Two YMCA locations are up for sale, including downtown Jackson p 10

“I get the big bite of the elephant. But the mayor has a harder job than mine because he has to craft the vision of how all this stuff works.”

— New Jackson CAO Robert Blaine, page 14

Thursday, July 20

Jackson State University announces that returning and continuing students with scholarships and out-ofstate fee waivers will get to keep their same financial awards for the upcoming 2017-2018 school year. … Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba vows to go vegan for a month and lead by a healthy example in response to a letter from Pamela Anderson and PETA. Friday, July 21

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer resigns his position after the appointment of new White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci. … Secretary of State Rex Tillerson imposes geographic travel restrictions on North Korea, making it illegal to use U.S. passports to enter the country.

Saturday, July 22

Congress reaches an agreement on a Russia sanctions package to punish Moscow for meddling in the presidential election and its military aggression in Ukraine and Syria.

July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

Sunday, July 23

White House representatives indicate that Donald Trump would sign Congress’ Russia sanctions measure.

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Monday, July 24

Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner denies that he colluded with Russians in the course of Donald Trump’s campaign in his testimony to Congress.

Tuesday, July 25

A historical marker in Money, Miss. dedicated to Emmett Till is rededicated weeks after it was vandalized and repaired.

Get breaking news at jfpdaily.com.

The Henley-Young ‘Emergency Room’ Shows Progress, Houses Fewer Youth

by Arielle Dreher

A

bout 10 minors, dressed in different solid-colored uniforms, sat interspersed with security staff members as one member reads out bingo combinations. No one seemed to be having a lucky afternoon.

The multi-purpose room in the HenleyYoung Juvenile Justice Center is used for assemblies, training, orientation and, today, bingo during recreational time.

Eddie Burnside, the director of operations at Henley-Young, Hinds County’s juvenile detention center, says he wants his staff to have relationships with the young people, so it is not just a security guard-vs.-kids approach.

Burnside the one who had the interior of the center painted something other than the gray and one-shade-darker-gray combination it used to be.

Henley-Young has come a long way since the federal judge issued a consent decree and settlement agreement back in 2012, which required the county to cut back on the number of incarcerated kids and increase mental, health and rehabilitative services for youth.

The consent decree requires the facility to have a capacity of no more than 32 kids and keep them for a maximum of 21 days at a time. As of this summer, the average number of kids at Henley-Young

Imani Khayyam

Wednesday, July 19

The Mississippi Supreme Court denies Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith’s appeal to avoid a second trial and reschedules the original court date for July 31. … Gov. Phil Bryant sets Nov. 7 special elections to fill two seats in the Mississippi House.

Federal court monitor Leonard Dixon completed his tenth monitor’s report on the Henley-Young detention center this year. On a recent visit, Dixon said the facility has made great progress, especially in lowering the number of children housed inside its walls. It’s also offering more services.

hovers between 15 and 20, Executive Director Johnnie McDaniels said.

Why? McDaniels says the consent decree had a type of snowball effect on most parties involved in juvenile justice in the county, from the court to his staff.

“People (now) know Henley-Young is not this long-term facility where chil-

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dren are going to be without services,” he told the Jackson Free Press. “So the court, I think for reasons that’s clear to me and some that’s not so clear, began to recognize that this is not that type of facility, so when we were able to identify and limit those children (coming in) … plus having services in place.”

I

t’s that time of year again, when certain politicians sweat profusely for 10 minutes while spouting political talking points at the state’s “giant houseparty” in Neshoba County. Here’s a bingo card to keep the political speaking, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday morning, entertaining and on point.

“It has to be all of the parties and all of the stakeholders, elected officials, and everybody saying, ‘look, these are the challenges that we face in our criminal justice system,’ and hopefully with that kind of collective shout, we can get some movement.”

— Johnnie McDaniels, director of Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center

”The caucus decided to and voted to boycott.”

— Rep. Sonya Williams-Barnes, D-Gulfport, on the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus boycotting the Southern Legislative Conference, which starts this weekend in Biloxi.

What’s Ahead for the Capitol Complex?

by Arielle Dreher

The Capitol Police, whom are responsible for security inside the Legislature and other large state buildings, inherited a larger jurisdiction under the Capitol Complex legislation that went into effect this July.

The Capitol Complex legislation increased the number of state-owned properties in the capitol police’s jurisdiction to include the Mississippi School for the Blind and Deaf and the Agricultural Museum on the

and that’s the reform that’s going on all over this country,” Dixon said.

Dixon’s most recent report, from February 2017, shows the detention facility’s progress. The first report found 71 measures for improvement that were “non-compliant.” Today, that number has dropped to 13.

Psychologist Needed

McDaniels says his immediate need is a leader of that five-person mentalhealth care staff: a clinical psychologist.

He suspects this has to do more with the availability of psychologists in Mississippi and competitive pay. For now, the contracted medical group provides a psychiatrist to Henley-Young once or twice a week, while McDaniels continues to

east side of Interstate 55.

The capitol police force has 69 officers, many of whom are stationed full-time at certain government buildings. Byington said the crime rate at state-owned property is relatively low—and since the new legislation increasing their jurisdiction went into effect, he has seen little change.

“It’s obviously a lot bigger jurisdiction and a lot more buildings, but so far, so good,” he said.

A Slow Start

Despite the new law taking effect July 1, law enforcement appears to be the only immediate change so far. The Capitol Complex legislation diverts a certain percentage of total sales tax revenue collected by Jackson businesses to go into the Capitol Complex Improvement District Project Fund, but that does not have to start until on or before August 2018.

In the meantime, DFA Director Laura Jackson has sent out letters to begin forming the committee, which will be tasked with approving projects that the diverted tax dollars will fund.

The governor, lieutenant governor and Mississippi House speaker all have appointments to the committee as well as the mayor, the city council, the president of Jackson State University, the vice chancellor for health affairs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the city’s director of public works. The committee will meet quarterly once it is formed.

push the Hinds County Board of Supervisors to look for a psychologist.

“What you will find with a lot of children who end up in the juvenile justice system is that there has been trauma somewhere, and having this staff that can sufficiently identify, diagnose and begin to kind of individualize treatment programming (for each kid) is something that was emphasized in every report the monitor did,” McDaniels said.

Medical care has improved under Dixon’s guidance, too. Ngozi Ezike submitted medical reports to the court in December, and based on interviews with Henley-Young administrators, the juvenile detention center has improved its medical practices six months later.

Ezike wrote in December about

more CAPITOL, see page 8

a girl who had been to Henley-Young County Juvenile Justice Center eight times in the past three and a half years— and she is diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection almost every time she arrives. The girl, called Youth #2 in the most recent medical-services review of the facility, told Ezike that the doctor “comes now and again but haven’t seen in a long time.”

It also appears that no one ever told her the results of her STI test. Ezike’s report suggests the facility prioritize STI testing and treatment for youth admitted to the facility.

Burnside said Henley-Young has remedied this problem. All young peomore HENLEY see page 8

July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

Henley-Young now has two mentalhealth workers and three case managers hired full-time to care for the kids that come into the center. Computers are in the intake room so children can take their initial mental-health screening tests.

Federal court monitor Leonard Dixon, who just finished up a visit at the center, says the drop in number of intakes is an “outstanding accomplishment” for the facility, noting that some facilities he has worked in and monitored take up to 20 years to bring their numbers down that drastically.

Previously, Henley-Young could hold from 70 to 80 minors at a time.

“They’ve worked hard (to a point) that the kids who don’t need to be in a detention center don’t need to be in here,

Imani Khayyam

J

ackson stands to gain additional tax revenue for infrastructure projects located inside the Capitol Complex Improvement District but likely not until next year, even as it will bring immediate changes on the law-enforcement front.

The governor signed the new law creating the district, which became official July 1.

The move broadens the state capitol police’s jurisdiction to everywhere throughout the district, which extends only as far north as Fondren, east to the Interstate and into downtown Jackson, stopping at Jackson State University to the west.

The state capitol police now have the power to arrest and take all actions the Jackson Police Department has the authority to do in the area, but Don Byington, director of the state capitol police, said his force will focus primarily on patrolling the State-owned property inside the district.

“Our primary focus is to ensure the safety of both the state employees and citizens that visit or have business at the state-owned property and buildings,” Byington told the Jackson Free Press.

The state capitol police are under the Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration and offer 24-hour security at several state buildings as well as surveillance. All 9-1-1 calls made in the new district will still go to JPD, Byington said, and only calls to the special capitol police number go directly to their force.

State employees and people who work in stateowned buildings now have that number to call if they encounter a problem.

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TALK | justice

HENLEY from page 7 ple, both boys and girls, are tested for STIs when they enter the facility. If they leave before their test results come back, Burnside said he will contact the parent or guardian and, respecting privacy, tell them the results. If a juvenile is still at Henley-Young when the results come

managers share that information with the youth’s guardian before they leave.

Ezike suggests that Henley-Young keep single dose treatments for gonorrhea and chlamydia to avoid treatment delays. Youth are treated at Crossroads if they have an STI. Ezike also wants HenImani Khayyam

Johnnie McDaniels, the executive director of Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center, says it is up to the community and various stakeholders to come up with solutions and programs for youth when they leave his custody.

back, he or she is taken off-site and receives treatment for free at Crossroads Clinic in the Jackson Medical Mall, Ezike’s report notes. Youth get individualized treatment assessments and plans for physical and mental health at HenleyYoung now, McDaniels said, and case

July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

CAPITOL from page 7

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Chuck McIntosh with DFA said director Laura Jackson asked those responsible for forming the committee to submit their designees by Sept. 30. The committee’s first meeting will likely be at some point in the fourth quarter of 2017.

The committee’s job is to consult with DFA about projects and the comprehensive plan for the Capitol Complex district, but DFA will ultimately adopt and be in charge of implementing the comprehensive

ley-Young staff to follow up with young people even if they leave before test results come in.

Henley-Young does not test for HIV currently, either, and Ezike’s report suggests the center begin administering testing for all adolescents entering the facil-

plan for the district.

Which Projects?

The City of Jackson keeps a running of list of infrastructure projects, most recently updated in fiscal-year 2016, called the Infrastructure Capital Improvement Program, or CIP for short. The plan is five-year plan with a schedule for the major infrastructure projects in the city. It includes improvements for the city’s water, wastewater and stormwater systems as well as roads and bridges.

The CIP includes 338 separate

ity. The juvenile justice center can apply for grants through the federal Centers for Disease and Control or get help from local nonprofits.

‘Where the Tension Is’

Keeping numbers low and turning kids out after 21 days while offering rehabilitative care will continue to be a focus for McDaniels and his team, but the executive director says the whole system of care needs to continue to improve and evolve.

Dixon, the court monitor, compares Henley-Young to an emergency room.

“The detention center is the emergency room of the juvenile justice system: you bring kids in; you triage them; you deal with them, and then you send them to wherever they need to go,” Dixon told the Jackson Free Press.

“And if you get that into your head, then you can get an understanding of where the tension is. Before I think people were putting kids in here as a respite, or we don’t want to deal with them, or he cursed his mother, so the mother calls the police. Well, that’s a different situation; you’re going to spend all this money to lock him up when it would have been cheaper for you to have a counselor go to the house and see what’s going on.”

Of course, in order for the ER metaphor to work, the community services need to be in place for young people who exit Henley-Young. McDaniels says to get movement outside Henley-Young for services it will take effort by all stakeholders: the courts, law enforcement, community

projects, and the longest list comes from stormwater projects, listed by ward. Wards, 6, 1 and 7 need the most stormwater repair work, the CIP shows. Stormwater repairs include actions needed to prepare the city’s many creeks for floods and high waters.

The Capitol Complex District is predominantly made up of Ward 7, with small pieces of Wards 3, 1 and 5, which includes Jackson State University.

The Lumumba administration did not respond to interview requests for this story by press time.

members and the juvenile and criminal justice systems.

“It has to be all of the parties and all of the stakeholders, elected officials, and everybody saying, ‘look, these are the challenges that we face in our criminal justice system,’ and hopefully with that kind of collective shout, we can get some movement,” he said.

“It’s a discussion that I think hasn’t had all the parties at the table, so that’s something we’re challenged to do as a community,” he said. “You can’t lock your way up out of what we’re dealing with.

Juveniles or adults, you can’t lock your way up out of it, you’re going to have to get involved and have some tough discussions about alternatives to detention.”

Dixon said one of the important aspects of keeping Henley-Young on track is to keep the increased funding for staff, which the consent decree requires. He said many centers that he has monitored do not keep the supports and lose traction after they are out from under the decree. McDaniels is hopeful that Hinds County can start to address the holistic approach to caring for its people through mental-health care and programs. McDaniels quoted Frederick Douglass from the 1800s: “It’s easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”

“I’ll add women to that—and that’s a true statement,” McDaniels said.

Email state reporter Arielle Dreher at arielle@ jacksonfreepress.com and follow her on Twitter @arielle_amara.

Most viral stories at jfp.ms:

1. “Jackson Mayor Vows to Go Vegan in Light of City Health Issues” by William Kelly III 2. “Dorcus Thigpen” by Dustin Cardon 3. “UPDATED: JPS Board Forced to Halt Work After Fourth Member Leaves Board” by Arielle Dreher 4. “The Future of the JFP Chick Ball” by Donna Ladd 5. “Ole Miss Confirms: Hugh Freeze Has Resigned,” Associated Press

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The Patty Peck Promise

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TALK | metro

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he Metropolitan YMCAs of Mississippi—the state’s branch of what the national Y calls the “nation’s leading nonprofit”—has put both the downtown Jackson and Clinton locations up for sale. The rationale is shrinking profits and increasing debt after taking out millions in loans, including $7 million to build the Flowood location.

The Mississippi YMCA is attributing the move on advice from a New York bank,

“This just means that they are listed,” Reihle said. “If the buildings are sold, we have not taken away the possibility that the buyers could be someone who wants to see a Y there.”

In 1998, Metropolitan YMCAs of Mississippi took out a $1-million loan for the Reservoir YMCA, which started the group on the path of several more loans, Reihle said. To date, the Metropolitan YMCAs of Mississippi have taken out more

$9 million in debt from years of taking out hefty loans from the still-unconfirmed bank.

The YMCA took out a nearly $7-million loan to build the Flowood YMCA facility in 2003. The YMCA took out a more than $3-million loan to build the Clinton YCMA in 2005.

In 2002, a $1,200,000 loan went toward repairs for the downtown YMCA. Additionally, the YMCA took out a line of credit of $700,400.

YMCA’s Jackson, Clinton Future Uncertain

by Rachel Fradette Courtesy YMCA

The Jackson Metropolitan YMCA stands at 800 East River Place and is now for sale. The downtown location and Clinton YMCA were listed for sale in March due to heavy debt. The YMCA took out $7 million in loans to open the Flowood Y.

July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

with an uncertain name and that cannot be reached to comment on the situation.

The vital operations of those two YMCAs, including programs for children and the needy, may soon leave Hinds County altogether, relocating to the suburban Flowood Family YMCA or the YMCA Reservoir. The Downtown YMCA is Jackson’s only remaining location of the “Young Men’s Christian Association,” which George Williams founded in 1844 as an urban refuge for young men living in inner-city London.

The Greater Jackson Chamber still lists the YMCA of Metropolitan Jackson, a name that the YMCA does not seem to be using any longer. Neither name is registered with the secretary of state.

Director of Development Janet Reihle said the YMCA is in direct contact with a so-far-unconfirmed bank that recommended the two properties be sold to cut back on costs and reduce debt. She said the decision was a directive from the lenders, and the 10 YMCA did not make the decision.

than $12 million in loans.

The Clarion-Ledger reported the name of the bank as “Parkstone Properties” based in New York, but that is not the registered name of a bank there. Reihle also shared this information with the Jackson Free Press, but said she was unsure of the name and said dealings are between the board of directors and the bank.

As of July 25, Reihle was still unsure of the bank’s correct name. An investment company, Parkstone Capital, is the only New York-based bank the Jackson Free Press found, but the group said it is unable to comment until next week, as the core member is out of town.

Speed Commercial Real Estate President Jeff Speed confirmed his company listed both the Clinton and Jackson YMCA properties for sale in March 2017. The properties are listed for $1,600,000 each on Loopnet.com. The properties have yet to sell. Speed could not confirm the bank associated with the YMCA’s loan.

Currently, YMCA of Mississippi is

“We have not been able to reinvest in any of our facilities,” Reihle said about the YMCA’s large debt cloud. “That causes just a loss financially to continue. That’s not a healthy path for us to go down.”

Many members of the YMCA of Mississippi Board of Directors live in or own businesses in cities outside of Jackson.

“We are hopeful that these conversations happening right now really get a chance for the community to have some input into what the Y is doing and what they would want to see the Y doing,” Reihle told the Jackson Free Press.

She said community and member meetings will be held to discuss the future of YMCA programs and to listen to community concerns. No meeting has been scheduled, yet.

“We are still hopeful that the conversations that are happening now will give us a great direction and healthy direction,” Reihle said.

The JFP reached out to nearly all members of the YMCA Mississippi Board

of Directors with no responses as of press time. Those members include Stacy Crain, Amanda Fontaine, Ken Hodges, Mark Hosemann, Sam Riden, Witt Ruffin, Bryan Lagg, Brad Wilkinson and Worth Thomas.

Neither location has closed its doors, but the goal of the listing is to sell, Reihle said. As for the YMCA programs at the locations including the I.S. Sanders earlylearning Child Enrichment Center in Jackson, she said the YMCA wants to move programs to Flowood Family YMCA or YMCA Reservoir. The downtown YMCA is nearly eight miles from the closest alternative, Flowood Family YMCA. The YMCAClinton is about 20 miles from Flowood.

“We can come back into these communities stronger and able to make a bigger impact ourselves financially instead of just assuming more debt,” Reihle said about the pending moves.

Membership Director Sara Brantley declined to comment on programs and directed the JFP to Reihle. By press time, Executive Director Rennie Cluver could not be reached for comment.

Reihle said the choice of the lenders to list the downtown and Clinton locations derived from the financial instability of the locations. “They (Flowood and Reservoir facilities) have actually been able to help us sustain the Clinton and downtown YMCA facility and operations for a while now,” she told the Jackson Free Press.

Both a YMCA on Farish Street and another at Deville Plaza in north Jackson have closed in recent years. When the Deville location shut down, the organization revamped the downtown location, turning the basketball court into a larger workout and weight room. The Downtown YMCA loses approximately $200,000 a year through being in operation, Reihle said. Since 2004, that Y has lost more than $1 million in revenue, Reihle said.

“We’ve been trying to reinvest and make sure we operate that facility as long as possible,” Reihle said. “Our lenders have said it is not financially feasible for us to pay off the debt and still sustain that loss.”

The Clinton YMCA loses about $100,000 a year and lost about $1 million in operations since 2004, much like Jackson, Reihle said.

Reihle said the ultimate goal for the YMCA right now is to eliminate some of its debt. “There still a lot of opportunity for the Y to have a footprint (in the Jackson metro),” she said. “We just don’t know what that will be right now.”

The YMCA corporate office directed the Jackson Free Press to Reihle about questions regarding the loan.

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11

Being Brave

S

everal months ago, my 8-year-old daughter decided she needed to start the age-old, honored tradition of female adornment and get her ears pierced. I knew it had a lot to do with the other girls in her class, but seeing as how I got mine pierced at 8—and I’ve yet to end up stripping or living under a bridge—I decided to give her permission. We drove to the mall with my mother because this is obviously a three-generation female rite-of-passage that deserves celebration. We got to the store and spent about 20 minutes picking out the studs she wanted to wear.

During that time, my kid decided she needed to use the restroom, and I pointed to a sales clerk and informed her that if she asked, I bet that lady would tell her where it was. She refused. She then stomped a foot and pulled a Mariah Carey with a clear, “I don’t know her.” I thought about telling her to take her crown off, but I pulled a more old-school parent line and said, “Well, I guess you don’t have to pee that bad.”

This made her angry, but she knows my “I’m done” look. She carried on about her business of looting the wall of sunglasses while we waited for the lady with the ear-piercing gun to be ready for her. Right before she sat in the chair to get them pierced, the possibility of pain set into her mind, and she began to cry. We spent another 10 minutes talking about what it meant to be brave. We’ve had a few conversations about this over the years—first day of school, making friends at new places, the typical things that can be frightening for kids to navigate.

She kept saying, “I’m scared, Mama.” I told her that the reality was often not as bad as the idea, and if it was something that she really wanted, she’d decide to endure it. I told her that being brave didn’t mean you weren’t scared. It meant you were scared and did it anyway.

Then I asked her one last time, “Do you want to do this?”

She said, “Yes,” and grabbed both my hands, squeezed them and sat there tall and proud while they pierced her ears. She then burst out laughing and crying at the same time. It was over. She could relax. She delightfully informed me that it “wasn’t that bad.” The store employee spent about five minutes congratulating her and teaching her how to clean her new earrings.

She preened and the tears dried quickly.

She bounced out of the store with her nana and then, seeming to remember that she had to go to the bathroom, she asked about it again. I repeated my earlier suggestion. She looked at me, freshly pierced ears flashing with a new knowledge of herself, and turned around and walked right up to the sales clerk and asked for the location of the restroom.

I thought about how that story plays out in real life daily. We are scared of something, and one day we realize that if we want it enough, we will be brave and endure the pain for it. And then something even more magical happens: Every situation after that requires us to be “brave” gets easier and easier. We begin to understand the power that is already within us.

I also teach her that some days it’s OK to decide not to be. Being brave is hard work, but it is our best work. Facing a monster down, metaphorically, teaches us the fundamental fact that they are never as big and scary as we think. And we are always bigger and stronger than we think.

She returned from the bathroom and presented the story of asking the sales clerk where the bathroom was as a Ulysses-esque adventure, and I listened attentively. Because that is also part of the process: the story of when you were first brave. We all have that one. The day we were scared, but we decided to do it anyway.

Lori Gregory is a social worker from Greenville, Miss. She lives in Fondren with two ruined rescues and an 8-year-old daughter who terrorizes her.

12 July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

We begin to understand the power that is already within us.

Learning from Henley-Young’s Progress

Y

ears after litigation and cutting way down on the number of kids behind bars, Jackson faces an interesting crossroads: Our juvenile-justice center might be the leader for rehabilitative treatment for youth in the city.

Mental-health and case workers help create individual records of each child’s health, both physical and mental. Kids get STI screening and treatment if they need it. For a short period of time, although confined, children are given intense attention and care. Henley-Young still has work to do, but administrators have made significant progress on the terms in the consent decree recently—mainly by cutting down on the number of kids behind bars and limiting their stays to no more than three weeks.

The federal court monitor compares the juvenile-detention center to an emergency room, and we agree. Detention fixes nothing—it’s not rehabilitative, constructive or productive to have kids, or adults for that matter, sit behind bars.

Young folks especially need to be able to learn, grow and ask questions in the most supportive environment possible.

Kids with physical or mental-health challenges need integrated support at home, at school and in their communities. Sometimes health challenges lead to behavior challenges that previously would have landed a kid in Henley-Young if his guardian decided to call the cops.

Let’s say John can’t see the board, and his last

name always seats him in the back of the classroom. Because he can’t see, he acts out and asks other kids for help occasionally, but mostly doesn’t pay attention. His teacher, without knowing it, could be suspending a child for literally not being able to see. Back at home, John annoys his mother, too, because he can’t perform the basic chores she’s given him because he still can’t see. Thinking he’s being delinquent and fed up with him, his mother calls the police. John goes to Henley-Young.

This attitude and cycle have poisoned our community’s perception of “delinquent” children.

It’s admittedly easier to just send a child away instead of digging deeper to the root causes of what could be going on. Maybe John can’t see. Maybe he’s experienced intense amounts of trauma in his short life. If our juvenile-detention center is treated like an emergency room—truly for emergencylevel behavior—then we need our schools, afterschool programs and homes to be nurturing, caring environments.

We all must urge our government and philanthropists to fund community-based care so kids can stay in their schools and homes to get the best treatment possible. We must invest in more programs that keep kids in school and engaged in building good relationships with their peers and the world around them. Jackson’s next generation deserves better, and if Henley-Young is working to make changes, so can the rest of the community.

Email letters and opinion to letters@jacksonfreepress.com, fax to 601-510-9019 or mail to 125 South Congress St., Suite 1324, Jackson, Mississippi 39201. Include daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, as well as factchecked.

Laurie Bertram Roberts

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Dear Pam: Stay in Your Lane

W

hen I first read about PETA’s latest public-relations stunt with Pamela Anderson, which was aimed at Jackson and our recent ranking as the “fattest city in America,” I just knew that our new mayor would never be swayed by such obvious baiting and exploitation. In no alternate reality could Chokwe Antar Lumumba, the wokebae mayor of Jackson, our black power Drake, do anything short of fire back a well-thought-out, research-based response to why the notion that all Jackson residents need to be healthy and lose weight is to be vegan was not only factually inaccurate but also steeped in race and class privilege. I’m mayor now, too, so I knew we wouldn’t fall for an obvious PR stunt.

Yet, alas, he did not write the letter I envisioned and instead went all in with Pam Anderson and PETA, an organization that once used the picture of lynched black men to compare their deaths to eating meat. They have dressed up as the Ku Klux Klan members to promote their cause and compared eating meat to the Holocaust. They have compared fat people to beached whales.

Using fatphobia as a PETA pitch is kind of a thing of theirs. If you go to their website, you will find many claims that veganism equals weight loss and better health that are exaggerated at best.

In her letter to our mayor, Pam Anderson claims, “Vegans are also at lower risk of suffering from obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, which are some of the biggest killers in this country.”

Maybe no one ever told her, but correlation isn’t causation. There have been some studies that showed a link between veganism and weight loss, but experts point to a simple reason for that: It’s a restrictive diet, which means people tend to make better all-around choices. However, nothing about veganism prevents someone from eating junk food, copious amounts of sugar and fried foods. Nothing about it prevents someone from eating an unbalanced diet, and in fact, it’s easy to become nutrient deficient if you aren’t watching your food choices. Due to budget constraints, it’s more common to have big gaps in diet quality for low-income people. Simply becoming vegan won’t change that.

I’m not against veganism or vegetarianism as options among a host of healthy

lifestyle choices. But it is irresponsible to just throw this out there for our city to follow as an “example” with no education, no support and no nutritional info. Not even a disclaimer that “this may not be for everyone, and that’s cool” or “talk to your doctor.” We are in a city where grocery stories routinely flee poor parts of the city, our public transit is a joke, and we don’t have sidewalks in many places. Saying “hey, just go vegan” when the challenge for many is “how will I get to the store?” seems cruel.

If a so-called activist organization doesn’t have the analysis to look at how their suggestions play out for people across income, race, disability and regional lines, then I suggest they should not challenge any city leaders to anything until they do. No one should parachute in with suggestions void of context, nuance and homegrown information beyond that which one can gather online from Yelp menus and statistics from a news article.

No amount of celebrity name-dropping in Ms. Anderson’s letter will change her info being biased and the fact that she doesn’t know Jackson.

I don’t know Mayor Lumumba’s reasoning in accepting the challenge. I hope he was unaware of PETA’s past campaigns.

I believe our mayor heard something that sounded healthy and wanted to be a part of that. I hope he takes those good intentions and uses them to reframe this conversation about healthy lifestyle without linking it to size and also make it about supporting local, sustainable, cruelty-free food chains. I hope in the future he thinks about looking closer before endorsing shady organizations’ PR stunts and diets.

I have faith in our new mayor. I’ve supported him since his first run, yet this week I sat and wondered as I read his response to Ms. Anderson, what will someone like me who gets SNAP in the amount of $3 per person per day learn from their experience? That if you have someone deliver your meals for a month, you can eat healthier? We didn’t need a public-relations stunt to learn that having money and food access gives you better health outcomes.

Laurie Bertram Roberts is a grassroots reproductive-justice activist, full spectrum doula and writer based in Jackson. She is the co-founder and executive director of the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund.

Listings 7/28––Thur.

Thur.4/13 8/3 Listings for for Fri. 4/7 Atomic Smurfs: Blonde The Lost R Village PG The Emoji Movie PG Going in Style PG13 Girls Trip R The Case for Dunkirk PG13 Christ PG The Zookeeper’s Valerian and Wife PG13 the City of a Ghost in the Shell Thousand Planets PG13 PG13 The Boss Baby PG War on the Planet

The Bigand Sick Beauty the R Beast (2017) PG Spider-Man: Kong: Skull Island Homecoming PG13 PG13 Despicable MeR3 Logan PG The Shack PG13 Baby Driver Get Out

RR

Transformers: The Life R Last –Knight PG13 (Sun Thur only)

The CarsBelko 3 G Experiment R of the Apes PG13 Power Rangers Wonder Woman (2017) PG13 (Sun – Thur only) Wish Upon PG13 PG13

The challenge for many is “how will I get to the store?”

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July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

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13

Running Jackson: New CAO Robert Blaine Shares His Vision

by William H. Kelly III

comeback story.

The College Park, Md., native left his job at the University of Louisiana in Monroe to become the orchestra conductor at Jackson State University, where he stayed for 12 years. Blaine was an associate professor, a full-time professor, an associate dean and finally a special assistant to the provost while at JSU. From there, he transitioned to Tougaloo College as the associate provost.

Blaine attended Indiana University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in music. While traveling after his undergraduate studies for approximately three years, Blaine discovered his passion for teaching and conducting and decided to attend Catholic University in Washington, D.C.,

Robert Blaine, 48

July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

Education: Indiana University, bachelor’s degree in music; Catholic University of America, master’s degree in music; Eastman School of Music, Doctorate of Musical Arts

14

Job: Chief administrative officer, City of Jackson Family: Married to Angela Blaine with two sons Robert Blaine IV, 17, and Christopher Williams, 14; Jim Hill High School students in IB Program.

Imani Khayyam

A

fter a vibrant career as a traveling trombonist and conductor, Robert Blaine put down roots in Jackson, where he hopes to direct a

Jackson’s new chief administrative officer, Robert Blaine, plans to tackle the basic organizational habits of the capital city.

to earn his master’s in music. Then, Blaine got his doctorate of musical arts at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.

As a musician, soloist and conductor, he led ensembles in performances in Central America, the Caribbean and China, in addition to North America and Europe, including in Paris for the Bastel Opera.

“I did that for a summer and then I played principal trombone of the National Symphony of the Dominican Republic for two years,” Blaine said in an interview in his office in the Hood Building.

These days, Blaine is known as much for his belief in strong organizational systems, which he is bringing to a city that many believe is in dire need of some creative rearranging.

“That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it,” Blaine said on day eight of his latest gig helping run the City of Jackson.

What are your responsibilities as the CAO of Jackson?

All of the various divisions of the government report to the CAO, with the exception of the chief of police, who has a direct line to the mayor. So my job is to do everything that has to deal with government running efficiently.

The chief of staff is in charge of the

mayor’s office, and so she makes sure that the mayor has everything that he needs and that his staff is in place. So, communications and constituent relations. Those pieces are all a part of the mayor’s office, so it’s kind of a bifurcated system. There’s a system for doing the political part of government, which is all through the mayor’s office, and then there’s the kind of administrative governmental functions that kind of comes through the CAO. So, basically, you have the hard part, it seems like.

Well, yeah. I get the big bite of the elephant. But the mayor has a harder job than mine because he has to craft the vision of how all this stuff works. He has to actually whip the big picture together, and he has to sell that to the constituents and to the city council. So, once they decide on what to do, it’s my job to actually make it happen. They do the big visual piece. What we’re going to do. How we’re going to do it. All of that. Mine is the when, the where and those pieces.

Are you involved in hiring and firing as well?

(Nods.) Of course, before I make any decisions on personnel, you always discuss

that with the mayor. And we have a team of people. The one thing that you don’t want to do in this business is make unilateral decisions. You want to be consultative.

You want to bring in a lot of people into the process. You want to bring in the legal department. You want to really make sure that you’re making an informed decision, so you can’t just fire off and tell somebody they’re fired. That’s not how it is. It’s really about trying to construct.

My background is an orchestra conductor. In real life I make a living by waving a stick. That’s really what I do. Leonard Bernstein used to say, “The conductor is the least powerful person in the room,” right? If you think about an orchestra, the conductor has a stick, and it doesn’t make any sound. But all the people in front of him have all the power.

So it’s my job as the conductor to try and get all of these people to conform to the vision that I have, and basically use their power in service of this bigger mission.

The way that (I) get people to do that is to give them … the space, the resources, everything that they need in order to do their absolute best work. And to make sure that you have the right people in the right places to do that best work.

… My job is to really try and

courtesy Jackson State University

A former traveling trombonist is now heading up Jackson’s makeover.

that we have. How do we start to look at an ancient infrastructure and really look at what we need to do in order to leverage the funds that we have in order to be able to have large infrastructure projects that will affect the entire city? How do we look at issues, socioeconomic issues?

... (The transition committee) looked at a cohort of cities that are similar to Jack-

In a pragmatic way, what will democratic visioning look like?

The goal is that it looks like a conference, where you take a set of what I like to call analytical exercises—big questions about the world—that become a lens through which we as an administration can look at these topics. So, for example, if you take an issue like infrastructure, there are roads, there are waterways underneath the roads. You have sewer systems and rainwater systems, then you have freshwater systems.

That’s all part of one big infrastructure.

We just see the road that you drive over the top of. Well, we have universities with incredible civil-engineering programs.

We have people with advanced degrees in these areas. We have National Science Foundation grantees. There’s a collective intelligence in the city that hasn’t always been tapped when we’re starting to look at some of these larger issues.

And we have national and international cities that deal with some of the same problems that we have. So, in Jackson, one of the big problems is expansive soil types.

So, we call it “Yazoo clay,” but it’s really soil that expands and contracts. What that means is that when it expands, you get a big ole hole. There are cities that have found incredible ways of beginning to deal with some of these difficulties, just with the soil type that we have. But if you look at some of the solutions that we’ve historically used, it’s been kind of just doing the same thing over and over again.

So, how do we learn from people that have experience, and that have experimented and done things? And how do we learn from the intelligence that we have here and bring all of those people together so that they can begin to inform the decisions that we make here? The goal is that we use a 21st-century term: crowd-sourced intelligence. If you don’t do that, then you’re simply repeating the same mistakes that you’ve done before.

Is the recent demonstration of filling potholes an example?

It would be a piece of the process, right? So, you would have someone that would give a presentation on what that is,

right? And then, you’ll have people talk about it. You’ll have them give their merits.

What are the pros and cons of that? How is expensive is it? How would we use it here?

It’s a very high-tech solution, but in order for that to really work well, you have to have technology people, you have to have water-billing people, you have to Imani Khayyam

Councilmen (Charles) Tillman and (Melvin) Priester said a lot of vacancies need to be filled.

Part of that 100 days is an assessment of where we are. The other part of it is the construction of a set of conversations with key constituents around the city to look at new initiatives and ways we want to move forward. And then the last stage of the process is actually something that we call democratic visioning, which is actually bringing the entire city together to be able to give vision to issues that are happening throughout the city. And also to bring the collective intelligence of the entire city together.

The goal is that, as the administration, we don’t want to be on an island separated from the people. What we want is to be working with the people and for, you know, Mayor Lumumba said that, “When I become mayor, we all become mayor,” and he was really serious about that. And so, this process of democratic visioning is really a process to bring the entire city together. To look at various issues throughout the city. To bring in all of the expertise that we have and then to bring expertise from the outside in order to be able to inform the mayor’s larger strategic plan of how we begin to tackle some of the authority issues

son in size and scope. So, there were five cities: Savannah, Tallahassee, Little Rock, Birmingham and Shreveport. All of those cities are between 140,000 and 250,000 residents. They’re both college towns and state capitals. (Some of them are) majority-minority cities, and they range with demographics that share with Jackson.

The idea was that we wanted to look at the number of issues across the city and look at key indicators so that we’re looking at the real data and see how Jackson ranks among this group of peer cities. ...

The new CAO says Mayor Lumumba’s recent pothole demonstration is a good example of transparent “democratic visioning” of what’s possible.

There are some ideas that you can use that technology to actually build the road beds, which would mean the road that would then be able to move and flex, and then you can put a traditional asphalt on top of that, which would then allow for, hopefully, the road to last for a much longer time than the ways our roads historically have. But, again, this is new technology, so you test it. We need to be able to see other places that it’s been used. We have to do our homework, in other words. But that’s a perfect example.

What positions, exactly, need to be filled that you know of?

So, that’s a little bit of a loaded question ’cause we really need to figure out what the size and shape of government needs to be first. So, the way that our government is organized right now is that it’s a very flat and horizontal organization. We have these various divisions, and the structure hasn’t changed very much over the years, but we have new systems that we’ve put in place.

For example, we have what’s called an Internet of Things water-billing system.

So, it used to be when you got your water bill that there was a person that came to your house and read the water meter and marked it down, and they came and sent you a bill according to what they marked down. Well, now we have this new system where on every meter, there’s a radio transmitter that actually goes up to a network. It goes to a repeater that’s up on a telephone pole that goes to a network that actually sends the bill here.

have people from Public Works all working together. Because every one of those has a piece of that solution. But the way we have things organized right now is that they’re all very separate, and they’re silo-ed. So, they don’t talk to each other. It means that sometimes you get errors in the way that we send out water bills.

So, a part of looking at positions that we have open and that kind of thing is really looking at how does government need to be organized first in order for us to be more efficient. Once we know the correct organizational structure, then we go and start to look at specific positions. We’ll say, “Oh, oh. We need this many of these people in order to be able to make that work,” right? So, the thing that we’re doing now is we’re really looking at how do we need to organize ourselves so that we’re efficient in what we’re doing. Efficient and effective.

How do you figure that out?

Good question. So, what we have to do is first look at a functional organization. How do you organize the organization according to functions? And so, part of that work is to look at how those functions come together, and what are the various pieces that need to talk to each other?

And then, once we understand what those various pieces are in order for the functions to work, then it’s, how do you align those pieces together, and then how do you understand what staffing you need in order to make that efficient?

July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

find the way to get all of these people to conform to one big vision, but then give them each room to be able to do their special thing, their special piece....

more BLAINE, see page 16 15

The JFP Interview with Robert Blaine

One example is that we have 56 public parks in Jackson. We need to know how many square acres of park space we have. How much space one city worker can mow per day. And then, how many mowers and all of those things do they need in order to be able to beautify that amount of square acres of city parks?

That’s like one factor, right? But what we’ve done historically is we say, “Oh, well, we need this many people in Parks and Rec,” you know? Or, the budget says we can have this many people in Parks and Rec.

Instead, what we need to do is say, “What do we need in order to get the job done right?” And then, how many people and machines does it mean that we need to do that? And so, we need to kind of backwards engineer some things.

in the morning and leaving in the evening.

And so he’s been talking up a lot about, how do we make Jackson local?

You’ve taken an interesting route to this position.

I think coming from the academic world is an advantage in a lot of ways because … the world of the academy forces you to think in both a very expansive way and a very theoretical kind of expansive way, but also in a kind of practical-execution way. It’s one thing to have broad theoretical constructs of how you do things, but you have to be able to get something done.

... The procedures, the whole idea of city government and politics is a different piece. Although, in the university world, there’s plenty politics, so it’s not like that’s Imani Khayyam

CAO Robert Blaine works in the Warren Hood Building near City Hall.

July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

Is looking at similar cities helping with re-organizing ideas?

Absolutely. (I’ve) seen some amazing organizational structures. Of course, everyone is unique to the place, and we would want to create that here so that we have a structure that’s unique to Jackson, that really makes sense to Jackson. Because Jackson is different than those other five cities. One thing that was really interesting is that we have incredible, incredible resources that we haven’t necessarily leveraged. So, we were an outlier of those six cities, when you include Jackson because we have eight institutions of higher learning and four major hospitals inside the city of Jackson. If you think about it, Jackson is an intellectual capital, but we don’t talk about ourselves that way.

And part of what the mayor has talked about is that two of our greatest exports are money and talent. You see money and tal16 ent leaving the city. Coming into the city

foreign in any way.

To me the biggest thing is that I have to be really cognizant (of is) that my skill set as an academic administrator is transferable to municipal government. But I have to understand where the nuances are. And I think that that’s the biggest piece, and as long as you keep that in the front of your mind, you can navigate. But you just can’t take things for granted. You have to be able to say, “Oh, this looks like something I’ve seen before but not exactly the same.”

Are you all trying to have all of those positions filled before or after the budget is final?

We can’t do it before the budget. We have to make sure the budget’s in place. So we propose a budget. The mayor and the administration will propose a budget. It will be voted on and approved by city council.

We are in the fourth quarter of this fiscal

from page 15 year right now, so we have to make sure to close out this fiscal year, and then moving into the new fiscal year, we look at how we’re going to move forward.

But our priority for the new fiscal year is to … so the furlough means that in every pay period, an employee loses one day, so you lose one day of salary every two weeks. This Friday is a furlough day for us, so there’s a whole swath of city government that will not work on Friday, and they won’t get paid for that day. What that means is that you are losing salary because of that furlough. So, we are eliminating that furlough moving forward.

Are there going to be milestones that the public can see at the 100-day point?

Absolutely. So, at the end of the first 100 days, we haven’t exactly put the timetable together, but the goal is that we create this people’s assembly. It’s a democraticvisioning process, which will be a big convention that we’ll invite the entire city to.

The mayor will give his “State of the City” address. We’re going to lay out many of the initiatives and his larger strategic plan, and the goal in this first 100 days is for us to be able to put all of the pieces in place so that the citizens of Jackson can have a real voice in their government. That’s our goal … that we give the power to the constituents.

Talk about the mayor’s need to appoint multiple school-board members.

School-board appointees are incredibly important. We have three appointments that we’ll make before the school year starts.

Part of what we’re doing is vetting appointees for the school board to make sure that they have certain skillsets. We need schoolboard members that are extremely facile with K-12 education, that understand the issues of K-12 education, that understand the funding of K-12 education, that understand the governance of K-12 education, and that understand curriculum and development and curriculum development for K-12. We have to have all of those skillsets represented in the appointees that we make, so we’re being very deliberate in those appointments to make sure that we’re giving the public-school system every opportunity to be (as) successful (as) we possibly can.

And we’re reaching out to the publicschool system to try and create some really intentional partnerships where we can.

We realize that you can’t have a great city without a great public-school system, and the public-school system is there to make sure that every single kid in the city has an

excellent educational opportunity. We have to be about that 100 percent. And I guess that as an educator, I’m a little harder on that than other folks.

But I really believe that education is the backbone of our society, and (we must) make sure that every single kid has an opportunity for a top-notch education, no matter where you live, no matter who your parents are, no matter what your background is. Every kid deserves ( a good education)—that it is their right. It is not a privilege. It is their right for them to have an absolute top-notch education. And we

“You see money and talent leaving the city.

Coming into the city in the morning and leaving in the evening.”

want to help the school system in order to be able to deliver that.

What kind of partnerships are you all looking into?

Well, what we’re doing right now is structuring a set of conversations. So, we’re sitting down with the superintendent. We’re setting up a few meetings to talk about ways that we can strategically engage. How can the city begin to help the school district? Are there ways that we can create partnerships between our universities and colleges to partner with our public-school district in order to be able to create synergies around curriculum and K-16 (and) K-20 kinds of structures, where we can create an environment for a student to go from middle school to high school to college to graduate school to a career.

What does that look like? And how do we advantage eight institutions of higher learning to a public school system?

We have the talent. We have all the resources. We’re the outlier as far as education is concerned. But sometimes you’d be challenged to see it in the differing results that we’ve gotten out of our public-school system. So, we have tremendous assets there (that) we need to be able to leverage for the entire community—not just one segment.

Read a longer version of CAO Robert Blaine’s interview at jfp.ms/blaine and more about the new Lumumba administration at jfp.ms/lumumba.

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Jennifer and Nash Mixon say:

“St. Alexis has a refreshing openness and acceptance of all people that re�lects Jesus’ love and compassion. Rev. Culpepper’s sermons are thought provoking and insightful.”

650 E.South Street • Jackson • 601.454.5716 Sunday Service: 10:00am

St. Alexis

July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

What do you like about St. Alexis?

Episcopal Church 17

Your Local Road Trip Headquarters!

Load up your picnic baskets and coolers at McDade's Market for less. We've even got the ice!

DIVERSIONS | road trip

On the Road Again

by Amber Helsel

R 1

Fr e s h P r o d u c e

Go in with a game plan.

You don’t have to have a rigid itinerary, but at least have an idea of where you want to go and what you want to do when you get where you’re going. It’s also helpful to figure out exactly how long things will take. For example, the Vicksburg National Military Park is a day trip in and of itself, and I didn’t realize that until I actually got there. And if you’re going to a big city like Memphis, keep in mind that a day trip may not be enough.

7

Plan your audio.

The radio is fine if you’re just getting around the area you live in, but it gets more and more unreliable the further away you get. Knowing what you want to listen to ahead of time means your ears will be happy, and you won’t have to keep playing with the radio dial.

8

Get there early.

I know, I know. It’s your day off or the weekend, and I’m asking you to wake up at the crack of Be flexible. dawn to go on I’ve found your road trip. that my most But believe fun trips are me, waking up the ones where early for this is I go in with a a good thing. few places in If you get to a mind but end place by about up finding a 8 or 9 a.m. (asbunch more. It suming the trip also helps to live is around three in the moment hours, which is true for a a little bit and lot cities and just enjoy the trip. Leave time towns here), The Attic Gallery is a good place to go when you’re in Vicksburg. to just walk you’ll have time around. to grab breakfast and figure out what’s next. And you get to spend Shop local.

This is a good idea when traveling more time exploring, which is a bonus in because locally owned businesses give you my book. an insight into the city’s culture and what makes it tick. And food at local restaurants Wear comfortable clothes, and dress tends to be better than most chains. for the weather.

You’ll be doing lots of walking, so Navigation apps are your best friend. wear shoes that are actually comfortable Yes, apps such as Google Maps will (and not just ballet flats with no cushion, help you get to where you’re going, but like I sometimes do), and wear clothes that those apps also come in really handy when are comfortable to walk in. For road trips, you’re walking around. I use Apple Maps to my go-to is decent-looking workout attire get to my destination, but to me, Google or a T-shirt and pants. If you’re planning Maps can be more helpful for getting on going somewhere nicer later, bring a around a city. It was a life-saver in Ocean change of clothes.

Springs and Hattiesburg.

Ask social media.

Bring snacks.

Social media is a great tool to con I can’t understate the importance of nect with people, and it’s a good way to get this one. Besides navigation apps, snacks recommendations for road trips. For my are also great to have. You need a snack for travels, I will ask Facebook friends to tell the road, but it’s also good to keep a bag of me what they like to do, see and eat where peanuts or something with you. And keep a I’m going. It’s been really helpful, especially bottle of water with you to stay hydrated. the recommendation feature.

2

Amber Helsel

Soft Drinks, Chips and Snacks

oad trips can be fun, but they can also be a hassle. After traveling a bunch over the last few months, I’ve picked up on some tips that make road trips go a lot smoother.

Here are 10 of them.

3

9

Hot Deli

July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

Mississippi Products

18

5

6 Woodland Hills

Shopping Center Fondren • 601-366-5273

Maywood Mart

1220 E. Northside Dr • 601-366-8486

Westland Plaza

2526 Robinson Rd • 601-353-0089

English Village

904 E. Fortification St. • 601-355-9668

10

A One-of-a-Kind Interactive Experience

July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

Be the Dinosaur: Life in the Cretaceous is produced by Eureka Exhibits.

19

LIFE&STYLE | food&drink

Ice Cream Truckers

by Amber Helsel IMANI KHAYYAM

Chunky Dunks Sweets Truck owner Will Lamkin (right) says he likes to keep his business in the family. His nephew, Beau Nelson (left), helps out.

!

Blue Plate Specials 11am-3pm Mon-Fri

July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

Includes a Non-Alcoholic Drink

20

TUESDAY Chicken Curry

roasted Springer Mountain Farms chicken, bell pepper, onion, Two Brooks Farm rice or hand cut chips

% &ORTIl CATION 3T s www.fenianspub.com -ON &RI AM AM s 3AT PM AM s 3UN PM AM

I

t’s nighttime, and in a parking lot in Madison, people are lining up at a light-blue food truck with white and red stripes lining the bottom edge. This truck doesn’t serve burgers or hot dogs or any of the other food-truck staples. Chunky Dunks Sweets Truck is an ice-cream food truck, and the only one of its kind in the state of Mississippi.

Four years ago, owner Will Lamkin and his wife, Leigh Lamkin, opened Livingston Sweet Shoppe, which served candy and ice cream. Two and a half years later, the Lamkins sold the store, and the couple got out of the ice-cream game for almost a year. “We knew we wanted to do something food-truck-wise when we had our store,â€? Will Lamkin says. “We just didn’t have the time ‌ to do both.â€?

He says that he and his wife missed selling ice cream to people, so they decided to open Chunky Dunks Sweets Truck.

Leigh came up with the design, and It’s Vinyl Y’all in Madison did the wrap for the truck. “It looks like a giant popsicle coming down the street, so it’s awesome,�

Lamkin says.

The business, which opened June 1, does hand-dipped ice cream, which he says is a rarity even among food trucks that serve ice cream. Many serve soft-serve ice cream, instead. Chunky Dunks serves standard ice-cream fare such as malts, shakes and ice-cream cones, including pretzel, chocolate-dipped and regular waffle cones.

They change the flavors of ice cream daily.

Lamkin says that he deliberately made Chunky Dunks more like a food truck, as opposed to an ice-cream truck so that the business can serve more than just prepack-

aged treats. The business has dishes such as its number-one seller, ice-cream nachos, which come with cinnamon-sugar tortilla chips, ice cream, chocolate and caramel syrups, and whipped cream.

Chunky Dunks also has an item called waffles and cream, which is ice cream served over a waffle and topped with caramel syrup and bacon. “It’s more of a meal,â€? Lamkin says. â€œâ€Ś You’re skipping your burger and going straight to that. It’s naptime after you eat one of those.â€?

Right now, he says that he’s working on an ice-cream sandwich with a donut bun, which he plans on releasing in the fall or winter.

Besides setting up in parking lots around Madison County and participating in CSpire’s weekly Food Truck Friday, the business has also done weddings, birthday parties and bigger events such as the American Cancer Society’s Tennis Classic Opening Night on July 14. However, he says that their business doesn’t patrol around neighborhoods like a traditional ice-cream truck, mainly because Chunky Dunks’ model requires more prep work.

He says that when starting this business, it was important to him to support local. The business is family-operated, and the ice cream they serve comes from LuVel Dairy Products in Kosciusko, Miss. In the future, he plans on taking part in more community events and says that Chunky Dunks will participate in Food Truck Friday when it comes back to Smith Park some time this fall.

For more information, find Chunky Dunks Sweets Truck on Facebook or Instagram.

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THURSDAY 7/27

SATURDAY 7/29

TUESDAY 8/1

Allen D. Boyer signs copies of “Rocky Boyer’s War” at Lemuria Books.

Modern Calligraphy Class is at Fresh Ink.

The Snake Lecture is at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science.

BEST BETS July 26 Aug. 2, 2017

Paws on the Patio is from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Library Lounge at Fairview Inn (734 Fairview St.). Features a menu of cocktails, beer and wine and includes live music. Pets are welcome. Proceeds go to the Animal Rescue Fund of Mississippi. Free admission, donations encouraged; call 601-948-3429; find it on Facebook.

Ryane Rice

WEDNESDAY 7/26

Author Gin Phillips, an Alabama native, signs copies of her latest book, “Fierce Kingdom,” on Friday, July 28, at the Eudora Welty House.

THURSDAY 7/27

State Street Open House is from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Team Jackson (308 East Pearl St.). Team Jackson hosts the open house and showcase of businesses, restaurants and hotels in the downtown section of State Street. Free; call 601336-2028; find it on Facebook.

FRIDAY 7/28 courtesy Big Freedia

Gin Phillips signs copies of “Fierce Kingdom” at 5 p.m. at the Eudora Welty House (1119 Pinehurst St.). Reading at 5:30 p.m. $25 book; call 353-7762; lemuriabooks.com.

find it on Facebook. … Big Freedia performs at 10 p.m. at Martin’s Restaurant & Bar (214 S. State St.). The gender-nonconforming bounce-music artist performs. DJ Young Venom also performs. $17 in advance, $20 at the door; call 601-354-9712; martinslounge.net.

Includes a three-course meal. All white attire suggested. Additional date: July 31, 7:30-9:30 p.m. $40 per person, $220 VIP table for four; call 601-954-1323; jleeplays.com.

SATURDAY 7/29

The “Voting Matters” Town Hall Meeting is at 6 p.m. at the Jackson Medical Mall Foundation (350 W. Woodrow Wilson Ave.). Poll workers, current voters and potential voters learn about the absentee and affidavit ballot process, and provide advice for improvement. Includes a voting machine demonstration. Free; find it on Facebook.

“200 Years of Shared History: Mississippi & the Blues” is from noon to 7 p.m. at the Alamo Theatre (333 N. Farish St.). Pat Brown is the host.

Includes live music, short films,

by TYLER EDWARDS and speakers such as Bobby Rush, Malcolm Shepherd, Angela Stewart, Ben Payton and more. Free; jacksonfreepress.com call 601-291-2811; centralmissisFax: 601-510-9019 sippibluessociety.com. … Writers Daily updates at Maranda Joiner and Katherine jfpevents.com Phillips sign copies of “The Nasty Women Project” from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Barnes & Noble Booksellers (1000 Highland Colony Pkwy., Ridgeland). $19.95 book; call 601-6688929; barnesandnoble.com. … The “Wake of the Wave” Closing Reception is from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Offbeat (151 Wesley Ave.). The exhibition features works from Justin Ransburg’s new art book. Free; find it on Facebook.

July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

events@

New Orleans, La.-based bounce and hip-hop artist Big Freedia performs Friday, July 28, at Martin’s Restaurant & Bar.

… The Building Bridges Tour is from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Land Vs. Ocean (3011 N. State St.). Hip-hop artists Cesar Comanche, Ghost Dog, Marcel P. Black and Truth Univer22 sal perform. Includes visual art from daniel johnson. Free;

SUNDAY 7/30

“Le Diner en Blanc” is from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at Johnny T’s Bistro & Blues (538 N. Farish St.). Participants become a part of the J. Lee-produced dinner theater show.

MONDAY 7/31

TUESDAY 8/1

The “Illuminated: Painted Feathers with a Medieval Soul” Opening Reception is from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Mississippi Craft Center (950 Rice Road, Ridgeland). Artist Elaine Maisel shares a collection of nearly 40 miniature paintings on real feathers that take inspiration from medieval illuminated manuscripts. Exhibit on display through Aug. 30. Free; call 601-856-7546; find it on Facebook

WEDNESDAY 8/2

The “Bring Your Own Piece” Furniture Finishing Class is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Southern Institute of Faux Finishing (1091 Old Fannin Road, Brandon).

Beginner and novice participants bring a piece of furniture from home, and a trained instructor walks them through any technique they want to try. Includes supplies and refreshments. $175; call 601-919-3289; find it on Facebook.

JFPmenus.com

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23

COMMUNITY State Street Open House July 27, 5-7 p.m., at Team Jackson (308 East Pearl St.). Team Jackson hosts the open house and showcase of businesses, restaurants and hotels in the downtown section of State Street. Free; call 601-336-2028; find it on Facebook.

Samaritan’s Heart Street Market July 29, 7-11 a.m., at Jackson Revival Center (4655 Terry Road). The market features free clothing and household items for those in need. Free; call 601948-1874; find it on Facebook.

Street Festival & Back to School Bash July 29, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., at Greater Mt. Sinai M.B. Church (1900 Bailey Ave.). Features live music from local artists, games and food. Free admission; email gmsbc@outlook.com; find it on Facebook.

“Voting Matters” Town Hall Meeting July 31, 6 p.m., at Jackson Medical Mall Foundation (350 W. Woodrow Wilson Ave.). Poll workers, current voters and potential voters learn about the absentee and affidavit ballot process, and provide advice for improvement. Includes a demonstration of how to use the DS200 voting machine.

Free; call 601-968-6682; find it on Facebook.

Snake Lecture Aug. 1, noon-1 p.m., at Mississippi Museum of Natural Science (2148 Riverside Drive). Mississippi naturalist Cathy Costello speaks on the topic “Why Snakes Are Important to Humans: Ecological, Medical and Economic Benefits.” Included with admission; call 601576-6000; mdwfp.com.

KIDS Question it? Discover it! Brain Day July 29, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., at Mississippi Children’s Museum (2145 Museum Blvd.). Participants explore interactive exhibits that represent different parts of the brain with specialists from the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Free with admission; call 601-709-8964; mschildrensmuseum.org.

Farewell to Summer July 29, 5-7:30 p.m., at Mississippi Museum of Natural Science (2148 Riverside Drive). Includes bubble art, an obstacle course, photo opportunities with velociraptors, science trivia, a presentation from a NASA representative and more. $6 for adults, $4 for ages 3 and up, free under age 3; mdwfp.com.

July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

“Almost Paradise” Book Signing Aug. 1, 5 p.m., at Lemuria Books (4465 Interstate 55 N.). Former Jacksonian author Corabel Shofner signs copies and reads an excerpt. For ages 8-12. $16.99 book; call 366-7619; lemuriabooks.com.

24

FOOD & DRINK Events at The Everyday Gourmet (1270 E. County Line Road, Ridgeland) • “Meet Me at the Ballpark” Cooking Class July 26, 10 a.m. Participants learn to make loaded nachos, bacon-wrapped hot dogs, soft pretzels with sea salt, jalapeno poppers and cracker jacks. $45; theeverydaygourmet.com.

• “Girls’ Night Out: Hawaiian Luau” Cooking Class July 27, 6 p.m. Participants learn to make mixed green salad with ginger vinaigrette, grilled coconut shrimp, sweet potatoes with pineapple, and macadamia nut ice cream. $65; theeverydaygourmet.com.

• “Just Desserts” Cooking Class July 28, 10 a.m. Participants learn to make classic crème brulee, Southern plantation pie with vanilla whipped cream, turtle brownies and mini berry crumb cakes. $45; call 601-977-9258; theeverydaygourmet.com.

• “Summer Dinner Party” Cooking Class July 29, 6 p.m. Participants learn to make waldorf salad, zucchini and goat cheese tart, pankocrusted salmon with tzatziki sauce and panna cotta with fresh berries. $65; call 601-9779258; theeverydaygourmet.com.

SLATE

“Our Lives Are on the Line” Healthcare Rally July 29, 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., at Mississippi State Capitol (400 High St.). Participants march to rally to protect the Affordable Care Act, to protest repeal and to support better healthcare policy. Free admission; call 601-573-5075; email alvinmbarnes@gmail.com; find it on Facebook.

• Big Freedia July 28, 10 p.m. The gender-nonconforming bounce artist performs. DJ Young Venom also performs. $17 in advance, $20 at the door; martinslounge.net.

• Space Kadet July 29, 10 p.m. The electronic and funk band performs. $10 in advance, $12 at the door; call 354-9712; martinslounge.net.

Pelican Cove Poker Run July 29, 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m., at Pelican Cove Grill (3999 Harborwalk Drive, Suite A, Ridgeland). The poker fundraiser benefits Alzheimer’s Mississippi. $35 per hand or $100 for three hands; find it on Facebook.

200 Years of Shared History: Mississippi & the Blues July 29, noon-7 p.m., at Alamo Theatre (333 N. Farish St.). The Central Mississippi Blues Society event includes music, short films, and speakers such as Bobby Rush, Malcolm Shepherd, Angela Stewart, Ben Payton and more.

Free; centralmississippibluessociety.com.

the best in sports over the next seven days

by Bryan Flynn, follow at jfpsports.com, @jfpsports

Things escalated rather quickly at the University of Mississippi. Head football coach Hugh Freeze went from nearly untouchable to fired seemingly overnight.

Thursday, July 27

CFL (8-10:30 p.m., ESPN2): The Winnipeg Blue Bombers host the Montreal Alouettes with preseason NFL football one week away.

Friday, July 28

CFL (8:30 p.m.-midnight, ESPN2): Spend your Friday night with the BC Lions on the road against the Edmonton Eskimos while we wait for high school football to begin.

Saturday, July 29

NFL (7-10 p.m., NFLN): Tune into “Training Camp Primetime” to hear NFL preseason news, rumors and more for all 32 teams.

Sunday, July 30

Soccer (7-9 p.m., ESPN2): The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team takes on Brazil in the second match of the inaugural Tournament of Nations, which kicks off at CenturyLink Field in Seattle.

Farm to Ferment Series: Part 2 July 26, 5-7 p.m., at The Hatch (126 Keener Ave.). Participants learn to make their own fermented beverages at home, including kombucha. $30; call 601-354-5373; eventbrite.com.

Pizza, Calzone & Stromboli Class July 29, 4-6 p.m., at Gil’s Bread (655 Lake Harbour Drive, Suite 500, Ridgeland). Participants learn to bake three popular Italian food items. $65; call 601856-0885; gil@gilsbread.com; gilsbread.com.

SPORTS & WELLNESS Pub Run July 26, 6-9 p.m., at Soulshine Pizza Factory (1111 Highland Colony Pkwy., Ridgeland). The two- to four-mile walk or run includes a free post-run beer and door prize giveaways. Free admission; call 601-856-8646; find it on Facebook.

Monday, July 31

MLB (6-10 p.m., ESPN): Two of the best teams in the American League, the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians, face off in Massachusetts.

Tuesday, Aug. 1

College football (9 p.m.-midnight, ESPNU): Check out this rebroadcast to see how the Pittsburgh Panthers became the only team to defeat the Clemson Tigers last season.

Wednesday, Aug. 2

NFL (7-10 p.m., NFLN): Get all the behind-the-scenes news from “Training Camp Primetime” before the Hall of Fame Game, which takes place the following night.

If there is any sense in Oxford right now, UM won’t hire Florida Atlantic head coach Lane Kiffin. That is the surest way to turn the situation into a complete dumpster fire. Questionable calls and career moves have plagued Kiffin throughout his career.

STAGE & SCREEN Le Diner en Blanc July 30-31, 7:30-9:30 p.m., at Johnny T’s Bistro & Blues (538 N. Farish St.). Participants become a part of the show and witness live as the plot unfolds. Includes a threecourse meal. All white attire suggested. $40 per person, $220 VIP table for four; call 601-9541323; jleeplays.com.

CONCERTS & FESTIVALS Events at Martin’s Restaurant & Bar (214 S. State St.) • Susto July 27, 9 p.m. The Charleston, S.C.based Americana rock band’s latest album is titled “& I’m Fine Today.” Young Valley also performs. $12 in advance, $15 at the door; martinslounge.net.

LITERARY SIGNINGS Events at Lemuria Books (Banner Hall, 465 Interstate 55 N., Suite 202) • “Living in Mississippi: The Life and Times of Evans Harrington” July 26, 5 p.m. Robert W. Hamblin signs copies. Reading at 5:30 p.m. $40; lemuriabooks.com.

• “Rocky Boyer’s War” July 27, 5 p.m. Allen D. Boyer signs copies. Reading at 5:30 p.m. $29.95 book; lemuriabooks.com.

“Fierce Kingdom” July 28, 5 p.m., at Eudora Welty House (1119 Pinehurst St.). Gin Phillips signs copies. Reading at 5:30 p.m. $25 book; call 601-353-7762; lemuriabooks.com.

“The Nasty Women Project” July 29, 2-4 p.m., at Barnes & Noble Booksellers (1000 Highland Colony Pkwy., Ridgeland). Local writers Maranda Joiner and Katherine Phillips sign copies. $19.95 book; barnesandnoble.com.

CREATIVE CLASSES Modern Calligraphy Class July 29, 9:30-11:30 a.m., at Fresh Ink (4465 Interstate 55 N.). Participants learn to prepare the calligraphy nibs and desk area and learn the basics of the alphabet and numerals. Supplies included. $110; call 601-9820235; find it on Facebook.

EXHIBIT OPENINGS “Growth” July 27, 5-7 p.m., at Brown’s Fine Art & Framing (630 Fondren Place). Jackson-native artist Liz Nichols shares her atmospheric contemporary paintings. Free; find it on Facebook.

“Illuminated: Painted Feathers with a Medieval Soul” Opening Reception Aug. 1, 5-7 p.m., at Mississippi Craft Center (950 Rice Road, Ridgeland). Elaine Maisel shares nearly 40 miniature paintings on feathers. Exhibit on display through Aug. 30. Free; find it on Facebook

BE THE CHANGE Paws on the Patio July 26, 5-8 p.m., at Library Lounge (734 Fairview St.). Features cocktails, beer and wine for sale, and includes live music.

Pets are welcome. Proceeds go to the Animal Rescue Fund of Mississippi. Donations encouraged; call 601-948-3429; find it on Facebook.

Check jfpevents.com for updates and more listings, or to add your own events online. You can also email event details to events@jacksonfreepress.com to be added to the calendar. The deadline is noon the Wednesday prior to the week of publication.

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$10 Admission $1 Children $15 Beer Garden

July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

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25

Music listings are due noon Monday to be included in print and online listings: music@jacksonfreepress.com.

July 26 - Wednesday

July 27 - Thursday The Big Muddy, Vicksburg - Doug Bishop & James Bailey 6-9 p.m.

Bonny Blair’s - Don Grant 7:3011:30 p.m. free Capitol Grill - Jesse Robinson & Friends 7:30-10:30 p.m.

Char - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m.

Drago’s - Johnny Barranco 5:30-8 p.m.

F. Jones Corner - Raul Valinti & the F. Jones Challenge Band 10 p.m. $5 Fenian’s - Spirits of the House 9 p.m.

Georgia Blue, Flowood - Jason Turner Georgia Blue, Madison - Sonny Hal & Mal’s - D’Lo Trio free Iron Horse Grill - Toni Marjorie 6 p.m.

Kathryn’s - Jay Wadsworth 6-11:30 p.m.

Martin’s - Susto w/ Young Valley 9 p.m. $12 advance $15 door Pelican Cove - Stace & Cassie 10 p.m.

Shucker’s - Larry Brewer & Hunter Gibson 7:30 p.m. free Sombra, Flowood - Tatum Shappley 6-9 p.m.

Table 100 - Andrew Pates 6 p.m.

July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

July 28 - Friday

26

Ameristar, Vicksburg - Nu Corp 8 p.m. free The Big Muddy, Vicksburg Osgood & Blaque 7-10 p.m. free Bonny Blair’s - Larry Brewer & Doug Hurd 7:30-11:30 p.m.

Cerami’s - Linda Blackwell & James Bailey 6:30-9:30 p.m.

Char - Ronnie Brown 6 p.m.

Cowboy’s Saloon - Stevie J Blues 9 p.m.

Drago’s - Hunter Gibson 6-9 p.m.

Fenian’s - Scott Albert Johnson 9 p.m.

Georgia Blue, Flowood - Shaun Patterson Georgia Blue, Madison - Stevie Cain Hal & Mal’s - Epic Funk Brass Band free Iron Horse Grill - The Stevie P. Connection 9 p.m.

July 29 - Saturday Alamo Theatre - Central MS Blues Society’s “200 Years of Shared History: Mississippi & the Blues” noon-7 p.m. free Ameristar, Vicksburg - Nu Corp 8 p.m. free Bonny Blair’s - Sid Thompson & DoubleShotz 7:30-11:30 p.m. free

Reed Pierce’s, Byram - Snazz 9 p.m. free Shucker’s - Acoustic Crossroads 3:30 p.m. free; Faze 4 8 p.m. $5; Josh Journeay 10 p.m. free Sombra, Flowood - Jason Turner 6-9 p.m.

Table 100 - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m.

Underground 119 - Lonn’e George & the Mo’Blues Band WonderLust - Drag Performance & Dance Party feat. DJ Taboo 8 p.m.-3 a.m. free before 10 p.m.

Burgers & Blues - Larry Brewer & Doug Hurd 6-10 p.m.

Char - Bill Clark 6 p.m.

Cowboy’s Saloon - High Frequency Band 10 p.m.

Drago’s - Barry Leach 6-9 p.m.

F. Jones Corner - Big Money Mel & Small Change Wayne 10 p.m. $1 Fenian’s - Risko Danza 9 p.m.

Georgia Blue, Flowood - Skip & Mike Georgia Blue, Madison - Phil & Trace Hal & Mal’s - Josh Ward free The Hideaway - Pop Fiction 9 p.m. $10 Iron Horse Grill - Ben Payton Trio 9 p.m.

Kathryn’s - Fade2Blue 7-11 p.m.

Kowboy’s 43, Canton - Kreaux 9 p.m.

Martin’s - Space Kadet 10 p.m. $10 advance $12 door Pelican Cove - Chasin’ Dixie 2 p.m.; Todd Thompson & the Lucky Hand Blues Band 11 p.m.

Pop’s Saloon - Cody Cooke & the Bayou Outlaws 9 p.m.

7/27 - Crown the Empire - Zydeco, Birmingham 7/27 - Project Pat - Proud Larry’s, Oxford 8/1 - Foster the People - Minglewood Hall, Memphis

Marcel P. Black: Building Bridges

by Micah Smith

July 30 - Sunday 1908 Provisions - Knight Bruce 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Char - Big Easy Three 11:45 a.m.1:45 p.m.; Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m.

Kathryn’s - Chris Gill & the Sole Shakers w/ Sonny Brooks 7-11:30 p.m.

Pelican Cove - Splendid Chaos noon; Larry Brewer & Doug Hurd 5-9 p.m.

Shucker’s - The Axe-identals 3:30 p.m. free Table 100 - Jazz Brunch feat.

Raphael Semmes Trio 11 a.m.2 p.m.; Dan Michael Colbert 6-9 p.m.

July 31 - Monday Char - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m.

Hal & Mal’s - Central MS Blues Society (rest) 7 p.m.

Kathryn’s - Stevie Cain 6:30 p.m.

Pelican Cove - Robert King 10 p.m.

Table 100 - Andrew Pates 6 p.m.

Stevie Cain

DIVERSIONS | music

courtesy Marcel P. Black

Alumni House - Pearl Jamz 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Drago’s - Johnny Barranco 5:30-8 p.m.

Hal & Mal’s - New Bourbon Street Jazz Band free Kathryn’s - Gator Trio 6:30 p.m.

Kemistry - Kickback Wednesday feat. The KujoNastySho 9 p.m.

Pelican Cove - Barry Leach 6 p.m.

Shucker’s - Road Hogs 7:30 p.m. free Table 100 - Andy Henderson 6 p.m.

Kathryn’s - Acoustic Crossroads 7-11:30 p.m.

Land Vs. Ocean - Cesar Comanche, Ghost Dog, Marcel P. Black & Truth Universal 6-11 p.m. free M Bar - Flirt Fridays feat. DJ 901 Martin’s - Big Freedia w/ DJ Young Venom 10 p.m. $17 advance $20 door Pelican Cove - Third Degree 11 p.m.

Pop’s Saloon - Elusive Behavior 9 p.m.

Reed Pierce’s, Byram - Snazz 9 p.m. free Shucker’s - Barry Leach 5:30 p.m. free; Faze 4 8 p.m. $5; Chad Perry 10 p.m. free Sombra, Flowood - Brian Jones 6-9 p.m.

Table 100 - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m.

Underground 119 - Ghost Town Blues Band WonderLust - DJ Taboo 8 p.m.

Courtesy Stevie Cain

MUSIC | live

Aug. 1 - Tuesday Bonny Blair’s - Don & Sonny 7:30-11:30 p.m.

Char - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m.

Drago’s - Johnny Barranco 5:30-8 p.m.

Fenian’s - Open Mic Kathryn’s - Stace & Cassie 6:30 p.m.

Pelican Cove - Jonathan Alexander 6 p.m.

Table 100 - Chalmers Davis 6 p.m.

Aug. 2 - Wednesday Alumni House - DoubleRamm Outlaws 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Char - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m.

Drago’s - Johnny Barranco 5:30-8 p.m.

Kathryn’s - Larry Brewer & Doug Hurd 6:30-11:30 p.m.

Kemistry - Kickback Wednesday feat. The KujoNastySho 9 p.m.

Pelican Cove - Grosshart & Gaines 6 p.m.

Shucker’s - Lovin Ledbetter 7:30 p.m. free Table 100 - Andy Henderson 6 p.m.

Baton Rouge, La., hip-hop artist Marcel P. Black performs Friday, July 28, at Land Vs. Ocean as part of the Building Bridges Tour.

B

ryan Marcel Williams, known to fans as hip-hop artist Marcel P. Black, says that he always had music on his mind growing up in the small town of Ardmore, Okla. His father, Malcolm Williams, was a gospel musician, which meant that he had a variety of instruments to experiment with. However, it was visiting extended family that led him to the genre that became his passion.

“When I was maybe 5 or 6 years old, I had an older cousin, who was a die-hard hip-hop fan, way out in the country in Oklahoma,” Williams says. “He used to dress up like LL Cool J., so the first (verse) I learned when I was like 5 was from ‘I’m Bad’ by LL Cool J.”

With each visit, Williams’ cousin, Meche Roberts, taught him more, challenging him to learn rap songs about characters such as Mickey Mouse and He-Man, and acknowledging his affinity for it.

“The culture bit me, you know—a kid growing up watching ‘Yo! MTV Raps,’ watching ‘Rap City,’” Williams says.

“There wasn’t a big hip-hop scene where I’m from, so pretty much anything I saw on television or that my older cousin introduced me to, I got really into it.”

He continued developing his craft through the years, writing original material by age 11 and recording age 16. Fifteen years ago, he moved to Baton Rouge, La., to attend Southern University, where he got a bachelor’s degree in history in 2009.

After getting to Louisiana’s capital city, though, Williams saw that there weren’t many venues hosting rap shows. Instead, he got involved with poetry readings, which eventually allowed him to make friends in the music scene. Over time, he learned how to launch and promote his own events.

Williams has continued to provide opportunities for rappers in his adopted hometown ever since, including through “Hip-Hop Is Alive,” a showcase that he

hosts two to three times each year at the Spanish Moon, and his main platform, “Fade the Flow Sundays,” a free monthly show at Uppercut’s Barber Shop.

“Just being frank, Baton Rouge is very segregated,” Williams says. “So trying to take a hip-hop show to certain venues and certain parts of town, literally one guy said, ‘We want rap music without black people.’

I was telling my barber (Michael Thomas), who owns the shop, just happens to have a radio show, and he’s a deejay. He was like, ‘Well, let’s do the show here.’”

Now a year later, “Fade the Flow” has hosted more than 70 touring rappers from around the country, including Jackson rappers such as Dolla Black.

Between touring, releasing his ninth recording project, “Cry Freedom,” in July 2016 and working on a follow-up EP, Williams has stayed busy in his own career as Marcel P. Black over the past year. At the same time, he says, promoting his local hiphop community is important to him.

“When I started, when I was in my early 20s, there wasn’t a place to go rap,” he says. “I told myself that once I had the platform and once I had the resources, I would do my part. … On top of creating this type of platform for artists like myself, I wanted to teach and mentor some of the young artists coming up, so they wouldn’t feel pressured to take a bad deal, so they could learn to just take care of their art.

“It’s important for me to—I hate to say give back, but really build. We can’t complain about something not being there if we aren’t going to put the work in for it to maintain itself.”

Marcel P. Black performs for the Building Bridges Tour at Land Vs. Ocean (3011 N. State St.) on Friday, July 28, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Cesar Comanche, Ghost Dog, Truth Universal and Physics for Poets also perform.

Admission is free. For more information, find the event on Facebook.

DIVERSIONS | culture

Going to the Market

by Maya Parker

Courtesy Green Market Fair Trade

O

n each Saturday through August, an attraction called the Green Market and Crafts Fair sits at Dogwood Festival Market in Flowood. Maureen Denard, who is the director of marketing for Dogwood, and a team of colleagues decided to bring the Green Market and Craft Fair to the Dogwood Festival Market in 2015 after researching new ways to bring the community to the area for the benefit of both consumers and the retailers at the shopping center.

“By bringing in consumers with the Green Market and Crafts Fair, we’re not only providing them with produce and crafts, but we’re drawing their interest to the stores that we have here at the ... market,�

Denard said.

For the market and craft fair, local vendors set up shop at Dogwood on Saturdays through Aug. 26.

Farmers such as Cindy Ayers-Elliott, who owns Foot Print Farms, provide the community with locally grown produce and other food items, and local crafters provide goods that people may not be able to find within Dogwood Festival Market on a daily basis.

“We’re having a very successful season working with the market,� Ayers-Elliott told the Jackson Free Press.

She says the business has been selling tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, Jamaican green callaloo, which is

The Green Market and Craft Fair sets up each Saturday through the month of August at Dogwood Festival Market in Flowood.

high in protein and fiber, and cantaloupes and watermelons, and more.

“With 2017 being the third consecutive year of the market, we have seen an increased interest from growers and crafters to participate at Dogwood Festival,� Denard said. “We anticipate the number of vendors to increase with each year of the market and the community to then have an increase in their interest, too. Both of those combined have great potential for out retailers own growth in their businesses in Flowood, which then helps the local Flowood economy.�

In August near the end of the fair, Dogwood Festival Market hosts a Family FUN Day for the community for their participation, as well as the seasons to come.

“The past two years we’ve held a harvest festival on the last day of the Green Market & Craft Fair, which is free for the community, to celebrate the end of the growing season, and we then return in the spring,� Denard says.

The Green Market and Craft Fair began in June and continues throughout the summer months of July and August. The fair is every Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Dogwood parking lot near Metro Boulevard.

“We wanted to bring the community into Dogwood Festival Market on a weekly basis, to not only see the stores, restaurants and services at the shopping center, but also to reinforce the importance of shopping local,� Denard said.

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Great Specials Daily!

Tuesday: BOGO Margaritas and $1 tacos Thursday: $6 TOP SHELF margaritas and 99cent tamales $5 Margaritas ALL WEEKEND 880 Lake Harbour Dr. Ridgeland, MS (601) 957-1882

July 26 - August 1, 2017 â&#x20AC;˘ jfp.ms

0RINT AND $IGITAL -ARKETING 2EPRESENTATIVE

27

49 Civic’s make 52 Like theremin noises, usually 54 Toys that are making the rounds in 2017 news?

58 Waitstaff’s handout 59 Crowdfunding targets 60 Moore of both “The Scarlet Letter” and “Striptease” 61 Baldwin with a recent stint on “SNL” 62 “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” author Mitch 63 Page for pundit pieces 64 Prior 65 Huge amounts 66 Cubs Hall of Famer Sandberg

BY MATT JONES

prominent mustache 36 X, of Twitch’s “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” marathon, e.g.

37 “Frizzle ___” (1990 Primus album) 38 Electric can openers and pencil sharpeners, e.g.

42 Guilty feeling 43 Nostalgic time, perhaps 46 Like porcelain dolls you just know are staring right at you 47 Fly guys 48 Compared with 50 “L’Absinthe” painter 51 Lagoon surrounder

53 “Return of the Jedi” moon 54 Afrobeat composer Kuti 55 “QuiÈn ___?” (“Who knows?”)

56 “Call Mr. ___, that’s my name, that name again is Mr. ___” (jingle from one of Homer Simpson’s business ventures) 57 Unspecified philosophies 58 It might cover the continent ©2017 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@ jonesincrosswords.com)

Last Week’s Answers

For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, 99 cents per minute. Must be 18+. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800 655-6548. Reference puzzle #834.

Down

“You Say You Want a Revolution” —it’s your turn.

Across

24 Maker of Centipede 25 Takes much too seriously, for short?

26 “Carmen” highlight, e.g.

30 Some Italian models 33 Third-generation actress who costarred in “Jackie Brown” 36 “The Secret ___ Success” 39 “Fences” star Davis 40 “Back in the ___” (Beatles tune) 41 Did some birthday prep work, maybe 44 Bicycle shorts material 45 Sacred promise 46 Trucker’s compartment

BY MATT JONES Last Week’s Answers

“Greater-Than Sudoku”

For this ‘Greater-Than Sudoku,’ I’m not giving you ANY numbers to start off with! Adjoining squares in the grid’s 3x3 boxes have a greater-than sign (>) telling you which of the two numbers in those squares is larger. Fill in every square with a number from 1-9 using the greater-than signs as a guide. When you’re done, as in a normal Sudoku, every row, column and 3x3 box will contain the numbers 1-9 exactly one time. (Solving hint: try to look for the 1s and 9s in each box first, then move on to the 2s and 8s, and so on). psychosudoku@gmail.com

E N T N NIA E CI

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18 Bring together 19 “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” spinoff 20 Character on a cel 23 “Unleaded” drink

1 Name in men’s watches 2 Made amends 3 Zeno’s followers 4 “Girl, Interrupted” character?

5 Blue matter 6 Quality of voice 7 Enclosed in 8 Labor leader Jimmy who mysteriously disappeared 9 ___ on thick (exaggerate) 10 Extravagant 11 Portuguese, by default 12 “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Leakes 13 “___ Yes!” (1970s political placard) 21 Way out there 22 Angler’s spear 27 Break apart 28 “Oops! ... ___ It Again” 29 Disco-era term meaning “galore” 31 Six-pointers, briefly 32 Saloth ___ (Pol Pot’s birth name) 33 Secondary result of a chemical reaction 34 Film director Kazan 35 The last U.S. president with a

Celebratory yet refined, the Cups Bicentennial Blend creates a flavor worthy of our state's bicentennial with notes of pear, tangy, mild chocolate and caramel.

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BLEND

2017

C U P S E S P R E S S O C A F E.C O M

July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

Writefor stories that matter the publications readers love to read.

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MEDITERRANEAN GRILL

TRY THE YOSEPH BURGER TODAY 100% Angus Beef / Gyro Meat Tzatzik Sauce / Shredded Romaine American Cheese 730 Lakeland Dr. Jackson, MS | 601-366-6033 | Sun-Thurs: 11am - 10pm, Fri-Sat: 11am - 11pm W E D ELIVER F OR C ATERING O RDERS Fondren / Belhaven / UMC area

The Jackson Free Press and BOOM Jackson are seeking hard-working freelance writers who strive for excellence in every piece. Work with editors who will inspire and teach you to tell sparkling stories.

Email and convince us that you have the drive and creativity to join the team.

Better yet, include some kick-ass story ideas. Send to:

micah@jacksonfreepress.com

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

Do you really have to be the flashy king or charismatic queen of all you survey? Must all your subjects put on kneepads and prostrate themselves as they bask in your glory? Isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t it enough for you to simply be the master of your own emotions and the boss of your own time and the lord of your own destiny? Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not trying to stifle your ambition or cramp your enthusiasm; I just want to make sure you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t dilute your willpower by trying to wield command over too wide a swath. The most important task, after all, is to manage your own life with panache and ingenuity. But I will concede this: The coming weeks will be a time when you can also probably get away with being extra worshiped and adored.

Dear Hard Worker: Our records indicate that you have been neglecting to allot yourself sufficient time to rest and recharge. In case you had forgotten, you are expected to take regular extended breaks, during which time it is mandatory to treat yourself with meticulous care and extreme tenderness. Please grant yourself an immediate dispensation.

Expose yourself to intensely relaxing encounters with play, fun and pleasureâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;or else! No excuses will be accepted.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

If extraterrestrial beings land their space ship on my street and say they want to meet the creatures who best represent our planet, I will volunteer you Libras. Right now, at least, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re nobler than the rest of usâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and more sparkly, too. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re dealing smartly with your personal share of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s suffering, and your day-to-day decisions are based more on love than fear. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not taking things too personally or too seriously, and you seem better equipped than everyone else to laugh at the craziness that surrounds us.

And even if aliens donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t appear, I bet you will serve as an inspiring influence for more human beings than you realize.

Does being a role model sound boring? I hope not. If you regard it as an interesting gift, it will empower you to wield more clout than youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re used to.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

During the four years he worked on painting the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo never took a bath. Was he too preoccupied with his masterpiece? Modern artist Pae White has a different relationship with obsession. To create her fabric art pieces, she has spent years collecting more than 3,500 scarves designed by her favorite scarf-maker. Then thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s filmmaker James Cameron, who hired an expert in linguistics to create an entire new language from scratch for the aliens in his movie Avatar. In accordance with the astrological omens, Scorpio, I approve of you summoning this level of devotionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;as long as itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not in service to a transitory desire, but rather to a labor of love that has the potential to change your life for the better for a long time.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers,â&#x20AC;? wrote author James Baldwin.

Even if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not an artist, I encourage you to make that your purpose in the coming weeks. Definitive answers will at best be irrelevant and at worst useless. Vigorous doubt and inquiry, on the other hand, will be exciting and invigorating. They will mobilize you to rebel against any status quos that have been tempting you to settle for mediocrity.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in a phase of your cycle when the most useful prophecies are more lyrical than logical. So here you go: three enigmatic predictions to help stir up the creative ingenuity youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll need to excel on your upcoming tests. 1. A darling but stale old hope must shrivel and wane so that a spiky, electric new hope can be born. 2. An openness to the potential value of a metaphorical death will be one of your sweetest assets. 3. The best way to cross a border is not to sneak across bearing secrets but to stride across in full glory with nothing to hide.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

Aquarian novelist James Joyce had a pessimistic view about intimate connection. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what he said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Love (understood as the desire of good for another) is in fact so unnatural a phenomenon that it can scarcely repeat itself, the soul being unable to become virgin again and not having energy enough to cast itself out again into the ocean of anotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s soul.â&#x20AC;? My challenge to you, Aquariusâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;

in accordance with the astrological omensâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;is to prove Joyce wrong. Figure out how to make your soul virgin again so it can cast itself out into the ocean of anotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s soul. The next eight weeks will be prime time to achieve that glorious feat.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

Years after he had begun his work as a poet, Rainer Maria Rilke confessed that he was still finding out what it took to do his job. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I am learning to see,â&#x20AC;? he wrote. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know why it is, but everything enters me more deeply and doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stop where it once used to.â&#x20AC;? Given the current astrological omens, you have a similar opportunity, Pisces: to learn more about how to see. It wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t happen like magic. You canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just sit back passively and wait for the universe to accomplish it for you. But if you decide you really would like to be more perceptiveâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; if you resolve to receive and register more of the raw life data thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s flowing towards youâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;you will expand and deepen your ability to see.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

Are you feeling as daring about romance as I suspect?

If so, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve composed a provocative note for you to give to anyone you have good reason to believe will be glad to receive it. Feel free to copy it word-for-word or edit it to suit your needs. Here it is: â&#x20AC;&#x153;I want to be your openhearted explorer. Want to be mine? We can be in foolishly cool drooling devotion to each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mighty love power.

We can be in elegant solid-gold allegiance to each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s genius. Wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t it be fun to see how much liberation we can whip up together? We can play off our mutual respect as we banish the fearful shticks in our bags of tricks. We can inspire each other to reach unexpected heights of brazen intelligence.â&#x20AC;?

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TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

You still have a wound that never formed a proper scar.

(Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re speaking metaphorically here.) Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s chronically irritated. Never quite right. Always stealing bits of your attention. Would you like to do something to reduce the distracting power of that annoying affliction? The next 25 days will be a favorable time to seek such a miracle.

All the forces of nature and spirit will conspire on your behalf if you formulate a clear intention to get the healing you need and deserve.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

In his poem â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Initiate,â&#x20AC;? Charles Simic speaks of â&#x20AC;&#x153;someone who solved lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s riddles in a voice of an ancient Sumerian queen.â&#x20AC;? I hope youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not focused on seeking help and revelations from noble and grandiose sources like that, Gemini. If you are, you may miss the useful cues and clues that come your way via more modest informants. So please be alert for the blessings of the ordinary. As you work on solving your quandaries, give special attention to serendipitous interventions and accidental luck.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):

For many years, the Tobe Zoological Park in China housed a â&#x20AC;&#x153;praying pantherâ&#x20AC;? named Ato. The large black feline periodically rose up on her hind legs and put her paws together as if petitioning a higher power for blessings.

I suggest we make her your spirit ally in the coming weeks. I hope sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll inspire you to get your restless mind out of the way as you seek to quench your primal needs.

With the praying panther as your muse, you should be able to summon previously untapped reserves of your animal intelligence and cultivate an instinctual knack for knowing where to find raw, pristine satisfaction.

Homework: Make a prediction about where youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be and what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be doing on January 1, 2020. Testify at Freewillastrology.com.

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VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

BULLE TIN BOARD: Classifieds As low as $25!

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PAID ADVERTISING SECTION. CALL 601-362-6121 X11 TO LIST YOUR BUSINESS

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Renaissance at Colony Park, Suite #7205, Ridgeland, (601)366-0855 Accurately diagnoses headache syndromes and tailors an individualized treatment plan for you that includes lifestyle modification and FDA-approved medical treatments.

---------------------- AUTOMOTIVE ----------------------J & J Wholesale Service & Repair 3246 Hwy 80 W., Jackson, (601) 360-2444 Certified Technician, David Rucker, has 40+ years of experience.

Mr. Rucker specializes in a/c, front end, part replacement, brakes, select services and repairs. Appointments only.

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107 Marketridge Dr. Ridgeland, 5640 I-55 South Frontage Rd. Byram 101 MetroPlex Blvd. Pearl, (601)922-3250 Members Exchange takes the bank out of banking. You will know

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Mississippi Federal Credit Union 2500 North State Street, Jackson, (601) 351-9200 For over 50 years, Mississippi Federal Credit Union has successfully served its members.

------------------- FOOD/DRINK/GIFTS ------------------Beckham Jewelry

4800 N Hwy 55 #35, Jackson, (601)665-4642 With over 20 years experience Beckham Jewelry, manufactures, repairs and services all types of jewelry. Many repairs can be done the same day! They also offer full-service watch and clock repair.

Nandy’s Candy Maywood Mart, 1220 E Northside Dr #380, Jackson, (601)362-9553 Small batch confections do more than satisfy a sweet tooth, they foster fond traditions and strong relationships. Plus, enjoy sno-balls, gifts for any occasion and more!

McDade’s Wine Maywood Mart, 1220 E Northside Dr #320, Jackson, (601)366-5676 McDade’s Wine and Spirits offers Northeast Jackson’s largest showroom of fine wine and spirits. Visit to learn about the latest offerings and get professional tips from the friendly staff!

-------------------- ENTERTAINMENT ----------------------Ardenland

2906 North State St. Suite 207, Jackson, (601) 292-7121 Jackson’s premiere music promoter with concerts around the Metro

July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

including at Duling Hall in Fondren. www.ardenland.net

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Mississippi Museum of Art 380 South Lamar St. Jackson, (601) 960-1515

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Mon. - Sat., 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Maywood Mart Shopping Center 1220 E. Northside Dr. 601-366-5676 www.mcdadeswineandspirits.com Please Drink Responsibly

MMA strives to be a fountainhead attracting people from all walks to discuss the issues and glories of the past and present, while continuing to inspire progress in the future.

Mississippi Museum of Natural Science 2148 Riverside Dr, Jackson, (601) 576-6000 Stop by the museum and enjoy their 300-acre natural landscape, an open-air amphitheater, along with 2.5 miles of nature trails. Inside, meet over 200 living species in the 100,000 gallon aquarium network.

THURSDAY 7/27 Ladies Night | $5 Endless Draft

7/28 – – FRIDAY Stevie J. Blues 9-1

SATURDAY 7/29 – –Terrell Moses and the First Class Band 9-1

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601.948.0888 200 S. Commerce St. Downtown Jackson, MS

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10 P.M.

7/29

SPACE KADET 10 P.M.

MONDAY

7/31

OPEN MIC NIGHT

SAM MOONEY

jackson’s own sam mooney returns to duling!

Thursday, August 10

$5 APPETIZERS (Dine in Only)

TUESDAY

8/2

SHRIMP BOIL

KARAOKE UPCOMING SHOWS

8/3 - Universal Sigh 8/4 - The Stolen Faces (Nashville’s Tribute To The Grateful Dead) 8/5 - Ocean Disco 8/11 - George McConnell and the Nonchalants 8/12 - Amelia Eisenhauer & the Peruvian Farm Girls 8/19 - Winston Ramble 8/25 - Wrong Way (A Tribute To Sublime) w/ Crane 8/26 - And The Echo 9/8 - Flow Tribe w/ Stoop Kids 9/16 - CBDB 9/23 - Zoogma 9/28 - Cordovas 11/3 - The Nth Power w/ Ghost Note (Members of Snarky Puppy) WWW.MARTINSLOUNGE.NET

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ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO legendary country rock star in jackson in the flesh

Tuesday, August 15 THE FLUSTERS CHAD WESLEY BAND THE STONEWALLS “a dreamy retro vibe that is pure california” comes to jackson with jackson rockstar special guests

Friday, August 18 KRISTIN DIABLE

WHOO! Ladies and gentlemen, this New Orleans singer will blow you out of the water with her voice.

Thursday, October 5

THE WAILERS bob marley’s legendary reggae band is gonna get jackson moving with decades of hits!

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July 26 - August 1, 2017 • jfp.ms

WEDNESDAY 7/26 MS Country Western Dance 7- Until

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