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FREE PRESS MAGAZINE REPORTING TRUTH TO POWER IN MISSISSIPPI SINCE 2002

SREE MAHA LAKSHMI VEDALA Millsaps College

KOBE VAN SOMEREN Belhaven University

HOLLY WRIGHT University of Southern Mississippi

JAKHIA GRAY Alcorn State University

JAYLON UZODINMA Jackson State University

HOUSTON SNEED Tougaloo College

MORIAH ANGRUM Delta State University

DOUGLAS CAMPBELL Swarthmore College

CHRISTIANA OGLETREE Mississippi College

MARGAREE JACKSON University of Mississippi

Goodbye College, Hello World

SHELBY BREWER Mississippi State University

Bass, Schumann, pp 14-17

Best of Jackson: Home Services Ballot p 12

Dear Dr. Dobbs, Info Now Please Ladd, p 4

LAUREN TONOS University of Mississippi Medical Center

Perils of Paving Robinson Road Crown, pp 9-10

GRADUATION is more than a cap & gown.

Graduation is an open door to what lies ahead!

To our

Spring 2020 Graduates,

May 27 - June 9, 2020 • jfp.ms

your futures are bright, and we wish you much success in all you do!

2

In compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX, Education Amendments of 1972 of the Higher Education Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and other applicable Federal and State Acts, Hinds Community College offers equal education and employment opportunities and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability or veteran status in its educational programs and activities. The following have been designated to handle inquiries regarding these policies: EEOC Compliance: Sherry Franklin, Vice President for Utica Campus and Administrative Services, Box 1003, Utica, MS 39175; Phone: 601.885.7002 or Email: EEOC@hindscc. edu. Title IX: Randall Harris, Vice President for Advancement and Student Services, Title IX Coordinator, Box 1100 Raymond MS 39154; Phone: 601.857.3889 or Email: TitleIX@hindscc.edu.

contents

JACKSONIAN

May 27 - June 9, 2020 Vol. 18 No. 20

ON THE COVER Rad Grads 2020 see page 14

4 Editor’s Note 7 Talks

7 New COVID-19 Knowledge

I

ra Murray made Jackson his home for a second time after accepting the position of president and CEO with the United Way of the Capital Area.

Originally from Columbia, S.C., Murray earned his bachelor’s degree from Florida A&M University in 2002 in business administration and his master’s degree in human, organizational and community development from Vanderbilt University.

He first arrived in Jackson in 2005 as one of the 10 national fellows supporting community development efforts of United Way at the local level. In 2006, he became the vice president of community impact for the United Way of the Capital Area.

Deciding that he needed to do something different, Murray quit his job, packed up his family and moved to Pittsburgh to pursue a doctoral program in education.

“For me going back to get a Ph.D in education was just so that I could come back into this work with a much deeper understanding of the complexities and the issues that people are facing while trying to educate children,” he says.

Murray did not anticipate returning to Jackson. However, as he was finishing his doctorate, his predecessor Carol Burger retired, and Murray applied for and accepted the job offer.

“My wife and I prayed about it and decided this was an op-

14 Rad Grads 2020

Ira Murray portunity to come back to this community that has given us so much and give back in a way that I wasn’t able to the first time,” Murray says.

Settling into Jackson once more increased his admiration for the city. “It wasn’t until I left Jackson that I got a greater appreciation for the culture in the city, the history of the city, and the passion that people have about the city,” he says. “I feel like the spirit of Jackson is really strong, and I feel like it is in a place where we are building an infrastructure to take Jackson to that next step.”

In his role, Murray is primarily responsible for fundraising, outreach, and working with staff and volunteers to create and implement their impact agenda, which details the work they do within the community. Approximately 60% or more of donations go toward early-childhood education and grade-level reading efforts the organization leads.

“Those early years are so critical, and all the research will tell you that if a child enters school behind, they typically do not catch up,” he says. “It only gets worse and the gap gets wider every year.“

Murray and his wife, Tracy, have been married since 2009 and currently live in Madison with their 3-year-old daughter, Imani, whom he affectionately says runs the house.

—Richard Coupe

18 Empty Atlas’ ‘Kairos’ JFP’s former music editor Micah Smith reflects on his indie-rock band’s upcoming album.

19 events 20 Arts 22 Puzzle 22 Sorensen 23 astro 23 Classifieds

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courtesy Ira Murray

UMMC’s medical director of infection prevention and control details updated research on COVID19 and how the facts may affect Jackson.

3

editor’s note

by Donna Ladd, Editor-in-Chief

T

he Jackson Free Press editorial team has been hot on the trail of COVID19 information since we started transitioning to remote reporting on March 12. But it’s often been a slog to get good and relevant information about the spread of the coronavirus that isn’t either confusing or incomplete, or what we get may combine apples and oranges.

I don’t know if this is political, incompetence or both, but it needs to end.

The confusion, of course, started about the time that Gov. Tate Reeves returned from vacation in Spain to a state exploding into a pandemic crisis with no real plans to flatten the curve here. It took bipartisan pressure, tough reporting and even an online petition to get him to finally issue an executive order to start slowing commerce.

Even then, his order was a mess of confusion about what was “essential” (most ev-

May 27 - June 9, 2020 • jfp.ms

Nursing homes are big business in Mississippi and beyond.

4

erything) and what wasn’t but also exempt from social-distancing rules (department stores, shopping centers and offices).

After we reported the confusion and the fact that Reeves’ order could cause chaos in towns and counties with conflicting rules, we had to navigate a lot of fingerpointing, and even name-calling and Twitter tantrums by Reeves’ deputy and journalist friends even though our reporting was accurate. Why? Because the order was a mess of confusion and contradiction. Obfuscation on Twitter didn’t obscure that.

Then, it took weeks of media pounding the desk for race demographics before the Department of Health stopped footdragging and confirmed what we believed all along—the virus was disproportionately affecting people of color, especially African Americans. Was that because Reeves wanted to get his Confederate Heritage Month proclamation out of the way first?

Fast-forward to last week. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs admitted that the Mississippi State Department of Health was releasing COVID-19 testing numbers that mix two different kinds of tests—antibody and viral—which national experts say render the combined number “uninter-

pretable. But, of course, combining them makes the testing number sound more impressive. Dr. Dobbs, who has impressed me in many ways as he navigates a political rat’s nest between science and politics, defended that mix at a press briefing last week.

“So, you know, we can separate them out,” Dobbs said. “That’s not a big deal. I don’t think it’s an inflation of numbers. It’s just a different mechanism of identifying an infection.” Except, it is a big deal.

Releasing the names of long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, with COVID-19 infections is also a huge deal.

As of press time on May 26, 121 of them have 332 coronavirus-related deaths, more than half the state’s total. Let that sink in.

Our beloved elders are dying due to nursing-home outbreaks, and we can’t know which ones we should examine closer to see who owns them and how that compares to their facilities in other states.

Does the same operator own several?

What safety procedures do they have in place? What are those owners doing to counter COVID-19 growth?

The public doesn’t know because, we’re told, it’s a privacy issue. No, it’s not. The rumor mill is in overdrive about nursing homes, so people around the state are living in fear of what they don’t know. We hear from them constantly. Media are not asking for names of the seniors or staffers with the virus. The public, including AARP, wants the names of the nursing homes. Now.

Why the secrecy? Let’s just say that nursing homes are big business in Mississippi and beyond. Some of the facilities are like local outlets of big-box retailers, and nursing-home operators and shareholders are in it for money just like other corporations. They also don’t want to be sued. As I

State of Mississippi

Dear Dr. Dobbs, Mississippi Needs Precise COVID-19 Data

State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs clearly dances a tightrope between science and the politics of his employer, Gov. Tate Reeves.

reported back in 2005, the 14 largest nursing-home chains had formed an alliance to help speed nursing-home consolidation in the United States. Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour’s mega-lobbying firm in Washington represented them.

U.S. nursing-home chains not only rake in a lot of government money, but they lobby for tort reform and immunity against lawsuits; they give big money to candidates including our current governor; and some have even been twisted up in illegal campaign-finance schemes in the past.

Put simply: Nursing homes are huge business. Is this why the State of Mississippi won’t follow the lead of states including Georgia, North Carolina, California, Minnesota, New York and Florida, among others? To be honest, little else makes sense.

Look, I get it. Dr. Dobbs serves at the pleasure of Tate Reeves, who throughout this crisis has come across like he cares more

contributors

Kayode Crown

Alyssa Bass

Richard Coupe

City Reporter Kayode Crown recently came to Mississippi from Nigeria where he earned a post-graduate diploma in Journalism and was a journalist for 10 years. He likes rock music and has fallen in love with the beautiful landscapes in Jackson. He wrote about paving Robinson Road.

Freelance writer Alyssa Bass just graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi, where she served as executive editor for The Student Printz. In her free time, she enjoys watching reality TV and pretending to be bougie at brunch. She wrote half of the Rad Grads 2020 features.

Recently returned from living in France, Richard Coupe is a scientist, occasional writer, soccer referee, and once more, against all odds, the owner of a house needing much work. He wrote the Jacksonian feature about Dr. Ira Murray.

about getting people to leave the house and spend money than he does about limiting commerce and social mixing long enough to not have a worse spike of COVID-19 later. He often seems like the kid who can’t wait to grab the second marshmallow.

But the job of the Mississippi State Department of Health is not to do a political dance in a country where the U.S. president threatens to move the Republican National Convention out of North Carolina if the governor doesn’t hurry on up and loosen social-distancing safety requirements—that is, put politics over safety.

Georgia got busted for putting out false graphics showing the virus slowing as the state started to reopen. And in Florida, a fired worker has accused that state’s leaders of falsifying data for the same reasons.

We know one major thing Mississippi, Georgia and Florida have in common—a governor who lives and breathes the belief that a president who dragged his feet on and downplayed COVID-19, allowing this country to blow up into one of the worst pandemic crises in the world, can do no wrong. Watching COVID-19 play out in Mississippi, it’s really hard to believe that Tate Reeves is more concerned about seniors in nursing homes than about keeping the senior up in the White House happy.

Regardless, we need the Mississippi State Department of Health to rise above politics and transparently serve the people of Mississippi, giving us accurate information the people of this state need daily. That is their job, regardless of who is in the Governor’s Mansion or the White House.

Write donna@jacksonfreepress.com and follow her on Twitter at @donnerkay.

LEARN SOMETHING NEW. Engage your mind this summer with new not-for-credit online courses through Millsaps College.

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Discover something incredible.

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cu l

storytelling & re, ir tu

“[W]e continue to develop a plan that maintains the integrity of our elections, focuses on the wellbeing of our citizens and upholds Mississippi’s steadfast conservative values.” — Secretary of State MIchael Watson

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@jxnfreepress

@jacksonfreepress

@jxnfreepress

COVID-19: UMMC Expert on Emerging Knowledge of the Virus

ce eren rev

More Than Respiratory Disease

The most concerning development in the scientific understanding of COVID19 is that the virus is far more complicated than the respiratory disease it initially presented as. “It can basically infect each and every organ system,” Navalkele said.

“Initially, the thought was it’s going to be respiratory symptoms, something just like flu,” Navalkele explained. “But now that we have seen so many infections, it’s clear that a multi-system organ infection can occur. You can have pneumonia. You can have a heart infection. There have been a lot of patients who have had their kidneys

courtesy UMMC

I

n March, Dr. Bhagyashri Navalkele watched the crowds gathering on America’s beaches during spring break with a heavy weight on her shoulders. Mardi Gras came and went, crowds swelling in the French Quarter of New Orleans, and the consequences of that event and others were not lost on her two months after she began to prepare for the coming catastrophe.

“It was extremely concerning,” Navalkele said in a May 21 phone interview with the Jackson Free Press.

Navalkele is the medical director of infection prevention and control at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. By Christmas last year, the “virus of unknown origin” had caught her eye, then mostly contained in China’s Hubei province.

It would not be long into 2020 before the gravity of the disease dawned on Navalkele. By the end of January, the UMMC staff was already anticipating what the crisis would look like when it finally hit the Magnolia State.

“On January 27, we started to do education for our employees and our staff ... providing them with what we knew about the virus so far, and what measures could prevent exposure,” Navalkele said.

In the time since, Navalkele and the rest of UMMC’s infectious diseases team have been working to understand the virus and how to arrest its spread across the state and the globe.

They’ve learned a lot.

by Nick Judin Dr. Bhagyashri Navalkele, medical director of infection prevention and control at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, was studying COVID-19 well before it arrived in Mississippi. She says our understanding of the virus—and how to prevent its transmission—has changed.

damaged … brain infection has occurred as well. It can be mild, moderate, severe, and it can be a fatal disease as well.”

Those complications are not limited to the immunocompromised and elderly.

Just as with the classic examples of influenza pandemics, young and healthy individuals might be experiencing a paradoxically dangerous reaction to the virus: a cytokine storm, the term for an excessive response from the body’s immune system.

Others can suffer from multi-system inflammatory disease (MIS-C), a rare complication that may follow a pediatric COVID-19 infection.

State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs confirmed the first case of COVID19 related MIS-C in Mississippi on May 19. The central Mississippi child affected was released from the hospital shortly afterward, and is expected to recover.

With a greater understanding of the way the novel coronavirus manifests comes

a stronger awareness of what symptoms can herald an infection.

“Four months ago, it was fever, cough or shortness of breath,” Navalkele said.

“But now the spectrum of symptoms have really changed. Basically anybody who might even have a headache, or certain other minor symptoms—it could be chills, it could be (muscle pain).”

No Evidence of Summer Drop

More worrisome is the emerging data on the environmental factors many thought would lead to a reduction in cases over the summer. Seasonal infections of the flu ebb with the summer heat, and initially many observers expected a drop-off in infections as the year progressed, potentially culminating in another rising curve in the fall.

For Mississippi, at least, May has brought no evidence of a vanishing disease:.

Instead, the virus spreads steadily with over 250 new cases a day, an extended plateau

that Navalkele warns may continue even into the year’s hottest months.

“On a global level, we saw that the disease started in China and spread across the Northern and Southern hemisphere,” Navalkele said.

“So it gives the idea that it can spread irrespective of the season. Initially, the concern was that it’s going to be just during the winter season, then it’s going to die down.

But the fact that it’s there in both hemispheres makes you wonder. It’s not really limited to any seasonality, but it’s more of the human-to-human transmission, which is playing a big role here.”

Dr. Chad J. Roy, a microbiologist at Tulane University, described an experiment on the novel coronavirus’ durability and infectiousness to Wired magazine.

In the experiment, aerosolized particles of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes the disease known as COVID-19, were COVID-19: EMERGING, p 8

May 27 - June 9, 2020 • jfp.ms

news,

7

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covid-19, EMERGING, from page 7

May 27 - June 9, 2020 • jfp.ms

“Initially, the thought was it’s going to be respiratory symptoms, something just like flu. But now that we have seen so many infections, it’s clear that a multi-system organ infection can occur,” Dr. Bhagyashri Navalkele says.

people got infected, and three died,” Navalkele said.

Those factors are replicated in restaurants, now reopened across Mississippi with some guidelines. The Jackson Free Press asked Navalkele if it was safe to dine at restaurants. “Definitely not,” she replied without pause.

She cited “the closed space, the crowding—(viral spread) is not just through aerosols or droplets, but also through contact.”

Exposure is not as simple as coming into direct contact with the virus. An infected person sheds viral particles with every breath they take, but in most environments, a soft breath causes those infec-

tious particles to fall quickly to the ground.

Coughing, sneezing, but also speaking loudly could generate the aerosols and droplets necessary to spread the virus.

Hand sanitizer and hand-washing with soap for more than 20 seconds remains a critically important part of preventing the spread of COVID-19 as well.

Length of exposure is now believed to matter as well. Writing for The New York Times, Dr. Joshua D. Rabinowitz asserts that “stepping into an office building that once had someone with the coronavirus in it is not as dangerous as sitting next to that infected person for an hour-long train commute.”

Many nations are now looking to prevent transmission in environments where extended, close exposure could create deadly clusters of transmission in the near future.

Dispelling Myths About Masks

Refined treatments for severe cases of COVID-19 are beginning to emerge, as well as a better understanding of how the virus spreads. At the same time, misinformation about the virus spreads on the internet and social media.

Early instructions for preventing the spread of COVID-19 focused on social distancing and hand hygiene, avoiding the clusters of infections around contaminated surfaces and large crowds. Navalkele believes those precautions are still critically important, but also stressed the value of masks in conjunction with those practices.

Myths about the dangers of masks— like the fear that they could cause health problems through the inhalation of the body’s exhaled carbon dioxide—have no basis in fact, she emphasizes. Medical professionals regularly wear masks for entire shifts without danger to themselves.

“It is safe to wear a mask. There should not be any concern regarding the oxygen and carbon-dioxide levels,” Navalkele said.

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), an antimalaria drug President Trump touts—and now claims to take despite danger warnings—is not proven to have any significant effect so far, Navalkele said: “(HCQ) has not shown any improvement in clinical recovery or mortality. So that’s why it is not being promoted or CDC is not recommending to use hydroxychloroquine.”

Marc Rolph, executive director of communications at UMMC, disclosed that the university is currently involved in a multi-institutional trial of HCQ.

Regardless of its potential uses in a clinical setting, self-medication with HCQ is enormously dangerous, Navalkele said. A Lancet study of the drug released on May 22 revealed no benefits and significantly increased mortality rates for those who received it. “If there was ever hope for this drug, this is the death of it,” cardiologist Eric Topol told The Washington Post the day the study was released.

Navalkele is more hopeful about a drug called Remdesivir, an antiviral drug currently in clinical trials for use against COVID-19. Initial studies suggest the drug may shorten hospitalization for infected patients by several days, though Navalkele acknowledges more investigation is required.

Navalkele can do nothing to prevent the continued reopening of the state and its many gathering spots. But she urges Mississippians to take every precaution possible as they return to normalcy.

“It’s very important that we continue to maintain social distancing and try to avoid large gatherings,” Navalkele said.

“Most of the transmission occurs in close contact settings. … The church services are reopening, the restaurants, barbershops … it needs to happen with extreme caution.”

State intern Julian Mills contributed to this report. Read the JFP’s full coverage of COVID-19 at jacksonfreepress.com/ COVID19. You can email story tips to nick@ jacksonfreepress.com.

College Major Wishlist

W

hile “Pomp and Circumstance,” the graduation march song, plays in our minds as we congratulate all the students who have graduated this month, let’s reflect on some of the fields we Jacksonians may wish we could have majored in during college.

Comic Culture in Midtown

Coffee Sippin’ in the ’Sip

Pothole Repair

Southern Hospitality

Social Distanceology

Tri-County Relations

Strategic Fondren Shopping

Quantum Karaoke

Bright Lights, Belhaven Nightoptics

Pearl River Hydrodynamics

Photo by Logan Isbell on Unsplash

8

Restaurants Safe? ‘Definitely Not’

The continuing reopening of the country presents health experts and workers alike with a unique challenge: How can the nation return to business as usual without kickstarting another spike in infections and hospitalizations?

Navalkele, looking into the future, did not mince words. “Mississippians need to go out when it’s essential, when it’s absolutely necessary for them to go out,” she said. “It should be restricted to that— you need to do groceries, so you have to go to the grocery store. But otherwise, if they are able to avoid it, that needs to still be the first decision, to stay at home.”

As Mississippi reopens, understanding what kind of exposure spreads COVID-19 is key. Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare released guidelines summing up the areas of greatest danger for transmission. Closed spaces, especially those with poor ventilation, crowded areas, any large gathering, and close contact are the perfect vectors for the virus to spread. Unmasked and conversational interactions such as in restaurants and bars are especially dangerous.

A combination of all three of these factors represents an environment like the Shincheonji Church of Jesus gatherings,

which were the cause of most South Korea cases, and should be avoided at all costs.

“There was a CDC article which came out (May 19). Church services open in Arkansas, with two people (attending) infected, and that resulted in (exposure) to 92 other people out of which around 36 courtesy UMMC

rapidly spun in a “high velocity drum,” described as “a very stressful environment for pathogens.” The results of the experiment showed a significantly higher degree of survival for SARS-CoV-2 compared to previous epidemic-causing coronaviruses.

In the time of Spanish Influenza, in the early 20th century, the most devastating pandemic in modern history, the summer pause in the virus’ spread prefaced an apocalyptic return in the coming fall.

But Navalkele is worried about a different spike that may arrive this fall: flu season.

“I’m really hoping for the best that we don’t see a change in the flu virus itself during the fall season,” Navalkele said. “... We see co-infections with COVID as well as flu. Just because you have the flu doesn’t mean you can’t get COVID or vice versa. So, this flu season, it’s going to be extremely important that everybody gets a flu vaccine, and as soon as possible.”

Navalkele warned that, even without a significant increase in the current rate of COVID-19 infections, a particularly virulent flu season paired with an ongoing coronavirus “plateau” could threaten the integrity of the state’s health-care system.

“Even if we are flat or plateaued, or even if we do see a surge, I think the flu season will play a part in causing a rising number of cases,” she said.

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city

Of Water, Heat and Asphalt: An Essential Journey to Paving Robinson Road

by Kayode Crown There will probably be a crack by the middle or end of summer.” He observed that the repaving is probably with one or two inches of asphalt on the road, which he posited as not being enough.

“It was a real thin layer, I noticed.

Moreover, that was before bringing the steamroller. That is why I said that it is not going to last long, in my opinion.”

break up pavements, leading to potholes.

Arnemann said rainfall can make the road deteriorate because of the Yazoo clay, based on its peculiar characteristics. He, however, fell short of embracing Brown’s notion that the repaved Robinson Road would go that way in the next few months.

He noted that the contractor, Superior Asphalt is competent and qualified contractor Kayode Crown

A road construction crew works on historic Robinson Road in late May.

That Darned Yazoo Clay

Michael Arnemann, executive director of the Mississippi Asphalt Pavement Association, lends credence to Brown’s assertion, saying in an interview that potholes may be prevalent in Jackson because of the Yazoo clay under the road surfaces.

In 1988, the Mississippi Department of Natural Resources’ Bureau of Geology documented the qualities of the clay that make it a lousy substructure for construction. The report noted that the expansive nature of the soil is a primary cause of foundation and structural damage experienced in the Yazoo clay belt, especially in Jackson.

It can absorb large quantities of water during prolonged periods of rainfall or flooding. It expands when saturated and strains the structure placed on it, like road pavements. Yazoo clay is noted for being largely without impurities like sand, silt and organic material that can minimize that expansion. It swells and then shrinks considerably upon drying. This causes weakened areas that crack during dry periods and have the potential to compromise the superstructure. In the case of roads, it can

who follows specifications of the local public agency in charge of the job. “They are doing it to the best of their ability,” he said.

“They go in and ground out 1.5 inches of existing pavement, and they put another 1.5 inches in its place,” Arnemann said of the contractor. There needs to be more probably; there probably needs to be two, maybe even three inches, but there is not enough money for that to happen.

I cannot speak to how long it would last, but it should last for a long period of time.”

A Dearth of Funding

Arnemann, who worked in the Mississippi Department of Transportation for more than eight years before joining MSPA in 2018, fingered the dearth of funding for road construction over decades as the major problem for local streets. “The roads in Jackson for the last multiple decades are underfunded,” he said. “The overall solution is more money towards infrastructure, more dedicated money to the city. We have a funding problem.

“We are operating on a fixed funding mechanism, the gas tax, which has been in

place since 1987.” The 18.4 cents per gallon gas tax funds MDOT. Unchanged since 1987, it is one of the lowest in the U.S.

“We are executing a 1987 business model in 2020, and that does not work for an industry like infrastructure. It not only doesn’t work for most industries but infrastructure, civil infrastructure have very heavy costs associated with it,” Arnemann said. “Asphalt is expensive, steel is expensive, concrete is expensive, these are major items that are not cheap, and they are not cheap because, given proper application, they last—they perform their function for a long time.”

“To do it right, you have to have the amount of money required to get the job done. And there is not enough money to keep up with the number of needs in Jackson and the state. It is a funding problem, nothing else,” he argued. “The people have to speak up as they did for the 1-percent sales tax. The people of Jackson overwhelmingly voted for that mechanism, when they knew it was for roads and infrastructure.”

Nine in 10 people of Jackson voted for the 1% sales tax increase in 2014.

Arnemann posited that if the people of Jackson knew there would be an additional level of tax on gasoline and motor fuel and the money dedicated to roads and bridges maintenance and construction, they would similarly support it. “But the people have to speak up and talk to their representatives and talk to their legislators, call their elected officials, city council members, mayors and say ‘we want our roads fixed.’

Like the Burbs in the 1950s

Jordan Brown, who said his family has sold cars on Robinson Road for 32 years, described it as an ancient area, which in the 1950s used to be like the suburbs. “(The) west Jackson part of the town would be considered a suburb, very exclusive, where it was kind of dangerous to be black on this road. That was the downside,” he said.

“This building we are in right now used to house Goodyear (Tires); it was one of the oldest buildings on this block, the 2600 block. And two doors from here was a bank. That was in the ‘50s.”

Along the road, the Jackson Free Press spoke with a motorist who gave his name as James Douglas. He acknowledged how good the repaving of the Robinson Road more PAVING, p 10

May 27 - June 9, 2020 • jfp.ms

J

ordan Brown, a car seller, has a deep connection to Robinson Road. He started working with his father in his auto-services business on the thoroughfare that runs through west and south Jackson in 1999 when he bought the current building where his company operates.

“Robinson Road is the oldest road in Jackson, Mississippi, and has much historical value,” Brown told the Jackson Free Press. It reportedly linked the new capital city with Columbus in the early 19th century. “Moreover, if you do a traffic report, it is probably one of the busiest in the city.”

The 33-year-old was delighted that the road is getting the attention it needs after many years of neglect. The City of Jackson, in conjunction with Hinds County, recently started a three-phase repaving of the road. Phase one will repave Capitol Street to Ellis Avenue, and Ellis Avenue to Highway 80 is phase two. The third phase is Highway 80 to Interstate 20.

Brown said before the repaving, while Ellis Avenue to Highway 80 was “pretty decent,” Ellis Avenue to Capitol and Gallatin Streets was “terrible.” He added that “many people burst their tires on this road or hit the sidewalk or something like that.”

People come into his store, lamenting they had just burst their tires after driving into a big hole on the road, he said. Brown is confident the paving will make residents happy. “It makes the city more attractive for people to come visiting,” he said.

Brown, who helps people start businesses does not believe, though, that excitement over the newly repaved road will last, saying that the volume of rainfall in Jackson every year can quickly erode the asphalt.

Jackson experiences 54 inches of rainfall a year on average, which is 16 inches higher than the national average.

“We have to see how long the road is going to last. It rains here a lot, and when it rains, it erodes the gravel as well as the soil,” he said. “It erodes it, and it breaks apart easily. It rains a lot in the state of Mississippi. It rains here, and everything erodes here. The road may not last long. It does not matter if there are five inches of tar on the road; it will just go like that.

“My prediction is that it will not last more than the summer or fall. ... Every time it rains, it just makes the asphalt soft, and here when it rains, it makes the humidity high, and the asphalt gets soft, and it cracks.

9

TALK JXN

PAVING ROBINSON, fROm PAGe 9

May 27 - June 9, 2020 • jfp.ms

10

It Becomes a Safety Issue The cost of the repaving project is reportedly $2,396,194. The Hinds County Board of Supervisors obtained a $950,000 grant from the Metropolitan Planning Organization, and the City of Jackson matched it with $1,085,058.82 from the 1% Sales Tax Commission.

The Jackson Free Press witnessed different construction crews on Robinson Road during the repavement. One asked this reporter, “Are you trying to see where your taxes are being used for?”

Nearby, a sign had fallen to the ground. It has the seal of the City of Jackson on it and reads: YOUR 1% AT WORK: THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT. The sales tax in Mississippi is 7 percent, but in 2014, Jackson voters approved a 1-percent hike. The 1% tax commission manages the disbursement of the money for various projects in the city.

Ward 5 Councilman Charles H. Tillman says he appreciates those involved in the Robinson Road project’s realization, including the mayor, the Hinds County Board of Supervisors and the commission.

During a phone interview, Tillman expressed delight at the speed of the project, saying it is nearing completion.

“I appreciate it, and my constituents truly appreciate it,” he said. “It will save some automobile expenses, no doubt about that. In the rain, the potholes get larger and larger. Lightweight cars enter the potholes, causing damage. It becomes a safety issue.”

Tillman echoed Brown and Arnemann about the challenge of soaked pave-

ment. “Then you have the large trucks, Waste Management trucks, heavy-duty equipment and delivery trucks that come from time to time. That can cause the biggest damage,” the councilman said.

“But we need all those services.”

“From what I have been told,” Tillman Kayode Crown

is, but could barely contain himself as he reeled off names of other deplorable streets in Jackson in urgent need of attention.

Many drivers regularly lament the bad state of the roads. It has become like a folklore in the city, and the source of many jokes about it. Douglas, as if sending a message to the City, said: “This is one street. You have many more in Jackson, Mississippi, still to be fixed.

“Go to Medgar Evers! Go to (Queen) Theresa! I think you are doing a pretty good job, but you need to speed things up. You need to be over there by my house, pave them roads, all of them need to be paved.”

Predictably, he has a sad personal tale of his own. “I hit a pothole the other day, last night and the other day. It messed my van up, and then messed my car up, so y’all need to do it some more,” he said.

The owner of a mechanic shop along the road who declined to give his name said the project is long overdue, saying that the last paving project on it was 10 years ago.

Jordan Brown stands next to his father’s auto services company along Robinson Road in Jackson.

added, “the subsurface is the primary thing and the second thing is good-quality asphalt, and the third thing is somebody that knows how to do the work.”

Costs of Bad Roads Yadong Li, a professor at Jackson State University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, agreed that the fast degradation of Jackson’s roads may be mostly about Yazoo clay. “If the subgrade of a road in a clayey soil region is not sufficiently stabilized either mechanically or chemically, with the intrusion of rainwater and heavy loads, the road will rapidly deform and deteriorate,” he said.

With the disclaimer that he is not a pavement engineer, Li noted that because of poor paving jobs, some roads have potholes, cracks or uneven road surfaces not long after they have been constructed or resurfaced, with some less than a year.

He also pointed to insufficient stormwater drainage system on the roads: “I observed that on John R. Lynch Street, small rains can cause ponding of water on the road surface. The number and size of the curb drains are simply not enough.”

A white paper on Mississippi infrastructure released last year gave a sad picture of the states of Mississippi roads, singling out Jackson’s significant congestion and road conditions leading to loss of time and money due to traffic delays, crashes, extra vehicle operating costs and other factors.

Mississippi State University’s Con-

struction Materials Research Center and Mississippi State Board of Contractors co-authored the paper titled “Mississippi’s Transportation Infrastructure: Paving Everyone’s Road to Success.” It argues that pavement rehabilitation is needed before extreme deterioration to ensure relatively low-cost treatments, such as crack sealing and thin overlays which merely cost tens of thousands of dollars per lane mile.

“As maintenance activities are delayed, pavement condition continues to decline requiring more extensive repairs, such as removal and replacement, at a much higher cost (on the order of hundreds of thousands of dollars per lane mile),” it states. “In total, Mississippi drivers lose approximately $2.9 billion annually due to roadway conditions and congestion-related issues. Improving roadway conditions could save Mississippi drivers up to $534 annually in vehicle operating costs over 10 years.”

The paper also noted that pavements in good condition can reduce fatality and injury-causing crashes by 26% when compared to deficient pavements.

‘Essential for Quality of Life’ Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba acknowledged paving challenges at his May 6 press conference announcing the repaving of Robinson Road.

“We’re excited about what we’ve done so far,” the mayor said, “but we’re far from satisfied. So, we are eagerly anticipating the work that is coming this summer. Just as we campaigned last year saying it’s paving season, you will see that going forward. As we tackled the roads that were mentioned, we look forward to Ellis Avenue being paved, we look forward to Capitol Street being paved, and we are truly looking forward to Medgar Evers being paved.”

In February, Lumumba announced the first repaving project of 2020, which encompasses the North State Street corridor between Fortification Street and Woodrow Wilson Avenue. He said the project is essential for citizens’ quality of life and the ongoing growth of the city.

“It is important that as we tackle our infrastructure that we turn our infrastructure into an economic frontier,” he said.

Lumumba pointed to plans for other road resurfacing work this year with two design projects underway for work on Medgar Evers Boulevard from Five Points to Martin Luther King Drive, and Capitol Street from Prentiss Street to Boling Street.

Their designs are expected to be completed by summer.

Email city/county reporter Kayode Crown at kayode@jacksonfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @kayodecrown.

Editor-in-Chief and CEO Donna Ladd Publisher & President Todd Stauffer Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin Creative Director Kristin Brenemen REPORTERS AND WRITERS City Reporter Kayode Crown State Reporter Nick Judin State Intern Julian Mills Contributing Writers Dustin Cardon, Bryan Flynn, Alex Forbes, Jenna Gibson, Tunga Otis Torsheta Jackson, Mike McDonald, Anne B. Mckee, EDITORS AND OPERATIONS Deputy Editor Nate Schumann JFPDaily.com Editor Dustin Cardon Executive Assistant Azia Wiggins Consulting Editor JoAnne Prichard Morris ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY Senior Designer Zilpha Young Contributing Photographers Seyma Bayram, Acacia Clark, Nick Judin, Imani Khayyam, Ashton Pittman, Brandon Smith ONLINE & DIGITAL SERVICES Digital Web Developer Ryan Jones Web Editor Dustin Cardon Social Media Assistant Robin Johnson Web Designer Montroe Headd Let’s Talk Jackson Editor Kourtney Moncure SALES AND MARKETING (601-362-6121 x11) Marketing Writer Andrea Dilworth Marketing Consultant Mary Kozielski Advertising Designer Zilpha Young Events Assistant Leslyn Smith DISTRIBUTION Distribution Coordinator Ken Steere Distribution Team Yvonne Champion, Ruby Parks, Eddie Williams TALK TO US: Letters letters@jacksonfreepress.com Editorial editor@jacksonfreepress.com Queries submissions@jacksonfreepress.com Listings events@jacksonfreepress.com Advertising ads@jacksonfreepress.com Publisher todd@jacksonfreepress.com News tips news@jacksonfreepress.com Jackson Free Press 125 South Congress Street, Suite 1324 Jackson, Mississippi 39201 Editorial and Sales (601) 362-6121 Fax (601) 510-9019 Daily updates at jacksonfreepress.com The Jackson Free Press is the city’s award-winning, locally owned news magazine, reaching more than 35,000 readers per issue via more than 600 distribution locations in the Jackson metro area—and an average of over 35,000 visitors per week at www. jacksonfreepress.com. The Jackson Free Press is free for pick-up by readers; one copy per person, please.

First-class subscriptions are available to “gold level” and higher members of the JFP VIP Club (jfp.ms/ vip). The views expressed in this magazine and at jacksonfreepress.com are not necessarily those of the publisher or management of Jackson Free Press Inc. © Copyright 2020 Jackson Free Press Inc.

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RAD

2020

GRADS

T

his month, students across the globe graduated from their colleges or universities. These graduates have spent countless hours studying, giving presentations and otherwise working hard to earn their degrees so that they may be better equipped to enter their chosen fields.

We at the Jackson Free Press know that many graduates dream of stepping across the stage to receive their diplomas, but because not everyone ended up fortunate enough to do so this year, the JFP wanted to provide a means of honoring graduates who either completed their studies at a Jackson-based institution or who call the Jackson metro their home but chose to further their educations elsewhere.

Thus, the JFP has devised this inaugural feature. We introduce to you, your Rad Grads 2020! Congrats, grads.

May 27 - June 9, 2020 • jfp.ms

Madison Jackson

Since childhood, Brandon native Margaree Jackson has held an interest in foreign languages and cultures. These interests culminated in her bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and political science at the University of Mississippi, where she recently graduated.

“I decided to major in Spanish to further my knowledge of the Spanish language and also to enable me to better connect with the Spanish-speaking and Latino community, not only in Mississippi but also in the United States and abroad,” she says.

Jackson chose Latin American politics as her academic focus.

On campus, Jackson served as a conversation partner and group connect leader for the International and American Student Alliance, as president of the Undergraduate Black Law Student Association and as an interpreter for the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Coalition.

14

UM awarded Jackson with a full scholarship and stipend toward earning her master’s degree in modern languages with a specialization in Spanish. She is considering more education to become a bilingual or English-as-a-secondlanguage instructor.

Eventually, the 22year-old aspires to start a nonprofit organization that focuses on education equity and culturebased learning.

“I think it’s important because I have noticed a lot of inequities in the educational system, specifically for the black and brown students,” she says. “There’s a lack of teaching that is representative of different cultures, so I believe it is important to push for education that teaches students about their cultures and where they come from.”

For fun, Jackson enjoys reading, traveling and watching Spanish television programs, such as “Undercover Law.” —Nate Schumann

Sree Maha Lakshmi Vedala Sree Maha Lakshmi Vedala says she owes Millsaps College for changing her life.

The priest’s kid from Brandon graduated from the private Jackson institution with a bachelor’s degree in religious studies.

During her senior year, Vedala earned the Frank and Rachel Anne Laney Award, which goes to the graduating senior who has written the finest essay about the value of receiving a liberal-arts education.

In her essay, Vedala wrote about her experience at Millsaps and expressed gratitude to the professors who made her feel at home and pushed her academically.

Vedala’s professors encouraged her to pursue an honors project.

The project focused on social-justice issues like colorism, gender inequality, and racial discrimination in India and how Hindu religious symbols could be more inclusive.

“They would encourage me to courtesy Sree Maha Lakshmi Vedala

Margaree Jackson

enter essay contests and writing competitions, and doing so helped me gain more confidence,” she says of her profs. “… They helped me pursue my honors project. My honors project actually ended up getting the Phi Beta Kappa Award for best thesis presentation.

That would have never happened if it wasn’t for my professors encouraging me along the way.”

Like many college students, Vedala says she feels incomplete because she had to finish her coursework online due to the pandemic.

“I was really looking forward to my last days on campus,” she says. “I’m hoping that I’ll be able to return. I still have library books to return, so hopefully I’ll be able to go back to campus one day.”

Until then, Vedala is surveying her options for the future. Medical school is one possibility she is considering.

—Alyssa Bass

Shelby Brewer

courtesy Shelby Brewer

Shelby Brewer admits that she had a hard time adjusting to Mississippi State University. The graduate from Madison came to the university after attending a private school, St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, where she knew almost everyone. After about two years, though, she says she was finally able to make connections with her friends and professors.

These connections not only assisted Brewer in obtaining a 4.0 cumulative GPA, but also in gaining confidence in her chosen major, agribusiness.

“Looking at the classes that I’ve had in college, they’ve been very easily majority male. There would be two or three, probably five max, girls in any given class of 30 to 50. That was an interesting thing after being in high

school (that had) pretty even ratios, but I think that was actually one reason why I was also interested in agribusiness,” she says. “I think it’s a great time for women to be in that field.”

While at Mississippi State, Brewer enjoyed being a member of the Agricultural Economics Quiz Bowl team. She says the team allowed her to consistently learn and challenge herself for outof-state competitions.

“I’m a huge nerd,” she says. “The moment I went in that room and sat down, it felt like I was among kindred spirits.”

Brewer is planning to attend graduate school for agricultural economics at State in the fall. In the future, she hopes to find a career in the field that focuses on natural resource management and conservation.

—Alyssa Bass

Prior to enrolling in college, Christiana Ogletree was looking for a Christian university far enough away from her home in Gulfport to allow her to gain some independence. This month, Ogletree earned her bachelor’s degree in English writing at Mississippi College, where she tutored other students in the school’s writing center. .

“Words are an exceptional way to express emotion, to capture moments, and to do all these things that I don’t necessarily always feel I’m able to do through speech or other mediums,” she says.

Ogletree’s journey to independence eventually took her to London, where she traveled for a study-abroad trip two summers ago. While she was on a subway, she wrote a poem entitled “London Underground Poetry.” The poem was published in Mississippi’s College’s literary magazine, The Arrowhead, of which

she became the editor-in-chief this last academic year.

Although Ogletree says she was merely trying to capture how she felt in that moment using her phone’s notes app, she says it felt good to know that readers could transport themselves to that same moment on the subway.

The 21-year-old says studying abroad was the defining moment of her college career. In London, she realized she wanted to attend law school, where she hopes to pursue civil-rights or public interest law.

Ogletree is on the waiting list at Harvard Law School and is planning to attend Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., if Harvard doesn’t work out.

Wherever she goes, Ogletree says she hopes “to make an impact on the world, as cheesy as that sounds.”

—Alyssa Bass

Kobe Van Someren With little more than a backpack, a couple cans of soup, a Bible, a journal and a water bottle, Kobe Van Someren spent 99 hours during his college career at Belhaven University on the streets of Jackson among members of the homeless community.

Why? For more than a year at the time, the Caledonia, Miss., native had been involved with Jackson Street Ministry, a group of Christians from various denominations who help and share their faith with the disenfranchised. Frustrated with the perceptions many people held about the homeless community and wanting to be a better advocate for the group, Van Someren decided to walk a mile (or several) in their shoes.

“Going out, walking the streets of Jackson, and living on the streets helped me gain insight as to how (the homeless) live day-to-day and how people interact with them on a daily basis,” he says.

The 22-year-old says the experience helped him discover a passion for coming to understand others who have different cultures than his own, which prompted him to pursue and obtain his bachelor’s degree in intercultural studies.

His inclination toward missions led him to visit Zimbabwe, Iraq, Paris, Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Brazil to share his faith and learn from other cultures.

At school, Van Someren was involved in the Belhaven Leadership Council and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes program.

Post-graduation, he hopes to raise enough funds to be able to undergo mission work in the Middle East within the next two years.

“At the end of the day, what I want to be is a minister of the gospel,” he says.

—Nate Schumann

May 27 - June 9, 2020 • jfp.ms

students and allows them opportunities to practice them.

Being so widely known at school awarded Sneed the student vote to be named Mr. Tougaloo. He credits his win to his regular efforts to be genuine and sincere with everyone he meets, as well as his love for being around people.

“I became Mr. Tougaloo because I was … never the type to run with just one set of people. I was involved with different groups on campus,” he says.

“I was very active and social on campus, from day one.”

While he is currently deciding between job offers for the next phase of his life, down the road Sneed would like to join the FBI as an agent and forensic investigator to make a difference in types of cases that do not always receive justice.

In his spare time, Sneed enjoys skating, barbecuing with friends, and attending stage productions such as “The Color Purple” and “Hamilton.”

—Nate Schumann

Sophielena Abuzeid and Haylee Riley

Spencer McClenty

Houston Sneed, a recent graduate of Tougaloo College, says that the academic institutions he attended in his hometown of Batesville, Miss., did not necessarily push him and other African American students to pursue opportunities to further their education.

“I don’t think they motivate the black kids enough to go on to college,” he says.

In choosing to attend Tougaloo, though, Sneed ended up finding the encouragement he needed through friends and professors to motivate himself into completing his bachelor’s degree in sociology.

“I really got the most love when I got to college,” Sneed says. “Tougaloo gave me the most support.”

As someone who enjoys being actively involved on campus, Sneed held memberships with the Reuben V. Anderson Pre-Law Society, the Student Government Association, the NAACP, the American Association of University Women and the Tougaloo Toastmasters, which is a program that builds professional skills in

Christiana Ogletree

Kobe Van Someren

Houston Sneed

more RAD GRADS, see page 16 15

Rad Grads 2020 from page 15 I’m just as good as anyone else.”

His experiences gave him the confidence to apply to graduate programs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, North Carolina State A&T, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Michigan and Stanford University, specifically in their nationally recognized aerospace programs.

Uzodinma says incoming freshmen can be successful anywhere.

“Students need to know that no matter where you go to college, what you accomplish in life has more to do with you than a college you go to,” he says. “Of course, you want to find a place where you’re comfortable, but there’s a lot of opportunities anywhere. You just have to find those opportunities and then invest your time into bettering yourself each and every day.”

—Alyssa Bass

Moriah Angrum

May 27 - June 9, 2020 • jfp.ms

courtesy Moriah Angrum

When Litonia Angrum continually taps on her glass, Moriah Angrum takes the cup and refills it for her aunt. When Litonia taps her plate twice, she’s done with her food. Moriah smiles and takes the dishes to wash them.

This system is one that Moriah, who recently graduated from Delta State University, devised after learning about classical conditioning in high school to help her mentally disabled aunt better communicate her needs to her family.

Since Litonia is fully disabled, Moriah assists her by bathing her, getting her dressed, preparing her food and assisting her while walking. The 23-year-old Terry, Miss., native has had an active role in caring for her aunt since she was in elementary school, which influenced her choice to obtain her bachelor’s degree in social work. She plans to attend Jackson State University this fall to work toward a master’s in the field.

16

“When I watched the news (growing up), I would see people with disabilities who are being exploited or abused, and I wanted to make a difference for that population,” she says.

At DSU, Angrum held memberships with Alpha Kappa Alpha, the Student Government Association and the school’s social-work club.

In addition, Angrum has raised money for DSU’s Statemen’s Shelf food pantry and earned the title of Miss Delta State.

After completing her education, Angrum wants to open up her own “day-hab” program for adults and children who have mental disabilities where they can have a change of scenery and work on problem areas.

If able, she would like to expand that program throughout the country.

She also aspires to lobby for people with disabilities on Capitol Hill.

—Nate Schumann

When Lauren Tonos was completing a clinical at G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery VA Medical Center in Jackson, wherein she personally observed the treatment of patients, a veteran opened up to her about his time in the Army.

Tonos remembers listening intently to figure out what she should incorporate into his occupational therapy plan. When she saw the veteran again, she was with her instructor.

The veteran looked at Tonos’ instructor and said: “She really listens.

I can tell she really cares about her patients.”

Tonos says she has fallen in love with the holistic experience that occupational therapy provides for her patients. The Madison resident earned her master’s degree in occupational therapy this month courtesy Lauren Tonos

courtesy Jaylon Uzodinma

Jaylon Uzodinma says he doesn’t understand why Jackson State University is under-estimated, from his perception. It’s a place of opportunity, he says. The graduate, a Madison native, earned a 4.0 cumulative GPA, a bachelor’s degree in physics and five full scholarship offers to graduate school.

He intends to become an aerospace engineer.

After spending summers at research programs at the University of Alabama and Georgia Institute of Technology, Uzodinma became accustomed to being one of the few minorities in the room.

“Being the only minority in the room definitely inspired me to want to inspire others to enter STEM,” he says. “When you’re at another university for the summer, you’re being compared to kids that may attend larger universities in different places. I take it as a challenge to show that

Lauren Tonos from the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.

She plans to get married in June and then stay in Mississippi for two years while her fiancé finishes medical school.

Although she says finding occupationaltherapy jobs is difficult right now due to COVID-19, she is continuing to seek opportunities. “(Occupational) therapists will be needed at some point. This is just a wall that we have to use to build up our skills and the talents that we have now,” Tonos says. “There is beauty in this time. We can reflect on how we can best prepare for our first job as new grads. We’ll probably never get this time back again once we get a new job. The working world never stops.”

—Alyssa Bass

Holly Wright Many students find college to be a time of self-discovery and expression. Holly Wright, who recently graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a bachelor’s degree in English, used her tenure at the Hattiesburgbased institution to forge a core group of friends who share common interests, like video games and anime.

Attending comic and anime conventions with these friends inspired her to take up a new hobby, cosplaying, which is the practice of dressing up as a character from books, television, video games and other media.

Characters she has cosplayed include Mabel from “Gravity Falls” and Hilda from the Netflix animated series of the same name, among others.

Most of the cosplayers Wright has met have charitably offered her encouragement and advice for perfecting her costume-creation skills. “I like how positive the community can mostly be—how courtesy Holly Wright

Jaylon Uzodinma

everyone just wants everybody to be able to have the materials,” she says. “There’s a lot of help that goes around, and I really appreciate that, especially for a somewhat beginner like me.”

Born and raised in Jackson, Wright graduated from Hillcrest Christian School and then attended Hinds Community College before transferring to USM. At Hinds, she was a member of the collegiate choir, chamber choir and jazz ensemble, and she served as secretary for the Genders and Sexualities Alliance. She joined USM’s chapter of the GSA when she transferred.

Because the pandemic derailed her immediate plans for the future, Wright, who says she is “super interested in the craft of writing” and who has spent time as an editor with Hinds’ writing center, is currently on the hunt for internship or job opportunities that would let her use her English degree.

—Nate Schumann

Jakhia Gray

SEAN PHILMS

Murrah High School alum Jahkia Gray says she has a passion for interacting with people, a demeanor that ultimately conferred upon her the honors of Best Dressed, Student Leader of the Year and Miss Alcorn State before she graduated from Alcorn State University this month with a bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree in biology.

During her tenure as Miss Alcorn, the Jackson native helped coordinate campus events and facilitated the student food pantry, as well as other responsibilities to help maintain the universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s friendly atmosphere. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Alcorn is known as a very homey environment, so I was in charge of making sure that stayed intact,â&#x20AC;? Gray says.

The 22-year-old held memberships with Alcornâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s chapters of the Impact Communities Service Organization, the National Society of Leadership and

Success, and the Student Government Association, as well as Alcornâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s student ambassadors and biology club.

While she originally pursued her degree to become a physical therapist, campaigning for Miss Alcorn State helped her realize that she actually wants to enter the field of pharmaceutical sales. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I really love and have an eye for marketing and the sales industry,â&#x20AC;? she says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have all these bright ideas when it comes to sales, and I know how to talk to people to get my point across.â&#x20AC;?

Lately, Gray has worked with local hair businesses to hone their branding and marketing strategies and â&#x20AC;&#x153;take them to the next level.â&#x20AC;?

To further her goals, Gray is presently reviewing graduate-school programs that could help her attain a successful career in pharmaceutical sales. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Nate Schumann

Douglas Campbell alongside the system administrator and helped to streamline administrator duties with new software.

Last summer, he interned at Workday, a software company based in California.

Campbell plans to work there in the fall and build his coding skills. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The work itself was perfect for me because it was right in the niche area where I thrive,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Most software engineers do application stuff where you might hear terms like blockchain and crypto or AI and neural nets, but my area was more system-related things, like getting underneath the hood of a car.â&#x20AC;?

In his free time, Campbell plans to improve his Greek and Latin skills and continue his thesis research, which focuses on the ancient Mycenaean Greek language. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Alyssa Bass

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COURTESY DOUGLAS CAMPBELL

At Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, Douglas Campbell earned two bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degrees, one in computer science and the other in classical studies, studying ancient history and languages.

The Jackson native says he never doubted that attending college out of state was best for him.

The graduate is especially thankful for one of his math professors, Cheryl Grood, who helped him improve his math scores for the classes he needed to pursue his computer-science degree. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mississippi isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really known for its academics, so I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exactly have the best math background,â&#x20AC;? he says.

As Campbell continued to take the classes needed for his degree, he also took on more hands-on opportunities. At the university, he worked in the computer-science department

17

MUSIC

by Nate Schumann

Best Ok Designs

Empty Atlas Goes ‘Maximal’

Empty Atlas’ current lineup is, from left, Brennan Michael White, guitar; Micah Smith, lyrics and vocals; Robert Currie Handsford, drums; and Alex Ingram, bass.

“T

May 27 - June 9, 2020 • jfp.ms

here will never be an end to all the blood and sweat I’ll lend to make it work,” sings former Jackson Free Press music editor Micah Smith, the leader of indie-rock band Empty Atlas. Those words are in the single “Maximal,” which the band released in April in advance of its full-length album, “Kairos,” available June 12.

In this record, Smith’s lyrics ponder the balance required between being an artist and being a human with financial and social responsibilities. The song and album deal with a question many music artists struggle with: “At what point does sacrifice turn into actual joy and passion for the thing you’re creating?”

The band hopes to schedule an eastcoast tour for “Kairos” once the coronavirus pandemic crisis passes.

The JFP spoke with Smith about the new single and upcoming album.

18

The tour has been postponed, but the album is still releasing as scheduled, correct?

We talked about whether it was weird to put out an album at this time, and we kind of struggled with it. … To me, when I get to hear new music, it gets me excited despite all this stuff, and I thought, “Even if we can be that for like 10 people, I would be really happy that we made somebody’s day a little better, somebody’s week a little better by putting out the album now as opposed to waiting.” Even though I know we’re throwing it out into a lot of junk that seems scary, it’s really an album about hope and finding joy, so I feel like now is the time that I would need it, so I hope it can be that for somebody.

Talk about any themes or ideas that “Kairos” centers around?

In December 2016, I put out the first full-length studio album from Empty Atlas, called “Hestia.” I started writing songs for that album when my wife and I first got married and were moving into a house and I was starting a new life as a husband. But I knew I wanted to make music for a living, (so) I wrote the record around balancing those two things.

“Kairos” is kind of the opposite of that.

As I’ve gotten to play music more and meet more bands, a lot of people have this weird balance of going, “Well yeah, yeah, I want to enjoy my life and stuff, but right now I’m going to be focused only on making music, and I’m going to be pushing everything else to the side.” And they think that life sort of has to start later or that it can’t look like whatever they want it to look like.

[But] you don’t have to sacrifice everything to feel some kind of joy.

Why “Kairos”?

The Greek god Kairos was the embodiment of victory, and the idea behind him is that he had this golden hair. The myth is that if he ran past you and you didn’t grab him by that hair, then you’d never see him again. And I know a lot of people who treat success in their life as this thing that is fleeting and that if you don’t do everything for it right now then you’ll never have any success.

But for me, I started working with the guys I’m writing music with now, and (we’re) finding joy even if we’re playing for 10 people in Birmingham or wherever. There’s so much joy around getting to play music and being around

these guys. So the record is about that idea of going, “OK, but you can find success however you want to measure it.”

That to me is where a lot of the passion and joy comes back to music, is being willing to change your perspective of, “OK, if I get X number, then I am successful.”

You can be with the people in your life who make you happy and do the things that make you happy without having to make these crazy sacrifices and eventually feel joy.

Why did the band choose “Maximal” to be the single to precede the album?

“Maximal” is the opening track on the album. I think it is the clearest example of the toxic view that I and a lot of people can have, where we think, OK, but because I have this vision for where my life could go, then why am I letting anything be in the way of that? Well, let me push everything else out of the way to get to that.’ That was something that I think everybody can struggle with at some point. …

So it’s really a song about this character realizing that hey, sometimes it’s not going to go the way you think it’s gonna go, and being willing to sacrifice every relationship and every good thing in your life to reach an eventual good thing is not the way to find happiness.

How would you describe this album’s sound, and how does it compare to your previous album?

For me, this is the most clear vision of what Empty Atlas is. With “Hestia,” I wrote it largely by myself and had a different group of musicians play it in the studio

with me, but (for this album) I wrote every song with these guys and would bring them in with an unfinished song and say, “I’ve got a little bit of a song; let’s turn it into something great together.”

So I’ve surrounded myself with just the most talented dudes in the world. …

You bring each of the musicians into the song together and let each person’s musicality be its own thing in the song. It’s made me really excited to hear these songs whenever we play together.

It feels like a very different album in different moments in the best way, to me. I wouldn’t want us to write songs that make you feel like you heard the same thing three songs ago. I wanted every song to feel like its own thing and its own story. It’s definitely darker and emotional at times.

Then we have some songs that are more fun and uplifting and brighter. And sometimes that’s even true within one song.

It’ll have these shifts in tone.

Anything else you would like to add?

We’re really excited to be able to share this album with people. These songs mean a lot to us and really speak to who we are and how we’ve grown together, so I hope we can reach people in that same way.

“Maximal” and other releases from Empty Atlas are available on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music and other streaming platforms. Preorders for “Kairos” will open within the next month or so and will include limited edition T-shirts alongside the physical CDs. For more information, visit emptyatlas. com or find the band on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

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COMMUNITY The Black Lunch Break May 27-29, June 1, noon, via Facebook Live. Black With No Chaser hosts the talk show on Facebook Live. Free admission; email info@blackwithnochaser.com; find it on Facebook.

149th Annual MPA Convention (Virtual) June 8-9, 1-6 p.m., Online. The Mississippi Pharmacists Association holds its annual educational conference online. $75 admission; call 601-9810416; find it on Facebook.

KIDS 10th Annual I Got Bank National Youth Essay & Art Contest May 27-June 10, all day, Online. OneUnited Bank sponsors the 10th-annual financial literacy contest for youth between the ages of 8-12 years old. Participants either write and submit a 250-word essay or create and submit an art project about what they learned from the book â&#x20AC;&#x153;I Got Bank!,â&#x20AC;? or from another financial literacy book available in their library or home, and how they can use what they learned in their lives or the lives of their families. Free admission; email suzan@circleofonemarketing. com; oneunited.com.

SPORTS & WELLNESS Soul Synergy Virtual Yoga May 27-28, June1-4, June 8-10, 10 a.m., Online. Soul Synergy offers a virtual yoga class. $7 individual class rate; call 601-992-7721; email soulsynergycenter@gmail. com; soulsynergycenter.com.

Choreorobics Dance Off May 29, 5:30-6:30 p.m., via Zoom. Roger & Tena lead the virtual hip-hop dance fitness classes. Payment options include PayPal, Cash App and Venmo. A class invitation link is sent via email/text to allow you admittance to class(es) once payment is received. $7 per class or $10 per week (2 classes); call 601853-7480; email golongproductions@yahoo. com; choreorobics.com.

LITERARY Welty at Home | A Virtual Book Club May 27, June 3, June 10, noon-1 p.m., via Zoom.

Eudora Welty House & Garden and the Mississippi Department of Archives & History host the virtual book club and explores Eudora Weltyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s novel â&#x20AC;&#x153;Losing Battlesâ&#x20AC;? over a period of 10 weeks, an average of 45 pages per week, with live book club discussion on Zoom led by Weltyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s friend and biographer Dr. Suzanne Marrs.

Those unable to make the Zoom video call can follow on Facebook and Instagram. For more information email info@eudoraweltyhouse.com.

Free to the public. Free admission; call 601-3537762; email info@eudoraweltyhouse.com; find it on Facebook. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Little Blue Cottageâ&#x20AC;? Virtual Storytime June 6, 10 a.m., via Instagram Live. Kelly Jordan reads her book â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Little Blue Cottageâ&#x20AC;? through an online event held on Lemuriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Instagram page. Free reading, $17.99 signed copy; call 601-366-7619; lemuriabooks.com.

CREATIVE CLASSES Virtual smART Spaces Classes May 29, 9 a.m., June 1, June 3, June 5, June 8, June 10, via Facebook Live. Hattiesburg Parks & Recreation holds online creative classes covering various art styles. Free admission; call 601-545-6682; find it on Facebook.

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Art Lessons: Live with Marshall Ramsey May 29, noon-1 p.m., via Facebook Live.

Cartoonist Marshall Ramsey leads virtual art classes via the Mississippi Today Facebook page.

Free; call 601-533-4860.

PROFESSIONAL & BIZ How To Start A Side Hustle Business In Four Easy Steps May 27, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Online.

Precipice IP, PLLC holds a business webinar on juggling multiple business endeavors. Free admission; call 662-205-6174; email info@ precipiceip.com; find it on Facebook.

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Entrepreneur Crash Course May 27, May 30, 8-9 p.m., Online. Coachieve hosts a webinar to help participants transition into entrepreneurs.

Registration required. Participants receive email reminders with the link to join the webinar after registration. Free admission; Eventbrite.

Basic Grant Proposal Strategies May 28, June 4, 1-2:30 p.m., Online. The Mississippi Alliance of Nonprofits and Philanthropy hosts a threepart virtual training for beginners and practiced grant writers alike. The training covers the elements of a proposal, how to integrate each into a compelling proposal and the process for successful grant research. Registration required. Admission TBA; call 601-968-0061; email connect@ alliancems.org; thedatabank.com.

Secrets of Successful Virtual Conferences June 4, 1-2:30 p.m., Online. The Mississippi Alliance of Nonprofits and Philanthropy hosts a webinar on conducting online conferences. Registration required. Admission TBA; call 601-968-0061; email connect@alliancems.org.

Teacher Workshop: Unconventional Classroom June 6, 8 a.m.-1 p.m., Online. Unconventional Classroom holds teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; conference online through an interactive live webinar.

Registration required. $49 per person; call 615556-6000; email matthew@unconventionalclassroom.org; Eventbrite.

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BE THE CHANGE COVID Crusader Virtual Race May 27-31, Online. The Good Samaritan Center creates the COVID Crusader Virtual Race to funnel in much-needed funds for food pantries and community soup kitchen. Registration open till May 31st on Race Roster. Participants can submit their results anytime while registration is open. Signing up for the COVID Crusader virtual race helps the center continue to assist the needy during this COVD-19 crisis. Use #COVIDCrusaderVirtualRace on social media to document your race experience for a chance to win prizes. Donations accepted; call 601-3556276; email madelinewaggoner@goodsamaritancenter.org; raceroster.com.

Pop-up Recycling Drop-off Event June 6, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., at Jax-Zen Healing Arts Center (155 Wesley Ave.). The center hosts a recycling event wherein people are invited to bring their sorted recyclable goods. Due to COVID-19, procedures for drop-offs are as follows. If participants bring their own bags of items, the bags must be clear, tightly tied and cannot exceed 30 poundsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; worth of recyclables. Paper other than cardboard should be in its own bag.

Plastics and metals can be bagged together.

The center will have 30-gallon bags and bins for paper, plastics and metals for $2 each, and 10-gallon bags and bins for glass for $2 each; call 769-233-8746; email contact@jax-zenfloat. com; find it on Facebook.

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May 27 - June 9, 2020 â&#x20AC;˘ jfp.ms

EVENTS

19

arts

Framing Like a Boss by torsheta Jackson

W

May 27 - June 9, 2020 • jfp.ms

20

courtesy calby boss

orking nights at a crafting busisays. “That’s the key to making a nice piece, ness would often be so slow that making it complement the art instead of Calby Boss found himself in the taking over and becoming the first thing store’s frame shop experimentyou see.” ing with different mats and frames. There, However, Boss still believes that the in the back room of the store, a new pasframes themselves are also a work of art. sion and career was born. Thirty-six years “You can make or break a piece of art by the later, Boss continues to provide beautifully frame that you put on it,” he says. crafted frames to area residents.

In addition to framing, Boss offers “At the time in New Mexico, southseveral other types of services including art west-style mat cutting was a really big thing. and photograph restoration and photo imI learned how to cut mats that had really prints on metal, acrylic or canvas. He also pretty designs cut into them, and that was replaces broken mirrors with antique mirfun to me,” Boss says. rors or new mirrors, or can custom an anThe Ruidiso, N.M., native opened his tique mirror to your liking. first frame shop in Roswell, N.M., in 1984.

Boss’ eye for framing is only one part There he mastered the popular southwest of his artistic ability. The painter says he was matting style and created hundreds if not “born with a crayon in hand” and began thousands of frames for people across the drawing and painting at an early age. While area, he says. in New Mexico, he developed a southwest In 2010 Boss relocated to Flowood style creating Amerindian and western art, and began working at Brown’s Fine Art but later transitioned into his now modern and Framing in Fondren as the frame-shop style after a move to Dallas, Texas. manager. He opened Calby’s Fine Custom His creations include colorful abstract Framing, LLC in Flowood in May 2018 and contemporary pieces using multiple and has quickly built it into a local staple. mediums such as acrylic, watercolor, pastel, Boss, a history lover, says the art of chalk pastels, charcoal and pencil. His most framing continues a centuries-old profesrecent piece was a 30-by-40 work featuring sion. “Framing has been around a long Calby Boss, owner of Calby’s Fine Custom Framing in Flowood, offers a crab on a seashore. He, of course, framed specialized framing, art and photograph restoration, mirror repair and more. time,” he says. “Each period—the Reit for its new owner. naissance, Gothic or whatever—is also Boss says he hopes that his work brings reflected in framing. Each period has signature framings give the impression that multiple mats are present. joy to local homes. to keep it in that look.”

Acid-free matting and backing ensure that anything “A great work of art professionally framed would go Calby’s crafts custom frames from varying materi- touching the art remains free of damage. Boss cuts, joins in a prominent place in a home, and (the owner) would be als including wood, museum glass, conservation glass and and sizes the frames specifically for each individual work. proud to show off anytime anybody came to see them that more. In addition to frames for pictures and art, Boss creates Boss believes that the frames serve as an enhancement to the they have something nice on their walls,” the framer says. items such as shadow boxes, acrylic boxes and platforms for art they hold.

To learn more about the business, visit its website at object framing. He also offers French matting, which is a “We don’t want to have a painting on the wall and calbysfinecustomframing.com. Due to the COVID-19 outtype of matting used for art painted on paper as opposed to (have a person say), ‘Oh, that’s a great frame.’ The frame is break, the physical store is closed, but customers can call 972canvas where panels and lines are painted on a single mat to supposed to be secondary and enhance the artwork,” Boss 955-9856 to set up an appointment.

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GIFT CARD: $100 Visa Gift Card fulfilled by Protect Your Home through third-party provider, Mpell, upon installation of a security system and execution of monitoring contract. $4.95 shipping and handling fee, gift cards can take up to 8 weeks to arrive after following the Mpell redemption process. BASIC SYSTEM: $99 Installation. 36-Month Monitoring Agreement required at $27.99 per month ($1,007.64). 24-Month Monitoring Agreement required at $27.99 per month ($671.76) for California. Offer applies to homeowners only. Basic system requires landline phone. Offer valid for new ADT Authorized Premier Provider customers only and not on purchases from ADT LLC. Cannot be combined with any other offer. The $27.99 Offer does not include Quality Service Plan (QSP), ADT’s Extended Limited Warranty. ADT Pulse: ADT Pulse Interactive Solutions Services (“ADT Pulse”), which help you manage your home environment and family lifestyle, require the purchase and/or activation of an ADT alarm system with monitored burglary service and a compatible computer, cell phone or PDA with Internet and email access. These ADT Pulse services do not cover the operation or maintenance of any household equipment/systems that are connected to the ADT Pulse equipment. All ADT Pulse services are not available with the various levels of ADT Pulse. All ADT Pulse services may not be available in all geographic areas. You may be required to pay additional charges to purchase equipment required to utilize the ADT Pulse features you desire. ADT PULSE + VIDEO: ADT Pulse + Video installation is an additional $299. 36-month monitoring contract required from ADT Pulse + Video: $59.99 per month, ($2,159.64), including Quality Service Plan (QSP). Doorbell camera may not be available in all areas. GENERAL: For all offers, the form of payment must be by credit card or electronic charge to your checking or savings account, satisfactory credit history is required and termination fee applies. Certain packages require approved landline phone. Local permit fees may be required. Certain restrictions may apply. Additional monitoring fees required for some services. For example, Burglary, Fire, Carbon Monoxide and Emergency Alert monitoring requires purchase and/or activation of an ADT security system with monitored Burglary, Fire, Carbon Monoxide and Emergency Alert devices and are an additional charge. Additional equipment may be purchased for an additional charge. Additional charges may apply in areas that require guard response service for municipal alarm verification. Prices subject to change. Prices may vary by market. Some insurance companies offer discounts on Homeowner’s Insurance. Please consult your insurance company. Photos are for illustrative purposes only and may not reflect the exact product/service actually provided. Licenses: AL-21-001104, AR-CMPY.0001725 AZ-ROC217517, CA-ACO6320, CT-ELC.0193944-L5, DC-EMS902653, DC-602516000016, DE-07-212, FL-EC13003427, EC13003401, GA-LVA205395, IA-AS-0206, ID-ELE-SJ-39131, IL-127.001042, IN-C.P.D. Reg. No. – 19-08088, City of Indianapolis: LAC-000156, KY-City of Louisville: 483, LA-F1914, LA-F1915, LA-F1082, MA-1355C, MD-107-1626, ME-LM50017382, MI-3601205773, MN-TS01807, MO-City of St. Louis: CC#354, St. Louis County: 100194, MS-15007958,MT-PSP-ELS-LIC-247, NC-25310-SP-FA/LV, NC-1622-CSA, NE-14451, NJ Burglar Alarm Lic. # -NJ-34BF00021800, NM-353366, NV0068518, City of Las Vegas: 3000008296, NY-Licensed by the N.Y.S. Department of State UID#12000317691, NYS #12000286451,OH-53891446, City of Cincinnati: AC86, OK-AC1048, OR-170997, Pennsylvania Home Improvement Contractor Registration Number: PA022999, RI-3582, RI-7508, SC-BAC5630, SD- 1025-7001-ET, TN-1520, TX-B13734, ACR-3492, UT-6422596-6501, VA-115120, VT-ES-2382(7C),WA-602588694/ECPROTEYH934RS, WI-City of Milwaukee: PAS-0002966, WV-WV042433, WY-LV-G-21499. 3750 Priority Way South Dr. Indianapolis, IN 46240 ©2017 DEFENDERS, Inc. dba Protect Your Home DF-CD-NP-Q220

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50 Gp. led by Mahmoud Abbas 52 It may be a snap 53 Pre-”Happy Days” Ron Howard role 54 Host of “The Voice” 58 Make amends 60 It may come before overcast weather 61 Blockaded 65 PC platform with command lines 68 World Cup chant 69 Flash drives, memory cards, etc.

70 Some laptops 71 Ditch 72 Campus head, in headlines 73 Movie studio that the beginnings of the 5 theme answers have in common

BY MATT JONES

cartoon) 39 Diner order 40 Little demons 41 Place to go in England?

42 Guitar store buy 43 Where, in Latin 46 Stretchy fabric 47 Nigiri fish, maybe 48 Singer LaMontagne 51 Like most itineraries 54 Software writer 55 Battery terminal 56 Do more repairs on 57 Plural seen way more in Ancient

Greek history than in the modern decathlon 59 Short-term worker 61 Took home 62 Comedian Siddiq 63 Superman foe’s name 64 “King Kong” actress Wray 66 “Let You Love Me” singer Rita 67 Lithuania, once (abbr.) ©2019 Jonesin’ Crosswords (jonesincrosswords@gmail.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 #933

Down

“Start the Picture” --all featuring something in common.

Across

1 “Buenos Aires” musical 6 A plus 11 “Power Is Power” singer born Sol·na Imani Rowe 14 Moses’ mountain 15 Renault vehicle marketed in the U.S. with a sorta-French name 16 Singer Benatar 17 It may be stunning 18 It’s put on when being courageous 20 Decays 22 “___ my case” 23 Cereal with a cuckoo mascot

26 Hercules’ stepmother 30 Social critter 31 Krypton, e.g.

32 Number of novels in “The Chronicles of Narnia” 33 First lady between Eleanor and Mamie 35 Ring arbiter 37 Epic that includes the Trojan Horse 38 Delivery person in a brown uniform 41 He played House 44 Reddit event full of questions 45 Early WWI river battle site 49 Dark-to-light hair coloring trend

1 Suffix with winning or best, slangily 2 By way of 3 Category for fleas, but not ticks 4 1990s cardio fad 5 Steering wheel safety device 6 Calgary’s prov.

7 It’s absent in the Impact font seen in many memes 8 Cold-weather wear 9 Roof overhangs 10 ___ leches cake 11 Hotel amenity 12 Efron of “17 Again” 13 Emulated Matt Stonie 19 Early Civil War battle site in Tenn.

21 Hardly packed 23 Ride around town, maybe 24 Undivided 25 Like thrift-shop goods 27 March 16, for St. Patrick’s Day (hey, someone tried it) 28 Big name in camping gear 29 As well as 32 “What’d I tell you?!”

34 Phantasmagoric 36 Address for a monk 37 “Elena of ___” (Disney Channel

VAN GOGH, MONET, DEGAS, AND THEIR TIMES:

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The 17th presentation in the Annie Laurie Swaim Hearin Memorial Exhibition Series MADE POSSIBLE BY THE ROBERT M. HEARIN SUPPORT FOUNDATION. Alfred Sisley (1839-1899), The Watering Pond at Marly with Hoarfrost, 1876. oil on canvas, 15 x 21.625. Virginia Museum of Fine Art. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 83.52. Image © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

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GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got a message for you, courtesy of poet Lisel Mueller. I think her wisdom can help you thrive in the coming weeks. She writes, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The past pushed away, the future left unimagined, for the sake of the glorious, difficult, passionate present.â&#x20AC;? Of course, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always helpful for us to liberate ourselves from the oppressive thoughts of what once was in the past and what might be in the future. But itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be especially valuable for you to claim that superpower in the coming weeks. To the degree that you do, the present will be more glorious and passionate and not so difficult.

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Insurance When Lewis Carrollâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fictional heroine Alice visits the exotic underground realm known as Wonderland, she encounters two odd men named Tweedledee and Tweedledum. The latter tells her, â&#x20AC;&#x153;You know very well youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not real.â&#x20AC;? Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s implying that Alice is merely a character in the dream of a man whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sleeping nearby. This upsets her. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I am real!â&#x20AC;? she protests, and breaks into tears. Tweedledum presses on, insisting sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just a phantom. Alice summons her courageous wisdom and thinks to herself, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I know theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re talking nonsense, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s foolish to cry about it.â&#x20AC;? I suspect you Cancerians may have to deal with people and influences that give you messages akin to those of Tweedledum. If that happens, be like Alice.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The less you fear, the more power you will have,â&#x20AC;? says the rapper known as 50 Cent. I agree with him. If you can dissolve even, say, 25 percent of your fear, your ability to do what you want will rise significantly, as will your influence and clout. But hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the major riddle: How exactly can you dissolve your fear? My answers to that question would require far more room than I have in this horoscope. But hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the really good news, Leo: In the coming weeks, you will naturally have an abundance of good insights about to dissolve your own fear. Trust what your intuition tells you.

And be receptive to clues that serendipity brings you.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

For his film Parasite, Virgo filmmaker Bong Joon-ho received Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. In his natal horoscope, Joon-ho has Pluto conjunct his sun in Virgo, and during the time Parasite began to score major success, Saturn and Pluto were making a favorable transit to that powerful point in his chart. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m expecting the next six months to be a time when you can make significant progress toward your own version of a Joon-ho style achievement. In what part of your life is that most likely to happen? Focus on it. Feed it. Love it.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

According to my analysis of the astrological omens, the coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to seek out, seduce, and attract luck. To inspire you in this holy task, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll provide a prayer written by Hoodoo conjurer Stephanie Rose Bird: â&#x20AC;&#x153;O sweet luck, I call your name. Luck with force and power to make change, walk with me and talk through me.

With your help, all that can and should be will be!â&#x20AC;? If there are further invocations youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to add to hers, Libra, please do. The best way to ensure that good fortune will stream into your life is to have fun as you draw it to you.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

Scorpio comedian John Cleese does solo work, but many of his successful films, albums, stage shows, and TV programs have arisen from joining forces with other comedians. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When you collaborate with someone else on something creative,â&#x20AC;? he testifies, â&#x20AC;&#x153;you get to places that you would never get to on your own.â&#x20AC;? I propose you make this your temporary motto, Scorpio. Whatever line of work or play youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in, the coming weeks will offer opportunities to start getting involved in sterling synergies and symbioses. To overcome the potential limitations of social distancing, make creative use of Zoom and other online video conferencing.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Wherever I am, let me never forget to distinguish want from need,â&#x20AC;? vows author Barbara Kingsolver. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Let me be a good animal,â&#x20AC;? she adds. That would be a stirring prayer to keep simmering at the forefront of your awareness in the next six weeks. According to my understanding of the astrological

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CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

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Writing some Chinese characters can be quite demanding. To make â&#x20AC;&#x153;biĂĄng,â&#x20AC;? for example, which is used in the name for a certain kind of noodle, you must draw 58 separate strokes.

This is a good metaphor for exactly what you should avoid in the coming weeks: spending too much time and devoting too much thought and getting wrapped up in too much complexity about trivial matters. Your focus should instead be on simple, bold approaches that encourage you to be crisp and decisive.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

Singer-songwriter Jill Scott is strongly committed to her creative process. She tells us, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was once making a burger for myself at my boyfriendâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house and a lyric started pouring out and I had to catch it, so I ran to another room to write it down, but then the kitchen caught fire. His cabinets were charred, and he was furious. But it was worth it for a song.â&#x20AC;?

My perspective: Scottâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s level of devotion to the muse is too intense for my tastes. Personally, I would have taken the burger off the stove before fleeing the scene to record my good idea. What about you, Aquarius? According to my analysis, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in a phase when creative ideas should flow even better than usual. Pay close attention. Be prepared to capture as much of that potentially life-altering stuff as possible.

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PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

To protect ourselves and others from the pandemic, most of us have been spending more time than usual at homeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;often engaged in what amounts to enforced relaxation. For some of us, that has been a problem. But Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m going to propose that it will be the opposite of a problem for you in the next three weeks. In my astrological opinion, your words to live by will be this counsel from author and philosopher Mike Dooley: â&#x20AC;&#x153;What if it was your downtime, your lounging-in-bed-too-long time, that made possible your greatest achievements? Would they still make you feel guilty? Or would you allow yourself to enjoy them?â&#x20AC;?

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The best of my nature reveals itself in play, and play is sacred,â&#x20AC;? wrote the feisty Aries author Karen Blixen, who sometimes used the pen name Isak Dinesen. The attitude described in that statement helps illuminate the meaning of another one of her famous quotations: â&#x20AC;&#x153;I do not think that I could ever really love a woman who had not, at one time or another, been up on a broomstick.â&#x20AC;? In my interpretation of this humorous remark, Blixen referred to the fact that she had a strong preference for witchy women with rascally magical ways. I bring this to your attention, Aries, because Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m inviting you to cultivate a Blixen-like streak of sacred play and sly magic in the coming days.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

Taurus music legend Willie Nelson has played the same guitar since 1969. He calls it â&#x20AC;&#x153;my horse,â&#x20AC;? and named it after Trigger, a famous horse in Hollywood films. Although Nelson still loves the tones that come from his instrument, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s neither sleek nor elegant. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bruised with multiple stains and has a jagged gash near its sound hole. Some Tauruses want their useful things to be fine and beautiful, but not Willie. Having said that, I wonder if maybe he will finally change guitars sometime soon. For you Bulls, the coming months will be time to consider trading in an old horse for a new one.

Homework: Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the story or song that provides you with your greatest consolation? FreeWillAstrology.com

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