Issue # 485
INSIDE
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T HE
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Recount upholds winner of Brooklyn Park mayor race
A F R IC A N
C OM MU N I T Y
N E W S PAP E R
Annual Nigerian picnic features Afrobeat, jollof rice and vaccines
African countries commit to ending all forms of polio
Gina Stweart is first woman elected to lead Black Baptist org.
Lemi Z’ere, a 22-year-old second generation Eritrean and TikTok influencer, holds her COVID-19 vaccination card after receiving her first shot of the vaccine from an Odam Medical Group nurse during the annual Minnesota Institute for Nigerian Development (MIND) family picnic in Maplewood, Minnesota on Saturday, August 21, 2021. Photo: Tom Gitaa/Mshale
By Tom Gitaa Mshale
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The African diaspora music project
Lemi Z’ere, a 22-yearold second generation Eritrean and TikTok influencer, put off getting vaccinated against COVID-19 for months because she was unsure of the science. Despite the growing research evidence showing the vaccines are safe and effective, she needed to see for herself that there would be no adverse side effects, and that her friends wouldn’t suffer after receiving the jab. “A lot of my friends got the vaccine now and they
told me they are doing okay. I just had concerns because the vaccine was made so quickly. But my friends made the difference,” Z’ere said. But it was the recent birth of her nephew, and the desire to visit her freely, that finally convinced Z’ere – who works at a local high school as a behavioral specialist – to get inoculated. Z’ere was among a dozen people Mshale witnessed receive their first dose during a pop-up clinic hosted by the Minnesota Institute for Nigerian Development (MIND), during their annual picnic this past Saturday at Keller Regional Park in
Maplewood.
inoculated.
Odam Medical Group administered the vaccines.
Z’ere is among the thousands across the state who have rushed to get vaccinated in recent weeks amid the recent surge in COVID cases, brought on by the delta variant. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, the seven-day average for the first doses administered was 2,675 one month ago. As of last week, Minnesota was averaging 4,955 first doses daily.
“School is also about to begin and after last school year it will be great to get
back to some normalcy,” Z’ere said after getting the jab. “If most of us that are staff get vaccinated, we can avoid going virtual hopefully.” A 14-year-old Hmong American called April said she had been thinking of getting vaccinated but was not sure on how to get it. Her motivation was to avoid virtual school. She accompanied her mother who had been told of the Nigerian picnic event which was not far from their house.
“Virtual school was so boring last year, am hoping my friends get vaccinated so we don’t get covid” said April as she was under observation after getting
The annual Nigerian picnic was held one day before Governor Walz’s $100 vaccine incentive program was set to expire which could also have driven interest in the vaccine at the festive event. Afrobeat sounds rent the air as folks received their vaccines. The aroma of jollof rice attracted a constant stream of people to the bandshell while a few feet away others danced to Afrobeat as
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Recount upholds winner of Brooklyn Park mayor race
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Brooklyn Park Mayor-Elect Lisa Jacobson
By Tom Gitaa Mshale Unofficial results of a total recount in the August 10 Brooklyn Park special election for mayor in which Lisa Jacobson won by one vote, shows Jacobson gaining one additional vote to make the final result 3,416 to Hollies Winston’s 3,414.
The Winston campaign challenged five votes while the Jacobson campaign is challenged two ballots. The City Council acts as the Board of Certification and met at a special meeting on Monday, August 23, 2021 to hear the challenges and certify the elections. Lisa Jacobson who is a sitting
Mayor on Pg. 4
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Guest Commentary by By Derrick Johnson and Michele Ruiz
Leading by example — Biden’s anti-bias executive order Earlier this Summer, President Biden issued a sweeping Executive Order, which advances diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility or “DEI&A” initiatives throughout the federal government. With a stroke of the pen, Biden has positively impacted practically every area of federal employment, including hiring policies, training, leadership development, and employee pay and benefits. As leaders in the civil rights and business community who prioritize DEI&A, we applaud the President for taking this next step to address unconscious bias and attract, develop, and support a federal workforce that truly represents our nation. By issuing the order, Biden is directing each agency head to “…take steps to implement or increase the availability and use of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility training programs for employees, managers, and leadership.” DEI&A initiatives and training make governments, businesses, and organizations stronger. Surveys show that 67% of job seekers consider workplace diversity an important factor when considering employment opportunities. Sixty-one percent of employees believe diversity and inclusion strategies are beneficial and essential. If the federal government wants to attract and retain the best talent, it needs DEI&A training and programs with all deliberate speed. ias in policymaking—whether systemic or unconscious—has historically resulted in adverse outcomes for communities of color and other marginalized groups. From immigration legislation to healthcare policy to education, programs need to be designed and implemented with an eye toward how they will affect all citizens, regardless of their race or economic circumstances. According to the White House, overcoming bias in public policy around wages,
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housing credit, lending, and access to higher education could amount to an additional $5 trillion in gross domestic product in the American economy over the next five years. Unconscious bias experts cite, and numerous studies demonstrate that not addressing unconscious bias leads to high turnover, low morale, less innovation, increased legal risk, and less effective teams. Without question, making federal service more accessible and fairer to diverse groups is the right thing to do; it is also better for our economy and our democracy. Fact is a diverse, inclusive, creative, and productive federal workforce best reflects the face of the nation at home and abroad. Whether trying to devise solutions to fix the housing crisis or ensure access to broadband technology, it also ensures a range of unique perspectives is incorporated into innovative and public-focused services and solutions the government provides to the American people. Similar conclusions can be made in the private sector. In 2017 Harvard Business Review/University of Chicago study estimated that corporate employee disengagement and alienation cost companies between $450 and $550 billion per year. That is why many corporate leaders prioritize best-in-class, science-based anti-bias training from the C-Suite to entry-level employees. If America is going to continue to lead the world by the power of our ideas, as President Biden has said, we must go a step further and lead by the power of our example. Our nation deserves nothing less. Derrick Johnson is President and CEO of the NAACP and Michele Ruiz is Co-Founder and CEO of BiasSync.
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After four years without a case, African countries commit to ending all forms of polio UN News . Although the African Region was certified free of wild poliovirus one year ago, after four years without a case, outbreaks of a vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV) is spreading throughout communities where too few children have received the polio vaccine, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. Vaccine-derived poliovirus is a weakened strain of the virus that has changed over time and behaves more like the naturally occurring poliovirus. At a dedicated meeting on polio, Governments from the WHO African Region committed to ending all remaining forms of polio and presented a scorecard to track progress towards its eradication. Since 2018, 23 countries in the region have experienced outbreaks and more than half of the global 1071 cVDPV cases were recorded in Africa. Cases increased last year partly because of disruptions to polio vaccination campaigns caused by COVID19, according to WHO. Countries at the meeting discussed how they will begin implementing the new Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) 2022-2026 Strategy, which was launched in June to urgently stop the spread of cVDPVs. Tactics and tools include advancing the speed and quality of outbreak response, such as through the rapid deployment of WHO surge staff; improving polio vaccine uptake by integrating polio campaigns to reach children who have never been vaccinated; and broadening the rollout of the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2), a new tool that could more sustainably end outbreaks of the most prevalent type 2 cVDPV. To date, six countries in Africa have
A vaccination campaign aims to reach over 2.8 million children with oral polio vaccines in South Sudan. Photo: Courtesy of Wolrd Health Organzation
rolled out this vaccine with close to 40 million children vaccinated and no concerns for safety noted. Ministers have also committed to regularly reviewing progress via the scorecard, which will track the timely implementation of high-quality polio outbreak response, introduce the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) for broader use and transition polio assets into national health systems in a strategic, phased approach. “Our success in ending wild poliovirus in the region shows what is possible when we work together with urgency”, said WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti. Since July 2020, almost 100 million
African children have been vaccinated against polio. While COVID-19 threatened this success, Dr. Moeti argued that it was possible to “overcome the final hurdles. We have the know-how, but it must be backed by committed resources to reach all under-vaccinated communities”. Also discussed at the meeting supporting immunization and disease surveillance once polio is eradicated, which will be achieved by transitioning polio infrastructure into countries’ health systems. The polio programme has a history of supporting the response to emerging health threats in the region, including Ebola and COVID-19, and half of polio surge staff are currently helping countries
Mayor from Pg. 2 councilwoman did not sit in the special meeting. In the August 10 results, there was one over vote, meaning the voter voted for both candidates. After today’s recount, it appears the over vote was awarded to Jacobson. The recount now shows there are no over votes. After the recount, the number of writeins remained the same as on election day at 26. On Monday, August 23, the Brooklyn Park City Council in its capacity as the board of certification certified the election of Lisa Jacobson as the next mayor of Brooklyn Park. Mayor-elect Jacobson is scheduled to be sworn in on Monday, August 30 at city hall. She will now serve the remainder of former Mayor Jeff Lunde after the latter was elected to the Hennepin County
with COVID-19 surveillance, contact tracing and community engagement. Dr. Tunji Funsho, chair of Rotary’s National PolioPlus Committee, Nigeria called for increased political and financial commitment by Governments and partners to “not only curb outbreaks swiftly, but to also scale up vaccination coverage and give children lasting protection against this preventable disease”.
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Text AFRICA to 24587 to join Board of Commissioners triggering the special election on August 10. She will be up for reelection for a full term in the 2022 general election. This is the closest Brooklyn Park voters have come to electing its first mayor of color, falling short by two votes. The city which is more than 56 percent people of color has in the last five years been trending towards making the city council majority people of color. In the last two general election cycles, city voters have elected three people of color to the seven person city council. The seven includes the mayor. City voters will again have a chance in the coming months to decide if they want another person of color on the council. Jacobson’s election as mayor creates a vacancy in the East District that she represented prior to her election as mayor.A special election is expected to be announced to fill the vacancy.
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Nigerians from Pg. 1 others played a game of bean bag toss. But local African leaders say they still encounter resistance from some African immigrants about getting the shot, the difference being their skepticism is driven more by uncertainty than being antivaxxers. “In Africa we are used to taking many vaccines so they are not new, sometimes I get surprised when our people say they don’t want to take the vaccine” said Dr. Richard Oni, clinical director at Progressive Individual Resources (PIR), a social and behavioral health social-service agency. Dr. Oni who is also former president of MIND says hesitancy and misinformation are among the driving forces behind most African immigrants’ resistance to the vaccine, pointing to myths about them causing impotence and a host of other unproven side effects. “So, our job as professionals is to demystify some of these myths and reminding them that we have taken vaccines for many other ailments in Africa, we tell them the technology is not new,” said Dr. Oni. “We have found that a lot of our people have unique challenges and sometimes very busy work schedules that don’t lend themselves well to scheduling a vaccine appointment,” said Dr. Robert LarbiOdam, the Odam Medical Group medical director. “It could also be language barriers, so at our practice we work to
Dr. Robert Larbi-Odam and wife Abena at the annual Minnesota Institute for Nigerian Development (MIND) family picnic in Maplewood, Minnesota on Saturday, August 21, 2021. The couple owns Odam Medical Group which has given over 34,000 COVID-19 vaccines in the past year. Their clinic administered Covid-19 vaccines at this year’s Nigerian picnic. Photo: Tom Gitaa/Mshale
ensure these challenges do not stop them from getting it (vaccine).”
its transportation issues we will come close to where they are.”
His wife Abena Larbi-Odam, is the operations director at Odam, and revels in tackling the unique challenges her husband was describing.
Odam operates two clinics in the metro, one at the Abbott Northwestern Hospital campus in south Minneapolis and another in north Minneapolis.
“We don’t talk to them as if they are dumb, we take time to explain because they are so many myths going around your head will spin,” Mrs. Larbi-Odam said. “We make it very easy for them, if
However, it is the alternate strategies that her clinic has come up with to deal with vaccine access issues in the African community that seems to animate her the most. They launched what she
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calls the Vaccination Strike Team, a group of Odam staff that is mobile and goes to “where the people are” so they don’t have to deal with language or transportation issues which are common. Alternate strategies such as its vaccine strike team have allowed the GhanaianAmerican couple’s Odam Medical Group
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Annual Nigerian Family Picnic in Minnesota Photos by Tom Gitaa
Clockwise from bottom right: A family arrives for the annual Minnesota Institute for Nigerian Development (MIND) family picnic in Maplewood, Minnesota on Saturday, August 21, 2021; A trio of Nigerian-Americans share a laugh; Brad Davison of the Maplewood Fire Department gives a lesson on fire safety; Nigerian-American women fry the popular Nigerian Puff-Puff; Nurse Hodan Yusuf with the Odam Medical Group prepares a COVID-19 vaccine during a pop-up vaccine clinic that the clinic brought to the picnic; Master Griller Toyi Ige was a popular man with his servings.
Nigerians from Pg. 5 to administer more than 34,000 COVID-19 shots in the past year. “Someone should not miss out on a vaccine if they want it just because they don’t have transportation,” said Mrs. LarbiOdam.
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Religion Gina Stewart, senior pastor in Memphis church becomes first woman elected to lead US Black Baptist organization By Adelle M. Banks Religion News Service In a pathbreaking decision, the Rev. Gina Stewart has been elected as the first woman president of the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Society, marking the first time a female has been chosen for the highest post of a Black Baptist organization. Stewart, the senior pastor of Christ Missionary Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, has previously served in vice presidential roles of the missions organization for six years, three as second vice president and three as first vice president. She was elected Aug. 12 to a threeyear term as president, succeeding the Rev. Gregory Jackson to lead the society, which dates to 1897. The organization is named after the Rev. Lott Carey, a formerly enslaved African American man who purchased his freedom and established the first Baptist mission work in Liberia in 1822. “I’m honored, first of all, for the privilege to lead and to serve,” Stewart told Religion News Service in an interview on Monday (Aug. 16). “I think it’s significant that this organization, that is Baptist by heritage but ecumenical in its practice and its commitment, is taking the step,
a courageous step, to elect a woman to serve in a titular leadership position.” She said she was not aware of any other woman who had been chosen for a similar top position in Black Baptist circles, though women have served as presidents on state and regional levels. “I don’t think that there’s any national organization that has a female serving in a senior leadership role as president,” said Stewart. “I believe Lott Carey is the first.” Stewart said she and her church have worked for two decades with Lott Carey, an ecumenical organization with Black Baptist roots that partners with about 2,000 congregations, the Red Cross and other groups to meet needs in some 20 countries. Among its causes are fighting hunger, addressing HIV/AIDS and seeking to reduce human trafficking. Stewart plans to hit the ground running, as she has already met with other leaders of her organization about how to assist Haiti as it begins to recover from a massive earthquake that has killed more than 1,200 people. They are planning to start raising an initial $50,000 this week to help meet immediate needs, including purchasing medical supplies and food. “Lott Carey already has partners in
Haiti,” she said. “Because we already have the infrastructure, it’s a lot easier for us to make some significant moves in terms of supporting them in this crisis.” In addition to her roles as a pastor and a new organization president, Stewart, 61, is the author of the book “We’ve Got Next: HERstory in HIStory.” The Rev. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, professor of African American studies and sociology at Colby College, called Stewart’s rise in the ranks of Lott Carey “absolutely historic” and a “really big” development about the role of African American female religious leaders. “The presidency of Lott Carey is historic AND it represents the reaching of very high ground in the struggle for equity, justice, and inclusion for Baptist women,” she said in an email message. Anthea Butler, professor of religion at the University of Pennsylvania, said this marks a shift for Black Baptists, who often have not supported female leaders. “I think it is significant, important, and past time for a woman to be in leadership in Black Baptist circles, missions or otherwise,” she said in an email message. “Women are the fundraisers and foundation of the church.” The Rev. Emmett Dunn, Lott Carey’s Music from Pg. 10 to obtain licenses for performances, recordings, etc. I am a performing artist and very much respect the craft of composition, so I want to make sure people are properly credited and compensated for their work. This has been a point of contention for African American composers in the past, and I want to make sure we treat the music and composers with the respect and dignity they deserve. As with any project, funding support is certainly a hurdle because of the amount of hours to research, data input, and custom build a site of this magnitude. Locating the repertoire and the permissions is another hurdle. I have spent a long career building the necessary relationships and trust to gain access to the composers, but the hurdles still exist. Lastly, funding recordings of this music, which is critical to entice others to perform the works, is another financial hurdle. We are working on strategies to conquer each of these hurdles! How do you see this database changing discussions around the accessibility of music by Black composers? Others have called this database a game changer in our industry already. The primary arguments against the inclusion of diverse repertoire has been the inaccessibility of the repertoire. That inaccessibility perpetuates a vicious cycle (if you can’t find the music and don’t hear it performed, you don’t talk about it and perform it), which I am trying to disrupt. We can’t change
The Rev. Gina Stewart.
Photo: Courtesy
executive secretary-treasurer, welcomed the new role Stewart will have in the organization. “Dr. Stewart is very strong in the area of advocacy, in the area of social justice and gender equality,” he said in an interview. “She desires for the Christian communion to be respectful of all people, whether you’re Black or white or male or female. and so she brings that passion to the presidency of Lott Carey.” In response to a tweet by the Lott Carey organization calling her “the first female president of a national African American Baptist organization,” Stewart tweeted “#HonoredToServe To God be The Glory! The ‘wind’ blows where it will.”
the conversation in all segments of the performance and scholarly work if the music remains in a state of invisibility. The database shines a light on the repertoire, its composers, and recordings of the works, and allows us to eliminate excuses and reframe the conversation on what pieces and which composers should be allowed in what we consider “the standard musical canon.” How do you envision the African Diaspora Music Project 10 years from now? I envision the database continuing to expand via my own research and the contributions of others through our contributions pages. I also see us adding instrumental and keyboard repertoire in the near future. I hope that the project serves as a hub that spawns dissertations, articles, and books on composers who have heretofore been ignored. I also hope teachers, performers, and artistic administrators will regularly use this site to program concerts, repertoire for students, and concert series, making thoughtful programmatic choices to include this repertoire throughout the year on regular subscription concerts and all planned events. I really envision this as a go-to place for online research of this music! I CARE IF YOU LISTEN is an editorially-independent program of the American Composers Forum, funded with generous donor and institutional support. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author and may not represent the views of ICIYL or ACF.
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Art & Entertainment
5 Questions to Dr. Louise Toppin about the African Diaspora Music Project By A. Kori Hill I Care If You Listen The African Diaspora Music Project (ADMP) was established by Dr. Louise Toppin in conjunction with Videmus, a nonprofit organization where she is also the Artistic Director. From Videmus’ 30+ CDs to edited editions of Margaret Bonds’ music, this new music database continues Dr. Toppin’s decades of work to increase the accessibility and programming opportunities of Black composers, past and present. Her career connects to the practices of many 20th century Black classical artists: to be a triple threat performer-teacher-scholar was not an exception, nor a rule, but a need — a practice that remains a core part of the Black concert tradition to this day. When did you get the idea for the African Diaspora Music Project? The idea for the project developed from my longtime work and research in African American composers. Although there are certainly ways to find information on African American composers, I did not find a resource that not only assisted those who were well steeped in African American history, but encouraged exploration by
those who had no knowledge of where/ how to begin to explore this repertoire. It originally began as a way for me to catalog the thousands of scores I had collected throughout my own research and blossomed into a resource that I wanted to share for free with others. The more projects I did teach to others about this music, the more I realized that there were not enough research tools, printed scores, opportunities, etc., so I began to create them. Videmus has always championed Black composers, especially through recordings. How do you see this database helping to expand Videmus’ discography? You are correct that recordings have always been an important part of Videmus’ work. As our world has become more digitally driven, Videmus’ recordings also went online as complete CDs. The database allows us to continue to grow our discography by moving away from a model of creating full CDs to a model that allows us to initiate projects to produce recorded content (individual pieces) associated with the data in the database. I am excited about our ability to pivot in that direction and, in essence, allow more voices to be heard through our website!
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Louise Toppin
Photo: Mark Clague
What have been some of the hurdles in compiling the database? I’m mainly thinking of the balance between allowing visitors access to the music and ensuring the composers/the composer’s estate is adequately compensated when the music is performed/recorded.
to run into the issue of composers and estates not being compensated correctly! We provide information on pieces that allow visitors to find published works and contact composers/estates if they want to purchase the music. We have assisted many performing arts institutions and artists with connecting with composers
We are not providing the actual scores to our visitors because we do not want
Music on Pg. 9
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A Better Community
The solution to housing discrimination starts with you. If you have been trying to buy or rent a house or apartment and you believe your rights have been violated, contact HUD or your local fair housing center. The Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination because of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, familial status or disability.
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SCAN HERE FOR MORE INFO A public service message from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in partnership with the National Fair Housing Alliance. The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status or disability. For more information, visit www.hud.gov/fairhousing.