THE FOCUS Aug 2014
First in Community
Freedom First Lighting up the West End
The official magazine of Focused Radio
Focus Points Mike Brown’s Death Brought to us by Technology page 4 First in Communtiy (cover story) page 6 Beauty and Beast page 8 Why I Love Hip-Hop page 13 Taking it Back page 14 Editor in Chief: TommyP Story Editor: Miyon Baskin/ David Osborn Administration: Shamon Gilbert Photo Credits: Angela P J. Divers Photography Facebook NuFocus Media
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Set your sights on your targets
and hit them!!!
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The only one who can stop you
Is You! Greetings All, We are now on the other side of the first year of The Focus. It was not easy, but we made it through. Now that we have found a way to stay Focused, we are dedicated to bringing you even more of the stories you love. The community piece will be informative all while being fun. We have to start paying attention to the technology. It was through cell phones and social media that we learned about the Mike Brown killing in Ferguson, MO.
We are doing our part to highlight the things that will allow for economic change and unity in the community. Thanks for our first year with your support, looking forward to many more! #StayFocusedMyFriends Go Team,
TommyP
Technology
Mike Brown’s Death Was Felt Through Technology by TommyP
We saw it all on Facebook. No one can describe how common it is to catch world news on social media, via cell phone. Within hours of the killing of Mike Brown in Ferguson, MO, the world became busy trying to get the updates. Sure the news and every other media outlet began to catch up, but it was the technology and power of the internet that made the world take notice initially. Technology allowed for the truth to come to the forefront before any sanitizing could happen. A neighborhood of onlookers with their cellphones out capturing the “moment” made us all at least give a few minutes of our thinking towards what had happened. We had to look at this young man’s corpse in the middle of a neighborhood on a hot August day and this time not say that the details had been exaggerated. The question remains, when will the urban communities start using the technologies available, to smartly come up with a strategy on how to stop this type of ordeal? Maybe it’s just me, but it seems as though every two years there is a new case of a “white” man killing or severely beating a “black” man and the same type of results come from it. It is a tragedy what happened in Ferguson, MO, however the bigger tragedy is that we have yet to find a way to do something about it.
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A Good Guide The YMCA of Gainsboro, Good Guides of GoodWill industries, GLAM Squad, and Focused Radio partnered this summer for a feeding program held at the NZone Community Center in Roanoke, VA. Over 1500 meals were served to the youth that would normally be in school getting daily lunches. The young people also learned about media and developed, recorded and edited their own talk show.
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Good Guides Youth
Focus
First In Community Neighborhood banking comes home to the West End by M. David Jeffery
In a space where Roanokers once dined among beautiful murals of scenes of Italian villas and city scenes, residents of the City’s West End neighborhood can get fresh cash and fresh greens in one stop. Residents stop to deposit money into their checking or savings account and (on Tuesdays) enjoy a wonderful fresh fruit and vegetable market. All of this is the result of an amazing opportunity which began years ago when the owners of the restaurant decided to allow the West End Center for Youth to acquire the then-vacant building. The West End Center used the building for years to house expanded tutorial and after-school programming, choir rehearsals, and other related activities. Eventually the Center made a decision to end their use of the building and began looking for other ways to repurpose the landmark. The West End Center entered into talks with Freedom First Credit Union to utilize the property for an inner-city branch location. The branch would be known as the “West End Village Station.” The address is 1210 Patterson Avenue, S.W. Fast forward nearly two years later from the ground breaking and the vision is now a reality. Freedom First Credit Union operates branches in the Roanoke and New River Valleys and offers its nearly 50,000 members conventional and non-conventional banking products that include free checking, free ATMs, auto loans, mortgages, home equity lines as well as an assortment of instruments to help members with credit repair and alternative loans for emergencies. “We are interested in the financial health and wellbeing of our members and the community as a whole,” said Corey Brickers, the West End Branch Vice President. Brickers is a Norfolk native and a graduate of Radford University.
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The location also includes a community education room. The room is used for workshops on finance, small business development, health-related topics, and nutrition. There is also a space for a future commercial kitchen that will be an incubator for small businesses that need access to a certified kitchen to prepare their products for sale. In addition to banking products being offered at the location, the West End Village Station includes a fresh produce market every Tuesday from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. for residents and those traveling through the community. The market is run by LEAP for Local Foods, a non-profit organization that operates the Grandin Village Community Market and Lick Run Community Garden in addition to the West End Community Market. Freedom First has funded the doubling of EBT dollars this season. This program increases the buying power of consumers using SNAP/EBT payments. Participants can purchase two dollars of produce for every dollar they spend. The West End Community Market has 7 vendors (all of whom grow their crops within a 100-mile radius of Roanoke) who provide the organic fresh produce each week. “We would like to promote more community use, and healthy eating. We would also like to encourage more participation by community groups such as churches,” said market manager Tee Reynolds. When asked about why Freedom First included the produce market in its design,
The Focus Aug 2014 albeit through different channels, we try to leverage the synergy that comes from working together.” Freedom First’s uniquely holistic approach to community banking includes its lending programs. When sharing information on the Credit Union’s affordable housing financing, Brickers concluded, “We try to find a way to help every person possible, by providing a path to home ownership that may not be available for them through other institutions.” Freedom First has also
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These products dovetail well with the credit union’s efforts to provide solid initiatives that help strengthen the economic viability of its members. Freedom First, according to company data (2/28/2014) has assets over $331,768,000; loans $259,835,000 and 46,199 members—and counting. For more information on Freedom First and the West End Village Station, you can go to www.freedomfirst.com. Freedom First Credit Union -helping the Roanoke and New River Valleys prosper with free checking, free ATMs, auto loans, mortgages, home equity lines, ...
partnered with local nonprofits and businesses to provide a vehicle ownership program called “Responsible Rides”. The program is designed to help working individuals and families resolve longterm transportation needs. The program provides loans to applicants who meet reasonable qualifications—including financial education and vehicle maintenance training. Always seeking to find impactful financial solutions, Freedom First offers an “alternative loan” option for those who would otherwise utilize “payday lenders.” Brickers says that the loan’s intended purpose is to allow members to improve their financial circumstances while protecting their credit.
Visit www.freedomfirst.com for more information about Freedom First Credit Union
We truly appreciate
Beauty
Chel'sea Monea The Focus Aug 2014
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The Focus Jul 2014
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Beast
the ones making it happen
Star-Citi Singer, Songwriter
Don’t Be scared of the technology
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Why I by Marshall Stanley
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Love Hip-Hop
We can argue all day, every day about what genre of musicians are the most talented, and no one would be wrong. But in my “expert” opinion, I’d regard rappers as the most talented considering the fact they don’t limit themselves to one tense. By this I mean rappers can cover the whole timeline of their lives, from birth to death and everything in-between. They’re simply story-tellers who create a vision in their heads and translate it to music; like a movie director or painter. There’s a reason they’re called artists. So when a rapper has a vision, they pick up a pen and paint with words, whether it be a story about their past, present, or future. You’ll find every legitimate rapper has a few records, or at least a few references, to their past. Most will talk about their time spent in high school,
but some will go as far back to their years as a little kiddie when reminiscing. This is highly important for rappers to do because it allows them to relate to their audiences. We often look at Hip-Hop musicians as larger-than-life, living completely different lifestyles than their listeners. Lifestyles including an array of beautiful women, stash of the finest drugs, arsenal of the biggest weaponry, and “racks on racks on racks” to quote YC. I obviously don’t live as lavishly as these rappers do, so it’s refreshing when they remind us they were kids too. Something as simple as someone rapping about watching Bugs Bunny and eating Fruity Pebbles while their mom is cooking up something in the kitchen.
Nostalgia plays a key role in adding personality to themselves and winning over the fans’ hearts. Once a rapper’s established himself or herself in the rap game and they start reaping the benefits, then they add to their repertoire by speaking on their present status. I think we can all agree that Jay-Z is very talented in this regard. He’s definitely proud of how he’s doing and has mastered the art of telling us. He isn’t the most aggressive rapper, constantly talking about figuratively and literally killing his competition, but rather a laid-back spitter letting the world know where he stands financially. If I had a dollar for every time Jay name-dropped his new art piece or super-car, I’d be Jay. But, he’s put in the time and work to let us know he’s proud of his earnings. As he said, “I’m not a businessman. I’m a business, man.” Finally, we have our lyrical fortune tellers. The rappers who chronicle events and achievements that haven’t even happened yet. It’s rare to find a modest rapper with low expectations of where their career will take them, so naturally we hear about what they’re going to do in the future. It’s exciting, and reassuring, to hear a rapper confident in himself, so a little gas is a good thing. For the Kendrick Lamar fans out there who have followed him long enough back to his first mixtape at 16, Y.H.N.I.C., he’s been calling himself King Kendrick for years. And arguably starting with his Sophomore LP, good kid m.A.A.d city, and continuing with his “control” verse essentially dissing his peers, including the ones on the track with him, by saying he’s the best in the game and has no competition. It’s hard to argue he isn’t one of, if not the, best today. We could say his claims came to fruition, essentially telling the future. So as it is, rappers have the ability to cover the whole timeline. Reminiscing on their past, stating their present, and predicting their future; they can do it all. Every musician is talented, but rappers come with this extra skill in their artillery. THAT is why I love Hip-Hop.
Taking it Back
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Community
From the Soul Hut Old School vs New School Music
by Dirty Doug Lo
I remember the first time I heard my pops rap. It was in the early 80’s and the Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five’s song “The Message”, a song that set itself apart from the usual party vibe like all of the other records before it. It had an instrumental on the “B” side. My Pops wrote his rap and recorded his rap over the instrumental. What was funny to me was that was my music. I was used to hearing “Cream”, “Derrick and the Dominoes”, “Funkadelic”, or The Wicked (Wilson) Picket”—anything but hip-hop coming out of my Pops! Everybody else said that it was “nothing’ but noise”. My Pops (a musician and DJ himself) kept an opened mind about music, and he had fun with it. I guess what I’m trying to say is that when I begin to judge somebody’s art too quickly I go back to that time with my Pops. Nothing is new under the sun. In the same fashion my pops “switched” up on us, the same can be said with the first time people heard Ray Charles singing his music over what had been as “gospel” music. It takes for us to continue to understand that whether you are Old School or New School, music is universal. The rhythms may be a little different however the effect it has on people can never be denied. I’m an Old School head myself, you can check me out on Focused Radio in he Soul Hut weekdays from noon-4p, but I listen to Focused Radio and the other New School shows with the same delight I get from
those artists that went before. Stay FOCUSED, and have an open mind.
Choose Life
Life Radio with
Sharon J
SIGNIFICANCE, ACCEPTANCE & SECURITY
Sundays 1-3p
www.focusedradiobobw.com
I don’t mean no harm family, but, I am really tired of so called leaders in the community pimping the people and lining their own pockets. These leaders at the local, state and national level--from the government to the pulpit. When do the masses wake up? These people keep talking this same ole tired rhetoric and promoting the same ole tire strategies or the lack there of. And to add insult to injury, the “establishment” that is those power elite (who usually DON’T LOOK LIKE US) who’s profit margin depends on the ability of them and these so called leaders to “keep the natives under control”, they prop-up, promote, and pay these leaders to keep us calm--maybe with a march, or maybe with a rally, or maybe a visit by these power mongers to local pulpits. Have you ever noticed that these efforts rarely generate REAL SYSTEMIC CHANGE IN THE SYSTEM OF JUSTICE, ECONOMIC OR POLITICAL EMPOWERMENT OF the average person on the street (JOBS) or in the pews (JUSTICE). These power mongers only respect people with POWER to change their reality--impact their business bottom line, or whether they are going to be re-elected again. Let’s stop marching without increasing substantially the number of registered voters in our community committed to the defeat of these mongers. Let’s stop rallying in the street until we have a list of the businesses who support these politicians, judges, chiefs of police, public defenders and others and the plan to boycott their businesses. Unless we are building economic and political power--especially in the wake of Ferguson and St. Louis, and Sanford, Florida we are only perpetuating the problem (albeit unintentionally) and creating the opportunity for all of us to be pimped by “superfly”. And we continually put money in the pockets of the mongers by buying their goods and services. Ferguson, stop marching and start registering voters and create a “hit list” of politicians to be VOTED OUT. Stop marching and create a list of businesses that write checks to these politicians who write checks to those “leaders” in our community who manage the “stable of prostitutes”. The question is, are you their whore? If you are not registered to vote or you keep voting for the same people expecting different results, then yous-a-ho. If you aren’t supporting efforts to build real economic and political capacity in your own community then STOP MARCHING! Yous-a-ho! Love Ya Family!
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One Year Later
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