UPW - Urban Pro Weekly

UPW JULY 19 - 25, 2018

COMMENTARY

Trump critics urge GOP patriots to support Democrats in November

URBAN PRO WEEKLY

VOL. 7 NO. 15

Photo by Vincent Hobbs

Symphoni Wiggins

The creative force behind local dance studio Wycliffe Gordon

once again honored by Downbeat Magazine

Niki Haris featured in

VEGAN JAZZ BRUNCH at Humanitree House Juice Joint and Gallery

Comic book spinoff of Black Panther will focus on his sister

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Shuri, a scientist, ascends to the

throne of Wakanda in a coming Marvel comic book series.

CreditMarvel Entertainment

By George Gene Gustines A new spinoff of Marvel’s Black Panther comic will be a family affair: The new comic books will focus on Shuri, the sister of the hero and ruler of the fictional African nation of Wakanda. It will begin in October, and will be written by Nnedi Okorafor, a fantasy and science fiction author, and drawn by Leonardo Romero. The news was originally reported by the website Bustle.

The character of Shuri premiered in a Black Panther comic in 2005, but her portrayal in the “Black Panther” film this year, directed by Ryan Coogler, brought new attention — and scores of fans — to the character, who is a scientific genius who supplies her brother with gadgets and sass. In May, a new Black Panther series, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and drawn by Daniel Acuña, had the title hero venture into outer space, leaving the nation of Wakanda leaderless. In the Shuri series, his sister will ascend to the throne and rule in his absence.

Spinoffs from the Black Panther series, which Mr. Coates began writing in April 2016, have had limited success. Last year, Black Panther and the Crew, which began in April and was written by Mr. Coates and the poet Yona Harvey, lasted only six issues. Another spinoff, World

SHURI is written by Nnedi Okorafor, a fantasy and science fiction author, and drawn by Leonardo Romero.

of Wakanda, which was written

by Ms. Harvey and the feminist writer Roxane Gay, and began in December 2016, also lasted only six issues.

Ms. Okorafor is no stranger to the world of Black Panther. In December, she wrote a six-issue biweekly series, Black Panther: Long Live the King, with artwork

by André Lima Araújo, about a monster terrorizing Wakanda.

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THE ARTS DANCE

SYMPHONI WIGGINS (R), FOUNDER AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF A CREATIVE SYMPHONI DANCE STUDIO, works with dance student La Marionna Atkins (L), at the Walton Way studio. Atkins has been a dance student under Wiggins’ instruction since the age of five.

(July 17, 2018 - Augusta, GA) - Photo by Vincent Hobbs

The creative journey of Symphoni Wiggins began with a solid foundation in technique and a love for sharing Interview by Vincent Hobbs

Photo by Vincent Hobbs

Augusta native Symphoni Wiggins was literally born to dance.

“Yes, she was dancing out the womb. Music always moves her,” muses mom Denise Tucker, co-owner of Humanitree House and Juice Joint. “In addition, she was extremely active so we had to find something that she could do. And she

was just really talented - so dance was perfect!”

Wiggins, who began her journey into the world of stretches, turns and leaps at the age of eight, attended the Academy of Richmond County, graduating in 2007. Then she was off to Roanoke, Virginia, to study Dance as a major, achieving her Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance, along with a minor in Communications.

“Symphoni is a beautiful dancer, and an even greater teacher who embodies humility, creativity and love. Her focus is always on dance education first,” shared mom Tucker.

UPW spent some time with Wiggins to gain more insight into her love of dance and creative expression.

Continued on next page

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SYMPHONI WIGGINS (L), founder and artistic director of A Creative Symphoni Dance Studio, works with dance student La Marionna Atkins (R), at the Walton Way studio. Atkins has been a dance student under Wiggins’ instruction since the age of five.

Photo by Vincent Hobbs

Q & A for Symphoni Wiggins UPW: What is your personal definition of dance?

WIGGINS: Dance is a way for one to express themselves through movement.

UPW: When did you first become interested in the art of dance?

WIGGINS: I became interested in dance when my mother signed me up for dance classes at the age of eight.

UPW: Who were some of your major influences?

WIGGINS: One of my major influences is local dance mogul, Ferneasa Cutno. Two others are the Urban Bush Women Dance Company and Nicholas Leichter. Ferneasa Cutno helped form my love for dance, at a young age, through her mentorship, training, and providing experiences

what I love about it.

UPW: Do you remember the first dance performance that you attended?

WIGGINS: My first dance performance was Ron Jones Dance Company in Atlanta, GA

UPW: What are some of the steps that you take when choreographing a performance?

WIGGINS: When choreographing a performance or routine, I actually come up with 3-5 mini-routines. Each mini-routine might be 24 counts long and is made up to the beat of a different song. Then I try the movement on my students and pick which one I like.

After this, I choreograph the rest of the routine on-the-spot and then we try the completed routine to different songs - until we find the right one.

After the routine is halfway done, I pick the costumes and lighting.

UPW: Is there a particular dance style that you enjoy more?

WIGGINS: If I have to pick a dance style that I enjoy more, it would be Modern/Contemporary. In this dance style, I feel that it has so many layers and means for interpretation. That is

UPW: Do you think that dance involves a certain measure of acting, in order to portray a character in a dance routine?

WIGGINS: Dance definitely involves acting from the facial expressions to embodying the character or meaning

for me that I will remember for a lifetime. The Urban Bush Women Dance Company and Nicholas Leichter represent what I think an AfricanAmerican should be ­— strong, beautiful, and vibrant. They demonstrate this all through dance.

of the routine that the choreographer wants you to portray.

UPW: Why did you decide to open your dance studio, a Creative Symphoni Dance Studio?

WIGGINS: I decided to open my dance studio because I wanted to share my passion with kids and provide them with an outlet from the world.

UPW: What do you enjoy the most about teaching dance?

WIGGINS: One aspect of dance I enjoy the most is seeing the joy on a child’s face when something was challenging for them and they finally get it.

UPW: Tell us about some of your other interests.

WIGGINS: Some of my other interests include costume making, spending time with my husband and kids, and shopping.

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A Creative Symphoni Dance Studio Quality Dance Training in Multiple Genres 1914 Walton Way Augusta, Ga 706-755-3229 www. acreativesymphoni @gmail.com

SYMPHONI WIGGINS, founder and artistic director of A Creative Symphoni Dance Studio, poses for a photo at her Walton Way studio.

(July 17, 2018 Augusta, GA) Photo by Vincent Hobbs

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MUSIC CANDLELIGHT JAZZ AT AUGUSTA COMMON

Spectators relax on lawn chairs as The Versatility Project band performs during a recent Candlelight Jazz event held at the Augusta Common.

(July 8, 2018 - Augusta, GA) - Photo by Vincent Hobbs

(Top of Page and Above) A vocalists with The Versatility Project band perform during a recent Candlelight Jazz event held at the Augusta Common. (July 8, 2018 - Augusta, GA) - Photo by Vincent Hobbs

VEGAN JAZZ BRUNCH featuring NIKI HARIS On August 12, 2018, enjoy a vegan brunch prepared with love by Humanitree House, then a special musical performance by Niki Haris. The affair begins at 1 p.m. Humanitree House, 305 Eighth Street, Augusta GA 30901.

ABOUT NIKI HARIS Niki Haris has worked with a multitude of recording artist ranging from Pop, R&B, to Jazz. Her live performances and recording experience reads like a who¹s who of the music world. With names such as; Ray Charles, David Sanborn, Patrice Rushen, Michael Sembello, Leann Rimes, Michelle Branch, Santana, Kylie Minogue, Luther Vandross, All Saints, Wilton Felder of the Jazz Crusaders, Stanley Turrentine, the Righteous Bros., Julian Lennon, Anita Baker, Mick Jagger, Whitney Houston and Madonna.

For tickets and information call 762-233-5299 or go to www.gardencityjazz.com. There is limited seating. No tickets sold at door.

CSRA Business League to host Small Business Licensing Seminar The CSR A Business League, Inc. Small Business Seminar on Licensing Procedures will take place on Tuesday, 31 July 2018 at the Augusta Richmond County Public Library on Telfair Street. Doors will open at 5:30 pm, the workshop session will begin at 6:00 pm.

Facilitators for the Seminar will be Ms. Kathy Jackson, License and Permitting Manger, Augusta - Richmond County Planning and Development Department and members of the Licensing Department staff and Mr. David

J. Maher, Economic Development Specialist, Augusta - Richmond County Housing & Community Development Department.

Cost: Free; Refreshments will be served Please register at https://www. eventbr ite.com /e/csra-business-league-business-licensi n g - p r o c e d u r e s - s e m i n a r- t i c kets-47726984696 to add your name to the event roster no later than 9:00 am on Tuesday, 31 July 2018.

For more information, call 706 722 - 0994.

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Don’t Miss These Events

Market your skills at ATC’s Adjunct Faculty Recruitment Fair

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Augusta’s resident jazz master Wycliffe Gordon

Director of jazz studies Wycliffe Gordon wins DownBeat Critics Poll 2018 ‘Best Trombone’ award

by Arthur Takahashi Wycliffe Gordon, Augusta University’s newest director of jazz studies, was named “Best Trombone” by the DownBeat Critics Poll 2018, one of the most prestigious recognition for a jazz musician. This is the fifth time he’s received this award.

“Getting Wycliffe as a full-time faculty member is nothing short of monumental for our music program,” said Dr. Angela Morgan, chair of the music departmentat Augusta University. “He brings a level a prestige and excellence to Augusta University that makes all of the other universities in the region envious.”

UPW Urban Pro Weekly Hephzibah, GA 30815

This latest DownBeat Critics Poll recognition adds to the renowned musician’s already extensive resume.

Gordon received the DownBeat Critics Poll 2014’s “Rising Star – Tuba” award and was named “Trombonist of the Year” by the Jazz Journalists Association 11 times.

In 1996, Gordon was hired to create a new arrangement for NPR’s All Things Considered. He changed the classical theme to a jazz arrangement, which has been in use since then and is heard across the nation.

In 2007, former Augusta Mayor Deke Copenhaver declared August 17 Wycliffe Gordon Day in Augusta.

A native of Waynesboro, Georgia,

Gordon was an artist-in-residence at Augusta University since fall 2014 until being recently named director of jazz studies.

“Wycliffe’s level of expertise and international reputation gives our students exposure to one of the most influential jazz artists of our time,” Morgan said.

Gordon and the Augusta University Jazz Ensemble will perform at the Gala Concert at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 4 and at the President’s Gala at 7 p.m. on Oct. 19 both at the Maxwell Theatre.

His last fall performance will be the holiday-themed Wycliffe and Friends concert at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 7 at the Maxwell.

Augusta Technical College is holding our 2018 Adjunct Faculty Recruitment Fair on Thursday, July 26, 2018, in the Jack B. Patrick Information Technology Center Atrium located in Building 1000 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

The College is accepting applications from candidates interested in working days, nights or Saturdays at the Augusta, Thomson, Grovetown, and Waynesboro Campuses. During the recruitment fair, Augusta Tech Deans and Department Heads will be available to discuss their departments’ current and future needs and provide applicants with the opportunity to discuss their qualifications. Candidates are urged to bring their resumes and unofficial transcripts for review with the department. Official transcripts must be delivered to a Human Resources representative at the Augusta Tech Main Campus.

Job opportunities include positions in the following areas: Adult Education, Allied Health Sciences and Nursing, Arts and Sciences, Continuing Education and Workforce Training, Cyber and Cyber-Related Programs, Industrial Technology, and Professional Services.

A complete list of available positions is attached to this email. Candidates must meet employment requirements listed in the online job description.

For more information, please go to www.augustatech.edu, and click on the Employment link at the bottom of the page.

URBAN PRO WEEKLY Publisher URBAN PRO WEEKLY MEDIA 706-306-4647 urbanpromedia@yahoo.com

CEO / Sales FREDERICK BENJAMIN SR. 706-306-4647 editor@urbanproweekly.com

Contributors VINCENT HOBBS Photography & New Media

HAPPENINGS

Labor Day Jazz Weekend August 30 - September 2, 2018 Venue: The Augusta Common, The Augusta Market, Partridge Inn, Headquarters Library, Humanitree House, etc Description: Garden City Jazz presents a fun weekend of jazz music

and art that all ages and music lovers can enjoy. Conceived as a capVegan Jazz Brunch stone event for the popular Candlelight Jazz Concert Series, this cel2nd Sundays (except May), 1:00 pm ebration of music, art, and community has now come into its own as Venue: Humanitree House a family festival and fundraiser for various charitable organizations.

Description: Enjoy a vegan brunch prepared with love by Humanitree House, Info: www.labordayjazz.com (762) 233-5299 then a special musical performance presented by Garden City Jazz. Limited seating. No tickets sold at door. Join us. More info: http://ow.ly/v4ek30kx5xr Info: http://gardencityjazz.eventbrite.com (762) 233-5299

Garden City Jazz Calendar of Events

Soiree Sunday Augusta 4th Sundays (except December), 6:30 pm Venue: Humanitree House Description: Expect an evening of music with an infusion of creativity and collaboration - from dance, performance art, film, to the spoken word; enjoy live jazz and lovely people indeed. Since its inception in January 2014, the monthly JazzSoiree series has featured classic jazz music performed by the area’s top artists, and various wines selected by the host. SoireeSunday brings a little more flavor to the table. Dress like you mean it. Listen. Groove. Dance.

Info: www.jazzsoiree.com (762) 233-5299 4 Seasons Chamber Jazz August 17: Arpenik Hakobyan Venue: Unitarian Universalist Church of Augusta, 7:30 pm Description: 4 Seasons Chamber Jazz is a four-event concert series, with each concert featuring music from Latin jazz to vocal standards to Dixieland.

It’s a musical celebration of art in nature, and artists will perform several selections representative of the season. This season’s theme is “Take Five” and features a varied roster of musical styles and student performances.

Info: www.uuaugusta.org (706) 733-7939

D.E. Abrams, Counselor at Law handling Richmond County Board of Education

Tribunal Cases • Legal Representation at tribunal • Ideal for parents who cannot be present • Over 10 years as Sitting Legal Advisor for BOE Tribunals.

Most cases $35.00.

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• Georgia medicaid • Insurance plans • Charge cards • WIC vouchers

Marshall Curtis, Pharmacist/Owner Baron Curtis, Pharmacist

FREE DELIVERY SERVICE

706-722-7355

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COMMUNITY

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COMMENTARY

Conservative Will urges vote for Dems

By George F. Will Washington Post Opinion Amid the carnage of Republican misrule in Washington, there is this glimmer of good news: The family-shredding policy along the southern border, the most telegenic recent example of misrule, clarified something. Occurring less than 140 days before elections that can reshape Congress, the policy has given independents and temperate Republicans — these are probably expanding and contracting cohorts, respectively — fresh if redundant evidence for the principle by which they should vote.

The principle: The congressional Republican caucuses must be substantially reduced. So substantially that their remnants, reduced to minorities, will be stripped of the Constitution’s Article I powers that they have been too invertebrate to use against the current wielder of Article II powers. They will then have leisure time to wonder why they worked so hard to achieve membership in a legislature whose unexercised muscles have atrophied because of people like them.

Consider the melancholy example of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.), who wagered his dignity on the patently false proposition that it is possible to have sustained transactions with today’s president, this Vesuvius of mendacities, without being degraded. In Robert Bolt’s play “A Man for All Seasons,” Thomas More, having angered Henry VIII, is on trial for his life. When Richard Rich, whom More had once mentored, commits perjury against More in exchange for the office of attorney general for Wales, More says: “Why, Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world . . .

But for Wales!” Ryan traded his political soul for . . . a tax cut. He who formerly spoke truths about the accelerating crisis of the entitlement system lost everything in the service of a president pledged to preserve the unsustainable status quo.

Ryan and many other Republicans have become the president’s poodles, not because James Madison’s system has failed but because today’s abject careerists have failed to be worthy of it.

As explained in Federalist 51: “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.

The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of

the place.” Congressional Republicans (congressional Democrats are equally supine toward Democratic presidents) have no higher ambition than to placate this president. By leaving dormant the powers inherent in their institution, they vitiate the Constitution’s vital principle: the separation of powers.

Recently Sen. Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican who is retiring , became an exception that illuminates the depressing rule. He proposed a measure by which Congress could retrieve a small portion of the policymaking power that it has, over many decades and under both parties, improvidently delegated to presidents.

Congress has done this out of sloth and timidity — to duck hard work and risky choices. Corker’s measure would have required Congress to vote to approve any trade restrictions imposed in the name of “national security.” All Senate Republicans worthy of the conservative

label that all Senate Republicans flaunt would privately admit that this is conducive to sound governance and true to the Constitution’s structure. But the Senate would not vote on it — would not allow it to become just the second amendment voted on this year .

This is because the amendment would have peeved the easily peeved president.

The Republican-controlled Congress, which waited for Trump to undo by unilateral decree the border folly they could have prevented by actually legislating, is an advertisement for the unimportance of Republican control.

The Trump whisperer regarding immigration is Stephen Miller, 32, whose ascent to eminence began when he became the Savonarola of Santa Monica High School . Corey Lewandowski, a Trump campaign official who fell from the king’s grace but is crawling back (he works for Vice President Pence’s political action committee), recently responded

on Fox News to the story of a 10-year-old girl with Down syndrome taken from her parents at the border. Lewandowski replied: “Wah, wah.” Meaningless noise is this administration’s appropriate libretto because, just as a magnet attracts iron filings, Trump attracts, and is attracted to, louts.

In today’s GOP, which is the president’s plaything, he is the mainstream.

So, to vote against his party’s cowering congressional caucuses is to affirm the nation’s honor while quarantining him. A Democratic-controlled Congress would be a basket of deplorables, but there would be enough Republicans to gum up the Senate’s machinery, keeping the institution as peripheral as it has been under their control and asphyxiating mischief from a Democratic House. And to those who say, “But the judges, the judges!” the answer is: Article III institutions are not more important than those of Articles I and II combined.

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The Richmond County School System will accept bids and request for proposals until 3:00 p.m., Wednesday, August 15, 2018, for the following: 1. Police Body Cameras for Safety Officers RFQ#18-822 2. Secure Locks for Classroom Lockdown RFP#18-823 Bid specifications may be obtained by contacting Cecilia Perkins in the Business Office at perkice@boe.richmond.k12.ga.usor 706-826-1298, on our web site at www.rcboe.org/bids, or at Richmond County School System,Central Office 864 Broad Street, 4th Floor, Augusta,GA 30901.

The Richmond County School System reserves the right to reject any and all bids and to waive technicalities and informalities.

COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION OF RICHMOND COUNTY By: Dr. Angela D. Pringle, Secretary

Our Motto: “The best ability is availability” Since 2008

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COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION OF RICHMOND COUNTY

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ARE YOU AT RISK?

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HEART ATTACK • BRAIN ATTACK • PREVENT ATTACK East Central Health District HEART ATTACK • BRAIN ATTACK • PREVENT ATTACK Hypertension Management Outreach Program East Central Health District Hypertension Management Outreach Program

Richmond County Richmond County Health Department 706.721.5800 Richmond County 706.721.5800 706.721.5800 www.ecphd.com