UPDATE: You can listen to an archive of the conversation online via Hollow Earth Radio.
Central Sounds is pulling together voices from around the Central District for a discussion on the recent Horace Mann occupation and the closure of Thompson’s Point of View (and pending opening of The Neighbor Lady). Guests confirmed so far include Wyking Garrett of Umojafest PEACE Center, Sakara Remmu of the Sable Verity blog and Jason Davison of Cortona Cafe.
The discussion will be broadcast online at Hollow Earth Radio, which is based out of a studio at 21st and Union. Central Sounds, a weekly show on the station, begins at 9 p.m. The discussion should get under way around 10.
From Rich Jensen, one of the show’s hosts:
We will be hosting a conversation about changes in the CD including the closure of Thompson’s Point of View and the controversy around the use of the Horace Mann Bldg.
We have confirmed participation from Wyking Garrett of Umjoa Peace House and Sakara Remmu of the Sable Verity blog. We have also reached out to Work it Out and others with informed perspectives to bring and hope to have their participation tonight.
Central Sounds runs every wednesday from 9 – 11 pm and focuses on the unique cultural legacy and social concerns of Seattle’s Central District and its connections to communities throughout the region and beyond.
We’ll kick off tonight’s discussion at 10pm. Folks can tune in to HollowEarthRadio.org via the web and listen at http://bit.ly/LISTENtoHER.
Thank you for not mis-characterizing the recent Horace Mann occupation as being affiliated with OWS as was done in a previous posting.
This is live… and riveting!
Hope you are tuned.
(full disclosure: I’m *quite* involved in HER.)
just logged in. first time listening to HER and intersting topic.
Thank you, Wyking, for your never-ending patience, intelligence, deep historical knowledge, and dedication to the best interests of the youth. I would like to ask Sakara to read the 5 proposals that were considered for the lease of Horace Mann, which include the current leasee and UmojaFest P.E.A.C.E. Center, and see what she has to say then. I read them all. As Wyking mentioned on the live broadcast on Hollow Earth Radio, the current leasee who won the contract has no serious history of youth programming. Their proposal was thin and pale. UPC’s proposal was full of strong programs and lots of details about our very productive plans for Mann. No other organization’s proposal came close to the quality of UPC’s for saving the babies. The school district said they chose the church organization over UPC for one reason: they offered more money per year in rent! Something like $14,000! Nothing at all to do with the kids and what is in their best interest. And no chance given to UPC, with its extensive track record in successful youth programs, to match the higher rent. The true reason probably has something to do with the fact that Ron English, an attorney for the school board and directly involved in choosing the winner of the Mann contract, was also intimately involved in the stealth of Colman School building away from the grassroots working class community (some of the same activists as now lead at UPC, which in effect is the African American Heritage Museum & Cultural Center – in – Exile) and delivery of the building into the hands of the Urban League and Housing Resources Group (now called Bellwether). Instead of a world class museum and cultural center with extensive programing to support youth, for which the community fought long and hard, the Urban League, with the help of Ron English and others involved in city, county and state government, WAMU, and various others, installed a few items in a few rooms, turned the largest portion of the Colman building into apartments and offer no critical support to our youth whatsoever. Instead, the NAAM Scam is closed 2 of the weekdays and closes at 4:30 2 other weekdays. That makes NAAM absolutely inaccessible to youth who are school age for most of the week! Omari Tahir, Earl Debnam and others who had given 8 years of their lives to occupy Colman had, by creating political pressure, won legitimate control of Colman and public financial support for the African American Heritage Museum & Cultural Center. They had a real estate contract signed by then Superintendent of Seattle Schools John Stanford for the purchase of Colman. And they won hundreds of thousands of dollars granted to them for the building purchase and running their programs. Apparently all this grassroots power and self-determination and the promise of strong affirming cultural education regarding African and African-American identities and hugely successful programming to protect and support the youth in the form of a community-owned institution was quite troubling, because the corporate, government and middle-class folks all teamed up together to shift the funds from the grassroots AAHMCC folks to the Urban League, while sending in a SWAT team to shut down the programs and run the community members of the AAHMCC Board of Directors off their own property! If this story is hard to follow or for more information, find lots more documented facts at aahmcc.org.
Somebody had to do something with the Coleman school. If we’d waited around for the “community” to get its act together, the roof would have caved in.
Sour grapes notwithstanding, NAAM is a fine facility. Besides, If you keep rehashing all the imaginary slights of the past, you’ll never move forward.
And is the “umoja peace house” the place behind the post office that got its power cut? If they can’t pay the light bill on a house, how can they expect to take care of a building?
Sorry I missed the broadcast. Isn’t NOVA supposed to move back into the Mann building next year?
That’s what I heard somewhere recently too
Was listening last night till Broadstripe connection cut off at 9:40, just before the broadcast. So just going from the reporting:
Sounds like the current use is not going well, but,
If you can’t yet see why you failed and others succeeded at Coleman, I really cannot envision giving you another chance with another school building.
Yes, it is wearing when some members of a community are always so excited about getting the property and never advocate for strong schools in the neighborhood.
@joanna your statement is light years from accurate to say the least.
“Some members” of our community have been advocating for equal high quality education for ALL students, especially those doing the worst, since before I was born.
Being that the flawed school system is not going to be overhauled in the very near future, we have to create alternative educational forums and provide supplemental enrichment programming to instill positive culture, discipline, purpose, pride and productive behavior in our children and youth who are being failed by the district year after year.
Why is getting our children what they need to be healthy and realize their potential such a hard sell?
Sounds like there is consensus here that Seattle’s African American community doesn’t deserve any more than what it’s been getting (or accepting) i.e. a foot on neck and swift kick in the rear on the way out of Seattle. And while we are here we should be happy with any crumbs of charity that we happen to receive.
Why is it acceptable for your Black brothers and sisters to continuously be on the bottom of all good statistics (education, employment, business development, property ownership,income/wealth, institution building, etc.) and on top of all bad statistics (academic failure, unemployment, poor health, incarceration, homicide, etc)?
Are you actually comfortable with this status quo?
And why is it okay to waste money and resources on ineffective solutions that result in wasted potential, wasted lives and a lower quality of life in the community?
Well said, Wyking, on this post and others. Keep on keeping on, though it’s a tough road. I hope you will gather more supporters along the way!
Joanna,
As always, you look the problem head-on, ignore the meaningless retoric, and attempt to address the real issues. Lets look at the problem of teaching our children, and giving them an education that offers them a real future of value.
——Like many other readers of our community blog, I appreciate your views, and look forward to your insights.
Wyking, why is everything always somebody else’s fault? Why do you insist on infantalyzing black people?
We put the audio from the broadcast on Hollow Earth Radio as a podcast for those that missed it:
http://hollowearthradio.org/podcasts/0000/0027/central-sound