THIRTIETH ANNUAL AKRON AFRICAN FESTIVAL: FEATURING LEGENDARY BAND CON FUNK SHUN

The THIRTIETH ANNUAL AKRON AFRICAN FESTIVAL returns to Akron at a new location, after an absence of one year. This year's
event will take place at Lock 3, in cooperation with the City of Akron and a number of other local sponsors.

This year's festival features a special event, "It's An African Affair" on the evening of July 24th and the music of the legendary band CON FUNK SHUN and numerous other class acts. Starting at 11am on Sunday, July 25th the day's activities will begin with a drum call and recognition of our ancestors, before offering up speakers on a variety of topics and performers from a variety of groups, locally and internationally.

CON FUNK SHUN will take to the stage as the featured artists for the evening's activities. You can find more information about them and all the other groups that will perform that evening at the following link for the 30th Annual Akron African Festival: Part II.

Over the past 40 years, the Akron African Festival has attracted thousands to the Akron area. It is the second oldest cultural festival in Ohio, surpassed only by Youngstown, OH. Individuals have planned family reunions and homecomings around the dates of the festival. This year will be no different, with the exception that for the first time you will be able to solidify your plans using the Facebook group for the festival to connect you to all of your friends and family members, before, during and after the festival. We'll be steadily posting pictures and videos of friends, performers and family members over the next month and beyond. Use it or lose it.

There will also be a special tent for youth activities of all kinds. Vending opportunities are still available, as well.

So, bring on da noise, bring on the Funk! Bring all your family and stay the whole day. Bring your lawn chairs, picnic baskets and blankets. Reserve a prime spot near the stage for the whole family. Before 5pm it's all FREE. After 5pm it's $5 with no jive! Either way, you'll have a good day and a great night.

Stewart Africentric Elementary Relocates to Crouse Community Learning Center

Contrary to misleading reports, in the Akron Beacon Journal, Stewart Africentric Elementary is not closing. The building will not be used after this year, but the Stewart community will be relocating to Crouse Community Learning Center at 1000 Diagonal Road in Akron. The current building for Crouse Elementary has been in continuous use since 1919.

At the end of this school year Crouse Elementary will be razed and out of its ashes will be born a new community learning center (CLC). As of the Fall 2009 Crouse CLC will be the home of the current student body already in attendance at Crouse and the student body of Stewart Africentric Elementary school.


Teachers, parents and interested community members took a look at their soon to be new home in the Crouse Community Learning Center. A parent meeting will be held at Stewart Africentric Elementary School on March 5th, 2009 at 6 PM to answer any questions community members may have. You can also reach school officials for more information at 330/873-3396.

The newly constructed building stands on the same plot of land as the old Crouse we all remember. But, instead of 3 - 4 floors, depending on how you count, the new building has a low profile with only 2 stories and lots of windows. As we toured the building the afternoon sun lit up every room. The inclusion of a number of large windows in strategic locations was a brilliant design stroke. From the rear of the building it looks somewhat foreboding. But, from the front it has a much more open and inviting feeling.

This feeling only lasts for a moment though, because all visitors will have to enter through the main office which is secured and will require visitors to be buzzed in by the receptionist who will have a birdseye view of anyone coming in the front door, while also being able to view all other entrances on a monitor from their office.

The building will house the 200 Crouse students currently enrolled and 120 additional students from Stewart Africentric Elementary. For the moment plans have not been announced for the current building housing Stewart's students. However, from all indications their will only be one principal with the possibility of an assistant principal. Whether or not there will be an assistant principal is unsure. All of the students from Stewart will be housed on the second floor. Crouse students will be on the first floor and will also occupy one additional area on the second floor in a separate wing of the building.

There will be some areas that the students from both schools will share, primarily the gym, cafeteria/auditorium, clinic, art room and the music room, not to mention the outside playground area.

The playground and a second parking lot that will allow people to enter the gymnasium at ground level are still in the works.

Overall the building itself gets a 4 out of 4 stars rating. It seems that they've thought of everything and have a realistic plan. The school will house 500 students at capacity, but will start with around 350 students. There will be a number of openings so parents whose children are not already enrolled at Crouse or Stewart should contact APS as soon as possible. These openings will not last long. When Helen Arnold CLC opened the demand exceeded their capacity to meet it, so some students were turned away in that instance.

It will be a real challenge for the Stewart parents and staff to maintain the Africentric program in their new environment. Hopefully, they won't be swallowed up in the new building or lose their unique identity. I'm hopeful, this merger with Crouse will work out better than expected and both programs will flourish in the bright light of day which will bathe the school on every sunny day.

Obama & "The Boss" Come to Cleveland After 20K Rally @ The Q

Young people turned out in force for a political rally at the Quicken Loans Arena on October 29th, 2008. LeBron James, Jay-Z, the Obama Campaign and the Democratic Party held a large rally in downtown Cleveland that was well staged and attended.

News media from around the world were represented, including a Kenyan paper called "The Nation," "Al-Jazeera English," and all the major U.S. news outlets.

The event was significant in that it drew a large crowd of young people during the middle of the week. The program opened up with prayer by a local preacher and continued with appeals to the youth to vote early and in massive numbers. Chris Redfern the head of the Ohio Democratic Party and field organizers within the Obama organization urged the youth to go to the polls enmasse and cast their ballot no matter what the difficulties involved.

They were warned about long lines, lack of food and water. Event host LeBron James and recording artist/entrepreneur Jay-Z implored them to go to the polls and stay there until they had cast their ballot. These were not exactly prophetic words, since long lines have already been noted in Atlanta, GA and other swing states, as well. Some of these lines have people waiting in line for up to 8 hours or more. It's been noted that the majority of these voters are new, young voters supporting Obama. It's a testament to their tenacity and the seriousness of the times that they continue to spend this much time waiting in line to cast their ballots. The much maligned youth have been cast as apathetic and unreliable, however it's this reporters' opinion that they are about to destroy this particular myth.

Senator and Mrs. Obama will be in Cleveland this Sunday at the "Change We Need Rally," Lakeside Malls A, B and C on Lakeside Avenue. The doors open at 2pm and the program begins at 3:45pm on November 2nd. Now we all love Barack, Michelle and the children, but this rally will feature the "real" BOSS! That's right Bruce Springsteen himself will be on the stage with the man we want to be the "BOSS" of the U.S. government. Wow!!! Does it get any better than this?

The event is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required, but an RSVP is strongly encouraged. Space is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you can't make it to the rally remember this, "power concedes nothing without a fight." We've all got to do our part. Don't wait for the last minute to go to the polls. The earlier you go the more likely you are to successfully cast your ballot and be one in 100 million to begin to turn this country around. Your children's posterity and your posterior hang in the balance. Do your duty.

Obama Delivers Closing Argument: Assassination Plot Foiled!

Today Senator Barack Obama wrapped up the presidential campaign that began "on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, "with his "closing argument," delivered to a full house at the Canton Memorial Civic Center in Canton, Ohio. His closing argument summed up the current state of the campaign and, I'm sure, inspired many residents of Northeast Ohio to continue to work even harder to put him in the White House, on November 4th, 2008.

Even as the diverse crowd basked in the words of the presidential candidate, plans to implement the "final solution" for African Americans, Barack Obama in particular, were being foiled by federal agents in Jackson, Tennessee. This makes the 4th assassination attempt on Baracks life, that's been publicized, since he began his campaign on the steps of the Old State Capitol.

The first incident was the sabotage of his plane by deploying one of the emergency ramps while the plane was in flight, creating a situation where the plane was very difficult to control. Luckily, the pilots were seasoned enough to land the plane without further incident. Aviation authorities said they'd never had an incident like this occur.

The second incident occurred just before the Democratic Convention in Denver, when a conspiracy was uncovered amongst a well armed group of young, White, methamphetamine users in Denver, CO. For those of you unfamiliar with methamphetamines, people who use them become extremely violent and prone to uncontrollable fits of violence.

The third incident was particularly perplexing because it had nothing to do with a White supremacy philosophy or organization. In fact, it involved the grandson of the publisher of one of the oldest African American newspapers in the country, who already had a felony rap sheet. Therefore, he should be doing some hard time.

But, this latest incident, which happened today, involved some White supremacists. In all of these cases, with the exception of the very first incident, heavy firearms and protective gear was involved. However, from the commentary that aired on MSNBC on the "Countdown with Keith Olberman" it appears that this too will be swept under the rug.

Each of these incidents, with the exception of the first one, was serious enough to illicit conspiracy charges and lengthy jail time for the perpetrators. However, we've yet to hear of even one of these cases resulting in a trial, and or jail time. In fact, what we have heard is that the conspirators have been sent home as if to say "boys will be boys." This is not gonna fly, not today, not tomorrow, not ever!

As if all that wasn't enough we also had another incident occur earlier this week involving a young woman who claimed that a "big Black man robbed, assaulted and disfigured her" in part, because she was a supporter of John McCain. This was a ridiculous claim, which was not investigated by the McCain staff, but was instead taken at face value, as evidenced by the calls of support from McCain and his running mate. Even after the young lady confessed to having made a fraudulent claim, which could have led to violent attacks being perpetrated on innocent people McCain has yet to address the issue.

This is a pattern that we've taken note of over the course of the campaign. In fact, the whole tenor of the McCain campaign is having the effect of enabling or endorsing this type of activity. The calls for "Obama's head," the crys of "kill him" when his name is mentioned at McCain rallies have not been addressed by the McCain campaign.

Black folks take these threats seriously. The response of White people is not that these are serious incidents but, rather just some "young knuckleheads." For Black folks these threats are much more serious than White people can even imagine because, many of us have had members of our families discriminated against, threatened with physical violence, murdered and lynched. In many instances we've experienced these things ourselves.

Our wealth, celebrity, educational background, etc. do not usually come into play when these incidents occur. It's the rare exception when our social status comes to our aid. In the case of O.J. Simpson we saw a good example of social status and wealth coming to his aid. Everything about the way he was dealt with was atypical, from the "slow speed" chase to his arrest following the chase. The whole thing was tightly choreographed, all according to the book. It was nothing like the Rodney King incident where he was in a high speed chase and was mercilessly beaten by some of L.A.'s finest.

If his beating hadn't been caught on tape by an amateur videographer he would have just been another number in the system. So, when these kinds of threats are issued, no matter how amateurish they may seem Black people take them very seriously. The federal authorities need to take these incidents just as seriously, because there have been too many nameless African Americans that have been murdered by "amateur" White supremacists. These, so-called amateurs, oftentimes are trying to make a name for themselves and, in fact, could care less whether or not they are killed in the process. Either way, they figure they're going into the history books as die-hard patriots who went down for the count.

Everyone who's interested in seeing Obama actually occupy the White House needs to write a letter to their state representatives and the local newspapers effectively putting them on notice. We should not delay, not even one day in carrying out this task, Obama's life could hang in the balance.

This is an issue that has not and will not be dealt with in any significant way by the media, unless we call them on the carpet. They've shown us this repeatedly, by how they've dealt with all of the incidents mentioned above (I'm getting reports of more incidents as we speak). They'd like to just sweep it under the rug and continue to talk about the issue of "race," without dealing with the reality of race that we're dealing with down here on the ground every day and that Barack and his family is dealing with every day.

All of us have been praying for them since this campaign started. So far, our prayers have been answered. But, prayer without works are futile and works without prayers are empty. We've got to combine positive action with affirmative prayers.

How To Early Vote Successfully In Ohio!

The end of this election season is coming to an abrupt close. There are 12 days left to cast your vote. Will you wait until the last moment and then rush to cast your vote in a furious flurry, or will you cast a vote early and free up a space in line for someone who cannot get enough time off from work to go to the polls? Now’s the time to make your decision and take action. It’s such a simple thing that has been complicated by the need to automate every aspect of society.

Voting machine technology, which was supposed to simplify the whole process has come up short of the hype. What was supposed to streamline the process, improve accuracy and reliability is now causing interminably long lines at the polls and in the end is not necessarily accurate. We now know that our “state of the art” electronic voting equipment is unreliable at best (see EVEREST report), prone to tampering at worst. So, here are a few tips to help you successfully cast your ballot in a timely manner.

Request a paper ballot instead of using a machine, at least that way you’ve begun to leave a paper trail that you can see has the correct boxes checked. The paper ballots are also easier to correct if you make an error.

By voting early you can avoid having to show I.D. and meet the exact match requirements you would be required to meet when voting on election day. Since you’re using an absentee ballot all you’ll need is the last 4 digits on your Social Security card. So, if you’re able to get to your Board of Elections office and cast a ballot before 11/4/08 please do so, it may help you avoid a lot of frustration on voting day, as well as long lines.

Make sure to pick up a voting recommendation card for guidance on who to vote for and how to vote on the issues and judges, from your local party branch. You’re allowed to have one of these cards in the voting booth with you as you make your choices. This is especially helpful in selecting judges, since their party affiliations are not listed like the other candidates.

If you anticipate you will be unable to make it to the polls for any reason, or you just want to avoid the hassle, you can request an absentee ballot through the mail. Your ballot will be sent to you, so you can fill it out at your leisure and even ask questions or use the internet to research an issue or judge, etc. before casting the ballot. When you’ve completed it you can send it in the mail or deliver it to the polls on or before election day.

Another thing to consider is that each county produces the ballots for their county. Therefore, the ballots in each county may have a different appearance. In fact, some voters have been having problems already with their ballots, because of the format used to lay out the ballot. So, having the time to go over it carefully, where you’re not in a hurry to finish it and turn it in is advantageous for this reason also. Here’s an example of a sample ballot used in one of Ohio’s 88 counties that has caused some confusion because of the 2 columns with presidential nominees.

This link will give you all the information you need on Early Voting Locations in Ohio, while also acting as a gateway into the Secretary of State’s website, which has all the current information on successfully casting your ballot in Ohio, as well as information on ballot issues, judges, etc.

Ohio has one of the most informative and interactive websites for voters, instituted by the Secretary of State’s office, so make sure to put it to good use. After you have cast your ballot you can go to the site and tell your voting day story, be it good or bad. I’m sure they won’t mind hearing some of the good, as well as the bad and the ugly. You can use the link to The Voting Rights Institute

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has been working diligently to correct the transgressions of her predecessor, the infamous former Secretary of State Blackwell. I have to give her an “A” grade. So far, so good. The system seems to be working. She’s had to fight off a number of lawsuits initiated by the Republicans that were initiated even before this years’ primaries. Some of them, like the latest attempt to disenfranchise approximately 200,000 new registrants have gone all the way to the US Supreme Court, who decided in favor of the Secretary of State.

Ohio has had more than its share of problems with the voting process. But, this year that big yellow sun on the Seal of the Great State of Ohio is shining brightly over a new day in politics for the citizens of Ohio.