3.27.2012: A community rally and march Tuesday evening in Providence in support of slain 17-year-old Trayvon Martin drew close to 300 neighbors, many wearing hoodies similar to what Martin was wearing when he was shot . The march follow short speeches from community leaders, such as Bro. Raymond Watson, and started at Madeline Rogers Recreation Center and proceeded to the Chad Brown community basketball court where participants were able to voice opinions and comments about the incident. Trayvon Martin was the Florida high school student who was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain.
Recently, Bro. James Hidalgo was added to the Capital District’s YMCA family as the newest Black and Latino Achievers Program Director. Below you will find a video clip of him introducing himself to the community. During our, the “Internationally Renowned” Pi Pi Chapter’s, annual Black and Gold Ball, themed Leadership in the 21st Century, we awarded our college President the Sphinx Award. The Sphinx Awarded to a student and a faculty, administrator or staff member of the college. The Sphinx Award symbolizes the outstanding effort and contribution the recipient has put forth in bettering the Union College and surrounding community. The student recipient of the award was Cybil Tribe ’11 for her continuous community service leadership and involvement.
Read more about The President and The Sphinx in the article title Fraternity Lauds President’s Diversity Efforts, which was feature in the Union’s Magazine and on the College’s website. After the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 Union College formed a mini-term to Louisiana to assist in the rebuilding of the states Devastated areas. This article is about the knowledge and insights Union students took away from their time volunteering in Louisiana. Among other students, featured in the article is Bro. Williams. The Providence Journal did a piece titled, Nine People to Keep Your Eye On in ’09. Below is an excerpt highlighting the section of the article dedicated to Bro. Watson. Raymond Watson Young professional Raymond Watson came home to make a difference. After college in New York and a master’s degree in community planning from the University of Rhode Island, he could have gone elsewhere. Watson, 29, grew up in Providence’s Mount Hope and Fox Point neighborhoods, though, and family and community matter most to him. So he returned to Mount Hope, where he has been executive director of the Mount Hope Neighborhood Association for two years. Watson has concentrated on getting the 27-year-old association on “solid financial footing” and focusing on programs for 14- to 19-year-olds, an underserved group. The association is also poised to launch a youth council with a first meeting Jan. 15. “I want them to value themselves,” Watson says of the youth he works with. “I think a lot of youth don’t do that.” Watson says his ties to the neighborhood meant he didn’t need to earn the trust of those around him because he already had it. They knew his grandmother Alice Watson, who raised him, and his mother. His grandmother introduced him to an influential civil-rights activist who was her childhood friend. Michael Van Leesten is now chairman of the Black Repertory Company’s board and chairman of the Mount Hope Neighborhood Association. “He inspires me,” Van Leesten says of Watson. “He gives me more than I give him. You don’t have to paint pictures for him. He’s always trying to find ways to create more opportunity and possibilities.” About six years ago, Watson helped start the Rhode Island Young Professionals after hearing his peers say they felt on the outside because they didn’t know the right people. The group, an auxiliary of the Urban League of Rhode Island, has helped convince many that they can be successful in Rhode Island. “We try to be that bridge where they can come in, interact with people and meet the right people in order to get themselves plugged in,” says Watson, who recently finished a two-year stint as president of the Young Professionals and will remain as adviser to help ease the transition for new president Den Soch. While the Young Professionals were “very good on the social scene,” Watson says that wasn’t their main goal, and in this past year he really focused on more civic work for the group. Erika Read, the group’s past vice president, is impressed Watson “stayed to invest” in his community. “He always says, ‘I could have ended up like my friends, either dead or in jail,’ ” says Read, who is also an assistant coordinator with the state Department of Labor and Training. “And what’s great is that … he still has ties to his friends. We seem to walk another walk after we get somewhere in life, but he’s always been humbled by who he is and where he’s come from, which I admire.” You can read more of this article at ProJo.com
A featured article in Providence City News, highlights two active participants, one of which being Bro. Watson, in the Mount Hope community after a morning citywide planning workshop concerning the future of their community.
The planning sessions opened to residents reviewed the city’s comprehensive plan and in doing so considered and discussed everything from open spaces to neighborhood safety. To read about the expectations and perspective Bro. Watson’s brought to the Providence Tomorrow planning session you can do so by reading Neighbors Put Character into Mount Hope. Critically-acclaimed play well received by Union community – 02/08/2007
Author: Jasmine Maldonado Featured Brother: Muhammad Djata “On Monday, February 5, U-Program brought the critically- acclaimed play, “”The Meeting,”" by Jeff Stetson, to the Nott Memorial at Union College. The play generated quite a successful turnout, with an audience of about 50 students, faculty, and members of the general public. Muhammad Djata of U-Program booked the play under the advice of Kerrie Wolf and also because he “”felt it was fitting, considering the events on campus this past spring and fall”" and viewed the play as “”U-Program’s way of contributing to awareness and eliminating apathy.”" The award-winning play explores the possibilities of a secret meeting between the two civil rights leaders. It takes place in Malcolm X’s closely guarded Harlem hotel room on February 14, 1965, a week before his imminent assassination. Malcolm X invites Martin Luther King Jr. to meet with him, King accepts, and the two leaders discuss their political, philosophical, and religious views in relation to the civil rights movement. The play wittingly expresses the dynamics of the leaders’ differing views. Malcolm X, a city man from Harlem and a converted Muslim, hoped to diminish self-hate amongst African-Americans, and, although not in favor of a violent movement, encouraged self-defense violence when necessary. King, a Christian country boy from Birmingham, Alabama, led a non-violent effort for integration, inspired by Gandhi and Christian values. Although the two have strong convictions, they come to an understanding of one another as men of faith, fathers, husbands, and leaders. The ultimate comradery between the two leaders seemed unlikely to Abigail Pleeter, ’10, who said, “”I would never think that they would have ever come to an understanding of each other.”" Some audience members also took note of the emphasis placed upon Malcolm X. Ann Fleming Brown, Associate Dean of Admissions, suggested that the play “”emphasized X because people know more about King.”" The play generally boded well with the audience, even leaving several audience members, including Elsie Otero, Assistant Director of AOP, in tears. Both Otero and Fleming Brown noted how X “”foresees the end of his life.”" Aside from the emotional aspects of the play, “”seeing [X and King] interact and speak about the common misconceptions of one another was interesting,”" said Na’eem Crawford, ’08, who also asserted that the play was “”good for the school.”" The Grimes Theatre Group actors Wesley Lawrence Taylor, Jeff Robinson and Michael Nurse performed in “”The Meeting”" at Union. Taylor first read the play about 15 years ago and has acted in it ever since. Both Robinson and Nurse first became interested in the play when they saw the American Playhouse adaptation on PBS in 1989. Robinson has been performing the play for over ten years, Nurse for over five. The actors cited several positive attributes of “”The Meeting.”" Robinson said that “”what is interesting is that this play is subjective,”" as they have “”performed for audiences who side with Malcolm X and for those who side with Martin Luther King Jr.”" Nurse noted that “”it’s a play, so these grand historical figures are real people, and [the audience] gets to hear what these people were about.”" “”The Meeting,”" as Taylor put it, is essentially “”a powerful piece”" that “”piques the interest of the audience”" and “”makes you want to learn more about Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.”"” Students, faculty return to rebuild New Orleans – 01/11/2007
Author: Shauna Keeler Featured Brother: Delon McAllister “For many, the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 has been almost entirely forgotten. However, for the 22 Union students and two faculty members that recently made the trip to New Orleans, the haunting images are still fresh in their minds. Junior Delon McAllister, upon learning of the trip, was “”ecstatic to hear about the opportunity to go to New Orleans. I didn’t think twice about applying because I knew that it would be not only a great opportunity but an enriching experience as well.”" Viktor Olsan, of the Czech Republic, said “”we didn’t hear too much in the Czech Republic about what happened in New Orleans,”" and he attended the trip not quite knowing what to expect. McAllister on the other hand, went to New Orleans “”with the preconceived notion that the people would be in poor spirits. However, the people that I was privileged to speak with showed only optimism. This only accentuates the endearing and strong character of these New Orleans natives,”" he stated. This is the second volunteer trip that Union students and faculty have taken down to New Orleans. The first group went down during winter break in 2005. From December 3 until December 9, the volunteers began their days by waking up around 5:30 a.m., in order to be at the site by 7 a.m. “”They worked until about 2:30 every afternoon, which sounds like a short work day, but everyone was doing hard physical labor,”" said Professor Janet Grigsby of the Sociology Department, who spent the week with them. The first day was spent “”gutting, which entailed moving all the debris out of a house,”" McAllister explained. Grigsby described gutting as “”a difficult thing, because you’re trying to clean out all the garbage, but you also have to look for the important things to save. Moving refrigerators were hardest to gut. There is no way to stop them from leaking,”" she said. McAllister added, “”the remaining days were split up into smaller groups to work on different houses. At each site, there was somebody in charge who explained the job and how to use all the tools. Since it was volunteer-based, many people had no clue what they were doing. We visited Musician’s village and the 9th ward. We serviced those areas mainly.”" Olsan recalled one instance while gutting, in which “”the people that the house belonged to watched as we gutted their house.”" He went on to describe how “”difficult it must have been for them.”" At night, they returned to Camp Hope, an old elementary school that had been flooded. Volunteers ran this camp. Grigsby explained their living situation for their time in New Orleans: “”It was very cold the week we were there. There was no heat where we stayed…there was minimal electricity and it was below freezing on certain nights.”" Through volunteering, these students saw first-hand horrifying images that many can only imagine. Grigsby mentioned, “”we all got to see in real time the devastation and really understand how inadequate television and [media] are at showing how terrible it was.”" McAllister recalled, however, that “”some areas were in almost perfect condition and then others can only be described as piles of debris. Many houses appeared to be decent, but just the sight of the interior was disheartening. There are still many houses that have not been touched since the hurricane. So, one can only imagine the odor and dilapidations those houses exhibited,”" he added. For McAllister, the hardest part of the trip was, “”getting on the return flight knowing that so much more needed to be done.”" Similarly, Grigsby felt “”a lot of people came away as I did thinking that the work we did was so small, so little compared to what needs to be done.”" Although they felt more needs to be done to the area, students seemed to regard the experience very positively. Olsan described the trip as “”the best experience I will have in the U.S.A.”" McAllister was very positively affected by the trip, stating, “”I definitely appreciate what I have much more. We are all truly fortunate to simply call someplace home. The trip to New Orleans not only exposed to me the harsh reality of life, it also helped me put things into perspective.”"” On December 4, 2006, Alpha Phi Alpha, the first, largest, and most influential intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African Americans, found 100 years prior is celebrating their centennial. Alpha has supplied voice and vision to the struggle of African-Americans and people of color around the world. Initially, the Fraternity served as a means of intellectual advancement and support for men of color at Cornell. 100 years later, Alpha counts over 185,000 men among its brotherhood and has chartered over 850 chapters throughout all 50 states, the African continent, Europe, and the Caribbean. Alpha Phi Alpha has long stood at the forefront of the world community’s fight for civil rights through distinguished members such as W.E.B. DuBois, Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., United States Senator Edward Brooke, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young, and many others. Land-marking Alpha Phi Alpha centennial anniversary, the Union College Magazine featured an article you can read here. |
AuthorI am Alpha Phi Alpha, transcribing the fleeting moments of 774th House of Alpha. ArchivesCategories |