Anderson@Large

Black Power Movement@50

In June 1966, James Meredith, the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi, began a solitary “Walk Against Fear” from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi. On the second day of his walk, he was shot by a white man and hospitalized.

Civil rights organizations, including the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) vowed to continue the march in Meredith’s place.

On June 16, SNCC Chairman Stokely Carmichael spoke before a rally in Greenwood, Miss., and uttered two words that became a rallying cry for a movement:

We been saying freedom for six years. What we are going to start saying now is Black Power.

Carmichael (later Kwame Ture) later defined “Black Power”:

It is a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for black people to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations.

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is marking this milestone with a digital exhibition, “Black Power!” The virtual museum is a collaboration between the Schomburg Center and Google Cultural Institute.

On Wednesday, June 15, the Schomburg Center will kick off a year-long examination of the Black Power Movement with a conversation with Kathleen Cleaver and Jamal Joseph. For more information, go here.

Women in Tech

Saving Places that Matter

I'm off to Washington, DC for PastForward, a conference of people saving places that matter.

I was awarded a diversity scholarship so I'm particularly looking forward to the PastForward Diversity Summit sponsored by the National Park Service and the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture. During a Twitter chat on Friday, I invoked an African proverb to underscore why diversity matters:

Some of the diversity sessions will be livestreamed. You can sign up to be a Virtual Attendee at no cost. You also can join the conversation via Twitter using the hashtag #SaveDiversePlaces.

Mary Lou Williams, Jazz Icon

This year marks the 115th anniversary of the birth of Mary Lou Williams.

Since 1995, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has paid tribute to the legendary pianist and composer with the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival. Williams is the subject of a new documentary, Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band. The film premiered on public television on April 1.

Missed it? If you’re in the Philly area, you’re in luck. There will be a screening of the documentary on Tuesday, July 14, at the International House. Hosted by the Scribe Video Center, the screening and conversation with director Carol Bash is co-sponsored by the Leeway Foundation, Philadelphia Jazz Project, Ars Nova Workshop and Reelblack.

Sadly, luck is running out on the Women of Jazz mural, which depicts jazz icons including Williams, Billie Holiday and Nina Simone. This civic asset is on the chopping block.

On June 1, I provided public comment before the Philadelphia City Council Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development and the Homeless, which is chaired by Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell. I brought to Blackwell’s attention the Philadelphia Housing Authority plans to demolish the mural. I made it clear the goal of increasing the availability of affordable housing and preserving the City’s jazz heritage is not mutually exclusive.

COUNCILWOMAN BLACKWELL: Thank you very much. So you're saying they're slated to tear down the mural?
MS. ANDERSON: Yes. The Women of Jazz mural at 3200 [block] of Arlington. It will be torn down sometime this year. The date to be determined.
COUNCILWOMAN BLACKWELL: All right. I'm happy to work on that.

The complete transcript is available here. Clap along if you’re happy.

It's Our Money

I’m a longtime advocate for transparency in government. Back in 2009, I attended the first-ever transparency camp. Earlier this month, I attended the Investigative Reporters & Editors annual conference. So my antennae went up when I read Philadelphia City Council had fast-tracked a bill to authorize the City to buy land on which to build a new prison.

I helped mobilize a coalition of journalists, advocacy groups and activists to stop what would have been a $7.26 million down payment on the school-to-prison pipeline. I was particularly concerned about the lack of transparency. The bill to authorize the City to purchase the land was introduced by Councilman Bobby Henon on April 30. Two months later, we still don’t know who owns the property at 7777 State Road.

On the same day that Henon tabled his bill, the Philadelphia Daily News reported the land is contaminated with nuclear waste.

The school-to-prison bill is dead, for now. City Council is on summer recess, but the battle for transparency and accountability continues. So on September 10, I will launch @PHLWatchdog, a citizen-led initiative to monitor and report on what the City is doing with our money.

Philly taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent. We will use social media to share information and calls to action. We will shine a light on government spending because sunlight is the best disinfectant.

Got tips? Send all tips to [email protected]. For updates, follow @PHLWatchdog on Twitter.

Why Murals Matter

June is Black Music Month. First observed in 1979 at the White House, I’m kicking off the celebration at City Hall where I will offer public comments at a hearing on the Philadelphia Housing Trust Fund. Some background.

Last year, the Pennrose Company demolished the John Coltrane mural in Strawberry Mansion. Pennrose has been feeding at the public trough of government subsidies for decades. But in an instant, the company erased a tribute to an American cultural icon.

While the nation celebrates the centennial of the birth of Billie Holiday and Mary Lou Williams, the Philadelphia Housing Authority plans to demolish this cultural asset.

 

Now, you might be wondering what is the connection between murals and the affordable housing crisis? Kelvin Jeremiah, President and CEO of PHA, said it best in his remarks before the City Council Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development and the Homeless on April 27:

It is my view that the affordable housing crisis that confronts this great city is also an issue of deep-seated structural poverty. … Solving the poverty problem will go a long way to solve the affordable housing crisis.

Philadelphia is the poorest big city in the nation. A whopping 40 percent of school-aged children live in poverty. There is a correlation between education and poverty. If the educational achievement of poor children is increased, fewer will end up on PHA’s 10-year waiting list for public housing.

A growing body of evidence shows that students with access to arts education perform better on standardized tests. In addition to improved student achievement, arts education contributes to the development of cognitive and social skills, nurtures a motivation to learn, increases student attendance and fosters a positive school environment. At-risk students cite their participation in the arts as a reason for staying in school.

Students involved in arts instruction report less boredom in school. Ask students why they dropped out of school, they will say they were bored.

The School District of Philadelphia has drastically cut arts and music programs; 25 percent of schools offer no music instruction. In the absence of arts education, murals may be poor students’ only exposure to the arts.

At the opening of the new Whitney Museum, First Lady Michelle Obama said the arts “could inspire a young person to rise above the circumstances of their life and reach for something better.”

Community-based public art inspires young people to reach for their star.

 

To be clear, it’s not about preserving brick-and-mortar. Instead, it’s about the transformative power of the arts to engage, motivate and keep students in schools.

It’s also not about money. Through digital and mobile technology, a mural can be recreated at a fraction of its original cost. Indeed, the cost of preserving this great city’s cultural heritage would be far less than, say, Pennrose’s hundreds of thousands of dollars in political contributions.

Councilmanic Prerogative and Philly’s Development Boom

On Friday, a new public art and urban research project will be launched, Monument Lab: Creative Speculations for Philadelphia.

 

Monument Lab asks: What is an appropriate monument for the current City of Philadelphia?

The City of Brotherly Love is currently experiencing a development boom. But the hot real estate market is cold comfort for those living in poverty. Fact is, Philadelphia is the poorest big city in the U.S.

 

At the preview event, Monument Lab Co-Curator Ken Lum observed that there are “two emerging narratives.” A boom city with new construction and new possibilities that is facing “profound challenges and crises… How will we remember this time?”

I will remember this time as the presence of absence. Developers are erasing African Americans’ presence in the city’s cultural, political and civic life.

 

I think a closed door would be an appropriate monument.

 

On April 13, 2015, City Council President Darrell L. Clarke was a guest on “Wake Up With WURD,” hosted by Solomon Jones, on 900AM-WURD. I nearly spilled my coffee when I heard Clarke say, “I’m a developer-friendly Councilperson.” The behind-closed-doors Councilmanic Prerogative is the backdrop to Philadelphia’s development boom.

Councilmembers have arrogated unto themselves the power to sign off or veto any development project in their district. That means nothing gets built without their approval. It also means they should be held accountable when developers don’t hire black workers, don’t contract with black-owned businesses, or don’t respect African Americans’ cultural heritage.

After all, it’s their prerogative.