Karamu to livestream Juneteenth celebration tonight at 7p

Program launches Karamu’s new Social Justice Series. In a sign of the times, it’s one of hundreds of Juneteenth events around the country amid growing awareness of the holiday, black history and culture

By R. T. Andrews

Freedom on Juneteenth, an original theatrical production from America's oldest Black producing theatre, will debut tonight at 7PM EST/4PM PST on social media and streaming platforms. It’s an original theatrical production and an artistic response to the recent murders of Black Americans through music, dance, and spoken word.

The one-hour production will stream on social media, including Facebook and YouTube, and select streaming platforms, including Vimeo, Roku and Fire TV. Immediately following the theatrical program, Freedom on Juneteenth continues with a live, 30-minute panel discussion and interactive dialogue with community leaders on the recent developments of the #BlackLivesMatter movement (and the continuing police brutality and murders of African Americans).

Freedom on Juneteenth is designed to celebrate, educate, and activate communities. "Within hours of filming our last scene, another Black man, Rayshard Brooks, was murdered by a police officer," says Tony F. Sias, President & CEO of Karamu House, who conceptualized and directed the production. "There is an extreme urgency to respond to these murders — and to address the freedoms that African Americans still do not yet experience, 155 years after the last slave in this country went free (on June 19, 1865). Freedom on Juneteenth is Karamu House's unapologetic response."

[To watch the trailer for Freedom on Juneteenth, click here.]

The production features a large number of performers including several who will be well-known to Karamu aficionados, such as Ananias Dixon, Daniel Gray Kontar, Prophet Seay, and Mariama Whyte. The ensemble also includes dancers Gabrielle Shipley, Inali Pechardo, Dijon Kirkland, Jameelah Raman, Aziza Bomani,  and Dr. Munirah Bomani.

As usual, there is a top-notch musical ensemble, led by Dr. David M. Thomas on keyboards and including Kevin Byous on guitar, Wayne A. Deadwiley on bass Deion Williams on drums,  and percussionist Bill Ransom.

Live panel discussion follows production

A panel of local community leaders will discuss the #BlackLivesMatters movement following the "Freedom on Juneteenth" production. It is slated to begin at 8PM EST.

This panel will gather live in the Jelliffe Theatre; while still closed to the public, the event will be livestreamed on Karamu House's Facebook, YouTube and Vimeo pages.

The 30-minute live panel and dialogue will feature Dr. Edward M. Barksdale, Jr., Surgeon-in-Chief, University Hospital Rainbow Babies &Children's Hospital; Judge Patricia Ann Blackmon, Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals; and Chenoa Miller, Youth Activist / Organizer, Brand Ambassador, EmpowerCLE.

The program also kicks off Karamu House's new monthly Social Justice Series. The Series will be held monthly and feature, like tonight’s event, a mix of artistic response and community dialogue.

"Karamu's social justice legacy has paved the way for our current social justice engagement and impact," says Aseelah Shareef, Director of Operations and Community Engagement. "We will continue to carry the baton and unapologetically demand and work for sustained changes for Black Americans."

Karamu House is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and featured in the Smithsonian's African American Museum. Legendary artists including Langston Hughes, Ruby Dee, Robert Guillaume, Ron O'Neal, Bill Cobbs, James Pickens, Jr., Vanessa Bell Calloway and Imani Hakim have been associated with the 105-year old "place of joyful gathering" (the meaning of "Karamu" in Swahili.)

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Juneteenth background

Here are some helpful references on this holiday, observed in some parts of the U.S. ever since 1866:

• The Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. published this extended history of Juneteenth in June 2013 on The Root.

• A more modest description was published this week in The Hill. It contains an abbreviated chronology of black history up to 1865 that will jolt the novitiate and prod the forgetful.

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We want to give a shout here to Kevin Clayton, Vice President for Diversity, Inclusion & Community Engagement for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who delivered a heartfelt statement on the holiday at the inspired location of the African American Cultural Garden. Watch the short video here.

Finally, we note that National Geographic is Simulcasting an ABC News prime time Juneteenth special tonight, tying  the holiday to the ongoing struggle for equality in America.

The special will be led by a team of ABC News anchors and correspondents including “ABC News Live Prime” anchor Linsey Davis and “Nightline” co-anchor Byron Pitts. The one-hour special will feature reporting from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Galveston, Texas, and other cities across the country observing the day. “Juneteenth: A Celebration of Overcoming” airs Friday, June 19 (8-9PM EDT), on ABC and National Geographic.

“Juneteenth: A Celebration of Overcoming” will present intimate stories, examining the legacy of the holiday through the current lens of political and social unrest that has captured global attention. The special will feature stories of Black-owned businesses and the #BuyBlack movement to support them, the fight for voting rights and protecting them in 2020, the struggle to pass congressional anti-lynching legislation, the power of Black spirituality and the church and other houses of faith, and how a legacy of suffering has often been transformed into joy through the lens of artists.

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BREAKING NEWS: Karrie Howard to become next Cleveland safety director

Former federal and city prosecutor Karrie D. Howard to be sworn in today as safety director

Karrie Howard, appointed by Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson as deputy safety director for operations earlier this year, will be sworn in as Cleveland's Safety Director this afternoon at 1:30PM. 

Howard has been Acting Safety Director since June 1 when Michael McGrath went on vacation. McGrath officially retired this week.

Howard's appointment is seen by some as the culmination of a two-step process that was likely initiated when Howard was promoted from chief prosecutor to assistant safety director earlier this year. The sense is that Jackson wanted to give Howard some experience before promoting him to the top post in the safety department.  It is highly likely that McGrath gave a head's up to Jackson at least at the start of the year that he would retire. 

Some would have preferred Jackson either conduct a national search for a new director, and others stumped for the promotion of an internal candidate. But Jackson is most likely a lame duck, not likely to serve past the end of his record fourth four-year term. He is already the longest serving mayor in Cleveland's history. He has declined to announce whether he will seek a fifth term next year, but several likely candidates are already running unannounced campaigns, including at least two of his allies — City Council president Kevin Kelley and State Senator Sandra Williams — who would be unlikely to be running if Jackson were seriously considering trying to retain the seat.

Under these circumstances, it is highly unlikely that a national candidate would have accepted a job, not knowing to whom he might be reporting in little more than a year. 

Howard is a former Marine and Assistant U.S. Attorney. He ran for a county judgeship in 2018. A few months later he joined the Jackson administration as city prosecutor.

The swearing-in will be televised on TV-20 and also on the city's Facebook page.

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Editor's Note: Today's swearing in ceremony took place ahead of the time originally scheduled. It took place before the time it was first scheduled to be broadcast on TV-20.

What’s Going On in Our Virtual Village?

Guidance, support, insight on mental and public health issues; Black-Jewish relations in Cleveland

By R. T. Andrews

Kevin Griffin was listening to a variety of radio stations on the Monday after the initially peaceful downtown protests in Cleveland turned ugly, apparently by agitators seeking to corrupt the legitimate anger of people of all ages, genders, and ethnicities, who are demanding an end to a nationwide attitude that tolerates — some would say condones and fuels — a police culture that sees large segments of the public as “them”.

It’s part of Kevin’s job to take the pulse of local radio. He’s a strategic marketing exec for the Cleveland marketing firm, Adcom. But that day he was struck by a stark contrast: while several of the stations owned by the black media company, Radio One, were strongly on the side of the protesters, stations owned by other chains were offering their listeners a very different interpretation. As Kevin saw it, people “were not living in the same world” in their news intake. He began to ask, “what are our collective community values?”

The question drove him to consult Eddie Harrell, Radio One general manager. They soon decided to organize a radio town hall of sorts. Utilizing their industry contacts, they assembled the region’s top radio station corporations in partnership to produce a live 90-minute program, “Justice For All: A Conversation About Race, Equality, and Inclusion”.

The organizers want the conversation to focus on how the region can begin to deconstruct systemic racism, in part by identifying:

·  the region's vision for race, equality, and social justice,

· the barriers that perpetuate inequality and structural racism, and

· the mechanisms and structural changes in need of review

Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson, Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams, Urban League CEO Marcia Mockabee, and David Gilbert, president and CEO at both Destination Cleveland and the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission will be on hand to discuss these issues.

Clearly, as is the region’s wont, this first program defaults to hearing first from the establishment. But Griffin, a relative newcomer to our town, hopes to follow up with future similar programs that will include voices from the heart of the community. [We’ve got a list ready if he asks.]

As for today, we’ll be listening to see if the moderator, veteran tv news anchor Romona Robinson, can induce the taciturn mayor and his by-the-book chief to step outside their official personas enough to offer some useful analysis.

The program will be simulcast live across 20 broadcast radio stations and digital platforms today, Wednesday, June 17 from 1PM-2:30PM. EST. Participating networks include iHeart Radio, Radio One, Entercom, ESPN Cleveland, and Salem Communications.

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When the digital age began few of us envisioned a day when a pandemic would lead to self-quarantining and sheltering in place. As upsetting to our routines as the evolving new normal has been, a number of people, including your humble scribe, are discovering that staying put is not without its advantages. We’ll start with a cleaner environment. A number of friends have commented on the benefit of daily commutes that can now be measured in seconds and feet instead of hours and miles. [Gas station owners, tax collectors, razor manufacturers, and dry cleaners are among the legions for whom this is not a boon.]

But we have discovered another benefit. Not only do we save time and money getting to events we’d like to attend, we even get to see programs to which we might not otherwise have gotten to, for reasons of time, money, distance, hassle, or the simple fact that we wouldn’t otherwise have been invited.

Of course, everyone is welcome at the City Club of Cleveland, one of our more venerable institutions. Even before this consarned pandemic, they were had begun to enliven their once staid programming by expanding subject matters, venues and times. Yesterday, they offered an invaluable program for these or any other times. A panel of black women professionals offered exceptional candid and useful insight into the too-often ignored issues of individual and communal mental health.

Sharing the virtual forum stage were: Dr. Shemariah Arki, a professor of Pan African Studies at Kent State University; psychologist Habeebah Grimes, CEO of the Positive Education Program; Dr. Marsheena Murray, assistant professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine; and Rev. Courtney Clayton Jenkins, senior pastor of South Euclid United Church of Christ. The panel was ably moderated by Dr. Lisa Ramirez of MetroHealth.

The video and podcast for “Black Mental Health Matters” can be accessed here. The program’s utility is not limited to any one ethnicity or gender.

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Clockwise from Left: Kim Brazwell,
Dr. Anahi Ortiz, Elizabeth Joy, LISW

A related program today may be useful to many people who are front line workers in the battle against the coronavirus. “Processing Death and Grief During COVID-19” is being offered with a view towards supporting particularly towards those black helpers who may be dealing with the loss of loved ones and patients, or perhaps are grieving the loss of a job or other disruptions.

Addressing these issues will be Franklin County Coroner, Dr. Anahi Ortiz, and Elizabeth Joy, LISW. The program is scheduled for 6PM-7:30PM today and may be accessed via Facebook Live. It will be moderated by activist and thought leader Kim Brazwell of Columbus.

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Native Clevelanders Jamil Smith of
The Rolling Stone and Erika D. Smith
of the Los Angeles Times

Another ancillary benefit of the pandemic also comes to us by way of the City Club, albeit with a healthy mixture of anger and sorrow. Erika D. Smith and Jamil Smith were originally being scheduled for a traditional Friday Forum appearance towards summer’s end. Two of our nation’s many current crises, COVID-19 and the chronic public health crisis of racism, have conspired to advance their appearance to Juneteenth! They will appear at a virtual forum this Friday.

The two journalists are not related though they are both native Clevelanders, share a surname, and now live and observe the world from Los Angeles. Erika D. Smith is a metro columnist for the Los Angeles Times, where she writes about the diversity of people and places across California. Jamil Smith covers national affairs and culture as a senior writer for Rolling Stone. He also is a regular on cable public affairs programs.

The livestream will be available beginning at 12:30PM. Have questions? Tweet them at @TheCityClub or send a text to 330.541.5794.

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Finally, we don’t want to overlook the interesting program being offered tonight by the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage at 7PM via Zoom. Sean Martin, co-editor of the new book Cleveland Jews and the Making of a Midwestern Community, moderates a discussion with authors J. Mark Souther and Todd Michney who penned essays for the book. As is the case throughout the nation, the residential migrations of black and Jews is thoroughly intertwined in Greater Cleveland. Tonight’s program will dynamics of eastward migration as Jewish populations moved from what is now the Gateway District, to Glenville and Kinsman, to the suburbs in The Heights and beyond, influencing Black-Jewish race relations in Cleveland.

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If We Didn't Have the Video...

The incidents are countless. The brutality seems endless. The history is deep.  Consider this riveting account of a Clevelander whose 71-year old father was battered by police.

By Montrie Rucker Adams, APR

Montrie Rucker Adams with her father, Titus Rucker

I often wonder where our nation would be if it were not for video cameras mounted inside stores, perched on the side of buildings, saddled on outside poles and clutched in bystanders’ hands.

Every time I hear stories about police brutality against African Americans, it makes me sick. Literally. We pay our taxes for them to protect and serve. Yet, many African Americans are shortchanged when it comes to police earning their pay.

In 2006, our family had its experience with the police when over 20 of them beat my father. Titus Rucker, a Korean War veteran, former nurse and business owner was 71-years old.  

If we didn't have the video…

Luckily, our father was not killed, however he continues to suffer emotional scars and trauma from that December day in the basement of Santa Clara, California’s Police Department. He could have spent the rest of his life in prison.

If we didn't have the video…

My father missed a civil court date which he did not make due to surgery. Two sheriff’s deputies went to my father’s house on a bench warrant. He was arrested and taken out of his home. They did not even give him a chance to put on shoes.

If we didn’t have the video…

The 30-something police officer said he felt threatened by an unarmed 71-year-old black man while in a police station.

As the machine scanned my father’s finger to produce a print, Jose Villagomez pressed his thumb on the back of his hand to the point of pain. There was no need for pressure. This department had a new system that did not require an inkpad. When my father jerked his hand back in a natural pain reflex, he was attacked by Villagomez. A gang of his fellow officers rushed in. Instead of breaking up the skirmish, they beat him, kicked him and one officer tried to gouge out his eye.

If we didn't have the video…

Titus Rucker booking photo after his battery by police

His injuries included a concussion, fractured ribs, a broken facial bone and several cuts and bruises. When the ambulance came to get him, he was put on the hard metal floor. No gurney.

If we didn’t have the video…

The hardest part was the trial. Listening to the lies. The 30-something Villagomez said he felt threatened. By a 71-year-old man? Unarmed? Not under any influences? In a police station?

If we didn't have the video…

My father continues to suffer emotional scars and trauma from that December day in the basement of the Santa Clara [CA] Police Department.

The courts "found" a young, black female prosecutor to spew venom about someone she did not know. She provided a PowerPoint presentation to give the jurors a visual representation of her rants. "He did it for the money!" She yelled. "He's faking his injuries!" She cried as she pointed to my father. "He had motive!"

Motive? What motive?! The officers came to his home. He didn’t concoct a scheme for money. Wow!

If we didn't have the video…

Many cities, police departments, businesses and now an increasing number of residences are spending thousands of dollars on video surveillance systems to thwart crime. Some citizens are uncomfortable knowing their every move may be tracked. As in the case of George Floyd and other African American men who succumbed to police brutality, videos have served as proof when the officer is the criminal.

If we didn’t have the video…

CNN's Harmeet Kaur wrote recently about why police officers often falsify reports. (Videos Often Contradict What Police Say in Reports. Here's Why Some Officers Continue to Lie.) Her article draws upon research by Philip Stinson, a criminologist and professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University. 

Stinson, a former police officer who tracks police misconduct nationwide, says that lying officers are "fairly common". They lie to avoid the consequences and to justify their actions. It continues to happen, writes Kaur, because officers are not held accountable, the investigative process tends to favor officers, discipline is minimal, and officers are often protected from repercussions.

Even when there is video, too often it does not matter. In 1992, the officers who were caught on tape beating Rodney King the previous year, were acquitted. This was the first time most of the world viewed the proof of extreme police brutality against an unarmed African American man. Since then, videos of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Philando Castile and others, gave the world a vision of a Black man’s fatal encounter with the police.

If we didn’t have the video…

My father’s case resulted in a hung jury that deadlocked, 6-6. [Here is an account of the trial.] Like the Rodney King case, it did not want to see the obvious.

If we didn't have the video…

My father is a graduate of Central State University, which he attended after being mustered out of the Army. His father studied under George Washington Carver at Tuskegee Institute.  

He did not have a jury of his peers. No African Americans in Santa Clara County were on the jury. 

Here is the video my father's deadlocked jury saw. It was taken by the police.

Many white Americans are fed lies through media images and stories — both calculated and casual — that imply African Americans, especially men, are vicious thugs with criminal intent. But for the video, I am certain we would be visiting my father in jail.

It’s fairly common for police officers to falsify reports and statements to avoid the consequences and to justify their actions. It continues to happen because officers are not held accountable, the investigative process tends to favor officers, discipline is minimal, and officers are often protected from repercussions.

Since the lynching of George Floyd on Memorial Day, there have been 20 days of civil unrest and worldwide protests stemming from police brutality and the systemic racism that plagues our nation. I think about our many brothers and sisters who lost their lives, and my heart breaks, my stomach turns, my eyes water, and my soul just won't rest. It upsets me to think of the outcome for Derrick Chauvin, Thomas Lane, Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao…

If we didn't have the video…

___________________________________________________________

Montrie Rucker Adams, APR is a writer, and Chief Visibility Officer at Visibility Marketing Inc.

SUGGESTED READING: 

An illuminating interview with Bowling Green State University Professor of Criminology Philip Stinson.

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