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IDK, ckhthankgod has been making a very strong case for Upstate New York....
The metros in CT also make a good case due to having city and suburban areas with a good size black middle class.
I know that Harrisburg seems to get mixed reviews, though there are areas with a good sized black middle class. I’m just curious as to smaller areas in PA that may have a better rep, if there are any.
What may help Upstate NY compared to most of the other states outside of their major area(s) is that you can find small/rural towns with visible/decent black populations in various parts(Hudson Valley, Wayne County/Finger Lakes, etc.), you have quite a few cities that are in the 10-45% black range(not including others with enough to know a population is there) and besides the major Northeastern areas; you also can be close to the two biggest Canadian metros(Toronto and Montreal) which have hundreds of thousands of black residents themselves(not including the Ottawa metro, which has about 115,000 black residents out of just under 1.5 million people). Cleveland is within a few hours or less of much of the WNY portion as well. Let alone the outdoor amenities/parks, if you are into that. So, it puts you among and/or near a variety of cities and environments with some degree of a black presence.
Last edited by ckhthankgod; 08-02-2023 at 10:29 PM..
Leah A. Baptista Pires
Silver Medalist in Ballet As a junior at Boston Arts Academy, Leah A. Baptista Pires has danced since childhood. She is a dance major and honor student who practices at the Jo-Mé Dance Studio in Boston. Pires has attended The Alvin Ailey School – Summer Intensive and Black & Brown program at Berklee College.
Nasya Baine
Bronze Medalist in Traditional Dance Born in Macon, Georgia, Nasya Baine is a multidisciplinary dancer. She is a freshman and honors student at Boston Arts Academy, where she is on the step squad. After visiting Boston for summer dance at OrigiNation, she relocated here with family to join the program’s Professional Dance Division. At OrigiNation, she studies under Shaumba-Yandje Dibinga and performs with the Nia Dance Troupe.
Sadie Carroll
Bronze Medalist in Music Composition A cellist of 12 years, Sadie Carroll is a graduate of The Rivers School in Weston and part of the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, where she has studied intensively. Beyond her considerable musical talents, she is interested in bioethics and plays lacrosse. She is attending the University of Miami to study instrumental performance next semester.
Mal Eason
Bronze Medalist in Photography Mal Eason is a Dorchester resident who creates photography, painting, drawings, fashion design and music. An honors student at the Education Center for the Arts in New Haven, Eason recently moved to Boston for senior year. His photography submission is a presentation on grief and isolation. He traces his roots to the Deep South and Pearl of the Antilles, Ayiti or Haiti.
BROCKTON BRANCH WINNERS
Nevaeh De Jesus
Nevaeh De Jesus
Gold medalist in Poetry As a senior at Lowell High School, Nevaeh maintains a 4.0 GPA. Her work, “The Ghost of White Privilege,” identifies the amorphous concept with recognizable experiences, such as permission to wear a hoodie after dark. In addition to numerous extra-curricular activities, she works at a local store. In her spare time, she volunteers and dabbles in hip-hop dance and photography. She will study psychology at Morgan State University next Fall.
Kyle Denny
Silver medalist in Chemistry / Biochemistry Kyle Denny is a junior at Milton High School whose winning project evaluated the effect of sound on pollinator insect populations. He is co-captain of his varsity tennis team and practices the game at Sportsmen’s Tennis and Enrichment Center in Dorchester. Denny is vice president of his high school class, a member of a local National Society of Black Engineers Jr. and considers himself an avid video gamer.
Yvangi Jacques
Silver medalist in Earth and Space Sciences Yvangi Jacques is a junior at Avon Middle High School who has competed in the ACT-SO STEM competitions for the last three years. He is a member of the National Honor Society who advocates against tobacco and vaping through The 84 movement. Jacques’ other talents include classical piano, which he performs weekly at church. In addition to competing in an ACT-SO science field, he was part of the Classical Instrumental competition.
Brooklynn Massó
Silver medalist in Contemporary Dance Brooklynn Massó is a sophomore at Boston Latin Academy who participates in the school’s theatre group, Academy Actors. They have been dancing for 11 years, specializing in tap, jazz, hip-hop, and lyric through programs like Edge Studio of Dance in Canton, the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Los Angeles and The Dance Theatre of Harlem in New York. In Brooklynn’s spare time they like to create art, play video games and listen to music.
In my experience Black families in Boston mostly present as middle class. Because its hard to be not making a middle-class income and live here unless your in the projects. You need to be driven - heavily becasue there is no cheap RE as in Philly or even RC or Rent stabilization or the co-ops of NYC. Basically, if you're in Boston in 2023 you need to have middle-class values and mindset by default or you just would make it. This creates a lot of positive energy and feedback loops. There are enough unique opportunities and options where people will move here to take advantage of them even in HS.
The biggest issue now is the RE, everyday this thread goes by the area gets more unaffordable. But the QOL is maybe unparalleled and thats why. I just wish there were some value and/or a bargain here.
The MBTA has named Rod Brooks, a rail veteran with 32 years of experience, as its new senior advisor for capital, operations and safety.
Brooks most recently served as senior vice president of operations at the Long Island Rail Road in New York, where he has held other leadership positions as chief transportation officer and executive director of East Side Access operations. He has spearheaded organizational efforts, navigated significant safety challenges and developed programs recognized industry-wide.
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Brooks also serves in volunteer roles on the Bluffton, South Carolina Rotary Club Board of Directors and the Royal Live Oak Academy Charter School Board of Directors in Jasper County, South Carolina.
The City of Boston provides many important civic services: public parks and urban green spaces, support for senior citizens and public education to name a few. But this year the City of Boston is also supplying a soundtrack for the neighborhood block party, the “Dear Summer Vol. 1” mixtape featuring 68 tracks by local musicians, mixed by local DJs.
“Boston is a city that has so much talent that goes unsung, unseen,” says John Borders IV, director of tourism, sports and entertainment and leader of this project. “We as the city believe in them. And we want to show that this is a place that you can launch your career, a place that you can stay and really grow, both personally and professionally.”
Artists featured on the tape include $ean Wire, Alisa Amador, Amadeezy, Avenue, Gogo., Kei, Mint Green, Miranda Rae, Oompa, Radical One, Rilla Force, The Elovaters, Tokyo Tramps, ToriTori, UgoBoy, Vintage Lee and Wayup Rui. DJs involved in mixing the tape include Baby Indiglo, Braunski Beat, DJ Papadon, DJ Slick Vick, ReaL P and SNAX.
DJ ReaL P and John Borders IV address the crowd at the listening party. PHOTO: COURTESY CITY OF BOSTON
The artists on the tape represent a diverse cross section of cultures and musical genres, from R&B, Afrobeats and jazz to Latin, folk and Hip-Hop. About half the artists on the tape represent the Roxbury and Dorchester neighborhoods.
Borders is a Dorchester native and grew up in a musical family. Some of his fondest memories are seeing concerts at the Strand Theatre and Symphony Hall. Through this project he’s able to share the joy of finding new music with Bostonians. He says, “Giving people an opportunity to say this artist is up and coming, and you can have access to them now. I think that’s extremely appealing.”
“Dear Summer Vol. 1” is the first mixtape ever produced by the City of Boston. The project builds on a number of initiatives, including supporting local artists and encouraging them to stay in the city, providing opportunities for residents to explore Boston neighborhoods during the
summer and offering grants for residents to host block parties in their communities.
Listeners can enjoy the mixtape on Spotify, Mixcloud, SoundCloud and through the City of Boston website. In addition to the artists, listeners can catch shout outs on the tape from Bostonians like David “Big Papi” Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox, Nia Grace, owner of Grace by Nia and Darryl’s Corner Bar and Kitchen, Michael Bobbitt of the Massachusetts Cultural Council and more.
Hettie Williams, a historian at Monmouth University in New Jersey, has been selected as the new director of the William Monroe Trotter Institute for the Study of Black Culture at UMass Boston.
The grantees include Beat The Odds, a Grove Hall-based organization that teaches young people the skills to succeed in creative industries; Dorchester Art Project and Boston Little Saigon Cultural District, a collaborative mixed-use cultural hub serving Dorchester; BAMS Fest, the organization behind the BIPOC-forward Boston Art & Music Soul Festival; Design Studio for Social Intervention, a social justice-focused creativity lab; The Theater Offensive, an organization serving ***** and transgender communities through theater arts; and Veronica Robles Cultural Center, an organization promoting and preserving Latino arts and culture.
For the first time in Massachusetts, a community college will offer a degree in Black Studies.
Beginning this fall, Massasoit Community College in Brockton will become the first two-year school in the state to offer such a degree just as political leaders in other, more conservative states are questioning the value of African American studies.
...
Only a handful of community colleges in the United States offer degrees in Black studies, with several of them located in California and one in Philadelphia.
The two-year program at Massasoit will offer courses about the African American experience, ranging from Black history, literature and music to how Black communities experience contemporary issues like education, healthcare and criminal justice.
More than 350 businesses applied for the grants, with about 60% of applicants identifying as women and 50% as Black. Some of the recipients already have businesses open, and others will finally be able to open their own stores. [per the city-45% of the 40 recipients were black]
Recipients will also receive help from the city with other daunting components of operating a small business, such as lease negotiation, accounting, taxes, regulatory compliance and marketing, the city said.
The program was first announced last year with the goal of filling vacant storefronts with local, small businesses, officials said. While the focus was on downtown revitalization, the business recipients are from all over the city, including Roxbury, Dorchester and Hyde Park.
Dawne Brown, who runs her Brown Bear Excel Early Learning Center for children up to age 5 out of her Readville home, said she received $200,000 from the grant program to put toward her own facility.
“This grant is helping me to realize all of my goals and my aspirations,” said Brown, who is seeking space to operate in Mattapan. “I couldn’t have done it [without the grant.] I would have to take out a loan or get investors or someone to grant me money.”
^These are some of the practical ways the black community gets drawn to Boston from other states and gets supported by the city and its own ecosystem.
For the first time in Massachusetts, a community college will offer a degree in Black Studies.
Beginning this fall, Massasoit Community College in Brockton will become the first two-year school in the state to offer such a degree just as political leaders in other, more conservative states are questioning the value of African American studies.
...
Only a handful of community colleges in the United States offer degrees in Black studies, with several of them located in California and one in Philadelphia.
The two-year program at Massasoit will offer courses about the African American experience, ranging from Black history, literature and music to how Black communities experience contemporary issues like education, healthcare and criminal justice.
My ex teaches at Community College of Philadelphia, and it was through his work there and my meeting other CCP faculty that I came to the view that community colleges are both the workhorses and the Rodney Dangerfields of American higher education and that much of the money and handwringing we devote to the elite universities would be put to better and more socially beneficial use if we showered it on the community colleges instead.
My ex teaches at Community College of Philadelphia, and it was through his work there and my meeting other CCP faculty that I came to the view that community colleges are both the workhorses and the Rodney Dangerfields of American higher education and that much of the money and handwringing we devote to the elite universities would be put to better and more socially beneficial use if we showered it on the community colleges instead.
Massasoit Community College is 44% white and 33% black so khdis to then for not waiting until the school became overwhelmingly black and acknowledging the trends in their student body. This is one of the two community colleges in the south shore region.
What was tge NAACP takeaway from Boston, about Boston?
I heard someone say two things:
1. Roxbury/Nubian Square will be the face of Black Bostonians and a tourist destination in years to come.
2. They loved the city but thought it was segregated.
It was overwhelmingly positive I spoke with multiple visors and read some quotes.
Folks annoyed the city immensely. In part because of #TheHub which was the first of its kind at the NAACP. the takeaway that read from official in the city if Boston who's social media I follow- was that the city had succeeded in showcasing a welcoming and progressive city and had better positioned itself to host more black events.
Ayanna Pressley and Tito Jackson said when they tried to bring the certain black convention here back in 2009/10/11 they had some people question if they'd be **safe** in Boston or if there was a black community at all. Which is crazy when I think about being in Boston in 2011 and look back at my pictures with all my very black friends all over the city… Sort of weird considering the National Urban League held its conference there in 2011 (I was there) without incident. The National Association of Black Journalists held their conference there in 2015.
There are a major differences between now and those two per Segun Idowu, Chief Of Oppurtunitt and Economic Development and by Joseph Feaster NAACP organizer from 1982 and chairman of the Boston reparations taskforce.
In 1982 last time we held the NAACP National Comvention- there were no black busineses to contract with and showcase. This year 90% of the contracted businesses this year were acknownee from the planning to parking to security to food vendors.
According to Segun Idowu when the NABJ came here in 2015 there “wasn't anywhere for folks to go” when the conference hours wound down. He had made it clear he didn't want that to be the case in 2020 (it had to be rescheduled for 2023). So the NAACP did a tremendous job with #TheHub and director of tourism and events John borders did an amazing job. They brought in GospelFest and the Big 3 to Boston that weeken— we had our largest Gospel Fest yet. They also made sure to designate black businesslike Grace by Nia and HUE for after party activities: they made sure Lawn on D felt inclusive and had concerts and dance parties. They had various balcknowned restaurants around the city “welcome the naacp”. On Thursday The Silk RnB party had Too Short and his guys int he club live streaming the festivities at Big Night Live.
Too Short, Berner, Wiz Khakifa and Beyonce we're in the area for concerts that weekend too. I saw one woman from Detroit visitingg for the conference made sure to get to Foxborough for the Beyonce concert. I saw other folks go to the Big 3. The New England/Connecticut NAACP Conferences made sure to taap the night off with a 50 years of Hip Hop party at Grace by Nia where the profits will go-to NAACP youth chapters in the 6 New England states. And the NAACP Boston Chapter Booked the Grand for the Young Professional post party and it looked crazy..
In addition to this partnering with Live Like a Local Tours and getting busses to take people to various grassroots organizations in Roxbruy Dorchester and Mattapan over 3 days gave folks an opportunity to go into the black community and meet our local activists and build bridges. They stopped at many locations in those neighborhoods. Someone on FB told me Nubian Square reminded them of Hyde Park in Chicago. I did see video of folks visiting Nubian Market (I have before, it's incredible and the food is so good)
Overall the Director the New England Confernce Michael said they expected 6500-7500 people but ended up with attendance of over 10,000. All in all it was a huge success and the longest planned NAACP Convention in history (due to it having been canceled by COVID in 2020). I think it's a good warm up for the NBA All Star game the city wants to host in 2026. Paul Pierce says he's the one who raised that idea to Boston ownership.
I also saw some traditionally more exclusive Irish American dominated organization sponsor the conference and send welcomes which however minor, was still important. The conference made sure to highlight black leaders from various Boston neighborhoods- big portrait/banners with their name neighborhood and significance. they also had an exhibit to honor Bostons African American athletes. Some current and former black bsoton athletes like Tony Allen, Devin McCourty and Jaylen Brown made sure to show up. Wally the Red Sox mascot also came down to the convention. The notorious Quinn House, the private members only social club of Boston upward white elite was booked for the delegates reception the second to last night. Definitely undoubtedly the first time a black crowd of people around the US has been in the Quinn staples. I don’t even know where that is, but Tanisha Sullivan made sure to mention that too.These various Staples of traditional Boston had to make appearances to add a sense of normalcy and/or inclusion so im happy they did that.
The only blemish- if you can call it that is that- is at Gospel Fest Segun Idowu asked the crowd to pray for Mayor Wu as she and her family faces harassment from racist and political bust in Boston who don’t like her because she’s Asian female and progressive. He basically said this my boss but this is my friend and I’d ask y’all to join me in prayer for her. I think that prayer was sorely needed and very appropriate but a said acknowledgement of the online and in person extremist that live in the area. A good reminder that there is work to do intolerance but I’m sure everyone felt bad for Mayor Wu. She was out all weekend at every even talking about her vision for Boston and thanking conventioneers. I do think Boston was fortunate that Mayor Kim Janey did not see the same level of vocal backlash that Michelle Wu does. But that’s in part because she was acting Mayor and she’s less outwardly progressive and was ‘old Boston’ even if she is black.
As for segregation in this political environment I’m not sure how negative that is for black people in our collective opinion. And also I’m sure if they went to places in the seaport and saw the prices they understand why blacks people prefer Dorchester. But there are more black businesses still to open in the Seaport- ZaziBar being the next one.
The guy to talk to about the program in the city(a Nottingham HS grad, which is on the city's East Side, an area of town known for its substantial black middle class(some in outer South Side neighborhoods including the Valley, Eastwood and outer North Side neighborhoods as well)): https://sayyessyracuse.org/about/sta...ahmeed-turner/
As mentioned in other threads, Syracuse while it has its issues, it is starting to get some positive momentum in terms of development and the Micron announcement, which is the biggest in national history. It is a rare Northeastern area where the black population within city limits and in the metro is growing(about 33% and 10%, give or take/depending on who you include). Plus, it is a relatively affordable area in terms of cost of living and the city school district is looking to diversify its teacher ranks, as this video and others illustrates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtPT8yczcjw (it is the 5th biggest school district and city proper in NY State, with it coming in around 13th in the Northeast in black population)
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