M r« .
F ra n c e s
U n iv e r s ity
Eugene,
97403
S c h o e n -N e w s p a p e r
ai
O re g o n
Roc
L ib r
O re g o n
BSERYER
PO RTI
September 11,1991
"The Eyes and Ears o f The Community"
Volumn XXI, Number 37
25<P
Dance Theatre of Harlem Comes to Portland in 1992
Courtesy of the New York Times
_ 0° My Mind
__
‘ A. M. ROSENTHAL
Support
A Toe
Shoe
Who was that standing and cheer­
ing, so full of pleasure and happiness?
I
Why, it was all of us, everybody in
the huge ballroom, hundreds of us.
And what were we cheering and hug­
ging ourselves about?
The children, of course, and the
young adult artists, but also some­
thing we had forgotten how to cheer
and cherish — all the tale.it and cre­
ativity, bounce, zest and desire of
New York, the great city of New
York. You heard me: the great city of
New York.
It happened at a benefit. Can you
believe that? Now everybody knqws
that benefits are necessary. Where
else is the money going to come from
for this philanthropy or that cause?
Particularly now, when the govern­
ment — every one of them, city, state,
Federal — is cutting back to the bone
and philanthropies, like hospitals or
schools for talented children, or
causes, such things as human rights
or trees, will have to go, just too bad,
if you don’t kick in yourself.
Yes, but benefits have to be weari­
some. Everybody knows that too. It is
some kind of a law, and it is very
useful. It prevents people at the bene­
fit from getting above themselves
just because they can afford a ticket
or a table. Boredom is the great lev-
eler, uniting everybody in the room —
donors, beneficiaries and waiters.
This benefit was on 34th street.
Testing for Aids
Twenty-three-year-old Kimberly
Bergalis is dying. She’ll be the first
American to die o f AIDS after being
infected by her dentist Four other people
contracted AIDS from the same Florida
dentist, David Acer, who died last year.
Meanwhile, dozens of medical woik-
ers have been infected by their patients
in the pastdecade. These incidents have
ignited a raging debate over HIV test­
ing: Should patients have the right to
know if their doctor or dentist is HIV
positive? Do health-care workers have
the right to know the same about their
patients?
In July, the Centers for Disease
Control recommended that health-care
workers who test positive for the AIDS
virus tell their patients. This summer,
the U.S. Senate voted to send HIV
positive health care workers to jail if
they know they have AIDS but con­
tinue to treat patients without telling
them. This measure isn’t law yet, but
critics fear that mandatory testing is on
its way, invading privacy and sending
the untruthful message that HIV-in­
fected people are highly contagious.
Critics of testing believe the best way
to protect public health is by focusing
on better infection control procedures.
How great is the risk of doctor-
patient AIDS transmission? How can
the public be protected from irrespon­
sible health-care workers? Should all
hospital patients be routinely screened?
Arc there alternatives to mandatory AIDS
testing? What do YOU think? Join Jack
Faust for this discussion on Sunday,
September 22, 1991 from 6:00-7:00
p.m. For seat reservations, call Frank
Mungcam, Alison Highbergcr of Liza
McQuade at 231-4620. Guests should
plan to arrive at the KATU studios
(21st & N.E. Sandy Blvd.) between 5-
5:15 p.m. The public is welcome, but
reservations arc required.
which is nowhere — south of usual
benefit country, but not south enough
for SoHo chic. It was in the Manhat­
tan Center Ballroom, long closed but
now prettied up, fit for the honor of
receiving and displaying the beauty
and genius of the Dance Theater of
Harlem, for which the benefit was
organized.
The DTH is a dance troupe, a dance
school, and it is an inspiration. Under
Arthur Mitchell and his staff, it in­
spires children to value themselves
enough to absorb the relentless disci­
plines of art. Then it teaches them to
dance in such a way as to enrich their
lives, and the souls of those who
watch them.
Unhappily, New Yorkers do not get
to watch them enough. Things are
getting tighter for this glory of New
York, as it is for the other glories of
New York — the other talent-schools,
performing troupes, museums, li­
braries, concert halls without which
this would not be a place worth vlslt-
Cheer
and
sunburst
in the
great city.
ing, and certainly not a place worth
actually inhabiting.
Naturally, these are the first to go
in times of budget-cutting. The city
stands to lose scores of millions in
ticket and tourist money, but that’s
how it goes.
Fortunately, New Yorkers like
Gayfryd Steinberg and E ’izabeth
Ross Johnson Kennan, co-chairmen
of the DTH evening, find it difficult to
see the cost benefit of allowing the
city to commit cultural suicide. But
then they are not economists or gov­
ernment officials.
Some of the girls and boys who
once danced at DTH have become
ballet stars or managers. Others
have become executives or doctors.
Some of them testified on video that
the discipline and self-mastery ’.hey
learned at DTH stayed with them
always and were part of their success
in life.
That is obviously true. But the point
is not that DTH turns all its young­
sters into impresarios, CEO’s or
brain surgeons. It teaches children
growing up in mean streets to find
value in themselves, which of course
is essential to being of any value to
anybody else. Also, it teaches them to
dance like crazy.
1 do not know the terminology bal­
let critics would use to describe what
we saw but to me the whole perform­
ance was a dance of growth. Through
the choreography, very small chil­
dren grew into somewhat larger chil­
dren, who became young adult danc­
ers, who became principal dancers
and Broadway stars, and then they
were dancing together, all separate
and all part of each other, in elegant
ballet or shaking the place with
stomp, as life and art moved them In
the darkened ballroom, it was a suO'
burst, an hour or so of sunburst that
was pure, total New York.
Please, don’t write to me telling me
1 am too old, too well paid, to be
sentimental or too whatever to admit
how horrible, poor and stenchy New
York has become. I know, I know.* 1
But, listen, I also know a sunburst
when 1 see one.
So call or write the Dance Theater
of Harlem, 466 West 152d Street, New
York, N.Y. 10031, or phone 212-967
3470. With very little money, you can
support a toe shoe or give a whole,
year of them to a dancing child.
□
I
Parents Face School Daze, Part II
by Prof. McKinley Burt
PDC and Housing Authority of
Portland to Undertake Second Joint
Project; Will Rehabilitate Cambridge
Court Apartments
The Portland Development Com­
mission (PDC), pending final approval
by Commissioners at their monthly
meeting September 11th, will make a
$391,000 Investor Rehabilitation Loan
(IRL) to the Housing Authority of Port­
land (HAP) to renovate the Cambridge
Court Apartments at 5224 N. Vancou­
ver Avenue.
It is the second joint project PDC
will have undertaken with HAP. The
first was Rosenbaum Plaza, which was
completed in 1978.
The Cambridge Court Apartment
building is a 20 unit complex of two
bedroom apartments. Upon completion,
14 unoccupied units will be rented to
clients of the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation Homeless Families Program.
This program includes Section 8 rent
subsidies as well as funding to provide
special services such as counseling and
child care on site for residents. HAP
will manage the property, located in
the Humboldt neighborhood in N.E.
Portland.
Project financing will include Pri­
vate Lender Participation Agreement
(PLPA) funds from Security Pacific
Bank. HAP will invest energy rebates
and private resource funds to meet the
difference in project financing. Total
renovation costs will be $451,737.
Renovations will include complete
electrical upgrades, total renovation of
the kitchens and bathrooms and con­
version of the basement to meeting
rooms and program offices. Indoor and
outdoor play areas for children will
I also be constructed. The architect on
Sonda Wadsworth, Urban Entertainment Coalition, and Donna Walker-Collins,
Associate Director of Marketing for the Dance Theatre of Harlem have teamed up to
promote the Dance Theatre of Harlem visit to the Northwest next year. ______ ___
the project will be William Wilson,
AIA, and the contractor will be Walsh
Construction.
Under a separate request, the
Commission is also expected to ap­
prove a $184,500 IRL for acquisition
and rehabilitation of an 11-unit apart­
m ent com plex at 2530 N.E.
Killingsworth.
The building features one-bedroom
apartments and one-and two-bedroom
townhouses. Project financing for this
project will include PLPA funds from
Security Pacific Bank and personal
investment by the building owner,
Douglas McCabe.
McCabe will manage the property
as well as perform the needed renova­
tions on the project. The apartments,
located in the Concordia neighborhood,
will provide additional low-and mod­
erate-income housing in Northeast
Portland.
PDC’s loans for both the Cambr­
idge Court and McCabe projects will
include funding from the City’s Bureau
of Community Development
PDC’s Investor Rchabililation Loan
program provides technical and finan­
cial assistance for rehabilitation of resi­
dential rental properly where the prop­
erty needs repairs in order to comply
with local codes. Residential proper­
ties are to be offered at affordable rents
and occupied primarily by low-to
moderate-income families.
The Portland Development Com­
mission is the City’s urban renewal,
housing and economic development
agency.
_____
If last week’s article emphasized
the observation taht “ eternal vigilance
is the price of liberty” (or education),
then today’s message is ‘parent initia­
tive’. Or in terms of that old street
directive, “ You’ve got to bring some
to get some.”
This means taking advantage of
any and every opportunity to enhance
and support y our child’s learning struc­
ture. Considering the cutbacks in serv­
ices I cited, it is more imperative than
ever that the parent participate in those
formal groups already organized io bring
parent, teacher and pupil into a produc­
tive intcrfacc-nol only the PTA, but
those less structured vehicles for their
interaction inititiated by the admini­
stration at many schools. You need to
be seen, heard and involved (you have
got to ‘show up’).
But beyond this, the parents need
to bring to the process their own in­
sights and innovations if they are to
shore up a faltering structure. Certainly,
the daily paper and television arc re­
flecting a nationwide apprehension in
respect to our schools. The point is that
both media are going beyond hand-
wringing and arc citing examples con­
trary to the trend-from Schools of
Excellence to the techniques of gifted
teachers who are delivering quality
education against all odds. So these are
times when the parent needs to be on
top of things, reading and assessing this
pricless information, looking for an
clcment(s) that could make the differ­
ence right in the local school.
For instance, how many saw that
"Learning In America” documentary
last week on Public Television, Chan­
nel 10. There was a wealth of the type
of educational resource I just cited. It
was an cycopcning exposition of the
people, ‘attitudes’ and techniques that
arc making a big difference in some
parts of the country-like moving trom
■1
a 25th to 97th percentile in math or
reading. If you missed this program,
get out your VCR; it is running again at
10 a.m. on Sunday, September 15 on
Channel 10. Don’t miss it I am quite
sure you will perceive the possibilities
for local applications.
A parent called me Friday because
she “ sensed a definite concern” in my
comment on the dearth of African
American Science and mathematics
tcachers-or their full utilization. Point­
ing out a “ horrible” lack of science
and enviromental orientation and
commitment at her daughter s elemen­
tary school, she and other minority
parents HAVE ORGANIZED THEM­
SELVES to take on a lackadasical
administration this Fall. They have asked
me to pass on several goodies to you
other parents. (They put in a lot of
hours at the public library downtown
this summer, surveying the literature
and publications of Corporate America
and the Education Associations and
Government Agcncies-The group found
$15,000 worth the resources in two
months. Free!).
Try these. Bird Box, Phillips Pe­
troleum Company, 16C4 Phillips Build­
ing, Bartlesville, Oklahoma 74004. This
program provides bird nests of ‘recycled
paper for the little kids to take home as
part an Environmental Education Pro­
gram, “ Because as life unfolds inside
these cardboard walls, so too docs an
understanding and respect for the wonder
of it all.” And of course there is IBM,
MacDonalds, Apple, The Blazers,
General Electric and so on. In other
words there are those parents who arc
going to "enhance and support” their
child’s learning-and there arc those
who arc going to wait in vain for the
uncaring and the downright inept in the
administration to do it for them. Won t
happen!
I hope that you arc raking notice
that where I usually begin a scries from
a “ gloom and doom” position as I did
last week in this ca se-a breakdown in
that critical, hard won structure created
for the enchancement of minority edu­
cation-just consider that I have to get
your attention, and that I usually come
forward with solutions and remedies
that can turn the tide. WE CAN EM­
POWER OURSELVES! In this con­
text we want to be on top o f things in
respect to some very excellent pro­
grams where there should be no thought
of cuts or attrition; TAG, MESA and
similars.
Also, there is a super excellent
program run by the Urban League of
Portland, Russell St. and N.E. Wil-
laims: Whitney M. Young, Jr. Educa­
tional and Cultural Center. The level of
tutoring and other afterschool support
for our youngsters is the best in the city
(3 to 8 pm Monday through Thursday;
vail Gloria Phillips, Program Assistant
@ 280-2600). I lr>ve the depth of their
library (understandable) and wish to
emphasize that this program deserves
all the support we can provide. There
are other good programs I have not
mentioned here and parents need to get
over to their schools, work on com-
mitees and even visit that great orange
administration building’ to avail them­
selves first hand of the data and specific
informational services.
Yes, it is true that 520,000 children
enrolled this fall in Oregon’s finan­
cially strapped education system -and
that we don’t know how this academic
vs vocational tracking ploy is going to
play out for minority kids, and we are
cognizant that further cuts are coming-
-but, nevertheless we arc going to have
to take the offensive as indicated. When
we think of our commitment think of
the Latin name for the Redwood Tree,
Sequoia Scmpervirens, “ Everlasting,
Evcrliving!”
I