PascA2______________________________________________ JJnrtlanb (©bseruer________ __________________ New Orleans’ Black Culture at Risk ■NN» Scattered survivors may lead to change It’s Time to Celebrate the I Oth Anniversary of Wellness Village! ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ (A P ) — A s b la c k N ew O rleanians regroup and put down roots elsew here — som e tem po rary, some not — many wonder: W hat will becom e o f one o f the nation’s most com plex African- A m erican cultures? Pre-Katrina New Orleans was a majority black city. It also was a poor one, and most of the people hardest hit by the storm were both, as early images showed. But broad d e sc rip tio n s m iss the su b tle tie s o f race and e c o nom ics in a place w here French, S p an ish , In dians and W est A f rican s m ixed as far back as the 18th c e n tu ry . T his re su lte d in a rich c u ltu ra l heritag e — think ja z z , fo r sta rte rs — and a m u lti ra c ia l, so m etim es in eq u itab le so ciety o rg a n iz e d along lines o f c o lo r and class. Now the c ity ’s native sons and daughters, spread nationw ide, are speculating on how that culture will change in the w ake o f the flooding w rought by K atrina and /x \ African American Health Coalition. Inc. The annual African American Wellness Village has brought tree health services, information, and fun activities to the community since 1995. Join us for two g re a t events this year! Friday Oct. 14th, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday Oct. 15th, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Health Disparities Conference: We Can Make a Difference Downtown Embassy Suites Hotel 319 SW Pine Street 10th Annual Wellness Village at The Blazers Boys & Girls Club 5250 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. An event for community members, health care providers, and local and state officials to come together and generate solutions to health disparities in ( )regon. Featured keynote speaker Dr. Brian Gibbs of the Harvard School of Public Health. • 11:00 a.m.-12:45 p.m . Lunch ($50) • 12:45 p.m.-5:00 p.m. 2 Workshops “Culturally Competent Health Care” and “ Health Disparities: What Can W’e Do?” Workshops are free to first 240 community members (Please contact the AAHC at 503-413-1850). October5 ,200s Free health services and activities at this year’s Wellness Village include: Health Screenings & Services • • • • • • • • Liu shots Dental Vision Hearing Diabetes Massage therapy 11IV & STD screenings And more Activities & Exhibits • African drumming by Chatta Addv • Cooking demo & tastings • Gospel choir • Childrens activities • Lire safety bv Portland Lire & Rescue • 3-on-3 basketball sponsored by Portland Trail Blazers • Raffle prizes For more information contact the AAHC at 503-413-1850 or visit www.aahc-pordand.org Tamyra Baccas and her son Terrell, 11, salvage family keep sakes from their home in the Ninth Ward section o f New Orleans on Saturday. As New Orleans fights its way back to normal, many are pondering the future o f black culture there. Rita. Some even question whether it will survive at all. “Once you scatter the people, 1 d o n ’t know that y o u ’re going to be able to capture the past,” said Arnold Hirsch, a historian at the U niversity of New Orleans. “You may com e up w ith som ething new, you m ight be able to help the poverty and the problem s that becam e so m anifest during the hurricane, and that might be to the good. But it w ouldn’t be the historical New O rleans.” Builders of New York Celebrated As m any as 20,000 slaves and free blacks who helped build New York’s economy from docks to warehouses will be hon ored with a memorial near their burial ground. “T hese people were part of a worldwide net work of slavery, and they helped the New York economy run and thrive,” said Rodney Leon, the ar chitect o f the $3 million monument. The colonial-era cem etery where the slaves were buried is nestled be An artist's rendering o f the African burial ground tween lower Manhattan memorial in New York that will honor the 20,000 high-rise buildings, near slaves and free blacks who helped build the city. City Hall and adjoining the building that houses the New York offices of the FBI. Closed in 1794, the five- acre burial ground was forgotten as a construc tion landfill eventually buried it 20 feet under ground. When the cem etery was rediscovered during construction of a federal office tow er in 1991, community pressure prompted the government to abandon the project. More than 400 sets of remains were discovered, buried in coffins, wrapped in white shrouds. Americans Likely to Become Fat (AP) — Just when we thought we couldn't get any fatter, a new study that followed Americans for three decades suggests that over the long haul, 9 out of 10 men and 7 out of 10 women will become overweight. Even if you are one of the lucky few who made it to middle age with out getting fat, don’t congratulate yourself — keep watching that waistline. Half of the men and women in the study who had made it well into adulthood without a weight prob lem ultimately became overweight. A third of those women and a quar ter of the men became obese. “You cannot become compla cent, because you are at risk of b e c o m in g o v e rw e ig h t,” said Ramaehandran Vasan, an associ ate professor of medicine at Boston University and the study’s lead author. The findings also re-emphasize that people must continually watch their weight. MMMMMK Army Short on New Recruits (A P) — The Arm y is closing the books on one o f the leanest recruiting years since it becam e an a ll-v o lu n te e r service three decades ago, m issing its en list ment target by the largest margin since 1979 and raising questions about its plans for growth. 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