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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 4, 2012)
^lortlanò (DbseWcr Page 4 Healthcare Blues c o n t i n u e d f r o m page 3 Fam e, know s m any m usicians jo in other O regonians w ho suffer from the inability to pay for their ow n health care. “ Being a m usician, I have partici pated in and contributed to num er ous benefits for m usicians w ithout healthcare, including individuals diagnosed with Stage III C ancers,” he said. “The cost is sky high for that kind o f stuff, and if you are outsourced and lose healthcare in surance, that is astronom ical stress on heads o f households.” S ylvester said the com m unity in Portland often com es together for their fellow brother and sister m usi cians to lend a helping hand in the nam e o f health. “ W e are all in this together,” he said. “ M edical insurance should be a right for everyone.” S ylvester, the father o f seven and grandfather to nine, said fam ily has alw ays had a strong presence in his life. As a child in Louisiana, he was influenced by his father, w ho w as a singer in a gospel quartet. H is southern roots never left him in all his years as a m usician in the Pacific N orthw est, w here he has p e rfo rm e d in c o u n tle s s v e n u e s throughout the region. “ W hen I was young I lived on my g ran d m a’s 110 acre farm . She was one o f the biggest A frican- A m erican farm ers in L ouisiana at the tim e,” he said. “She believed everything that happened w as spe cial.” The gardens, he rem em bered, had everything from sugarcane to p e a nuts. “W e d id n ’t go to the store. W e w ould ju st go out to the garden and get som ething. T he sam e, he said, w ent for m edical ailm ents. “ W e had hom e rem edies. I d id n ’t get a cavity until I cam e to P ortland,” he said. D uring his tim e at Jefferson High school, he said he asked his father to get him a guitar. “M y dad bought me an $ 11.95 acoustic at a paw n shop, and he told me if I learned three songs, he w ould buy m e an electric,” said Sylvester. “ A nd he did, but I learned w ay m ore than three songs.” O nce S ylvester co m p leted high school, he w ent on to earn his asso ciates degree in heavy duty e q u ip m ent m echanics and w orked at a trucking com pany. B ut the jo b was not the only m eans o f incom e for Sylvester. H e w ould w ork his day jo b , and then p erform his soulful HOSTED BY: Please join us for a Candidate Forum WM0 Tuesday, April 10th, 2012 4:30 to 7:30pm The Billy Webb Elks Lodge 6 North Tillamook Portland, Oregon National Assocation of Minority Contractors of Oregon PARTICIPANTS blues at night. In 1987, he opened for BB King at the A rlene S chnitzer C oncert Hall. O nce the trucking com pany went bankrupt, how ever, Sylvester never feared having nothing to do. He w ent through a dislocated w o rk er’s program to help guide his unem ploym ent, and told them , “I ’m gonna play m usic,” he said. “T he lyrics I have on m y songs are the lyrics o f my life, and the first song on the first track w as w ritten at the trucking co m p an y ,” he said. “ B ut I had to keep m y children in m edical insurance. I w orked at the com pany for 20 plus years because they had such a good benefits pack a g e.” Sylvester said, he knows first-hand the pain and toll an expensive medical condition and recovery can have on a person, which is why he advocates so persistently o f the im portance o f health coverage for all. In 2000, Sylvester had to undergo a hip surgery on his right side b e cause o f lost cartilage from his truck ing years. T oday, how ever, he has endured fo u r surgeries, tw o o f w hich he had to have com plete hip replacem ents. “T h is was due to autom obile acci dents from being on the road p lay in ’ m usic that aggravated the resu r faced h ip s,” he said. A s S y lv e s te r f a c e d h e a lth troubles, his local m usicians union called up an organization based out o f C alifornia called M usic C ares, Urban League Appoints Watts Portland Mayoral Candidates: Portland City Council Candidates: CPN1 Amanda Fritz, Mary Nolan, Teressa Raiford and CPN 4 Jen Williams (invited), « Steve Novick (invited). 4 « Metro Council Candidates: Helen Ying (D5) Sam Chase (D5) “N ow I am a bionic Blues m an,” he joked. “A nd the hip is the B oogie C at in to w n .” S ylvester explained how h e ’s dedicated to support h is fe llo w m u sic ia n s as m uch as he can, like he w as su p p o rte d . For the future, he said, it is going to take a lot o f help from the corporate w orld to help the m asses o f people w ith healthcare problem s. M usic is a w ay to drop any b arrier in any c o n v er sation, said Sylvester, ad d ing his excitem ent for the upcom ing event. “T h ere will be a d o w n stairs and upstairs ballroom , w ith tables about the single p ay er m ovem ent, m edical advice, inform ational docu m ents, and o f course m usi cal perfo rm an ces,” he said. “The festival is the h u m an i tarian side o f the m ovem ent. It will bring people together fo r aw aren ess, ed u catio n and m usical en jo y m en t.” Bluesman Norman Sylvester at his “ I w o u ld h o p e th a t in northeast Portland home with the first th e n e x t y e a r , o r 18 acoustic guitar he received as a child m o n th s, th a t so m e m a jo r which was a gift from his father. h e a lth c are re fo rm w ill be p a sse d fo r no t o n ly m u s i w hich paid for his bills one m onth c ian s, b u t a lso fo r all fa m ilie s in and provided him w ith dental w ork. tra n s itio n ,” h e said . T he organization, he said helps out T ickets are available at M usic artists w ho actively perform and M ille n n iu m , G e n e v a ’s, P a ttie ’s record professionally. H o m e P la te a n d b y v is itin g “ I am thankful w e w ere okay, and tick etso reg o n .co m . For m ore infor- it(th e c o s ts o fs u rg e ry )d id n ’tk illu s m ation on the universal health care because everybody is not that lucky c a m p a ig n , v is it to be in that situation,” he said. sin g lep ay ero reg o n .o rg . MHMNMMNMMNMHUHMBMHHMMNMN c o n t i n u e d f r o m page 3 Eileen Brady, Charlie Hales, and Jefferson Smith. April 4, 2012 strengthen and focus the agency for a new leader." W atts was em ployed by TriM et from January 2000through M ay 2011. As the Senior D irector o f D iversity & Transit Equity in the office o f the G eneral M anager, he led the develop m ent and im plem entation o f Transit Equity and D isadvantaged Business Be safe Stay o ff the tracks program s for TriM et. H e currently provides D B E and consulting services under contract fo r T riM et and for several oth er public agencies. H e has also w orked extensively in the com m unity to cre ate opportunities for individuals and the com m unity. As a m em ber o f Coalition o f Black M en since its inception in 1988, W a tts f ir s t s e r v e d a s th e organization's secretary, then the program director for six years and as its executive d irecto r for tw o years. He is a founding board m em ber o f the Josiah Hill III C linic, established in 2000. He is al so a board m em ber o f the M etropolitan C ontractors Im provem ent Partnership, a business developm ent, support and training p ro g ram fo r h i s to r ic a lly underutilized businesses.
