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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.