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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (March 23, 2011)
local news Hive encouraging citizen reporting. Media members can upload their local stories to the www.SeaBeez.com website, where readers can access information about a range of local communities around the Seattle region. Sea Beez was created in May of 2010 by director Julie Pham, in cooperation with New America Media, the largest nonprofit ethnic media partner- ship organization in the United States. Pham is also managing editor of the Northwest Vietnamese News in Seattle. “I work at a Vietnamese newspaper and we’re a small business — we can’t serve our readers if we don’t survive as small businesses,” Pham says. “There are organiza- tions that aggregate news and try to share content, but what makes Sea Beez different is about capacity – training and workshops aimed at letting ethnic media get better at their craft.” It’s really to foster opportunities, so for those who are truly committed to it they will succeed. It’s not to create a welfare system, but to empow- er people and raise the standards of our industry. Also to gain more respect for what we do – because with the whole 520 campaign It’s really to foster opportunities, so for those who are truly committed Bellevue Mayor Conrad Lee addressed ethnic media at the Sea Beez Best Business Practices Roundtable PHotoS By Don PHam/nortHWeSt VietnameSe neWS continued from page 1 Wilmington 10 continued from page 1 police while trying to call in a fire alarm. And one older White man, after firing his pistol near a barricade, was shot dead by those defending the church and nearby houses. When Mike’s Grocery was firebombed, firefighters responding were fired upon by snipers. Fourteen months later, 10 people who had been inside the Gregory Church were charged and convicted with the fire- bombing and conspiracy on the testimony of a mentally disabled convict who recanted upon cross-examination, another man serv- ing a sentence for murder and a 13-year-old who was housed in a detention facility. The jury contained known members of the Ku Klux Klan. It was later revealed that other witnesses had been intimidated by police into not tes- tifying. Those that had testified for the pros- ecution had been coached, given shorter sentences for other, unrelated crimes, and deceived by police into thinking threats had been made against their family that were in fact made by the police. When Amnesty International investigated Members of the Black Press the case in 1977, they determined that the Wilmington 10 “were not arrested for the crimes for which they were charged, but because of their political work.” Chavis says now – 40 years later – is the time for a full pardon. The racial and politi- cal tension of that era has changed, allowing for a pardon that then-North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt refused to grant at the time. “I think that some of the polarization that was very much in existence is no longer present in the city of Wilmington or the state of North Carolina,” Chavis said. He said the exact plans to seek a pardon are still being worked out. He anticipates seeking a pardon from the North Carolina governor’s office. If that fails, they would likely petition the president. As for the prosecutorial misconduct, Chavis said he believes in redemption for former Prosecutor James ‘Jay’ Stroud. “I think it’s an opportunity for the prosecutor to seek redemption where an injus- tice was done,” he said. He believes there is evi- dence that Stroud was assisted by those in the federal government at the time. Chavis says that a pardon would also help today’s young people discover what they should be vocal about. “I think it would have a benefit for com- munities and young people to connect what is happening today … don’t forget, this was about young people standing up for racial justice,” Chavis said. In a turn of fate, Stroud is currently – as of March 18 – incarcerated in the Gaston County Jail in Gastonia, NC. He had been working as an attorney in the small town, but voluntarily gave up his license to prac- tice law after a series of arrests that began in 2006 for assault with a deadly weapon, sim- In a turn of fate, (Wilmington 10 prosecutor) Stroud is currently incarcerated ple assault, hit and run, domestic violence and violating a domestic violence restrain- ing order. The Gaston Gazette reported in December 2010 that Stroud’s son blames his father’s behavior on mental illness. Visit http://triumphantwarriors.ning.com for more information, photos and blogs by and about the Wilmington 10. Let’s Talk continued from page 1 High School reunion, where he and Paige were once classmates, and where Artharee was known at that time by a different name – Billy Hutchins. “It was at that reunion that she was giving out this card letting folks know about the play she had done … I became very intrigued when I learned her play had a Christian-based theme to it, it was a come- dy, it was funny and it was also a story of inspiration that a person can have a dream and achieve that dream,” he told The Skanner News. “I also thought it paralleled Liz’s personal story in some ways about how she overcame certain challenges where she was writing and produc- ing her own plays.” Although it has been over 30 years since Artharee changed his name in an affir- mation of his African cultural roots, many in Compton, Calif. still knew him as Hutchins. So his turn on the playbill gets both names cred- ited, and lets his Portland friends in on his long lost – although benign – secret. He brought Paige up to Portland in January to attend Highland Christian Center and The Skanner News Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast to help gauge interest in the play. Artharee says that Portland needs more ethnic productions and could see more if enough people turn out for support. God’s Calling “It was inspired by God,” Paige says. “I started out years ago doing skits, 7-minute and 10-minute skits. I was tired and wanted to grow. And decided to do a one-woman show.” Sitting in church, she decided to ask for help from the congregants for different characters. With a background as a corpo- rate trainer, being in front of an audience was natural for her. In November of 2009, she performed what she thought was going to be a one- time gig. “And then people heard about it and said, ‘we missed it’ so we did it again and then we moved it to the Inland Empire twice,” she said. ‘You might see yourself and if you see yourself, just look straight ahead, don’t say anything to anybody’ After that, the play was on a roll. Paige says she created it to make com- ments on the everyday things that go on in the Black church, as well as the people’s relationship with God, the “fakism” in the church that needs to stop and how people can always be delivered. “You might see yourself,” she said. “and if you see yourself, just look straight ahead, don’t say anything to anybody. You might see people you know, that’s like that in the church and when you hit those people, Paige herself had once that’s why everybody is been an exotic dancer. like, ‘yeah, that’s a mem- “People were confess- ber in my church, that’s ing to me that Sunday,” my mother.’” she said. At heart, Paige is a Laughing with God people watcher. Whether When Paige went to she’s in the mall, the air- make her play into a port or a house of wor- DVD, people in the stu- ship, Paige is always dios didn’t know what to observing the characters make of the genre. Not around her. only are there very few “I sit in church and I male gospel comedians, make up their names,” Artharee and Paige Paige may be the only she said. woman in her line of She says she’s con- stantly making up new names and charac- work. “I think a lot of things I couldn’t say over ters to include in her shows. Sister Sparkles, Deacon Delicious, the pulpit, but I could say over the stage. Rejocekia are only the beginning. With lit- Now is the time for it … I do say it with tle additional cost to add different charac- finesse and caring. I’m just saying what’s ters to “Let’s Talk,” Paige is always chang- real. They agree with me. It’s not slander or anything.” ing the show. Not that some jokes haven’t been contro- “All I need is a sofa and chairs and we sit versial. On the DVD, she does a joke about and we dialogue,” she said. In scene 4, it isn’t unheard of to grab a the White Church vs. the Black Church. “Nothing’s wrong with either one, we just guest or two from the audience. The fiction in the play has gotten a little have different styles,” she said. “How they close to reality for many audience members. acknowledge their wives, in the White Although Oprah is actually ending her long- Church, they might say oh there’s my wife time show this year, Paige is only taking Suzie over there, stand up Suzie, she waves, she’s the mother of my three children. In the over the time slot in fantasy land. “This one lady thought it was real, she Black Church, ‘Get up you foxy woman!’ said, ‘Really?! Did you get it?’ No, no, this They say she’s the sugar in my cereal!” is the play, stay with me here,” she said. Artharee said that when the main charac- Read the rest of this story online at ter talks about being a redeemed pole www.theskanner.com dancer, many in the audience thought that march 23, 2011 The Portland Skanner Page 3
