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From Page to Stage: Newark in Black and Blue in 2004

In the Fall of 2004, I was teaching a course at Rutgers University in Newark called “From Page to Stage” where the idea — as I was teaching the course — was to take original scripts written in class and present them in live performance to learn how the process of active creation worked.

The final project was a series of group presentations where students shared their lives as they were living it — and the alarming result of one racially diverse group was: “Newark in Black and Blue.”  That group’s bruising presentation was tough and blunt and dramatic and I decided we had to record that performance in audio so we could preserve the truth of the moment.

Continue reading → From Page to Stage: Newark in Black and Blue in 2004

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LinkedIn and the Promise of Minority Equality in the Age of Internet Access

Yesterday, I posted an image Janna took over the weekend to my social media circles, and I was surprised to read this morning how concerned some were over what I thought was a joyous image of young Black females in the urban core being involved in a connected electronic Age.  The action was happening on LinkedIn, and here is that discussion — I don’t know if you can read it by default, or if you have to be linked to me first or not — and here is the image that started it all:

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Bring Back Continental Airlines!

I take back every nasty thing I ever said about Continental Airlines:

The insidious reality that Continental limits participation and requires documentation for Bereavement plays into the idea that you’re getting a great deal when you are not. It certainly appears Continental is preying on your loss and your broken heart to line their pockets and to blacken their bottom line.

It disgusts me when companies take advantage of the emotional despair that comes in waves of mourning and longing and yearning and companies like Continental Airlines deserve to have their Bereavement fares mocked online and wholly identified as an inconsolable and inconsiderate scam.

Yes, yes, I give in!  I take back every single bit of it all, now that United Airlines have corrupted my previously unbeloved and loathsome Continental brand — just give us back Continental!

Continue reading → Bring Back Continental Airlines!

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Beware: Newark is not New York!

Years ago, when I was teaching at several New Jersey colleges and universities, a few of my students randomly confided in me how they felt purposefully ripped off by their Newark college admission offices.  They believed they were tricked into studying in Newark instead of New York City.

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The Sworn City: Thin Blue Line Gets Thinner in Newark

On Tuesday, the city of Newark unconscionably laid off 167 police officers.  That is a stunning amount of shields no longer protecting a killing urban core and we are immediately propelled back to the death days of August 2007 and Murder at Ivy Hill.

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Zuckerberg Foots the Newark Schools Bill

After New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s administration shamefully lost $400 million in Federal education funds for the State because of an error in their application, the school system in the Garden State was looking woefully undervalued and critically underfunded.  Yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, pledged $100 million of his own money to specifically help the blighted Newark, New Jersey school system.

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One in 99: Number One as the Prison Nation

The United States is now the number one nation of the incarcerated in the world. The Pew Center on the States released a new report that one in 99 Americans is a prisoner in the nation’s overcrowded jail and prison system.

Continue reading → One in 99: Number One as the Prison Nation