Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and August Wilson Center Collaborate

The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and the August Wilson Center for African American Culture today announced a three-year partnership that will include performances, workshops and reciprocal dance instruction.

The August Wilson Center’s president and CEO Andre Kimo Stone Guess says the seven executives of cultural district institutions meet every month, and this cooperative effort with the Ballet Theatre is one result. Guess says he's not aware of any other city with the same high level of cooperation among artistic groups.

Greer Reed Jones, founding Artistic Director for the August Wilson Center, says the collaboration is coming out of a real dance boom in Pittsburgh, with young companies forming and individual projects taking shape.

In February, 2012, the ballet will perform “Uncommon Baroque” a contemporary mixed repertoire with live music of Bach, Brahms and Beethoven in the August Wilson Center’s 486-seat theater. Choreographer Dwight Rhoden will choreograph an original work to music by Bach.

One of Andre Kimo Stone Guess’s visions is instruction in either ballet or modern dance at either institution available to children from an early age through CAPA through Point Park College and, without leaving Pittsburgh, into a world class dance ensemble.

PA Legislators Push Affirmative Action Set Asides

A short list of Pennsylvania House members including Rep. Jake Wheatley of the Hill District gathered a panel of minority, women and veteran owned business advocates this week to urge fellow lawmakers to pass a bill that would create set aside goals for under represented businesses. H.B. 2149 died last session without coming up for a vote. It would have set affirmative action goals for state contracts. Wheatley hopes to offer similar legislation in the current session.

Western Pennsylvania Minority Supplier Development Council President Lawrence Nichols was among those on the panel. He says the only department in the state that seems to be doing a good job of contracting with minority owned firms is the Department of Welfare. He says there are other states that Pennsylvania can turn to as a model. He says at this time no one seems to know how well minority owned firms do in state contracts. “I’ve never done a survey of my organizations… to see how many of them have active contracts with the state,” says Nichols.

The Western Pennsylvania Minority Supplier Development Council represents about 120 minority owned businesses. Nichols says that includes businesses owned by African Americans, Asians, Hispanics and Indians. Groups representing women owned business and veteran owned business were also on the panel. Some argue that there are not enough minority, women and veteran owned businesses in the state to support set asides. Others argue that without the set asides there will never be enough of those businesses.

Nichols says he plans to return to Harrisburg several times in the coming months to promote the pending legislation. He says one of the first tasks will be making sure the new governor is on board.

Governor Salutes African-American Newspaper Execs

Governor Tom Corbett singled out four African-American Pennsylvanians during a Black History Month celebration at the Capitol Tuesday.
Two of the honorees were Rod Doss and Robert Bogle, executives from the Pittsburgh Courier and Philadelphia Tribune.
Referencing an article a black reporter recently wrote about how black and white people tend to avoid each other on the bus, Corbett said the two African-American newspapers are carrying out important work, and trying to bridge racial divides.
“Let’s make sure that in the days to come, even when luncheon isn’t served, that we don’t leave one another alone on that big bus we call Pennsylvania. We can’t get anywhere together if we don’t travel side-by-side.”

Doss said the two African-American newspapers are charged with the same mission.
“Both publications share a credo that goes back to 1827, and the first editorial written by John B. Russwurm, that said, “for too long, others have spoken for us. Today we plead our own cause.”
Corbett said racial tension still exists, and the two papers play an important role, by providing a voice for the black community.
The governor also presented awards to Renee Amoore, who runs a Philadelphia-based health care group, and Fred Clark, who runs a Harrisburg consulting firm.
The Pennsylvania Governors Office has held similar Black History Month celebrations for nine years now.

Alcoa Foundation Awards $1.2 million

The Alcoa Foundation has awarded $!.2 million to three Pittsburgh non-profits, bringing its total for the past five years in Allegheny County to $11 million.

$600,000 goes to the August Wilson Center for African American Culture now under construction downtown. The grant will be used for permanent exhibits and for the currently touring exhibit of Teenie Harris photos with an accompanying dance performance--both will wind up at the center's opening in 2009.

The Carnegie Library will put its $400,000 toward improving childrens' sections in several branches and for renovations and new construction on the North Side and in the Hill District.

$200,000 will be used by the Children's Institute to study the feasibility of an "Environmental Pediatric Room" --a "clean room" with reduced toxins and exposures. Autistic children would live there for a few weeks to a few months. Friends and family could go in and out, enjoying the clean air, water and organic food in a beautiful setting. Dr. Scott Faber said the hope is the children would undergo biomedical change in that environment, especially de-toxifying chemicals and heavy metals in their bodies. There could be improvements in the immune system, language and socialization, along with a decrease in repetitive behavior patterns.

NAACP partners with Duquesne University

Duquesne University has partnered with the NAACP to allow 3rd year law students to work on civil rights complaints that come through the NAACP. The students worked on a variety of cases from someone being denied witness protection because of race to someone being denied accommodations at a hotel because of race. The students took the cases as far as they needed to go. Most cases do not end up in court so it is a way for students to gain actual legal experience before entering the work force.

ANNUAL MINORITY ENTERPRISES CONFERENCE

Representatives of Minority, Women and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (MWDBE) met today to discuss strategies, best practices and recount success stories for winning minority contracts for public and private projects around the region.

Keynote speaker Keith B. Keys of KBK Enterprises spoke to DUQ about the qualities they and others look for when deciding to award a contract. He noted that vendor relations and orgainized, accountable finances are essential qualities of a viable, competative company.

Also in attendance was Don Barden of PITG Gaming. Barden is developing the Majestic Star Casino on the North Shore. Though he did not commit to a specific percentage of contracts that he would award to minority businesses, he did say that it was important to him to diversify the work, and he hoped that minority contractors would make themselves stand out from the competition.

In an aside he also mentioned that he would be pushing for table games to be legalized in time for the casino's opening in 2009. In response to questions of whether it was smooth sailing from here on out with the construction project, Barden laughed and said the he hoped so, because he has begun to feel like a marathon "hurdle jumper."