• Another D.C. Area Black Institution Threatens Closure / Obama Wins? Blacks Take Over?
• If Obama Wins, Will Blacks Takes Over?
• New Print Issue:  Blacks and the Green Movement
• Art in the Garden
• The Exposure Group Juried Photography Exhibit
• Jacob Lawrence's The Migration Series
• Victoria Rowell in Silver Spring, MD - Harlem

Recalling the closure of top-notch, non-traditional Black owned businesses such as Tea Infusions and SIPS, Artmosphere Café’s  Dyrell Madison is seeking financial donations from the community to keep the cafe’s doors open.  “We know this is an unusual request but we desperately need your assistance,” he says.

The café models itself after Washington, D.C.’s Blues Alley and Bus Boys and Poets, but is located in Mt. Rainier, MD at the gateway of the developing arts corridor in Prince George’s County along Rhode Island Avenue, just pass the Washington, D.C. border.  Madison continues, “Resources offered to us by the State, Prince George's County and other entities have been slow to come. While many rave about Artmosphere being a "drum-major" in the revitalization of the Mt.Rainier, we have been left to struggle alone.”

For nearly two years, Artmosphere has become an upstart institution by hosting live music events featuring nationally recognized acts such as Angie Stone, Raheem Devaughn and Dick Gregory.  It has also featured local artists including Port of Harlem’s graphic designer Yvette Benjamin who performs as Free.   The café also focuses on selling healthy food such as Hendricks Hummus  and Tito Puente Protein sandwiches with homemade raspberry tea and bottled juices.

Madison hopes to raise $10,000.  "We have reached about a third of our goal,"  says Madison in a Port of Harlem interview.

• Click here for more information

The Indianapolis Star reports that Sharon Jacobs, a 58-year-old retired foundry worker from Auburn, Indiana  is supporting Clinton.  "To be honest, it's because I liked Bill Clinton as president. I figure two heads are better than one," she said.  But she said she's also worried that "if Obama [whose mother was non-Black] gets in there, the Blacks will kind of try to take over." The fact that that thought entered her head "scares me," Jacobs said. She doesn't want to discriminate, she said, but added: "It's there."

Meanwhile, a picture of President Bill Clinton with Rev. Jeremiah Wright has been circulating on the net and has appeared in mainstream media.  So, while Hillary may not have chosen Wright to be her pastor, her husband chose to cultivate a relationship with Rev. Wright during his presidency.

As reported by Tavis Smiley on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, Pat Buchanan shared these words about Senator Obama and Rev. Wright:  “First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.”  Click here for "A Brief for Whitey, by Pat Buchanan.

Photos:  Obama with wife, Michelle.  Rev. Jeremiah Wright with President Bill Clinton at the White House.

                     
“It was not until I became an adult that I learned to appreciate my hometown’s natural environment.  My new found appreciation for Gary, Indiana’s natural environment did not translate into an appreciation for the natural environment in which I currently live until some of my neighbors and I toured one of the Fort Circle Parks in Southeast Washington,” says Port of Harlem publisher Wayne Young.  Similar to Gary, people do not perceive Southeast as a nature haven.  In the May – July 2008 issue, we explore the relationship between Blacks and the Green Movement.  Here are snippets from the newly released print issue:

• Lavell Merritt, Jr.’s interest in the environment started while he was growing up in Silver Spring, MD. “My crew of friends played outside in our back yards, streets, and wooded lots for hours,” says the now Texas A&M doctoral student who is studying the principle of sustainability and park planning, who is this issue’s cover model.

• “A little more than three decades ago, Francis embarked on a 22-year journey that would eventually take him across the United States and through parts of Central and South America on foot.  His mission: a planet walk, ” writes Staci Gorden in an exclusive interview with John Francis, the Planetwalker. (National Geographic Books, $26).

• WJLA-TV reporter Sam Ford writes about the environmental struggle is his hometown, Coffeyville, Kansas.  “I returned to the Eastside recently and found that the refinery is still there, but most of my world is gone.  Entire city blocks are barren except for the shell of a house here and a street sign or fireplug there.  What happened?  Two things:  residents started suing the refinery for what it was doing to their health, homes and lives, and the refinery started buying them out.  Some, like my childhood friend, Pat Jennings, said ‘No.’”

In addition, the 13-year-old magazine includes its regular departments including Money Talks, Travel, Health, Book Review, Recipe, and Entertainment.   An interview with singer Gladys Knight is featured in Health and another with singer Dorothy Norwood in Entertainment.  Jason Miccolo Johnson offers photography tips, Philip Merrill offers a mysterical history tale in “A Cold Case Without a Trace” and you will find a healthy recipe for Buttermilk Wheat Germ Pancakes with Yogurt and Blueberry Sauce only in the latest print issue of Port of Harlem.

• Click here to subscribe. Why miss another issue? (It will arrive at your door by May 2)
• Click here for distribution points? (Available shortly after May 2)

A masterpiece of narrative painting, Jacob Lawrence's The Migration Series is an unforgettable work portraying the 20th-century exodus of more than a million African Americans from the rural South to the industrial North. Rarely seen in its entirety, the 60-panel cycle will be reunited for a limited time at The Phillips Collection in The Great American Epic: Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series.  The Great American Epic will be presented exclusively at The Phillips Collection from Saturday, May 3 and will remain on view through Monday, Oct. 26, 2008.

Soon after its completion, The Migration Series was published in Fortune magazine and exhibited at the Downtown Gallery in New York. With this solo show Lawrence achieved instant recognition and became the first African American to be represented by a major New York commercial gallery. Shortly thereafter, interest in the series resulted in its split purchase by The Phillips Collection (odd-numbered panels) and The Museum of Modern Art (even-numbered panels).

The Phillips Collection is located in the heart of Washington's historic Dupont Circle neighborhood, at 1600 21st Street, NW, near the Dupont Circle Metro (Q Street exit). Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10a to 5p; Thursday Artful Evenings until 8:30p; Sunday from 11a to 6p.  Closed Mondays.