Roxbury Community Research Advisory Board

The Roxbury Community Research Advisory Board (CRAB) has membership openings and is seeking individuals who live or work in Roxbury, Dorchester or Mattapan and are interested in helping to end health disparities and expand participation in medical research. The Roxbury CRAB is composed of residents who are working to improve community understanding of and responsiveness to community based and clinical research in the above areas and work to advise researchers. Members also provide advocacy education & training and community outreach and dissemination of information. The Roxbury CRAB is a part of the Horizon Center at UMASS Boston.

Please send bio or resume' and a short explanation of your interest by October 26, 2009 to The Nominating Committee Horizon Center Wheatley Hall, VDC Room 162 UMASS Boston 100 Morrissey Blvd. Boston, Ma. 02125 or email to highfort@juno.com for more information call 857-544-3079 617-287-5685

ropeburn

we wrote our eulogies on napkins
stained from bloodied fingers gripping
at life's drawstrings
palms chafed from struggle's rope burns
embracing such struggle so often
in this mystical
ghetto wonderland
we often forget
to get off at our stop
lazily lulling ourselves to sleep in a
hallucinogenic stupor of
despair
the choices we make never fully feasible
the regrets we forsake never fully meaningful
disciplined by character
and whipped by insecurity
we fetch our own twigs and nooses
in spite of our supposed freedom
oblivious to the living lessons learned
in our stories
skimming through its pages
much too fast to notice
we've reached the cliffhanger
and all the parachutes are on back order
so we dangle from tattered ropes
as gravity prevails

The Bay State Banner’s next step

The Banner’s next step

America has been suffering in the throes of the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. At the same time, the newspaper industry has struggled with revolutionary technological changes that have eroded advertising revenues. It is no wonder that a small weekly publication like the Bay State Banner would be greatly challenged by such circumstances.

With publication of the July 9, 2009, issue, the Banner announced that it would suspend publication. Reaction from the Boston community was resounding. Civic and political leaders stepped forward to help bring the Banner back, and Mayor Thomas M. Menino arranged for a bridge loan from a special fund administered by the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

Critical to the future success of the Banner is the management’s development of a plan for future operation with the guidance of Next Street Financial, a merchant bank located in Roxbury and New York. But no plan can be successful without the support and participation of Banner readers.

On Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., the Banner invites all those who may be interested to attend a meeting at Hibernian Hall, located at 184 Dudley Street in Roxbury, to hear a report on “the next steps” for the Banner. Those interested in coming should e-mail sandraATbannerpub.com by Monday, Sept. 28, so that we can have an accurate count for the caterer.

Your support will determine whether the Banner continues to serve as the voice of Boston’s African American community.

Audiotions for Boston Book Festival Spoken Word Event

The Boston Book Festival seeks high school students to perform at the student spoken word event to be held at the inaugural Boston Book Festival on Saturday, October 24th, 2009 at 11 AM.

Auditions will be held on Saturday, September 26.

Students must be nominated to audition by a faculty or program advisor with an active poetry, drama or spoken word program.

For more information or to nominate a student, please contact Eileen Newman at eenewman (AT) comcast.net or 617-763-5145.