Monthly Archives: April 2011

This is lining up to be a busy weekend for West Jackson. (Cheers for things to do!) On Friday, music will fill the Lynch Street area as Jackson State University presents Jazz on the Plaza (6-11:30 p.m.). Jazz on the Plaza is a free event.

Adding to the musical flavor will be the legendary soul group known as The Spinners. The Spinners are performing for the West Jackson CDC’s Lynch Street Cultural Arts Festival Banquet. The banquet kicks off at 7 p.m. at the M.W. Stringer Grand Lodge and will be hosted by Ted Williams–most recently referred to as “The Man with the Golden Voice”. Tickets for the $50, and proceeds will go towards strengthening the economic and community development efforts of the West Jackson CDC. Call the West Jackson CDC for tickets at (601) 352-6993.

On Saturday, the morning begins with the WESToration Event. We’re sure you’ve already RSVP’d, but here’s a link for those who may have forgotten. If you’re interested in renovating the home of your dreams (even one you are looking to purchase), then this event is for you. You’d be surprised by the number of great homes you can renovate here in West Jackson. WESToration is a free event and runs from 9-11 a.m.

Also on Saturday, and just in time for lunch, is the continuation of the 20th Annual Lynch Street Cultural Arts Festival. This portion of the event takes place on Lynch Street between Dalton and Rose Streets and is an outdoor fun fest complete with a community health fair, children’s village, local and national R&B, gospel, and blues artists; vendors, and much, much more. This is a free event and will last well into the evening. The entertainment lineup is listed at the bottom of this post.

So there’s your schedule for the weekend, complete with rest on the Sabbath! Have fun!

Saturday’s Performance Lineup for the Lynch Street Cultural Arts Festival

JSU Drumline 12:00 p.m.
Johnny Clay 12:10 p.m.
John Taylor, Jr. 12:20 p.m.
Pop & Them Chillens 12:45 p.m.
High Frequency 1:05 p.m.
Lil L 1:35 p.m.
Kacey Jones 1:45 p.m.
James “The Rock” Gray 1:55 p.m.
Lil Miss J 2:10 p.m.
Lil Walker Boiz 2:20 p.m.
Greg Pippen 2:30 p.m.
Street Level 2:50 p.m.
Time 2 Move 3:05 p.m.
Kenya Campbell 3:25 p.m.
2 Extreme 3:40 p.m.
The New Millennium Temptations 4:10 p.m.
Tina Diamond 4:25 p.m.
Press Play 601 4:55 p.m.
Pat Brown 5:10 p.m.
The Battle Plan 5:55 p.m.
Dr. D 6:55 p.m.

Looking for something to do on Thursday and Friday? Here are a few things you can check out on the West side:

Image via Wikipedia

Pizza, Dessert, and Auction for Charity (Thursday 6 p.m., Calvary Baptist Church)

The West Jackson Rotary Club is holding its first Pizza Party, Dessert Sampling and Silent Auction this Thursday, April 28^th at 6:00pm at Calvary Baptist Church, 1300 West Capitol Street.  The Piney Woods Cotton Blossom Singers will perform.  Proceeds from the evening will benefit Piney Woods School, Blackburn Middle School’s Computer fund, and the West Jackson Rotary Club’s goal to help beautify the Metro Parkway.  Tickets are $15.00 if purchased in advance, or $20.00 at the door.

For advance tickets, contact Phil Reed at (601) 969-3088 or philreed@vocm.org.

Conversation on Mentoring (Thursday, 5:30 p.m., 1335 Grand Ave.)

Finally, Mentoring Children for Tomorrow, Lutheran Episcopal Services in Mississippi, and the United Way are teaming up for a Conversation on Mentoring. This event will take place here in West Jackson at the lovely home of deborah Rae Wright and aims to find more mentors for Jackson’s youth. For more information or directions, contact Tonja Murphy at (601) 352-7125 or (601) 665-2991.

This is a free event.

Jazz on the Plaza (Friday, April 29, 6 p.m. – 11:30 p.m., JSU Main Campus)

Grab your lawn chair on come out to Gibbs-Green Plaza at Jackson State for “Jazz on the Plaza”. The event features music by the JSU Jazz and Vocal Ensembles, JSU Faculty Jazz Ensemble, Madison Central High School Jazz Ensemble, and performances by internationally renown trombonist, Steve Turre.

The event is free, and with a forecast high of 77°, the weather should be great!

Note: If there is inclement weather, the event will be moved to F. D. Hall Music Center.

Remember the post a couple of months ago that featured the kindness of West Jackson’s barbers? Well, these guys have been busy! Since starting a Pecan Park Elementary, barbers have volunteered their time, talents, and treasures at Isabel Elementary and Barr Elementary. This past Monday, 9 barbers visited Barr Elementary.

—–

Step inside Barr Elementary school, and the most prominent sign that you’ll see is addressed not to students, but to parents. “Parenting Counts” it says, followed by another sign that reads Parent Center.

Obviously parenting is important to the administration of this small school of 209 young minds.  Ms. Nelson, the school’s principal, says that the staff has made a strong effort to involve parents in the happenings at Barr Elementary. The school has a parent coordinator that arranges semi-monthly meetings between parents and faculty. Oh, and remember that Parent Center that was mentioned earlier? It was created as a resource intended to help parents assist their children with homework assignments.

One parent, Ashley Smedley, was present Monday as barbers volunteered to give the boys at Barr fresh cuts for free. She sat with her son Damarcus–who anxiously swung his legs as he awaited his haircut. When asked her thoughts about Barr, she quickly responded with “I like the school. They care for the children here as well as the parents [care for them]…they always try to keep everybody involved.” She then went on to explain the meetings that the school has with parents every two weeks and the efforts of the schools PTA–which she said had great attendance from parents.

Soon, Damarcus was done with his haircut. He hopped out of the chair with the biggest smile on his face–one of 35 boys who received such an act of kindness from West Jackson’s barbers.

Principal Nelson also expressed her admiration with parents’ involvement. Attendance at PTA meetings has gone from an average of 15 parents to one of 50, and she says that the parents are always eager to help.  The fact that Barr is the epitome of a neighborhood school also helps. The school, built in 1921 as the 2nd elementary school in West Jackson (Poindexter, built in 1900, was the first). Many students that attend Barr today get there just as students got there over 90 years ago–by foot! No buses deliver kids to school here, only parents who escort their children along the sidewalks or by car. The vast majority of the students live within 2 miles of the school. Once upon a time, there were neighborhood schools that made this feasible, and at Barr, that time is still now.

West Jackson resident Linda Liddell is still coordinating with this area’s elementary schools to ensure that students at a different school get to see the barbers once a month. In the meantime, the barbers are making plans to start a service-based organization called 100 Black Barbers. Their goal: mentoring and setting positive examples for young men. With over 130 free haircuts given to date, it looks like they have a great head start!

Check out pictures from the event below. For more photos, visit the full album on our Facebook Page. Also, make sure to read The Clarion Ledger’s article on this effort.

Students were required to present a signed permission slip from their parents to receive haircuts. Barber shops that participated in Monday’s event included Blessed Handz (1335 Ellis Ave.), Da Hair Show (3645 Metro Drive), Custom Cuts & Styles (2445 Terry Rd.). Barbers present but not representing a shop included Eugene Perkins and Carlos Johnson.

If you haven’t been to a Friday Forum at Koinonia, then you must…it’s a great way to learn about people and organizations that are making a difference in this city. The forum takes place every Friday at 9 a.m. at Koinonia Coffee House (136 S. Adams Street, adjacent to Metro Parkway).

Those who attended last week’s forum were notified that this week’s forum would be cancelled due to the Good Friday holiday. HOWEVER, organizers have informed us that the forum will take place.

The speaker for tomorrow’s forum will be Dr. James Keeton, Vice Chancellor at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. So feel free to swing by Koinonia tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. for a chat about the progress of one of Jackson’s largest employers.

The Spencer Perkins Center (1831 Robinson Street) is hosting its 1st Annual Family Easter Bash this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event is hosted by Gospel recording artist, Dathan Thigpen, and features special performances by Benjamin Cone III and Christian Hip Hop artist, Gzosh.

If you feel like being active, activities such as a 3-legged race, horseback riding, and dunking booths will be on tap, as well as space jumps and an easter egg hunt for the kids.

Food and concessions will be available and you can also purchase raffle tickets ($5) for a chance to win one of many prizes…including an iPad 2. Proceeds from sales and raffle ticket purchases will benefit the children in the Center’s after school program.

So if you’re looking for an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids, or just want to spend a little time socializing with friends and family, make sure you place this on your events to do list.

For more information, contact the Spencer Perkins Center at (601) 354-1563. You can also visit their website if you’d like to buy a raffle ticket before the event (www.thespc.org)

Admission is free.

It’s that time again! It’s time for the WESToration event. Our previous events have averaged 80 attendees–all eager to learn more about the abundant homeownership opportunities in West Jackson.

Our next WESToration event will be on Saturday, April 30th, from 9-11 a.m. at Koinonia Coffee House. We’ll have the trolley on tap to show you the great potential that is in West Jackson.

To RSVP, call (601) 979-2255 or click here to reserve your spot online.

By the way, one of our WESToration team partners is having a sweepstakes on his Facebook page. All you have to do is visit the Bo Knows Mortgages fan page, follow the instructions, and you’ll be eligible to win a $100 gift card to Target, Shell, or Lowe’s.

Stock photo by Steve Snodgrass of Flickr-Creative Commons

This is absolutely major breaking news: there’s a new place for breakfast on Saturdays, and it’s right here in West Jackson! When I say breakfast, I’m not talking about a bowl of cereal and a granola bar. I’m talking about buttery pancakes, syrupy french toast and waffles, grits, eggs, bacon…oh, wait…my stomach just growled!

Koinonia Coffee House is now open on Saturdays from 8 a.m — 2 p.m. to serve you up a good hearty breakfast. They’ve tweaked their menu to include breakfast sandwiches and all of the items I described above. They’ve also introduced to the Saturday menu a cup of brewed coffee with unlimited refills for only $2.25.

You’ve worked all week, so treat yourself to a hot breakfast at Koinonia Coffee House. Oh, and if you’re more in the mood for lunch on Saturday, their lunch menu will be available as well.

Looking for Koinonia’s Saturday breakfast menu? We’ve got you covered! Here’s a copy of the menu.

Perhaps you looked at the options for today’s trivia and pondered “shouldn’t it read, the Boys and Girls Club of America?” Well…um…not really. In 1955, The Boys Club of America purchased a plot of land at 1450 W. Capitol Street to build a shiny new facility. During that time, the organization was known simply as The Boys Club.

However, The Boys Club did eventually serve girls, and in 1990 the organization changed its name to The Boys and Girls Clubs to reflect this.

The facility referred to in our trivia is known as the Capitol Unit of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Mississippi. The building also houses the main offices of BGC Central Mississippi on the second floor.

The 16,000 square foot Capitol Unit features a gymnasium, multipurpose room, ceramics room, weight room, learning center (for doing homework), and a game room–plenty of room to allow for learning and fun.

Oh, and as for the young people for who this facility is for, the Capitol Unit services 200-250 children during the summer months and 300-380 children during the school year. Translation: a lot of live impacted!

For more information on the Boys and Girls Club, visit their website and also check out our previous post on the facility. For details on the building itself, check out the thesis of architect Ben Ryder.

Boys and Girls Club Commercial

Which national nonprofit organization purchased property at 1450 W. Capitol Street in 1955 to build a facility for mentoring youth?

A.) Boys Scouts of America

B.) Girls Scouts the USA

C.) Boys Club of America

D.) Big Brothers Big Sisters

Answer revealed at 7 p.m., but it’ll put a big smile on our faces if you reveal it to us before then! Go for it! Hey, you could win a gift card to Koinonia Coffee House.

Photo by Anissa Thompson of stock.xchng

Some kids view school as an escape from parentdom (I’ll look that one up later).  For my brother and me, however, that wasn’t the case. Our parents were very involved in school. My dad was especially involved. When I wanted to be in the Boy Scouts at John Hopkins, daddy became Scout Master. When I ventured on over to middle school, daddy decided to head up the PTA. And when I made it high school, he decided he needed to head up the PTA there as well! Oh, and when I joined the band, mama decided to hop on the bus as chaperon a few times.

It wasn’t uncommon for me to be on my way to class and bump into my dad. In fact, thanks to my classmates, I’d often hear that he was in the building before I saw him.

What’s the point? Parental involvement is a great motivator for students–not because it scares kids to make good grades, but because it sends a message of caring and expectation. The result: good grades.

Thea Faulkner sent information to me about the Parents for Public Schools of Jackson Leadership Institute.  The Institute is a parent engagement / advocacy training program that gives parents the knowledge, skills, and will to positively impact changes in public education at the school, district, and state level.

The Institute is open to parents, grandparents, community members, and those who work with students in the Greater Jackson area.  Priority is given to parents of current public school children.

This year, Parents for Public Schools is actively recruiting 30 individuals who are eager to learn more about the education system and how they can positively impact it. Training occurs through a series of three, 2-day workshops that occur at the Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica, Mississippi. Also, the training is free for participants thanks to generous donations to this effort.

Check out the links below if you are interested in participating. Also feel free to spread the word about this program. The deadline to apply is April 18th–so there are only a few more days left!

Leadership Institute Fact Sheet: Download PDF

Leadership Institute Application: Download PDF

If you need additional information, contact Thea Faulkner at (601) 969-6015 or tfaulkner@parents4publicschools.org.