Return to Africa
MokaLantum
jokes that because he is from Cameroon,
you will see a “very strong bias” towards that country in the art and cultural
artifacts at the new BaobabCulturalCenter. | There are 90 pieces of
art on display at Baobab: paintings by Boston’s
KofiKayiga, mixed media by
New York City’s Michael “Ikahl” Beckford, and photographs
by Pittsford’s Lynda Howland. Lantum and his fellow
organizers have been talking about this cultural center for several months, but
have only been in the space since the beginning of October. | Lantum jumps in to explain the stories behind each art
piece, as well as the mask carvings and other artifacts he’s brought back from Africa.
But with opening night looming, his cell phone continually interrupts him. |
“The idea is to create a space whereby the history, art, literature, music, and
atmosphere of Africa and the Diaspora is made available
to the community of Rochester,” he
says. Baobab was inspired, he says, by the lack of anything else like it in the
area. The center will offer art exhibits, an African film series, and after-work
mixers for the public. | Lantum points to one corner
of the gallery and says soon there will be a lounge there with chairs and
Internet access, a place where people can relax, research the art they see on
the walls, and talk about politics and culture. He envisions the film series as
a year-round event. | “We’re going to see how it goes,” says fellow organizer
Joseph Pereรฑa. A freelance interior designer who grew
up in West Africa, Pereรฑa
likes the fact that the center will offer a counterbalance to the negative
image of Africa he often sees in the news. | “But we
want to have local artists, both African American and other nationalities, use
it,” he says. “We don’t want to pigeonhole it, because the world is a lot
bigger than that.” | The first exhibit, Expression
of Freedom and Fears of Expression, will be on display through February 3.
The grand opening is Saturday and Sunday, November 5 and 6, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Baobab is on the third floor of the German House, 315 Gregory Street (Nicholson
Street entrance). $5 each day. 546-4790, www.thebaobab.org.
— Erica Curtis
Lead
law
City
Council seems near agreement on a law requiring owners of all rental housing
units in the city to clean up lead-paint
hazards.
Lead,
a toxic heavy metal found in paint manufactured before 1978, persists in the
body and is linked to brain damage, among other health concerns. It has been
particularly harmful to young children who live in low-income housing, since
those units are most likely to have dust and peeling paint resulting from poor
maintenance.
After
several years of pressure from activists, there’s been little question about
whether Council would pass a lead ordinance. The question has been what form it
would take. City Councilmember Tim Mains wanted the legislation to cover all
city residences — even single-family houses occupied by the owner. Mayor Bill
Johnson wanted to cover only rental units. Both want landlords to bear the
cost. A coalition of business and property owners wanted the inspections limited
to rental properties in the neighborhoods most seriously affected: inner-city
neighborhoods. And they wanted help in paying for clean-up.
It’s
likely that the final legislation will most closely resemble Johnson’s plan.
Here’s how it would work:
Under
current city law, every rental housing unit is inspected for code violations
every five years. And properties must be inspected anytime they change hands.
Those failing the inspection can’t be rented until the hazards are corrected.
In
addition, the city inspects rental units of social-service clients when they
move in or out if the county pays the rent directly to the landlord. City
officials are working with county officials, hoping to include all
social-service clients, even those who pay their rent themselves.
Under
the new legislation, lead-paint hazards would be included in those inspections.
And tenants concerned about peeling paint or other indications of a hazard
would be able to ask for a city inspection.
These
changes, if adopted, would mean that every rental unit in the city would be
inspected (and certified to be safe, or else taken out of use) by 2010.
The
new legislation won’t satisfy everybody. “The question of what is going to be
the quality of the examination is the most critical issue you face,” Bryan
Hetherington, an attorney who’s worked with the Coalition to Prevent Lead
Poisoning, told a Council work session last Thursday. A weak testing standard
for lead could undermine the whole effort, making it “a waste of time,” he
said.
As
an example, Hetherington cited three studies that showed that visual
inspections (looking for cracked and peeling paint, for example) had a 60
percent chance of missing lead hazards that were present.
Council’s
legislation is likely to call for visual inspection; more thorough tests cost
more money.
Then
there’s the issue of paying for clean-up. Although the city has some money
available, landlords themselves will bear nearly all the cost. Some of them
have said that the profit on low-income housing is so low that they would have
to simply abandon their properties.
City
officials seem resigned to at least some abandonment, however, in order to get
lead-paint legislation on the books and get clean-up started.
Image Centered
Some Rochesterians were seeing the
face of Jesus in a tree last week.
Darren Brennessel says he thinks the image of
comedian Jerry Lewis, in this tree on Landing Road,
is trying to tell us something; no joke. That was a few days ago. It may have
changed to Roseanne Barr
by now.
Grand
Old Party poopers
Three
weeks ago Ink paid lighthearted
homage to a bit of political humor from the local Green Party.
For
their campaign lit, Monroe Republicans used photos of their legislature
candidates with Maggie Brooks — all looking like they were created on a
template rather than captured by a camera. That prompted the little progressive
party to spring into action, putting thumbnails of the photos on its own
website with a mock guide to campaigning.
Republican
Chair Steve Minarik has a reputation for nasty ad hominem political humor, but apparently the machine he’s
built couldn’t take even a small taste of what it dishes out. The GOP website
manager changed the key-card file names to break the Greens’ links to the
Republicans’ photos.
“They
put a “1” on the end of all the file names, changing cookiecandidate.pdf
to cookiecandidate1.pdf,” Atias writes us. “We’re
willing to play. The links have been fixed.”
And
that’s not all: “I’ve heard a rumor,” says Atias, “that
some of the candidates are shown on their lit that’s being mailed reading the
same book to the same group of kids. We’re working on that.”
Sure
enough, the Greens’ new and improved satiric website now boasts an expanded
section explaining how to exploit children and families for fun and votes.
Visit
it here: http://www.gpomc.org/2005/politics_as_usual/
This article appears in Nov 2-8, 2005.
