Clasique Magazine October Issue

TM

FREE Monthly MagazineReview This Issue & Others at www.classiquemagazine.net

October 2010 • Volume 10, Issue 9

A Phenomenal Cancer Survivor with Incomparable Faith- Annette De Lavallade

If you ever needed a competent person to make sure you had the latest in-formation on nutrition and health problems, you definitely want to talk to health expert extraordinaire Dr. Annette M. Johnson. Johnson has devoted her life to improving the healthiness of women, adolescents and children with a special concentration on the health disparities of minorities.

In her current job with the New York State Health Department she is the Program Director/Manager – Osteoporosis Prevention & Education Pro-gram/ Infertility Demonstration Program; New York State Infertility Dem-onstration Program; and the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health Coor-dinator for the New York State Breast feeding Initiative.

As the administrative manager for the Department’s Osteoporosis Preven-tion and Education Program, she provides Department administrative oversight of statewide implementation of professional and community in-formation and education, and support programs to prevent, diagnose and treat those affected by Osteoporosis. As the program manager for the NYS Infertility Demonstration Program, she works with community providers who provide funds to improve access to services that will assist them in obtaining the necessary services to become parents. There is an increased emphasis on Breast Feeding as a preferred method for infant feeding, (in-cluding passage of a Breast Feeding Bill of Rights in New York State) and current thinking that breast feeding can help address the national epidemic of obesity, especially in children and youth. Johnson works with programs in her Bureau and throughout the Department of Health to coordinate initiatives that support women who elect to breast feed educate the public about the value of this form of infant feeding.

She is a woman of incomparable perseverance, Christian strength, and positive thinking. I remember vividly leaving a meeting with her and look-ing into her eyes inquiring how she was doing. With a quiet reverence and deliberate forced optimism, she said, “My doctor just told me I have breast

Dr. Annette Johnson New York State Health Department, Program Director/Managercontinued on page 3

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Larkfest Page 8

Proctors Offers Reduced Tickets for Youthto Dance Harlem Theater ...............................................pg 11

Macedonia Youth Empowerment Program .....................pg 5

Black History Series ..........................................................pg 5

Jobs For Young Men ........................................................pg 11

10 Reasons for Voting .......................................................pg 4

Guide to the Inside:

ClassiqueFOR CLASSY UNIQUE PEOPLE • We Only Print Positive Information.

2 • www.classiquemagazine.net October 2010

Dear Readers,

October is Cancer Awareness month. Our cover story is about Dr. Annette Johnson, a lady who has survived cancer and other tragedies with grace and faith that would challenge many of the hardiest individuals. I hope you find her information inspiring

Our nation is going through some tumultuous times and I am calling on all readers to pray for President Obama as he presses forward by leading our country with intellectual grace and dignity. We have listed some key reasons that everyone should vote on November 2. There is so much at stake. It is critical that we elect people who respect, unconditionally, everyone and who are willing to work on behalf of everyone. Please encourage everyone 18 and older to take the time to vote.

Please visit our Classique website at www.classiquemagazine.net as well as www.onyxmanagementinternational.com through which services such as compliance monitoring is provided. We are now responsible for monitoring the construction of the New York State Police headquarters to ensure that women and minority contractors are hired as subcontractors.

A special note of appreciation goes to my son, Michael De Lavallade, who coordinated the completion of both sites with an IT specialist.

Several readers asked for a follow up to the article about Henrietta Lacks, the lady who DNA was used to fight cancer. We hope and pray that one day her family receives the financial benefits they so richly deserve.Again, thank you for the many positive comments you have made about our publication. Your suggestions for ar-ticles are welcome.

Sincerely,

Annette De Lavallade

Classique TM

October 2010Volume 10, Issue 9

•Publisher & EditorAnnette De Lavallade

•Graphic Designer

Melissa Miller•

Contributing WritersEmma BlakeTonya Crew

Marcella GreenSara Hill

Eddie JacksonNyla Jordan

Benita L. Law-DiaoDonald Hyman

James PageClaudette RamirezJacob S. Thomas

Sonya TuckerDavid WilliamsFaith Williams

•Marketing

RepresentativesNew York Press Association

•Marketing

Account ExecutiveMichael De Lavallade

•Photographers

Duncan BaileyEddie Jackson

Warren HamiltonPhil Little-John

•Contributing Poets

Leonard A. Slade Jr.•

PrinterPennysaver Press

Bennington, VT 05201(800) 234-1432

November ThemeHealthy Living

December ThemeHoliday Celebrations

Classique 10th Anniversary

photo by: El-Wise Noisette

Classique TM Magazine108 Greenwich Drive • Albany, NY 12205 (518) 456-4941

email: [email protected]

Classique Website Makes Debut

The Classique Magazine website has been com-pleted. We owe a debt of gratitude and thank Michael De Lavallade who patiently coordinated the work with Steven Stone who set up the mecha-nisms to construct the website.

The website features past issues of Classique that can be individually read. We hope to add other back issues and other features eventually. The website is: www.classiquemagazine.net

Articles That Made a Difference to You

We hear from readers periodically who tell us how an article made a difference to them. Some of the people we featured on the cover have had readers compliment them on learning new information or that they were inspired reading the cover story.

Please send us your comments about articles which made a difference to you or your family. We will print your response.

We reserve the right to edit letters. However, if we feel any changes are needed we will send you our editorial comments and ask for your permission to include the changes.

www.classisquemagazine.net • 3October 2010

cancer.” I remember feeling stunned and immediately trying to think of positive words with which to comfort her. She told me that she would meet with her doctors and figure out what she planned to do next.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2003 which was treated with a Lumpec-tomy and 6 weeks radiation. When was asked how her knowledge of nutrition and diet played a role in fighting the cancer, she responded, “My diet helped as I became progres-sively more tired from radiation. I spread small meals out throughout the day to help with my energy level. I was travelling quite a bit during that time so that really helped along with some “cat naps!” Also, after surgery, I was very careful to reduce fats and increase fiber.”

She is a cancer survivor who has fought numerous challenges with an incredible spirit and her unyielding belief system that has sustained her throughout all of her trials and tribulations. Not only has she survived breast cancer but her house caught fire. Johnson reported, “Ironically, I was on my churches’ pastor’s nominating committee and I needed to get copies of some background materials and resumes to review for a meeting. I had discon-nected my computer as I had planned to move within a couple of weeks. I left my apartment to go to Kinko’s to print off the informa-tion. When I returned home, the building was engulfed in flames and I was told to stay back because the building was unsafe to even go near. I watched while they carried firemen out who were overcome by smoke and heat. It was a hot June day. Fortunately, a member from my church, First Presbyte-rian Church, who lived close by was there and provided the support I needed to go over to the Red Cross site so they could get some needed information and provide some assistance”.

“I was quite dazed and was very glad to know no one was in the building. (We did lose one cat.) I stayed the next few weeks at var-ious friends’ homes until I was able to move into the place I had planned to move to. Cleaning out the charred remains and pick-ing through the smoky and unsafe place was difficult but I had help from so many people.

As circumstances would have it, the next day after the fire she went to her physician’s office to get some prescriptions for refill. She stat-ed. “While driving back to a friend’s house, a rain and wind storm suddenly occurred. As I was driving down a street, a branch from a tree broke off and fell across the front of my car, cracking the wind-shield. I got out and was able to move the branch and drove my car to a garage. I prayed there would be no more “incidents” for awhile! Fortunately, I was able to leave the car until the insurance company had a chance to as-sess the damage and make arrangements for repairs”.

Despite her home burning down and her car being totaled she did not let these obstacles stop her. Johnson recalls, “I have a copy of an etching over my desk at work that reads, “Still I Rise” after a line in a Maya Angelou poem. I always remember my parents and others in my family who have faced greater hardships than I have and kept looking for the bright side of situations. One lesson that I took from my mother, God rest her soul, is “Don’t quit!” I believe that is how I was able to persevere and finish my graduate degree even as my mother was dying.” From my father, who has also gone on to the next life, I remember his steadfast and unwavering belief that we can all have value and can succeed if we persevere and remain true to our values.

In May 2010, Johnson achieved a life-long goal of receiving a Doctor of Education in Health Education (Health and Behavior Studies) Columbia University’s Teacher Col-lege in New York, New York. The emphasis of her doctorate was Public Health – Child and Adolescent health, Program development, implementation and evaluation. Prior to that she received a Master of Science in Community Health Education from Teachers College Columbia University. She attended Tuskegee Institute and received advanced training in hospital dietetics after graduating from Michigan State University where received a Bachelor of Science in Hospital Dietet-ics and Chemistry. Johnson is a dedicated public health professional with over thirty-five years experience in health and public health as a direct services provider, consultant and administrator. Her commitment and longstanding vision to reducing health disparities in vulnerable communities in the US and around the globe is the cornerstone on which her career is based. She has authored articles on HIV/AIDS, community partnerships in chronic diseases and development of interna-tional networks for services. As a college instructor and adjunct professor in the Africana Studies Department at SUNY at Albany she seeks to increase her student’s knowledge of health issues and strategies to address those issues that we so often hear about. She serves as a mentor to public health students and young professional looking to pursue

careers in the field of health and public health. Her professional career includes direct service delivery and commu-nity education in rural and urban communities; community organizing and resource development; health care professional and paraprofessional education and training, and consultation in the development of local, national and international public health (physical, mental and emotional) and related programs.

Johnson has extensive experience with the development of multi sector partnerships, coalitions and service networks and has been instrumental in the development of local community efforts to address nutrition and primary health for women, children and adolescents, HIV/AIDS education, social support and health care and refugee/immi-grant health and supportive services. Her background in public health, nutrition, health education and community development in combination with her work in the public, voluntary and government sectors has en-abled her to serve as an effective liaison and broker between communities, service or-ganizations, policy makers and funders. She has facilitated and provided direction in strategic planning and organizational development for community, voluntary organiza-tions looking to reshape their agendas and worked with state and federal government agencies and national and inter-

national organizations in assessing operations and services. Family guidance and heritage played an important role in John-son’s life. She commented, “My parents both came from families where they were the youngest of 11 and 12 children. They both attained the equivalent of Associate degrees and placed a great value on education. Their families were descendants of freedom seekers from slavery and immigrants from other British Com-monwealth countries who settled in Canada. When we moved to the United States in 1951, my parents made a vow that all of their children would have the opportunity to go to college. This was supported by my aunts and uncles and other relatives, some of who had obtained mas-ters, and professional degrees in the 1930’s, 1940’s and 1950’s. They were firm believers in the power of education to move up, but to always remember to bring someone else along with you. Good shoulders to stand on”. Johnson has been a member of the American Public Health As-sociation since 1986, where she served as the President of Black Caucus of Health (BCHW) workers from 2003-05, and as a Board Member from 2003-06. During her leadership of BCHW she was instrumental in keeping the Caucus informed and well

versed on the process and issues of TFAIR, an initiative to reorganize APHA to give greater voice to all members, organized strategic planning retreat for board leadership development, and worked to enhanced communication and collaboration efforts between BCHW and other caucuses. In addition to the BCHW, she is an active member of International Health and Student Sections. Johnson is a community activist. She also worked with local efforts address the needs of those adversely affected during the Rwanda civil war. She is active with the Women of Color Cancer Survivors Support Group in the Capital District, which was created to assist and support African American and other women of color who are also cancer survivors. As part of the FOCUS Churches ministry*, she is part of an Eddy Care team program that supports individuals with chronic or life-threatening diseases.

For the past fifteen years, she has volunteered at the Equinox Thanksgiving Dinner at the First Presbyterian Church in Albany. She explained, “This year, I will be one of the churches’ liaisons to Equinox for this important event.” I am also training to be a Red Cross volunteer in my spare time!”

In addition to completing a rigorous schedule to complete her doctorate degree she managed to serve on several community boards. She has been on the board of the Up-per Hudson Planned Parenthood, the Women’s Building and Holding our Own. She is currently on the board of the Underground Railroad History Project of the Capital District, the New York State Public Health Association. She concluded, “I also sing in the choir at the First Presbyterian Church of Albany, and am part of the Mission Committee, ‘and for fun’, I get to network with wonderful women in the Albany Chapter of Girl Friends! Clearly a woman of great faith in God, she is a sterling example of Maya Angelou’s de-scription of a phenomenal woman.

*Six covenant churches, four faith affiliates, and two faith partners, doing together what we cannot do alone. The FOCUS feeding programs - FOCUS Interfaith Food Pantry, FOCUS Winter Breakfast, and Extra Helpings Food Buying Club - are our primary ef-forts in an endeavor to help those in need by providing our community with good, nutritious food and hospitality.

A Phenomenal Cancer Survivor with Incomparable Faithcontinued from front cover


1.Everyone 18 years of age and older is eligible to vote. It is your right to vote and to take advantage of having voting rights which our ancestors fought for with their lives and/or hard work.

2.If not for you - then vote for your children so that services to protect and maintain their well being will continue.

3.This state-wide and local election is as important as the election of Presi-dent Obama because of the people who are against all that he stands for and that he has accomplished.

4.Recently, new provisions of health reform took effect. These provisions bar insurance companies from denying coverage to children with pre-ex-isting conditions, prohibiting lifetime limits on care, and allowing young people to stay on their parents plans for longer. Your vote will help this reform remain in place.

5.President Obama reported, “If Republicans take control this November, the hard-earned progress we’ve achieved could be in jeopardy”.

6.Your vote will help elect people who will continue programs that will provide jobs, money for educating our children and money for social se-curity for you, when you become a senior citizen, if you are not one now.

7.Every single vote is important because it could only takes one vote to create a winner. But 52% of people voting, of those who do vote, can de-termine a winner. Again, one additional vote can be critical. “Don’t Hate” or complain to your hair dresser, nail artist or barber if someone you know doesn’t represent the best interest of the poor and minorities gets elected, and you didn’t vote!

8.New York State PROTECTS THE VOTING RIGHTS OF FELONS! Con-victed felons can vote in the State of New York if they are no longer in jail and no longer on parole. In other words, if you committed a felony, came out of jail, and you are no longer on parole, you can vote. Ex-offender must re-register to vote. This not common knowledge in New York. Most con-victed felons believe that they have lost the right to vote forever.

9.When you go to the polls to vote, take a child with you so that they can see you doing something important for your family. It is an opportunity to talk about how hard people fought for the right to vote and that you do not want to miss this opportunity to show them why they should vote when they become 18.

10.President Obama has accomplished significant improvement of services for the average family, such as health care reform, during his tenure than the last five presidents. By voting on November 2 for candidates who sup-port programs that his administration created to help all Americans, you become an important part of American history.

2010 GENERAL ELECTION DEADLINE

MAIL REGISTRATION Sec. 5-210(3) Applications must be postmarked not later than October 8th and received by a board of elections not later than October 13th to be eligible to vote in the General Election.IN PERSON REGISTRATION Secs. 5-210, 5-211, 5-212You may register at your local board of elections or any state agency partici-pating in the National Voter Registration Act, on any business day through-out the year but, to be eligible to vote in the November general election, your application must be received no later than October 8th except, if you have been honorably discharged from the military or have become a natu-ralized citizen since October 8th, you may register in person at the board of elections up until October 22nd.

Where to register to Vote•You can register in person at your county board of elections•or at any New York State Agency-Based voter registration center.•You can enter your name directly into our mailing list database to have a New York State Voter Registration Form mailed to you. (NOTE: The same form can be downloaded, using the link below.)•You can call our 1-800-FOR-VOTE hotline to request a voter application.

Qualifications to Register to Vote•be a United States citizen;•be 18 years old by December 31 of the year in which you file this form (note: you must be 18 years old by the date of the general, primary or other election in which you want to vote);•live at your present address at least 30 days before an election;•not be in jail or on parole for a felony conviction and;•not claim the right to vote elsewhere.

To contact the ALBANY COUNTY Board of Elections:Albany County Board of Elections32 North Russell Road | Albany, NY 12206(off of Central Avenue, near Westgate Plaza) Phone: (518) 487-5060 | Fax: (518) 487-5077

Download registration forms via email: Email: [email protected] of Operation: Monday - Friday, 7:45am - 5:00pm To contact the NEW YORK STATE Board of Elections:Call 1 (518) 474-6221or write: 40 Steuben Street, Albany, New York 12207-2108

SAVE THE DATE Join us for a complimentary luncheon RSVP TODAY!

Dress for Success Albany

It's almost time for our annual awareness luncheon! Reserve a spot for you and a guest (or two) today! Space is limited.

Century House, Latham, NYNovember 10, 2010

11:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.Complimentary lunch will be served - No fee to attend

Keynote Speaker:Joi Gordon, CEO Dress for Success Worldwide, NYC

Click HERE to RSVP via email or call 518-463-3175 ext. 101RSVP no later than November 1, 2010. Seating is limited. Reserve today!

NOTE: Do not 'reply' to this email. It will not be received.

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10 Important Reasons for Voting November 2General Election: November 2, 2010 • POLLS OPEN AT 6 AM – 9PM


Dr. Jesse T. Henderson, Jr. Black History Series Inaugural Class – October 23, 2010 – 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

Duryee Memorial AME Zion Church

309 Hulett Street

What do you know about the following?

Duryee Memorial AME Zion Church – 1837

Lewis Howard Latimer Joe Allen James A. Stamper

Julia A. Foote Georgetta Dix

Learn more about the rich African-American presence in the

City of Schenectady

Plan to attend monthly classes that are

free and open to the public

For additional information, please email

[email protected] or call 355-8157

Dr. Jesse T. Henderson, Jr. Black History SeriesSchenectady has a rich Black presence dating as far back as 1762. We must chronicle and share this history with our youth. Beginning in October there will be monthly Black History classes hosted by the Schenectady churches. Each church will be given a specific timeline.

The series is entitled the “Dr. Jesse T. Henderson, Jr. Black History Series.” Dr. Henderson is a long time resident of Schenectady and a member of Friendship Baptist Church. He is a retired physician who is heavily in-volved in genealogy, and has been actively involved in the Schenectady Community. The classes will be in chronological order and the format will be: History of the church’s denominationHistory of the local churchHistory of Schenectady during that time period (some NYS education and political history will be highlighted) The duration of the class should be approximately one hour and forty five minutes. Tentative schedule: October 16 Duryee Memorial AME Zion Church (1837 – 1907)November Friendship BaptistDecember Mt. Olivet Missionary Baptist ChurchJanuary Refreshing Spring COGICFebruary Graceway Ministries

Eddie Jackson, PhotographerEddie Jackson stated, “I’ve pretty much had a camera in my hands most of my adult life, but it’s been mostly “Point & Shoot” stuff. After retiring from RPI four years ago, I’ve had some time to think about photogra-phy in a more serious vein. With the advent of the digital age, I’ve upgraded to more se-rious equipment and began to study the art form. I’ve done some portraiture that I’m pretty proud of and earlier this year I was blessed to be invited

to shoot my first wedding. One of the photos from that wedding was pub-lished in the August 30 issue of Jet Magazine. Pretty exciting stuff! Since then I’ve done wedding #2 and Annette DeLavallade was kind enough to use some of my work from the African American Family Day and Albany Latin Fest events in last month’s Classique Magazine.” Classique is please to include Jackson’s as one of our premier photographers.

See photographs of Larkfest on page 8


2011-12 AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships – Call for Applications

APPLY YOUR SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL

EXPERIENCE TO SERVE SOCIETY

The AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships enable scientists and engineers from a broad range of disciplines, sectors and career stages to apply their knowledge to help

improve policymaking and implementation while learning first-hand how federal policies are developed and deployed.

Year-long fellowship assignments start in September and are available in the U.S. Congress and nearly 20 executive branch agencies in Washington DC. Stipends range from $75,000 to $96,000 plus benefits. Enhance public policy

while advancing your career!

Application Deadline: 5 December 2010

For more information and to apply: http://fellowships.aaas.org

Shar Steed

Communications Associate Science & Technology Policy Fellowships

American Association for the Advancement of Science 1200 New York Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20005 Phone: 202.326.6613

[email protected] www.fellowships.aaas.org

PRAYER REQUESTI AM ASKING . . It only takes a spark... And “We are the that spark of Light” working together. . .

If you have not noticed....NO President has ever worked this hard for our country. And he is being fought each and everytime he tries to do something for the benefit of the people. The media is no help. Many wonder, does he ever sleep?? Only God can sustain such energy, knowl-edge, and person. Please let us form a powerful prayer chain around our President and his family and ask God to secure it with love, protec-tion, mercy and grace. And remember never ask “for” something as then you and the Universe see lack of it and that is what manifests. Always but always give thanks for it already manifested.

Will you please join in this prayer... Let’s keep this going!

Lord, We thank you for optimum health, mental clarity and political pros-perity for President Barack Obama.

We also pray your love will fill his heart as he continues to try to com-plete ‘Your will’ through him.

We thank you for your protection of him and his family as he walks in the Light the halls of darkness. We thank the host of heaven that watches over him and his family. We thank you for the legions of angels sent to protect them from all hurt, harm and danger as he serves as The President of the United States of America . We thank you and praise you that you are answering our sincere prayers, In the Love/Light of the ONE, AMEN

Nonprofit Leaders: Apply for a Paid, Overseas Fellowship Position with Atlas CorpsAtlas Corps is an international network of nonprofit leaders and organizations that pro-motes innovation, cooperation, and solutions to address the world’s 21st century chal-lenges. Our mission is to address critical social issues by developing leaders, strengthening organizations and promoting innovation through an overseas fellowship of skilled non-profit professionals.

Atlas Service Corps seeks nonprofit leaders from around the world to apply for a Spring 2011 Fellowship position in the U.S. Expenses are paid in this prestigious 12-month fel-lowship program, including a living stipend, health insurance, and training.

Eligibility Requirements: 3 or more years of relevant experience in the nonprofit/NGO/social sector Bachelor’s degree or equivalentEnglish Proficiency (oral, writing, reading)35 years or youngerApplying to volunteer in a country other than where you are fromCommitment to return to your home country after the 12-18 month fellowship

Candidates from around the world are placed at outstanding host organizations in the U.S. including Ashoka, Asian American LEAD, Grameen Foundation, International Cen-tre for Missing and Exploited Children, Population Action International, and the U.S. Peace Corps. In addition to volunteering full time at their host organizations, Fellows par-ticipate in a management development training program and join a growing network of nonprofit leaders from around the world. For more details about eligibility requirements and the application process, please visit: http://www.atlascorps.org/apply.html.

Applications are due October 15th.

Questions? Email [email protected] for more information.


THIS IS A NONPARTISAN JOKE THAT CAN BE ENJOYED BY BOTH PARTIES!NOT ONLY THAT-- it is POLITICALLY CORRECT!

While walking down the street one day a US senator is tragically hit by a truck and dies. His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance. “Welcome to heaven,” says St. Peter. “Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we’re not sure what to do with you.” “No problem, just let me in,” says the man. “Well, I’d like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we’ll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity.” “Really, I’ve made up my mind. I want to be i n heaven,” says the senator. “I’m sorry, but we have our rules.” And with that, St . Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him. Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people. They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and champagne. Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly guy who has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good time that be-fore he realizes it, it is time to go. Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises... The elevator goes up, up, up and the door r eopens on heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him. “Now it’s time to visit heaven.” So, 24 hours pass with the senator joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns. “Well, then, you’ve spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose your eternity.” The senator reflects for a minute, then he answers: “Well, I would never have said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be better off in hell.” So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. Now the doors of the elevator open and he’s in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage. He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, pick-ing up the trash and putting it in black bags as more trash falls from above. The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder. “I don’t understand,” stammers the senator. “Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank cham-pagne, and d anced and had a great time. Now there’s just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?” The devil looks at him, smiles and says, “Yesterday we were campaigning.

Today you voted.”

SAINT ROSE SETS GRAND OPENING FORNEW PLUMERI SPORTS COMPLEX IN ALBANY’S SOUTH END For years, Hoffman Park in Albany’s South End was a field of dreams. Now, it’s the Christian Plumeri Sports Complex, where the champions play. And on Saturday, September 25, the Capital Region celebrated the grand opening of this newest jewel in Albany, “home turf” for The College of Saint Rose Golden Knights and first-class facilities for community sports. The Christian Plumeri Sports Complex is located on Frisbie and McCarty avenues at the foot of I-787 in Albany.Festivities got under way at 11:30 a.m. with a formal dedication and bless-ing of the new athletic fields. Guests were treated to free soda, snacks and ice cream, while kids will enjoy face painting, balloon art and “bouncy bounce.” At 12:30 p.m., the College served up a barbecue lunch for $1 per person. Fans were invited to stay and cheer for their favorite teams when the Gold-en Knights took to the fields. At 1 p.m., the women’s soccer team, ranked third in the nation, squares off against American International College in a Northeast-10 match. The baseball and softball teams saw action with scrimmages against UAlbany (baseball, 1:30 p.m.) and Siena College (soft-ball, 2 p.m.). Then at 4 p.m., the men’s soccer team battled Saint Anselm College in an NE-10 league game. The new sports center is named for the late son of global business leader Joseph J. Plumeri. In August 2008, Plumeri announced a $1 million chal-lenge gift to Saint Rose to provide a first-class facility for the College’s out-door athletic programs and provide Hoffman Park with top-quality fields for community sports. The complex is home to the Golden Knights soccer, baseball, softball and new lacrosse teams and several of the College’s recre-ational and intramural sports programs. The fields also are available to the community for summer recreational leagues, high school games, charity games and summer sports camps. “Thanks to the outstanding leadership of Mayor Jennings and Joe Plumeri and the support of the community and hundreds of generous donors in-cluding the Capital Region’s state legislative delegation, we have turned Hoffman Park into a jewel that will be enjoyed by the citizens of Albany, Saint Rose community members and young children in the neighbor-hood,” said Saint Rose President Dr. R. Mark Sullivan. “Don’t miss this celebration that will pay tribute to Joe Plumeri and the special partnership with the city of Albany that have given our Golden Knights teams their own ‘home turf ’ for the first time in the College’s 90-year history.” Plumeri is chairman and chief executive officer of Willis Group Holdings Limited, the world’s oldest global insurance broker. His accomplishments have been reported in every major business publication, and he is a fre-quent speaker at professional forums. Prior to joining Willis, Plumeri en-joyed a 32-year career at Citigroup and its predecessor companies. Plumeri’s love of baseball is reflected in his co-ownership of the Trenton Thunder, New Jersey’s Class AA affiliate of the New York Yankees. The team’s home stadium, Samuel J. Plumeri Field at Mercer County Water-front Park, is named for Plumeri’s father. Plumeri jump-started the fund-raising for the new Saint Rose sports complex at the College’s May 2006 commencement, when as commencement speaker he announced that he would donate $100,000 to spur development of a new baseball field to be named in honor of the late, beloved Saint Rose baseball coach and Albany High School teacher Bob Bellizzi. Under a 30-year lease approved by the Albany Common Council in 2007, the College developed and improved the part of Hoffman Park that is bounded by McCarty and Frisbie avenues. The City continues to hold title to the park land and owns all of the improvements made by Saint Rose. Total cost of the field improvements is approximately $6 million.


Regular attendance leads to success.The City School District of Albany is committed to working

with students, families and the communityto make sure all students stay on track for graduation.

Every day in school counts!

Getting there ...

means being here.

LARKFESTPHOTOS BY EDDIE JACKSON


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“ HILARIOUS... ENGAGING… MR. ASHANTI DELIVERS ”

New York Times

2 6 JUNE

KAHLIL ASHANTI IN

YOU CAN’T CHOOSE YOUR FAMILY... BUT YOU CAN CHANGE IT...

WARNING: Contains strong languageLighting Design by Tyler Micoleau

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We have received several calls and emails asking for additional follow up information about Henrietta Lacks, the lady who’s cells were used to fight cancer. Here are frequently asked questions repeated from the author’s website:

Q: Is the book going to made into a movie?Yes. Oprah Winfrey and Alan Ball will be producing the film version of The Immortal Life for HBO.

Q: How has the Lacks family reacted to the book?Henrietta’s children and grandchildren read the book before it came out as part of the fact checking process. They were very happy with it — they didn’t object to any information in the book or ask me to remove or change anything, other than pointing out some dates or other factual things that needed fixing. For Henrietta’s children, naturally some of the book was painful to read, but it was also good for them to read about all of the amazing science that Henrietta’s cells contributed to, which they feel very proud of. For the younger generations of Lackses, it was a way to learn about their history: their family didn’t really talk about what happened to Henrietta or her children. So the younger generation didn’t know much (if anything) about Henrietta or the cells. They didn’t know what Henrietta had contributed to science, they didn’t know what had happened to their own parents. So finally having the full story has helped make sense of their history — they’re also filled with pride about all that Henrietta’s cells have done for science.

The Lacks family came to a lot of my public events when the book came out — they’d stand up in a room to answer questions, and the crowd would cheer and give them stand-ing ovations. Scientists often stood up saying, Here’s what I did with your mother’s cells, and thank you, I’m sorry that this has been hard for you and that no one told you what was going on.” Scientists and general readers would stand in long lines waiting for their autographs. The enormous public response to the book has been great for the family — there’s been some healing through that process for them.

Q: How has the Lacks family benefited from your book? Do they get some of the proceeds from the book?The family has benefited from the book in several different ways, including the closure and thanks from scientists that I mentioned above. When it came to money, I didn’t want to be another person who came along and potentially benefited from the family and their story without doing something in return. So I set up The Henrietta Lacks Foundation. I’m donating a portion of the book’s proceeds to the foundation, which is open for any-one else to donate to. It’s been in existence since January 2010, and so far donations have come in steadily, ranging from $1 to about $500, with the average being in the $50-$100 range. These donations are from the general reading public and from individual scientists

who used her cells and feel like they want to do something for the family. My hope is that biotech companies and scientific institutions that have benefited from HeLa cells will con-tribute to it as well. So far, that hasn’t happened. These organizations will likely not ever give money directly to the Lacks family, for fear of setting a precedent that would mean they’d have to give money to the millions of other people whose cells have been used in research. But perhaps donating to a foundation in Henrietta’s name will let them recog-nize Henrietta’s contribution to their companies. Among other things, the foundation will provide scholarship funds for descendants of Henrietta Lacks, so they can get the educa-tion that Henrietta and her family didn’t have access to but desperately wanted. It also aims to help provide health care coverage for Henrietta’s children. As funds allow, I hope to expand the foundation to offer, for example, scholarships to African American students in need who are deaf or hard of hearing, as Henrietta’s children were.

Q: How do I donate to the Henrietta Lacks Foundation?Visit the Foundation’s website to find more information, and instructions for donating either online or via postal mail.

Q: Can I donate directly Lacks family instead of giving to The Henrietta Lacks Founda-tion?Yes. The Lacks family has set up their own website, with information about how to donate directly to them.

Q: How did you first become interested in Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa cells?I first learned about Henrietta when I was sixteen and in a basic biology class. My teacher mentioned HeLa cells, saying they were one of the most important tools in medicine, then almost as an aside, he said “They came from a woman named Henrietta Lacks, and she was black.” That was the moment I became obsessed with Henrietta. After class I asked whether her family knew about the cells and what her race had to do with them being alive, but my teacher said no one knew anything else about her, just her name and her race.

I realize now that my questions weren’t obvious ones for a sixteen-year-old to ask, but something was happening in my life that I think primed me to ask questions about the cells. That same year, my father had gotten sick with a mysterious illness no one was able to diagnose. He’d gone from being my very active and athletic dad to being a man who had problems thinking, and he spent all of his time lying in our living room because he couldn’t walk. It turned out that a virus had caused brain damage, and he eventually en-rolled in an experimental drug study. Since he couldn’t operate a car, I drove him to and from the hospital several times a week and sat with him and many other patients as they got experimental treatments. So I was in the midst of watching my own father go through research and was experiencing the hopes that can come with science, but also the frustra-tion and fear – it was a frightening time, the research didn’t help him, and in the end the study was dissolved without fulfilling promises it made to the patients about access to treatment. The experience really taught me about the wonder and hope of science, but also the complicated and sometimes painful ways it can affect people’s lives.

I was in the middle of that experience when my teacher mentioned that Henrietta’s cells had been growing in labs decades after her death, and the first questions I asked him were, Did she have any kids? How did they feel about her cells being used in research? And what did the fact that she was black have to do with it all? I think I asked those questions be-cause I was a kid wrestling with watching my own father being a research subject.

Q: Why are Henrietta’s cells still alive? Why didn’t they die like all the other cells before them?what’s still a bit of a mystery. Scientists know that Henrietta’s cervical cancer was caused by HPV, and her cells have multiple copies of the HPV genome in them, so some research-ers wonder if the multiple copies of HPV combined with something in Henrietta’s DNA caused her cells to grow the way they did. Henrietta also had syphilis, which can suppress your immune system and cause cancer cells to grow more aggressively. But many people had HPV and syphilis (particularly in the 50s) and their cells didn’t grow like Henrietta’s. I’ve talked to countless scientists about HeLa, and none could explain why Henrietta’s cells grew so powerfully when others didn’t. Today there are other immortal cell lines, and it’s possible for scientists to immortalize cells by exposing them to certain viruses or chemicals, but there still hasn’t been another cell line like HeLa, which grows in a very unique way.

Q: If HeLa cells are cancer cells, how are they useful for research into anything other than cancer, like vaccine production?Since the 50s, if researchers wanted to figure out how cells behaved in a certain environ-ment, or reacted to a specific chemical, or produced a certain protein, they’ve turn to HeLa cells. They did that because, despite being cancerous, HeLa still shared many basic characteristics with normal cells: They produced proteins and communicated with one another like normal cells, they divided and generated energy, they expressed genes and regulated them, and they were susceptible to infections, which made them an optimal tool for synthesizing and studying any number of things in culture, including bacteria, hormones, proteins, and especially viruses.

Viruses reproduce by injecting bits of their genetic material into a living cell, essentially reprogramming the cell so it reproduces the virus instead of itself. When it came to grow-ing viruses–as with many other things–the fact that HeLa was malignant just made it more useful. HeLa cells grew much faster than normal cells, and therefore produced re-sults faster. HeLa is a workhorse: it’s hardy, it’s inexpensive, and it’s everywhere. Today, it’s even possible for scientists to genetically alter HeLa cells to make them behave like

Follow up on the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”

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other cells– a heart cell, for example. So being cancer cells isn’t the limitation most expect that it would be, though there are some things you definitely wouldn’t use HeLa cells for, including any vaccine creation, since you wouldn’t want to inject cancer cells along with a vaccine.

Q: Within the first three chapters, you become a character in this book. At what point in the course of your reporting did you realize you would include yourself in the story, and why? I fought against being in the book for years. Part of how I won the trust of the family was by telling Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah, that she could come with me when I did my research, that I would teach her about her mother and the HeLa cells. So we spent a lot of time traveling together. When I came home from reporting trips filled with stories about my time with the Lacks family, my agent, friends, editor, and family all had the same reac-tion: They’d say, You have to put that in the book, because the family’s response to you is part of the story — it shows how deeply they’ve been affected by Henrietta’s cells and their legacy. Deborah Lacks eventually started saying the same thing (she’d sometimes shake her fist at me, saying, “Don’t you make me be in that book by myself! You’re part of the story now too–Henrietta’s gonna get mad and come get you if you try to leave yourself out of there!”) But I still resisted for years, saying, “I don’t belong in this story–it’s the Lacks family’s story, not mine.”I teach writing, and I always harp on my students, saying, “stop inserting yourself into other people’s stories.” But eventually it became clear to me that part of the Lacks family story was about the many people — scientists, con artists, journalists, you name it — who had come to them over the years wanting something from them related to the HeLa cells. Without realizing it, I had become a character in the Lacks family’s story, because I was an-other one of those people. I was a reporter who’d impacted Deborah Lacks’s life in many direct ways, putting her into situations — like visiting laboratories at Hopkins, and the institution where her sister died — that she wouldn’t have otherwise been in, sometimes in ways that proved very difficult for her. In the end, I realized it would be dishonest of me to leave myself out of the book. It wasn’t about me inserting myself into their story, it was about admitting that I had become a character in their story without realizing it. But I always held on tight to the knowledge that it was their story, and I tried to write it accordingly.In terms of when I realized I had to be in the story: It happened as a result of a scene (now in the book) in which Deborah nearly had a stroke from some particularly traumatizing information, and one of her cousins spontaneously performed something that looked a lot like an exorcism in an attempt to physically transfer the psychic burden of the cells from Deborah into me.

Q: It took ten years to write this book. What is it like to report a story for a decade? Did you expect it to be such a long process?It’s amazing and it’s exhausting to work on a book over such along period. One of the things people often ask me is, “don’t you wish you had done this faster? Why did it take so long?” Reporting a story for so long changes your understanding of it. If I had written this book five years ago, it wouldn’t have worked. I wouldn’t have understood the story the way I came to — it’s a complicated story with many different threads, and it’s one that has historically been told in a way that demonized science. I really wanted to tell all sides of the story in a balanced way, so I spent extensive time researching the science and the scientists, and the evolution of bioethics, as well as Henrietta, her cells, and her family.The book traces so many different narratives, it was a logistical and organizational night-mare. Just the sheer volume of material was overwhelming to sort through — if you go onto a scientific database and type the word “HeLa”, it’s like typing “and” in Google: you get thousands and thousands of hits, because there are so many research papers done with HeLa cells. Trying to sort out what of that was essential took a lot of time. Then organiz-ing it all into a larger narrative was another challenge. I used a large wall with index cards and corkboards.The other big reason it took ten years to write was the challenge of winning the trust of the Lacks family, which became part of the story, as I discuss above. When I started work-ing on this book, I thought it was going to be a book about the HeLa cells and the woman behind them. I had no idea that it would also become a book about the impact those cells had on her family.

Q: Why was the existence of the HeLa cells so difficult for Henrietta’s family?The story of the HeLa cells isn’t just about cells being taken from a woman without con-sent. There’s much more to it: No one told her family that the cells existed until the 70s, when scientists wanted to do research on her children to learn more about the cells. Her children were then used in research without their consent, and without having their most basic questions about the cells answered (questions like, “what is a cell?” and “What does it mean that Henrietta’s cells are alive?”). This was very frightening, particularly for Debo-rah. The science all had a very scary sci-fi quality to it, so she had a very hard time distin-guishing what was reality and what wasn’t when it came to science. She worried that there were clones of her mother walking around that she might bump into. And she worried that the research scientists were doing to her mother’s cells somehow caused her mother pain in the afterlife. She’d say, “If scientists are shooting my mother’s cells to the moon and injecting them with chemicals, can she rest in peace?” For her, these existential ques-tions were really difficult. Other things that the family found upsetting: At one point, Henrietta’s medical records were released to a reporter and published without her family’s permission, which was very traumatizing for her children. Henrietta’s sons were particu-larly very angry when they learned that people were buying and selling Henrietta’s cells, which helped launch a multi-billion dollar industry, yet her family had no money. To this day, they can’t afford health insurance.

Q: Why is the story of Henrietta Lacks important?It’s important for a lot of reasons, but perhaps the most central one is that we’re at a time when medical research relies more and more on biological samples like Henrietta’s cells. A lot of the ethical questions raised by Henrietta’s story still haven’t been addressed today: Should people have a right to control what’s done with their tissues once they’re removed from their bodies? And who, if anyone, should profit from those tissues? Henrietta’s story is unusual in that her identity was eventually attached to her cells, so we know who she was. But there are human beings behind each of the billions of samples currently stored in tissue banks and research labs around the world. The majority of Americans have tis-sues on file being used in research somewhere, and most don’t realize it. Those samples come from routine medical procedures, fetal genetic disease screening, circumcisions, and much more, and they’re very important for science — we rely on them for our most important medical advances. No one wants that research to stop, but it’s pretty clear that many people want to know when their tissues are being used in research, and when there’s a potential for them to be commercialized. The story of Henrietta, her family, and the scientists involved put human faces on all of those issues, which can be pretty abstract otherwise.

Q: What messages should readers take from the story?Well, some of that depends on each individual reader, because there are a lot of potential messages from the book: It’s about trust, race and medicine, class, access to education and health care, it’s also the story of a family and the impact that losing a mother can have on her children, and much more.It’s also about the fact that there are people behind every one of the billions of biological samples that we all use in research every day. I can’t count the number of emails I’ve got-ten from researchers who say that they heard me talking on the radio or read the book and had this very powerful reaction of saying ‘Oh wow, I had no idea. I did my disserta-tion on HeLa cells, I work with them every day in my lab — I owe a lot of my career to Henrietta’s cells, and I never once stopped to think about where they came from, whether she had given consent, or whether her family might care about that.’ These are questions that scientists don’t often think about. I also hear researchers saying that after learning the story of the HeLa cells, they no longer complain about the regulation of science and the mountains of forms they have to fill out for every study they want to do. In the book, you find out the history behind those forms, why they’re now required, and why it is impor-tant. Those are important take-home messages.

But this is also a story about the fact that there are human beings behind every scientist as well. The scientists in the HeLa story have long been demonized in ways that weren’t factually accurate, so I hoped to set that record straight.

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Q: Was it wrong for the scientists to have taken Henrietta’s cells?In the 1950s when Henrietta’s cells grew, the concept of informed consent that we have to-day didn’t exist. People were routinely used in research without their knowledge. Scientists knew very little about the basic functioning of cells — they couldn’t have imagined that someday those cells would be valuable, that someday researchers could look inside them at Henrietta’s DNA and learn things about her and her children and grand children. It was a completely different mindset than the one we have now, but it was not ill-intended, or unethical by the standards of the day. George Gey, the scientist who first grew the cells, was devoted to curing cancer. He took cells from himself and his own kids. He never sold the HeLa cells, he never tried to patent them or anything else, including equipment he invented that’s still used around the world that could have made him large amounts of money. Gey was pretty impoverished, but he spent his own money in the lab. Taking cells from patients was absolutely standard practice in the 50’s worldwide. In a lot of ways, it still is today.

Q: Is this story particularly important for black readers?This is the story of how cells taken from a black woman without her knowledge became one of the most important advances in medicine and launched a multi-billion dollar in-dustry, with drastic consequences for her family. It’s inextricably linked to the troubling history of research conducted on African Americans without their consent, and many people — particularly African Americans — are hungry to learn Henrietta’s story and how it fits into that history.

For decades, the story of Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa cells has been held up as “another Tuskegee,” the story of a racist white scientist who realized a black woman’s cells were valuable, stole them from her, then got rich selling them — perhaps even withholding treatment for her cancer in order to be sure the cells would grow. But none of that is true. Henrietta got the standard cervical cancer treatment for the day, and no one knew her cells would be valuable. George Gey gave them away for free and never profited directly from them (they were later commercialized by others). In 1951 when Henrietta showed up at Hopkins, taking tissues from patients without consent had been standard practice for decades. Henrietta’s sample was taken as part of a study on cervical cancer for which researchers were taking samples from any woman who walked into Hopkins with cervical cancer, regardless of race. Henrietta wasn’t targeted because her cells were known to be valuable, or because they were trying to grow cells from a black person. Gey didn’t even know she was black until after the cells grew.

That said, race did play an important role in the story: During the Jim Crow era, Hopkins was a segregated charity hospital — patients in the “public” ward where Henrietta was treated were there because they were either black or poor (often both). They couldn’t get treated elsewhere. And the prevailing attitude at the time was that, since “charity cases” were treated for free, doctors were entitled to use them in research, whether the patients realized it or not. Henrietta’s doctor once wrote, “Hopkins, with its large indigent black population, had no dearth of clinical material.” That attitude was widespread at the time.

But this story is just as much about issues of class and economic injustice. Many people have asked me, “Would those cells have been taken from her if she’d been white?” The an-swer is yes, if she’d been white and poor. Many of the difficulties Henrietta’s family faced came down to issues of class: Their lack of access to education, their inability to afford health care despite the fact that their mother’s cells helped lead to so many important medical advances. The Lacks family often says, “If our mother was so important to medi-cine, why can’t we get health insurance?” That question gets at the heart of what many readers find most upsetting about the Lacks family’s story.

Q: Why did you choose to render the dialogue of the Lacks family in specific dialect?It was never a question for me whether I’d do it. The idea of taking and rewriting some-one’s language was just so wrong to me, and inaccurate — rewritten quotes aren’t what they said. And the family’s language is so much a part of who they are. They have beautiful ways of talking about things. One that stands out for me, for some reason: one of Henri-etta’s cousins was describing one of Henrietta’s young love interests, a big, burly guy, and she said he’s “an over-average man.” I could never have come up with that as a description, but it’s so perfect.

I asked one of Henrietta’s cousins what she thought about me using the family’s dialect in the book and she said to me, “If you pretty up how people spoke and change the things they said, that’s dishonest. It’s taking away their lives, their experiences and their selves.” I agree with that.

Q: Is the Lacks family still angry about HeLa cells?The Lacks family has gotten to a point where they try to separate what happened with Henrietta’s cells versus what happened to them. Henrietta’s cells have been this incredible thing for science and her family really sees that as a miracle, and they’ve gotten to a point now where they can look at them and say, “We think that they’re incredible, and they’ve done wonderful things and that makes us happy. We’re very glad that her cells are out there and being used in the way that they are. We wish it didn’t happen the way that it did. We wish they’d told us, we wish they’d asked, because we would have said yes. We wish they’d explained things to us when we asked, we wish they hadn’t released her medical records.” There were a lot of things they were unhappy about in terms of the way that they were treated, but the way they think about the cells definitely does not reflect a feeling of her being enslaved. It’s more of her being an angel. In life Henrietta was this woman who just took care of everybody, she lived to do that, and so to the family it makes perfect sense that she’s doing that in death, too. They don’t see the cells themselves as a dark or negative thing.That said, they are still quite upset about the issue of money, and the fact that others have

profited from the cells, and her family hasn’t, which is still the case today. The Lacks family is still hoping that Hopkins and the many companies that have profited off of HeLa cells will do something to honor Henrietta and recognize what her family went through.

Q: From your afterword on tissue banking and cell culture laws, it really sounds like the same thing could happen today but without the name attached to it.

It happens every day. Most people have tissues on file somewhere. Although we don’t real-ize it, a lot of us have signed consent forms. When you go in for a biopsy, it says “You can dispose of my tissues any way you see fit or use them in research.” People don’t realize what that means or that it could become commercialized.

There is no standard practice when it comes to consent. In some cases people collecting tissues give people big thick brochures explaining what tissue culture is, why it’s important to donate, etc., but others just provide generic forms patients sigh saying, essentially, “you can dispose of my tissue however you want.” There is no standard or legal requirement for obtaining informed consent for research on most tissues. Most federal guidelines govern-ing research on human subjects don’t apply to tissue research because either the identity is stripped or the researcher didn’t have contact with the person first hand, so it is not considered human research.

Q: How does the story of HeLa and the Lacks family relate to today’s health care debate? The thinking in science has always been that everyone should participate freely in tissue research — giving freely of their cells and tissues — because it helps medical progress. When you go and have a biopsy taken at a hospital, you sign a form that says my doctor can dispose of my tissues any way he sees fit or use them in research, those tissues are stripped of your identity and used in research. The attitude has long been that everyone should allow their tissues to be used for the good of science because everyone benefits, since the research leads to important drugs, vaccines, etc. But the thing is, not everyone does benefit in the United States, because we don’t have universal access to health care. There is an imbalance in this country, which means many of the medical advances com-ing from tissue research aren’t available to everyone, sometimes including those who pro-vided raw materials for the research. That’s a pretty stark point in the health-care debate. Bioethicist Ruth Faden wrote an op-ed recently about this very issue relating to HeLa cells. It’s online here.

Doctors took her cells without asking. Those cells never died. They launched a medical revolution and a multimillion-dollar industry. More than twenty years later, her children found out. Their lives would never be the same.


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“As a leader in New York State for one of the nation’s largest addiction services systems, I attribute the opportunities I have been afforded to all that I have learned through the Fellowship. Engaging in public policy and networking with government officials advanced my skills and abilities.” - Karen M. Carpenter-Palumbo Commissioner, New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services

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In recent times, our community bore witness to the passing of notewor-thy artists and performers who have enriched our lives. Their accomplish-ments served as benchmarks in artistic achievement. Their ascendance on the ladder of success – in many cases, despite considerable obstacles of time and place -- served as role models for us and for our children and grand-children. We have said goodbye to pop icon Michael Jackson, Ebony Fashion Fair’s Eunice Johnson, gospel legend Bishop Walter Hawkins, R& B singer Al Goodman (Ray, Goodman & Brown), jazz singer and actress Abbey Lin-coln, and singer-actress Lena Horne among others. But even in sweet and lingering sadness of that loss, we take heart in the endurance and upward trajectory of others within our global community: we continue to admire the great works of playwright-director-actor Tyler Perry, actor Denzel Washington, actress and recording artist Queen Latifah, and actress Halle Berry to name a few. The list goes on as African American artists from all segments of The Arts take their rightful and hard-earned place in the national mindset of success as perceived on many levels. The appearance of three acclaimed performances at Proctors this month is cause for continued celebration and an opportunity to join with friends and family for a well-deserved night on the town. Johnny Mathis (Oct. 2) has delighted audiences worldwide with his dis-tinct voice and signature style for decades. For one-night-only, this living legend will serenade theatre patrons of the Capital Region from the Main-stage of Proctors at 8 PM on October 2. Chances Are you won’t want to miss this rare opportunity to see this enduring and remarkable performer in what is sure to be a Heavenly event. The last in a long line of traditional male vocalists who emerged before the rock-dominated 1960s, Mathis concentrated on romantic jazz and pop standards for the adult contemporary audience through to the 1980s. Starting his career with a standard flurry of singles, Mathis was far more popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums receiving gold and platinum status and more than sixty making the Billboard charts. He introduces his latest offering – a CD titled “Let It Be Me – Mathis in Nash-ville,” on September 21. He has the distinction of having an album - “Johnny Mathis’ Greatest Hits” - on the Billboard charts for longer than any other album in his-tory: 490 weeks, or the equivalent of 9-1/2 years. He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording, and won a Lifetime Achieve-ment Grammy Award in 2003. Heralded as the World’s Greatest Romantic Singer, with musical hits such as Wonderful, Wonderful and Chances Are, Johnny Mathis is not merely a musical legend, but a true icon of Am DANCE THEATRE OF HARLEM (Oct. 15). Elegant! Brilliant! Dazzling! Extraordinary! Superb! Any of these and a thesaurus of superlatives easily could describe the extraordinary, internationally acclaimed Dance Theatre of Harlem and its four-decade evolution to the Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble. Members of that renowned DTH Ensemble will perform on the Mainstage at Proctors on Friday, October 15 in two separate offerings for theatre-goers and dance aficionados throughout the Capital Region. This one-day-only event is sponsored by SAVI Specialty Audio-Visual Inc. of Clifton Park. At 11 AM, the Ensemble will present a program for school-aged children, through narration and performances from an eclectic rep-ertoire, the Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble will demystify the life of a dance artist with specific exercises that are demonstrated and explained. This performance is an opportunity for parents and children alike to gain “insider” knowledge of the world of dance and clarity on the dynamic art-istry that distinguishes Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble worldwide. At 7:30 PM, An Interactive Performance: Central to the Interactive Perfor-mance is a ballet performance that entices audiences to view the world of movement from a new perspective. It features live piano music, a narrator

to serve as a guide, and classic Dance Theatre of Harlem repertoire (by choreographers Arthur Mitchell, Robert Garland and John), as well as rep-ertoire specially created for DTH Ensemble. The variety of the high quality artistic content (i.e. a mixed program of excerpts, one-act ballets, dance suites, and pas de deux) gives the presentation a fast pace. Built on the highly successful DTH Lecture - Demonstration program and DTH’s traditional gala / special program, the Interactive Performance is no-table for its educational and inspirational content; audience interaction; and above all, Dance Theatre of Harlem as an enduring American classic and dynamic, national treasure. Running Time: 90 minutes. No intermission About DTH: At a time when black dancers were all but invisible in main-stream ballet, celebrated dancer/choreographer Arthur Mitchell and re-nowned ballet master Karel Shook brought ballet to the neighborhood and black dancers to the main stage. Inspired and energized following the as-sassination of The Reverend Martin Luther King, these two dance-world frontrunners founded the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH), a ballet school that would offer African American and Latino children — especially those in Harlem, the community in which Mitchell was born — the opportunity to study dance and the allied arts. At the time, The New York Times her-alded the company’s launch as “one of ballet’s most exciting undertakings”. Basic Training (Oct. 26 – 30). Direct from a sold out season in Australia and adorned with a New York Times Critics Pick – AND a nomination for the 2009 Drama League Award (“Distinguished Performance”) -- Kahlil Ashanti takes his BASIC TRAINING on its second U.S. tour. BASIC TRAINING is Ashanti’s autobiographical chronicle of his time in the U.S. Air Force as a member of the elite entertainment troupe “Tops in Blue.” There, he learned to serve his country using his talent as his weapon. Playing 23 characters, each with their own distinctive voice and personal-ity, mayhem ensues as Ashanti’s adventures put him in both life-affirming and life-threatening situations. Along the way Ashanti comes of age, discovers his roots, and learns what the real “basic training” of life is all about. This is a not-to-be missed, over-the-top hilarious tale of survival and redemption, superbly realized through a unique blend of comedy, drama and dance. Actor Kahlil Ashanti began his career as a stand-up comedian at 14 years old. Born to a military family in Germany, and raised in Japan, Texas and Iowa, his travelling allowed plenty of material for his routine. After joining the Air Force in 1992, Kahlil competed against more than 1500 contestants to receive the ‘Roger’ award, the highest honor given to an entertainer in the military. Kahlil was then selected to tour with an elite 28-member team of Air Force performers called Tops in Blue. This led to several world tours, which gave him the opportunity to perform as an actor, comedian and dancer in more than 27 foreign countries and 46 states for crowds in excess of 10,000 people, all before he turned 21! Tickets and more...at ProctorsTickets for each for these noteworthy performances are available at Proc-tors Box Office, (518) 346-6204 or online at proctors.org. Remember that Proctors offers significant discounts on tickets for groups of 20 or more. A listing of shows and pricing may be found on proctors.org/group sales or by contacting Proctors Group Sales at 518-382-3884 ext. 139. These events are made possible with public funds from The New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency. Free Parking for these events is available in the Broadway Garage – courtesy of the Times Union. Go to timesunion.com for news and entertainment. I hope to see you celebrating the accomplishments and artistry of members of “our own” in the context of art that continues to sustain us individually and as a community.

Past as Prologue: By Sara Hill, Proctors Marketing Manager & Music Curator


Introduction to Theater6-week acting class for beginners

Fall Session

Fun and professional acting training for adults and youth!Session begins October 4th

For more information, contact: [email protected] (9 to 17): Early Registration $50, Registration $75

Adults : Early Registration $75, Registration $125Early Registration: Payment by September 25th

Rasta

Rasta dies and goes to Heaven. He is at the Pearly Gates and is met by St. Peter himself.

But the gates are closed as Rasta approaches the gatekeeper.

St. Peter said, ‘Well, You seem to be in the wrong place as I don’t seem to have you on my list, but as there is such a crowd behind you and it would cause such a disruption I will give you an entrance examination if you pass it I will let you in

The test is short, but you have to pass it before you can get into Heaven! Fair enough said the dread I sure hope that the test ain’t too hard. Life was a big enough test as it was! St. Peter continued, ‘Yes, I know but the test is only three questions. Here they are: First: What two days of the week begin with the letter T?

That one is easy - That would be Today and Tomorrow!

The Saint’s eyes opened wide and he exclaimed, that is not what I was thinking but you do have a point and I guess I did not specify, so I will give you credit for that answer. Second: How many seconds are there in a year? asked St. Peter.

How many seconds in a year? Now that one is harder, replied Rasta but I think about that and I guess the only answer can be twelve!

Astounded, St. Peter said ‘Twelve’? How in Heaven’s name could you come up with twelve seconds in a year?

“Well it got to be twelve” he replied:

January 2nd, February 2nd, March 2nd...

‘Hold it’, interrupts St. Peter. I see where you are going with this and I see your point, though that was not quite what I had in mind....but I will have to give you credit for that one too. Third: What is God’s first name?

‘Well Sure’ he replied with a big grin. . ‘It’s Andy.’ ‘Andy’, exclaimed an exasperated and frustrated St Peter.

Ok, I can understand how you came up with your answers to my first two questions, but just how in the world did you come up with the name Andy as the first name of God?

‘Shucks that was the easiest one of all’ - Whenever I went to church I would hear them sing: ‘ANDY WALKS WITH ME, ANDY TALKS WITH ME, ANDY TELLS ME I AM HIS OWN.’

St. Peter opened the Pearly Gates, and said: ‘Run, man, run!!!’

Author Unknown

Waves of Water By Leonard A. Slade, Jr.

The cool breeze kept the waterDancing around the pier

As the white ferry approachedSlowly to take automobilesIn her belly from one sideOf the ocean to the other.Seagulls waved goodbye.

Coming Season

By Leonard A. Slade, Jr.

Gold tree leavesShiny red apples

Orange field pumpkinsFluffy moving cloudsCool evening breezeGeese flying South

Autumn


A Century of ServiceNearly 300,000 members providing the vital services all New Yorkers depend on.

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Clasique Magazine October Issue

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