a Better Bubble™

Aggregator

Roxana High School Students Selected for Illinois All-State Choir  

1 year 5 months ago
PALOS HEIGHTS, ILLINOIS - Three students from Roxana High School were selected to participate in the Illinois All-State Choirs. Troy Rah-Bass 1, All-State Honors Chorus. Joseph Whetzel-Bass 2, All-State Chorus. Gianna Visser-Soprano 1, All-State Chorus. During the fall of 2023, over 10,000 students from elementary, junior high and high schools around Illinois participated in a virtual audition process and of those auditions, more than 7,000 students were selected to participate in district festivals celebrating student musicians in bands, orchestras, choruses and jazz ensembles. Roxana High School Choir Director Erin E. Falloon said the selection of three students for All-State was a "huge accomplishment for our student musicians." "I am super proud of them," she said. "The process for the auditions is pretty involved and it takes a lot of time and diligence to get things together for all-state. It is like being selected for an all-state team in sports. Those selected get to sing

Continue Reading

GCSD9 Partners with All God's Children Shall Have Shoes

1 year 5 months ago
GRANITE CITY – Granite City Community Unit School District #9 partnered with All God's Children Shall Have Shoes for its annual event Friday at Famous Footwear in Alton Square Mall. All God's Children Shall Have Shoes is an annual free socks and shoes program for local schools in the metro area. Over 130 students from Frohardt, Grigsby, Lake Maryville, Mitchell, Prather and Wilson Schools participated in the event. "We had an amazing day giving out so many pairs of shoes and socks," said Sue Wooden , All God's Children Shall Have Shoes Administrator. "We do this so the kids can have something new for themselves. This event really touches our heart." Volunteers met the students to size and assist them in picking out a pair of shoes and a package of socks to take home. Students also received a cookie from The Cookie Factory. Buses were donated from First Student, Inc. to transport the students to and from Famous Footwear, while each school provided social workers and

Continue Reading

A Number of Tragedies

1 year 5 months ago

Laumeier Sculpture Park’s 2023 Visiting Artists in Residence are Pittsburgh-based artists Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis. This collaborative duo utilizes innovative approaches to conceptualism and minimalism to realize their […]

The post A Number of Tragedies appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Rachel Huffman

“Uprooted” Explores How University Expansion and Eminent Domain Led to Black Land Loss

1 year 5 months ago

This video was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO. Sign up for Dispatches _to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

In the 1960s, when Newport News, Virginia, remained a largely segregated city, longtime Black residents wanted to expand their neighborhood, offering former farmland as plots to other middle-class families looking to build homes. 

The city had other plans. 

In a deliberate attempt to halt that growth, white city officials selected that same land as the location for a new college — and they wielded the power of eminent domain to make it happen. If the landowners didn’t want to sell, the city could take it. 

In “Uprooted,” a documentary short, James and Barbara Johnson tell the story of their beloved neighborhood, which was displaced by the creation and expansion of what is now Christopher Newport University. 

What happened in Newport News is by no means unique. In Chicago, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Virginia, and other cities across the nation, Black communities have been uprooted by colleges and universities, which were encouraged by federal policies that promoted the expansion of higher education at the expense of the surrounding neighborhoods. It is a legacy the country is only beginning to confront. 

Weaving the Johnsons’ story in with the wider history of Newport News and other universities, the film examines the legacy of racism and Black land loss that still reverberates today. James Johnson’s archive of photographs, newspaper clippings and documents animates the past, a reminder of the community he sees in his mind’s eye when he walks down Shoe Lane, the street where he was born and still lives as one of just five Black families who remain in the neighborhood. 

“Uprooted” is directed by Brandi Kellam, who grew up in the area and has spent more than two years investigating this story. She reported the story with Louis Hansen of the Virginia Center for Investigative Reporting at WHRO. It is produced by ProPublica’s Lisa Riordan Seville, with cinematography, editing and post-production by VCIJ’s Christopher Tyree and graphics by ProPublica’s Mauricio Rodríguez Pons. It premiered on WHRO Public Media in Virginia on Dec. 8.

Watch the documentary, and read all of ProPublica and VCIJ’s series, also called “Uprooted,” which explores how Virginia universities expanded by dislodging Black communities. 

Gabriel Sandoval contributed research and Lucas Waldron contributed graphics.

by Brandi Kellam, Christopher Tyree and Louis Hansen, Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO, and Lisa Riordan Seville and Mauricio Rodríguez Pons, ProPublica