and Be Proud. The San Fernando Valley’s Black Newspaper

Volume1 Issue 1 Serving the San Fernando Valley and Beyond Oct 26, 2007

RENESSA ANN HARPER Case Type: Family Abduction DOB: Feb 28, 1998 Sex: FemaleMissing Date: Aug 3, 2007 Race: BlackAge Now: 9 Height: 4’8” (142 cm)Missing City: NORTH HOLLYWOOD Weight: 100 lbs (45 kg)Missing State : CA Hair Color: BlackMissing Country: United States Eye Color: BrownCase Number: NCMC1080636 Circumstances: She may be in the company of her non-custodial mother. Renessa’s ears are pierced. She may use the alias last name McGrue.______________________________________1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) Hotline number.

MISSING CHILD

CSUN Faculty; Students Celebrate Africa Week 2007

Students and Faculty Plan 08 Trip to Sudan

AIDS WALK L.A. 2007

NEWS..................................................................................Pg 2Where Africa Comes Alive.................................................Pg 2EDUCATION......................................................................Pg 3The Saturday Enrichment Program ................................... Pg 3CSU Priority Application....................................................Pg 3 5.7 Million in Literacy Grants.............................................Pg 3PHOTO ESSAY...................................................................Pg 4Aids Walk L.A. 2007...........................................................Pg 4Snap Shot ............................................................................Pg 5ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT.............................................Pg 6American Black Film Festival.............................................Pg 6CALENDAR.......................................................................Pg 7HEALTH.............................................................................Pg 8Breast Cancer .....................................................................Pg 8

INSIDETHISISSUE:

The wind swayed their blue, ma-genta, fuchsia and or-ange dresses as each dancer jumped and skipped simultane-ously to a rhythmic sound of drumming. The drumming grew louder with every audience’s chant and scream, then in a blink of an eye students, pro-fessors and humani-tarians danced, sang and clapped around the dancers. They all marched away from the Oviatt library to the 2nd floor of the Grand Salon Lecture room, where they gradually silenced their ritual of empowerment.

In celebration of African Week, on Oct.22 to Oct.26, the Pan African Depart-ment at CSUN held a ceremonial ritual lead-ing to a group discus-sion of professors and panelists from various departments of exper-tise to shine the light on burning issues that still affect African peoples’ today, such as the lack of health-care, AIDS, education, poverty and the grow-ing genocide in Darfur. The week long event began on Mon-day in front of the Ovi-att library with a cer-emonial dance routine called Libation. CSUN student and member of African Student Orga-

nization Adaku Any-anwq said that before the Libation ceremo-ny begins you pour water before pray-ing to your ancestors.“This is my first semes-ter experiencing this ceremony at CSUN and I’m proud that people are doing something”, Anyanwq said, “our country, culture and traditions are some-thing to be proud of.” Alongside the Libation ceremony a symbolic physical display of tents were stationed along the Matador Walk. The tents represented the issues revolving Dar-fur, known for the Sudanese government funding the Janjaw-

ee militia to murder groups from the Sudan Liberation Movement; each tent symbol-ized a country where genocides took place, the year and the num-ber of people killed. From left to right each tent displayed:

*Darfur, pres-ent, 400,000 peo-ple killed to date* Rwanda, 1994, 800,000 people killed*Bosnia, 1992, 200,000 people killed*Cambodia, 1975, 2,000,000 people killed*the Holocaust, 1938, 6,000,000 people killed*Armenia, 1915, 1,500,000 people killed

See AFRICA, page 2

A member from Sis-ters of Perpetual In-dulgence speaks to an AIDS Walk partici-pant. See photo essay page 4.

Vanessa Abner Say It Loud Staff

NEWSSay It Loud! Oct 26, 2007

Teri AkpoviContributing Writer

When people think of Africa most famine, poverty and AIDS come to mind. Yet The Africa Chan-nel, a new television station, is bringing an entire new percep-tion to the continent. For the past two years the network has been showing original Eng-lish language pro-gramming from Af-rica, including soap operas, music, model-ing shows, reality tele-vision and sports. This never before seen in the United States pro-gramming is creating a new awakening of what Africa has to offer. Without escap-ing reality, The Africa Channel presents the ‘60 Minutes’ of Af-rica, Carte Blanche

Africa, a prestigious award winning news-magazine series that is broadcasted to 44 countries throughout the continent and Af-rica Journal, which combines the most important stories, in-terviews and news from across the Afri-can continent into 30 minutes of compelling viewing every week. As an enter-tainment network the Africa Channel seeks to educate its audience while entertaining them. The Big Brother Africa show reveals culture clash like never before. There are 12 strangers from Angola, Botswana, Ghana, Ke-nya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe who live together and

emotions get heated. The station is up and running in the United States and in the United Kingdom. Currently The Africa Channel is available on Comcast Atlanta, Comcast D.C., Com-cast Detroit, Comcast Huston, Cox New Or-leans, Cox Lafayette, Cox Middle Georgia, Cox Hampton Roads, Charter Fort Worth, Optical Entertainment Houston and BSkyB in the United Kingdom. Founded by James Makawa, CEO; Jacob Arback, Presi-dent; and Richard Hammer, EVP of Com-munications these men brought their televi-sion industry expertise and made The Africa Channel come alive.

Where Africa Comes Alive

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AFRICA from front page “Darfur is one of the most affected areas in Sudan,” said CSUN Africanist anthropol-ogy professor Sie-monds, “the Sudanese government continues to provide the mili-tia with guns and as a result of that people are very frustrated.”Siemonds said that the problem with Darfur began 350,000 years ago when Darfur was a large kingdom which had become a part of Sudan. In 1912, the British entered Sudan making it economi-cally available until about 1916. During this invasion, resourc-es where distributed to the Khartoum and Blue Nile Province, leaving the rest of the country undeveloped. The inhabitants that inherited the land con-tinued to politically marginalize peoples who didn’t belong in their region, even af-ter their independence was achieved from the British in 1956. “Today Dar-fur lacks education, no heating and wa-ter as well as very little government sup-port,” Siemonds said. Urban Studies and Planning professor Dr. Nwosu said during the Millennial Project of Africa lecture that Af-rica today more than ever has a great op-portunity to make its presence in the world. According to Nwosu, there have been strug-gles in the 1960’s to incorporate such glob-al issues into CSUN’s curriculum but today as part of a plan to diver-sify the CSUN campus, he will help students become well round-ed globally through a new curriculum.

“How has Africa per-formed and where do they see them-selves in the next 4 years?” Nwosu asked the audience.According to Nwosu, eight years ago, global leaders met in NY to argue about a vision to the future of Africa. The solution would be that in the year 2020 Africa would have less poverty, achieve uni-versal education, pro-mote gender equality, reduce child mortal-ity, improve maternal health, combat HIV, malaria and other diseases, ensure en-vironmental sustain-ability as well as to develop a global part-nership for a develop-ing financial system.“There has been some progress, for example, enrollment in universi-ties has increased from 57% in 1999 to 70% in 2005,” Nwosu said.CSUN PAS professor, Dr. Obinna said that the Department of PAS along with the African Student Organization began the ceremony a long time ago to proj-ect the African image and culture as well as to communicate the many problems Af-rica continues to face. One of the many is-sues mentioned by professor Obinna was the issue with Sudan. “Arabs are trying to kill as many African Christians they can get their hands on while taking Southern Su-dan’s oil,” Obinna said. Obinna said that his basic mission is to get political input and to send gifts to people of Darfur. On Sept. 23, 2008 Obinna said that students from ASO and PAS faculty will orga-nize a trip to Sudan.

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EDUCATIONSay It Loud! Oct 26, 2007

Saharra WhiteSay It Loud! Publisher

Students seek-ing admission to a Cal-ifornia State Universi-ty campus next fall are encouraged to submit their application on or before November 30, 2007. Those interested in admission to an im-pacted CSU, campuses that receive a large number of applications from qualified students but can not accom-modate them need to apply before the Nov 30th deadline if stu-dents want to avoid not being accepted. “We

encourage students to apply online, and to do so early so that they can begin to learn about their options within the University,” said CSU director of Enrollment Management Ser-vices Jim Blackburn. Students will benefit the most if they apply early. It is im-portant that they apply early because campus-es will not be accept-ing applications if they reached their enroll-ment goals. “By apply-ing before the end of business on November 30th they guarantee themselves the wid-

est selection of cam-puses and programs,” said Blackburn. P r o s p e c t i v e students that wish to apply to the CSU can do so by logging onto Csumentor.edu. This web-based system is used by students to help them apply to the CSU of their choice online. The site in-cludes information on impacted campuses, financing higher edu-cation, admission and more. “The California State University is one of the nation’s most accessible, affordable, and high quality edu-

cational institutions,” said CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed. “The CSU prides itself on the quality of our stu-dents and the contribu-tions that our trained graduates will make to their communities and the economic vi-tality of the state.”

CSU Priority Application Ends Nov. 30 Are you in need of help in English, Math, History, Science or Spanish? Are you interested about the world around you? Then the Saturday Enrichment program is the place for you! The Saturday Enrichment program is an out reach tutorial and enrichment program for young peo-ple between the age of four and eighteen years of age. The program offers a Tutorial/homework assistance component, and a cultural enrichment program. There are three nine-week sessions per year, as well as special workshops. All sessions are held at the Pacoima Community Center.Pacoima Family Center, 11243 Gleno-aks Blvd., Pacoima, (818) 834-2555.

THE SATURDAY ENRICHMENT PROGRAM

SAY IT LOUD! and Be Proud. The San Fernando Valley’s Black Newspaper 3

Saharra WhiteSay It Loud! Publisher

Last week State Superintendent of Pub-lic Instruction Jack O’Connel announced $5.7 million in grants for migrant families. There are 22 grant-ees that will receive grants, as part of the Migrant Educational Even Start (MEES) grant program. “The program is a family literacy program that serves preschool aged migrant children in the state of California with the goal of preparing them to enter and suc-ceed in school,” said Adriana Simmons, State Coordinator for the MEES Program. The MEES pro-gram prepares children with literacy, English as a second language,

English language de-velopment, mathemat-ics and reading activi-ties, “so that when the children enter kinder-garten they have a sol-id educational founda-tion,” said Simmons. “Migrant families must move from town to town to earn a living and that is very disrup-tive for their children because of the loss of continuity in their edu-cation,” said O’Connell in a news release from the California Depart-ment of Education. “The Migrant Education Even start grants help level the playing field to give these children a chance to catch up and meet the same challenging state academic con-tent and achievement

standards that all chil-dren are expected to meet,” said O’Connell. A student is considered a “migrant” if they have a parent or guard-ian that work in agri-cultural, dairy, lumber or fishing industries which require them to move to follow these seasonal jobs. MEES is a home and school based literacy program. “The Migrant Education Even Start grant is also one tool to help us narrow the per-sistent and disturbing achievement gap that exist not only between rich and poor students, but also between stu-dents who are African American or Latino and their peers who are white or Asian,” said O’Connell.

5.7 Million in Literacy Grants Announced by Superintendent

The Black Journalists Association of South-ern California (BJASC), an affiliate of the Na-tional Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) are looking for undergraduate students in good standing attending an accredited US college or university to apply for their scholarships. Funds of at least $5,000 will be awarded in 2006 $10,000 was awarded. Students interested in ap-ply most demonstrate a commitment to journal-ism or be planning a career in news media. To apply applicants must complete an application available at BJASC.org. Applicants must submit two letters of recommendations, a current offi-cial transcript, and an essay on this year’s topic that is no more then 700 words. Finalist will be interviewed by the BJASC Scholarship Com-mittee. This years essay topic is: African Ameri-can images in the media are often distorted or stereotypical. Are Black Journalists obligated to present more positive images of African Ameri-cans when they write or report stories? Include specific references to news stories in your es-say. For more information BJASC.org or email Lisa Cox, BJASC President at lisa@bjasc.org.

BJASC SCHOLARSHIP APP DUE

NOV 3

Glendale’s YWCA will host a conference for young women between the ages of 15-30. The event will kick of with a presentation from Grey’s Anatomy producer Jill Solway. H.E.R. is an acronym that stands for Health, Empower-ment and Resources. The purpose of the confer-ence is to inform women of what they need to succeed in life. The fee for the event is $35.00. For more information or to sign up Glendaley-wca.org or call (818) 242-4155 x 227 or 220.

H.E.R. CONFERENCE

FOR YOUNG WOMEN

STRIKE AGAINST CHILD ABUSE TO SPARE

THE KIDS.

Yes ICAN will be hosting their 12th Annual Bowl-ing Fund Raiser. The event will take place at Ca-noga Park Bowl, 20122 Vanowen St, Winnetka, (888) 224-4226. Yesican.org Between 12-4p.m.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAWe love you thank you for all your support and encouragement.

~Love the WHITE ANGELS

(Saharra, Tunisia, Alexandra, Mekka, Jihad, Madinah, Taahirah, Timothy, and Zuri.)

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Aids Walk LA.2007Say It Loud! Oct 26, 2007

Los Angelinos watched performances by “Dreamgirls,” star Anika Noni Rose as well as co-stars from “Grey’s Anatomy,” and “Ugly Betty,” to name a few. The stars performed Sun-day at the opening ceremony of the 23rd Annual AIDS WALK Los Angeles, at the West Holly-wood Park. AIDS Walk L.A. participants raised over $3.9 million. Over $55 million has been raised by AIDS Walk L.A., since 1985 for Aids Project Los Angeles and other HIV/AIDS or-ganizations in Los Angeles County. Those in-terested can send pledges to AIDS Walk Los An-geles, P.O. Box 933005 Los Angeles, CA 90093.

(323) 635-5005Camplaurel.orgCatholic HIV/AIDS Min-istry/L.A. Archdiocese213 637 7-H-I-VArchdiocese.la/ministry/hiv/index.phpCenter for Health Justice323-822-3830Healthjustice.netEast Valley Community Health Center, Incorpo-rated(626) 919-4333 or (909) 620-8088Evchc.orgEl Proyecto del Barrio (818) 830-7133Epdb.orgFriends Without Barri-ers/ Amigos Sin Barreras

Volunteers cheered walkers on and passed out snacks to help keep walkers energized during the walk.

From Q’s, Alpha’s, Delta’s to AKA’s eveyone came out to West Hollywood with their walking shoes on.

A John Adams Middle School student listens to her teach-er for instructions, as the students rest for a short break.

Members from Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence entertained walkers and thanked them for participating in the event.

Get more information on AIDS:

AIDS/HIV Health Alter-natives(818) 508-2405Ahha-AIDS.orgAdult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation(818) 981-6581Aim-med.orgBeing Alive, People Liv-ing with HIV/AIDS Ac-tion Coalition(310) 289-2551Beingalivela.orgCamp Kindle(877) 800-CAMPCampkindle.orgCamp Laurel Founda-tion, Inc.

(310) 540-1344Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness, Inc. (323) 478-8000Gladinc.orgIn the Meantime Men’s Group, Inc.(323) 733-4868itmm.mylifemystyle.net/ Los Angeles Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse(562) 906-2676Minority AIDS Project(323) 936-4949Map-usa.orgProject New Hope(323) 665-2816Projectnewhope.orgREACH LA(213) 622-1650Reachla.org

South Bay Family Health-care Center(310) 802-6177Sbfhc.orgThe Gay & Lesbian Cen-ter of Long Beach(562) 434-4455Centerlb.orgWatts Health Care Cor-poration(323) 568-3010Wattshealth.orgWellness Works Commu-nity Health Center(818) 247-2062Wellnessworksglendale.orgWomen at Risk(310) 204-1046Womenatrisk.org

A number of CSUN students and faculty came out to walk during Aids Walk L.A. 2007.

PHOTOS & TEXTBY

Saharra White

Aids Walk LA.2007 Snap ShotOct 26, 2007 Say It Loud!

From our photo album to yours......we didnt want you to miss out on the memories.

The 2007 Miss Powergirl L.A. was crowned Oct 14, 2007 at Cameron’s Literacy Fair. The event took place at the Howard Hughes Prom-enade in Westchesher.

Little Scotter known for his performance in Chris Brown’s video Kiss Kiss performed at the Black Business Expo as well as a number of other performers. The 19th annual Black Business Expo’s three day event “Taking Care of Business At Home and Abroad,” took place September 21 thru Sept 23rd at the L.A. convention Center.

SAY IT LOUD! and Be Proud. The San Fernando Valley’s Black Newspaper 5

Actress Carla Valentine gives participants of the Cameron’s Literacy Fair on Oct 14, 2007 a sneak peek of what they can expect when they come to see the SHOUT! A Play with Music and Dance written by Sherman Oaks resident and playwright Meme Kelly. To find out about the next showing of the SHOUT visit Wingstwofly.biz

TASTE Of EncinoTaste of Encino celebrat-ed 20 years on October 14, 2007. It is one of the oldest food festivals in Los Ange-les. The event had some-thing for everyone to enjoy.

PHOTOS & TEXTBY

Saharra White

ART& ENTERTAIMENTSay It Loud! Oct 26, 2007

SAY IT LOUD! and Be Proud. The San Fernando Valley’s Black Newspaper 6

Jesse Raudales celebrity artists donat-ed original art pieces for a silent auction that will help raise funds for breast cancer. The auction will be a part of Moxi Events Inc. first annual fundraiser. The Masquerade Cos-tume Ball will take place this Saturday

Jesse Raudales, Celebrity Artist and North Hollywood Resident.

from 8p.m.-1a.m. at the Petersen Automo-bile Museum. Proceeds will go to the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Val-leys Habitat for Hu-manity, they are build-ing new homes for low income families in Pacoima. Funding

will also benefit the American Red Cross of Greater Los Ange-les. Petersen Automo-bile Museum, 6060 Wilshire Blvd. 4th Floor, L.A. For more information or to buy tickets email info@moxieeventsinc.com or Tickeyweb.com

MASQUERADE COSTUME BALL

Oct 26Dan in Real Life. Staring Juliette Binoche, Steve Carell and Dane Cook. Advice columnist and single dad Dan Burns (Carrell) attends his family reunion, he meets and falls for Beth (Binoche), a funny beautiful girl who is in a relation-ship with his brother (Cook). Rails & Tails. Staring Kevin Beacon, Marcia Gay Harden and Miles Heizer. A bond formed between a young boy whose mother com-

mits suicide and the train engineer that witnessed his mother’s death.Nov 2American Gang-ster. Starting Denzel Washington and Rus-sell Crowe. Set in the 1970s Harlem Frank Lucas (Washington) stars a builds a heroin empire by hiding the drug inside coffins from Vietnam soldiers. He later becomes dethroned by Detec-tive Richie Roberts (Crowe). The two set out to take down of-ficials who are part of

Lucas syndicate.

The Kite Runner. Staring Khalid Abdal-la and Ahmad Kham Mahmidzada. Playing at a limited theaters. Amir returns to pres-ent-day Afghanistan after spending two decades in the United States to see what hap-pened to Hassan his best friend. The two were separated after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Bee Movie. Staring Jerry Seinfield and Re-nee Zellweger. Barry

B. Benson (Seinfield), a bee that just gradu-ated from college. Goes on a special trip outside the hive, Barry’s life is changed when he meets Van-essa (Zellweger), a florist from NYC. He later files a lawsuit against humankind for eating honey.Martian Child. Star-ing Bobby Coleman, John Cusack and Amanda Peet. A writer (Cusack) adopts a young boy (Coleman) after his wife’s death. The boy believes he’s

a Martian.Mama, I Want to Sing! Playing at a lim-ited theaters. Staring Ciara, Patti LaBelle, Whitfield, Ne-Yo, Hill Harper, Ralph E. Tres-vant, Juanita Bynum, Bobby Valentino, and Ben Vereen. Pop star Ciara plays a preach-ers daughter that hopes of becoming a pop sensation. Darfur Now. Star-ing Don Cheadle. A documentary narrated by Don Cheadle on the topic of genocide in Darfur.

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Movie Openings

American Black Film Festival 2007

The 11th annual American Black Film Festival opened yesterday in Los Angeles at the Sofitel Hotel. The Festival will include 27 world premiere films, documentaries, short films, documentaries, short films as well as 11 special screenings. Film screenings are playing from noon to 10p.m. at the Mann Theatres in the Beverly Center, adjacent to the Sofitel. The festival ends Sunday, Oct 28. For festival info visit Abff.com or Ticketweb.com

Black HistoryBy Saharra White

Black History It is not a mysteryYou give me 28 days to honor our historyWell let me tell you a storyMore then a month 365 days strongI’m not wrongI hold my head up high to the skyI raise my fist in protestI yell out black powerAnd you give me 28 days to honor my historyLet me tell you some historyMartin didn’t dream in Washington in August 1963He made history!I hope the first time you heard about Rosa ParksIt wasn’t in a song talk-ing about moving to the back of the busRosa sat down for all of usShe made history

A bus boycott is what they had Cause the were all madWe march, we boycott, we protest And we don’t rest Cause we are standing up for our rightsWe just want equality to be free I have keloids all down my backBecause I was whipped as a slave and I’ve been trying to get backSince 1619 I’ve been en-slaved so you do the mathArmenian Genocide, Jewish Holocaust, Japa-nese Interment campsThat has nothing on usThey cross the boarder to cut grassThey think they should be praised, because their doing the jobs we don’t wantIf it wasn’t for John Al-bert Burr they wouldn’t have a lawn mower to cut no grassLet’s open our minds and stand with pride

Humanity started in AfricaAnd your telling me were going to celebrate my his-tory in a monthShit! “float like a butter-fly sting like a bee…”No my name isn’t Mu-hammad AliMy history will not be a mysteryIda B.Wells, Nikki Giovanni, Maya AngelouThese Women are my mothers and they taught me how to fightLangston Hughes is my father and because of him I writeI pick up my pen and I write Because no one is going to tell me my history, my history can not be celebrated in a monthThe history book isn’t quite right And is more whiteI pick up my pen to write our historyI raise my fist in protest I yell out black powerI hold my head up high I am black history And it’s not a mystery

POETRY

O

CALENDAROct 26, 2007 Say It Loud!

FRI Oct 26

American Black Film Festival. This is the 11th annual festival, featuring a number of world preimeire films. Sofitel LA Hotel, 8555 Beverly Bl., Los Angeles, (310) 278-5444. Abff.org Africa Week. End-ing Gala Banquet for CSUN’s Af-rica Week 2007. Keynote address Mr. Ayuko Babu, Fashion Show and much more. Cal State University of Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff St, SSU Shoshone Room. Csun.edu. Starts at 6p.m.Black Panther. The Revolution-ary Art of Emory Douglas. A presen-tation of graphic works that defines a party that mobilized a nation. Ends Jan 20, 2008. Call for times. MOCA Pa-cific Design Center, 8667 Melrose, West Hollywood, (213) 621-1745. Educa-tion@moca.org Festival of Lies. New work from Congolese com-pany Les Studio Kabako, theater and visual perfor-mance and part so-cial gathering. Oct 26-Oct 27. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S Grand Av, L.A. (323) 850-2000. Redcat.org. Today at 8:30pm; Sat 8:30pm. Freaky Friday. Hosted by the Sparr Heights Communi-ty Center. Children can enjoy games, crafts, and refresh-ments. There is a

free admission. For more info call (818) 538-2187. Starts at 4.Rusty’s Famous Halloween Party and Sales Event. Bring your pet in costume and get a free gift. Free food, drinks and special deals. Rustys’ dis-count Pet Center, 11672 Ventura., Studio City. Starts at 4. For more in-formation call (818) 655-5916.

SAT Oct 27

Beto Gutierrez. Author reading and book signing of A Sentence with the District. A collec-tion of essays based on the experience of a former at-risk teacher at his alma mater high school n the San Fernando Valley. A glimpse into the LAUSD, which repeatedly fails students of color and those on the front lines classroom teach-ers. Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore, 10258 Foothill Blvd, Lake Vie Terrance, (818) 896-1479.Community Clean Up Day. Sunland Tujunga is getting a huge hug on Sat-urday. Clean up sponsored by the LA City Council District 2 office, the Angeles Na-tional Golf Course, the Sunland-Tujun-ga Neighborhood Council, with assis-tance from the LA Police Department. Meet at the end of Tujunga Valley St. in Sunland. Nearest

cross street is Wen-tworth and Wescott, near Oro Vista. For info call (818) 353-9143.Pumpkin Palooza. Descanso Gardens host a two day fes-tival. Descanso Gardens, 1418 Descanso Dr, La Canada Flintridge, (818) 949-4200. Descansogardens.org. Sat-Sun start-ing at 9 a.m.Saturday Enrich-ment Program. An outreach tuto-rial and enrichment program for young people ages 4-18 years of age. Tutor-ing available in Eng-lish, Math, History, Science or Span-ish. Pacoima Fam-ily Center, 11243 Glenoaks Bl, (818) 834-2555. Between 9am-12pm. Scarium of the Pacific. A family-friendly Halloween event. Aquarium of the Pacific, 100 Aquarium Wy, Long Beach, (562) 590-3100. Aquari-umofpacific.org. Sat-Sun 9a.m.-5.

SUN Oct 28

Gospel Jam 2007. Featuring Kelly Price & Friends. Hosted by comedian Jonathan Slocumb. Shrine Auditorium, 665 W Jefferson Bl. L.A. Info: St. Paul Lutheran Church, (323) 731-8384.Inscribing Mean-ing. Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art through Feb 17, 2008. Re-lated event Sun. at 2 pm The Inscribed Environment. Pub-lic Space and Iden-

tity in Los Angeles. Fowler Museum, UCLA, L.A. (310) 206-0306. Fowler.ucla.eduStrike Against Child Abuse. Bowling fundraiser hosted by Yes I Can. Canoga Park Bowl, 20122 Vanowen St, Winnetka, (888) 224-4226. Yesican.org. Starts at noon. MON Oct 29

Clazzical Notes. Clazzical Notes to open 2007-2008 season with “Vibra-tions: The Best of Western and Afro Cuban Percussion.” This is a free event sponsored by the Pasadena Sym-phony will feature Michito Sanchez Afro Cuban Quar-tet, Classical Per-cussionist David Johnson, and KKJZ FM 88.1 Morning Drive host Bubba Jackson as modera-tor. Ramo Audito-rium on the campus of the California In-stitute of Technolo-gy, 332 S. Michigan Av, Pasadena, (626) 793-7172, ext. 18. Pasadenasympho-ny.org. Rakim with Ghostface Killah. Performing at the House of Blues Sunset Strip, 8430 Sunset Bl., West Hollywood, (323) 848-5100. Hob.com. Call for info.

TUE Oct 30

Wole Soyinka. Ni-gerian born Nobel prize-winning play-wright, poet, and novelist. Author of Mandela’s Earth

and Other Poems, Art, Dialogue, and Outrage, Isara: A Voyage Around Es-say and The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narra-tive of the Nigerian Crisis. Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Bl, L.A. (310) 443-7000. Hammer.ucla.edu. Starts a 7p.m.

WED Oct 31

Cypress Hill. Per-forming at the House of Blues Sunset Strip, 8430 Sunset Bl., West Hollywood, (323) 848-5100. Hob.com. Call for info. Maple Park Cos-tume Contest. Hosted by Parks, Recreations & Community Servic-es. All participants will enjoy a goody bag and refresh-ments, admission is free. Maple Park Community Center, 820 E. Maple St, (818) 548-3785.Montrose Hal-loween Spooktacu-lar. Hosted by the Glendale Parks, Recreation & Com-munity Services Department and the Montrose Shopping Park Association. Costume contest for children adult and pets, admission is free. Montrose Shopping Park, Ho-nolulu Ave between Verdugo Rd. and Ocean View Bl., (818) 548-2002.RAY CHARLES LIVE! A world premiere musical. Written by Pulit-zer prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks. A mov-

ing story laced with the hits “Georgia on My Mind,” “Hit the Road, Jack,” and “I Got a Woman.” Pasadena Play-house, 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, (626) 356-PLAY. Pasa-denaplayhouse.org. Oct 31-Dec 9.

THUR Nov 1

Kelly Roland with Mario. Perform-ing at the House of Blues Sunset Strip, 8430 Sunset Bl., West Hollywood, (323) 848-5100. Hob.com. Call for info.

FRI Nov 2

Millennium Mo-mentum Foun-dation 4th An-nual Opening Doors Schol-arship Awards Ceremony & Benefit Dinner. 2007 Humanitar-ian of the Year is actress, writer, producer Karyn Parsons. Award presented by ac-tor James Avery. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, (323) 939-9549. Millen-nium-momentum.org Starts at 6.

Walter Bre-mond Pioneer of African-Ameri-can Achieve-ment Awards. Hosted by Brother-hood Crusade. Bev-erly Hilton Hotel, 9876 Wilshire Bl, Beverly Hills, (323) 846-1649. Brother-hoodcrusade.org.

HEALTHSay It Loud! Oct 26, 2007

SAY IT LOUD! and Be Proud. The San Fernando Valley’s Black Newspaper 8

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

With her ef-fervescent, contagious smile Inner Images, inc. Mammography Technologist Debo-rah Wright loads up her van every week with cancer detection equipment and drives almost all over Cali-fornia to deliver free to low cost mammograms to under deserved women. Her mantra is that delivering mam-mograms is her calling and educating women about breast cancer is their right to know. After perform-ing mammograms, Wright and her driver inspect each and every single mammogram film to ensure their ac-curacy before dropping them off to a physi-cian for analysis. Then the next week, Wright and her driver go at it again for another mammogram booking. In honor of Breast Cancer aware-ness month, breast can-

cer expert Wright and Linda Lang, a stage 4 breast cancer survivor deliver educational information to wom-en from all walks of life. Wright performs on-site mobile mam-mography screenings and speeches to com-munity events. Lang utilizes her own battle with breast cancer as evidence that the dis-ease can be stabilized. Lang’s jour-ney to help others be-gan when she was di-agnosed with stage 4 breast cancer on Nov. 12, 2003. She said she was doing just fine in Oct. of 2003 and the months prior to that. Becoming diagnosed with cancer came as a surprise. Lang was punctual with yearly mammograms and physical checkups, the last one she had was in Oct. of 2003. In hind’s sight, Lang recalls that there was

an inclination that something was wrong. “Two years prior to my diagno-sis I had back prob-lems,” Lang said, “I had trouble driving, I couldn’t bend over nor shave my legs.” Lang com-plained to her doctor of the pain but the as-sumption was that it was her sciatic disc that bothered her. The doctor put Lang on Celebrex to ameliorate the pain but Lang’s pain continued even with the medication. “I was in the hospital for 5 weeks because my back pain was so severe,” Lang said. “On a scale of one to ten, I was feeling a 15.”In Nov. 5th 2003, Lang felt nauseated and her back began to spasm. She discon-tinued Celebrax and called her doctor. She was referred to see a

specialist two days later for a CATSCAN and seven days later on Nov. 12, 2003 on-cologists confirmed that Lang had stage 4 breast cancer. A malig-nant pea-sized tumor on her right breast me-tastasized to her lower back-bone and liver. “My liver en-zyme blood test shot up within three weeks in the month of Novem-ber,” Lang said. “My body had gone from normal to high quickly.”Lang was placed on chemotherapy and ra-diation. She underwent 16 sessions of radia-tion marking 10 inches on her left lower back and 6 doses of Tax-otere to be taken orally. “Today I’m a major accomplish-ment, the doctor told me that if I didn’t make it in within the next two months, I could have died,” Lang said. Lang is taking oral

medication to keep her cancer inactive. According to a report in the Ameri-can Cancer Society, staging is the process of finding out whether cancer has spread and if so, how far. The re-port also states that 178,480 new cases of invasive breast cancer in women will be di-agnosed in 2007 and approximately 40,460 deaths will be record-ed. Only lung cancer accounts for more can-cer deaths in women.Wright said state pro-grams like Every Wom-an in California Counts and health centers like Westside Family Health Center, in San-ta Monica provide free information and breast cancer screenings to all women who need it. “Every sin-gle woman in Cali-fornia qualifies for a free mammogram with WFHC,” Wright

said. Wright sees 150 patients at WFHC, every first Thurs-days of the month.“It’s very important to have breast cancer education,” Wright said, “ mammograms are 90 to 92% accurate in an expert’s hand.” According to Wright, a mammogra-phy is essential in de-tecting varying forms of tumors and cysts. “A mammog-raphy has been proven to reduce mortality from breast cancer,” Wright said, “No other imaging technique has been shown to reduce risk, but self-breast examination and phy-sician examination are essential parts of regular breast care.”For more information on who to contact for a free mammography, you can call Every Woman in Califor-nia Counts Program at 1-800-511-2300.

Los Angeles Fire Department & American Can-cer Society Breast Cancer Awareness Event.

The Los Angeles Fire Department, together with the American Cancer Society, will have informa-tional tables available at 9 different Fire Stations throughout Los Angeles. Attendees will have an opportunity to visit with Firefighters, receive gifts, and life-saving information. The event is free and no pre-registration is required. Locations: 5320 Tu-junga Ave. North Hollywood & 13035 Van Nuys Blvd. Pacoima Call for info: (661) 298-0886 x223

Human Genome Information Awareness Conference

The Human Genome Information Awareness Confer-ence will focus on educating the Los Angeles public and medical community on the challenges and impacts genetic research has on minorities. Friday, October 26th from 8 a.m. until 4. & Saturday, October 27th from 8 until 1 at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton Hotel and Towers, 5711 West Century Bl., L.A. It’s free to register and open to the public to attend for more infor-mation: Acteva.com/go/ZNEF or call (323) 298-0083.

Women 40 and over can receive a free mammogram this Saturday. The mammograms are sponsored by Joyce Bradman from the Saul and Joyce Brandman Breast Cancer Center at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center and the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. The screenings are for those that have no insurance. Patients can’t be receiving Medi-Cal or Medicare. The event takes place at the Saul and Joyce Bradman Breast Center, Cedar Sinai Medical Center, 310 N. San Vicente Bl, 3rd floor Los Angeles, CA 90038. For more information and to register for a mam-mogram contact Michelle Wolf at (323) 761-8335.

Free Mammogram Saturday at Cedar Sinai Medical Center

Breast Cancer Expert Deborah Wright and Cancer Survivor Linda Lang Help Inform the Public of Breast Cancer

Vanessa Abner Say It Loud Staff

Darleen Edwards-WhiteSay It Loud Staff Breast Cancer is the second lead-ing cause of death in American Women. The American Can-cer Society estimates that 178,480 woman will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year. Sisters, as we come to the close of Breast Cancer Awareness month, we want to re-mind you of several things to know and do throughout the year so that you can detect and prevent breast cancer. Breast cancer screening is extremely important in early de-tection. The three com-monly used tests are Mammogram, Clinical Breast Exam (CBE), and Breast Self-Exam

(BSE). A Mammogram is a x-ray of the breast. The x-ray shows us a two-dimensional im-age of the breast, and may uncover tumors that are too small to feel. The Clini-cal Breast Exam is an exam of the breast by a doctor or other health professional. The doc-tor will carefully feel the breasts for lumps or anything else that seems unusual. New screening tests are being studied in clinical trails. They are Magnetic Reso-nance Imaging (MRI) and Tissue Sampling. The Magnetic Reso-nance Imaging seems to uncover more tumors then Mammogram and Clinical Breast Exams. The magnetic fields uncover three-dimen-

sional images, which can find cancer be-tween layers of breast tissue. MRI’s and be expensive, upwards of $1,000, compared to a Mammogram at $125. Breast Tissue Sampling is taking cells from breast tis-sue to examine under a microscope. Scientists are studying whether breast tissue sampling can be used to find breast cancer at an early stage or predict the risk of developing breast cancer. Three methods of tissue sam-pling are under study: Fine-needle aspiration, nipple aspiration, and ductal lavage. Screen-ing clinical trails are taking place in many parts of the county. For information about these trails visit the National Cancer In-

stitute Web site atC a n c e r . g o v . There is also new research that suggest there’s a link between breast cancer and bras. for more information, please read the book “Dressed to Kill” by Soma Grismaijer and Sydney Ross Singer. Other WEB sites that may pro-vide further informa-tion are as follows:www.nationalbreast-cancer.org, www.Pre-vention.com, and www.B r e a s t n o t e s . c o m . Remember a healthy diet, spiritu-ally healthy mind, and daily exercise lead to a healthy body. Octo-ber is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, as a community awareness should be all year long.

BE AWARE ALL YEAR LONG