By Guest Contributor, on April 1st, 2011 
By Ben Parisi, Empower DC Child Care Organizer
On Thursday, March 17, 2011, St. Patrick’s Day, members of Empower DC’s Child Care for All Campaign and Save Our Safety Net DC came together to demand that newly elected Mayor Vincent Gray “Show Us the Green” for Child Care Subsidies.
Most of the people featured in this video, and many of their neighbors in Ward 7 and 8 supported Gray – without those wards Gray may well have lost the election. Yet many are worried that Gray will continue some of the same dangerous trends that Fenty began – including slashing the budget for child care subsidies.
The Child Care Subsidy Program is a critically important program that allows low-income families to access child care so that they can keep their jobs, enroll in school, and provide for their families. If these subsidies are cut further, parents will be left with no option but to forego employment and remove their children from quality early childhood education. Child care providers, who rely on DC’s reimbursement for serving subsidy-holders, will be left with no option but to close – as over 50 have already in the past year.
Child care like that provided by those featured in this video ensure that children are more likely to be prepared to enter school, successfully graduate high school, move on to college, and stay out of the criminal justice system. Investment in early childhood has a huge return on investment by saving taxpayer money down the line on reduced need for remedial education and pressure on the penal system.
In four years, this critical program that also employs nearly 6,000 people in DC, has been cut nearly $30 million. THE CUTS MUST STOP NOW. Send Mayor Gray the message: eom@dc.gov.
Thank you to all the Child Care for All Campaign members, to Save Our Safety Net DC, and the Puppet Underground (for the great signs in this video)!!
By Liane Scott, on March 25th, 2011 
The Grassroots DC offers digital storytelling workshops to community-based social change organizations. Here’s one that was produced by Grace Ebiasah, a member of Different Avenues.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teFD1L9pYz0
Hi, I’m Grace and I work with a non-profit organization called Different Avenues. The mission of Different Avenues is to build and share leadership skills as well as to organize to make change and improve and protect the health, rights and safety of women and girls in this region and thus nationally. One of the ways we do this is by making digital stories.
I think creating a digital story could be of a help to Different Avenues because most people in my community have different views and perspectives of different sorts of things that can have an effect on there everyday living and there daily life. Most people that I have run across in my 19 years of living on this earth have not discovered a reasonable way to cope with there anger and frustration and to get their points across. Some people feel as if they’re all alone and that they have no one to call on and that their voices and actions are never heard. I truly believe creating a digital story can help them find out who they truly are inside and also help people to make a difference.
By Liane Scott, on March 16th, 2011 
Workers Rally at Giant Food in Greenbelt, Maryland
When you buy a box of cereal or a roll of toilet paper from a Giant in Maryland or the District of Columbia, chances are those products were stored at a warehouse in Jessup, Maryland before they went to your neighborhood grocery store. More than 500 employees of that warehouse in Jessup are in danger of losing their jobs. Giant plans to turnover operations of the shop to a notoriously anti-union company, C & S Wholesale Grocers, who will more than likely outsource the work to a non-union warehouse in Pennsylvania. This fear is justified by C&S’s closure of a distribution center in Woodbridge, N.J., which resulted in more than 1,000 layoffs.
To stop the loss of area jobs, hundreds of grocery and wholesale workers held a rally at a Giant in Greenbelt Maryland last Sunday, March 13, demanding that Giant respect the community that supports it by employing locally. If you weren’t able to attend the rally but recognize that the loss of jobs in the region is none too good for the local economy or if you feel solidarity for the workers because you yourself or someone you know has been or is at risk of being outsourced, you can at least keep yourself informed thanks to the following audio report produced by Netfa Freeman: Giant Food Worker Rally
For more information on the campaign itself and how you can get involved go to the Justice at Giant campaign website.
Giant is hoping this little maneuver will save them $10 million annually in non-labor costs. Turnout at the rally was perhaps better than it’s been for most labor demonstrations because of events taking place in Wisconsin, Ohio and as far flung as Egypt and Tunisia. It seems that workers around the world are finally coming to the conclusion that those of us on the relatively far Left have understood for a long time––the corporate oligarchies that control our economy don’t really have the best interest of the working- and middle-class at heart. Our elected officials, who are bought and paid for by those same oligarchies, will put the interests of their corporate masters ahead of the electorate every time.
So, when corporations like Giant Foods and elected officials like Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and DC Mayor Vincent Gray say, “times are tough. We all have to take a hit.” We know they don’t really mean we as in everyone, todo el mundo. This may seem like common sense to your average progressive, but we haven’t been good at convincing most of the working- and middle-class of these facts. By bailing out those that caused the worst economic calamity since 1929 and having no empathy for the rest of us, our elected officials are making the case for us.
The sizable rally against Giant and the support for striking nurses at Washington Hospital Center are ripples of this growing realization that we are feeling here in the District of Columbia. Will it translate into a growing fight against austerity measures proposed to balance the city budget? Will more people get on board the effort to keep the city from selling off publicly-owned properties to developers or stop the corporate take over of public schools?
We as individuals cannot be at every rally. We cannot stay on top of every issue but we can get the word out about the events that we are able to attend in just the same manner as Netfa Freeman. Netfa Freeman is a volunteer radio producer at WPFW. He co-produces the public affairs program Voices With Vision. I am quite pleased to announce that he will be teaching a radio production class for the Grassroots Media Project which will meet on four consecutive Wednesdays starting March 23, 2011. There schedule is as follows:
Wednesday March 23 ……………….. 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM Wednesday March 30 ……………….. 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM Wednesday April 6 ……………………. 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM Wednesday April 13 ………………….. 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Class will be held in the media lab at Empower DC, 1419 V Street NW, from 6-8pm. To sign up, email the coordinator at liane@grassrootsmediaproject.org. There are only six slots available.
If this movement that we are finally seeing is to be sustained, it will need a voice. Sign up for this radio production class and help give the movement, locally at least, the voice it needs to sustain itself.
. . . → Read More: Time To Get Involved: Giant Food & Beyond
By Liane Scott, on March 7th, 2011 
The District’s mainstream media has not gone out of their way to cover Walmart and their current attempt to locate four stores within DC’s borders. There are a few media activists within the community who have been following the story. Here’s a brief survey.
Longtime DC activist and video journalist Luke regularly posts to DC’s Independent Media Center. All of the following articles include video:
Dozens Protest Outside of Developer’s House
Unions Demand Wal-Mart “Respect DC” at Wilson Building Rally
Anti Wal-Mart Film Screening Packs the House at Plymouth Congregational
On February 25, WPFW’s Spirit in Action program dedicated an entire hour to the issue of Walmart. Empower DC co-founder Parisa Norouzi’s arguments against Walmart coming to DC were pretty unshakeable. I am trying to get a copy of the program to post here. In the mean time, you can find it on WPFW’s Program Archives page. You’ll have to scroll down to Spirit in Action, 2/25/2011.
The Washington City Paper fancies itself alternative press. The jury is still out on that but they did cover our favorite rapper Head-Roc and his efforts to keep Walmart out of the District in their article Head-Roc’s Mouth: Keep D.C. Walmart Free.
Radio journalist Pete Tucker of Fightback Radio looks at the issue from the point of view of small business owner Gary Cha in the podcast Yes! Says No to Walmart.
Although the Washington Times is not alternative media, their article Alexander Aides on Wal-Mart Team about Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander’s ties to Walmart is relevant nonetheless.
Should you have the time and the inclination to get your information in a more sociable way, the group Walmart Free DC has been scheduling free community screenings of the film “The High Cost of Low Prices” in every ward in the city. The next screening will be in Ward 3:
Palisades Neighborhood Library 4901 V St. N.W. – PAL Large Meeting Room Thursday, March 31, 2011 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Following that is a screening in Ward 5:
Woodridge Library 1801 Hamlin St. N.E. Wednesday, April 6, 2011 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM
If you’d like to do more than just follow the story in the media, Walmart Free DC has begun meeting regularly on Saturdays at Empower DC, 1419 V Street NW. The best way to become involved and stay informed is by subscribing to their list serve. To do so, send an email to walmartfreedc@lists.riseup.net.
The groups No Ward 4 Walmart and Ward Four Thrives appear to be working in conjunction on this issue. If you’re a Ward 4 resident looking to get involved, they can be contacted via their website WardFourThrives.blogspot.com. Their blog has lots of information about Walmart in general and links to a bunch of articles that aren’t posted here. Enjoy!
By Liane Scott, on February 15th, 2011 
Godfather of Go-go, Mr. Chuck Brown
Grassroots Media Project radio producers Brenda Hayes and Be Steadwell interviewed Chuck Brown, the Godfather of Go-go, at WPFW a couple of weeks before the Grammy’s. Mr. Brown was nominated for the song LOVE featuring Jill Scott with Marcus Miller in the category Best R&B Performance By a Duo or Group With Vocals. As no one outside of the DC radius has a proper understanding of Go-go, Chuck Brown did not win. However, all you Go-go fans out there will want to hear the Hayes/Steadwell interview of Chuck Brown because as I said, he never lets us down.
Chuck Brown Interview
Thank you Wikipedia for the following information:
Chuck Brown (born August 28, 1936) is a guitarist and singer who is affectionately called “The Godfather of Go-go“. Go-go is a subgenre of funk music developed in and around Washington, D.C. in the mid- and late 1970s. While its musical classification, influences, and origins are debated, Brown is regarded as the fundamental force behind the creation of go-go music.
Brown’s musical career began in the 1960s playing guitar with Jerry Butler and The Earls of Rhythm, joining Los Latinos in 1965. He still performs music today and is commonly known in the Washington, DC area. Brown’s early hits include “I Need Some Money” and “Bustin’ Loose“. “Bustin’ Loose” has been adopted by the Washington Nationals baseball team as its home run celebration song, and was interpolated by Nelly for his 2002 number one hit “Hot in Herre.” Brown also recorded go-go covers of early jazz and blues songs, such as “Go-Go Swing” Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing If Ain’t Got That Swing“, “Moody’s Mood for Love”, Johnny Mercer’s “Midnight Sun“, Louis Jordan’s “Run Joe”, and T-Bone Walker’s “Stormy Monday”.
He has influenced other go-go bands such as Big G and The Backyard Band, Rare Essence, Experience Unlimited (EU), Little Benny and the Masters, and Trouble Funk.
The song “Ashley’s Roachclip” from the Soul Searchers’ 1974 album Salt of the Earth contains a famous drum break, sampled countless times in various other tracks.[1]
In the mid-1990s, he performed the theme music of Fox‘s sitcom The Sinbad Show which later aired on The Family Channel and Disney Channel.
Brown is considered a local legend in Washington, D.C., and has appeared in television advertisements for the Washington Post and other area companies. The D.C. Lottery‘s “Rolling Cash 5” ad campaign features Chuck Brown singing his 2007 song “The Party Roll” in front of various D.C. city landmarks such as Ben’s Chili Bowl.
Brown resides in Waldorf, Maryland. His son, Nekos, was a defensive end/linebacker for the Virginia Tech football team. While his son was in college, Brown scheduled concerts and other appearances around the Hokies home schedule to ensure that he would never miss a game, and became a fixture at Lane Stadium. Following the Virginia Tech massacre, Brown was “absolutely devastated” by the tragedy, and cried every day for two weeks.[2] In shows that followed, Brown would pause for a moment in prayer for the victims and their families before beginning his performance, and dedicated several shows to their memory.
Brown was the subject of the cover article in The Washington Post Magazine on October 4, 2009, entitled Chuck Brown’s Long Dance.[3] He received his first Grammy Award nomination in 2010 for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals for “Love” (with Jill Scott and Marcus Miller), from the album We Got This.
. . . → Read More: Chuck Brown Never Lets Us Down
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