Tag Archives: featured

Crying out against injustice, voices united, focused on the value of human life. Residents of Syracuse and Central New York gathered in downtown Syracuse Friday, March 30, to honor Trayvon Martin and shed light on his death, injustices committed in this country and in our own backyards.

Register your group for the Earth Day Cleanup by April 6 Help beautify our community by volunteering for OCRRA’s annual Earth Day Litter Cleanup event happening April 20 and 21. Just donating an hour or so of your time can have a huge impact on the look of our community.

Three organize a ‘1,000,000 Hoodie March for Trayvon Martin’ this Friday Ashley Miller of Clay never thought twice about putting a hoodie on her 3-year-old son, Daquan. A hoodie, she thought, is nothing more than a jacket with a hood — a piece of clothing to keep her son warm. Her thoughts changed in the wake of the death of …

Volunteers and attendees agreed that the Sister Circle was one of the most powerful moments of the Image Initiative’s annual “Sisters Empowering Sisters” conference on Friday and Saturday, March 23 and 24. While the girls sat in a circle with their eyes closed, other participants, many of them strangers at the time, whispered affirmations in their ear.

Mikell Clemons leads his teammates both on the basketball court and in the classroom Mikell Clemons sits in the front of Stephanie Sobon’s social studies class. He is jammed in the corner where two chalkboards meet, and it’s easy to miss him when you walk in the room. But Sobon knows exactly where he is. As the students sit at …

Lanika Mabrey volunteers her time to improve her community For Lanika Mabrey, sitting down to talk about all of her achievements is not easy. “I must admit, talking about myself isn’t something I’m particularly used to,” she said. “But I think that this is a good way to give voice to some great things happening in our community.”

Newly Opened South Literacy Zone assists in adult education and GEDs It has been more than 30 years since Arlene Brodbeck sat in a classroom. But at age 52, Brodbeck decided it was time to get her GED diploma — for her own education and so she could help her 25 grandchildren with homework. It was the South Literacy Zone that …

A Community Test Kitchen Helped Echols Gourmet Desserts Get Started In the fast-paced era of frozen meals, Echols Gourmet Desserts offers a taste of the good old days, when most food was made from scratch. Charlene Echols-Barnes founded the wholesale dessert company 15 years ago in Syracuse. She decided to pursue a family dream of opening up a bakery after …

Students at two South Side schools channel their artistic talents for Black History Month Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and first lady Michelle Obama are among the many prominent figures whose images line the walls and desktops in Adam Felleman’s classroom at Clary Magnet Middle School.

Beauchamp Library houses little-known nook for African-American works Ajiyah Coleman doesn’t know what a Sankofa bird is or that her local library has a room named after it. All she knows is that she likes to read about African-American history and “all that kind of stuff.” The 9-year-old Ajiyah, who lives across the street from the South Side’s Beauchamp Branch …