How Racism Affects the Mental Health of Black Youth

… effects of racism on the mental health of Black Americans start … even before birth. The stress of racism … effects. Maternal reports of racism affect the socio-emotional … in providing anti-Black racism targeted care. Some organizations … RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News

End of Maryland nonprofit’s state health contract leads to rocky vaccine rollout in some counties

Back-to-school vaccine clinics got off to a rocky start in some Maryland counties this year after the state health department did not renew a statewide contract with a Baltimore-based nonprofit that supports such immunization efforts.

Without the help of nurses from the Maryland Partnership for Prevention or PrepMod, the nonprofit’s scheduling and vaccine documentation software, at least three county public school systems did not hold their usual flu vaccination clinics. The end of the contract disrupted routine vaccine distribution in at least two other counties, officials said.

Advertisement

The Maryland Department of Health had contracted with the nonprofit since fall 2020 to allow Marylanders to use PrepMod to schedule appointments at COVID-19 vaccination sites around the state. Health care providers used PrepMod to report immunization data to the state health department, and some county schools used the software to allow parents to register their children for school vaccination clinics.

The state paid the nonprofit about $5 million for the three years the contract was in effect, said Tiffany Tate, the organization’s executive director. It covered nursing services and the statewide use of the PrepMod software for more than 14,000 health care providers, she said.

Advertisement

With the end of the contract, it’s likely fewer school-aged children will be vaccinated this year in Carroll County, said Carey Gaddis, a spokeswoman for the school system, said in an email. The school system had worked with the Maryland Partnership for Prevention for about six years to deliver vaccines at school, she said, and in the three years leading up to the coronavirus pandemic, about 4,500 students were vaccinated at school-based flu clinics.

School officials, however, are hopeful the effects of the contract ending will be lessened because of the local health department’s increased immunization efforts, Gaddis said. The department held two flu vaccination clinics last month for children 6 months through 18 years and is planning another one this month.

The Carroll County Health Department also notified local pediatricians and family doctors to let them know, so they’d be prepared to vaccinate more patients, said Maggie Kunz, a department spokeswoman, in a statement

School systems in Harford and St. Mary’s counties also aren’t holding school-based flu clinics this fall due to the contract ending, officials said. Instead, both counties are offering walk-in clinics and hope to reach a similar number of children as they have in the past.

Elizabeth Kromm, director of the Maryland Department of Health’s Prevention and Health Promotion Administration, acknowledged in an interview that the department has heard about some “hiccups” in patient registration and getting immunization efforts up and running this year.

However, she said, the department’s contract with the Maryland Partnership for Prevention was focused on mass vaccination efforts during the pandemic. Its support of flu and childhood vaccinations was a “nice added benefit,” she said, but not the contract’s purpose.

The health department decided not to extend the contract this year — after extending it for two years — following the end of the public health emergency. State officials worked with local health departments to return to how they delivered immunizations before the pandemic, Kromm said.

Besides, she said, the state health department doesn’t have a contracting relationship with county school systems. Local health departments and schools boards are free to make their own contracting decisions, she said.

Advertisement

“This is our first fall without the public health emergency,” Kromm said. Maryland is “transitioning back to what life was like before the pandemic, with some modifications. I’m not surprised that there were bumps along the way.”

The state health department also made about $4.8 million available to local health departments to support their vaccination efforts — about 10 times what it provided for back-to-school vaccinations last fiscal year, department spokesman Chase Cook said in an email.

“We strongly encourage families to continue reaching out to their local health departments, pharmacies and health care providers to find flu clinics,” Cook said in his statement. “Flu shots are abundant and available.”

The Maryland Partnership for Prevention started in 1999 to bolster vaccination efforts among African American seniors in Baltimore and began helping counties deliver vaccines in schools and at community clinics in 2015.

Tate, the nonprofit’s executive director, said she was surprised when she learned the state contract wouldn’t be extended. She said it was her understanding that it would be funded through the end of fiscal year 2025.

She worries that fewer Maryland children will be vaccinated this year. Since the start of the contract in 2020, Tate said, the nonprofit has supported nearly 1,500 vaccination clinics in nearly every Maryland county.

Advertisement

Without the state contract, school systems needed to individually contract with vaccine providers — a process the Carroll County school system doesn’t have the staffing to accomplish, Gaddis said.

The decision not to extend the nonprofit’s contract surprised Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, a national nonprofit that advocates for vaccination education and accessibility. She called PrepMod “groundbreaking” and said it has become part of the Maryland public health infrastructure.

“It’s disappointing to see that counties would not be able to sustain their school vaccination clinics because of a move away from PrepMod,” she said.

Other counties reported mixed results after losing PrepMod.

Dr. Miriam Dobson, director of the Frederick County Health Department’s Community Health Services Division, called the transition “smooth.” The department used PrepMod during the pandemic, but now uses its electronic health records system.

The Morning Sun

Daily

Get your morning news in your e-mail inbox. Get all the top news and sports from the baltimoresun.com.

But Prince George’s County Public Schools couldn’t schedule appointments for its back-to-school vaccination clinics and had to operate on a first-come, first-served basis, said Lynn McCawley, a school system spokeswoman. This led to longer lines, and officials had to limit each clinic to 100 students.

Advertisement

The Prince George’s school system hired the Maryland Partnership for Prevention as a consultant last month, which will allow the system to return to appointment-based clinics.

Howard County Public Schools obtained an emergency contract to continue working with the nonprofit, Tate said.

Kerrie Wagaman, director of health services for the Howard school system, said that without the help of extra nurses from the nonprofit, the school system wouldn’t have been able to hold school-based vaccination clinics and fewer children would get vaccinated.

As of last week, Howard schools had administered 4,581 student flu shots and 3,139 student COVID shots with the help of the nonprofit staffing and PrepMod.

“I barely have a nurse in every building,” Wagaman said. “In order to be able to cover a health room adequately for sick and injured [students] and students getting medications and treatments, I wouldn’t have the staff to go to a school to administer vaccines as well.”

So far this year, about 17% of Marylanders have gotten flu shots, according to state health data. Last flu season, about 37% of state residents were vaccinated. As of Monday, one person had died from the flu this season and 31 people had been hospitalized.

New Bern trailblazer turns 100, first African-American woman to own home in historic district

On Oct. 8, New Bern’s first African American to own a home in the historic district, AnnieB Gibbs, celebrated her 100th birthday.

Although Gibbs was born in Goshen on Oct. 8, 1923, she moved to New Bern shortly after, where she lived her entire life.

Gibbs remembers going to school as a young girl in New Bern and how different school was for her then.

“School was just like a playground; the teachers went in and talked, and while they conversed among themselves, we played in the streets, all around the school,” she said. “They let us stay there until noon before they started any classes.”

By the time she got to high school, things looked slightly different.

When Gibbs graduated high school, she left her class of 45 students at Old West Street School as a Salutatorian. Even with an outstanding record, she thought high school was the end of her education because Gibbs’ family couldn’t afford college.

“After I finished high school, I thought that was the end for me, I didn’t have any money, I was poor, I didn’t have shoes, and in the wintertime, my dad would get enough sacks to tie up our feet to keep our feet warm,” Gibbs said. “So, when I finished high school, I thought that was great for me, and I was just happy to finish high school.”

However, because of her outstanding marks in school, John Thomas Barber, a famed African-American educator, arranged for Gibbs to attend Winston-Salem State Teachers College. This was another great accomplishment for Gibbs, as the only one of eight siblings to attend college.

After Gibbs graduated from Winston Salem State Teachers College in 1947, she spent the next 36 years teaching in the New Bern City and Craven County Schools.

In 1985, she became the first African-American tour guide at the Tryon Palace when was hired as a guide and ticket seller. For 15 years, Gibbs served as a guide, learning and reciting the history of the Palace, the Gardens, the New Bern Academy, and other historic homes in the district.

Gibbs admits she faced some hardships as a black educator integrating into schools, but most citizens accepted her.

“It was a little bad at first; they called me black, and I ignored it,” she said. “The principal told me to use some bricks as bookends on the desk, and if one of the kids started, to just let them have it.”

Although she never had to resort to using her bricks, she recalls one time when a young white boy jumped up and started towards her, but as she placed her on the brick to warn him, he ran out the door to his mother’s house downtown.

“He went on out, got his mother, and she came down here,” Gibbs said. “She talked with me. She didn’t understand it either, why I was down there teaching. She didn’t want her son in my class. I said to go to the principal and tell him that.”

Gibbs said the principal wanted her to keep the pupil in her class as long as she would have him. Her principal believed that if she let one student decide they didn’t want a black teacher, others would follow.

“It was settled that he was staying in, and you know what, he turned out to be a nice little boy,” Gibbs said.

Although many of Gibbs’ students weren’t used to a black person, she didn’t question them about it, and many ended up being respectful children who showered her with gifts at the end of the school year.

Gibbs considered New Bern her home long before she bought her own home in downtown New Bern on South Front Street, which was an obstacle.

About thirty years ago, she crossed the bridge into downtown New Bern when she saw a sign for sale.

Although the owner said he would be happy to sell his home to Gibbs, she had trouble getting a loan from the bank to purchase it.

Gibbs’ daughter, Vicki Jeffries, said North Carolina National Bank initially approved her mother’s loan, but when they purchased the house, it was no longer approved.

“I asked if she wanted to buy the house, and she said yes, so we went down to the bank, and it was a white lady who worked at the bank, she gave Mom a bank loan to buy this house,” Jeffries said. “That woman was subsequently fired because they did not want her to own a house in New Bern because she was black.”

The second time around, the sale was finalized, and Gibbs was the first African American to own a home in the historic district, The Patterson House.

Gibbs recalls the initial shock from locals nearby, who wandered past her house to ask if she was working in the yard for somebody.

“They didn’t know that I owned the house, a lot of them were shocked,” she said.

No stranger to firsts, Gibbs was also the first African-American to integrate Tabernacle Baptist Church, where she still sings in Adult and Joy Choirs to this day.

As Gibbs lived her life in New Bern, she contributed to the community in many ways. She has been a member of Habitat for Humanity, the New Bern Preservation Commission, and the New Bern Historical Society.

“I went the right way, I treated people right,” Gibbs said. “God is my savior, and he’s done all these good things for me, I just have not had that kind of trouble with people, I’m sure it’s the Lord.”

Gibbs’ family has grown throughout her years in New Bern. She is the mother of two daughters, with five grandchildren and six great-grandsons.

“I stayed married five years, I had two little girls,” she said. “I raised those two little girls, and they were smart, they’re all doing well.”

Over 150 guests gathered on October 7 at the Tabernacle Baptist Church Family Life Center to celebrate Gibbs’ 100th birthday with a garden party. Gibbs loves gardening, and still tends to her own garden.

Soloist Imani-Grace Cooper, a prior primary vocalist for the National Cathedral, and pianist Terrance Cunningham, a previous contestant on The Voice, performed for Gibbs’ party.

New Bern Mayor Jeffrey Odham, Senator Thom Tillis, and Governor Roy Cooper extended letters of recognition to Gibbs at the party. She was given well wishes and recognized for her work as an educator and guide at the Tryon Palace Complex, as well as a host of family and friends.

Reporter Caramia Valentin can be reached at cvalentin@newbernsj.com.

Paris art fair week and black representation

In the folds of the Seine, Paris — with its age-old echo of revolutions, where cobblestones have borne both protest and promenade — awakens once more. 

As an unyielding centre of insurrections, the city’s inherent toughness is captured in every stone, marking the tempo of both uprising and leisurely strolling.

During the Paris+ par Art Basel art fair week in late October, this resonance became clearer, urging one to attune — art, as a testament to existence, is constantly evolving, always in conversation, seeking its deserved place. 

It’s during this time that Paris’s storied past weaves into the present, delineating where history brushes against the now.

The city pulses with life, at a juncture where ancient and contemporary seamlessly coalesce, highlighting the intricate dance between age-old traditions and modern reinvention. Art is not a static entity but a dynamic occurrence, an active verb unfolding in real time.

It’s found in the hushed whispers against walls adorned with murals, in the soft dialogues tucked away in corners, and in the audacious masterpieces that screamwithout uttering a word.

The streets of Paris during its art fair week are not merely pathways; they are living testimonies, echoing the melodies once played by Gerard Sekoto, retracing the steps where Pablo Picasso once danced, and whispering tales that James Baldwin penned.

Amidst this symphony, the sheer euphoria of being a South African in the city, especially during the Springboks’ Rugby World Cup triumph, charged the Parisian air with an electric vigour. This energy, palpable and pulsating, courses through the city’s veins, illuminating its essence. 

Paris, with its historic standing as an art and culture nexus, firmly re-established its global significance during the famed art fair week.

Seven art fairs unveiled their treasures, solidifying the French capital as the undeniable epicentre for global art aficionados. The most prestigious, the Paris+, steered by the distinguished Art Basel group with Noah Horowitz at the helm, witnessed a noticeable absence of South African galleries and black artists.

Major names like Stevenson and Goodman, previously seen at the flagship Art Basel in Switzerland, were notably missing.

Yet, the vibrant presence of the SMAC Gallery was unmistakable.

Their choice to spotlight Benoni-born Simphiwe Buthelezi was ingenious. Her creations, a blend of materials ranging from steel to Zulu glass beads, were a sensation, underscoring herinnate talent and the gallery’s visionary approach. 

The positioning of galleries within art fairs often reflects the ever-evolving contemporary art scene. Paris+’s commitment to budding galleries gave voice to Galerie Carole Kvasnevski and illustrates a continued renewal and vision. 

Zanele Muholi’s monumental success the previous year was rivalled by this year’s installation in the Tuileries gardens of their sculpture The Politics of Black Silhouettes (2023).

Set not far from where Saartjie Baartman voiced her final words, art poignantly conveyed the enduring struggles and achievements of black identities.

Joël Andrianomearisoa, the renowned artist who represented Madagascar’s inaugural participation at the Venice Biennale, displayed his distinct vision not only at Macaal but also at Koyo Kouoh’s Zeitz MOCAA. His glass and metal artwork Serenade and the Triumph Of Romance (2023), gracefully positioned in the garden, amplified conversations through its research and experimentation with materials and sentiments.

Could it be that the upward movement of black figuration to prominence — a trend that has surged with vigour in recent years, is over?

A gallerist, whom I’d prefer to keep anonymous, exclaimed with exasperation: “Thank God! If I see another painting of a family album, I might just collapse.”

This perspective becomes clearer in the face of juxtapositions. A gallerist’s weariness with recurrent themes of familial reminiscences stands in stark contrast with the awe-inspiring works of maestros such as Henry Taylor, whose exhibition at Hauser & Wirth was not just a testament to his brilliance but a resounding affirmation of the relevance of black figuration.

His canvas isn’t merely cloth and colour; it’s an epoch, a history, a narrative.

Artistic trends aren’t mere whims that ebb and flow with the tides of popular opinion.

They are mirrors, reflecting back to society its deepest fears, aspirations, struggles and triumphs. 

To consider the black figuration’s seeming retreat as a sign of its waning relevance is to engage in a superficial reading of art’s purpose. It’s not an ebb; it’s a deep inhalation, a momentary pause to gather momentum for the next wave, the next exploration, the next revelation.

The AKAA (Also Known As Africa) art fair, initiated by Victoria Mann, arose as a key platform championing African art eight years ago. Located at the Carreau du Temple, this fair has morphed into a microcosm of the vast African continent and its diaspora.

Over 30 galleries and 100-plus artists wove an enthralling tapestry of stories, histories and experiences.

With stalwart galleries’ continued allegiance and the debut of newcomers such as MCC Gallery, Primo Marella Gallery and Afronova, AKAA is sculpting a global artistic fraternity.

South Africa was prominently represented, with notable works by Ayanda Mabunu, Mpho Feni, Sizwe Sibisi, Aviwe Plaatjie, AO Ntshabele and numerous others. 

The booth by Kalashnikovv Gallery, hosted by MJ Turpin and Matt Dowdle, showcased Isaac Zavale’s artwork, which perfectly encapsulated Johannesburg’s spirit of commercial innovation. 

Alongside Zavale, artworks by Turiya Magadlela and Ayanda Mabulu offered incisive commentary on the socio-political dynamics of South Africa.

Emilie Demon’s Afronova, a notable advocate for African contemporary art, represents an array of distinguished artists, emphasising the vast artistic talent from the continent. It showcases works by talents such as Sibusiso Bheka, known for his urban narratives, and Lawrence Lemaoana, famous for his fabric artworks.

Other featured artists include the captivating photographer Alice Mann and the abstraction-focused Dimakatso Mathopa. In addition, Cape Town’s Ebony/curatedgallery presented works by artists such as Lisa Ringwood, Hugh Byrne and Haneem Christian.

The ensemble also highlighted Congolese artist Zemba Luzamba, known for his socio-political depictions. 

The Lusophone influence was evident and impactful at both Perve Galeria (Lisbon) and Movart gallery (Luanda). 

At Perve Galeria’s booth, the evocative paintings of Portuguese artist Teresa Roza d’Oliveira offered deep insights into the cultural ties between Mozambique and Portugal, drawing from her profound relationships and addressing themes such as gender rights and diasporic challenges.

On the other hand, at the Movart gallery, Mario Macilau, a former street child and winner of the 2023 Prix Roger-Pic, showcased monochrome photographs that delve into the stories of marginalised individuals, highlighting their resilience and the human essence amidst vulnerabilities.

Both artists use their mediums to portray stories of connection, adversity and strength.

From other parts of the continent, standout names like Franck Lundangi, Delphine Diallo and Tegene Kunbi left a lasting impression with their distinctive works.

Lundangi’s fusion of African and European styles was compelling. Kunbi’s award- winning paintings, inspired by Ethiopian textiles, resonated through their vibrant colours and rhythmic patterns.

Diallo’s poignant mixed-media photographic collages shed light on the diverse identities of the African diaspora. It was especially uplifting to witness David Brolliet, a Swiss collector, securing one of her works.

I witnessed Binelde Hyrcan signing a photograph from his fantastically challenging 2019 project In God We Trust at 31 Project.

There’s no art fair without its accompanying dinners and afterparties, including an invitation to Gagosian’s residence for the unveiling of Italian arte povera artist Giuseppe Penone’s work, the White Cube dinner in honour of the exceptional artist duo TARWUK and Thaddaeus Ropac’s opening for the remarkable Jamaican artist Alvaro Barrington.

As the swan song for the AKAA art fair, we gathered at the illustrious Soho House.

The afterparty was so sought-after that many collectors, galleries and artists were unable to gain entry, as the venue reached capacity.

With martinis and Johnny Walker Blues flowing freely, I dedicated my DJ set to the global protests for peace. Blending afro house, amapiano, dubke and cutting-edge electronic Arabic music, I crafted a quintessential Globalisto set.

My aim was to welcome everyone, regardless of class, colour, religion, race or gender, to partake in a communal dialogue. Through this, I hoped to emphasise art as a potent catalyst for resistance, peace, love and unity.

Instagram: @mo_laudi

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment