HARVEY, LA -  The Jefferson Parish Democratic Executive Committee (JPDEC) will recognize the honorable Cedric L. Richmond, senior adviser to the Democratic National Committee, as the 2024 Blue Horizon Award winner at a gala banquet on May 13 in Harvey.

    The Blue Horizon Award is given annually to recognize someone who boosts Democratic ideals in Louisiana and across the country. Cedric Richmond, 50, has a long record of outstanding service – as an attorney, elected official and a senior adviser to President Joe Biden. He previously served as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.

    Richmond was co-chair of President Joe Biden’s election campaign in 2020 before entering the Biden Administration. Richmond served as the U.S. representative for Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District – including most of New Orleans -- from 2011-2021. He was chair of the Congressional Black Caucus in 2017-19.

    The Blue Horizon Dinner will be held 6:30-9 p.m. Monday, May 13, at The Four Columns, 3711 Westbank Expy in Harvey.

    Also honored will be Community Service Award Winners, who work or volunteer on behalf of Jefferson Parish, Democratic Party causes, or our greater community. JPDEC will consider community-service nominations from the public as well. If you have someone you’d like to nominate as a service-award winner, please send your nominee’s name and brief supporting material to: paulanger3900@gmail.com.   

     Information on how to get tickets and reserve your seats at the Blue Horizon Dinner will be announced soon. In the meantime, please Save the Date of Monday, May 13!

The New Orleans Dance Collective

The New Orleans Dance Collective provides an environment for inner-city at-risk youth and adolescents where they can recognize and develop talents, share skills and information, and ultimately realize their own potential, then pass on new community-building skills to others to sustain the impact. NODC is a dance training school where students learn how to become professional dancers. Our students have graduated from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and The University of Colorado and two of NODC's students are currently performing with Philadanco, The Philadelphia Dance Company.

Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom

during the Civil War

by Edda L. Fields-Black

Buy on Bookshop

February 26, 2024

by Eric Herschthal, The New Republic

On June 2, 1863, not long after midnight, 300 recently escaped slaves, all armed and with at least one woman among them, invaded a stretch of rice plantations along the Combahee River in South Carolina. When the armed Black rebels arrived, the slaveholders fled, but their enslaved workers refused to follow them. Instead, at least 727 of them followed the rebels to nearby boats, which ushered them to a military camp, declared them free, and armed those able to fight. Meanwhile, as dawn approached, the retreating Black rebels set fire to the abandoned slave labor camps, depriving the slaveholders’ army of a vital source of food, and delivering a major victory in the Black rebels’ larger war on slavery.

Given the scale of the invasion and the number of Black people emancipated, this attack, known as the Combahee River Raid, could plausibly be considered the largest slave rebellion in American history. It might even be called the largest slave rebellion in what was the largest slave revolution in modern world history. Not even the Haitian Revolution—the first successful slave-led war to overthrow slavery—liberated as many Black people as the one in which the Combahee River Raid was only a part.

Dorchester County Cambridge, MD Harriet Tubman Museum Chesapeake Bay Program, The mural "Take My Hand," painted by Michael Rosato at the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center, Cambridge, Maryland

Accounts of the Combahee invasion have, somehow, been incapable of imagining it as a slave rebellion, much less part of a larger slave revolution. Yet the American slave revolution, which we have come to call “the Civil War,” shares all the hallmarks of the Haitian Revolution, on an even grander scale. Just as in Haiti, America’s slave revolution came amid a larger white man’s war, which slaves transformed to include their own revolutionary agenda: immediate emancipation and full Black citizenship. Just as in Haiti, America’s enslaved Black revolutionaries allied with white military forces to achieve their goal of emancipation. America’s Black radicals even convinced liberal white reformers, the core of the Republican Party, to become momentary revolutionaries themselves: As the Jacobins did in France, the Republicans in America formalized the freedom that slaves won for themselves, in places like Combahee, by enshrining emancipation in the United States Constitution.

In some ways, America’s slave revolution was even more radical than Haiti’s. America’s Black revolutionaries did not force most of the white people to leave, nor did they create an exclusively “Black” republic. Instead, they persuaded their leaders, in large part on account of their wartime activities, to enshrine the more revolutionary principle of universal citizenship, regardless of class or race. Nor, as Haitians and most other emancipated peoples were forced to do, did America’s Black rebels compensate their former enslavers for their lost “human property.” To be sure, Black radicals hardly got everything they demanded. There would be no land given to them, to say nothing of reparations. Nor would they receive protection against the vicious white backlash that followed in their revolution’s wake. But perhaps most troubling is that, even today, few people see the war waged by enslaved Black Americans as a veritable revolution. How did we miss it?

Even today, few people see the war waged by enslaved Black Americans as a veritable revolution. How did we miss it?

It is the task of Edda L. Fields-Black’s remarkable new history, Combee, to recover part of this ignored slave revolution. Her focus is not on the entire war, only its most significant battle: the Combahee River Raid. Though hardly unknown to historians (and perhaps best remembered for the Black feminist collective that took its name as inspiration), the raid is one of the least studied battles in what we call the Civil War, and it features as only a bit chapter in the revolutionary life of one of its main participants, Harriet Tubman. Fields-Black, an accomplished historian of West Africa and the slave South, as well as a descendant of one of the Combahee slave rebels, has set out to restore this battle to its proper place in the life of Harriet Tubman and the larger war on slavery, calling it “the largest and most successful slave rebellion in US history...”

Click for Full Story

by Chelsea Brasted, AXIOS New Orleans

Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios

NEW ORLEANS (2/26/2024) - As the Louisiana Legislature is poised to backtrack a slate of criminal justice reforms, one expert says there's no data to suggest the legislation being considered will actually help deter crime.

• "It feels like trying to fix the Saints' quarterback problems by drafting a center-fielder," says crime analyst Jeff Asher, co-founder of the New Orleans firm AH Datalytics.

Why it matters: Legislators have been in Baton Rouge since last Monday rapidly pushing bills through committee during a special session on crime that stands to reshape the state's approach to criminal justice.

• The bills are likely to roll back reforms credited with the state losing its reputation as the world's prison capital.

The big picture: Americans think crime is getting worse, and that impression is fueling a back-step on criminal justice reforms around the country.

• 77% of Americans believe U.S. crime increased over the previous year, according to Gallup data released in November, despite violent crime data actually trending down.
• In Georgia, legislators passed a bill requiring cash bail for 30 more crimes as a way to clamp down on "repeat offenders."
• And, as the Washington Post reported, proposals to roll back criminal justice reforms have also popped up in Vermont, California and Maryland.

Click for full story from AXIOS New Orleans.

NEW ORLEANS (2/14/2024) - This year Dress for Success New Orleans celebrates 25 years of empowering women towards self-sufficiency with career development and employment retention services. The organization has been a beacon of hope, style, and empowerment, transforming the lives of over 10,000 women in the community.

In 1999, out of the trunk of her car, Hope Encalade, Dress for Success New Orleans Founder suited women with donated professional attire and saw the transformative power of dressing for success. Recognizing the profound impact that this could have on a woman's confidence and professional advancement, Dress for Success New Orleans was born. Since then, the organization has evolved from a humble initiative to a thriving force for change, uplifting women to achieve their full potential.

"It's been nothing short of incredible to witness the evolution of Dress for Success New Orleans from a small initiative to a powerful force for empowerment in our community." - Hope Encalade, DFSNO Founder

At the core of DFSNO's goal is the understanding that empowering women goes beyond clothing; it's about building self-esteem, fostering skills, and creating a supportive community. More than half of women who walk through DFSNO doors are single mothers and a majority are women of color, some referred from partnering organizations like Grace House, Goodwill, and Eden House. DFSNO offers financial education with Capital One, confidence and self-care workshops with ULTA Beauty, Digital Skills Ready with the AARP Foundation, and many more career development programs, mentorship, and networking opportunities that pave the way for lasting success. “The women who come to us are from all walks of life, all ethnicities, and all education levels. They all have one thing in common: they want to do better. The programs that we offer these women allow them to take that first step toward a new life, and to keep the job and move up. When she gets the job, not only is her life positively impacted, but also the lives of her children, her family, and the community.” - Diane Riche, DFSNO Past Board President

Behind the racks of clothing and the workshops lies a thread of success stories that reflect the true impact of DFSNO. From women landing their dream jobs to entrepreneurs starting their own businesses, the organization has played a pivotal role in shaping the narratives of countless individuals. These stories will be shared and celebrated at the SUSCO Styled for Success Luncheon Friday, March 15 at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans. The luncheon program will highlight the Client of the Year success story, award the Volunteer of the Year, and feature keynote speaker Dress for Success Worldwide CEO, Michele Meyer-Shipp. Michele joined Dress for Success Worldwide in 2022, from Major League Baseball, where she served as Chief People & Culture Officer. Additionally, there will be a fashion presentation featuring local boutiques such as Monomin, Pilot & Powell, Angelique and making a debut to the runway will be men’s fashions provided by Luca Falcone Clothier.

DFSNO continues significant growth and programmatic expansions including:

• Over 500 unique women served annually
• 78% of clients are people of color, 56% are single mothers
• Job readiness workshops to include career development, digital and computer skills, Capital One financial planning as well as life skills and self-care
• The Coca-Cola Foundation provided a generous grant to support women entering the hospitality and tourism industry with new uniform apparel to meet the needs of those working in the service industry
• Strengthened relationships with local HBCUs by conducting professional wardrobe presentations, outfitting students with professional attire for interviewing, internships or full time employment, and donated clothing to their campuses

As Dress for Success New Orleans enters its next chapter, the organization remains committed to its vision of empowering women and fostering positive change for the next 25 years or more.

About Dress for Success

The mission of Dress for Success is to empower women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and the development tools to help women thrive in work and in life. Since starting operations in 1997, Dress for Success has expanded to almost 150 cities in 29 countries and has helped more than one million women work towards self-sufficiency.

Contact:

Lori Bargeon | lori@dfsneworleans.og | 318.381.2984

Tracee Dundas | tracee@dfsneworleans.org | 504.628.3223

Click here to download a video of the full press conference (credit NFL Network)

Click here for broll and photos of the Superdome

News Report by New Orleans Super Bowl LIX Host Committee

LAS VEGAS – (Feb. 12, 2024) – No stranger to hosting football’s biggest event the Super Bowl, New Orleans is officially “on the clock” as preparations officially get underway to host Super Bowl LIX on February 9, 2025.

During a news conference on Monday in Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Raiders, the City of Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee and National Football League (NFL) Commissioner Roger Goodell handed off hosting duties to Mrs. Gayle Benson, owner of the New Orleans Saints, Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser of the State of Louisiana, City of New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, Marcus Brown, Chair of the New Orleans Super Bowl LIX Host Committee, and Jay Cicero, President/CEO of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation/Super Bowl LIX Host Committee. Using the phrase familiar to any NFL Draft fan, Goodell announced, “New Orleans, you are on the clock.”

The New Orleans Saints led by Mrs. Gayle Benson play an integral role in the Super Bowl LIX hosting effort. “Hosting the biggest sporting event in the world takes great teamwork and participation from our entire community and I am confident we will pull together, as we always do, to deliver the greatest experience possible for fans from around the country and world,” Saints owner Gayle Benson said. “I’m proud to stand here among these leaders on stage with me who will ensure a phenomenal Super Bowl 59 in February of 2025.”

Since 1970, New Orleans has hosted the Super Bowl 10 times, and local hospitality and business leaders are familiar with the unique challenges associated with this colossal event. Led by the experienced teams at the New Orleans Saints and the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation, the New Orleans Super Bowl LIX Host Committee is responsible for planning, executing and hosting Super Bowl LIX in February of 2025. Host Committee Founding Partner and Entergy Executive Vice President and General Counsel Marcus Brown, who serves as the 2025 Super Bowl LIX Host Committee Chair, confirmed New Orleans is ready to go, simply stating the Host Committee theme, “It’s what we do.”

Brown, along with the entire Host Committee, has been working for over a year directly with the NFL and its incredible hospitality partners – including the State of Louisiana, City of New Orleans, New Orleans and Company, and the New Orleans Tourism and Cultural Fund – to create an exceptional experience for all attendees of Super Bowl LIX. Brown thanked them for their partnership and support during the “hand-off” press conference.

“Now, the focus is on New Orleans, but we’re no stranger to being on this world stage. There are good reasons why the NFL has chosen New Orleans as a host destination 11 times,” said 2025 Super Bowl LIX Host Committee Chair Marcus Brown. “From our spicy Creole dishes to our rich music and entertainment culture, and of course our Southern hospitality, we are built to host the hundreds of thousands of fans that will flock to the Crescent City for Super Bowl 59. It’s what we do, and we are excited to have the privilege to do it again in 2025.”

“The City of New Orleans has a rich history in hosting Super Bowls – from Tom Landry in his fedora at Tulane Stadium to the storied 1985 Chicago Bears and their ‘46 defense’,” said Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser. “It’s easy to remember what happens on the field, but as we all know, there’s a team behind the scenes working diligently for these moments to happen. I’m proud to work alongside our Super Bowl LIX Host Committee to host our 11th Super Bowl. It’s what we do best - together.”

New Orleans is a destination for culture and hospitality, which can be heard through the sounds of musicians like Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Harry Connick Jr. and Jon Batiste. It can be seen through the one-of-a-kind architecture from historic St. Charles Avenue to the French Quarter. It can be tasted through the Creole and Cajun dishes served at the hundreds of local restaurants throughout the city. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and her staff have been working diligently with the leadership of the Super Bowl LIX Host Committee to showcase the Crescent City to visitors and media from around the world.

“You’ll hear me time and time again say New Orleans is the perfect destination for major events like these – the Caesars Superdome sits in the middle of our downtown, only steps away from over 25,000 hotel rooms and our world-famous French Quarter, first-class dining experiences and some of the best music you can find on this planet,” said New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell. “But perhaps our greatest asset in New Orleans is our people. These events are not possible without the hard work of our Host Committee team, the commitments from local sponsors, the men and women in our city’s services including our first responders, and the involvement of thousands of volunteers needed to create a successful event and the bustling hospitality industry.”

Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation and Host Committee President/CEO Jay Cicero echoed the elected officials’ remarks and the mantra when it comes to the Super Bowl in New Orleans.

“It’s what we do,” Cicero said. “Serving as the staff for the Host Committee for a 4th time, the Sports Foundation knows it takes teamwork with our partners, hard work, creativity, experience, and a state and city ready to host the fans, media, and sponsors who travel to attend the game and partake in the unique culture and hospitality New Orleans has to offer.”

For more information on Super Bowl LIX, visit nolasuperbowl.com or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X at @NOLASuperBowlHC.

Our team at SylvainSolutions.com is eager to start building your custom Safe Air Plan. But before we can get started, we need a little information from you. This information simply allows us to prepare for an initial call with you or your team so we can get your Safe Air Plan built as quickly as possible.

Please send us a note at Vincent@SylvainSolution.com expressing your interest in learning more about AERIFY as well as a little information on the nature of the space you are trying to address. We thank you for your interest and consideration.

Vincent T. Sylvain

AERIFY Distributor