urban pro weekly

FEB. 27 - MARCH 5, 2014

The CSRA’s FREE WEEKLYNEWSPAPERVOL.3 NO.24

NEWS • COMMENTARY ARTS ENTERTAINMENT Urban WPro eekly

Eddie Bussey 706-772-9800

City not prepared for FEMA

Photo by V

incent Hobbs

ARTWORK BY XAVIER JONES

“BEST DAY EVER”

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PublisherBen Hasan

706-394-9411

Managing EditorFrederick Benjamin Sr.

706-306-4647

Sales & MarketingPhone: 706-394-9411

Photography and Social Media Courtesy of

Vincent Hobbs

email:Ben Hasan

[email protected]

Frederick Benjamin [email protected]

Vincent [email protected]

UrbanProWeekly LLC

Mailing Address:3529 Monte Carlo DriveAugusta, Georgia 30906

Urban WeeklyPro

On Saturday, March 1st, from 9-5 PM, Augusta will once again embrace the literary world with both arms wide open by hosting the 3rd Annual Augusta Literary Festival.

Fifty local and national authors will be on hand at the main library branch on 823 Telfair St. in Downtown Augusta, Georgia.

3rd Annual Augusta Literary Festival Anthony “Sleepyeyez” Carter.

Before the award ceremony at the Main Library Branch, Yerby’s alma mater Paine College will be honoring him as well. At 1 PM on

Friday, February 28th, on the cam-pus of Paine College, there will be a Roundtable Discussion with the five finalists of the Yerby Award for Literary Fiction. This discussion

will be moderated by Dr. Anthony Neal, Chair of the Yerby Selection Committee. After the discussion, there will be a tour of the Yerby House on Paine’s campus.

Festivities kick-off with food, drinks, live jazz on Friday at the Frank Yerby Award Ceremony

The Augusta Literary Festival (ALF) will be the climax of two days of literary excitement, starting with activities planned for Friday, February 28th.

The festivities kick off at the main library branch on Friday, Feb. 28th with two workshops designed for both prospective and current authors. The first workshop will be from 10-12, and is titled, Marketing and the Modern Author. It will be taught by Hildie McQueen (Amazon Best Selling author). The second workshop will be from 2-4 and is titled Advanced Novel Writing: Tips and Techniques that will take your Novel to the Next Level. National Best Selling Author Karen Gillespie will be the instructor for this work-shop.

At 1 PM on Friday, on the cam-pus of Paine College, there will be a Roundtable Discussion with the five finalists of the Yerby Award for Literary Fiction. This discussion will be moderated by Dr. Anthony Neal, Chair of the Yerby Selection Committee. After the discussion, there will be a tour of the Yerby House on Paine’s campus.

The Yerby Award for FictionThis year marks the 2nd year that

the ALF will feature the Yerby Award for Fiction. The award ceremony will be held during the authors’ reception on Friday, February 28th at the Main Library branch of the Augusta Public Library from 6 PM – 8 PM. Yerby’s nephew, Gerald Yerby will be presenting the top three finalists their awards. In addition, there will be food, drinks, live jazz by guitarist Robert Reid, and a spe-cial poem commemorating Frank Yerby by Augusta’s Poet Laureate

Celebrated Augusta author Louise Shivers attended the inaugural Augusta Literary Festival in 2012.

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The City

A workshop for contractors interested in a possible oppor-tunity to aid in debris removal and recovery projects for Augusta Richmond County on Friday, February 28, 2014. The workshop will be from 2:30 PM to 4:30 PM at the Julian Smith Casino at 2200 Broad Street Augusta, GA 30904. Contractors will be assisting Solid Waste and Engineering with clearing county right of ways and parks. Contractors will be meeting with AshBritt Environmental and Leidos. Contractors should bring the following items with them:

Copy of Insurance, Copy of Workers Compensation Forms, W9.

Residents in Richmond County may pull debris to the curb and it will be picked up by these groups; they will not be cleaning and doing repairs on private property.

For questions, please contact the Augusta Procurement Office at (706)821-2422.

Disaster Recovery and Debris Removal Contractors Workshop

City unprepared for FEMA disaster recovery guidelines

By Frederick Benjamin Sr.UrbanProWeekly Staff Writer

AUGUSTAAugusta handled the snow pretty

easily. The storming ice was a more formidable challenge, but battalions of utility workers worked diligently to restore power to tens of thousands of Augustans.

The one thing Augusta wasn’t pre-pared for was the thousands of pounds of debris the storm left in its wake. The city thought it had all the bases covered to remove the debris, but no one could have predicted the magnitude of the storm.

“There was a plan in place. The Engineering Department had contrac-tors ready. We have already removed over 100,000 cubic yards of debris,” according to Mie Lucas, the city’s Disaster Preparedness Coordinator.

The contractors which per preposi-tioned to remove debris did what they could, but they were overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the cleanup effort. It doesn’t seem as if anyone in the city disaster preparedness team, imagined that the city would ever have to deal with FEMA for debris removal. If they did, they might have had con-tractors in place who were familiar with what FEMA requires from those entities who are looking for federal dollars to help pay for the cleanup.

FEMA requires the city to document and monitor debris removal. Since the city-approved contractors were not

Storm debris from the Augusta ice storm is collected at several locations throughout the city, including this growing pile of tree branches and chipped wood near Lake Olmstead on Milledge Road. Photo by Vincent Hobbs

“FEMA-qualified,” the city would have not been able to apply for federal funds.

Simply put, FEMA’s stringent account-ability requirements far outdistance whatever the city imagined it would have to do.

Lucas, who is in her first year at the position, told Urban Pro Weekly that her department had never dealt with FEMA guidelines in the past. Her job is to coordinate the cleanup effort with city department heads such as Engineering and Solid Waste.

Lucas said that her department has no budget for disaster cleanup. If the city wants to get rid of the mounds of debris that litter the streets and parks and road-ways in time for the Masters golf tourna-ment in April, it needs outside help that has worked with FEMA before and is familiar with its guidelines.

The cost of the cleanup is estimated to exceed $8 million and the city has contracted with Ashbritt Environmental to oversee the project. Ashbritt, of Deefield Beach, Florida, will be orga-nizing a small army of waste removal contractors to do the hands-on remov-al. Local workers who want to get in on the action should attend a workshop at the Julian Smith Casino on Friday (See sidebar on this page for details).

To qualify for federal assistance from FEMA, it is not enough just to go and start moving trash about the city. Everything that happens has to be documented by an independent firm. That’s why the city had to bring in a sec-

ond firm, Leidos, a defense contractor from Reston, Virginia, to monitor the debris removal as per FEMA guidelines.

Since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York on 9/11, FEMA has become part of Homeland Security. The huge bureau-cracy thrives on mounds of data. After many missteps in the wake of Hurricane Katrina FEMA has been forced to run a tighter ship. Now all of its contracts include guidelines to safeguard against fraud, waste and abuse. Every aspect of a cleanup has to be monitored.

Municipalities not used to working with FEMA often run into difficulties, according to disaster preparedness pro-fessionals.

“Pre-planning for disaster recovery is a critical element of any commu-nity’s emergency management pro-gram. Unfortunately, comprehensive recovery planning is the place where the “Preparedness — Response — Recovery — Mitigation” circle is most often broken,” according to authors Joe C. Moseley and Thomas B. Rodino. “This is not the fault of the emer-gency management community. Those knowledgeable professionals recognize that all four elements of the circle demand a full measure of attention and resource commitment. In practice, however, the resources available for those activities — staff and dollars — are rarely adequate to allow emergency managers to address all of the needs in each phase of the disaster recovery process.”

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The City

City unprepared for FEMA disaster recovery guidelines

By Frederick Benjamin Sr. and Vincent Hobbs

AUGUSTAXavier Jones has been on the cut-

ting edge of creative technology since the mid-1980s when personal com-puters were still in their infancy. He was pixel-ready then and in the digital dizziness of 2014’s hyper cyber land-scape — he’s perfectly at home.

Jones has never been the ivory tower type. His penchant for commu-nication and sharing always landed him in front of an audience and in search of a commercial vehicle for his gifts. In his latest venture, he may have found both.

His conception for a one-stop arts experience is slowly coming into focus but he needs financial energy. When it come to art, it’s hard for him to stop grinning.

“Perfect Storm is an Arts Enrichment Center. My team and I chose this des-ignation because we started seeing, over a span of about twenty years, a growing need for a multitude of artis-tic and creative-oriented endeavors in education, business, art appreciation, mentoring and artist support,” he explains.

“The goal for most schools is to expose kids and adults to the arts - and this is a great thing; except that most art programs face the challenges

Arts enrichment center seeks to offer creativity to all comers

Greene Street near the Enterprise Mill. It’s 2700 sq. ft. of newly reno-vated art space, but funds are needed to stock it with the technology and supplies that a vibrant arts communi-ty needs.

So far, those who have been will-ing to lend a hand include Realtors Sherman and Hemstreet, Bill Franke, Syd Padgett (Chair for Artists Row), Mat Kwantinetz (QBL Partners - Urban Economics & Redevelopment, work-ing with ArtSpace), Margaret Woodard (Downtown Development Authority) and Shawn Edwards (Housing and Community Development Department).

“We also received much help from my colleagues from Episcopal Day School and Georgia Regents University Augusta,” Jones said.

Jones recognizes the need for all age groups to be exposed to the arts. He has plans to deal with children as well as seniors.

“Our target students include those who may have lapsed in their art studies programs (drawing, painting, sketching or art of any type), as well as the curious novice and talented professional. Some may just need a place just to use top-notch art mate-rials and/or computer equipment. We are also looking at home-schooled organizations, as well as independent students.”

Jones realizes that cash is the ener-gy that drives arts education and he is opting for traditional and nontradi-tional funding approaches.

“We need seed money just to open our doors and nail down the basics of our plan. We are doing the initial tradi-tional funding through a dual collabo-ration with Artists Row to raise money and awareness; this helps both Artists Row and Perfect Storm. The second phase of funding will be crowd-sourc-ing (such Indiegogo or Kickstarter). We will put together a crowd-sourc-ing package for the stretch goal that would pay for the bigger startup oper-ation and purchase of the specialized equipment and supplies needed for the Innovative program that we are creating. The goal is to raise $25,000 to execute the initial phase of the art program,” Jones said.

One of the fundraising projects involves selling signed and numbered prints of Jones’ artwork “Best Day Ever” which appears on the cover of this week’s edition. The sales would be handled through the Oddfellows Gallery’s downtown location as well as online.

Jones would like to see the area’s talented artists stay in Augusta and contribute to the area’s artistic pedi-gree.

“Augusta artists have contributed not only this state, but to the entire country in many ways - and yet the sheer amount of talent that streams out of the CSRA to make other plac-es awesome is a creative drain on the CSRA. Imagine an Augusta where our artistic talent decides to stay, grow and make the arts culture fertile again. We have industry, and we have history – and we also need the third leg – the cultural arts,” he said.

For Jones, there’s a sense of how art transcends the physical act of draw-ing or painting to something more devout.

“How about wonder, imagination, inspiration, innovation, motivation, creative courage, historical influence, exploration and necessity - just for starters,” he beams.

of budget and time constraints, and the continuing fight between aesthet-ics vs. academics,” Jones adds.

So if schools are having a hard time justifying the cost of the arts, artists have to move out of their comfort zone and begin building institutions.

“We started compiling data about art education to see if there could be an alternative approach that could

deal with many of these issues in a single place.

“We wanted to see if we could cre-ate a situation where professionalism, advanced use technology and inno-vative thinking could be coordinated with mentorship and grassroots con-nections to families. This is a big part of what we are doing.”

The center is located at 1543

Artist Xavier O. Jones stands in the lobby of Augusta’s newest facility to promote the arts, Perfect Storm Art Enrichment Center. Photo by Vincent Hobbs

Artist Xavier O. Jones (R) stands in the lobby of Augusta’s newest facility to promote the arts, Perfect Storm Art Enrichment Center.Photo by Vincent Hobbs

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VOTE

Working Towards A Better Future

Good Jobs At Good Wages

Great Schools

Fully Funded Health Care

Harold v. Jones ll State Senate District 22

Requirements:At least 18 years of Age

High School Diploma or GEDPass the Candidate Physical Ability Test

Meet the NFPA 1582 Medical Requirements

Firefighter Opportunities Available with the Augusta Fire Department

Apply online at www.augustaga.gov. The deadline to apply is March 31, 2014

(tobacco products prohibited)

Be a Team PlayerValid Driver’s License

For additional information contact the Human Resources Department at 706-821-2303.

Equal Employment Opportunity Employer

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$IRS or State Tax Problems?Don’t be taken by some of the companies you see on TV. Many will take upfront fees before they even know the extent of your tax problems. And, more often than not, they will do very little to resolve your case.

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Qualifying for May & Nov. elections starts March 3Qualifying for all partisan and non-

partisan offices appearing on a ballot in 2014 will begin on Monday, March 3, 2014 at 9:00 a.m. and will close on Friday, March 7, 2014 at 12:00 noon. Qualifying for Mayor of the City of Augusta, Augusta Commission and State Court Judge will be held in the Board of Elections Office located at 530

Greene Street, Suite 500A, Augusta, Georgia. The offices of Mayor, Augusta Commission and State Court Judge will appear on the May 20, 2014 General Primary and Nonpartisan Election bal-lot. Any ensuing runoff will be held on July 22, 2014. The qualifying fees and districts up for election are:

Mayor of Augusta, Augusta

Commission Districts 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. Judge of State Court (Seat held by Judge Richard Slaby and Seat held by Judge David Watkins).

Qualifying for Richmond County Board of Education will also begin on Monday, March 3, 2014 at 9:00 a.m. and will close on Friday, March 7, 2014 at 12:00. Qualifying will be

held in the Board of Elections Office located at 530 Greene Street, Suite 500A, Augusta, Georgia. The offices of Board of Education will appear on the November 4, 2014 General Election Ballot. Any ensuing runoff will be held on December 2, 2014. The districts up for election are: Board of Education Districts 2, 3, 6, 7, and 9.

GRU Augusta basketball guard Tavia Sykes (#24) looks to pass the ball as USC Aiken’s Courthey Mealing (R) attempts to block during a recent Peach Belt confer-ence game. Photo by Vincent Hobbs

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“First Time Home Buyers Welcome”

Debra Henderson McCord, Broker25 Years Experience

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(L-R) Ms. Norma Miller, Antioch Ministries, Inc. (AMI) Board Member; Jeffrey A. Gatica, Fifth Third Bank Vice President Community Development Programs; Angela Rogers, Fifth Third Bank Asst. Vice President/District Manager; Mrs. Glynis Black, AMI Program Coordinator; Rev. K. B. Martin – AMI President; Eddie Williams, AMI Board of Directors Vice Chairman; Scylance B. Scott Jr., AMI Executive Director; Augustus Miller, AMI Finance Officer, and Casetta Heard, AMI Program Director.

Fifth Third Bank awards $10,000 to Antioch Ministries

AUGUSTAIf you or someone you know is among

the one million Americans with Parkinson’s disease or the 10 million living with essen-tial tremor, then deep brain stimulation could improve quality of life.

Find out more about this advanced procedure from medical experts with the Georgia Regents Movement Disorders Program during a free seminar from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Saturday, March 1, at Double Tree Hotel, 2651 Perimeter Parkway.

Deep brain stimulation, or DBS, is not a cure for movement disorders, but it can successfully treat symptoms by disrupting the abnormal patterns of brain activity that become prominent in Parkinson’s, essential tremor, and other neurological disorders. It is often described as a brain “pacemaker” because constant pulses of electrical charge are delivered at settings that are thought to restore normal brain rhythms, allowing more normal move-ments.

A specially trained neurosurgeon places the device, and a neurologist adjusts the settings to optimize therapy. Most patients are able to resume many normal activities in a short time.

Neurosurgeon Dr. Cole Giller and neurologists Drs. John Morgan and Deborah Boland will explain DBS, including what to expect during and after surgery. In addition, several patients will talk about their personal experiences and how DBS has improved their lives.

Parkinson’s disease involves the mal-function and death of vital nerve cells in the brain, called neurons. Some of these dying neurons produce dopamine, a chemical that sends messages to the part of the brain that controls movement and coordination. As the disease progresses, the amount of dopamine produced in the brain decreases, leaving a person unable to control movement normally. Symptoms vary, but most patients experience tremors of the hands, arms, legs, jaw and face.

Often misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s, essential tremor is characterized by rhyth-mic shaking that occurs during voluntary movement or while holding a position against gravity, such as raising a hand in the air. Most often it affects only the hands, but the head, voice and legs can sometimes succumb.

Registration for the seminar is not required, but it is encouraged. To register, please visit gru.edu/parkinsons. For more information, call Amanda Stefanakos, Outreach Coordinator for the Georgia Regents Movement Disorders Program, at 706-721-4895.

Georgia Regents has the only nation-ally designated Movement Disorders/Parkinson’s Disease Center of Excellence in Georgia or South Carolina.

Medical experts to discuss how deep brain stimulation helps patients at Saturday seminar

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FORUMUrban WeeklyPro

Building a model community through trust

BenCommission District 6Hasan

Always moving our community into the future

ELECT

Is it time to ditch AP exams?By Frederick Benjamin Sr.UrbanProWeekly Staff Writer

AUGUSTAThe recent airing of the 2013

results of Richmond County Schools’ Advanced Placement (AP) Exams demonstrated the challenge that obtaining a passing grade pre-sented to both the students and their instructors.

The fact that the Advanced Placement Academy at Lucy Laney High School — a magnet-school-style program that attracts stu-dents from across the county — fared so poorly on the AP exams makes one wonder if there is really a compelling need for the whole AP experience.

Why is it that a program with one of the most challenging curric-ulums in the system produced, by far, the worst outcome. Only one passing grade out of 344 attempts in 2013 defies any credible expla-nation. What is clear is that one of the main goals set up for Advanced Placement exams (earning college credit while still in high school) is not being met. And in this, Laney is not alone.

The exemplary magnet school

at A.R. Johnson, which attracts the best and brightest students in the county, while faring much better than Laney, still tested far below the state average. Johnson AP stu-dents posted a 19.8 percent suc-cess rate on the AP exams versus the 55.4 success rate for the entire state AP exam takers.

Is it time to scrap the program all together? One has to ask, how is it that in the state of Georgia, more and more students are being encouraged to take AP courses while their effectiveness, not just in preparing students for college, but in predicting success in college has been called into question time and time again.

According to Atlanta columnist Maureen Downey, “Only five other states in the country had a greater percentage of AP exam takers last year. The percentage of Georgia seniors who took an AP exam was 38.2 percent, compared to 30.2 percent for the nation. I know many metro high school students graduating with seven to nine AP classes.”

Advance Placement courses have been around for over 50 years. While in the past they have been

more loosely structured, their aim has always to provide highly moti-vated students a more challenging academic experience. An added benefit of the course was that those who took the course would look more attractive to prospec-tive college recruiters.

Well, none of that has changed. What has changed is the increased role played by the College Board. Their products have been a fixture on the higher education scene for generations. Their SAT, PSAT, LSAT and other products are officially sanctioned and highly regarded by the higher education industry. You can add AP testing to their list of products and profit centers.

The College Board folks have a pretty decent thing going. While each school puts together their own Advanced Placement pro-grams, the AP tests — the same one’s taken by student’s all across the country — are all provided by the College Board, but not without a cost.

The cost of each exam is any-where from 70.00 - 89.00. The same tests for the various subjects

Continued on next page

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Everfaithful Missionary Baptist Church314 Sand Bar Ferry RoadAugusta, Georgia 30901(706) 722- 0553Church School Sunday 9:25amMorning Worship Sunday 11amEvening Worship 6pm (1st & 3rd Sunday) Midday Prayer 12pm WednesdayIntercessory Prayer/Bible Study 6pm Wednesday

Radio Broadcast: Sundays • WKZK 103.7 FM at 7:30 a.m.

Bishop Rosa L. Williams, Pastor

Good Shepherd Baptist ChurchRev. Clarence Moore, Pastor1714 Olive Road / P. O. Box 141 (mailing address) Augusta, GA 30903706/733-0341- Telephone/706/667-0205 – FaxE-mail address: [email protected] address: goodshepherdaugusta.orgChurch Service: 7:45 & 11:00 a.m.Church School: 9:45 a.m. / Prayer Service: 11:00 a.m. – WednesdayBible Study: 9:00 a.m. - Saturday / 7:00 p.m. - Wednesday

Rev. Clarence Moore

Sunday School 8:30 amMorning Worship Services: 9:45 amEvening Worship Services 6 pm (4th Sunday)Bible Study: 6pm (Mondays)Midday Bible Study: 12pm (Tuesdays)Prayer Services: 6pm (Wednesdays)Celebrate Recovery: 6pm (Fridays) and 12pm (Mondays)

2323 Barton Chapel Road • Augusta,GA 30906706.790.8185 / 706.922.8186 (fax)

Visit Us @ www.broadwaybaptistaug.org • Join us on facebook

Dr. C. William Joyner, Jr.Senior Pastor

Start your calling today! Mount Olivet Certified Academic Institution 706.793.0091 • 706.793.0335 • www.mocai-aug.org

Sunday Morning Services 10 am

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2070 Brown Road, Hephzibah, GA 30815(706) 592-9221 | www.alwc.net

are provided to public and private schools with the cost being borne either by the school system or the students themselves.

While there has always been mixed opinion as to the value of the AP courses themselves, the promotion of the exams has been the source of some heated criticism of the College Board’s involvement in the entire process.

Business writer Emily Driscoll, says “High school students often take col-lege-level classes to save time and money in college, but there is one catch: You have to pass the exams in order to get the credit. According to a recent study by The College Board, nearly 50% of high school students taking Advanced Placement (AP) courses do not pass the exams to qualify for college credit.”

“While AP enrollments are on the rise, the reality is that the vast majority of new AP class takers are not becoming AP exam passers,” says Jeff Livingston, senior vice president of College and Career Readiness at McGraw-Hill

AP from page 12 Education. “These students are unpre-pared for the rigors of college level coursework in high school.”

AP exams are scored on a five-point scale, with test scores earning a three and above considered a pass-ing grade by most universities. Some schools will give college credit for students earning a score of two on certain exams.

Because there are more students than ever taking AP courses, more teachers are needed for both pre-paratory curriculum and for the advanced classes, resulting in a decrease in the quality of teachers, according to senior advisor at College Confidential Sally Rubenstone.

“Now second- and third-string teachers have been called upon to teach APs and many react with mixed feelings,” she says. “My own son is just a freshman in high school, but already I’ve seen the chasm that separates his strongest teachers from his weakest ones.”

Rubenstone adds that a growing number of high schools are requir-ing the AP exam for all students who take an AP class, “or the school will

not put the vaunted “AP” designation on the transcript if the student bails on the exam.”

“In the old days, “I can’t afford the test,” allowed some unprepared stu-dents to wheedle out,” she says. “But now, even with recent budget cuts that affected AP exam fee waivers, many school districts provide free testing for students from low-income house-holds.”

Writer John Tierney has been uncompromising in his attacks on the College Boards. In a article enti-tled “AP Classes Are A Scam,” he writes, ”Many critics lay the blame on the College Board itself, a huge “non-profit” organization that oper-ates like a big business. The College Board earns over half of all its rev-enues from its Advanced Placement program -- more than all its other revenue streams (SATs, SAT subject tests, PSATs) combined. The College Board’s profits for 2009, were 8.6 percent of revenue, which would be respectable even for a for-profit cor-poration. “When a non-profit com-pany is earning those profits, some-thing is wrong,” says Americans for

Educational Testing Reform. (The AETR’s “report card” on the College Board awards a grade of D and cites numerous “areas of misconduct” by the College Board.)

Statewide the number of students taking AP courses and the number of students taking the AP final exams have increased dramatically from 72,764 in 2011 to 83,327 in 2013. Statewide the number of exams taken has also increased from 121,486 in 2011 to 142,010 in 2013. However, in Richmond County the number of students taking AP cours-es and exams has been shrinking. 1248 students took AP courses in 2011 and only 1149 students took AP courses in 2013. The number of exams take dropped also from 1896 in 2011 to 1782 in 2013.

There is clearly more than a single school of thought on the philoso-phy behind the AP course load. On the one hand you have AP teachers downplaying the importance of the exam and on the other you have the system’s superintendent wanting to boost the number of students who pass the exam.

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Famed composer, musical direc-tor and Grammy Award winning Gospel Artist, Richard Smallwood, will attend the Parade of Quartets 60th Year Anniversary Gala.

Mr. Smallwood is a classically trained pianist who has performed with countless gospel and main-stream musical giants such as Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan and Walter Hawkins.

During the Reagan administra-tion he accompanied opera legend

Leontyne Price at a White House Christmas Celebration. He collabo-rated with Bill and Gloria Gaither to write the gospel standard, “Center of My Joy”. And his most acclaimed song to date is, “I Love the Lord”. The song was performed by the late Whitney Houston and featured on The Preacher’s Wife soundtrack. Other notable artists such as Destiny’s Child and Yolanda Adams have includ-ed his original songs during their performances.

“We are elated that an artist of Richard Smallwood’s caliber chose to make his first appearance in Augusta at the Celebration of our 60th year anniversary”, says Karlton Howard, Executive Producer/Host of the Parade of Quartets. Mr. Howard goes on to say, “His music was a personal favorite of our father’s and we are honored to present him with a Henry L. Howard Legends Award.” Other honorees on the program include Clarence Fountain of the Original

Blind Boys, The Williams Brothers, Dr. Bobby Jones and Lady Tramaine Hawkins.

The Parade of Quartets 60th Year Anniversary Gala will take place this Saturday, March1,2014 at 6 p.m. at the Marriott Augusta Convention Center, located at 210th Street in downtown Augusta, Georgia. For tickets, spon-sorships or additional information contact the Parade of Quartets at 706-722-1123 or visit www.paradeofquar-tets.com.

Richard Smallwood to join Parade of Quartets Salute

EVANSGet lost in the music of Johnny

Mercer as The Ballroom Dance Center staff and students bring some of Mercer’s best loved and most recog-nizable songs to life in their show-case production of Moon River – Johnny Mercer: The Man, The Music on March 15, 21 and 22, 2014.

Born in Savannah, Georgia, Mercer was an American lyricist, songwrit-er and singer, whose music spans decades and includes such songs as “Moon River,” for which he received an Academy Award in 1961, and “On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe,” that won him an Oscar. Between 1929 and 1976, Mercer penned the lyrics to more than 1,000 songs, and time after time he drew upon his Georgia roots for inspiration. He also wrote the music for a number of Broadway shows and was the founder of Capitol Records. Mercer literally did it all!

The doors will open for the show each evening at 7:00 p.m., with a show time of 7:30. Tickets are $18 for those under 18 years of age and $25 for adults. Tickets are $22 with a military ID.

“With dynamic dancing, period authentic costuming, an enthralling story line and a set design that would rival any Broadway production, The Ballroom Dance Center is the place you want be on March 15, 21 and 22,” stated Emilie Tobias, owner of The Ballroom Dance Center.

Purchase your tickets now by calling The Ballroom Dance Center at 706-854-8888. The ticket price also includes general dancing after the show.

Visit our website at www.augusta-ballroomdance.com for more infor-mation. The Ballroom Dance Center studio is located at 525 Grand Slam Drive in Evans, Georgia.

Tickets available now for Moon River – Johnny Mercer: The Man, The Music

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