DUS x KGNU Metro - July 2024

[00:00:00] KGNU FM-88.5 Boulder, KGNU-390 Denver, Stay tuned for Metro. Support comes from Tangerine restaurants with locations in North Boulder, Old Town, Lafayette and downtown Longmont, providing traditional morning fare and lunch with Mediterranean and Tex-Mex twists, as well as espresso coffee drinks.

[00:00:17] More information and menus can be found at tangerineeats.com. Spring cleaning time is here, and KGNU is now accepting donations of LPE, CD, stereo here, and other gently used media for annual record and CD sale. Better known as the Yard bizarre.

[00:00:33] In Denver, Saturday, August 31st, and in Boulder, Saturday, September 7th, clear up some space and give those overlooked musical gems a new home and support of independent community radio. Trap-off donations are either our Boulder or Denver Studios, or arrange a pickup by contacting

[00:00:47] Dave at KGNU.org or calling 303-825-5468. Hello KGNU listeners, and welcome to Expanding The Narrative on Metro, a show by Denver Urban Spectrum that amplifies the voices and stories of the community. I'm your host, Brittany Winkfield.

[00:01:17] My mission is to build community awareness about the Black Experience in Colorado. Denver Urban Spectrum recognizes advances and preserves stories about people of color. We believe in increasing the sustainability of the organization for future generations to come.

[00:01:33] Here to tell us about the July issue is managing editor Ruby Jones. Hello, hello, I'm Ruby Jones. This month at Denver Urban Spectrum, we're celebrating summer time in the Rockies with a range of stories about events happening during the summer months.

[00:01:48] Could July issue is dedicated to the memory of Entertainment ICON Pairy D Jones. This month we looked back at June with articles about annual events held by community organizations and shared exciting news about legacy awards and financial awards received

[00:02:02] by outstanding individuals while highlighting some of the hardworking entrepreneurs and business leaders along the front range. Colorado Catillion, Battalion Incorporated, held its annual Gallo for accomplished high school students in early June. Writer Kristen Aldridge gave an overview of the special event and discussed the organization's

[00:02:20] mission to give young people important life skills. Aldridge also wrote about the Colorado Black Arts Festival which will return from July 12th to 14th with engaging activities for the whole family including a new sensory family day for neurodivergent attendees.

[00:02:35] The festival which has been a tradition in Denver for nearly 40 years is being led by a new executive director. You can read about her vision for the event in this month's publication, along with learning more about the new sound from this year's headlining app.

[00:02:49] Back in June, the 5.Jazz Festival paid homage to the cultural contributions of jazz musicians and Colorado's past and present. During the lively event, people gathered along Wilson Street in the city's historically Black 5.Dischegs and party to the tune of jazz music while enjoying a culturally diverse

[00:03:06] selection of food and shopping. Denver Urban Spectrum publisher Roslyn Beheris received an award recognizing her impact in the 5.Area and throughout the city of Denver. She also received a legacy award from the Black Economic Success Trust or Best during the

[00:03:21] best success summit and expo, a multi-day event held at the Sheraton Downtown Denver. The best success summit provided entrepreneurs and business professionals with information and opportunities to network with corporate leaders and discover new ways to take their leadership to the next level.

[00:03:37] Harris was joined by Shery Jackson and Regent Wanda James as recipients of women in leadership and management awards. In honor of Denver's former first lady and Colorado State Representative Wilma Webb, the cover story for July features a city leader who is taking travel to and from our beautiful

[00:03:54] city to incredible new heights. Michael Washington, the CEO of Denver International Airport has plans to launch the airport into the next era of environmental sustainability and economic innovation. Brittany Wingfield explained his vision in her article about what's happening at the

[00:04:11] airport and shares ways in which Washington has improved its ability to serve as one of the busiest in the world. This month you can read about the 20th anniversary of the African Grillin Bar as Dacina Reen outlines the restaurant's culinary offerings and journey to success.

[00:04:26] You can also learn more about a music promoter and relationship strategist, George Hill and his journey in the business of music and politics. We've provided a list of the brick funds financial grant recipients and an update about Cleopark Robinson's dancing with the Denver Stars.

[00:04:42] Plus you'll hear from local hip hop artists on the rise, Malcolm Wise, who shares his passions for performance and mental health awareness with writer Mona Sidiow. And finally, as we get closer to Denver Urban Speckchums 37-year anniversary celebration,

[00:04:57] this month's publication features the profiles of Daryl Collier, Sam Adams and Lewis Johnson, who will be performing a standup comedy at the Denver's Voice 37 event. Make sure to get your tickets to the elegant evening of entertainment on October 19th.

[00:05:11] We hope you're enjoying your summer time in the Rockies and that you'll enjoy the July issue of Denver Urban Speckchums, thanks for your support and stay tuned for more. Still Washington, the CEO of Denver International Airport is leading den into the future.

[00:05:27] I sat down with Phil to discuss three initiatives that focus on opportunities and aviation, including the Center of Equity and Excellence in Aviation. I am from the South Side of Chicago. I grew up in public housing.

[00:05:41] I grew up as the only son and a family of six with a mother that single mother raised us, my grandmother helped raise my mother work 14 hours a day. My mother depended on public transportation. So I understood public transportation as a child growing up.

[00:06:05] I understood bus frequencies or the lack of frequent bus service in our community. And I also, the public housing that I grew up in was a place called Argeo Gardens. We were surrounded by landfills on every side in that public housing on the South Side of Chicago.

[00:06:29] So much so that that Argeo Garden community was called the toxic donut because of the landfills that surrounded it and the high asthma and cancer rates in that community. That still persists to this day.

[00:06:51] And so that really put me in a mindset in terms of transportation and the importance of it. I can't think of anything that impacts people more than transportation. Maybe healthcare is one of them, but I can't think of many many more.

[00:07:15] And so the idea of the need for transportation in terms of access to education and access to healthcare all of those things become very, very important. So that has driven me and also training has really driven me.

[00:07:36] I can remember teaching people in my community that were building infrastructure that did not look like me. And when I tried to get a job building my own community, I was either told that I was too late or I was told that I didn't have the training.

[00:07:53] And so that's what it is. Well, thus the importance of the center of equity and excellent in aviation and the school that we built in Los Angeles as well. And so you know that upbringing really set the stage.

[00:08:11] I left that community at 18 years old signed up for the military actually at 17 and thought that I would go to the military for two or three years and the same for 25 years. And had a successful career having earned the highest military and listed rank that a person

[00:08:34] can achieve. And then with higher, Colorado was my last duty station. And I retired here in that into transportation. So it's a journey and a journey that I feel like I'm blessed to have gone through.

[00:08:53] I think this center of equity and excellence in aviation is something that we have a passion for wherever I have led organizations. I've made it my mission to help underserved communities underserved individuals, the business and communities that make up underserved communities and really fly to reduce the racial

[00:09:22] wealth gap in our country. And so when I became, when I came to Dan and CEO was really no different, we did something similar when I was running the you know all ground transportation in Los Angeles County where

[00:09:41] we helped build a high school that focused on infrastructure and it was on the site. It's on the site of the Rodney King riots from 1992. And so that school is something that I thought about and standing up the center of equity and excellence in aviation here.

[00:10:04] So I like any of the places I'm at, I like to use my leverage as a CEO to initiate change at any infrastructure agency in this case, the airport. So this center is really one of those ideas.

[00:10:22] It's a boots on the ground initiatives that brings young people and business owners from underserved communities and all communities to then to train them on being successful in the aviation industry. We have three pillars to this center.

[00:10:42] The first pillar is to build career pathways for young people, pathways meaning or starting in grade school. If a young person comes in it says hey look I want to be a pilot or I want to be an aircraft mechanic.

[00:10:57] We build the pathway for them to show them how to realize that dream all the way up to exactly the leadership. The second big pillar in this center is research and development. We want to understand what the mega trends are. We want to understand what's coming

[00:11:18] in the aviation space from the next 20, 30, 40 years. And we want to create solutions for what we think is coming, whether it is climate change, whether it is anything that it is in terms of a mega trend. And then the third and last pillar of this center is

[00:11:41] re-stolen business development training which we bring in small women all back from home, minority businesses and teach them how to operate in an aviation ecosystem. So we're very, very proud of the center. We have started our curriculum for the center already

[00:12:03] and we are building a facility, a brick and mortar facility about 70,000 square feet at the airport where the center will be located. So we're very happy for all of those things. You know, I think all of us have someone in our family that perhaps got into trouble.

[00:12:24] And they're trying to make it back. They're trying to make it back whether they have spent some time incarcerated. Many of them are trying to make it back into the workforce. So we have started what's called the new heights program that brings

[00:12:43] ex-offenders into the workspace and hired them for a 12-week program to get them back on their feet. And really we integrate them into society and to help them find employment later on. So this 12-week program, we're extending it right now. Really gets them used to coming to work

[00:13:15] every day, getting the paycheck and really helping them after they finished this program to find permanent employment, whether it is around the airport or some of our partners. And so we're very, very proud of this program. This program is part of that center of

[00:13:38] equity and excellence in aviation as well. And so we have been very, very successful. We start the program probably about the lower year ago. And as a matter of fact, in July I'm going to have breakfast with all the participants in the program. I do that periodically. It's

[00:13:58] talk to them and encourage them about how they can stay straight and contribute to society in a productive way. I am a big lover of jazz loves jazz music. And one of the reasons I was just

[00:14:16] saying that jazz appeals to me is, you know, it has to do with leadership as well. I mean, I think that the beauty of jazz music is that you can have individuals all planned together.

[00:14:33] All doing their own thing in a band if you will, but they sound good together. And so when you look at organizations, that's kind of what it is. You know, people are doing their jobs in an

[00:14:47] organization and it's done right and it's led correctly. Everyone harmonizes together in that organization and that's the same with music. And so when we thought about the concert series, the idea of that we have was to bring people out to the airport that may not even be traveling

[00:15:13] or may not have ever been on a plane before. I mean, I didn't get on a plane until I joined the army at 18 years old. And so the idea to bring people out and listen to music in at the same time

[00:15:27] explained to them the aviation industry and explained to them how the aviation industry works and how to start a career in aviation really, really appealing. So we have tables set up at this concert series. We have people talking about the aviation industry, the people that may otherwise

[00:15:50] have they not had thought about a career in it. And it has worked. Last year was a big success this year. We were going to start up this six-week series on July 28th. We co-ed these on Sunday

[00:16:05] Athenons from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. These are concerts on our open air plaza between the terminal and the western hotel. These concerts were huge, the sense standing room only folks that have come out

[00:16:24] and again listening to live music and also hearing how they can join the aviation industry. They're very important because there are shortages in the aviation industry. There are shortages of pilots. There are shortages of air traffic controllers. There are shortages of aircraft

[00:16:46] mechanics. There are shortages of flight attendants and so there are so many opportunities. Not just in aviation but in transportation as a whole I have been fortunate to lead three major transportation areas or agencies, both ground transportation and now aviation and there are shortages

[00:17:09] and so however we can attract them in this case we're done at through music and we're happy to do that. So come out to the airport for six-week starting July 28th from 2 to 6 to listen to some great

[00:17:24] music by national artists as well. Welcome to an alternative vision for the future of Black Colorado to a tomorrow filled with the promise that we must see today. Black economics success trust or best formerly mountain region black economics summit has a strategic plan

[00:17:46] that is engineered to be both sustainable and scalable and it is also aimed to increase positive outcomes for Metro Denver youth. The four main focus areas are small business, leadership, workforce development and youth economic empowerment.

[00:18:04] Our plan is titled the 2028 project and we're on a mission to activate government, business leaders across sectors and community stakeholders to prioritize empowering the Black economy. The multi-faceted 2028 project seeks to not only fortify existing businesses but also

[00:18:24] start new businesses and offer critical support. If Black businesses are to thrive into the future by natural literacy, small business counseling and even technical assistance are required to heal the ever increasing divides. As our struggle for equality has shifted to equity we

[00:18:42] continuously fight to not just thrive but be counted in the larger white dominated free market. We know that in order to receive a fair share of the market we must lift our voices and

[00:18:54] amplify our wealth of gifts and talents. As best, the laborates would stake holders to develop strategies that intentionally center the focus areas key metrics will illustrate our success as we also know the dramatic shifts in the culture of Colorado's Black community. The goal

[00:19:12] is to affect the measurable systemic change that we will see and feel in our lived experiences as Black Colorado's. Over the next five years, our work will be piloting as we gradually expand into other by-pock communities in Colorado creating a network of sustainable resources

[00:19:31] for which our children can benefit. In fact, the Highlight of the 2028 project is the empowering youth economics program, the EYE program or I, follows a cycle of 50 youth at a time through their junior high school to high school years supporting the whole child with socioeconomic mental health

[00:19:54] and even technological resources giving them the springboard from which to lots their futures. It's our way of fortifying our youth with the critical thinking skills they'll need to lead to Maro to build it. The 2028 project is an initiative that seeks to harness the leadership

[00:20:11] potential of our community and reallocate our resources to those areas that need us the most, like our youth. We want to empower one another and immediately reinvest that energy back into the youth that will recycle it for future use and understanding that in order to help someone else,

[00:20:29] we must help ourselves. Best also has a part of its 2028 project, a project to elevate small businesses and encourage entrepreneurship giving our youth recognizable examples of how to succeed independently in a free market. If we don't provide these examples for our youth, who will, they will forever

[00:20:49] put a white face on entrepreneurship's success. An investment in youth through the 2028 project supports them from junior high to high school and gives them a springboard from which to lots their dreams. Not only will we offer them free laptops but also financial literacy and guided

[00:21:09] mentorship which are key components of the 2028 project from the ViPOC economics success trust. By natural literacy models, guided mentorship from junior high school through high school graduation career guidance, free laptops and peripheral technology support. As disparity studies

[00:21:27] continuously lump public assistance and earned income tax credits into averages for funds to numbers, we know that ViPOC communities are historically underserved and underrepresented. By guiding the cycle of poverty in ViPOC communities up into a spiral of enlightenment and promise,

[00:21:45] each one will teach one becomes a guiding principle. Our youth are crying out while carving their place in history and it is up to us to support them in carrying the torch. The goal

[00:21:57] of the EYE program is to be a beacon for the young entrepreneur promise and a powerful resource to foster fundamental fiscal intelligence and black communities in Colorado. Thank you for your time and thank you for joining us in expanding the prospects for our families, businesses, and youth

[00:22:17] and giving them a better chance to dream bigger. As the Denver Urban Spectrum continues to expand, did you know we have a podcast network expanding the narrative or ETN, podcast network is available at DenverEurbanSpecchum.com forward slash podcast. We have shows including Spectrum Talk with Ruby,

[00:22:39] the investor show with Prince Dykes, Mamianna with the Leah Martin, greatness ignited with Barry Overtinn, Unboxed to Lead with Dr. Robert Davis and Pearls of Wellness by the Center of African American Health. And that's not all. Our mission is to bring together the most talented

[00:22:56] interested voices in culture for critical conversations on social justice, politics, lifestyle, and more. Listen to the ETN podcast network at DenverEurbanSpecchum.com forward slash podcast.

[00:23:56] That was the clip of Closer by Malcolm Wise, available on Spotify and Apple Music. Come experience in person a Denver tradition at the 30th Annual Colorado Black Arts Festival, a free celebration for the whole family and on activities, live performances,

[00:24:33] book a loose celebration parade, people's marketplace and artwork by leading any merging African artists, see live performances at the Colorado Black Arts Festival at the Denver City Park. The winner part just has festival returns for the 41st year to like 20th and 21st is

[00:25:08] at town Winniperk. starring Anthony Hampton. As the rapidly aging global population more than doubles from 900 million in 2015 to approximately 2,025. Denver IrbanSpecchum Publisher Roslyn V. Harris is all too familiar with the devastating effects of elder abuse. In 2008, Harris lost her 80-year-old mother Ruth Boyd in a

[00:26:08] tragic incident. In her memoir The Story of Ruth, Harris tells her mother story starting with her southern upbringing and later her devotion to her family. On November 3rd, 2008 Harris spent the evening at a Democratic campaign rally in Denver

[00:26:54] where first lady Michelle Obama urged people to vote for her husband. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. At the end of the evening, Harris received a barrage of phone calls that interrupted her excitement and turned her life upside down.

[00:27:09] One night before Obama was elected president of the United States, Harris learned that her mother had been violently killed in her Grand Rapids Michigan home. 10 years after her mother's death, Harris established the Ruth Boyd Elder Abuse Foundation to provide education and resources to elders and caregivers.

[00:27:29] 7. The New York Times Save the date and join us for a night of comedy, spoken word, music, and dancing at Denver IrbanSpecchum's anniversary celebration and Roslyn V. Harris's retirement party on October 19th, featuring National Recording Artist such.

[00:28:35] A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Ruth Boyd Elder Abuse Foundation. The Denver Irban Spectrum is more than a newspaper. It's a community institution. We invite you to join us as we honor the legacy of this influential publication

[00:28:51] and the community it serves. Please visit Denver IrbanSpecchum.com for more information and subscribe to our newsletter. Be sure to check out upcoming events on Denver IrbanSpecchum.com and add yours for free on Britney Winkfield thanks for listening until next time.

[00:29:10] Stream this episode on kgannu.org and Denver IrbanSpecchum.com slash podcast.