Star Tribune
Walker West, Ujamaa Place to offer joint program in digital music production
Wesley Sims, who loves making and recording music, is one of a handful of young men who has grabbed a chance to participate in the Digital Music Production (DMP) program, a new collaboration between Ujamaa Place and Walker West Music Academy.
“I’m a musician and an artist,” he said, adding that he especially enjoys the program’s hands-on elements. “Now that there’s a class for [digital production], it’s a no-brainer.”
That’s what the leaders of the two St. Paul-based organizations thought, too. Since its founding in 1988, Walker West’s goal has been to enrich the lives of young people through music. Ujamaa Place, which opened in 2010, seeks to give economic and personal stability to Black men between the ages of 18 and 30, many of whom have been in the criminal justice system.
A partnership between the two respected Black community organizations makes sense, said Michael Belton, Ujamaa’s interim chief operating officer.
“It’s another way to help them be successful,” Belton said.
Braxton Haulcy, Walker West’s executive director who recently joined Ujamaa’s board of directors, said the men in Ujamaa Place need the kind of programming that Walker West has been providing young people for years.
“When we talk about community, we don’t talk about men coming out of incarceration. But in the Black community, we have a higher proportion of young men who are incarcerated,” Haulcy said. “And when they come out, programs like Ujamaa Place are wonderful.”
Ujamaa Place provides a variety of services to more than 160 participants, ranging from housing to education, employment and mental health and wellness. Officials say that more than 5,000 men have transformed their lives through Ujamaa Place, maintaining a 4% recidivism rate — compared to 68% nationally.
Both organizations are using grant money they’ve received through the NBA Foundation to launch the cooperative program. Officials said they hope that the small beginning — four men are in the first group of participants over the next few months — blooms into a growing and continuing relationship.
Haulcy said he also hopes the program not only whets their appetite to work in music production, but sparks a love for music as an art form.
“These men could use music in their lives, and they don’t necessarily have to play an instrument,” said Haulcy, who recently joined Ujamaa Place’s board. “Although it would be great if they did.”
The program trains the young men to use digital platforms to record, produce and create original music — skills that will prepare them for careers and pave their way for continuing education. Walker West has ongoing relationships with Hamline University and the High School for Recording Arts in St. Paul, Haulcy said.
The DMP program, rooted in the African-American cultural experience, is led by three-time Grammy nominee Allan Kingdom. Participants will use professional music creation software, operate audio gear and utilize the industry’s newest technology to produce music.
In a statement, Ujamaa Place CEO Christopher Crutchfield said: “We are so fortunate to partner with an organization as dynamic and innovative as Walker West Music Academy and with an artist as talented and community focused as Allan Kingdom.”
Crutchfield added: “We see this project creating many possibilities for continued partnerships, and quite honestly, our Ujamaa men just can’t wait to get started.”
Kingdom, too, said he was excited about the program’s potential.
“It is an honor and a privilege to be able to give back and share my talent, knowledge, and experience with others in hopes that they will accomplish their dreams and goals as well,” he said in a statement. “Programs similar to DMP are the reason why I’ve had the opportunity to reach the heights I’ve reached and continue to grow in my own life and career.”
The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed part of a state highway Wednesday evening near Austin because of a “major hazardous materials release” in the area.
Hwy. 56 from Hayfield to Waltham, a stretch covering about five miles, was closed in both directions and drivers were directed to follow a detour to Blooming Prairie on U.S. Hwy. 218.
No information on the hazardous materials released was immediately available.
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan in the shooting death of Ricky Cobb II during a 2023 traffic stop.
The decision is the latest development in a case that has drawn heated debate over excessive use of force by law enforcement. Criminal charges against Londregan were dismissed by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in June, saying the prosecution didn’t have the evidence to proceed with a case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel granted Londregan’s motion to dismiss the civil suit, arguing he acted reasonably when he opened fire as Cobb’s vehicle lurched forward with another state trooper partly inside.
Londregan’s attorney Chris Madelsaid Wednesday that it’s been a “long, grueling journey to justice. Ryan Londregan has finally arrived.”
On July 31, 2023, the two troopers pulled over Cobb, 33, on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis for driving without taillights and later learned he was wanted for violating a felony domestic no-contact order. Cobb refused commands to exit the car.
With Seide partly inside the car while trying to unbuckle Cobb’s seatbelt, the car moved forward. Londregan then opened fire, hitting Cobb twice.
In her decision, Brasel said the troopers were mandated by state law to make an arrest given Cobb’s domestic no-contact order violation. She said it was objectively reasonable for Londregan to believe Seide was in immediate danger as the car moved forward on a busy highway, which would make his use of force reasonable.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Donald Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, walked across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that also carried his name.
The former president, once a reality TV star known for his showmanship, wanted to draw attention to a remark made a day earlier by his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, that suggested Trump’s supporters were garbage. Trump has used the remark as a cudgel against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
”How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said, wearing an orange and yellow safety vest over his white dress shirt and red tie. ”This is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”
Trump and other Republicans were facing pushback of their own for comments by a comedian at a weekend Trump rally who disparaged Puerto Rico as a ”floating island of garbage.” Trump then seized on a comment Biden made on a late Wednesday call that “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The president tried to clarify the comment afterward, saying he had intended to say Trump’s demonization of Latinos was unconscionable. But it was too late.
On Thursday, after arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for an evening rally, Trump climbed into the garbage truck, carrying on a brief discussion with reporters while looking out the window — similar to what he did earlier this month during a photo opportunity he staged at a Pennsylvania McDonalds.
He again tried to distance himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose joke had set off the firestorm, but Trump did not denounce it. He also said he did not need to apologize to Puerto Ricans.
”I don’t know anything about the comedian,” Trump said. ”I don’t know who he is. I’ve never seen him. I heard he made a statement, but it was a statement that he made. He’s a comedian, what can I tell you. I know nothing about him.”
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Dentists are pulling healthy and treatable teeth to profit from implants, experts warn