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New Pittsburgh Courier April 3-9, 2024
www.newpittsburghcourier.com Vol. 115 No. 14 Two Sections
APRIL 3-9, 2024
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Three people killed, including two teens, in weekend filled with gun violence 'This is not a way that a community should live,' Tim Stevens says by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer
As the spring has begun, unfortunately, there have been a number of shootings in recent days that have killed African American teens and men. A shooting in Wilkinsburg on Easter Sunday night, March 31, purportedly preceded by an argument and fight amongst women on Hill Avenue, led to gunshots being fired and a 16-year-old teen being struck, Kevin Wilson. He died at the hospital. The next night, April 1, a large fight involving many juveniles was occurring in Braddock on Margaretta Street when shots rang out, killing another 16-year-old, Jeramyah Pollard, a 10th grader at Woodland Hills High School. A second teen was also struck by the gunfire. On Saturday, March 30, a 30-year-old man, Lamont Nichols, was shot and killed, police say, by
a 24-year-old woman at the Truman Tower in Duquesne. The three shooting deaths in 48 hours doesn't include the shooting of who police believe was a juvenile in Larimer in broad daylight, Monday, April 1, two adult males shot inside an apartment in Knoxville, Thursday, March 28, and a report of 15 gunshots being fired at vehicles and an apartment on Woodlow Street in Crafton Heights on Easter Sunday night, March 31. No one was injured in that shooting. Nichols was a youth football coach for the East End Raiders, according to his stepfather, Jarrod Johnson, in an interview with WPXI-TV (Channel 11). “We are all numb, the world has lost another person that didn’t need to leave,” Johnson told WPXI. The New Pittsburgh Courier reported in its
Feb. 28 edition that a "Community Services Directory" was being published for residents in the Pittsburgh area so they would know exactly where to go to find organizations doing their part to fight back against the gun violence. The Black Political Empowerment Project and Coalition Against Violence led the effort on the directory's creation. During the organizations' news conference announcing the directory, Shayla Holmes, the B-PEP/CAV Youth Peace Summit Coordinator, noted that the day had been unseasonably warm, and she said it crossed her mind "if there was any shootings today. We have to remember that as the nice weather approaches, that also the risk of losing more lives approaches. We want to protect our youth..." On that Day, Feb. 26, SEE VIOLENCE A4
LAMONT NICHOLS, 30, A COACH WITH THE EAST END RAIDERS YOUTH FOOTBALL TEAM, DIED ON MARCH 30 IN A SHOOTING IN DUQUESNE.
‘We are all numb, the world has lost another person that didn’t need to leave.’ —Jarrod Johnson Stepfather of Lamont Nichols
A representation of 'us' Local artists answer what a 'Just Pittsburgh' looks like in Carnegie Museum exhibit by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer
Ask the artists, and they’ll tell you that a “Just Pittsburgh” is a place where a Black man can thrive and live, being able to express who you are without fear or judgment from others, everybody listening to each other, and everyone co-existing and starting conversations that people were previously too scared to start. But in true artist fashion, rather than “tell” you, they’d rather “show” you. If you missed the “Envisioning A Just Pittsburgh” art showcase at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, you missed a collection of artists, a number of whom were Black, expressing through the paintbrush, through poetry or through performance what a “Just Pittsburgh”
looks like in 2024. About 200 people came to the Feb. 2 event at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, where the Art of the Diorama, or the Hall of African Wildlife, usually are the focus. The “idea” for this type of showcase came from the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh’s new “IDEA” department. IDEA stands for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility. Gina Winstead, a 2022 New Pittsburgh Courier Fab 40 honoree, is the vice president of the new IDEA department, and she said that growing up in McKeesport, combined with her natural tenacity, were the needed components to make something like the art showcase happen. “There’s always just something in me that wants to keep trying to make things happen in
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spaces and places where I’ve been told that we can’t make them happen,” Winstead, who graduated from McKeesport Area High School in 2001 and the University of Pittsburgh in 2005, told the Courier in an exclusive interview. Oftentimes, in the museum space and in large institutions like universities, things can move at a snail’s pace. Winstead, who formerly worked for smaller nonprofits, thought of the “Envisioning A Just Pittsburgh” art showcase in January 2023. To have it happen 13 months later is very fast for a museum event, which usually takes years to cultivate. “It’s been a part of my story,” Winstead said. “If I hear ‘no,’ I ask, ‘why,’ and if that ‘why’ doesn’t make sense to me, then I want to figure out a solution that works for all of us moving forward.” By February 2023, the IDEA team began working on building partnerSEE LOCAL ARTISTS A6
LEE PRICE WITH HIS ART PIECE, “AHMAD JAMAL’S DREAM.” IT TOOK FIRST-PLACE HONORS. (PHOTO BY J.L. MARTELLO)