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CAC Audited SEPT. 30 – OCT. 6, 2021
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Mama Cat leaves St. Louis to begin new life chapter
Vol. 93 No. 27 COMPLIMENTARY
‘How do we create some kind of peace?’
Misha Marshall confronts her son’s COVID-19 infection and a season of violence. By Leyla Fern King
Photo by Jennifer Sarti / St. Louis American
Cathy ‘Mama Cat’ Daniels talks about one of the photos with two of her kids at the artist’s reception at the May Gallery on Friday, Sept. 24, 2021. Daniels is the focus of a documentary project photographed by Theo Welling. The show has been extended until Friday, Oct. 1.
Moving to Jacksonville, Florida
By Isaiah Peters The St. Louis American Cathy “Mama Cat” Daniels to much of the St. Louis community is representative of the generosity of humanity. Daniels founded her organization, PotBangerz, in the wake of the Ferguson uprising. PotBangerz was born of the idea that Black Lives Matter means all Black lives, including the least seen and least served — and the idea that one way to uplift all people is by serving them good food. Today, PotBangerz is a 501c3 non-profit organization whose donations allows it to buy food and prepare meals and snacks for 150-200 members of St. Louis’ unhoused community.
“I don’t want just to give a meal,” Daniels said. “I want to give them their tomorrow.” After the better part of a decade in St. Louis, Daniels is now moving on to Jacksonville, Florida. As part of her farewell, photographer and Daniels’ close friend Theo Welling hosted a photo viewing on Sept. 24, at the May Gallery of Webster University. There, he presented work he’s been creating around Mama Cat for around a year: a photo-documentary project titled “Mama Cat: Works in Progress,” which followed the daily life of Mama Cat and the rotating cast of dozens of characters that make up the PotBangerz family. See MAMA CAT, A17
n “Everybody’s role in the movement is not just to be on the street. We all got a job, and we have to live in our purpose. I am trying to lift those with the least among us.” – Cathy “Mama Cat” Daniels
Calls grow for charges against officers in K-9 attack Leaders liken it to civil rights era anti-Black violence
By Dana Rieck The St. Louis American
The Rev. Darryl Gray (left) and Zaki Baruti, president of the Universal African People’s Organization, denounced three Woodson Terrace police officers’ actions and called for their dismissal after they let a police K-9 attack a Black man for more than a minute while attempting to arrest him on Sept. 20.
Calls are growing louder for three white Woodson Terrace officers to be fired and charged after they let a police K-9 attack a Black man for more than a minute while attempting to arrest him. The incident occurred just after 7 a.m. Sept. 20 in the 4500 block of Woodson Road. An onlooker filmed the interaction and posted it online — the video on Facebook has since been played more than 8,000 times. National outlets including The Washington Post, People, NBC, The Daily Beast and Vice have also written about the police interaction. And while the FBI is investigating the incident, the agency declined to comment on it. St. Louis County’s prosecuting attorney, Wesley Bell, also declined to comment but his office did confirm the incident is under review. Activists and protesters gathered in front of the Woodson Terrace Police Department on Sept. 24 See OFFICERS, A17
Photo by Dawn Suggs / St. Louis American
This story -- the second in a series -- was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center and is part of Before Ferguson Beyond Ferguson’s 63106 Project. A team of journalists have been following families in the ZIP code during the time of COVID. A study has shown it has the most problematic social determinants of health in the region. Misha Marshall finds a body on the street near her home. She prays he is still alive. On a late spring Sunday like any other, Misha had driven home from the grocery store. Misha Oddly, this time, Misha Marshall found that her typical route home was blocked with emergency vehicles. A resident of the Columbus Square neighborhood, Misha took a different route. “Never in a million years would I have thought that when I got closer that someone had been shot,” she said. “And then I’m thinking, well maybe it wasn’t a bad shooting. Maybe he’ll be okay.” “And then I got to the house, went in and then I went back outside because I wanted to know what happened. And the police were just taping the crime scene off. And, I said, ‘Well, what happened? Is he okay? Are they working on him? And, they were like, ‘Well we don’t know.’ But this person was not moving.” See MARSHALL, A7
Requiem of Light memorial concert A space to mourn COVID-19 victims
By Sylvester Brown Jr. The St. Louis American “Forget me not… when the sunshine breaks the sky… Forget me not… when the moonlight shines bright… Remembering the good times, remembering the bad and all the times we had… Forget me not.” Dr. Philip A. Woodmore plans to share his original composition, “Forget Me Not,” during the “Requiem of Light Memorial for St. Louisans Lost to Covid”on Saturday, Oct. 2, at Art Hill in Forest Park. Woodmore, a longtime member of the St. Louis music community and creator of the off-Broadway play “Antigone in Ferguson,” will serve as artistic director for the memorial concert. Acclaimed jazz singer Denise Thimes will sing “Forget Me Not,” one of many musical selections featuring artists selected by Woodmore including De-Rance Blaylock and Duane Foster. Artists, including some from the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, will perform multiple See CONCERT, A7