WINNER OF SIX SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS D.C. AWARDS FOR 2022 Don't Miss Our Back to School Supplement Center Section Celebrating 58 Years - Vol. 58, No. 44 • August 17 - 23, 2023
2023 BACK TO SCHOOL SUPPLEMENT
Preparing Students and Families for the Year Ahead
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Hundreds of Young People, Adults Pour their Hearts at Youth Summit By Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer
5 The National Museum of African American History and Culture celebrated the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop on August 12 with a Block Party featuring interactive activities including graffiti art, double-dutch, and hula hooping. (Marckell Williams/The Washington Informer) See full story on Page 9
Charter School Summer Graduates Celebrate the Start of a New Chapter
By Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer
turn his tassel to the left. He did so with dozens of other young people from other schools across the District who had encountered similar situations. Like many of them, he had his mother in his corner, cheering him on along the way. “We’ve been through a lot. It felt
In June, Deonte Toatley learned that he wouldn’t graduate from Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for Public Policy alongside classmates he had come to know and love over the last few years. While they moved on to the next stage in their academic and professionGRADUATION Page 25 al endeavors, Toatley prepared to tackle a summer course load to help him 4 Deadrian Davis, a Washington accumulate the last few credits needed Leadership Academy summer graduate, for his high school diploma. said he wants to attend college and Weeks later, Toatley finally got his start his own business. (Marckell chance to walk across the stage and Williams/Washington Informer)
Hundreds of young people and adults converged on THEARC in Southeast on Aug. 13 to reflect on the current state of affairs in the District and talk about what they believe to be solutions to the violence that has rocked their communities over the last several years. For 14-year-old Gabriel Riley, the event, touted as the “The S.M.A.R.T. Collaborative’s Stop the Violence Youth Summit,” brought to mind memories of childhood peers who lost their lives to gun violence, including Karon Brown, his Stanton Elementary School classmate who
was killed at a Naylor Road gas station in 2019. Gabriel, a quarterback and tight end in the Prince George’s Bears youth football team, has recognized football as a viable tool in avoiding violence and developing strategies to live a better life. He acknowledged his coach, Leroy Hall as a guiding light in his adolescent journey. “I’m learning to become a better person and a better coach to myself,” Gabriel said. “[That means] stop throwing fits on the field and fixing my attitude. It's important off the field because people might not like you the way you think they do.”
SUMMIT Page 48
The Festival Center Installs Solar Panels Generating Five Households’ Worth of Power By Kayla Benjamin WI Climate & Environment Reporter
Lisbeth Melendez Rivera, director of arts and food justice at the Festival Center, likes to share a story about cooking in the Adams Morgan nonprofit’s new all-electric, energy efficient kitchen. One day, not long after the retrofitted Festival Center building opened in mid-June, Melendez Rivera put a pot of water on the shiny induction stovetop and wandered to the sink to wash another dish. “So all the sudden I hear like ‘whoosh!’” she said, speaking at an Aug. 10 press conference celebrating the building’s newly-online solar panels. “It took five minutes to boil this
POWER Page 47
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