Health and culture to be featured at Black History Program at college

By FRITZ MAYER

LOCH SHELDRAKE, NY — People may not jump at the chance to go to an event to learn about their health, but they might go to an event where they can experience good music and dance. That’s the theory behind the Black History Program and African American Health Symposium to be held at the Sullivan County Community College (SCCC) on February 9.

The program, which is in its fourth year, is timed to coincide with Black History Month. It’s estimated that between seven and eight percent of the 76,000 residents of Sullivan County are African Americans. About 300 people attended the event last year.

At a press conference at the college on January 23, Carolyn Massey, co-chairperson of the event, said, “This event is an attempt to bridge the gap between health, culture and community for African Americans. We hope to help make people aware of the illnesses that are prevalent in the African American community. We hope to unite those things that are popular, such as the music-dance culture, with those things that are a little less chic, like health and health-related issues.”

Dr. Mamie Golladay, SCCC president, said, “Events like this allow people to be empowered to take care of themselves, to ask intelligent questions when they go to their healthcare provider, questions that we would not have asked in the past because we were afraid of our physicians.”

Lawmakers Leni Binder and Ron Hiatt were also on hand to lend support to the daylong event, which will feature sessions with titles such as “Health Literacy: Learning to ask questions about your health,” and “You can be a homeowner.”

Also on hand at the news conference were Monticello resident Rissmii Tubuj King and John Cocker of New York City, who will lead a presentation called “The Art Miles Mural Project.” The project is described on the internet at www.the-art-miles-mural-project.org as “a 10-year movement combining the efforts of children and adults to promote global peace and harmony through mural art.” King said a 5-foot-by-12-foot mural will be started at the event and will eventually be joined with thousands of others to be draped on a pyramid in Egypt.

The Black History Program is being sponsored by CARECORPS, Sullivan County Public Health Services, Sullivan County Healthy Living, the Sullivan County chapter of the NAACP, Million Man March and the Kwanzaa Seven Group. For more information or to pre-register for workshops call Caryn Mathews at 845/292-0100, ext. 2787, or Carolyn Massey at 945/794-8080, ext. 123.