Category Archives: African American

Making Spokane News

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Spokesman.com – Oct. 17, 2012    http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/oc…    10/17/12
Cindy Hval Correspondent

Truck stops

Falling leaves and cooler temperatures indicate savvy diners need to get their food truck fix in while they still can. Three new mobile kitchens opened recently in Spokane, offering everything from familiar favorites like hamburgers and chicken wings, to exotic fare like stewed oxtail and curried goat. Most food trucks shutter their windows when the snow flies, but you’ve still got time to sample some tasty dishes from the latest additions to the mobile-dining scene.
The Jamaican Jerk Pan
Since The Jamaican Jerk Pan’s opening this spring, owner/operator Roian Doctor said, “I’ve been working like there’s five of me!” But it’s a labor of love for this Jamaican, who owns the truck along with his wife, Sabrina Sorger. Using spices imported from his homeland, Doctor offers authentic dishes like jerk chicken – smoked meat that’s rubbed with and marinated in a special blend of spices. “I’m giving you a taste of what I’m familiar with,” he said. Jerk chicken and curried chicken are always on the menu, as well as side dishes including rice and beans and cabbage salad. Doctor also serves festival – a fried bread, similar to Indian fry bread. “All of my side dishes are vegan,” he said. Adventurous eaters might want to try stewed oxtail. Doctor describes it as “a big chunk of meat with some gravy on it.” He also occasionally serves curried goat. The honey-citrus shrimp skewers have proved popular, too. Prices range from $5.50 for a bowl of curry chicken with rice and beans to a jerk chicken combo plate with three sides for $10.
Jamaican Jerk Pan will be up at Green Bluff near Knapp’s Farm during Apple Festival and offers catering services, as well. Doctor has been pleased with customer response. “All the people say good things about my food, which makes me feel good,” he said. “I tell my customers I cook a little piece of home for you guys to enjoy.” Jamaican Jerk Pan Location: Fourth Avenue and Cannon Street in Browne’s Addition Hours: Monday-Friday, 11:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Phone: (509) 795-9050 More information: www.facebook.com/TheJamaicanJerkPan (http://www.facebook.com/TheJamaicanJerkPan)
Thai Lunch Box
Thai Lunch Box owner Tom Pinyo isn’t new to the Spokane restaurant scene. A former owner of Riverview Thai at the Flour Mill, Pinyo has been around the local Thai food scene for many years. But restaurant owners work long hours and Pinyo has two young children. He decided to buy a food truck so he could spend more time with his family. He bought the former Mommy G’s truck, painted it green, and opened at the Perry Street location last month. “I do all the cooking,” he said. “We try to keep it simple.”Staple offerings like red chicken curry with pineapple, and vegetarian pad Thai have proven to be big hits. “On Thursdays and Fridays we offer a special curry, like bean curry with chicken,” said Pinyo. The menu also features chicken satay with peanut sauce, Thai sausage with lemongrass and banh mi, a sandwich featuring a choice of meat topped with cilantro, jalapeños and fresh veggies.
Prices range from $3 for a single skewer of chicken satay to $8-$10 for a combo plate which may feature curry, rice and satay or Thai sausage.
The sunny fall has been a boon to business, as diners can enjoy the picnic tables Pinyo has set up near the trailer. “We got a really good welcome in the neighborhood,” he said.
Thai Lunch Box Location: Ninth Avenue and Perry Street across from The Shop Hours: Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Thursday and Friday, 4-7:30 p.m. Phone: (509) 868-2306 More information: www.facebook.com/ThaiLunchBox (https://www.facebook.com/ThaiLunchBox)
P.H.A.T. Truck
P.H.A.T. stands for Pretty Hot And Tasty. This food truck, which debuted at Pig Out in the Park, is owned by Stoakley Lloyd and his cousins, Avont and LeSean Grant.
“We’re still figuring out our schedule and finding the best spots,” Lloyd said. But one thing they have figured out is their menu. “We make the food we like to eat,” Lloyd said. That includes hamburgers made with fresh – not frozen – beef, chicken wings, and pulled pork sandwiches. They also offer the P.H.A.T. Fidel, a Cuban-style sandwich featuring ham, pulled pork, bacon, pickles, Swiss, chipotle mayo, and ground mustard. Built on a hoagie roll and flattened in a panini press, Lloyd said it’s their most popular sandwich. His favorite is the Code Bleu Burger served with bacon, bleu cheese crumbles and bleu cheese slaw. Prices range from $5 for two burger sliders to $10 for the Big Boy, a mammoth burger featuring two patties, bacon, egg and cheese. All sandwiches come with fries or fresh fried potato chips.
P.H.A.T. Truck also does catering. It has been parked at the Mead Sports Complex near Market Street and Farwell Road and will be at Green Bluff near Green Bluff United Methodist Community Church during the Apple Festival. You may smell the truck before you see it. “We start cooking the bacon and people start wandering by,” Lloyd said.
P.H.A.T. Truck Location: Sprague Avenue and Washington Street (but moves frequently, check their Facebook page or Twitter account) Hours: Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Phone: (509) 230-8292 More information: www.facebook.com/PHATTRUCK (https://www.facebook.com
/PHATTRUCK) or twitter.com/PHAT_Truck (https://twitter.com/PHAT_Truck)
Get more news and information at Spokesman.com

Spokane needs PRO OBAMA information tables

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June 17th New York City NAACP is holding a silent march

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Last year in New York City, police stopped and interrogated black men and boys between the ages 14 and 24 a total of 168,126 times.
The total population of black men and boys aged 14 through 24 in New York City is 158,406.
That means the amount of times police stopped black men and boys in this age group exceeds the total number living in the city.
In fact, last year, more than 85% of the 685,000 people stopped by the NYPD were African American or Latino, most of them children and young adults. This is up from less than 100,000 stops a decade ago. Then, like now, 90% of those stopped are completely innocent.
All this adds up to nothing less than the most aggressive street-level racial profiling program in the country.
On June 17th, we’re demanding an end to this alarming and abusive practice. The NAACP is holding a silent march in New York City to call for an end to New York’s notorious “stop and frisk” program. Our marchers won’t be speaking, so I need you to write the messages that will serve as their voices during the march.
Help the NAACP end the abuse of stop and frisk. Create a message for the banners, signs, and posters carried by thousands through the streets of New York on June 17th:

http://action.naacp.org/silent-march-message

In contrast to previous demonstrations, we will march in silence as an illustration of both the tragedy and serious threat that stop and frisk and other forms of racial profiling present to our society. The silent march was first used in 1917 by the NAACP – then just eight years old – to draw attention to race riots that tore through communities in East St. Louis, Illinois, and build national opposition to lynching.
Now, 95 years later, we will use this powerful protest to shine a light on the great injustice of stop and frisk and begin rebuilding national opposition to racial profiling. The march will be the first step in a nationwide federal and state-level campaign to address the problem of racial profiling.
Because we will remain silent as we march, your words will be especially important.
If you’re outraged that police, security guards and even community watch volunteers in so many neighborhoods continue to treat young people of color differently, or if you’re concerned for your children, or your neighbors’ and friends’ children, then channel these emotions into a message of 15 words or less and share it with us today. We will pick five messages to print for the march.
Be the voice of the silent marchers on June 17th. Submit your message for our protest signs today:
http://action.naacp.org/silent-march-message
Thank you,
Ben
Benjamin Todd Jealous
President & CEO
NAACP

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If There Is Not Time

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Always good to plan ahead, but for those who do forget to thaw something out, can’t decide what to cook, get home late, or are bushed they can stop by Spokane’s Phat Truck coming soon to Spokane Washington. That’s not FAT it’s PHAT which stands for Pretty Hot and Tasty.  Our menu will provide a balanced dinner, lunch or midnight snack.

But if you are not in an area served by Phat Truck you might want to plan ahead. See cousin Jameelah Carter’s article COOK, THERE IS ALWAYS TIME in DC Cooking Examiner.

Scholarship Application Deadline May 25, 2012

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The Center for Student Opportunity’s <http://www.csopportunity.org/>  Opportunity Scholarship is a $2,000, four-year renewable scholarship awarded to first-generation college students graduating in the high school class of 2012 (entering the college class of 2016) enrolling at a CSO College Partner.

Scholarship winners may serve as monthly guest bloggers on the Opportunity Scholars web blog <http://csopportunityscholars.org/>  to share insight and perspective about their transition to college and successes thereafter.

ELIGIBILITY:
∙Current high school (or home-schooled) seniors attending school in the United States.
∙Neither parent has earned a four-year college degree.
∙Must be attending a CSO partner college or university. A complete list of CSO College Partners can be viewed here: http://csopportunity.org/college_partners/coll_partners.aspx.
∙Seek financial aid and scholarship support for college.
∙Involved in extracurricular and leadership programs in school or in the community.

Application: http://www.csopportunity.org/scholarship/
 Deadline: May 25, 2012
Do not hesitate to contact Chelsea M. Jones with any questions or concerns.

Chelsea M. Jones
Outreach and Student Support Associate
Center for Student Opportunity
4641 Montgomery Ave., Suite 513│Bethesda, MD 20814
phone: (301) 363-4224 | fax: (301) 951-7104
cjones@csopportunity.org <mailto:cmartin@csopportunity.org>  | www.CSOpportunity.org <http://www.csopportunity.org>

Congratulations to Granddaughter of Edward Thomas, Jr.

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Spokane local grandpa’s granddaughter Rachae Thomas is seen in a national AT&T television commercial. She is following in Ed’s footsteps – he was seen in television commercials himself a few years ago – and on a billboard too!

Ms. Thomas projects a bright, fresh, positive and professional image.  See for yourself.

 

SUMMER YOUTH ACADEMY

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Looking for something for your kids this summer? How about 10 weeks of fun in a safe, caring environment!

Martin Luther King, Jr. Family Outreach Center

Summer Youth Academy

$470 per child, per month

10 weeks of fun in a safe, caring environment!

June 25-Aug. 31

Weekly swim & field trips

Literacy & Craft Activities

Contact: Jeani-Liz Brickner

Interim Children’s Services Director

Martin Luther King, Jr. Family Outreach Center

 

P: 509-455-8722

F: 509-455-7801

www.mlkspokane.org

 

845 S. Sherman St.

Spokane, WA 99202

 

Jeff Mooring: Let’s Talk Chocolate Diamonds

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Morning

Here’s hoping you have a great day. Thought I’d share this.

I’ve recently become aware of a high powered ad campaign by a decent sized jewelry company. They’re marketing something called chocolate diamonds. These are stones that were previously considered of no value because of their appearance. You hire the right agency to write the right copy and they come up with it.

Chocolate Diamonds   “they’re anything but vanilla”

 I’m more convinced than ever that my idea of selling dirt would work. How’s this?

         Save the earth, buy a bag.  ???? 

Great day to you. B N Touch.

Jeff  Mooring
Let’s Talk Spokane

 

 

Rudolph Bowman Scott: Spokane Black Pioneer

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Pat Bayonne-Johnson is photographed here visiting the gravesite of a Spokane Black pioneer – Rudolph Bowman Scott. He and his wife are buried at Fairmont Memorial Park. Read her article about all of this man’s accomplishments beginning with serving with the Union Army in the Civil War and including being the first Black man to hold a federal position in the northwest.

Pat is 4comculture’s in-house historian. She works with the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society and serves at the Spokane Public Library downtown on Tuesdays  helping people find their roots.

Patronize Black-Owned Businesses

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The Afterword – Slate

In 2009, Maggie Anderson and her family pledged that they would patronize black-owned companies whenever possible, so she scoured the Chicago area for black-owned supermarkets, dry cleaners, gas stations, pharmacies, and clothing stores. Our Black Year: One Family’s Quest To Buy Black in America’s Racially Divided Economy is the story of their experiment in conscious consumerism. Anderson discovered that black businesses lag behind businesses of all other racial and ethnic groups in every measure of success. In the Asian community, a dollar circulates among local shop owners, banks, and business professionals for up to 28 days. In the Jewish community, a dollar circulates for 19 days. In the African-American community, a dollar is gone within six hours. The interview runs about 29 minutes.

Spokane Black Entrepreneurs – Let’s Start here!

Do you know of other minority businesses in Spokane or online? Tell us about them in the reply/post comment box below.