Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 August 2002 — Page 19

FRIDAY, AUGUST 9,2002 ■ PAGE Cl

INSIDE*C* SECTION'PEOPLE & TRENDS

BOOKMARK Book explores emotions brought on by death in family By KENYA M. YARBROUGH Electronic Urban Report Los Angeles-based'author Parry Brown’s name is growing among African-American book clubs and beyond, for that matter. The author of the best-selling The Shirt Off His Back and Sexy Doesn 7 Have a Dress Size recently released her newest novel, Sittin' in the Front Pew. Sittin ’ is about how death brings out strangeemotions in us. The book reveals the story of a family of women who meet in their hometown of Baltimore to bury their father. As they come to pay respects, the women find out more about their father, including a secret that he almost took to his grave. “The reason I wrote the book is because my daughter went to her father-in-law’s funeral in Italy, Texas—a little bitty town,” Brown began to explain. “They were in a Baptist church with no air conditioning. She came home and told me so many stories about how these folks were tripping at this funeral and the time leading up to the funeral. She just said, ‘You need to write abook about this. ’ And I started to thinking back to what happened in my family... and we came up with the title that day. And it evolved from there.” Brown said that in addition to stories from her daughter’s trip and a few stories she’s picked up from friends here and there, that some of her own family’s dirty laundry is airing in the new novel. “Why do we act like this?’ Brown asked, when reflecting on her own family ’ s experiences with death and funerals. “I think it’s because we need anavenue for our emotions. So what better thing? My sister and I never had a serious argument until my mother died.” Brown described her own emotions when dealing with her mother’s death, revealing that while there was lots of food and drink to fill and drown sorrows in, she never seemed full. It was the anger and emotion that had the best of her. “The emotion was satisfying that emotional part of us and not the physical at all, because the physical gets lost when you’re grieving.” Though the book is based on the mix of emotions and drama our families go through in death, Brown says the book is also filled with a lot of comedy, courtesy of the fictional dysfunctional family. “Dysfunctional—that’s a white word. We didn ’ t know what it meant and a lot of us still don’t know what dysfunctional means. I don’t know a family that isn’t dysfunctional, and if there is one, they’re probably odd people," she said. Sittin' in the Front Pew is in bookstores now or can be ordered from www.PairyBrown.com.

Historic lake resort still draws Black families

From Staff and Wire Reports ANGOLA, Ind. — The waters that began drawing Black families to northeastern Indiana’s Lake Fox eight decades ago remain an attraction today. But these days, memories are an even stronger draw. Of the 40 residents, friends and supporters of the Fox Lake Resort who gathered to honor its induction into the National Register of Historic Places, most had stories to tell. Some spoke of an old caretaker who used to help kids carry water buckets from the lake at a time when there was no plumbing. Others recalled dances, hayrides and cakewalks. All the speakers last week shared common passions: reverence for a Black community pioneered in an era of oppression and respect for those who kept the resort’s spirit alive throughout the years. “I think what is most impressive about this community is the community,” said Glory Greiff, one of the historians responsible for adding Fox Lake to the national register. “There is still so much of their identity in this place, both physically and in themselves. They really have a sense of who they are and where they.come from.” The resort—a Steuben County community of about 35 homes southwest of Angola — was named to the national register in April 2001. To thank those who helped push for the designation, the Fox Lake Property Owners Association presented plaques to several

Barbara Boyd, Joanne Flowers, Fox Lake Property Owners Association President Jimmy Roberts, Carl Wilson, Lucy Reynolds and Gloria Wilson were on hand to witness the Fox Lake Reeort’s induction into the National Register of Historic Places. recipients, including the county assessor and auditor, and awarded wooden gavels to the association’s past presidents. The community’s first settlers were Black families who came to the lake in the mid-1920s from Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. The community, which now houses 80 Black families and 10 white families in the summer, was home to the first Black resort in Indiana. It is one of just four such resorts designated in

the national register.

In its early years, the resort became something of a safe ha-

ven for many Blacks.

Violet and David Reynolds bought property at Fox Lake in 1936 after a summer lake house they had owned in Monticello burned to the ground a year ear-

lier.

Although the fire was blamed

on an electrical problem, their intuition told them otherwise. They had never left their electricity on in the winter, and crosses had been burning in their See FOX LAKE, Page C2

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Three-man crew rises again

By RICARDO HAZELL Electronic Urban Report The Sunz of Man, like many other Wu-Tang affiliated groups, have always been able to make a name for themselves on the underground. With the release of their first album, “The Last Shall Be First” on Red Ant Records, the group seemed poised to take their brand of Wu to a record store near you. But, unfortunately, even the best made plans go awry. When their label filed for bankruptcy, the three-man crew, consisting of 60 Second Assassin, Prodigal Sunn and Hell Razah, was still able to eat by making cameo appearances on the solo albums of Gza, U-God and others. With a new label, D3 Entertainment, to distribute their sound, the Sunz are out to prove they were never down for the count. The title of the new LP is titled “Saviors Day.” The group was asked why they used such a powerful moniker. “Because we’re in a time where a lot of people need to be saved,” said Prodigal Sunn. “A lot of •people ate tejfapga negative route in tbeir living, know what I mean? They’re worshipping material before their culture, which is sending out mixed signals. We got to think about the babies that are coming up. Also, we saved ourselves. We sat down and saw what we were doing as far as what was negative in our life through the years since we dropped ‘The Last Shall Be First.’ You have to be balanced and a lot of people are

not balanced.’ Hell Razah added on with this jewel: “Our people need a savior in this game. We are the Sunz of Man and at the same time we are symbolic to the Christ-head. We recognize that we dre trapped in sin. So, we know being in the flesh is sin. Now we have to go from the bottom to the top and rise back up. We can’t

be dead.

“People are brain dead and some will be resurrected. We’re not talking about any religious style of being saved and waiting for an after life. We’re talking about saving yourself in survival tactics. The title can go even deeper.” With all the goings on involved with diving into a rap career it is easy for an individual to find himself overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of all that lifestyle comes with. The three-man group could have easily fallen by the wayside after Red Ant folded, but, widiipn help of original Wu crew members, the Sunz’ light was still seen, albeit it in a supporting role. “We all kept features on other

Higher than high Outstanding male soprano always recognizes source of talent

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By BRANDON A. PERRY Staff Writer For over a month, Americans across the nation have been glued to their television sets watching the sensational music show “American Idol.” But anyone who meets young Indianapolis opera singer Matthew Truss will realize that the organizers of the show made a big mistake by not making a stop in the Circle City. Truss, who recently graduated from Broad Ripple High School, embodies the type of talented, committed and friendly student that remains on the wish list of every music instructor. “Even as far as child prodigies are concerned, I have rarely taught a voice so unusual,” said Rose Marie Gore-Bigsby, Matthew’s music teacher. “His soprano voice is so beautiful it raises to heaven and gives God the glory.” Gore-Bigsby is someone who should recognize true talent when she sees it. She is the

founder of Broad Ripple High School’s Center for the Performing and Visual Arts. For 24 years, she has performed with such groups as the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Philharmonic Symphony and other opera companies throughout the Midwest and in New York and Europe. Together, Matthew and his teacher make a perfect team. In an era when many young African Americans list hip-hop and R&B as their favorite genres of music. Truss has found a special home with classical and opera songs. What makes the 17-year-old even more extraordinary is his vocal classification: a true male soprano. Truss is clearly an anomaly in his chosen field in that the percentage of adult male vocalists possessing the gift of the range of soprano naturally, is well under 1 percent of male singers. “What I remember about Matthew is the fact that he’s a performer who sparkles on stage and draws the

Opera prodigy Matthew True* performed thia June at Showln’ Off, an event sponsored by the Urban Arts Consortium of Indianapolis

audience to him,” said Ruth Dwyer, years, Truss was heavily involved associate director and director of with notable productions such as education for the Indianapolis “Porgy and Bess,” “Godspell,” and auldren’sChoir.“Iknewhimwhen “You’re a Good Man, Charlie he was in this choir. He has great joy Brown.” In 19% at age 13, Truss and enthusiasm about singing music became the youngest member of the and sharing it with other people.” Indianapolis Children’s Choir to tour During his middle and high school *

Europe. For three years in a row, he received a first-place rating in the City and State Solo Ensemble Competition, and earned a third place rating at the Omega Psi Phi Talent Hunt in 1999 and 2000. Truss was a finalist and the first runner-dp at (fie 2001 Prelude Awards. Recently, the Indianapolis Public Schools board honored Truss for his accomplishments both as a student and as a contestant at the NAACP’s ACT-SO (Academic, Cultural, Technological, Scientific and Academic) Awards competition. “Matthew is an extraordinary talent, his gift of music is phenomenal” said IPS Superintendent Duncan “Pat” Pritchett. “He is a wonderful student and a very nice human being.” Pritchett plans to invite Truss to perform at an IPS “back to school” event later this month. Despite the praise and due respect Truss receives for his unique vocal abilities, the deeply spiritual See OPERA, Page C3

Michael Jackson: Black or that other white meat?

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By LLOYD WILLIAMS For The Recorder

‘Tommy Mottola, the president of the record division (Sony) is mean — he’s a racist and he is very, very, very devilish. The record cotfipanies really do conspire against their artists. They steal, they cheat, they do whatever they can, especially to the Black artists ... “And Tommy Mottola is a devil. I’m not supposed to say what I’m going to say right now, but I have let you know this... Mariah Carey, after the divorce of Tommy, came to me crying, crying, crying, she was crying so badly I had to hold her. She said to me, ‘This is an evil man, and Michael, this man follows me.’ He taps her phones, and he’s very, very evil. She doesn’t trust him. We have to continue our drive until he is terminated. We can’t allow him to do this

Michael Jackson cameo. His alien-like presence on screen supplied the setup The person who coined the phrase, “You never get a and reflex punchline to a side-splitting sight gag. second chance to make a first impression,” might have been Emotionally, he has to be bottoming out right about Michael Jackson’s plastic surgeon. That evil Dr. Franken- now. Tragically, after undergoing countless surgical prostein transformed his subject into a grotesque monstrosity cedures, Michael’s doctor concluded that there’s nothing with bleached skin, deflated lips, matted hair, cheek im- more he could do to make him look normal. How cruel! So, plants and nose job nostrils. But lucky for the 43-year-old when I heard that Jackson was headed to Harlem to bold a Michael, first impressions last, and most people can still big press conference with attorney Johnnie Cochran and think of him as the attractive, adolescent of his early, activist Rev. AlSharpton at his side, I figured that he must teeny hopper days with the Jackson Five. have finally decided to sue the butcher responsible for Nonetheless, the botched attempt to perform a radical making a joke of his head, blackendectomy on the self-hating icon backfired badly. But had the prodigal son of Frankenstein suddenly ultimately reducing his pop culture status from adored returned to his roots to warn his browner brothers of the superstar to that of a routinely ridiculed super-freak. He’s pitfalls of his creepy cosmetic surgery? Nope, Jackson’a almost no longer considered human. Exhibit A: the movie “Meb in Black 2,” where Jackson appeared in a quickie See MICHAEL JACKSON, Papa C4

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