On May 20, 2010, Dr. Cornel West and Parliament-Funkadelic's, Mr. George Clinton were honored guests at the sold out fund raiser for the Barack Obama Green Charter High School, scheduled to open with 120 students in September, 2010. Guerilla Educators Charter Consultants is proud to be a part of the development of Obama High. Here is the article, written by journalist Mark Spivey, from Central Jersey News:
George Clinton, others flock to
Plainfield to support new charter school
By MARK SPIVEY • STAFF WRITER • May 21, 2010
PLAINFIELD —
After all these years, the No. 1 export here is still funk. And no one
cranks it out like the city's prodigal son.
Music legend George Clinton stole the show during a star-studded
gala dinner Thursday evening at City Councilman Rashid Burney's Watchung
Avenue home, as about 200 people gathered to support the newly founded
Barack Obama Green Charter High School. The school with an eco-friendly mission and curriculum, scheduled to open this autumn, also
assembled Princeton University professor and civil-rights activist
Cornel West and Newark Mayor Cory Booker to speak. "Teachers work harder than you do, no matter what you do,'' Clinton said. "It's the most important profession I know.'' Clinton, 68, spent long parts of the evening reminiscing with friends about his days
in the city, as the 1997 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee got his start as
a member of a doo-wop group founded in a barber shop near the corner of
Plainfield Avenue and West Third Street. Clinton later would go on to
found Parliament-Funkadelic (a musical collective including members of
Clinton's groups Parliament and Funkadelic), which soared to global
prominence during the 1970s and 1980s. Dressed in a white long-sleeved shirt, designer jeans and a multitude of necklaces Thursday, shunning his trademark multicolored
dreadlocks in favor of short-cropped black hair, Clinton accepted the
key to the city from Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs before throwing
himself into a rollicking set as part of a nine-person musical ensemble.
"Let's tear the roof off this sucker!'' Clinton told the crowd after
greeting the mayor, throwing on a bright red blazer and launching into
his smash 1976 Parliament hit "Give up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the
Sucker)'' off the album "Mothership Connection.''
Earlier in the evening, West captivated a pair of audiences,
speaking first to a group of incoming Barack Obama Green students at the
First Unitarian Church of Plainfield on Park Avenue before addressing
the masses assembled at Burney's home. An imposing figure with thick
glasses, a sprawling beard and a broad Afro, West darted from topic to
topic, covering items ranging from the new Arizona immigration bill
(it's an example of "scapegoating the most vulnerable,'' he said) to his
busy schedule ("usually I'm booked nine months in advance, but I said
I'm going to make a special allowance on one condition,'' West noted.
"If we could bring the unadulterated genius of George Clinton back to
Plainfield.'')
Quoting sources ranging from Plato to Beyonce, West echoed comments made
by Barack Obama Green co-founder Steven King by saying that the new
school's mission is to offer love and hope to urban students who need
it.
"The power of love can change and transform any person in any
situation,'' West said. West, 56, even shared the stage with Clinton for a
song, belting out a soulful duet of his 1970 hit "I Wanna Know If It's
Good to You?'' off the Funkadelic album "Free Your Mind ... and Your A**
Will Follow.'' Booker introduced West at Burney's home, saying he was impressed by
seeing "a community of people here to elevate our children so they might
lead us.'' Crediting West with molding him while he was an
undergraduate in college, the newly re-elected Newark mayor cited West's
1994 book "Race Matters'' as a particular influence. "It taught me that my intellect was worthless unless it was put to work creating hope,'' Booker said.
Both men had busy weeks before appearing here. Booker attended a White Housesecurity briefing on Tuesday, joining a federal effort to share information about inner-city
violence, and West spent three hours on Wednesday speaking to inmates at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton. Barack Obama Green officials recently earned Zoning Board approval to establish the new school at the existing Boys & Girls Clubs of Union County facility on West Seventh Street. The two organizations, the schedules of which are not anticipated to conflict, plan to partner to accommodate 120 students in
2010-2011, the school's first year of operation, with an eye on
expanding to 240 students by its fourth year. It was not immediately
known Thursday how much the gala dinner raised, but tickets were sold at
$150 apiece, and by 8 p.m. the expansive banquet hall in Burney's home was
standing-room only.
Charter schools are schools that receive funding from public-school
districts, but operate independently of those districts. Barack Obama
Green will be the city's first charter high school but its fourth
charter school — others include the Central Jersey Arts Charter School,
Queen City Academy Charter School and Union County TEAMS (Technology,
Engineering, Architecture, Math & Science) Charter School. A fifth
school, the Dr. Ellen G. Pressman Charter School, opened last fall but
closed less than four months later due to a lack of enrollment.
King said Friday that Barack Obama Green has a little more than 100
students enrolled for its inaugural year, less than 20 shy of its
allotment of 120.
To learn more about the
Barack Obama Green Charter High School, or to find out how to enroll, go
online to www.njfirstgreen.org.
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