This year’s gala will feature a special tribute to 15 women being recognized as trailblazers for their outstanding achievements and community impact. The Mistress of Ceremonies for the evening will be Celebrity Chef Nikki Shaw, wife of Oakland native Brian Shaw, NBA coach for the Los Angeles Clippers. Entertainment will include a live performance by Lionel Burns and the We R1 Band, offering a musical tribute to the late Frankie Beverly.
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By Carla Thomas
The Historically Black Colleges and Universities Alumni Coalition of Northern California (HBCUC) will present its annual “Elegant All White Scholarship Gala” on Saturday, September 27, at Scott’s Chandelier Pavilion in Oakland’s Jack London Square.
The HBCUC supports Bay Area students who aspire to attend historic institutions such as Howard University in Washington, D.C. and Spelman College in Atlanta, among others. Proceeds from the gala will fund scholarships for local students who have been accepted into one of the 107 HBCUs across the United States, while also sustaining the association’s ongoing community work.
Guests will include government officials, community leaders, corporate sponsors, and members of the Divine Nine fraternities and sororities. The gala reflects the coalition’s guiding theme and slogan: “The Village – Coming Together for a Common Purpose Through Advancing the Cause of Education.” True to this vision, HBCUC continues to provide hope, college readiness resources, and scholarship opportunities to Bay Area students.
This year’s gala will feature a special tribute to 15 women being recognized as trailblazers for their outstanding achievements and community impact. The Mistress of Ceremonies for the evening will be Celebrity Chef Nikki Shaw, wife of Oakland native Brian Shaw, NBA coach for the Los Angeles Clippers. Entertainment will include a live performance by Lionel Burns and the We R1 Band, offering a musical tribute to the late Frankie Beverly.
Event producer, Paula Welsh says the gala promises to be “a powerful evening of celebration, unity, and commitment to advancing educational opportunities for future generations.”
What is now the Northern California Historically Black College & University Alumni Associations Coalition (HBCUC) began as a discussion at a series of annual summer barbecues between HBCU alumni in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the 1990s, gatherings of HBCU alumni living in the San Francisco Bay Area became spaces for reconnecting, sharing traditions, and envisioning community action. These informal events laid the foundation for what would soon grow into a structured coalition advancing the legacy and presence of HBCUs in Northern California.
The first official HBCUC meeting was held in 1998 at Skyline College by the following founding HBCU alumni members:
- Aner Ruth Young (Alabama State University)
- Edwyna Elzie (Alabama A&M University)
- Faye Carr (Jackson State University)
- Freddy Burke (Alcorn State University)
- Gaynell Johnson (Southern University)
- Jean Finklin (Jackson State University)
- Lynwood Barr (Central State University)
- Mel Cozwell (Central State University)
- Pat Deamer (Southern University)
- Wanda Scott (University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff)
- The late Ethel Daniels (Prairie View A &M University)
- The late Harold Logwood (Howard University)
- The late Joseph Shields (Alcorn State University)
- The late Ken Coleman (Alcorn State University)
- The late Nathaniel H. Brooks (University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff)
- The late Vernon Clark (Prairie View A & M University)
On March 9, 1998, the second meeting was held, the constitution was created, and executive officers were installed including President, Lynwood Barr (Central State University), an Educator
- Vice President, Joseph Shields, (Alcorn State University) an Educator
- Secretary, Ethel Daniels (Prairie View A &M University) an Educator
- Correspondence Secretary, Edwyna Elzie (Alabama A & M University) an Educator
- Treasurer, Vernon Clarke (Prairie View A &M University) an JROTC Instructor
- Parliamentarian, Harold Logwood (Howard University) a Lawyer.
On January 14, 2000 the HBCUC became incorporated with officers;
- President, Patricia Deamer (Southern University)
- Vice President, Joseph Shields (Alcorn State University)
- Secretary, Ethel Daniels (Prairie View A&M University)
- Treasurer, Vernon Clark (Prairie View A&M University).
Two honorary members included jazz legend John Handy and Governor Emeritus Jerry Brown who was the Mayor of Oakland at that time.
The Northern California Historically Black College and University Alumni Associations Coalition (HBCUC), composed of alumni from HBCU and UNCF institutions, actively recruits and engages students at church centers, schools, community colleges, and expos throughout Northern and Central California. By informing parents, guardians, and students, ranging from middle school to community college, the next generation becomes fully empowered in understanding that four-year college admission is achievable. By providing resources, scholarship information, and essential guidance, HBCUC inspires hope and fosters pathways to higher education.
For more information visit: www.northerncaliforniahbcuc.org/gala
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Representative Simon said, “I come to Congress from a lineage of folks who know that war does not make us stronger, from a lineage of Ron Dellums and Barbara Lee, who were very clear that we as a nation cannot kill and slaughter our way to peace, that we cannot fund the machinery of death, and that safety is found in care – and not conquest.
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Congresswoman Lateefah Simon (D-CA-12) on Wednesday joined Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (D-IL-03), other members of Congress, actors Cynthia Nixon and Morgan Spector, Mahmoud Khalil, Dr. Adil Husain, other Members of Congress and advocates to call for the passage of H.R. 3565, the Block the Bombs Act, to save lives.
The Block the Bombs Act withholds the transfer of offensive weapons to Israel and demands Israel’s compliance with U.S. and international law.
Representative Simon said, “I come to Congress from a lineage of folks who know that war does not make us stronger, from a lineage of Ron Dellums and Barbara Lee, who were very clear that we as a nation cannot kill and slaughter our way to peace, that we cannot fund the machinery of death, and that safety is found in care – and not conquest.
“I am proud to stand with my colleagues today and say clearly that the genocide against the Palestinian people must end. I am proud to co-sponsor, along with my colleagues, the Block the Bombs act. It’s clear, let us stop the murder and the slaughter of innocent civilians in Gaza.”
Continuing, she said, “We grieve deeply and profoundly the children of Gaza, whose bodies, as we speak, are being torn by shrapnel. We grieve them, and we can, in the same moment, deeply grieve the families in Israel who lost loved ones and who were killed. We can grieve them.”
“Simultaneously, we can refuse the trap that tells us that we must choose whose pain is real. There are no two sides when we’re talking about tens of thousands of children, slaughtered. We must demand and insist that the genocide that is happening in this moment not be committed in the name of anyone who has been murdered; and that we all must – in this building— be committed to the moral act of working towards a just peace.”
Concluding, Congresswoman Simon called for “a just peace everywhere from Washington D.C. to Haiti to Sudan to Gaza. The people of this nation and the people around the world are counting on the folks at the highest levels of government to act with the morality that is deeply written in scripture. We must block the bombs; the United States government can no longer be complicit in the murdering of children. We can no longer be complicit in supplying and funding two-thousand-pound bombs to hit hospitals, to hit orphanages, and tent cities.”
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of September 17 – 23, 2025
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Given all that is happening, if the presidency was more like pole dancing, you know Trump would be flat on his butt.
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By Emil Guillermo
The news cycle has been buzzing the last few weeks. Xi, with Putin and Kim, the sweethearts of Trump carousing alone without him? The victims of the pedophile Epstein speaking out publicly in DC.
Then, there’s the release of that salacious letter Donald Trump allegedly wrote to Jeffrey Epstein. Trump said the letter didn’t exist. But it does.
Timing is everything.
Additionally, there are further concerns, such as the Supreme Court removing restrictions on ICE interactions. ICE Agents can stop anyone now. For any reason. And there’s the threat of the U.S. sending the military to fight crime in Chicago. Trump even posted a meme of himself as a character in “Apocalypse Now.”
All that with bad polls and bad economic numbers, and these topics are dominating the news cycle — Trump era chaos.
Given all that is happening, if the presidency was more like pole dancing, you know Trump would be flat on his butt.
The reality is the opposite. He keeps going strong like nothing’s happened. Inexplicably, Trump always seems to defy gravity.
That’s why to reassure myself with reality, I just think of Trump on a pole. Dancing. He was born on Flag Day, after all.
I’ve got pole dancing on my mind because I’m in Canada at the Vancouver Fringe Festival doing my show, “Emil Amok 69, Everything’s Flipped,” about how the current political situation gets very personal.
Get tickets here if you’re near:
I’ve performed at 16 fringe festivals, and I always look for unique performers. This year, in my same venue (the Revue Stage) I found her in a show, “The Pole Shebang.”
Andrea James Lui may look like a typical Asian American at first.
But she’s Asian Canadian, married to an Australian, who now lives down under.
At the Vancouver Fringe, she highlights her special identity.
Pole Dancer
Yes, pole dancing has come to the fringe. Leave your dollar bills at home, this is not that kind of pole dancing.
This is more Cirque Du Soleil-ish- acrobatic stuff, yet it’s hard to deny the sexiness when a woman flawlessly swings from a pole with her legs apart.
The show is more intriguing than it is titillating.
Lui has created a behind-the-scenes look at the “polar” experience.
“She could have been a physicist,” says her big sister Christina, who despite saying that, supports her sister 100 percent.
Lui touches on some of the emotional depth in the poled subculture. But there’s plenty more to mine in the future. “Polar Bare,” the Musical? I’d see it.
Trump on a Pole
So that’s how I’ve come to the polar metaphor.
As Trump flails in the news, I picture him on a pole.
The letter to Epstein is further proof of the character of the man.
Will he stay afloat?
Not if the presidency were more like pole dancing.
You can’t lie on the pole.
That’s one way all of us in the Trump era can get to the truth.
About the Author
Emil Amok is a veteran journalist, commentator, and stage monologist. He has written a weekly column on Asian Americans for more than 30 years.
Contact: www.amok.com
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