Don’t get too personal on LinkedIn

Have you ever received a request to connect on LinkedIn from someone you didn’t know or couldn’t remember?

A few weeks ago, Josh Turner encountered this situation. The online request to connect came from a businessman on the opposite coast of the United States. It came with a short introduction that ended with “Let’s go Blues!” a reference to Turner’s favorite hockey team in St. Louis that he had mentioned in his profile. “It was a personal connection … that’s building rapport.”

LinkedIn is known for being the professional social network where members expect you to keep buttoned-down behavior and network online like you would at a business event. With more than 200 million registered users, the site facilitates interaction as a way to boost your stature, gain a potential customer or rub elbows with a future boss.

But unlike most other social networking sites, LinkedIn is all about business — and you need to take special care that you act accordingly. As in any workplace, the right amount of personal information sharing could be the foot in the door, say experts. The wrong amount could slam it closed.

“Anyone in business needs a professional online presence,’’ says Vanessa McGovern, the VP of Business Development for the Global Institute for Travel Entrepreneurs and a consultant to business owners on how to use LinkedIn. But they should also heed LinkedIn etiquette or risk sending the wrong messages.

One of the biggest mistakes, McGovern says is getting too personal — or not personal enough.

Sending a request to connect blindly equates to cold calling and likely will lead nowhere. Instead, it should come with a personal note, an explanation of who you are, where you met, or how the connection can benefit both parties, McGovern explains.

Your profile should get a little personal, too, she says. “Talk about yourself in the first person and add a personal flair — your goals, your passion … make yourself seem human.”

Beyond that, keep your LinkedIn posts, invitations, comments and photos professional, McGovern says.

If you had a hard day at the office or your child just won an award, you may want to share it with your personal network elsewhere — but not on LinkedIn.

“This is not Facebook. Only share what you would share at a professional networking event,” she says.

Another etiquette pitfall on LinkedIn is the hit and run — making a connection and not following up.

At least once a week, Ari Rollnick, a principal in kabookaboo, an integrated marketing agency in Coral Gables, gets a request to connect with someone on LinkedIn that he has never met or heard of before. The person will have no connections in common and share no information about why they want to build a rapport.

“I won’t accept. That’s a lost opportunity for them,” Rollnick says.

He approaches it differently. When Rollnick graduated from Emory with an MBA in 2001, he had a good idea that his classmates would excel in the business world. Now, Rollnick wanted to find out just where they went and reestablish a connection.

With a few clicks, he tracked down dozens of them on LinkedIn, requested a connection, and was back on their radar. Then came the follow-up — letting them know through emails, phone calls and posts that he was creating a two-way street for business exchange. “Rather than make that connection and disappearing , I let them know I wanted to open the door to conversation.”

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Is this really the end of Cuba’s Castro brothers? Exiles say not so fast

On the streets of Miami, the announcement of a possible end to the Castro brothers’ rule was met with uncharacteristic silence Monday — no clanging of pots and pans in Little Havana and Hialeah.

No loud pronouncements on Spanish-language radio, either, about the news that President Raúl Castro planned to retire in 2018 and had named an heir apparent.

“There’s like, a little burnout about this subject with us,” said Alex Fumero, 30, a co-creator, editor and contributor of the poetry group Hialeah Haikus.

But the emotions were as strong as ever for Cuban-born U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who believes this is just another sinister ploy by the Castro brothers.

“The fact that this possible retirement won’t take effect for years is just another in a long line of false propaganda tactics used by the regime to trick the masses and international community,” said Ros-Lehtinen, whose political career has been dedicated to opposing Castro.

“U.S. law states that no Castro may be in power, so this may be a ploy by the Cuban regime to attempt to normalize relations prematurely with the U.S.,’’ she said.

Miami radio commentator Ninoska Perez Castellon said five more years of any Castro is a long time. "This is just more of the same, and a cruel joke on a people enduring a 54-year-old dictatorship," she said.

Many like the idea of an end to the Castros, but they say it should have happened years ago.

“They’re giving up power too late and five years is too long to wait for them to actually do it,” said Francisco “Pepe” Hernandez, president of the Cuban-American National Foundation, a group that has long lobbied in Washington against the Castros.

“‘They’ve already done so much harm to the Cuban people. And the nerve to think they can name a successor, as if Cuba was their personal farm. The successor they named better be careful; those guys sometimes just disappear,” he said.

Cuban-born Marta Olchyk, a Surfside commissioner, said she was “glad that Raúl Castro said he is leaving in five years” although it would have happened anyway because of his age, she said.

“Cuba is slowly but surely moving away from communism,” said Olchyk, who left the island in 1960. “So, this is not earth-shattering news.”

Battle-weary Jose Basulto met the news with a cynical laugh.

“I have to laugh because this is so disrespectful, such an insult,” said Basulto, who took part in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and founded the Brothers to the Rescue, a group that helped rafters fleeing Cuba find their way to U.S. shores.

Juan Clark, a professor emeritus at Miami Dade College and Bay of Pigs veteran, does not believe Raúl Castro actually will leave on his own in five years.

“I think many people were eager to see the end of the system and unfortunately that hasn’t happened,’’ said Clark, who has studied the exile community for many years.

Some “historic exiles” who came to the United States in the early days of the revolution have sworn they will never return as long as a Castro is in power.

Others, mainly those who have arrived after the Mariel boatlift in 1980, still have family on the island and travel there to help fledgling family businesses and might not even consider themselves exiles, Clark said.

Cuban-Americans offered a variety of opinions through The Miami Herald’s Public Insight Network.

It was ho-hum news for some younger Cuban-Americans, known as the ABCs — American-born Cubans who learned to hate the Castros from older family members.

Lazaro Castillo of Orlando, who was born the year of the revolution, gave little credence to the announcement.

“Any change in the island has a meaning, and this particular change is another manipulation, and in order to maintain the dynasty,’’ he said.

Miramar resident Olga Perez-Cormier, an American-born Cuban, also felt it was no more than a ploy.

“I listen to this with my usual skepticism,’’ she said. “I wish both Castro brothers would hurry up and die, but apparently, it will never be that easy.”

Miami Herald staff writer Mimi Whitefield contributed to this report. It also includes comments from the Public Insight Network, an online community of people who have agreed to share their opinions with The Miami Herald. Sign up by going to MiamiHerald.com

/Insight.

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Joe Zee Names His Best and Worst Dressed Star at the Oscars

Who topped our list this year?

From Charlize Theron's white-hot Dior Couture gown to Jessica Chastain's nearly nude Armani Privé creation, Elle contributor Joe Zee counts down his top five best red carpet looks from the Oscars.

Pics: The 15 Best Oscar Dresses of All Time

Watch the video to find out who made the grade! Plus, Joe announces his pick for worst-dressed star from Sunday's ceremony.

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The devious diva

Talk to the dial tone, Martha.

The CEO of Macy’s said he was so shocked when Martha Stewart phoned him to admit she had cut a secret deal with JCPenney that he hung up on her.

“I don’t remember hanging up on anyone in my life,” Lundgren testified yesterday in a Manhattan Supreme Court trial over Stewart’s Penney pact, which she cut despite a preexisting licensing agreement with Macy’s. “I was sick to my stomach.”

In a tense phone conversation on Dec. 6, 2011 — the day before Stewart announced Penney had shelled out $38.5 million for a 17-percent stake in her company, and cut a 10-year, $200 million licensing deal — Lundgren said he repeatedly asked why she had pursued the tie-up behind his back.

WireImage

To hear Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren tell it, Martha Stewart (above) — who jumped to JCPenney’s Ron Johnson — acted like a schemer from a classic film in their bubbling feud.

Stewart began responding in stilted language, saying she was bound by a confidentiality agreement with Penney, as if she were reading from text written by lawyers, Lundgren testified as part of Macy’s case.

“She said this was going to be good for Macy’s. I think that’s when I hung up,” Lundgren said, adding that he hasn’t spoken to Stewart since.

Sales of Martha Stewart-branded goods at Macy’s surged 8 percent last year, Lundgren said, pooh-poohing the notion that he would have considered dropping the line instead of suing to block the Penney deal.

Later, under cross-examination by lawyers for Stewart and Penney, Lundgren was grilled on the finer details of the Macy’s licensing pact.

Stewart should be able to open in-store boutiques inside Penney stores, for example, because some Macy’s stores have a Starbucks in them, lawyers argued, pressing the CEO.

Lundgren countered that Charles Koppelman, then chairman of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, had told him when they originally negotiated their deal that Stewart only wanted to build an upscale flagship store “in Times Square or on Madison Avenue” — not at a downmarket rival like Penney.

Stewart wasn’t the only one cozying up to Lundgren as a friend while also double-dealing behind his back, the executive testified.

Shortly after JCPenney CEO Ron Johnson made a splashy presentation to Wall Street on Penney’s turnaround plans, Lundgren said he wrote to Johnson to congratulate him.

“Thank you, Terry. Your note means a ton to me,” Johnson replied in an e-mail dated Jan. 27, 2012, which was submitted as evidence by Macy’s.

“I consider you a friend.”

At the same time, however, Johnson was trading snarky e-mails with colleagues about Macy’s — including one in which the former Apple exec said Macy’s management “look asleep at the wheel.”

While Stewart chatted and negotiated with Johnson and his JCP higher-ups, she put on a friendly face toward Lundgren, according to testimony.

For example, in October 2011, in the midst of her Penney talks, Stewart called Macy’s and begged Lundgren for a $10,000 VIP seat at a posh New York dinner honoring Ralph Lauren and Oprah Winfrey.

Lundgren, knowing nothing of her pending Penney double-cross, gave her a ticket.

Then, a few weeks later, just a few weeks before the Penney pact went public, Stewart asked for and got exclusive tickets to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, Lundgren said.

jcovert@nypost.com

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Miami medicine goes digital

About 10 years ago, Dr. Fleur Sack quit her practice as a family physician to become a hospital department head. Spurring her decision was the need to switch from paper records to electronic ones to keep her private practice profitable. “At that time, it would have cost about $50,000,” Dr. Sack recalled. “It was too expensive and it was too overwhelming.”

But times and technologies changed, and last year, Dr. Sack left her hospital job to restart her medical practice with an affordable system for managing electronic patient records. She agreed to a $5,000 setup fee and a subscription fee of $500 per month for the system. Her investment also qualified her for subsidy money, which the federal government pays in installments, and to date, her subsidy income has paid for the setup fee and about two years of monthly fees. “So far, I’ve got my check for $18,000,” she said. “There’s a total of $44,000 that I can get.”

That kind of cash flow is one reason why so-called EHR software systems for electronic health records have been among the hottest-selling commercial products in the world of information technology. EHR system development is a growth industry in South Florida, too. Life sciences and biotechnology are among the high growth-potential sectors identified by the Beacon Council-led One Community One Goal economic development initiative unveiled in 2012; already, the University of Miami has opened a Health Science Technology Park while Florida International University has launched a healthcare informatics and management systems program in its graduate school of business.

For many young businesses in the area’s IT industry, government incentives are paving the way. The federal government is pushing doctors and hospitals to use electronic health records to cut wasteful spending and improve patient care while protecting patient privacy — sending digital information via encrypted systems, for example, rather than regular email.

Under a 2009 federal law known as the HITECH Act, maximum incentive payments for buying such systems range up to $44,000 for doctors with Medicare patients and up to $63,750 for doctors with Medicaid patients. Hospitals are eligible for larger incentive payments for becoming more paperless. The subsidy program isn’t permanent; eligible professionals must begin receiving payments by 2016. But by then, the federal government will be penalizing doctors and hospitals that take Medicare or Medicaid money without making meaningful use of electronic health records.

“What the government did is, they incentivized, and now they’re going to penalize,” said Andrew Carricarte, president and CEO of IOS Health Systems in Miami, one of the largest South Florida-based vendors of online software service for physician practices. He said insurance companies also may start penalizing physicians for failing to adopt electronic health records because “the commercial payers always follow Medicare and Medicaid.”

It’s all part of the growth story at IOS Health Systems, which has more than 2,000 physicians across the nation using its online EHR system. Carricarte said many of the company’s customers buy their second EHR system from IOS after their first one flopped. “Almost 40 percent of our sales come from customers who had systems and are now switching over to something else,” he said.

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Archbishop Wenski leads 90-mile motorcycle run

After a blessing, motorcycles roared their engines and drove out of St. Richard Catholic Church in Palmetto Bay to participate in the first Motorcycle Poker Run organized by the Archdiocese of Miami.

Heading the bikers: Archbishop Thomas Wenski wearing a biker’s leather jacket and riding his black Harley-Davidson Street Glide motorcycle.

“Bikers are people that are accustomed to praying because if you’re going to ride a motorcycle, you should know how to pray,” said Wenski, who has been riding his motorcycle for about 10 years. “This is a way to bring some good attention, find financial support for St. Luke’s Center [Catholic Charity] and have a good time.”

Behind him, more than 60 other riders followed for about 90 miles through South Florida roads.

“Today he is not just my spiritual leader,” said Natacha Quiroz, the only woman driving a motorcycle on her own. “He is my road leader.”

At every stop, including Robert Is Here, the fruit and vegetable farm stand in Florida City, Cafe 27 in Weston, and Peterson’s Harley-Davidson in Miami Gardens, the contestants picked up a card, eventually collecting a complete poker hand.

The bikers were also able to interact with the archbishop and others while competing for the $500 Harley-Davidson gift card.

But Wenski’s favorite stop was at the Schoenstatt Center in Homestead, where riders were able to stop at the chapel, say a private prayer and enjoy refreshments.

“It’s always good to ride with good people,” said Bob Borges of Hollywood, who rode with his daughter. “The problem with a lot of other rides is that they all go from bar to bar to bar, and I don’t drink when I ride.”

The Chrome Knights Motorcycle Association and other groups helped the archdiocese organize the poker run and guided the inexperienced drivers. Volunteers from the organization also helped guide the riders and stop traffic at intersections.

For Quiroz, who had never experienced riding in a group, the privilege of riding with the archbishop was indescribable.

“My heart is pounding so hard,” said Quiroz, who took out her motorcycle from her garage for the fist time in more than a year. “My motorcycle is the tiniest among these huge machines, and if you see me I look like a butterfly among eagles. But to know that I’m the only girl makes me feel like an eagle, I am proud.”

The Poker Run, according to the Rev. Luis Rivero, was also a way to show others that following Christ can be fun.

“It’s a way for us to learn to use the tools of today, speak the language of the younger generations and bridge the gap between the ancient and the new,” said Rivero, who has been riding his three-wheeled Spyder for the past three years. “The archbishop makes fun of me and says that because I have three wheels I’m still in training.”

The proceeds of the run will go to programs that help people in the community recover from various types of addiction, and Wenski is hoping to establish the poker run as annual event to support St. Luke’s.

“Many people know I’ve been riding a motorcycle for some years now, so hopefully they’ll support it even if they don’t ride a motorcycle,” Wenski said. “I pray before, during and after I ride my bike.”

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COUPLES ALERT! Date Night Pics at the Oscars

COUPLES ALERT: Date Night Pics at the Oscars

From expecting parents Channing Tatum & Jenna Dewan to Hollywood power couple Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban, Sunday's Oscars red carpet was full of well-suited celebrities! Click the pics to check out the hottest pairs on the red carpet!

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Total Kimfestation

You can run, but you can’t hide — from Kim Kardashian, that is. She’s everywhere, famous for being a professional celebrity who’s never really “done” anything to speak of.

It’s a falling Star — and not because of media cross-currents eating away circulation — but because it keeps chronicling the likes of KK as an anointed queen of pop culture. Even the checkout-aisle crowd is weary of the over-exposed plump tart, who is getting attention simply because she’s expecting. Indeed, Star’s cover trumpets: “Kim Got Pregnant For $22 Million!” Sure she did, the story goes, and it says Kim’s also using her baby bump to cover up fraud allegations. Along the edge of the cover, thumbnails of celebrities reveal another four show-business scandals, e.g., tragic last words of a star’s suicide, cocaine woes, divorce crises and battles with a new beau. Back in the early days of Star, in the late 1970s and 1980s — it turns 40 next year — the tabloid thrived on the hard work of real reporters. Not anymore.

Leave it to Us Weekly to suck the life out of celebrity dishing. The celeb rag is a downright drag to read. That’s mostly because it fails to dig up real dirt or titillating tidbits that might merit a read during a wait in the doctor’s office. Instead, readers get bored by a tired array of silly photo spreads. One titled “Umbrella Holders” shows — yes, you guessed it — photos of George Clooney and Justin Timberlake holding umbrellas. One might conclude that this is some sort of inside joke if it weren’t for other equally vapid photo features, such as “Stars — They’re Just Like Us!” If that were the case, why buy the magazine? The longer features fall flat, particularly the one on Kardashian clan matriarch Kris Jenner. Another piece fails to reveal any of the promised “secrets” of the final three women vying for the affection of ABC’s reality show “The Bachelor” Sean Lowe.

Since when did InTouch morph from celebrity mag to reality rag? The mag’s cover is overly strewn with reality stars we never heard of, touting news on the “virgin” bachelor and the “booty wars” of the “Real Housewives of Atlanta.” (Seems one of the “RHOA” stars is claiming a co-star’s tushie is filled with silicon.) But while we’re sick of hearing about the queens of reality TV, the Kardashians, we must admit that the cover story is scandalously intriguing. According to InTouch, Kris is so desperate to stay on top that she’s started promoting her young teen daughters, Kendall and Kylie.

It turns out there is more to life than looking at stunning actresses wearing swanky gowns. You can always fixate on their pregnancies, as the baby bump issue of OK! does this week. Pregnancy and childbirth is not a new phenomenon, so there is really not much to say. Jennifer Aniston is pregnant and getting married, in that order. It isn’t even scandalous. Yawn.

People is not keeping up with the Kardashians. Mercifully, you won’t find Kim or her sisters on the cover this week. This edition leads with the suicide of Mindy McCready. It is hard to tell if People just took a different route than competitors as some kind of Kardashian protest. People has only one Kardashian photo, and it has nothing to do with pregnancy or divorce. Photos of Kim and other fashionable women are compared with styles worn by dogs at the Westminster Dog Show. It is a new inter-species take on “Who Wore It Best?”

You can imagine that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has no love for the New Yorker. The March 4 issue’s convincing cover story “What’s Wrong With The Republicans” makes the case, after spending time with him, that he is a big part of the problem since he feels the Republican product is still saleable. Another revealing feature describes how reporters at the Newtown Bee weekly had mixed feelings reporting on the national tragedy that gripped their town. BTW, New Yorker editors, even the Newtown Bee wouldn’t have seen the news value in the “Talk of the Town” piece about how Bruce Ratner loves the food at the Barclays Center.

New York’s feature story on gay divorce is neither shocking nor particularly interesting. After all, a great majority of gay couples, it admits in the piece, are still trying to get married, not untie the knot. Better in the content-starved issue is a feature on St. John’s former dean Cecilia Chang and how she justified stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Catholic university before committing suicide. Even David Bowie, who has released his first album in 10 years, might have a chuckle at New York’s three-page tribute to him. The hard-to-read feature says he was “always sincere with his insincerity.” Even Bowie would have be smirking over that one — see China Girl or Tin Machine.

Time’s ground-breaking cover story on “Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us” will make readers angry and could possibly change the way people think about hospitals. Reporter/Editor Steven Brill makes the case that even hospital CEOs do not know why hospitals charge multiples more for aspirin and gauze than patients could pay in a drug store. Time does not necessarily get to the bottom of why hospitals charge so much but it deserves much credit for highlighting the huge inefficiencies.

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Miami medicine goes digital

About 10 years ago, Dr. Fleur Sack quit her practice as a family physician to become a hospital department head. Spurring her decision was the need to switch from paper records to electronic ones to keep her private practice profitable. “At that time, it would have cost about $50,000,” Dr. Sack recalled. “It was too expensive and it was too overwhelming.”

But times and technologies changed, and last year, Dr. Sack left her hospital job to restart her medical practice with an affordable system for managing electronic patient records. She agreed to a $5,000 setup fee and a subscription fee of $500 per month for the system. Her investment also qualified her for subsidy money, which the federal government pays in installments, and to date, her subsidy income has paid for the setup fee and about two years of monthly fees. “So far, I’ve got my check for $18,000,” she said. “There’s a total of $44,000 that I can get.”

That kind of cash flow is one reason why so-called EHR software systems for electronic health records have been among the hottest-selling commercial products in the world of information technology. EHR system development is a growth industry in South Florida, too. Life sciences and biotechnology are among the high growth-potential sectors identified by the Beacon Council-led One Community One Goal economic development initiative unveiled in 2012; already, the University of Miami has opened a Health Science Technology Park while Florida International University has launched a program in its graduate school of business oriented toward biotechnology businesses.

For many young businesses in the area’s IT industry, government incentives are paving the way. The federal government is pushing doctors and hospitals to use electronic health records to cut wasteful spending and improve patient care while protecting patient privacy — sending digital information via encrypted systems, for example, rather than regular email.

Under a 2009 federal law known as the HITECH Act, maximum incentive payments for buying such systems range up to $44,000 for doctors with Medicare patients and up to $63,750 for doctors with Medicaid patients. Hospitals are eligible for larger incentive payments for becoming more paperless. The subsidy program isn’t permanent; eligible professionals must begin receiving payments by 2016. But by then, the federal government will be penalizing doctors and hospitals that take Medicare or Medicaid money without making meaningful use of electronic health records.

“What the government did is, they incentivized, and now they’re going to penalize,” said Andrew Carricarte, president and CEO of IOS Health Systems in Miami, one of the largest South Florida-based vendors of online software service for physician practices. He said insurance companies also may start penalizing physicians for failing to adopt electronic health records because “the commercial payers always follow Medicare and Medicaid.”

It’s all part of the growth story at IOS Health Systems, which has more than 2,000 physicians across the nation using its online EHR system. Carricarte said many of the company’s customers buy their second EHR system from IOS after their first one flopped. “Almost 40 percent of our sales come from customers who had systems and are now switching over to something else,” he said.

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Women’s History Month to kick off at Miami City Cemetery

Women’s History Month will kick off on March 1, with an invitation from the Women’s History Coalition of Miami-Dade County inviting the community to its observance at noon at the grave site of Julia Tuttle at the Miami City Cemetery, 1800 NE Second Ave.

The coalition begins the month-long celebration of women and their contributions to Miami and Dade County with this tribute to Tuttle, the founder of Miami. Penny Lambeth, chairwoman of the Cemetery Restoration committee, will portray Julia Tuttle, who was born in Cleveland and was an entrepreneur and businesswoman. As the founder of Miami, she is known as the only woman to found a major U.S. city. She and Mary Brickell owned the land the city was built on.

The coalition has a multi-ethnic board of directors elected by its membership annually. Its primary purpose is to coordinate and promote Women’s History Month, which is observed nationally each March.

This year is the 25th anniversary of the "Women of Impact" Award, also known as the "Julia." A luncheon celebrating the 2013 honorees and a Photographic Exhibition of the Women of Impact 1989-2013, will be from 3 to 5:30 p.m. on March 3, at the Hyatt Regency Coral Gables, 50 Alhambra Plaza in Coral Gables. The theme is "Women Inspiring Innovation Through Imagination: Celebrating Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics." Tickets are $50 per person and $45 for members of The Coalition. Reservations are due by Tuesday. Call 305-255-4944 or email Margaret Slama at margaretmslama@aol.com.

The honorees are, Scherley Busch, Milagros R. Fornell, Michelle Dunaj Lucking, Rhonda Omega Shirley, Margaret M. Slama, Dorothy M. Wallace, and Carol F. Williamson.

Also, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday The coalition and the Miami-Dade County Commission for Women will have a lobby display at the Stephen P. Clark Center, 111 NW First St. Lambeth will again do her portrayal of Julia Tuttle. The Women’s History Month exhibit will be on display in the lobby throughout March.

Jazz band is a finalist in national competition

Our hats are off to Mark Hart, Executive and Artistic Director of Miami’s Community Arts Program All-Star Jazz Ensemble.

Hart got the word Wednesday that the All-Star Jazz Band was named among the 15 finalists in the prestigious 18th Annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival. The jazz group was chosen from over 100 recordings submitted from bands across the United States and Canada. It is the only after-school jazz band chosen from throughout the competition’s Region Four, made up of Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia.

During the three-day Competition and Festival in New York City, May 10-12, the band will compete and participate in activities to include workshops and jam sessions. The three top placing bands will perform at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis Artistic Director of Jazz at the Center, as guest soloist.

Play highlights role of black churches

James Baldwin’s classic The Amen Corner, a three-act play addressing the themes of the role of a church in an African American family, and the effects of poverty born of racial prejudice on an African American community.

Directed by Teddy Harrell, Jr., the play stars Brandiss Seward, Janet Toni Mason, Sarah Gracel Anderson, Carolyn Johnson, Regina Hopkins Hodges, Larmar Hodges, Jeffery Cason Jr., André L. Gainey, Ajia Williams, Yvonne Strachan and Toddra Brunson-Solimon, and features Adrian Bell, Hasani Morey and Leondra Mitchell. The play is at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center, 6161 NW 22nd Ave. in Liberty City.

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