Under the baobab: Accomplishments, events and advocacy in State College

Happy Juneteenth and Pride Month.

Congratulations to Penn State professor and poet Gabeba Baderoon, who was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Nelson Mandela University in South Africa.

And congrats to the 2024-25 Fulbright recipients: Prof. Sridhar Anandakrishnan, (host country — Australia); Amy Carney, (Austria); Robert Chiles, (South Africa); Luis Duque, (Colombia); Renee Flasher, (Portugal); Shaun Gabbidon, (United Kingdom); John Gershenson, (Botswana); Faisal Husain, (Turkey); Kateryna Makova, (France); Maung Min, (Thailand); Matthew Parkinson, (Dominican Republic); Katherine Pearson, (Canada); Alexandra Persiko, (France); Slava Rotkin, (India); Julio Urbina, (Peru). (I was fortunate to be awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to teach in South Africa in 2002).

Student Fulbright awardees are: Kaitlyn Szekerczes, who will study in Greece; Kendall Penkunas in Germany; Melica Kemanian Leites in Uruguay; Katherine Milner and Emily Rivas in South Korea; James Shin in Kyrgyzstan. Viktoria Vozharenko was selected as an alternate to study in Poland.

Elsewhere in the community, State College will host its 7th annual Juneteenth Celebration Weekend, “Roots, Rhythm, and Resilience, Celebrating Our Legacy,” from June 19-20. The two-day event, sponsored by the Borough of State College, features art exhibitions, live entertainment, and a community block party at Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza and Fraser Street.

Centre LGBT+ hosts their sixth annual State College Pride Parade and Festival on Saturday, June 13. The parade begins at 10 a.m. near State College Area High School on Westerly Parkway for vehicles, and South Allen Street and East Foster Avenue for marchers. Downingtown Mayor Erica Deuso, the only openly transgender mayor currently serving in the United States, is the grand marshal for this year’s State College Pride.

The parade will be followed by a festival at noon in Sidney Friedman Park on South Fraser Street, which will feature speakers: Deuso, Corinne Goodwin, founder and executive director of the Eastern PA Trans Equity Project, and State College Mayor Ezra Nanes. Entertainment continues until 4 p.m.

State College Pride has grown each year since it was first held and now draws more than 7,000 visitors.

WingFest started at Tussey Mountain on Thursday. Live after Five kicked off Wednesday at MLK Plaza with Porch Party and will continue until Aug 26th.

And the struggle continues. Robert Ziegler and Jenna Henry of Central PA United, (CPAU) convened a town hall meeting of about 50 people at Schlow Library to discuss the eviction of seniors, disabled and limited income people from the Arnold Addison Court Residence on Beaver Avenue in downtown State College. Residents and former residents spoke about the difficult living conditions at the apartment building.

Developers had proposed converting Addison Court to market rate or student housing, which would result in the eviction of current tenants, though they recently said they plan to preserve the building as affordable senior housing if they can secure Low Income Housing Tax Credits.

State College Borough already faces an affordable housing crisis, aggravated by the subsidized and bloated student rents. Many non-students who work in our community, including staff at PSU, cannot afford to live in the Borough. It is a local problem that reflects a national reality. Our country’s resources are under the control of the top 1%, which controls roughly 32% of all U.S. wealth, whereas the bottom 50% control only 2.5%. The world’s first trillionaire is about to be created while many folks are struggling to survive under war generated inflation and unmanageable costs of living. The rich are truly getting richer and the poor even poorer while our safety nets have had big holes ripped in them.

Fortunately, we still have local political leaders who listen and respond to the voices of the people. Diversity is not just about race, religion and gender. Our community is built upon and is nourished by people from all economic strata. A cut-throat society produces people who cut throats. CPAU asked people to show up at the next meeting of the Planning Commission, which will be at the Borough building on June 18 at 7 p.m. See you there.

Charles Dumas is a lifelong political activist, a professor emeritus from Penn State, and was the Democratic Party’s nominee for the U.S. Congress in 2012. He is a Lions Paw honoree. He lives in State College with his wife and partner of over 50 years.