BLIND BOONE HOME: Reader asks, Why not a black culture center that would benefit all?

A center of learning, arts, and culture

By Rhonda Gaye Woolsey

 

COLUMBIA, 4/18/13 (Op Ed) -- The Blind Boone Home-less Shelter?

 

"What the hey?" writes local art history/education professional Rhonda Gaye Woolsey, about former City Councilman Gary Kespohl's unusual idea. "Was he saying all black people are homeless?"

 

"We need homeless shelters, but we need cultural centers, too. The Blind Boone Home should be a place of learning, arts, science, music, history.  It is meant to be a museum, a monument, and a center to teach and guide youth.

 

"I pushed for a cultural center for black history and children's fine arts in Douglass Park. Why are city leaders so resistant? Would it be so horrible to showcase black culture, and perhaps start a New Harlem Renaissance right here, in Columbia, Missouri?

 

"We can be a center of Black cultural growth. We can be the new Harlem, as it was during that great period of African-American cultural rebirth.

 

"If City Hall would quit fighting the idea, a Blind Boone Black Cultural Center would benefit all residents, Columbia's diversity, and the growth of the city in more ways than one."

 

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http://www.columbiaheartbeat.com/index.php/columbia-life/arts/490-032513