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“Poverty NOT a barrier to success.” Banyan in East Phillips produces college-bound scholars

Written by editor on 31 March 2012

by Lauretta Dawolo Towns, Community Coordinator

There”'s a big reason to celebrate in East Phillips! Four high school seniors from the Banyan Community in South Minneapolis are going to college. So far, they have received a total of 16 college acceptance letters. The University of Minnesota, Yale University, Swarthmore, and Marquette University are just some of the colleges waiting to hear from these scholars. Although many Twin Cities students are preparing to enroll into college this fall, these students don”'t fit the conventional profile for success.

Abby Mohammed, Seng Ye Xiong, Nathanael McNair, and Tyler Moore are graduating seniors at DeLaSalle High School through the Banyan”'s Higher Ground scholarship program. They”'ve made a commitment to their education and used the 4-year scholarship as a stepping stone to higher education. These students come from neighborhoods where low educational outcomes are commonplace. They were not expected to graduate from high school, much less attend competitive colleges and universities. Mohammed explains it best in her college entrance essay, “Minneapolis is a city of arts and diversity.… Read the rest ““Poverty NOT a barrier to success.” Banyan in East Phillips produces college-bound scholars”

We Need To Talk about Kevin

Written by editor on 31 March 2012

We Need To Talk about Kevin

*****

Drama/Suspense/MysteryÂ Â Oscilloscope Pictures

Cast: Tilda Swinton (Eva), John C. Reilly (Franklin), Ezra Miller ((Teenage Kevin), Jasper Newell (Kevin at ages 6-8), Rock Duel (Kevin as a Toddler), Ashley Gerasimovich (Celia), Kenneth Franklin (Soweto), Ursula Parker (Lucy).Â (R) Running time: 112 minutes.Â Written by Lynne Ramsey, Rory Kinnaer, Lionel Shriver. Director: Lynne Ramsey.Â

Tilda Swinton”'s character Eva”'s face is fraught with agony and dismay rarely letting a smile break the dark psychological remora with her taunting, sadist, warped son Kevin Ezra Miller), who it seems from birth to be an albatross on the proverbial back of Eva.

From the time Kevin is born he doesn”'t develop like a “normal” child.Â He seems unresponsive to Eva when she tries to teach him to talk or rolls a ball towards him and doesn”'t reciprocate.Â At a tender age, Kevin spurts out expletives (on human sexuality) stunning his already stressed mother.Â The bad seed–Kevin–knows how and when to torment Eva.Â As for the father, Franklin (John C. Reilly), an over doting father, Kevin has much more kinship with him than he does with his mother.

Lynne Ramsey”'s “Kevin” is gripping, frightening, psychologically mind-bending and with a tour-de-force performance by Tilda Swinton.Â … Read the rest “We Need To Talk about Kevin”