Baltimore County, MD smARTS, 16 Jun 2016

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From YouTube: smARTS: African American Cultural Festival

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Discover the African American Cultural Festival in Towson.

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The baltimore county, african-american cultural festival, is celebrating its 20th year.

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with us is the vice president of the festival, cynthia dejesus,.

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To share with us more about this family-friendly event.

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good to see you!.

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Thank you for inviting me, carolyn.

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Now,, I know it's the summertime,, but already we're thinking ahead to september, and one of the biggest days in september is the festival.

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Absolutely. on saturday, september, the 17th, in towson from 9:00 to 6:00pm,, we will be having a one day, family-friendly festival.

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In baltimore county.

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And is it located right, like, down in the center of the town?.

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Absolutely -- right there in patriot, plaza. okay. on the courthouse steps.

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Okay., so let's talk about all the things.. Of course I associate with the festival some great entertainment.

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So you're going to have a main stage.

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Tell us about that. yes. and on our main stage,. We will have national, international, and local recording artists., oh, fabulous! right.

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Okay,, so that's the main stage, but you're not going to share who those artists are yet.

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No, we're not going to.

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We want you to come there and see who's going to be performing.

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okay.. Then you have what I find very interesting and important to all of us,.

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This health and wellness village.

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Absolutely. we have a health and wellness village, in partnership with the baltimore county department of health.

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And in that village we have non-invasive health screenings,.

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Such as breast cancer, screenings.

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We have also-- diabetes, stroke...

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Diabetes, stroke, hypertension,.

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And upper respiratory illnesses.

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And certain illnesses, I guess,.

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Associated particularly with the african-american community.

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Absolutely. in the african-american community,, the cdc has recognized ten health disparities,.

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Ten top health disparities.- and this is all free? oh,. This is all free.

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in partnership with area hospitals, too, area teaching, hospitals,.

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Institutions are also in the health and wellness village.

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Then you have the historical area., oh, yes., that's under the leadership of mr. louis diggs--.

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One of my favorite people!- oh my goodness!,.

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In the historical area, he has the buffalo soldiers,.

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He has the benjamin banneker historical park and museum,.

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He has also --. He has his own douglass --.

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I mean, he has also the diggs johnson mini-museum.

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That he just recently opened up.

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That's right, and he does a tour now,. Does he not?.

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Absolutely, he does a tour and the tour takes place. --.

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This year, it'll take place on september, the 20th, right.

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And you have to go to our website to get information on that.

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okay,. So that's another thing. then,. Let's talk a little bit about finance..

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You have a financial resources, area.

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Oh my goodness,, with the department of housing in baltimore county,.

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We have a partnership and they have wonderful opportunities.

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For people to come into the housing-- into the finance resource village and they will get--.

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Give people advice about mortgages,, loans,, all of that.

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Smart decisions on making things in baltimore county., making good decisions about--, we could all use some help in that I'd. Bet.

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Then I know what you're probably most excited about when we talked about before coming on air is the educational component of all of this.

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Oh, my goodness, yes,, the education village..

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This is our fourth year doing the education village.

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At that time,, what we do,, we have, in partnership with the baltimore county public schools,.

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They take busses to go around to the area schools to pick up the children.

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To bring them to the education village, at nine o'clock.

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we provide-- 9am,. We provide a light continental breakfast to the children.

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In the past, years, we've had-- our first year,. We had dr. freeman hrabowski,.

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The president of university of maryland baltimore county.

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We've had the honorable elijah cummings, the second year.

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He talked to the children--, then dr. dance,, but this year,, who are you hoping to get?.

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This year,, we turned it around.

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It's going to be the 26 million girls and we have invited the first lady.

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Oh, my gosh,: well, that's fantastic.! So we're excited,, you know.! You have to come, register to be part of the education village.

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And it goes right into our scholarships because we give away scholarships to deserving--.

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Well, you give away a lot at this festival, so we encourage people to go on your website,. All the information is there, mark your calendars, september 17th. great, to see you, cynthia! thanks so much!.

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Thank you so much! you bet.

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So mark your calendar for the african-american cultural festival., it's september, 17th at towson, patriot, plaza., we'll see you there. ( ♪♪♪ ).