Two new inductees are being welcomed into the Black Archives Museum Hall of Fame this month in St. Joseph.

The two new inductees are Sheila and Kenzie Gilbert.  As part of Black History Month, a reception and induction will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, February 23, at the Black Archives Museum, 3406 Frederick Avenue.  The induction ceremony will take place at 5:30 p.m.  The Black Archives Museum Hall of Fame showcases the achievements and contributions of St. Joseph’s Black community members.

The Black Archives Museum of the St. Joseph Museums features exhibits on many aspects of the African American experience in St. Joseph.

For the Hall of Fame, a call for nominations from St. Joseph community residents is made.  Nominees must have had a significant and lasting positive impact on the St. Joseph community as a whole (economically, physically, spiritually, or intellectually).

According to the museum, as with previous inductees, Sheila and Kenzie Gilbert have given freely of their time and talents to benefit the St. Joseph community.  Among other projects, the couple founded “Food-For-Kids” in 2007 after seeing a need in midtown St. Joseph.  Food-For Kids is a summer outreach program that has grown into providing 150 lunches per day in the summer months.  The Gilberts solicit what is needed from donors and coordinate with local volunteers to keep the program in place for those in need.  It is a project that they believe is God’s will for them.

New inductees are chosen by the Black Archives Museum committee members.

Jewell Robinson, the founder of the original Knea-Von Black Archives, and his wife Geraldine, were the first inductees.  Since that time, Helen and Ramadhan Washington, Earnestine Blakley, Jerry Cooper, Alonzo Weston, Joyce Starr, Dr. William and Lois Hedge, Rep. Martin T. and LaVell Rucker, Pastor Louis and Rev. Connie Monroe, Leo Blakley, Leechia Jones, Rev. James and Mrs. Cozetta Foster, Dorothy Blakley and Charles Triplett, Rev. Robert and Kimberly Warren, Virginia Glass, and Gary Wilkinson were inducted.

 

The public is invited to the 2017 Black Archives Hall of Fame Induction on February 23.  Admission is free.  Refreshments will be served.  Call 816-232-8471 for more information or visit stjosephmuseum.org/events.

St. Joseph, Mo. – The Music Department of Missouri Western State University will host a full day of jazz on Saturday.

Groups will perform in the Hoff Conference Room, Blum Student Union room 219 and the Fulkerson Center during the eleventh annual MWSU Jazz Festival.

Each ensemble performs for the adjudicators, receiving recorded and written critiques of the performance from the clinicians. Immediately following each band’s performance the clinicians will give a 25-40 minute clinic for the band, discussing and working on specific areas of the performance.

“The focus and commitment of this festival is to make this an educational and musical experience for students and directors alike,” said Bob Long, director of jazz studies.

Local ensembles that will be performing are Benton and Central High Schools of the St. Joseph School District.

During the day students will have the opportunity to attend clinics for their specific instruments conducted by Missouri Western faculty: Lee Harrelson, trombone; Stephen Molloy, trumpet; Josh Knight, percussion; Bob Long, saxophone; and Kathleen Holeman, vocal jazz.

The festival will conclude with a short performance by the Missouri Western Jazz Ensemble, directed by Bob Long.

The festival will start at 10 a.m., with the Missouri Western Jazz Ensemble performing at 3:40 p.m. in the Fulkerson Center. The event is free and open to the public.

For more information please contact the Music Department at (816) 271-4420 or email long@missouriwestern.edu.

The downtown St. Joseph skyline now boasts the corporate logo of Mosaic Life Care, as the health care provider increases its downtown footprint. Work continues on several different projects, including renovation of the historic German American Bank Building at 624 Felix St.

Ryan Rush, Mosaic’s Director of Construction and Property Management says they are on schedule with the massive renovation project.

“We’re coming along nicely,” Rush said “A lot of the floor is being laid, the bank lobby is currently getting the marble in it.”

“It’s looking like we’ll have a completion date around the end of April, so we’ll start to occupy, hopefully in May, getting furniture in and getting people moved down here,” he said.

On Friday, Rush and others hosted a media tour of the renovation in progress. Workers were installing some huge exterior windows offering some spectacular views. Other crews were cutting out old concrete and laying new marble on the first two floors of the building. Extensive renovation continues on the third, fourth and fifth floors.

Much of the Beaux-Arts detailing and historic artifacts remains intact. Field Manager Dave Berthiaume of the construction management firm CPM says there are seven vaults, including a vault-within-a-vault in the former bank building. The largest of these vaults will eventually become a dining area in the “caregivers area” in the basement. Berthiaume says each of the building’s six stories will require the installation of 50,000 feet of networking cable, not to mention extensive repairs and electrical rewiring.

The facility was built in 1889. The six story, rectangular brick building was designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. It will house the business arm of the hospital.

“A lot of the business functions, financing, corporate services will be down here, and a couple of call centers will be down here,” Rush said.

A surface parking lot bought by Mosaic is complete and in use. Construction continues on the retail center and parking garage being erected at 8th and Felix.

Rush says that project appears to be on schedule as well.

“We’re hoping that we’ll be able to have that in by the end of 2017, the parking itself,” he said. He was not ready to announce who will occupy the retail space. The initial announcements suggested that a grocery store was being sought.

“Nobody to be named yet, but we’re definitely trying to weigh of all our options, and get a good person for the community down here to help revitalize the area.”