bennasayyed

Accomplished comedian and Texas Southern University communications professor Marcus D. Wiley is a go-getter and a legal hustler. He provides valuable education in the classroom and offers wholesome, spiritual laughs to everybody. Wiley’s flamboyant and humorous personality, accompanied by his educational resume and personal achievements, are more than enough to convince us that he is perhaps one of the best multitalented young black entertainers on the rise.

After graduating from Willowridge high school in Houston, Texas, the native Houstonian received a basketball scholarship to attend Angelina Community College in Lufkin, Texas where he earned an associate degree in fine arts and theatre. He then moved on to Texas Southern University where he received a bachelor’s degree in radio, TV and film and a master’s in communications.

For a long time, Wiley, 35, has had a desire to pass on his acquired knowledge to other people. The young professor has also taught middle school and high school, but he prefers teaching on the college level because the structure is not as tight and the absence of parental influence permits greater freedom of speech. Although he always thought he would teach at a much older age, he thinks his career in the classroom as a young person is more rewarding because it allows students to witness him hustling while teaching, legally that is. Through his highly innovative and creative style of instruction, Wiley gets to show students the real world. He makes it a point to gather information from all walks of life to incorporate in his daily lectures and educational activities. Since he is educating the hip-hop generation, he studies the ideology of different prominent rappers and tries to implement them in his teaching. This helps Wiley stay young, fresh and most importantly, in connection with his students.

Wiley feels that his profession as a dispenser of jokes truly came as a blessing. He has been hosting shows all his life, but at the age of 28, his knack for comedy was discovered while hosting a program at his church. A lady who thought he was a comedian by trade asked him to perform at the first anniversary of her coffee house. He initially told her he was not a comedian, but after hearing the gig was paying $500, a grinning Wiley said he then became a comedian. After the coffeehouse entrepreneur signed him to a one-year contract, his comedy career only matured. He currently broadcasts in 17 different cities every morning on the Yolanda Adams Morning Show.

As Wiley entered the comedy business, he had to first find his niche. His church-based upbringing heavily influenced his firm decision to not be a vulgar comedian. From the beginning, he knew his type of entertainment would be marked by wholesomeness. Seeing that only the church provided a venue for this brand of comedy, the young humorist targeted churches with his routine, and churches gravitated to him. Nowadays, many people might view clean comedy as corny. This gives Wiley incentive to study, do research and look outside the box to devise methods of making his clean comedy just as live as if he was on stage using profanity. His vulgarity-free comedy is only one characteristic that makes him unique.

Wiley believes that for a long time the truth was not verbalized in church when it should have been. He strives to reveal some of what the church presumably tries to hide with the understanding that “everything is all good.” For example, he may expose some inconsistencies that a husband and wife might enter the church with, and act as if do not exist. Once he thoughtfully brings these inconsistencies to light, he then uses humor to try to mend relationships. The opportunity to touch people and maybe change a person’s day for the better is what Wiley enjoys most about being a comedian. He characterizes a true comedian as one who does material that is true to his or her self.

Wiley picked up his smooth sense of fashion from his family. His parents instilled strong self presentation, and the quality of being “sharp” in him at an early age. Today, he is a firm believer of the saying “if you’re looking good, then you’re feeling good, then you perform good.” The brother likes to be seen in slick tailor-made suits. If he is rocking casual attire, a pair of jeans and a nice collar shirt with a sweater vest fits his preference. He describes his style of dress as a smooth conservative, with nothing too flashy. At any given time, Wiley can be seen in one of his 20 jazzy hats. When he was younger, he wore the curl, flat top, gumby and shag hairstyles; now in his mid-thirties, he prefers to sport a low cut and a goatee.

Wiley is not single-minded on his career path in the entertainment industry; he believes his comedy career will continue to evolve. We can expect big things from him in the future like movies, sit-coms, the real deal. The entertainer is currently working on his new DVD “Maybe It’s Me,” which is scheduled for a fall 08 release. Also, The Marcus Wiley Tour, a 17-city tour starting this summer, is in the making. As Wiley continues to provoke laughter and thought in the classroom and on the stage, he carries the sound conviction that if he puts his best foot forward when opportunities present themselves, the road to success is a short one.   

 Other Media: Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (13)

 Houston Community College Southeast history professor Dr. Jim Ross-Nazzal is providing his American history students the opportunity to study key controversial societal issues such as the U.S. government’s handling of immigration and African-American reparations, as part of a research project that is open for public interaction.

“History that Divides, History that Unites” enables students and members of the community to discuss these historical matters with the purpose of drawing logical conclusions, through the websites “Empresarios, Braceros, and Citizenship: The Immigration Question since 1600” and “From Colonization to Civil Rights: The Reparations Question in US history since 1776.”   

Mr. Ross-Nazzal launched these web-based discussion forums last summer as part of his mission to capture the interests of more students so that they can maximize their academic goals. He said that the year long project can help students understand the importance of getting a college education, remain cognizant of some of the nation’s continual social problems which have remained unsolved and come to know their connection with historical events.

     

 “I would love as much public interaction as possible. I would love schools and civic organizations to use this. I notice there are people out there who have wonderful, exciting, important stories about civil rights, race, ethnicity and their history. Your average person makes history. History is the culmination of our individual and collective words and deeds, not the unique words and deeds of wealthy people or presidents or elite people. That’s how I teach history.”

       

The second year HCC Southeast professor describes himself as an educator who tries to illicit and facilitates discussion with a minimal amount of lecturing. He said his goal is to get students to open up and believes that they can learn just as much from each other as they can from him.

      

In forming the project, Mr. Ross-Nazzal examined the student makeup of his classes in order to create educational opportunities that would meet the needs and interests of each student population. The project offers students five or six methods of examining civil rights and immigration. One option is to complete a traditional research paper, but according to Mr. Ross-Nazzal, students show greater interest in becoming personally involved in their work. Another option is to attend a civil rights or immigration activity.

      

The professor urges students to contact civil rights organizations such as the NAACP and LULAC and try to speak with community leaders such as Quanell X of The New Black Panther Party and Ovide Duncantell, founder of Houston’s Black Heritage Society, as well as other people contributing to present day American History.

      

“I think a lot of students enjoy this because it places them square in a historical narrative. No longer is history just something to read that happened to other people. They’re there as these issues are being dealt with,” he said. 

      

He said since its inception the project has produced commendable results. Last semester a number of students gained insight into the immigration issue. Consequently, they became familiar with how the Immigration & Customs Enforcement agency operates. Students also interviewed older relatives who were involved in the civil rights movement in Houston during the 1960s. Mr. Ross-Nazzal said students who focused on immigration generally interviewed their parents who provided a more intimate connection to the history of immigration in this country.

     

 “If I can find a way to connect students with these historical events that’s more intimate, more personal and more meaningful, I find that the level of their work has increased, that their dedication to these projects has increased, and ultimately their dedication to completing this class or completing their education is increased,” he said.

      

He said the projects have helped students to not disappear but return the following semester and continue to have discussions and debates. Also, students who completed projects the year before contact him and give voice feedback about the work of their schoolmates currently displayed on the web. Furthermore, he said students show deep concern about the continuity of troubling civil rights and immigration issues.

      

Mr. Ross-Nazzal believes that getting students to discuss matters they are passionate about opens them up faster and creates a more conducive environment to talk about segments of history that are less likely to interest them such as the constitution or historical development of the military.

     

 He said throughout the course of the project information shared by older students has established a link between their younger classmates and events that transpired decades before these youngsters were born. He said this association helps the young generation understand and appreciate the struggle for equality and reminds them that it is not over.

      

“The younger students are amazed. They read about these things in the textbook but I don’t think it really hits them personally until they hear one of their classmates say ‘you know, it was not unusual to be asked by the manager of the store to get the hell out,’” he said.

     

Mr. Ross-Nazzal said one purpose of opening the discussion to the public and disclosing students’ research is to demonstrate the good work that HCC students are doing. He believes that many people question the validity of using their tax dollars to support colleges and said showing the public the high caliber of work coming out of HCC is one way of gaining its trust. He also believes the online forum will profitably connect the campus and the community and enable students to continue learning about civil rights and immigration strife after the semester ends.

     

 “There are people with all sorts of stories out there and we need as many stories as possible in order to get the most complete, accurate picture of history,” he said.

     

 To take part in this discussion log on to http://learning.sec.hccs.edu/members/james.rossnazzal 

 Other Media: Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (4)

Some might consider springtime in Houston the most enjoyable time of year; that smothering humidity that every Houstonian is all too familiar with has not fully set in, plant life is at its greenest, and numerous blooming flowers greatly enhance the city’s appearance.

Without a question, the time is now to pack the ice chest full of your favorite picnic food and drink, gather ample barbecue supplies, call up friends, and get out to one of the city’s expansive parks to enjoy this period of plentiful freshness and vibrant hues.

Speaking of color; when was the last time you had the urge to visit the art museum and/or tour a flower garden to feast on the fruits of another individual’s creativity? The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, offers an abundance of exceptional art to enjoy. Houston’s many flower gardens provide plenty of floral masterpieces to view, but there is another, less conventional site which serves to satisfy your taste for aesthetic beauty.

Nestled in an economically depressed section of the city’s historical Third Ward District is an oasis of brightly painted miscellaneous objects, flower beds, rock beds, fruit trees, and various gadgets, which is coincidentally the residence of Cleveland Turner, a rehabilitated alcoholic and former vagrant. 

“I love to be in Third Ward. This part where I’m staying at is what you call a ghetto. So I come in here and set this beauty in this ghetto to make it pick up, and look like something, and people come from around the world to this ghetto to look at my art. So that mean a lot to Third Ward,” said Mr. Turner.

The inside and outside of this artist’s house, and his entire yard area and property fence collectively display the raw skill of a man who was once presumed dead on the side of a street. In 1962, Mr. Turner, now 74, was working at a livestock auction barn in his native town in rural Mississippi, when his sister sent him a ticket to relocate to California to pick up her brother-in-law’s prosperous job since the latter was joining the army.

On his way to the Golden State, he decided to stop in Houston to visit a hometown friend since he had a couple days to relax before reporting to his new job the following Monday. When his buddy arrived at the bus station that Thursday night, Mr. Turner’s life began to drastically change.

“He met me with a fifth of Thunderbird wine. I had never drunk Thunderbird before. There in Mississippi we didn’t have what they call Thunderbird. You had white folk and black folk. The white folks drunk sherry; they didn’t allow black folks to buy that kind of stuff because the white folks drunk the sherry. That was what they called the good stuff. I took a drink of that Thunderbird and whoa, that was my love man, I fell in love with that bird,” said Mr. Turner.

The rest of that night and the next day and a half Mr. Turner spent with his friend enjoying his new love which came in a 750 mL glass bottle. Saturday evening, after spending his only 20 dollars on booze, Mr. Turner found himself intensely craving more wine, so he pawned his plane ticket and continued binging on Thunderbird.

Unable to make it to California, Mr. Turner worked as a forklift operator for seven years and six months. At this job he worked hard, but snuck wine in his coffee thermos, a habit that was eventually discovered by his supervisor who periodically recharged with Mr. Turner’s caffeine supply. 

“He told me right out of his mouth. He said ‘you know if you weren’t such a good worker and you wasn’t my friend, I’d hang these cowboy boots all up your you know what,’” said Mr. Turner. 

 Mr. Turner held one more job before heavy alcoholism forced him to experience 17 years of homelessness during which he slept under bridges and in vacant buildings and lots in Third Ward, Fifth Ward and Midtown.

“I used to eat out of Church’s Chicken and Popeyes dumpsters whenever I felt like eating. It wasn’t no everyday thing, a wino like me didn’t eat that much. So ain’t no telling when I ate,” he said.

In 1983, Mr. Turner collapsed on the side of Chenevert Street in Midtown from alcohol poisoning. A lady on her way to work called the paramedics to report a dead body in the weeds. The withering alcoholic lay unconscious in St. Joseph’s hospital for two and a half days before being informed that he would die if he continued drinking. The Friday before being released, he had a prophetic vision of a small tornado picking up leaves and junk high in the sky and then dropping everything.

“It was looking so pretty coming back down, just junk now. So I said, oh if the lord keep that taste of wine out my mouth and give me power to keep it out my hand, I was going to go round and pick up other people junk and get me a little old house to hang it up on, just to see what it look like. That’s reason why I pick up stuff and throw a little paint on it and make art out it. That’s why I did it. I followed that vision that I had,” said Mr. Turner.

If it had not have been for his brush with death, Mr. Turner said he would have never became the artist he is today. When his mind drifts to those many years of drunken vagrancy, he starts hammering on something, fixing something, searching in tires for odds and ends to improve his residential collage.

He rides his flower bike, which includes front and rear baskets to transport art supplies, to West University Place and through Third Ward in search of any discarded items that he views as potential art. According to him, the hotspot for junk shopping is West U.

“This art helps me a whole lot. I get round here and get to tearing up things and putting up old broken glass and stuff and that keeps my mind off those so-called good times that I used to have,” said Mr. Turner.

The self-made artist prides himself on his use of inexpensive house paint instead of pricey oils, acrylics and watercolors, to get the job done. He works very fast, improvising his way through the day without any plan. His picturesque habitation remains in a state of constant change, with new toys, pieces of furniture, colorful beads, clocks, dolls, hats, bits of mirror, and just about anything you can think of, always going up for exhibition.

Mr. Turner’s eclectic art haven attracts hundreds of people from around the world. Three times a year, a bus packed with Houston elementary school children visits his home. These kids enjoy marveling at his kingdom of color and substance, and frolicking in the special playground he has installed for their pleasure.

According to him, at least five visitors make their way over every day. On one day, 203 visitors from different busloads passed through at the same time. Mr. Turner said that he likes to be around many people and never gets tired of company.

“I feel happy all the time and the more people I get, the more I try to do,” he said.            

 Other Media: Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (3)