Belafonte preaches to the choir at Legal Aid’s 100th gala

Entertainer and human rights activist Harry Belafonte

From Maryland Legal Aid board member Erek Barron, Esq., in the Daily Record:

“The Maryland Legal Aid Bureau celebrated its centennial anniversary Saturday night in Baltimore and keynote speaker Harry Belafonte struck a beautiful chord. Both Belafonte and Legal Aid Executive Director Wilhelm Joseph actually sang together on stage,” Barron wrote in the “Generation J.D.” blog.

“Belafonte entertained the crowd but also offered serious sentiments stemming from his experience as an international human rights activist,” Barron continued. “The message was right on time for an organization reenergized around a human rights framework.

“Belafonte acknowledged that he was ‘preaching to the choir.’ But he quoted Dr. Martin Luther King, saying, “it’s important that you preach to the choir because if you don’t they could stop singing,” Barron wrote.

To read the entire post, click here.

(From left to right, Pamela and Harry Belafonte, Taria and Erek Barron.)

 

Baltimore Sun: A Busy 100th for Legal Aid

The lead story in the business section of today’s Baltimore Sun focuses on Maryland Legal Aid on its centenary.

“As Marylanders lose jobs, homes and savings, they are turning in record numbers to the state’s largest provider of legal services to the poor,” wrote reporter Andrea Seigel. “The Maryland Legal Aid Bureau, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this month, enters its second century with a growing caseload involving the newly needy.”

“They are coming out of the woodwork,” said Wilhelm H. Joseph Jr., the agency’s executive director. “You have people who are formerly middle class and for the first time in their lives, they have lost their jobs.”

To read the article, click here.

Legal Aid scores at top court on centenary eve

Maryland Legal Aid scored a win for low-income Marylanders at the Court of Appeals on the eve of its 100th birthday (celebrated at a gala in Baltimore Saturday night).

The top court held that the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development must give state residents a full contested case hearing before revoking their federal low-income housing vouchers, the Daily Record reported.

“We’re real happy about the decision,” said Maryland Legal Aid lawyer Robert McCaig, the chief attorney of the Lower Shore office in Salisbury. “Hopefully this is going to help a lot of low-income people who really need to have a disciplined and fair hearing.”

Friday’s decision arose from the case of Tonya Walker v. Department of Housing and Community Development in the Wicomico County Circuit Court.  McCaig represented Walker in her fight against the revocation of her housing voucher.

To read the article, click here.

Harry Belafonte headlines Legal Aid centennial event

Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte, the featured guest at Legal Aid’s Centennial Celebration on September 24, is as well known for his activism and pursuit of social justice as he is for his acting and musical talent. His album “Calypso” made him the first artist in history to sell more than a million LPs. He won a Tony award for his Broadway debut in “John Murray Anderson Almanac” and an Emmy for “An Evening with Belafonte,” in which he was also the first black producer in television. He was also awarded the National Medal for the Arts by President Bill Clinton.

The Centennial Celebration is at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel from 6:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. Also featured is internationally renowned artist Josee Nadeau, who will be painting live on stage during the event.

Marc Steiner interviews Wilhelm Joseph

Legal Aid Executive Director Wilhelm H. Joseph Jr.

Yesterday’s Marc Steiner Show featured a segment on Maryland Legal Aid’s upcoming centenary celebration with executive director Wilhelm Joseph, University of Baltimore law professor Jose’ Anderson (author of an upcoming history of Legal Aid) and Ned Bamberger III from M&T Bank (the centenary event’s lead sponsor).

To listen to the podcast, click here.

 

Legal Aid’s Centennial Celebration

Hot off the press: A 32-page supplement in today’s Daily Record about Maryland Legal Aid’s 100th anniversary celebration this Saturday night at the Baltimore Waterfront Marriott Hotel. The magazine includes a brief history of Legal Aid and the list of 100 Champions of Human Rights and Justice who will be honored at the event.

The featured speaker is entertainer and human rights activist Harry Belafonte, along with internationally renowned artist Josee Nadeau, who will be painting live on stage during the evening. To purchase tickets, click here. To view the supplement, click here.

Internationally renowned artist Josee Nadeau in Baltimore for Legal Aid’s 100th celebration

Artist Josee Nadeau

Josée Nadeau is an internationally renowned artist, whose impressionistic style and larger-than-life paintings grace the homes of many avid art lovers and collectors, including celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Clint Eastwood, Frances Fisher, Pierce Brosnan, David Hyde Pierce and many more.

Nadeau is donating her time and talents to Maryland Legal Aid, the state’s largest provider of free legal services to the poor, abused children and the elderly, at its centenary celebration Saturday, Sept. 24, at the Baltimore Waterfront Marriott. Nadeau created a painting to commemorate Legal Aid’s 100th  anniversary, which be unveiled by Gov. Martin O’Malley and entertainer/activist Harry Belafonte at the event. Additionally, Nadeau will be reunited with Belafonte (she painted with him at a previous event) and will be painting live on stage while he delivers remarks on human rights.

The Montreal-born Nadeau has been published in more than 25 countries. She has enjoyed sold-out gallery shows and regularly participates in art exhibitions. One of her pieces, The Bull, was featured at the entrance to New York Art Expo in 2010. Nadeau also contributes to charitable events around the world. At benefits in Montreal and on Broadway in New York she has painted to the accompaniment of live orchestras. These performances have included honoring Harry Belafonte and HRH Crown Princess Katherine of Serbia, among many others. The defining period of her career came during her 10 years in Paris and Giverny, where she had a permanent studio on the grounds of Monet’s Gardens, the personal estate of French Impressionist artist Claude Monet. Nadeau was the guest artist and protégé of the Curator- in-Chief, Gerald Van der Kemp, the French art expert who saved the Mona Lisa from destruction by the Nazis, and later masterminded the restoration of Louis XIV’s palace at Versailles and then Monet’s Gardens.

Nadeau’s unique blending of music, motion and art began when George Harrison, the lead guitarist for The Beatles, sang to her for four hours at the home of Guy Laliberté, the founder of Cirque du Soleil, saying she was his muse that night. From that night music became an important part of her work.

For more about Nadeau, go to her website.

Legal aid is needed now more than ever

An op-ed in today’s Baltimore Sun by Legal Services board chairman John G. Levi:

Federal funding for civil legal assistance to low-income Americans in Maryland and throughout the country is in jeopardy.

A proposal before the U.S. House of Representatives would cut funding for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) by 26 percent — a reduction of $104 million, down to $300 million. The proposal, for fiscal year 2012, would roll back LSC funding to a level not seen since 1999. Such a result would hit the 100-year-old Maryland Legal Aid Bureau with a cut of more than $1.15 million a year.

The proposal by the House Appropriations Committee is not the last word. The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up the issue Thursday and will soon make its recommendation for 2012 legal services funding. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland is a great supporter of legal services, oversees the subcommittee that handles LSC appropriations, and through the years has helped to build bipartisan support for legal services in the Senate, for which we are very grateful.

Much is at stake. At many legal aid offices throughout the country, the recession and slow economic recovery have led to significant increases in matters involving foreclosures, landlord-tenant disputes, bankruptcy and consumer finance, and, sadly, domestic violence. And the number of Americans who are eligible for civil legal aid (at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty line) has continued to climb to now more than 60 million Americans. As a result, legal aid programs, including Maryland’s, are overwhelmed with requests for assistance and stretched thin in their ability to provide it. Recent studies show that half of eligible applicants are turned away at LSC programs because of underfunding; across the nation, less than 20 percent of the legal needs of low-income Americans are being met.

Why should taxpayers support legal services?

Civil legal assistance is necessary to provide access to justice, which has long been a part of our national fabric. We pledge allegiance to a nation with “justice for all,” and, as the legendary federal judge Learned Hand said, “If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: thou shalt not ration justice.”

To read the column, click here.

Nearly one in five Americans live in poverty

From John G. Levi, chairman of the board of directors of the Legal Services Corp. in Washington, D.C.:

The U.S. Census Bureau released its official 2010 statistics on poverty this morning, and the data show that nearly one in five Americans qualifies for civil legal assistance at the legal aid offices funded by the Legal Services Corporation (LSC).  The number of Americans now eligible for legal services is staggering: more than 60.4 million, up 3.6 million from the prior year.

These 60 million Americans had incomes at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty line—$13,613 for an individual and $27,938 for a family of four.
Our concern is more than mere numbers. Across the country, local legal aid offices are handling civil matters that go to the very heart of health, safety and security of many of our citizens and their families, from fighting to save homes and help victims of domestic violence to addressing the legal needs of the elderly and handling the myriad of legal issues confronting veterans on their return from overseas.

In this challenging environment, legal aid offices are overwhelmed with requests for assistance and are stretched thin because of inadequate resources and funding.  In the coming days, we will urge Congress to increase federal funding for legal services so that the vital work of legal aid offices is not further impaired by even greater layoffs of attorneys, paralegals and support staff.

To read the entire statement, click here.

Maryland Legal Aid is funded, in part, by LSC.

Tom Perez at 10th annual Murnaghan Lecture

U.S. Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez

The 10th annual Murnaghan Lecture, sponsored by the Public Justice Center, is 6 p.m. Wednesday, September 21, at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore. This year’s lecturer is Tom Perez, a long-time friend of Maryland Legal Aid and currently the U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. Perez will discuss priorities, challenges and accomplishments of the division since he was sworn in in 2009. The lecture is free. For more information, 410/685-7664 or email murnaghan@aspecialgathering.com.