Mr. Tracy Charles Gibson's Resume

Tracy Gibson

670 North 41st Street, Apartment B ● Philadelphia, PA 19104
(215) 823-9985 ● BrotherTracy11@gmail.com ● thepoliticsofreal.blogspot.com

SUMMARY

10+ years of advocacy experience serving the public and small business communities
Trained in basic food service and safety standards

Experienced journalist skilled in public speaking, promotion, writing and research
Able to work effectively on a team or independently to meet your company’s goals

WORK EXPERIENCE

MANNA                                          Philadelphia, PA

Line Intern                                    06/2016 to 09/2016

• Completed 80-day training program on food handling, kitchen standards and safety skills
• Prepared hundreds of nutritious, healthy meals delivered to residents in need
• Trained on kitchen equipment such as slicers and industrial mixers
• Learned knife skills and other kitchen techniques

Brother Tracy Gibson and Associates, Inc.                             Philadelphia, PA

Writer/Community Advocate/Consultant                        12/2006 to Present

• Dedicated community advocate with excellent research and communication skills
• Generate public awareness and support through my blog thepoliticsofreal.blogspot.com
• Regular contributor of articles, letters and event features to local media such as WURD radio
• Initiated pilot program for at-risk youth
• Participate in promotion and fundraising activities

Careers USA                                             Philadelphia, PA

Receptionist and Registration Coordinator                                         01/1995 to 12/2001

• Greeted clients, answered the phones and managed schedules
• Edited business and legal documents to ensure proper use of editorial style
• Performed detailed office work including filing and record keeping

EDUCATION

Ohio State University                                                      Columbus, OH

Bachelors of Arts degree in Journalism/Public Relations

University City High School                                               Philadelphia, PA

High School Diploma

CERTIFICATIONS & TRAINING

The Salvation Army                       Parenting Class training                                           Philadelphia, PA

The Center for Employment & Training                             Philadelphia, PA
Special Commendation for Perfect Attendance

ServSafe Certification    (#14312656)                                                10/2016

Proposed Nutrition Program for Black Churches

Below is a sample of a proposal I sent in support of a nutrition & healthy eating program for our city’s Black churches. __From

Tracy Charles Gibson

 

September 12, 2017 ( Tuesday )

 Dear Black Churches, I have attended one or more of your church services (except in the case of enon Tabernacle Baptist Church where I have seen and visited the main sanctuary, but I have not attended church there and don’t plan to).

     **I am a real and actual member of Unity Fellowship CHRIST Church of Philadelphia; I am deeply concerned with the state of Philadelphia’s Black churches. What I mostly hear and see is a continuation of public proclamations about the Bible and Biblical text with added persecution about people’s personal behaviors instead of helping people overcome poverty, find jobs, establish good or great personal relationships with a partner and with GOD, and establish and maintain positive family relationships regardless of their sexual backgrounds. Our Black community is suffering financially, emotionally and physically. Some Black families and Black individuals don’t have enough nourishing food to eat and the Black churches are often giving food away that is not wholesome and healthy. I feel  we need to be persecuting & judging a lot less and find more open and honest solutions a great deal more.

     **I think Bible Way Baptist Church with a very young Pastor is really effective at bringing young Black people to church services.  This is a good and great thing because GOD wants to be responsible for building good values in young Black people. In my opinion GOD works through people. It is up to us to bring about more ethical values in our Black families and better ways to bring new life to the Bible, but also discover that there are current texts such as ``Bottom of the Well,’’ by Derrick Bell and ``Ethical Ambition,’’ also by Derrick Bell that serve an important purpose in our Black young men and Black young women being raised with the kind of values that are not predominate in our North American culture any longer.  Such good values as, being on time for jobs and appointments, dressing in a clean outfit that is not sexually suggestive, reading a variety of good books, not watching hours and hours of television, eating nutritious food, learning a salable skill, being respectful to Black elders and all members of the Black community, valuing education, never texting of talking on the telephone while driving, and being concerned about hygiene while staying neat and clean. These values are basic and can be taught while a child is young while sitting at the dining room table and having a home-cooked meal.

     **By the Way, enon Tabernacle Baptist Church – as far as I know --  has a superior youth program and an active congregation of hundreds of people seeking and utilizing many programs that are already doing some of the things I can help you with.  ( I still think they need my help, however ).  So does Bright Hope Baptist Church (But I still think my help is needed there as well.). 

    ** I have been a successful Black community advocate for over 25 years and am reaching out to Black churches to ask if they can use my help. I feel I am being sent by GOD and doing GOD’s work, but no more than any number of other such people who are motivated by GOD, justice, wanting to do good, wanting to see fairness, wanting to experience equality, wanting good jobs in out Black communities and finding effective Ways to achieve these goals and values in a timely manner. 

     **I must also mention that Church of the Advocate’s former pastor, Pastor Miller and Pastor Paul Washington and His wife were mentors of mine and that I recently worked in their soup kitchen which for me kicked off my whole interests in learning more about food, food safety and How to prepare and buy the best food properly. 

     **I Am open-minded, progressive and really want to help your church especially reach our Black youth & help Black churches provide better food. It is ironic how we have repasses for our deceased church members and serve food that will sure enough put the next five loyal parishioners right in the next five grave sites.  Are we thinking about what we are doing as Black churches, as church leadership and Black church members? Do we question the use of lard, butter, salt, pork, oils, white potatoes, white rice, white breads, fried chicken and beef when these elements have been proven time and again to cause real health threats in our Black church members such as high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer?  I don’t need to run down the scientific studies that are far too many to mention.   My staff and I can show you How to make vegetables and fruits and healthy items like tofu, cauliflower rice, brown rice, 12-grain breads, Earth Balance buttery spread, naturally low sugar fruit drinks, buckwheat pancakes , and less fried items taste great even though they contain much less sodium and much less  saturated fat. 

     **I’m not going to ask you for a thin dime, much less one of those cursed pennies for my work.    I have no idea How I’m going to provide the services I want to provide to you for free, but all I know is I’m not standing by and letting my people continue to fee ourselves the kind of food we are – through our churches – without saying something about it.   

     **I know our Pastors mean well. I also know there is a great deal of money that goes around to stabilize Black churches financially, and I also know we can do better.  One other thing I know for sure is that a side of beef now a days, unless you got some grass-fed beef, with no preservatives, is not the same side of beef your grandmother used to serve in the 1960’s and 1970’s.  There are a lot of growth hormones, preservatives and chemicals there that were not there in grandmother’s day.

 **Being honest is not an easy thing when we have not only a government that isn’t even fairly elected, but many hundreds of people who are out to make money by any means necessary, not matter who is in the way or who gets stepped on or hurt. We can do better.  A resume is enclosed.

 

Editor’s Note: I finally attended enon Tabernacle Baptist Church a few weeks ago, but did NOT join since I am a member of Unity Fellowship Christ of Philadelphia, which meets in the Arch Street United Methodist Church’s Chapel at 1:45 P.M. on Sunday.

to the government of portugal

To the Government of Portugal and all people of the world who care about all people, regardless of melanin levels or race, religion or color.

There is a place in Africa called Angola where there are land mines that are still dangerous to the area Black villagers including Black, African, indigenous Angolan children.

                                These potentially dangerous and potentially explosive land mines were placed there almost exclusively by the Portuguese government and the Portuguese army and other Portuguese military officials during Angola’s and Mozambique’s fight for Independence against Portugal  from 1961 to 1974. These mines, many of them have remained an active threat to innocent Angolan children playing on Angolan soil. Lady Diana of England was just about to get on the Peace Path to expose the existence of these land mines when she was brutally murdered along with Her finance’ Dodi Fayed. The English Monarchy { in my opinion } made it look like the paparazzi killed Lady Diana and Dodi Fayed accidently during a desperate attempt to get coveted photos of the wealthy couple. My contention is it (the murders) were planned by the not – so-- Royal Family – especially the Queen of England.

     *****But I digress, Lady Diana was about to make quick work of the explosive mine issue when She was killed. I am taking on this issue out of sheer LOVe for the Angolan and Mozambique People the latter of which --- Mozambique -- I have always felt a positive Spiritual connection with. This connection started when I was a freshman at The Ohio State University and studied about Mozambique in a Black Studies class under the tutelage of one Professor Smith. ( One student stood up and cried after reading about How Angolans and Mozambicans were brutally colonized, forced to work and hurt by the Portuguese settlers and Portuguese colonizers.

     *****I Am openly demanding that the present Portuguese government make good on the vast human promise to do the  right thing and peacefully rid { and with care } the Angolan countryside of those potentially deadly mines and help the children and people of Angola who they profited from and exploited for several hundred years. Repair the Angolan People and repair the Angolan land. Provide clean water, food. Create economic stability from Portugal { which is based on those hundreds of years of degradation of the People and Children of Angola.  }

     *****The Lord will look down on you kindly as soon as you take on this responsibility and do the right thing by ridding Angola of those land mines and do the proper work to restore Angola to Glory .

     ***** Equally important, but not Spiritually un-related, I ask Black Fathers to be honest and stand up as Fathers and send in their child support ; be there for their children; and take on the role – as most Black Fathers already do – of provider, head of household, protector and great role models and teachers for Black children. God Bless.

stop gentrification Cold at the LINE 36th and Filbert Street.

From 400 A.D. -- In the Black Library of Alexandria, Egypt (The Major Branch)...


By Brother Tracy Gibson

I have not done this yet, but I think if I asked a group of Black youth if they had ever bought a lottery ticket, many hands would go up. By the same token, if I ask a group of Black youth How many of them had invested in the stock market {In Black companies} or bought stock in Black companies, I don't think the majority of hands would go up at all. Is this the fault of the White man? Yes. The School system the White man largely controls does not teach much about investing in Black companies through the stock market and How this can help our entire Black community. I have to also ask where are the Black scholars, Black thinkers, and Black School Executives who don't ask why we don't have these things in the curriculums and why our Black students are not saving money, putting money in Black banks, etc.? Let's over ride the White man and his influence for about 9000 years. If you know of any Black youth about 20 or 25, they can make a great amount of money on the stock market if they invest consistently for 40 or 50 years. I Am 60 and I Am just getting the message. There is a great deal of Hope for Black youth, but they have to start changing some behaviors and think more in a can-do Way and more positively. For Black youth, this means only two pair of sneakers, few new clothes and less hot tickets for Hot movies and Hot live concert events. {I have to remind you that some stocks pay dividends, so you may only have to do without for a short time}.  It mean investing in the stock market instead  of buying so many consumer goods and doing the proper research on the net to find the correct and proper stocks to buy. Investing in Black stocks is a Way to stabilize Black communities, bring about Black prosperity, help Black institutions like Black schools, Black churches, Black Think Tanks, Black sororities and Black fraternities, and Black Social Service agencies. The best stocks are those with companies that have the kind of good or great values, ethics and standards you want to emulate or perpetuate. Read the company's Mission Statements and read their Annual Reports back a few years. Find out what their values are and if they match or compare to some of your best, good and highest values.  (If you buy stocks in companies that don't treat their workers correctly, have clean air-conditioned factories, places for people to eat, pay good wages, good health benefits, etc. you are really supporting the oppression of People who probably look just like you -- People of color in usually a foreign land.). I think this would not be a good thing. Choose good stocks with good companies that really care about their workers, the industry they are in, the environment and people in general. Read up on How to establish good ethics and good values for yourself. It is not only about going to church or Mosque. You can pick media icons like Angela Bassett, Will Smith,  Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, and or thespian Denzel Washington. (I know they are People and not stock, but hold on and keep reading).  Such People are not only great to watch on television and in movies, but have the kind of values about Black People, and themselves, that you should consider worthy of emulating. You don't have to meet such Black People for them to be characters you will want to emulate. This activity sure will get you ahead a great deal quicker than hanging around with troubled friends who might be wanting to pull you down. This is why I don't smoke pot or joint. I don't need anything that is illegal or not recommended or subscribed by a doctor, that will make my thoughts unclear, cloudy or unbalanced.   Making stock picks is a life line to a better life. I can tell you what I do. I use Fidelity Investments as my stock company. I also used Vanguard in the past. There are other companies. You can call them and ask How to invest. Don't try to scam someone. This is not at all recommended. Just keep investing and find out that reading the Wall Street Journal, the stock pages of the New York Times, or the Philadelphia Inquirer can be even more exciting than hanging out with your friends all the time or buying products you can't afford.  This can lead to great things and a mind set that will, in a few years, have you wanting to buy Real Estate. Instead of seeing your parents forced out of growing neighborhoods, you might be able to help your parents pay property taxes, and be an big asset for your family. You might want to give more money in church and be a giver in the Black community in which you live in. Look up the names of Black men such as Walter Lomax Reese who once owned WURD in Philadelphia; Mr. Earl Graves, Senor owner of Black Enterprise Magazine; and Percy Sutton who once owned WBLS of New York and read about How they lived their lives and helped entire Black communities, by creating great wealth and sharing it.

new boycotts { Very Important }

calling for a boycott of Wal Mart; Coors Beeeer; and New Port Cigarettes

Rethinking Gay Pride and Decency ( For Adults ONLY )

Rethinking Gay Pride and Decency

By Tracy Gibson

   ( United Bank of Philadelphia Needs FIVE more branches -- West Philadelphia; Upper Darby; South Philadelphia; Bryn Mare; Radnor )

     I know. I know. You don’t really want to hear what I have to say and you wish I would shut up and crawl under a rock. Well, I’m hear speaking for God, fairness, decency and righteousness and I have a lot to say. My voice will not be quieted, like Martin’s voice, Angela’s voice, Malcolm’s voice and Medgar’s voices were not quieted.

     I am before you today to talk about Gay rights / AIDS / HIV and decency as well as everybody else acting with more decency, including those who are vilifying the Black Gay and Black Lesbian community. (By the Way I include transgendered People and Bisexuals, queers and the straight people who LOVe and appreciate us in this bailiwick as well..)

     I get tired of People who are gay and lesbians – but especially Gay men of all colors – talkin about gay rights and what they don’t get and How they are discriminated against when they go to Black Gay Pride in Atlanta and act like a bunch of wild hooligans.  They don’t try to live decent lives and buy something more than a designer pair of sneakers and expect respect. They have sex (not that it is any of my business) with three different People a week and think this is OK.  Now I had so sow my own wild oats so I know this sex thing is a scary, secretive and  sensitive subject, but just go with my on this journey if you will.

     The young People (and ashamedly older Black People as well), the young Black People travel to Atlanta, Georgia just to take part in the free and open sex that is going on.  During Free-Sex Black Gay Pride week, they are seen swinging off of the Rafters, eating things with hair on them, switching down the halls of White-owned hotels, Sucking this and sucking that and not taking prisoners or asking questions.  This new drug is just allowing this kind of behavior to happen with no holds barred. (PrEP). I am glad People aren’t getting sick as much or as seriously as they once were. (Believe me I have lost more than my share of good friends). But People of all ages, races, sexual persuasions and economic levels need to learn some decorum, decency, respect and kindness.  They MUST understand that treating other People like animals takes up a whole animal instinct within the Person doing the indecent behavior in the first place.  This doesn’t only go for Black Gay men, but for the host of ranges of People and behaviors on this planet --  this still alive earth we hear so much about lately.

     These same sex addicted folks (Believe me I know about it because I put myself through years of therapy and am a recovering sex addict myself) these same sex-addicted folks haven’t a dime to share with People who are Gay activists who also have decent lives and want to better this Black Gay community  from the inside out all the Way through.

     Not only will they not stop hanging from the Rafters long enough to give decent folks a dime -- they won’t go to church; they won’t go to Mosque; they won’t go to Synagogue and they won’t even think about more refined things in life like going to the Opera; fine dining; listening to Classic European Music like Doschefiski, Beethoven or  Tchokofskie;  looking seriously at a painting by Sister Claudia Aziza Gibson Hunter, Tanner or Rembrandt; buying into stock / bond market interests; listening to Classic jazz like Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Holiday, Lonnie Liston Smith or Bobbi Humphrey (Black female Flutist).  They would not stop from having sex long enough to think that they deserve to attend Black hotels in Atlanta (and other cities) and treat those hotels with respect, decency and dignity.  They don’t understand that they need to live GODly lives, even if they are homosexuals or heterosexuals with a penton for living outside the so-called norm.  

     No matter what our sexual proclivities are or who we go to bed with, we as humans – regardless if we are Black or White – need to take into consideration that we need to build lives of decency, good will, respect, an orientation towards justice and fair play, openness, acceptance of our Fellow humans and GODlyness.  One is not stricken from decent behavior just because one is Gay, bisexual, lesbian or transgendered.  This is a reward that comes along with being accepted as humans who want to marry and it is part of the unspoken equation that comes along with marriage rights and the other rights Gay and Lesbian and Transgendered People are getting such as a right to a job; not being sexually identified on their SEPTA transpasses; and   having the right to protest, congregate, own businesses, and support Gay and Black owned businesses if we s with.  Some of these rights have been long fought for. Some of these rights are just being won, s Donald Trump gears up to snatch them away from us.

     Moreover, He (The Donald) will find it quite easy to snatch these rights away unless we not only vote with our votes, but with our Fendi Pocket books by buying Back and buying progressive and buying Gay.  The Donald will find such things as taking away our rights because we are not doing our homework and fighting back in an organized, decent, timely, intelligent and did I say economically supported and organized fashion?

     You buy a Black hotel by owning your own house and buying income properties for about 40 years and parlaying those houses into enough credit (along with taking on other Black partners and having a good job; good credit rating and being responsible.) You do not own hotels, apartment buildings,  office building and large to very large businesses by swinging off the rafters at Sheraton Hotels in Center City or acting irresponsibly in other ways.

     Don’t think some of the People who own much of the means of production are not silly and out of control also. There are always exceptions to every rule. There are People (Mostly White) who own major business chains like McDonalds; Burger King; Hiil and Knowlton [Public Relations]; Macy’s; Haliburton; British Petroleum;  General Electric etc. who are totally out of their minds and out of control. Some of the things (related to  the development and establishment of U.S. policy and taking advantage of that policy ) some of the things said corporations do in this regard are totally crazy and they will be exposed soon and People will no longer want to shop at their stores and shops.

     Just like The Donald will not get one half of what He wants to get done, done, we have to organize to make sure that fact rings true by 2019 – the midterm elections. But this is not only about elections, it is about economics and building a strong Black economic base that is unshakable, stable, multifaceted, all embracing of our Black People and one that exudes the evasive decency I’m talking about.

``Toungues Untied,'' a film by Marlon Riggs Reviewed by Brother Tracy Gibson....

November 20, 2013 {Wednesday}

Review of ``Tongues Untied’’ By Filmmaker Marlon T. Riggs

``A Punk, Is a Punk, Is a Punk, Is a Punk. I don’t want them around me or my kids,’’ A stray comment from a ``straight person’’ in the Film ``Tongues Untied.’’

By Brother Tracy Gibson.

This 1989 film examines, on the documentary level, the self-hatred, Pride, anger, invisibility, silence, pain, anguish, and even the ``snap’’ of being Black and Gay in North America at the time.  The incredible poetry of celebrated late, Black Gay poet Essex Hemphill serves as a backdrop through this Black homosexual journey.

It is a journey that takes us through the White bar scene, through dialogue, and the rejection of Black Gay men by bar owners; and includes footage of beautiful Black Gay men at a Pro-Black pride parade—featuring Philadelphia Black celebrity activists Kevin Greene and His lover Hal Carter. A scene in a Black restaurant—most likely in Harlem-- finds Black Gay men discussing issues of self-identity while hot plates of food are being enjoyed.  Also examined in this film by late film director Marlon T. Riggs, who died of complications of Aids and HIV, are issues of Pride, Vogue Dancing, Design Houses, adjustment to Blackness and Gayness, and negative self-identity.

The bitter comedy of Eddie Murphy who talks about the ``FAGGOT section’’ in one of his comedy routines captured in this film is a reminder of where we came from.  Mr. Murphy would not dare to have such politically charged comic rhetoric in his monologue now-a-days because he would pay a real price in economic terms and because community standards have changed.  Such community standards changed only because of the political activities and education efforts of many thousands of concerned North Americans—not all of which are Black.

The film also poetically dramatizes a violent case of Black Gay Bashing; and featured a dramatized sermon about Gay condemnation from the ``pulpit.’’  

``Tongues Untied,’’ has won awards for film and still stands as a Black classic Fortress in helping Black Gay men make it through the ``crisis state’’ and identity questions that often persist as one comes out ``In The Life.’’

Late writer Joseph Beam’s photo—a striking Black beautiful Brother who I knew personally--is also featured as piercing politically-charged dialogue is heard in the background.  [Brother Beam edited the first Black Gay anthology ever [``In the Life’’] and was a Native of Philadelphia before He left this level of existence due to complications of Aids and HIV.]   

Now in December of 2013, this film still holds its’ importance as a historical document and shows where we came from in a time, NOW, where issues of self-acceptance, mental and emotional healing, religiosity,  Pride,  Self-LOVe and mental health have largely begun dealing positively with the social rejection issues, family rejection issues and self-hate issues that were a real struggle back in the late 1980’s when ``Tongues Untied’’ was made.  Groups and organizations like Adodi Inc.; Gay Men of African Decent {GMAD}; and several other organizations--and a more progressive government and social policy--have helped Black Gay men cope and flourish in their new clothing of acceptance where such self-acceptance, positive government legislation and social acceptance were only a dream back 30 years ago. We now live in The United States of Native America, NOT The United States of America. As indigenous Africans our Native American Brothers have said this is enough—we will not fall victim for another 200 years to the iron fist of corporate policy and militarism. Through self-awareness training; workshops, retreats; healing dinners; and other political and social gatherings, and events these not-for-profit Black Gay Men’s organizations {Adodi, Inc., GMAD and Others} have flourished and really helped Black Gay men take on the armor of self-LOVe, self-actualization, Pride, Positive Thinking, Positive Black economic development, and Positive Motivation and their issues have even found more—although not complete—acceptance in the Black Church.  Positive Connections are being made on a daily even hourly basis with other organizations and Progressive People around the world as more and more people learn to basically ignore much of the stuff on major media and view positive independent films such as ``Tongues Untied.’’