No communication, misrepresentation and disrespected
These are the most recent incident that happened this year 2018 at Lyons center
More intimidation from NORDC. Got an Intimidating e-mail 2-4-19 Sunday 10:30 pm non businesss hours, from the director of Director Larry Barabino stating that I am aware that my contract is expired if I want to continue to use the Annunciation center that I need to come in and sign the contract. First of all if Mr. Larry Barabino and NORDC was really serious about me signing a contract they would’ve sent me a copy of the contract to review. have not got one yet. It is not rumored about the fear that Mr. Barabino likes to put on his employees. I found this out in his first term when he tried to talk negatively to me as if I were his employee. As a person of the community supplying free programming for the children, this is inappropriate. Usually, the procedure is that when contracts are ready they send them out to the partners to look over to see if there were any discrepancies.
The last two times I have been approached by NORDC About signing a contract that I never was able to review anything Before it was presented to me. And each time there were Major changes made to the contract. But I was never able to review the contract until I had the pen in my hand. This is incorrect a contract is with two people. Because I did not like the changes made in the contract. Now I feel like I’m being threatened to be removed from the space because my contract is not signed. At no time I never stated that I would never sign the contract. So why Receiving this type of Intimidation. The fact that my contract expired was not my fault. I think this responsibility falls up under NORDC To have a contract ready to sign and not let it expire. Casa Samba has been operating legally doing everything as designated in my contract. Our insurance is paid upWe’re in good standards with the state. So why this pressure about signing A contract that I have never reviewed. When in the past this was permitted to go on for over 10 years nobody said anything Now I am about a month and a half over and I’m being threatened to be removed from the space.
Also recently learned that I have been paying $800 a year in insurance for being a summer camp that I never was. They told me that in order to run the summer camp I had to get this insurance. I was denied funding a summer camp But was told I have been approved to be a service provider. Each time I applied for my contract for a service provider I have to have this insurance in order to be a service provider. I don’t know if NORDC knows this but, the insurance that they asked me to get was only strictly for the Annunciation Center. This is very confusing NORDC asked me to get insurance on the Annunciation Center. In order to perform at different locations within this city. So am I supposed to have insurance for each one of those buildings that I perform at? why am I paying this insurance? Something is incorrect here. This insurance is taken out on the building where we hold our daily classes. On a normal basis, I don’t perform at this building at all. Why are we paying $800 dollars a year for what?
On December 12 the building manager was called a Nigger buy one of the children’s parents using the soccer field. This person wanted their son to enter the building with cleats on. For safety purposes, they were not letting people come in the building with cleats on the tile floor because they would slip and hurt themselves. After the building manager turn the participant away was when the building manager was called a Nigger. This was reported to the main office. And until this day no one has a approach the individual or denied him entry back on the Soccer field. As of today, this problem has not been dealt with I think it’s very very sad that someone is able to call someone something this derogatory on city property and no one does anything about it.
Tampering with my contract this is really strange. Was called then to a meeting for contracts. In the meeting was myself my wife my son and one other Casa summa member Alvin Watts as well as Miss Natasha and Sean Wyatt. We were told that I’ll contract had been changed to a one year from a five-year and there was also some extra things that was put into the contract. After I asked why were we demoted to a one year from the five years.
I was told NORDC was starting to give everybody the same generic contract. When I asked why was it changed and also can you change it back I was told something really strange. Miss Natasha stated that they could not change the contract until the new director came in and took his position in office.
If that is so when this happen There should have been a director there to change He’s the only one Has the power to do this. There was not a director when it was changed because the previous director resigned before my contract was up. So I’m trying to find out if only the NORDC Director can change it, then who changed it while there was no director. And changing it without informing me that there is changes major changes. After supporting NORDC for over 12 to 15 years what about $25,000 dollars a year for Free children’s classes. Casa Samba has been contributing to the city for free classes for children For over 20 years. I feel that should not be compared to your partners who are individuals and only been tenured with you for less than one or two years.
Not trustworthy
During the month of June NORDC through July hired an employee to be at the front desk at the enunciation Center. This particular employee was actually a student of mine about 20 years ago at the same building when it was called the Kuji center. She was one of the children that were enrolled in the Kuji programing. Now she has grown up and was hired by NORDC to sit at the front desk.
Just to remind you that 17 years ago the current Director of NORDC Mr. Larry forcibly took the keys and did not let us access to the building. Casa Samba at this time, not an official partner made us conform to NORDC rules. The reason why I must say this because after a while it became evident that this young lady was not prepared to take on this particular responsibility. With me having $20,000 worth of equipment at this location. NORDC doesn’t grant me access to the building After being there for 25 years. Why do Trust someone that you do not know compared to someone that you had been engaged with for over 20 years? Why do you hire someone that is so irresponsible and leaves the building open overnight at lease three times? Where is the trust.
On Friday, September 14 I received a text message from Miss Ladonya stating that I have received the press release and send it to our public relations director
At this time I had also reserved a projector for the performance because I want to show a short documentary on our presentation of honoring Jerome Smith at our performance. The projector never happened
On Wednesday, September 12, I met with Sean Wyatt and Miss Ladonya of the cultural department discussing the details for the October 19 performance at the lion Center
In this meeting we discuss all the details including the run of show which is the format that NORDC needs to have in order to assist people using the building.
One of the details discussed in the bit in the meeting was that we’ve needed to rehearse on the Thursday before our performance on Friday night we would need to rehearse at alliance Center and we requested that on September 12. There was a phone call made to the lion center manager Miss Tia. And she was also informed that casa Samba would be performing on Friday night and we will need to gym on Thursday October 18 to be reserved for our dress rehearsal.
On the day of the dress rehearsal when we arrive there was a basketball game going on, and we were told that we were not allowed to practice because they had first priority over to gym. That will we would have to do all of our rehearsing on the stage which was very difficult to have 28 people on the stage rehearsing at the same time when the stage only fits about 15 people for what we wanted to do. This was very difficult to have a rare dress rehearsal while there’s basketball game going on the court basket balls flying up on the stage while we rehearsed. Stopping their game at 8:50 giving us about five minutes to rehearsal one of my dances fingers was cut by accident because of having too many people on the stage people were really irritated and it was a horrible night for rehearsal for a major performance of this magnitude.
After speaking with the building manager on the phone she told me she had no control for stopping the basketball game from going on it was something that she had no control over.
The next thing was the next day we came into set up on Friday morning the day of the performance we had requested that there would be a sound person to assist us to use their equipment this was requested in a meeting that was on September 12 with Sean Wyatt and LaDanya . I personally was there from 9 a.m. In the morning until the performance started at no time I receive any assistance from the person that was supposed to be helping us with the sound. After about an hour we figured it out that no one that was scheduled to work that day knew anything about how to put this equipment together for a major performances they were only used to dealing with recitals and cheerleading competitions so they had no idea how to hook up to the professional system that we had installed. After the performance I went there and I figured out how to do it it on my own. A couple of weeks later I found out there was a person who knew how to hook up everything.
Luckily I had brought my backup system if I hadn’t did that the performance would have been canceled because we would never have gotten sound System working properly.
All of that when I first contacted Mr. Sean Wyatt
Email : Shawn C. Wyatt <scwyatt@nola.gov>
- 08/20/18 at 6:35 PM
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Curtis, The Lyons Center gymnasium has been reserved for your event on October 18th. I will follow-up with you later regarding details and other matters. Thanks, Sent from my iPhone On Aug 17, 2018, at 2:58 PM, curtis pierre <drealsambaman@yahoo.com> wrote: Hi Shawn, Hope everything is going well with you, as per our conversation yesterday I am requesting to use the Lions Center on October 18, 2018, for a Casa Samba Fundraiser. We would like to use the building in order to help support some of the previous years of classes that we have invested into the city Casa Samba would like NORD assistance and your participation in being involved in this Event. If NORD is able to support us with this event. If there is any equipment or personnel available whom NORD would possibly be able to provide for this event. Casa Samba This fundraiser will also be used to Support any future development of Casa Samba programming at Annunciation Center. Thank you for your assistance in advance. |
- 10/27/18 at 9:36 PM
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This is the timeline of communication for this event First, we were misinformed by the cultural department. In regards who to contact for putting together assistance for this event; We met with New Orleans recreation department On 12 September This was to make arrangements that would be able to do our dress rehearsal on Thursday night The 17th before the show When we showed up on Thursday night The 17th there was a basketball game In progress. On Friday the day of the performance. We were informed that there was no one knew about the How to work the sound system For a professional show of this Magnitude. In result, we had no professional audio for this measure performance We’re also informed that we are not able to sell alcoholic beverages on the premises the day of The Performance Because we do not have a permit or a police officer on the premises. The problem with this is there’s a DubblestandartI have several pictures of people drinking Beer Kegs And bottles of wine’s At the Annunciation feel all the time. What’s up with that. Lastly after reaching out to the council people on October 2 We have until this time to hear from any of them. It is sad that a majorAlright entertainer comes to New Orleans And we’re not getting the city government support that he should have he is an icon in Brazilan international TV station came here directly to see him involved with the culture of New Orleans speaking with some of our government officials about carnival New Orlean. • NORDC • curtis pierre <drealsambaman@yahoo.com> •Aug 30 at 10:29 AM To Alison E. Gavrell Scott Hutcheson • curtis pierre <drealsambaman@yahoo.com> •Sep 14 at 12:08 PM To LaDonya S. Williams Shawn C. Wyatt Louise A. Donaldson Carolyn R. Barber-Pierre Council people • curtis pierre <drealsambaman@yahoo.com> •Oct 2 at 12:46 PM To LaDonya S. Williams Shawn C. Wyatt LaToya Cantrell mayor@nola.com curtis pierre CC Shonnda R. Smith Carolyn R. Barber-Pierre mayor@nola.gov ghamilton@crt.la.gov BCC Cyndi.Nguyen@nola.gov Kristin.Palmer@nola.gov councildistrictd@nola.gov Joseph.Giarrusso@nola.gov Jay.Banks@nola.gov and 2 more… •Oct 4 at 1:19 AM To Message body Thank you for your request! It is copied below for your records. 10/4/2018 1:19:28 AM An international TV station called “Globo” https://www.globo.com/ They wants to know If the New Orleans cultural department is going to do anything special to welcome this famous legendary Singer of Samba from Brasil they want to do a collaboration of some sort. • Folami A. Jenkins <Folami.Jenkins@nola.gov> •Oct 5 at 11:06 AM To Message body Good morning Baba Curtis, I know council members gives Harrah’s and Cox grants for events in their districts. You can go online to apply or reach out to Councilman Jay Banks whom is over the Lyon’s Centers district. Folami NORDC curtis pierre <drealsambaman@yahoo.com> •Oct 11 at 12:11 PM To LaDonya S. Williams Shawn C. Wyatt CC curtis pierre Carolyn R. Barber-Pierre Waldorf Gipson Message body {Run of Show} 10-18-2018 Thursday – 930am – 12:30 pm Lyons center Load in sound equipment and do the sound check Mayors office • curtis pierre <therealsambaman@yahoo.com> •Oct 18 at 1:27 PM To Message body |
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LaDonya S. Williams Shawn C. Wyatt Louise A. Donaldson Carolyn R. Barber-Pierre |
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LaDonya S. Williams Shawn C. Wyatt LaToya Cantrell mayor@nola.com curtis pierre |
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Shonnda R. Smith Carolyn R. Barber-Pierre mayor@nola.gov ghamilton@crt.la.gov |
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Cyndi.Nguyen@nola.gov Kristin.Palmer@nola.gov councildistrictd@nola.gov Joseph.Giarrusso@nola.gov Jay.Banks@nola.gov and 2 more… |
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Thank you for your request! It is copied below for your records. 10/4/2018 1:19:28 AM An international TV station called “Globo” https://www.globo.com/ They wants to know If the New Orleans cultural department is going to do anything special to welcome this famous legendary Singer of Samba from Brasil they want to do a collaboration of some sort. |
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Good morning Baba Curtis, I know council members gives Harrah’s and Cox grants for events in their districts. You can go online to apply or reach out to Councilman Jay Banks whom is over the Lyon’s Centers district. Folami |
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{Run of Show} 10-18-2018 Thursday – 930am – 12:30 pm Lyons center Load in sound equipment and do the sound check |
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I have reached out to all my councilman no one has even return my email this is really sad I also emailed all of the councilman I did not get one response from anyone. this event means a lot to New Orleans. if you could reach them and explain to them how important this is to the city and for them to support it |
On the 16th of February 2018 incident the Lanyon center concerning the Ballet personal room.
Sources say that an instructor who had a really large class and could not conductor class in the small room that she had she decided to Bring her class to the ballet room. At this point in time, the NORDC official who is head of all centers buildings came to the Lyons site in order to forcibly remove the instructor and her class from the Ballet room. All this while the Ballet room was completely empty> The instructor was only trying to make conditions better for my students.
This is not exclusivity I don’t know what is
Due to noncommunication and like of involvement. Casa Samba picture has been used at least 3 times in the past to promote an event that we were not even asked to perform at.
All you have to do is look back at your flyers for you will see events that Casa Samba’s picture appears
1.Black History program – February 2017
2.Hispanic Festival – September 2017
3.NORDC culminating event at city park 2017
Casa Samba was not asked to perform nor was we booked for any of these events above. Casa Samba’s photo was used to promote the event without obtaining Casa Samba’s permission to use the photo.
A new note 2 weeks ago I observed on the flashing bulletin TV screen a picture of three people exercising and a group of kids doing karate and white suits the picture depicted three people doing sit-up exercises one woman was in pink the picture looks very strange to me as eventually I realize that it was a picture looked very familiar almost like it was from a template Photo that I had used to do an exercise website.
The strange thing I realized was NORDC Center has a karate partner name Mr. Jason Horn and his uniforms are black the pictures we saw in the advertisement we’re all white uniforms on the TV promotion screen. The picture the karate kids was probably a template picture too. because Group of kids had on white uniforms Mr. Jason Horan’s uniforms are black I have never seen his students on any of the bulletin boards so why is the first picture about a karate class about a different class t that are new and forgetting about functional programs do You already have. problems we are having with assistance and visibility in our community.
Just to make you understand the ad that was up two weeks ago was taken down after I mentioned it to several people it was very strange that the air disappeared within a couple of days after I mentioned it to people that it was false at because the picture look doctor I make websites all the time and the pictures were from a template my point is you have a martial art class you have two more shallots glasses you have several traditional classes of dance exercise and you would not put them on the advertisement
forcibly removing us from the Annunciation Center without any consideration over the future location of our classes would be because of location removed then was completely out of sync with space we were using to do our classes under a safe condition.
When Casa Samba was asked to leave the Annunciation Center it was clearly obvious to us that we were not included in the plans to move from the Annunciation the space was insufficient we were in a 2000 foot space and they’re asking us to do the same thing we did at the other space which only has 800 ft.² in a log echo that could make you deaf from playing drums or any type a loud sound. This is a clear signal that they were not prepared to move us into this building of the complaining we were moved to the Treme Center.
look at how much planning went into this special room for dance but there was no plans made for Casa Samba to be at this location
Take a look at the sizes of the rooms in these pictures this clearly supports the idea that we were not included or considered in this decision
And had no alternative plan until we complained about to soul space which could be detrimental to our health. [popuppress id=”320″]
It is very clear that Casa Samba was not considered in the planning of this move. As you can see the construction is not even complete yet on the building that we were supposed to move into within two weeks. The room that they had planned for us was too small for us to do classes. Why was not this taken into consideration before they asked us to move? This is why there is such aggressive action in stopping us from moving from and the location that we called our home.
this next incident happened the following week with Casa Samba classes
Apparently, the person who put this rental into the place doing normal class hours obviously did not know the policy. I was under the impression that rentals during regular class hours are not permitted unless it is a NORDC related activity. All NORDC activities should have priority over their spaces and class.
I was under the understanding that this was a NORDC function NOT a rental but as I found out the next week it was a rental. We were given two weeks notice to relocate our location for classes for this day. The day that The spoken word and music performance was scheduled at about 3 PM February 22nd, 2018 I received a call from the Annunciation building manager saying that the event that was planned for tonight was canceled. How come we were not alerted sooner than this and is not the building manager’s fault because she gets information from the main office. One of the problems with this booking social events during class hours is that people tend to cancel events, therefore, making it a hardship on moving around to in order to have classes not be affected by the social rentals events. what I mean by social rentals are rentals that have nothing to do with NORDC or any of its activities these are all outside events for people paying to rent the Space.