Watts Briefly

The public is invited to the unveiling of the second of two murals produced by teens from Maryvale participating in an ASU leadership program and local artists. A free community celebration is 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 9 at the mural, near another one created earlier this year, along the Grand Canal between 59th and 67th avenues south of Indian School Road.

Like the first mural, the second was created by teens in the Maryvale Youth Leadership Program, or YLP, with the help of area artist Larry Valenzuela. Valenzuela and fellow local artist Adam Vigil helped teens create the first mural earlier this year.

The Watts College-based Design Studio for Community Solutions (DSCS) developed the Maryvale YLP in collaboration with the Phoenix Neighborhood Services Department, local high school students, community partners, governmental agencies and residents.

In September 2024, the city honored the program with its District 7 Civic Engagement Award, which recognizes neighborhood groups or individuals for outstanding efforts and going the extra mile for their neighborhoods, according to the department. 

Two Watts College researchers are explaining the many ballot propositions facing Arizona voters on Sun Sounds of Arizona’s Sun Talk Election 2024 Statewide Ballot Propositions Show, the audio reading service announced.

The show – featuring Alberto Olivas (top photo), executive director of the Congressman Ed Pastor Center for Politics and Public Service, and Leigh Jensen Marino (bottom photo), senior research analyst at the Morrison Institute for Public Policy– is available on Sun Sounds at various times and days through Election Day. It may also be heard on Sun Sounds’ website under broadcast info audio/on-demand/special programming.

Sun Sounds of Arizona provides audio access to print information on the radio, smart home devices and internet for people who cannot read or hold print material due to a disability. 

Sun Sounds broadcasts the reading of over 200 local and national publications 24 hours a day from studios in Tempe, Flagstaff and Tucson. All reading is done by hundreds of trained volunteers. For more information, contact director Andrea Pasquale at (480) 774-8304, or email apasquale@sunsounds.org.

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An Arizona State University professor emerita of criminal justice, an ASU professor of  social work, a University of Arizona Regents Professor of communication and a UA associate professor in government and public policy will deliver the semi-annual Roatch-Haskell Lecture/Roundtable 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22, at the University Club of Phoenix, 26 E. Monte Vista Road, Phoenix. The public is invited to the event, where lunch will be served, but RSVPs are required. The presentation is titled, “Speech and Civility: Moving from Offense to Understanding,” and features ASU Professor Emerita Frances Bernat, ASU Professor Emilia E. Martinez-Brawley, UA Regents Professor Christopher Segrin and UA Associate Professor Yotam Shmargad.

Noting that the lectures’ donors, John Roatch and Bill Haskell, “cared about the contributions the academy could make to enhance civility and the quality of life,” Martinez-Brawley (right), the John F. Roatch Distinguished Professor in Social Work, said it became apparent to her “that making the topic of offensive speech (whether legally ‘hate speech’ or not) the subject of our roundtable would offer the audience a chance to express, in a friendly and civil environment, their questions and concerns…. I trust that at the end of the program we will have generated many new ideas, improvements and perhaps solutions.”