DATE: Friday, September 5, 1997             TAG: 9709050631

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NIA NGINA MEEKS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   84 lines

MEN OF COLOR TO GATHER TO RENEW THEIR SPIRITS

Men of color, listen up. Remember all that energy from the Million Man March two years ago? The pledges to make the world a better place, starting with one's self? Well, it's time to charge that battery and renew those vows of change.

At least that's the idea behind tomorrow's Crown Royal Men of Color Expo. Organizers say it will be the first such conference dedicated solely to ``enlightening the mind, body and spirit'' of men of color in this area. And not the last.

A similar mantra was heard Oct. 16, 1995, at the Mall in Washington. The men who assembled a million-plus strong (or several hundreds of thousands, depending on whose numbers are used), swore they'd go home and shake things up. No more madness. It was time to put their collective feet down.

Some communities are waiting for even a toe to land. Others proclaim that stands have been taken all along, just not so much in the public eye.

Locally, the spirit of October '95 has been flowing, mainly through increased involvement of existing programs, said Hampton's Khalif Khalifah, a march organizer for Hampton Roads. Men returned home and became volunteers. Mentors. Citizens.

Others were invigorated enough to found companies, such as Universal Seven LLC. What started as seven men talking about how to effect change during the bus ride home from D.C. turned into a business that is slowly but surely growing economic opportunities around the region.

They met for a solid year after the march. Then the seven men decided to launch their business and move toward economic independence. Two of the founders recently quit their regular jobs to concentrate on the business, which provides beverage distribution, food service and promotions, among other services. For events, the company hires people in between jobs, troubled kids and ``people who need second chances.''

Every step forward since the march may not be as easy to see as Universal Seven, Vincent Carpenter said. He is a co-founder of the company. Still, Carpenter said, he sees individual change in people.

``Anyone who went didn't come back the same,'' he said.

``Was that one event supposed to be a magic event? No. It was supposed to make a start, a defining moment.''

Tremors from that moment still rumble throughout the country, albeit quietly. Some march-inspired groups have risen and fallen. But the grass-roots folk continue to troop in the trenches. The march helped the spotlight fall on what they've been about all along, Jerome Evans said. He runs the Houston-based African-American Fathers Association and will speak at Saturday's expo.

His group assists divorced fathers who want to spend time with their children.

``We at the grass-roots level have been tirelessly picking away at that situation, continuously telling African-American males what they're going to have to do,'' Evans said.

``National organizations can no longer tell people at the base of the mountain how to live. They, instead, should give them the ability to formulate their own base so they have the ability to know how to live.''

Ideas for black men to live better is one thing expo attendees will pick up, Sonya Morrning Smith said. Her company, the RaVen Group, is pulling the event together.

With presentations ranging from prostate cancer detection to preparing for a career in math and science, men and boys will be able to get something out of the expo, Smith said.

``We wanted to make sure that, first of all, this expo addressed more educational and informative topics,'' she said. ``We wanted to get away from the festival feel. This is going to be more than a one-time event.''

Rather, she envisions this as an annual activity for people of all cultures to network and learn from each other.

For instance, one presentation deals with the influence of Africans on Latin America.

``For people who define themselves as African-American, it's important to have a broader understanding of our diaspora,'' presenter Seko Varner said.

``When we start speaking about Africans abroad, globally, we can see how much we can delve in, pull together. We can learn from each other.'' ILLUSTRATION: If you go What: The Crown Royal Men of Color Expo.

Where: Holiday Inn Executive Center, 5655 Greenwich Road, Virginia

Beach.

Info: 466-8910. When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.

Cost: Adults, $5; children 12 and under, free.

STAFF/File photo

Black men gathered at the 1995 Million Man March, vowing to better

the world.

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