| No Images? Click here   The Listen To America bus stopped at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin (UTPB) in Odessa today! Emma Gray met Vincent Pierce, 31, who is the only professional harp teacher in the whole city.Vincent grew up playing the clarinet, but eventually switched to the harp. He now plays with the Midland Odessa Symphony, and teaches classical harp to kids and students at UTPB and Odessa College.“Because I’m the only teacher, I can potentially have a student from fourth all the way through 12th grade,” he said. “So I develop a long-term relationship with my students and their parents, and I’m able to mentor them in ways beyond just music.” One of his students, a senior at UTPB, will soon become the second professional harpist in Odessa.Vincent also talked about the strength of fine arts programs in Texas — a state known as a “band state” because of its ties to football — and the importance of funding arts education, especially when it comes to instruments like the harp, which are expensive and hard to find.“Most of [my students] who are from a lower socioeconomic bracket are able to play an instrument they wouldn’t otherwise have access to,” he said. “Arts education helps keep kids in school. It gives them a sense of value and importance in a way that other classes sometimes aren’t able to do.”  Odessa is an oil town that has had its fair share of booms and busts.“Around here, you’re either eating steak or you’re eating beans,” said Ray Smith. After the price of oil took a nosedive in 2014, he lost a well-paying job as an oil-field diesel mechanic. He ended up scrapping iron, mowing lawns and working a $9-an-hour job at AutoZone just to pay his mortgage. “When things are good, it’s steak. When they’re not, it’s beans.”HuffPost partnered with Odessa American to look into how Texans have been affected by economic change.
 In the middle of the night, with her house packed with grade school boys having a sleepover with her son, Karen Pieper Hildebrand got her first death threat. The man on the phone told her husband to “start digging your wife a hole, because I’m going to put her in it.”She was shaken, but decided against calling the police. She figured there wasn’t much the authorities could do.She was right.When she met with police the following day at the now-shuttered Planned Parenthood clinic she headed in Odessa, they pretty much dismissed the incident.That was 23 years ago. Things have only gotten worse.  Are you a fanfic writer? Worrywart? Fantasy football champ? Dance mom? Second Amendment advocate?Make your own “I Am An American” story to share.  Shaka Senghor (right) is the proud dad of 5-year-old Sekou, whom he co-parents with his former partner. Glen Henry is a stay-at-home dad of three: Theopilous, 4, Uriah, 3, and Anaya, 6 months.They are both well aware of the unique stigmas and challenges black dads face. They told HuffPost about overcoming these obstacles, redefining representation for black fathers, and raising fully realized black children in America.
 Join us virtually on the bus! Ride along with our editor-in-chief, Lydia Polgreen, as she dispatches news from the road via Facebook Messenger.  Learn more about what it really means to be an American by signing up for our morning news brief.Did a friend send you this? Subscribe here. For more politics news, check out our HuffPost Politics email.©2017 HuffPost | 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 |
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