[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 29 (Thursday, February 15, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E360]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           TRIBUTE TO RA JOY

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 14, 2007

  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Madam Speaker, March 5, 2007 will be both a happy and 
a sad day for me. On that Monday, Ra Joy, who has served as Suburban 
Director and Grants Coordinator in my district office for 6 of the 8 
years I have served in Congress, will be leaving.
  Ra will become Executive Director of the Illinois Arts Alliance, the 
largest and most prestigious arts advocacy organization in the state. 
He will follow the widely and highly respected Alene Valkanas who built 
the Arts Alliance over the past two decades, leading the effort that 
quadrupled the state's funding for the arts. Hers are very big shoes to 
fill, yet I have great confidence in Ra's ability to move the 
organization forward to meet the challenges of the new century.
  Ra came to work for me as a very young man but with the promise of 
being a great leader. He had worked with youth at the Evanston YMCA, 
where he served as a role model and mentor for many African-American 
boys in our community. When he left the Y, he didn't leave the boys who 
continue to rely on his support and counsel.
  Ra has a quiet self-assurance, a seriousness of purpose that inspires 
all those he supervises and works with. He has unfailing good judgment 
and an ability to understand and communicate complex issues. This makes 
him very effective in working with community leaders, individual 
constituents, the business community and not-for-profit organizations 
in the 9th District.
  As Grants Coordinator, Ra has been a leading force in bringing tens 
of millions of dollars to the 9th District--federal dollars for 
infrastructure improvements, law enforcement, and social services, as 
well as private foundation support for dozens of organizations. He has 
shepherded these funding requests and applications through public and 
private bureaucracies and then monitored the management of the funds. 
He has held workshops to help non-profit organizations garner and 
manage the resources they need to flourish, including one aimed 
exclusively at art organizations.
  Ra is an artist. His charcoal drawings demonstrate his technical 
skill, his passions and his politics. He comes from an artistic 
family--his father, Albert Joy, is a painter, and his sister Ebony Joy 
is a playwright. His beautiful home, shared with his wife Falona and 
sons, reflects his artistic sense.
  Ra's connection to the arts community has had special significance 
for the 9th District, which, before my tenure, was represented for 
nearly a half century by Sidney Yates. Congressman Yates was revered as 
a patron of the arts and protector of the National Endowment for the 
Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. My constituents 
have appreciated my continued focus on the arts, led by Ra Joy.
  Ra has served as the Chairman of the annual Ethnic Arts Festival on 
Evanston's lakefront, a major event attracting visual and musical 
artists and craftspeople. He organized the Artistic Discovery 
competition each year, in which one high school student per 
Congressional District is selected to have his or her work displayed 
for a year in the Capitol, making it a significant juried art show. 
Dozens of students participate in an event at which all of their work 
is displayed, and all are honored.
  I and the rest of my staff will miss his advocacy for the arts as 
part of our staff, but we rejoice that he is taking his passion to a 
higher level. We trust that he will now be in a position to offer his 
assistance as we continue to address the need to support the arts in 
our community.
  I congratulate the Illinois Arts Alliance for its wise decision to 
choose Ra Joy as its new Director. I wish him great fulfillment and 
success.

                          ____________________