User:Jonvanv/Jonathan Van Voorhees

Jonathan David Van Voorhees was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on August 21, 1953 to Harold Androis Voorhees and Margaret "Maggie" Lou Hulion. He is a community organizer and politician in Dallas County, Dallas, Texas celebrity hairstylist, make up artist, a writer, poet, screenwriter, producer, director, web site developer, and administrator, painter (oils, acrylics, watercolors), graphic artist, who has lived throughout the south, eastern, and western United States.

Van Voorhees is most noted for his role as a community organizer and newspaper publisher critical of the policies and practices of Shreveport, Louisiana's Public Safety Commissioner George D'artois' role in the unlawful arrest of 150+ people in Columbia Park in 1971. Van Voorhees' actions contributed to a class action law suit being filed by the ACLU against the City of Shreveport which changed police policies concerning social profiling on the basis of appearance and the use of public property for the purposes of political speech.

Van Voorhees has authored a chap book of poetry (The New Barbarians), a text book and course ware for Java-scripting, a book on hair design (The Art of Hair Design), 3 plays (Chan, The Dream, and Beat Street), 6 screenplays (Sample and Hold, Beyond Asgard, Run to Freedom, The Warcraft Covenant, Agents of Chaos and Project Clear Vision, a book on craps strategy (Your Best Bet). He continues to be politically active and to work on projects in film, hair, and the written word.

Community Activism — Shreveport, LA
Van Voorhees was involved in several community projects directed at assisting young people. He was the first resident of a coffee house called "Crossroads" under the direction of Tommy Thompson, backed by the First Methodist Church of Shreveport, where he helped organize performances by local musicians. He was involved as an assistant counselor with "Satori House," a community drug intervention and counseling organization. He was one of the first volunteers for C.O.D.A.C. (Community Organization for Drug Abuse Control), "Shire House" suicide and drug intervention center. Later he assisted Shreveport DJ Don Brady, who had managed drug intervention efforts in Clearwater, Florida, in the formation of a half-way house for drug users. He was also helpful to Shreveport Police in locating runaways who frequently contacted his newspaper for help.

Columbia Park
On Wednesday, June 2, 1971 Shreveport's Public Safety Commissioner George D'artois had over 150 people arrested in a local park ostensibly to protect the public from drug trafficking in the park. Under orders from Mayor Calhoun Allen the Commissioner and the head of Narcotics and Vice, John Hoppe, orchestrated a police dragnet for several blocks around the park in an effort to detain anyone that fit the appropriate profile (having long hair). Subjects were "corralled" in the park pavilion and searched at the scene without probable cause or first obtaining a warrant. When suspect items were discovered in the possession of one of the subjects they were arrested and taken to jail. Search warrants were filled out after the fact and signed by a local judge.

Following the arrests, Van Voorhees and Patrick McCoy sought the aid and assistance of Jay Gaulding, artist for Dallas Notes and Dallas Hooka newspapers. Following their meeting with Gaulding, Van Voorhees and McCoy contacted the Dallas legal aid organization "Dallas Free Church," headed by the Reverend Bob Jones and community activist Bill May. Jones and May accompanied Van Voorhees and McCoy back to Shreveport to assess the legalities of the situation.

Upon their arrival Jones and May met with Elizabeth Clay, a Shreveport socialite sympathetic to the plight of the arrested, Van Voorhees and others at Mrs. Clay's home. It was determined that the best course of action would be to test the city ordinances used to justify the arrests. Ordinance No. 73 (1961), amending Shreveport City Charter said, "Any political speech or activity is prohibited on any park or grounds or in any building under the supervision of the Parks and Recreation Council." (Sec. 24-60.)

Jones, May, and Van Voorhees assembled a small group in Columbia Park where the 150 people had been arrested the previous day. Shortly after their arrival the several policemen assembled on the street adjacent to the park. A police car was used as a shield while the officers, armed with shotguns and pistols, advanced up the knoll toward the group. After a brief standoff, the police ordered the group to disburse, citing new city ordinances that made a gathering of more than two people, in a public park, an unlawful assembly. The group left the park without further incident.

The following day Reverend Bob Jones, Bill May and Jonathan Van Voorhees met privately with Commissioner D'artois, and the head of Narcotics and Vice, Major Hoppe. During the meeting Bob Jones and Bill May were threatened with arrest for inciting a riot if they did not leave Shreveport immediately. Prior to their departure Jones and May contacted George Strickler, a New Orleans attorney affiliated with the American Civil Liberties Union, concerning the illegal arrests and threats.

Over the course of the next two weeks Van Voorhees and Sandy Barke, publisher of a rival newspaper, organized protests in Betty Virginia Park of the police actions taken on June 2nd. Van Voorhees appeared on local television station channel 3 appealing to residents to protest the actions taken by police at Columbia Park. Van Voorhees' newspaper published a series of articles critical of the Commissioner's actions and also promoted the public protests. Van Voorhees took the only known photographs of the event on June 2nd and published an account in his newspaper which gained some recognition in national media, and ultimately contributed to the filing of a class action lawsuit against the Commissioner and the city (Barnett v. D'artois).

On the following Sunday afternoon, June 6, between one and two hundred people gathered in Betty Virginia Park in protest of the illegal arrests and were ordered to disburse by the Commissioner of Public Safety. A standoff between police and protesters ensued. Alleged members of the KKK initiated fights with some in the crowd, but police were restrained in making arrests. The crowd formed a spontaneous march on city hall (approximately 5 miles away) where they were finally disbursed by police. A similar march took place the following weekend, June 13.

George Strickler enlisted the aid of local attorney Henry C. Walker and investigated the arrests. Depositions were taken from those arrested and the ACLU filed a class action lawsuit on their behalf against the City of Shreveport for violations of civil rights relating to the improper search and seizure, and the use of public property in the exercise of their right to free speech (Barnett vs D'artois). The plaintiffs won the suit.

In their ruling the judges commented, "But the vice of the ordinance lies not alone in its violation of the due process standard of vagueness. The ordinance also violates the constitutional right of free assembly and association. Our decisions establish that mere public intolerance or animosity cannot be the basis for abridgment of these constitutional freedoms. The First and Fourteenth Amendments do not permit a state to make criminal the exercise of the right of assembly simply because its exercise may be 'annoying' to some people. * * * and such a prohibition, in addition, contains an obvious invitation to discriminatory enforcement against those whose association together is 'annoying' because their ideas, their life style or their physical appearance is resented by the majority of their fellow citizens. The ordinance before us makes a crime out of what under the Constitution cannot be a crime. It is aimed directly at activity protected by the Constitution. * * *"

While Van Voorhees is not named in the class action suit a reference to Van Voorhees "underground" newspaper is made. "Sunday, June 6, was advertised by pamphlets distributed by the "hippie" community and an underground newspaper as a day on which a rally would be held in Betty Virginia Park to peacefully and silently protest the treatment received by the young people a few days before. *fn6" Van Voorhees' actions following the arrest of the "young people" was pivotal in the involvement of the ACLU and the subsequent class action suit that was filed.

George D'artois
This was not the first or only incident involving George D'artois abuse of power. Several years earlier D'artois was in a stand off between the Shreveport Police and the County Sheriff's department after he ordered garbage trucks to stand by to remove bodies during racial unrest at a predominantly black Shreveport high school.

Some years after the Columbia Park incident Commissioner D'artois was investigated by a Louisiana Grand Jury on charges of conspiracy to commit murder in connection to testimony given by Jim Leslie, a Shreveport advertising executive, concerning allegations that the commissioner had misappropriated city funds. The story was detailed in the 2009 book "The Commissioner" by Bill Keith.

Community Activism — Dallas, TX
In 1994 Van Voorhees ran for Dallas City Council in district 14. Candidates were Sharon Boyd, Craig McDaniel, Ed Oakley, Jonathan Van Voorhees, and Jennifer Gayle. This was the first Dallas city election in which a candidate had run as openly gay. Craig McDaniel and Ed Oakley both ran as openly gay candidates. Van Voorhees was the only "straight" male candidate for this office in this election.

In 2004 Van Voorhees founded a grassroots political organization in Richardson, Texas alternatively called, "The National Democratic Revival" and "The Richardson Democratic Revival" in support of the democratic campaign to elect John Kerry as president of the United States. The group consisted of over a hundred volunteers and was active in area politics for two to three years. In 2005 the group sponsored a candlelight vigil in Downtown Dallas, Texas (Casualties of War: A Candlelight Remembrance) to commemorate those who had been killed in the Iraq war.

Hair Styling
In 1976 Van Voorhees was licensed as a cosmetologist in Shreveport, Louisiana. While employed at "Hair Shapers" hair cutting salon Van Voorhees and a co-worker, Jay Murph, noticed that some European hair cuts that were not cut according to the "precision" hair cutting methods they had been taught. They began experimenting with various techniques for "texturizing" hair becoming two of the earliest proponents of "hair sculpting" as opposed to precision hair cutting which was the dominant hair cutting method of the time.

During the 70s and 80s Van Voorhees helped to develop and gain public recognition for "fantasy hair styling," a sub-genre of hair styling, designing styles that were created to look like Easter baskets (complete with grass and eggs), nuclear bombs exploding on top of the head, flags, trees, and various other adaptations. His styles appeared in newspapers and magazines nationwide.

In 1979 Van Voorhees coordinated hairstyling for the Bill Tice Coty Award Graffiti Collection show at the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. Later that year he was elected President of the Little Rock, Arkansas chapter of the National Hairdressers and Cosmetologist Association after organizing and promoting a series of hair styling demonstrations by local hair salons on local television stations.

Beginning in his early thirties he traveled extensively throughout Northern Europe (England, Germany, Poland, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Russia, France, Switzerland) studying hairstyling and art. This study led to the writing of Van Voorhees first book on hairstyling "The Art of Hair Design" which details the translation of artistic principles to hair design.

In 1983 he wrote "The Art of Hair Design," an instructional text on the artistic elements of design as they are used in hairstyling. The book detailed a shift in hairstyling concepts differing from precision hair cutting and had limited distribution. In 1984 Van Voorhees began styling hair for the Dallas Press Club Gridiron Show, which he continued to do for over ten years. His close association with members of the Dallas Press Corp made him a favorite source for writers and he was quoted in columns by Helen Bryant, and Larry Powell.

In 1986 Van Voorhees opened Avanti Design Studio on McKinney Avenue, the first of three hairstyling salons in Dallas, Texas. Because of Van Voorhees' close association with the Dallas Press Corp the salon quickly gained local notoriety for his quirky "fantasy" hair styles. In 1989 Van Voorhees helped to introduce a new type of hair styling treatment called "Vavoom." In 1992 he created the fantasy hairstyle "NO NUKES" to protest the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

In 2002 Van Voorhees founded Pro-Salon.Com as a professional salon and stylist directory with an emphasis on the development of industry-wide professional standards. and in 2003 he organized the “Cut for Consciousness” to benefit educational programs of The Women’s Museum The Women's Museum in Fair Park is the nation's only comprehensive women's museum. It showcases the accomplishments and achievements of American women and their impact on shaping American History.

Poetry
In 1980 Van Voorhees founded the performing arts group “The Poets Workshop” in Nashville, Tennessee which was created to produce poetry videos, a fusion of visual images and spoken word. This idea was pioneered by the beats Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Alan Ginsberg, and Herman Berlandt in the late 60s as Poetry Film. In 1981 his poetry was published in the anthology of American poets, “The Poet,” to read at the Halloween gathering of the Poetry Film Workshop at the Fort Mason Center in San Fransisco California.

In 1982 he founded the performance group “Poetry Experimental Theater” in Shreveport, Louisiana. Robert Traas directed a one act play that began as poetry, used for dialog, where scenes, characters, and action all grew out of the original poetry. Poetry included works by Carl Sandburg, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, among others.

From 1994 through 1999 Van Voorhees was a regular reader/performer at the Deep Ellum poetry slams hosted by Clebo Rainey. In 1994 Van Voorhees attended a symposium at the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture called "12 Poets Talking," which resulted in the establishment of a poetry hot-line that would later evolve into "The Word" literary and arts magazine.

During this time period Van Voorhees produced a documentary of the Dallas performance group Victor Dada for broadcast on public access television. The group was known for it's comical style and visual elements fused with the spoken word and vocal styling of it's members.

In 2003, dissatisfied with the prohibition of theatrical elements in traditional poetry slams Van Voorhees and friend Ross Sheridan founded the "Fuzzion Poetry Slam" in Richardson, Texas where theatrical performances of poetry were staged. The name Fuzzion was derived from the name of the coffee bar where it was located and because the name also intoned the double meaning of fusing poetry and theater. Some of these performances were video taped with the intention of producing "poetry videos" as a commercial venture. The idea was that if music videos could be marketed as a product independent of the music that poetry videos could be marketed independently of the poetry. The project was never completed due to the fading popularity of slams and interest in poetry as an art form.

Media, Film and the Arts
From 1970 through 1975 Van Voorhees was the publisher of a weekly newspaper in the state of Louisiana. The newspaper 's original name was "Thoughts" but later became "The Shreveport Daily Planet." As publisher of the paper Van Voorhees addressed many social issues ranging from Legalization of Marijuana & Abortion, to Civil Rights at a time when discussion of such subjects was not socially acceptable.

In 1987 Van Voorhees was elected Vice-President of the Dallas Screenwriters Association and in 1988 he wrote and produced the local production of “Chan and The Secret of the Missing Jade.” He also promoted a screenwriting competition to promote local production of independent film. In 1988 he served as the Chair of the Research and Resources Committee for the Dallas Film Commission Task Force. In that capacity he conducted the only survey of the Dallas film industry in the last three decades. In 1989 Van Voorhees founded the DFW Film Coop to promote the development of independent film in the North Texas area.

In 1993 Van Voorhees developed some of the first web sites posted to a growing new phenomenon called the World Wide Web (at the time there were less than 20,000 web sites in the world — current estimates place the number of web sites in the billions). www.access-interactive.net and www.outdoorvisions.com were two of the web sites that were originally posted that remain on the web today.

In 1995 Van Voorhees founded “The Word” (Now DFW Arts) a magazine dedicated to the arts in the Dallas area. In an effort to promote local artists and the arts Van Voorhees organized the Dallas Arts Summit at the Sammons Center for the Arts. This roundtable of major arts organizations included the DMA, DTC, The African American Museum, DART, and others (Dallas Arts Summit, featured Victoria Corcoran (Program Director, The MAC), Luis Gonzalez (Cultural Programs Coordinator, Office of Cultural Affairs), Kirsten Brandt (Director, Junior Players Guild), Joanna St. Angelo (Executive Director, Sammons Center for the Arts), Robert Trammell (Director, WordSpace), Edleeca Thompson (Curator of Exhibitions, African American Museum), Thea Temple (Executive Director, Writers Garret), Bart Weiss (Director/Founder, Dallas Video Festival), Ellen Key (Communications Coordinator, Dallas Museum of Art), Katherine Wagner (Executive Director, Dallas Visual Arts Center), Alonso Duralde (Artistic Director, USA Film Festival) and others -- 21 June 1995 ). In 2002 he served as a DCT staff volunteer for the “Act I” gala benefiting the Dallas Performing Arts Center.

2005 - 2008 he wrote, produced and directed the feature length docu-drama "Project Clear Vision — The Anthrax Conspiracy" The film deals with the sensitive subject of U.S. involvement in germ warfare development and testing, and is based on actual events that occurred between 1999 and 2003.

Other references

 * Dallas Morning News, November 30, 1988, Now, Perms That Aren't So Permanent
 * Sun Sentinel, February 5, 1989, 3E, Gillette Tries Home Permanents That Are Less Permanent
 * Austin American Statesman, February 26, 1989, D4, Permanents temporary with new wave formulas
 * Texas Monthly, January 1992, Bum Steer Awards
 * Dallas Morning News, March 30, 1992, Dallas could use a glittery showstopper like Oscar
 * Dallas Morning News, NewsBank - Mar 18, 1993, Candidates crowd city races as filing for council closes
 * Dallas Morning News, NewsBank - Apr 21, 1993, Accountability Nights push ambitious agenda
 * Dallas Morning News, NewsBank - April 23, 1993, 5 candidates vie to succeed Palmer in diverse district runoff
 * SMU Daily Campus, May 2, 2003, News, Dallas salons cut hair to raise money for charity
 * Dallas Observer, September 2, 2004
 * North Texas Independent Media Center, Thursday, Jan 20 2005, Casualties of War: A Candlelight Remembrance
 * The Commissioner, Copyright 2009, Bill Keith
 * University of Illinois Press, First Amendment Access to Government Facilities - Barnett vs D'artois cited
 * Open Jurist - Sullivan v. C Murphy, Barnett vs D'artois cited
 * Sullivan v. Vs Murphy
 * Loislaw Archive - Barnett vs D'artois
 * Barnett v D'artois - Extract
 * Dallas Morning News - District 14 Election
 * Wikipedia - Coty Award Winners
 * Internet Movie Database
 * Clips Salon resume of Jonathan Van Voorhees
 * Van Voorhees Family in Texas
 * Z List Films website
 * Internet Domain Registry public information database
 * Pro-Salon.com stylist and salon database
 * Wikipedia - San Fransisco Renaissance - Beat Poets
 * DFW Film Coop website
 * Go Daddy Internet Registration database
 * Georgetown University Archives - The Word
 * The Commissioner, copyright 2009, Bill Keith
 * Your Best Bet, copyright 2007, Jonathan Van Voorhees
 * Texas Monthly Magazine, January 1992, page 87
 * Sun Sentinel Archives
 * Amazon.com - The New Barbarians
 * North Texas Independent Media Center, ntimc.org
 * City of Dallas Office of the City Secretary - 1992 Inedx