People Magazine

Y'ette Jarvis moved to Athens for romance. It didn't last, but it didn't matter: Soon the Brooklynborn Jarvis, 45, will be helping to run the city. Next month she will become the first non-Greek-and the first black-to take public office in the birthplace of democracy.

Elected Oct. 23 as one of 41 members of the Athens city council, she isn't likely to get lost in the crowd. "I like it that everybody knows me," says Jarvis, a longtime TV personality who trills, "Hello, love," in Greek to fans on the street. Known to her adopted countrymen as "the black Aphrodite," she hopes to foster greater acceptance for immigrants in this nation of 11 million. Pundits give her a fighting chance: "Whether you want to or not, you like her," one wrote recently. "She persuades."

And perseveres. Jarvis grew up poor but managed to snag a scholarship to Boston University, graduating magna cum laude with a psychology degree in 1979. Three years later she said no to Harvard Law School and yes to love, following her future first husband, a Greek basketball player she met in a disco, back to his homeland. "Not much gets in my way," she says. Including culture shock: When she got to Athens, she recalls, "there were sheep running in the street."

A talented hoopster herself, Jarvis became a star on a national women's team. Next she turned to modeling, then landed a gig as a TV talk show host. In 1987 she bought a blond wig and morphed into a torch singer. Her husband disapproved, so she divorced him, went on tour and in 1995 wed expatriate American lyricist John Muller, 51, with whom she has a son, John Jacob, 7.

Jarvis says she'll continue to multitask, juggling city biz with singing gigs: "I intend to stir things up." judging from her record, that's one campaign promise Athenians can count on.

Essence Magazine

Brooklyn-born Yvette Jarvis put a global twist on firsts last October when she became the first Black person elected to the forty-one-member city council in Athens. No, not Athens, Georgia, Athens, Greece. "I felt blessed and like a winner from the very beginning," says Jarvis, 45, who has been a naturalized Greek citizen for 20 years.

It was love for a Greek man that took her there after she graduated from Boston University, but it was an ever increasing affinity for the country and its people that made her stay Building on a college basketball caw, Jarvis played professional Ron b-ball when she moved to Greece-the country's first salaried female athlete.

She also modeled, sang in nightclubs and co-hosted three TV shows. Jarvis believes her high visibility and involvement in community groups, like the American Women's Organization of Greece, prepared her for politics. She took the plunge when she found she had to speak out on knFT9gration issues. "My platform was about making Athens accessible to all its constituents," says Jarvis. "The time had come for everyone to be part of the decision-making process."

For Jarvis-now married to an American living In Greece with whom she has a 7-year-old son-this is just the beginning. "I'd love to be the first non-Greek, non-White in the Greek parliament," she says. "I want to make history. Athens is no longer just a Greek city. There are so many people who look different and speak different languages who need to be included. By learning about others you take away the fear of the unknown."

-DENOLYN CARROLL

Bostonia

Fame may have helped launch the political career of Yvette Jarvis, the first African-American to be elected to public office in Greece. But the former professional athlete, fashion model, television actress, and talk show host also is known for being a strong advocate for the rights of Greece's women, children, immigrants, and the disabled. "Had I not been famous, it would have been difficult for me to win," says Jarvis (CAS '79), who was elected to a four-year seat on the Athens City Council last October. "The people's love for me, I believe, played a major role in the election. It surprised me how much they really did believe in me."

Since moving to Greece in 1982 - she married a Greek basketball player whom she had met in Boston -"Yvette" has become a household name. (Indeed, New York's Daily News has compared the Brooklyn-born Jarvis to an American icon also recognized by her first name: Oprah). Jarvis's rise to fame began in 1983 when the former co-captain of the Terrier women's basketball team began playing for the Greek Women's Basketball League. Later that year, she landed a television ad for nail polish, another milestone of sorts: she was first African-American to speak Greek on national television. The ad's slogan, "Opos Ameriki " ("Just like in America"), follows her today. "This advertisement played for so many years, some people grew up watching me on TV," she says. A career as a fashion model followed, taking her throughout Europe and the United States.

During the 1990’s, Jarvis starred in a weekly sitcom and co-hosted television entertainment and talk shows - all in Greek. She completed two years of voice training at the National Academy of Music in Athens, and these days performs at an upscale supper club in the city. (Her city council post is unpaid.)

Jarvis says she never had political aspirations. If she hadn't been invited to run, she says, "I would have continued to do what I do, which is lobbying on different issues, including immigrants' rights, through nongovernmental organizations, which I had been active in for the last few years."

She was among hundreds of candidates seeking one of forty-one seats on the council. Jarvis says her skin color was not a factor in the campaign, because her modeling and television careers have made her face familiar. "They've known me all their lives," she says of her fellow Athenians. "Not that there weren’t references to my color or to my nationality or to being an American, but they were very few and far between."

Since taking office in January, Jarvis has brought the issues she's passionate about to the city council. She helped create a free national hotline for victims of domestic violence that began operating this spring. Now, with the help of a nongovernmental organization called the European Network of Women, she's organizing an effort to recruit and train volunteers across the country to answer the hotline phones, escort abused women to police stations, and sit for their children while the women involved in domestic violence cases are in court. She's working on streamlining the registration process and the acquisition of work permits for immigrants, who come from African nations, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Pakistan, and other countries. She wants to produce and host a new television show that would profile the stories of successful immigrants - portraying the positive side of immigration through music, culture, and art - and conduct roundtable discussions on current events. "Immigrant labor contributes to the GNP in a big way, especially in agricultural areas," she says. "Without their efforts, most crops would rot on the vines."

Jarvis thinks about moving back to the United States with her family some day. Divorced from her first husband, she is married to an American, and they have an eight-year-old son. "I'm a believer in universal law," she says. "You are where you're supposed to be at any given time."

- Cynthia K Buccini