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Posts published by “goodblacknews”

GBN’s Daily Drop: Learn About Sojourner Truth – Orator, Abolitionist and Women’s Rights Advocate (LISTEN)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is based on the Wednesday,  March 2  entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 about Sojourner Truth, the formerly enslaved protestor and advocate for women’s rights, prison reform and the abolition of slavery:

Audio Player

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

In 1827, while slavery was still legal in New York, Isabella Baumfree escaped to freedom with her baby daughter. She went to court to recover her son and two years later she became the first Black woman to win such a case against a white man.

In 1843 Baumfree renamed herself Sojourner Truth and began advocating for the abolition of slavery, women’s voting rights, prison reform and the end of capital punishment across the entire United States.

The first Black woman in America to attain national fame for protesting, Truth was honored in 2009 with a bust in the U.S. Capitol Building, and in 2020 as part of the Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument unveiled in New York’s Central Park.

Truth was also very recently honored when New York governor Kathy Hochul announced a new state park in Ulster that will be named the Sojourner Truth State Park, and it will open later this year.To learn more about Sojourner Truth, read her autobiography The Narrative of Sojourner Truth, the biography Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol by Nell Irvin Painter, and for children, there’s My Name is Truth: The Life of Sojourner Truth written by Ann Turner and illustrated by James Ransome.

Also, do yourself a favor and check out the Sojourner Truth Project online where they compare the original transcription by Marcus Robinson of Truth’s speech in 1851 with the version that became popularized 12 years later. Other sources are also provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

1851 Sojourner Truth Speech – excerpt read by ST:

“May I say a few words? I want to say a few words about this matter. I am a woman’s rights. I have as much muscle as any man, and can do as much work as any man.  I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? I have heard much about the sexes being equal; I can carry as much as any man, and can eat as much too, if I can get it. I am as strong as any man that is now.

As for intellect, all I can say is, if women have a pint and man a quart – why can’t she have her little pint full? You need not be afraid to give us our rights for fear we will take too much, for we can’t take more than our pint’ll hold. The poor men seem to be all in confusion…”

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing, and available at workman.com, Amazon,Bookshop and other online retailers.

Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com,Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You could give us a positive rating or review, share your favorite episodes on social media, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

GBN’s Daily Drop: Black Lexicon – What “Intersectionality” Means (LISTEN)

[Image Source: Intersectional Environmentalist via YouTube]

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is based on the Tuesday,  March 1 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 to kick off Women’s History Month.

It’s in our Black Lexicon category called “Lemme Break It Down” and explains the term “Intersectionality”:

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You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Tuesday, March 1st, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

It’s in the category we call “Lemme Break It Down,” where we explore the origins and meanings of words and phrases rooted in the Black Lexicon and Black culture. Today’s phrase to kick off Women’s History Month? “Intersectionality.”

“Intersectionality” is the term coined by Columbia University Law School Professor and Black feminist scholar Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw in 1989 to describe how race and gender create a unique form of oppression for African American women.

The term gave name to a key perspective which of course had been discussed long before. 18th and 19th century writings by Anna Julia Cooper, Ida B. Wells and Sojourner Truth’s famous “Ain’t I A Woman?” speech address the same concept.

Twenty-first-century usage has expanded to include class, sexuality, ability, religion or nationality as identities that can intersect to shape discrimination as well as privilege.

To learn more about intersectionality, check out the paper Kimberlé Crenshaw published in the University of Chicago Legal Forum where she first publicly explained her theory, entitled “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex”, listen to Crenshaw’s current podcast on the subject, Intersectionality Matters, and check out other sources provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing, and available at workman.com, Amazon,Bookshop and other online retailers.

Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

If you like our Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon,Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You could give us a positive rating or review, share your favorite episodes on social media, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodb,lacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

MUSIC MONDAY: “Cover Me Softly” – Soul-Filled Remakes and Covers Playlist (LISTEN)

by Lesa Lakin (@lesalakin) and Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

With all that’s going on in the world, we thought we’d offer some comfort this Music Monday in the form of a playlist of remakes and covers called Cover Me Softly: Soul-Filled Remakes and Covers.”

Sometimes the songs are reimagined, elevated and fully remade, and other times they are faithful covers by the right artist, offering just the right notes and voicing.

We’ve got “Killing Me Softly,” originally by Robert Flack and reimagined by Fugees, Maxwell’s soul stirring take on Kate Bush‘s “This Woman’s Work,” Rihanna’s hauntingly similar yet very much her own gorgeous version of Tame Impala’s “Same Ole Mistakes,” Luther Vandross’ famous redo of Dionne Warwick’s “A House Is Not a Home,” Mariah Carey’s version of Prince’s “Beautiful Ones” with Dru Hill and more.

One song on our list poses the question: Can you successfully remake/cover your own song?   In the case of Lionel Richie, that’s exactly what happened with “Lady.” “Lady” was written and produced by Richie and first recorded by American country music artist Kenny Rogers in 1980.

“Lady” is the first record of the 1980s to chart on all four of Billboard magazine’s singles charts – country, Hot 100, adult contemporary and Top Soul Singles. Almost two decades later, Richie revisited the hit by recording the song himself in 1998.

Rogers and Richie would eventually preform the song as a duet on Richie’s 2012 release Tuskegee. If you’re interested in reading even more about it, here’s a fun story about the history of “Lady”: https://people.com/country/kenny-rogers-lionel-richie-friendship-history/

So, sit back and relax to some old familiar hits and maybe a few reimagined new finds. Have a listen… and always,  always celebrate music!

GBN’s Daily Drop: Morgan Freeman Quote on Black History Month (LISTEN)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is based on the Monday, February 28 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022, featuring an apt quote about Black History Month from Academy Award-winning actor and sought-after narrator Morgan Freeman:

Audio Player

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Monday, February 28th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 published by Workman Publishing.

As Black History Month officially comes to a close, we offer a quote from Academy Award-winning actor, director and sought-after narrator and host Morgan Freeman:

“You’re going to relegate my history to a month? I don’t want a Black History Month. Black history is American history.”

Now, I agree with Morgan Freeman on this point, obviously, otherwise I wouldn’t bother with these daily drops or with goodblacknews.org at all.

If you are listening to this, I suspect you’re inclined to agree, and I thank you for being here to listen, to learn more about and hopefully amplify the people, events, quotes, stories, bios, trivia that’s shared here.

Now I am following a format, basing these drops on the physical A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022, but I do also do bonus episodes once a week. So if you, the listener, would like to offer suggestions for my bonus episodes, please email me at lori@goodblacknews.org.

And if it’s not something that’s already coming up in the future from this year’s calendar or from the 2023 Page-A-Day calendar which will be out this fall, I will do my very best to work it in.

Because honestly, I love researching, learning about and sharing these stories, in a way that is very easy and quick for people to hear and understand. And I don’t want to see interest in them for only one month out of the year and fade away for the rest.

So, again, thank you for listening, and you know, this has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing, and available at workman.com, Amazon, Bookshop and other online retailers.

Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

And if you want to hear more Good Black News, go to goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodbinlacknews anywhere on social.

And thank you, thank you for your support.

GBN’s Daily Drop: On 2/27, Celebrating “227” Star and Executive Producer Marla Gibbs (LISTEN)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is based on the Sunday, February 27 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 celebrates Marla Gibbs, 90, Executive Producer and star of NBC’s 227 as well as the long-running CBS series The Jeffersons:

Audio Player

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Sunday, February 27th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Even though she cleaned up during her unexpected star turn as no-nonsense housekeeper Florence Johnston on the hit CBS sitcom The Jeffersons, acting newcomer Marla Gibbs, then 41, was reluctant to give up her day job at United Airlines until the show became a bona fide hit.

Ten years later, Gibbs moved on up into the power seat when she bought the rights to star in and executive produce the TV version of a play entitled 227. The family comedy ran for five years on NBC and introduced the world to a young Regina King.

To learn more about Marla Gibbs, check out the links to sources provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing, and available at workman.com, Amazon,Bookshop and other online retailers.

Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

If you like our Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon,Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You could give us a positive rating or review, share your favorite episodes on social media, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodbinlacknews anywhere on social.

Sources: 

GBN’s Daily Drop: Black Ukrainians – Learn About Eurovision Finalist Gaitana and Politician & Olympic Gold Medalist Zhan Belenuik (LISTEN)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is a bonus episode for Saturday, February 26, 2022, based on the   “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 format.

We highlight singer/songrwriter Gaitana and athlete-turned-politician Zhan Belenuik, two Black Ukrainians or Afro Ukrainians who represent a small but important part of the Ukrainian citizenry affected by the recent Russian invasion of that nation.

Audio Player

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a bonus daily drop of Good Black News for Saturday, February 26th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” format, published by Workman Publishing.

As the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces dominates global news, I’d like to dedicate this week’s bonus daily drop to the small but very real population of Afro-Ukrainians who are part of the citizenry that is struggling to survive as a nation.

Two Afro-Ukrainians with prominent international profiles are singer/ songwriter Gaitana, and politician and athlete Zhan Belenuik.

Gaitana made history when she represented Ukraine in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest and performed the song “Be My Guest,” placing 15th in the final.

Gaitana has a lovely, soulful voice and you can learn more about her and her music, sung mostly in her native tongue, on her website, gaitana.com, and you can stream her songs on Apple Music and Spotify.

Zhan Belenuik also made history in Ukraine with his 2019 election to Parliament as a member of President Zelensky’s Servant of the People party. In addition to being a former member of the Ukrainian Army, Belenuik has also represented Ukraine as a Greco Roman wrestler.

Belenuik competed and won the silver medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics and brought home the gold from the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Gaitana and Belenuik both have spoken about facing racism in their home country, but also embrace their and support their homeland.

I’d also like to shout out The Root reporter Terrell Jermaine Starr, who has reported about the history of Blacks in Ukraine, about Ukraine in general, hosts a podcast called Black Diplomats, and is currently in Ukraine reporting for CNN on the war as well as posting about it on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/terrelljstarr/status/1497435803135488006

To learn more about Belenuik, Gaitana and other Afro Ukrainians, check out the links to sources provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a bonus daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing, and available at workman.com,Amazon, Bookshop and other online retailers. Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

For more Good Black News, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodbinlacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is Nominated by President Biden to Serve on the U.S. Supreme Court

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has been selected by President Joe Biden to fill the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy created by Justice Stephen G. Breyer‘s impending retirement. When confirmed, Jackson will become the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court of law.

Jackson, 51, a U.S. appeals court judge in Washington, has been the front runner for the Supreme Court seat ever since Justice Breyer, 83, announced last month he was retiring. Jackson was, fittingly, a Supreme Court law clerk for Breyer.

In addition to being the first Black female justice, Jackson would be the first justice on the Supreme Court to have previously worked as a public defender, something progressive groups, according to the Los Angeles Times, hope will help the court offer a different perspective.

Judge Jackson, who graduated with honors from Harvard Law School,  was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Miami, Florida. Her parents attended segregated primary schools, then attended historically black colleges and universities. Both started their careers as public school teachers and became leaders and administrators in the Miami-Dade Public School System.

When Judge Jackson was in preschool, her father attended law school. In a 2017 lecture, Judge Jackson traced her love of the law back to sitting next to her father in their apartment as he tackled his law school homework—reading cases and preparing for Socratic questioning—while she undertook her preschool homework—coloring books.

By Lloyd DeGrane via Wikimedia Commons

Judge Jackson stood out as a high achiever throughout her childhood. She was a speech and debate star who was elected “mayor” of Palmetto Junior High and student body president of Miami Palmetto Senior High School.

But like many Black women, Judge Jackson still faced naysayers. When Judge Jackson told her high school guidance counselor she wanted to attend Harvard, the guidance counselor warned that Judge Jackson should not set her “sights so high.”

That did not stop Judge Jackson. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University as an undergraduate, then attended Harvard Law School, where she graduated cum laude and was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Judge Jackson lives with her husband, Dr. Patrick Jackson, who is a surgeon, and their two daughters, in Washington, DC.

Read more: https://www.whitehouse.gov/kbj/

[Photo: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson via thecrimson.com]

GBN’s Daily Drop: “We Got Game” – For Which Movie Did Denzel Washington Win His Best Actor Oscar? (LISTEN)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is based on the Friday, February 25 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 and is the year’s first foray into our Black Trivia category called “We Got Game”:

Audio Player

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, AmazonSpotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Friday, February 25th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing. It’s in the category for Black Trivia we call “We Got Game”:

Okay, so today’s daily drop episode is going to be a little unique, as it’s the first time presenting the Trivia category, which is a multiple choice question that we want to give you time to answer. So, what I’m going to do is read the question, I’ll read the choices, and then I’ll prompt you to pause the episode if you want to take longer than the 10 seconds that I’m going to let pass before I share the answer. Sound good? Ready to see if you got game? All right, here we go:

For which movie did Denzel Washington win the Academy Award for Best Actor? Was it…

A. Malcolm X?  B.Training Day  C. Glory… or D. Fences?

Now go ahead and pause the episode now if you want to take more than 10 seconds before you hear the answer. Otherwise, I’ll be back in 10… Okay, time’s up. The answer is… B. Training Day.

Including his recent nod for The Tragedy of MacBeth, Washington has been nominated by the Academy for his acting ten times, and so far, he’s won twice, once in 1989 as Best Supporting Actor for Glory and then for Best Actor in 2001’s Training Day.

Washington was nominated for his role in Fences in 2017 but lost the Best Actor gold guy to Gary Oldman, star of The Darkest Hour. Still, a win might have felt like déjà vu to Washington that year – he won the Best Actor Tony Award for the same part in 2010.

To learn more about Denzel Washington and his award-winning career, check out the links to sources provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

Sources:

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing, and available at workman.com, Amazon, Bookshop and other online retailers.

Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

If you like our Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You could give us a positive rating or review, share your favorite episodes on social media, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

GBN’s Daily Drop: Learn About Lt. Henry O. Flipper, the 1st African American Graduate of West Point (LISTEN)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is based on the Thursday, February 24 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 about Lt. Henry O. Flipper, the first African American graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point:

Audio Player

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Thursday, February 24th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Justice came slowly to Henry O. Flipper, the first African American West Point Academy graduate, but come it did. After graduating in 1877, Flipper became the first non-white US Army officer to lead the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry.

During the Apache Wars and the Victorio Campaign though, Flipper was court-martialed for alleged improprieties, but in 1994 his descendants pushed to get Flipper’s case reviewed, and President Bill Clinton pardoned Flipper after it was concluded that his conviction was unjust.

West Point now bestows an annual Henry O. Flipper Award to graduates who exhibit, quote, “leadership, self-discipline, and perseverance in the face of unusual difficulties.”

To learn more about Henry O. Flipper, read his autobiography, The Colored Cadet at West Point: Autobiography of Lieut. Henry Ossian Flipper, U. S. A., First Graduate of Color from the U. S. Military Academy, the 2015 biography Henry Ossian Flipper: West Point’s First Black Graduate by Jane Eppinga, or Black Frontiersman: The Memoirs of Henry O. Flipper, First Black Graduate of West Point complied and edited by Theodore D. Harris.You can also check out the West Point Military Academy and US Army videos on his legacy that are on YouTube, and links to other sources provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

Sources:

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing, and available at workman.com, Amazon,Bookshop and other online retailers.

Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

If you like GBN’s Daily Drops, please consider following us wherever you get your podcasts, give us a positive rating or review, share your favorites on social media or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

(paid links)

GBN’s Daily Drop: Learn About Harlem Renaissance Visionary Aaron Douglas – “The Father of African American Art” (LISTEN)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is based on the Wednesday, February 23 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 and offers a quote from renowned Harlem Renaissance artist and arts educator Aaron Douglas:

Audio Player

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Wednesday, February 23rd, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing. Today we offer a quote from Kansas-born artist and arts educator Aaron Douglas:

“Labor has been one of the most important aspects of our development . . .  It is a thing that we should be proud of, because we have that part of our life that has gone into the building of America. Not only of ourselves, but in the building of American life.”

As a young artist in the 1920s, Douglas illustrated Alain Locke’s The New Negro: An Interpretation as well as James Weldon Johnson’s collection of poems, God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse. Douglas established an expressive, geometric style that drew upon his study of African art and his understanding of the intersection of cubism and art deco.

Douglas created a style that soon became the visual signature of the Harlem Renaissance and earned him the moniker “The Father of African American Art.”

Aspects of Negro Life: Song of the Towers by Aaron Douglas, 1934 (courtesy nypl.org)

Douglas went on to paint several public murals including the Aspects of Negro Life mural series at the Countee Cullen branch of the New York Public Library, which is still there today.

Douglas influenced artists such as Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden, and he schooled countless others while serving as chair of the art department and HBCU Fisk University for over 25 years.

To learn more about Douglas’ life and work, you could read the 1995 biography Art, Race and the Harlem Renaissance by Amy Helene Kirschke, take a look at several of his works on wikiart.org, watch the New York Met’s video about his work on YouTube and check out the links to other sources provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

Sources:

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing, and available at workman.com, Amazon,Bookshop and other online retailers.

Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

(paid links)