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Black Lexicon: What “Afrofuturism” Means (LISTEN)

Black Lexicon: What “Afrofuturism” Means (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on May 3, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

In today’s Daily Drop, we explore the term “Afrofuturism” and its origin. To read about it and see links to sources, read on. To hear about it, press PLAY:

[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 here on the main website. Full transcript below]:

Hey, this is 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, May 3rd, 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 word? “Afrofuturism.”

[Excerpt from “Space Is The Place” by Sun Ra]

“Afrofuturism” is a term that was coined in the 1994 essay “Black to the Future” by Mark Dery that describes a movement within Black culture from the 1950s to the present that employs science fiction and fantasy as frameworks to reimagine the African diaspora in music, art, literature, film, and fashion.

Musicians such as Sun Ra, who you are hearing right now, George Clinton, Janelle Monae, Erykah Badu; visual artists such as David Alabo, Ellen Gallagher, Kerry James Marshall, Kaylan F. Michael; and authors such as Octavia E. Butler, Samuel R. Delany, Tananarive Due and N.K. Jemisin all explore Afrofuturism in their work.

To learn more about “Afrofuturism,” read Mark Dery’s 1994 essay, available online in PDF, read Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture by Ytasha L. Womack, Afrofuturism 2.0: The Rise fo Astro-Blackness edited by Reynaldo Anderson and Charles E. Jones.

 You can also watch the short PBS documentary called Afrofuturism 101 at pbs.org, download the This American Life “We Are The Future” podcast episode on Afrofuturism by Neil Drumming, check out the list of other Afrofuturism-themed podcasts on player.fm, and listen to the awesome “Space is The Place” Afrofuturism playlist curated by Good Black News contributor Marlon West.

Links to these sources and more are 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, written, produced and hosted by me, Lori Lakin Hutcherson.

Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

Excerpts from Sun Ra’s “Space is the Place” are included under Fair Use.

If you like these Daily Drops, follow us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon,Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

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

Sources:

(amazon links are paid links)

Learn about Brad Lomax, Black Panther and Disability Rights Activist Who Co-Lead the “504 Sit-In” (LISTEN)

Learn about Brad Lomax, Black Panther and Disability Rights Activist Who Co-Lead the “504 Sit-In” (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 28, 2022

[Photo credit: HolLynn D’Lil. Brad Lomax, center, next to activist Judy Heumann at a rally in 1977 at Lafayette Square in Washington.]

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today, GBN celebrates Brad Lomax, the Black Panther Party member and disability activist who helped lead the “504 Sit In” to demand the federal government provide accessibility in a federal buildings and institutions.

To read about Lomax, read on. To hear about him, press PLAY:

[You can subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or listen every day here on the main page. Full transcript below]:

Hey, this is 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, April 28th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

As a young adult, Black Panther Party member Brad Lomax was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. When he started using a wheelchair every day, Lomax began to notice an often unseen “ism” — ableism.

Public buildings and transit without ramps. Inaccessible schools, housing, and workplaces. Lomax joined the Center for Independent Living, the Bay Area group which successfully lobbied for curb cuts on street corners.

In 1977, Lomax helped lead a protest that became known as the “504 Sit-In” in the San Francisco Federal Building, where disabled activists took the federal government to task for not implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which required accessibility in all federal programs and institutions.

The protest lasted longer than any other sit in in United States history. The protestors were assisted by Lomax’s fellow Black Panthers, who delivered provisions to the activists daily.

After a month, the government finally began to implement Section 504 in all federal programs and institutions and this action helped pave the way for the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.

To learn more about Brad Lomax, the 504 sit in and the disability rights movement, read the 2020 New York Times feature article on Lomax from its Overlooked No More series, read The Disability Rights Movement: From Charity to Confrontation by Doris Fleischer and Frieda James from 2011, and watch the 2020 documentary Crip Camp, now on Netflix.

Links to these sources and more are provided in today’s show notes and in the episodes full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, written, produced and hosted by me, Lori Lakin Hutcherson.

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

If you like these Daily Drops, follow us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

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

Sources:

Black Lexicon: The Origins of “Bop” (LISTEN)

Black Lexicon: The Origins of “Bop” (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 26, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

For #JazzAppreciationMonth, we explore the term “bop” — a word often used today to describe a song with a good groove. I

ts musical reference origins however, are rooted in the early 1940s when “bop” was used to describe an new and exciting intricate form of jazz. To read about it, read on. To hear about it, press PLAY:

[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. Full transcript below]:

Hey, this is 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, April 26th, 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 is another one in honor of #JazzAppreciationMonth… “Bop.”

[Excerpt from “Be-Bop” by Dizzy Gillespie]

“Bop” is a slang term most currently used to mean a really good song, but originally used to reference the jazz genre “bebop,” “rebop” or “hard bop.”

Invented in the 1940s and 1950s by musicians like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Charlie Christian, Max Roach, Miles Davis, Mary Lou Williams and Thelonious Monk – right now you’re listening to the song called “Be-Bop” by Dizzy Gillespie, originally written, recorded and released by him in 1945.

The “bop” style of playing consisted of intricate phrasings and harmonic improvisations over chord melodies of standards as well as original compositions. Dizzy Gillespie even titled his 1979 autobiography To Be or Not to Bop.

To learn more about the term “bop,” links to sources are 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, written, produced and hosted by me, Lori Lakin Hutcherson.

Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

The excerpt from “Be Bop” by Dizzy Gillespie is included under Fair Use.

If you like these Daily Drops, follow us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

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

Sources:

(amazon links are paid links)

Artist Derrick Adams Secures $1.25 Million from Mellon Foundation to Create Black Baltimore Digital Database

Artist Derrick Adams Secures $1.25 Million from Mellon Foundation to Create Black Baltimore Digital Database

By goodblacknews on April 24, 2022

[Photo: Derrick Adams; Photographer: Mark Poucher]

According to news.artnet.com, Brooklyn-based, Baltimore-born artist Derrick Adams will receive $1.25 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to build the Black Baltimore Digital Database, a new archive cataloguing important cultural contributions by Black Baltimoreans.

The archive will catalogue local achievements in art, entrepreneurship, and other areas and will be developed over the next three years, with the Mellon Foundation supporting two years of organizational capacity.

“The Black American experience has strong roots in Baltimore—I am both honored and eager to share this project with the city,” Adams said in a statement. “It will live as a modernized historical society, whose dedication is equally important and inclusive.”

To quote news.artnet.com:

With the funding, the database will set up shop in a new building in the city’s historic Waverly neighborhood. It will feature a gallery (named after the late Baltimore photographer I. Henry Phillips, Sr.,), a digital archive lab, and a screening room, as well as a cafe and gift shop that will spotlight local Black-owned businesses.

The Baltimore Museum of Art and the Johns Hopkins campus are in close proximity to the future site of the database. It is also near Last Resort Artist Retreat, a residency program for Black creatives that was also founded by Adams.

The two upstart initiatives will work together closely and collaborate on programming. Charm City Cultural Cultival, a local non-profit supporting cultural projects in Baltimore’s inner city, will also contribute to programming efforts.

“Our goal,” Adams explained, “is to provide a distinct entry point for a wider network of initiatives. This will not only support our archival endeavors, but also local community building—social engagement through events, workshops, and conversation.

Read more: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/mellon-foundation-derrick-adams-black-culture-database-2096560

Remembering Activist Hazel M. Johnson, the “Mother of Environmental Justice,” on #EarthDay

Remembering Activist Hazel M. Johnson, the “Mother of Environmental Justice,” on #EarthDay

By goodblacknews on April 22, 2022

[Photo: Hazel M. Johnson via peopleforcommunityrecovery.org]

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today, GBN celebrates Hazel M. Johnson, the community activist who sought to clean up the “Toxic Doughnut” that encircled her community on the South Side of Chicago, and in the process became known as the “Mother of Environmental Justice.”

To read about Johnson, read on. To hear about her, press PLAY:

[You can subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or listen every day here on the main page. Full transcript below]:

Hey, this is 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, April 22nd, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Known as the “Mother of Environmental Justice,” Hazel M. Johnson did not choose the path that lead her to her title, but rather was called to it when her husband died of cancer in 1969 and her world was turned upside down.

Soon after his passing, the widowed mother of seven learned from a local TV program that people who lived on the South Side of Chicago had the highest cancer rates in the city. Hazel was determined to find out why.

Johnson discovered that chemical companies, refineries, and steel mills nearby were shooting toxins into the air and dumping industrial waste into the local river, which locals fished in, making Altgeld Gardens where she lived a perfect storm of air, water and land contamination which Johnson herself would later call the “Toxic Doughnut.”

She also found out that Altgeld Gardens had a toxic past that went even deeper.

Originally established as a federal housing project for World War II African American veterans, Altgeld Gardens was built atop land that had been an industrial sludge dump for the Pullman Motor Company from 1863 until the early 20th century.

Altgeld Gardens, it turned out, had the highest concentration of hazardous waste sites in the entire nation.

Hazel Johnson went door-to-door collecting data from friends and neighbors and started calling city and state health departments to investigate the industrial pollution in her community.

In 1982, she founded an organization called People for Community Recovery to fight environmental racism at the grassroots level.

PCR, made up mainly of mothers and local residents who were volunteers, pushed for city and state officials to do epidemiological studies of Altgeld Gardens because before Hazel started pushing and organizing, no legislative mandate existed to address how industrial pollution was affecting the quality of life for low-income and minority communities.

Hazel and PCR also worked to get rid of the toxins in their physical living spaces and put pressure on the Chicago Housing Authority to remove asbestos from Altgeld Gardens.

Johnson was equally instrumental in convincing city health officials to test the drinking water at Maryland Manor, a South Side neighborhood dependent on well water. Hazel convinced city and state officials to meet her in Altgeld Gardens and she took them on a “toxic tour” so they could see the problems first-hand.

After this tour, tests were conducted in 1984, which revealed cyanide and toxins in the water, and that lead to the installation of new water and sewer lines.

Easter Flowers for Composer and Musician Thomas A. Dorsey, the “Father of Gospel Music” (LISTEN)

Easter Flowers for Composer and Musician Thomas A. Dorsey, the “Father of Gospel Music” (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 17, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

On Easter Sunday, GBN celebrates Thomas A. Dorsey, who once worked as Ma Rainey‘s pianist and musical director, and wrote and sang blues songs as the “Georgia Tom” half of the Georgia Tom and Tampa Red duo before revolutionizing gospel music by integrating the feeling of the blues into sacred songs.

To read about Dorsey, read on. To hear about him, press PLAY:

[You can subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or listen every day here on the main page. Full transcript below]:

Hey, this is 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, April 17, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

[Cue “Roll Jordan Roll” by the Fisk Jubilee Quartet]

Gospel music existed before Georgia native Thomas Dorsey turned his ear and pen to it, but it was never the same after.

Working most famously as the piano player and musical director for blues legend Gertrude “Ma” Rainey in the 1920s under the moniker “Georgia Tom.” Despite this success, Dorsey fell into a prolonged period of depression for almost two years and barely performed.

In 1928, Dorsey attended a spirited church service where he claimed a minister pulled a live serpent from his throat. From that point on, Dorsey vowed to dedicate himself to composing gospel music. Dorsey wrote “If You See My Savior” in honor of a friend who passed, which combined a blues feeling into a more traditional hymnal structure:

[Excerpt of “If You See My Savior”]

Dorsey tried to sell his new sacred songs directly to publishers and churches but initially had no luck and returned to writing the blues. With duet partner Tampa Red, as “Georgia Tom” Dorsey had a big hit in 1928, selling over seven million copies of “It’s Tight Like That”:

[Excerpt of “It’s Tight Like That”]

This type of “dirty blues” or “Hokum” songs proved to be popular and the duo recorded and performed for years until Dorsey finally turned to gospel music for good.

He formed a gospel blues choir in Chicago, which helped the new style catch on, and soon became the musical director for Pilgrim Baptist Church and running his own music publishing company.

Dorsey worked with a young Mahalia Jackson in the late 1920s and originally composed for Jackson what became a beloved song not only in gospel blues circles, but country & western as well.

[Excerpt of “Peace in the Valley” by Red Foley & the Sunshine Boys]

“Peace in the Valley” has been recorded by over the decades by artists such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Little Richard, Red Foley & the Sunshine Boys, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton.

And while he was still in his gospel group in the 1960s, Sam Cooke and his Soul Stirrers took their turn in the valley as well:

[Excerpt of “Peace in the Valley” by Sam Cooke & the Soul Stirrers]

In Dorsey’s lifetime, which was long – he lived to 93 – Dorsey composed over 3,000 songs, including the one Martin Luther King, Jr. said was his favorite, the one Mahalia Jackson ended up singing at his funeral, “Take My Hand, Precious Lord”:

[Excerpt of “Take My Hand, Precious Lord”]

Dorsey’s songs changed the sound of sacred music and influenced generations to come, which is why he is often called “The Father of Gospel Music.”

Dorsey has been inducted into the Gospel Hall of Fame, the Blues Hall of Fame, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2002, the Library of Congress honored Dorsey by adding his album Precious Lord: New Recordings of the Great Songs of Thomas A. Dorsey, to the United States National Recording Registry.

To learn more about Thomas Dorsey, watch the 1982 musical documentary Say Amen, Somebody, currently available on YouTube and DVD, check out his collection of papers archived at Fisk University, read 1994’s The Rise of Gospel Blues: The Music of Thomas Andrew Dorsey in the Urban Church by Michael W. Harris, which you can borrow from the Internet Archive, and 2015’s Anointed to Sing the Gospel: The Levitical Legacy of Thomas A. Dorsey by Kathryn B. Kemp.

https://youtu.be/_9IJljbyVok

You can also watch 2005’s The Story of Gospel Music documentary, which is currently available on DVD.

And every year, Dorsey’s hometown of Villa Rica, Georgia holds an annual Thomas A. Dorsey Birthplace Heritage Festival of gospel music. This year’s will be held on June 25thand 26th.

Links to these sources and more are provided in today’s show notes and the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

And before we go, let’s hear a clip of Thomas Dorsey himself speaking on the meaning of gospel:

“Down through the ages gospel – what? What did they say was? You mean to tell me you don’t know that good news? On down to the ages, gospel was good news. Now if you don’t know that I’ll rush you out of here myself.”

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, written, produced and hosted by yours truly, Lori Lakin Hutcherson. Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

“Roll Jordan Roll” by the Fisk Jubilee Singers is in the Public Domain.

Excerpts of songs composed by Thomas A. Dorsey are included under Fair Use.

If you like these Daily Drops, follow us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon,Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

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

Sources:

(amazon links are paid links)

Learn About Mack Robinson, Olympic Silver Medalist, Community Activist and Jackie’s Older Brother (LISTEN)

Learn About Mack Robinson, Olympic Silver Medalist, Community Activist and Jackie’s Older Brother (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 16, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

In yesterday’s daily drop we celebrated sports legend Jackie Robinson. But did you know his older brother Mack Robinson had his own claim to sports fame?

Matthew Mackenzie “Mack” Robinson was an outstanding track and field athlete who won the silver medal in the 200-meter event at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, finishing just four tenths of a second behind Jesse Owens.

To read about Robinson, read on. To hear about him, press PLAY:

[You can subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or listen every day here on the main page. Full transcript below]:

Pasadena Robinson Memorial

Hey, this is 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, April 16th, 2022, based on the format of the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

In yesterday’s daily drop we celebrated some of Jackie Robinson’s greatest achievements in the realm of sports. But did you know his older brother Mack Robinson has his own sports claims to fame as well?

Born in 1914, Matthew Mackenzie “Mack” Robinson was an outstanding track and field athlete who went from competing at Pasadena City College in California to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin after local Pasadena business owners paid his way to the Olympic trials in New York.

With no coaching and worn-down shoes – the same ones he’d used all season to compete with at junior college, Robinson won a silver medal in the 200-meter event, finishing just four tenths of a second behind the gold medal winner from Ohio State University who became world-renowned for his track and field feats in those same Olympics — Jesse Owens.

Mack Robinson with his Silver Medal from the 1936 Olympics

And for Robinson, with all he was up against, was rightfully proud of his achievement, as he explained in a 1985 interview conducted for the educational series, Black Champions:

[Clip of Mack Robinson]

“You know, we had sixty-four individuals that was in the two hundred meters in the very beginning, and they had to be eliminated down to eight.

So when you look at, you’re inside of the eight out of sixty-four, that’s not bad; and you go on down, and you’re number two out of the eight and, which covers the whole world, to me, it’s great.

I have no qualms about finishing second. I’ve enjoyed placing second. My silver medal has a lot of meaning to me, and I believe it has as much meaning in it as the gold.”

After the Olympics, Robinson went on to attend the University of Oregon, where in 1938 he won the National Collegiate Athletic Association and Amateur Athletic Union titles in the 220-yard dash.

Robinson left college soon after to return to Pasadena to work and care of his family. Robinson worked menial jobs for the city, and it’s been reported that he lost his job as a street sweeper when Pasadena fired all of its Black municipal employees in retaliation for a court order demanding it desegregate its public pools.

Though Robinson later went on to work as a Park Director in East Hollywood, he stayed locally active in Pasadena at all times, determined to advocate for the betterment of his community. He regularly went down to City Hall and pushed for playgrounds, YMCAs, swimming pools — anything that would help keep the local youth active and out of trouble.

Robinson also lobbied for better books in the libraries, fought to keep the local parks clean, safe and free of drugs and alcohol, and he organized clothing drives to help the less fortunate in different parts of the country.

Robinson is even reported to have gone after a local liquor store where neighbors were being accosted. He took down a local den of gambling and prostitution, and he also crusaded to get streets, sidewalks and gutters fixed. Robinson was often seen at the Pasadena Board of City Directors meetings, and himself is quoted as saying, “I’m a thorn in their side. I’m a squeaky wheel that gets the grease, but what I’m trying to get is lubricant for a lifetime.”

Robinson eventually got a job working as a truant officer at John Muir High School, the same high school he attended in Pasadena, and also worked in that capacity to help keep youth out of trouble.

In 1981, Mack Robinson was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame and in 1995 he was inducted into the University of Oregon Hall of Fame.

In 1984 Robinson was part of a select group chosen to carry a large Olympic flag in the Opening Ceremonies of the Los Angeles Olympics.

And in 1997, Mack Robinson received one of the best recognitions of all the dedication he put in locally and civically. The memorial created in Pasadena, called the Pasadena Robinson Memorial, not only honored his famous younger brother Jackie for his nationally-renowned achievements, but also honored Mack for his lifetime of activism in the community.

While the 9-foot-tall bust of Jackie faces northeast towards Brooklyn, where he famously integrated Major League Baseball, Mack’s equally tall bust looks directly at Pasadena City Hall.

Mack Robinson passed in the year 2000, and in that same year Pasadena City College, which he attended and which he represented on the track and field, dedicated its stadium to him. And the United States Post Office named its new Pasadena branch the Matthew “Mack” Robinson Post Office Building.

To learn more about Mack Robinson, watch the 2021 CBS Los Angeles feature story about him on YouTube, the 2016 documentary Olympic Pride, American Prejudice which follows the 18 Black athletes who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics and that’s currently streaming on Amazon Video.

You can also watch the 1985 Black Champions interview in its entirety in the Washington University at St. Louis archives site, or listen to the 2016 Hidden History of Los Angeles podcast episode on Robinson.

Links to these sources and more are provided in today’s show notes and the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a bonus daily drop of Good Black News, written, produced and hosted by me, Lori Lakin Hutcherson. Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

If you like these Daily Drops, follow us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

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

Sources:

GBN’s Daily Drop: Poet and Pulitzer Prize Nominee Vivian Ayers Allen (LISTEN)

GBN’s Daily Drop: Poet and Pulitzer Prize Nominee Vivian Ayers Allen (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 8, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet Vivian Ayers Allen not only infused the world with her art (her poem “On Status” was recently sampled by Solange on her 2019 When I Get Home album) but also with artists.

This includes famous daughters Phylicia Rashad and Debbie Allen as well as the children she’s inspired on the site of her former alma mater, the historic Brainerd Institute in Chester, South Carolina, via her “Workshops in Open Fields” program to educate preschool children in the arts.

To read about her, read on. To hear about her, press PLAY:

(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.) Full transcript below:

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, April 8th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

The words of Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet Vivian Ayers Allen have stood the test of time – and space. Her poem “Hawk,” an allegory of freedom made analogous to space flight, was published in 1957 just before the launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite sent from Earth into orbit.

Enlarged reproductions of select lines were exhibited at NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. In 1997 Allen’s family purchased her alma mater, the historic Brainerd Institute in Chester, South Carolina, and soon began offering “Workshops in Open Fields” to educate preschool children in the arts.

And in 2019, fellow Houstonian Solange Knowles used a sample of Allen’s poem “On Status” as read by her two famous daughters – Phylicia Rashad and Debbie Allen – on Knowles’ acclaimed When I Get Home album.

To learn more about Vivian Ayers Allen, check out Spice of Dawns, her 1952 poetry collection, the Brainerd Institute Heritage website, and links to more sources provided in today’s show notes and 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.

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. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

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

Sources:

Black Lexicon: What “Cutting Contest” Means (LISTEN)

Black Lexicon: What “Cutting Contest” Means (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 4, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

In today’s Daily Drop, for #JazzAppreciationMonth, we explore the term “Cutting Contest.” To hear about it, press PLAY:

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. Full transcript below:

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, April 4th, 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 for #JazzAppreciationMonth? “Cutting Contest.”

A “cutting contest” is a battle between two musicians where the “prize” could range from bragging rights to a coveted job.

The term was first applied to face-offs between pianists in the 1920s and later evolved to include competitions between singers, horn players, drummers, guitarists or virtually any musicians who squared off against each other on the same instrument.

A lasting form of the cutting contest is the improvisational trading of solos in jazz. It’s also a precursor to modern-day breakdancing and rap battles.

To learn more about cutting contests, you can watch a cool, fictionalized cutting contest from the 1977 television movie Scott Joplin starring Billy Dee Williams as Scott Joplin and Clifton Davis as respected St. Louis pianist Louis Chauvin on YouTube, and also 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.

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MUSIC MONDAY: Celebrating “Summer of Soul” and Questlove’s Best Documentary Oscar Win (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: Celebrating “Summer of Soul” and Questlove’s Best Documentary Oscar Win (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 28, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

There was a great moment that happened at last night’s Academy Awards, but because it happened directly after a shocking moment, it’s not getting the all the flowers and love it should.

So for this #MusicMonday, we are fully celebrating the fact that Summer of Soul, the feature documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival directed by The Roots co-founder and musical impresario Questlove, won a much-deserved Oscar. And if you (like so many of us) missed his acceptance speech, here it is:

https://youtu.be/IPbOF4wpEVw

Still streaming on Hulu and available on DVD, Summer of Soul is an education and gift to the eyes and ears and if you don’t currently have access to Summer of Soul, the movie, listening to the music from the acts featured in the film is the next best thing:

I’ve included the playlist of the official soundtrack album along with an extended playlist.

From Sly and the Family Stone to the Fifth Dimension, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Edwin Hawkins Singers, The Staples Singers, Mongo Santamaria, David Ruffin, Mahalia Jackson, Mavis Staples and others, the music on display and the stories behind the event are close to (if not completely) mind-blowing.

And if you need another push to check it out (or revisit it), here’s the trailer of the documentary:

Thank you, again, Questlove and all the artists involved that helped bring the “Summer of Soul” into our lives for all seasons.  You all truly made — and resurrected — important cultural history.

Enjoy!