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Posts published in “Holidays”

MUSIC MONDAY: “MLK Day 2024” – A Celebration Playlist (LISTEN)

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Happy MLK Holiday and Music Monday. Here is our first playlist of 2024.

MLK Day 2024” is a collection of songs and music from across the globe. They are tracks devoted to struggle, liberation, and celebration.

I’ve included songs like “You’re A Winner,” “How I Got Over,” and “A Change Is Gonna Come” that were the real-time soundtracks to the America’s civil rights struggle in the 1960s.

There’s tracks from the turbulent 1970s and ‘80s from Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Freda Payne, Gil Scott-Heron and others.

We got new and old school hip-hop by Lupe Fiasco, KRS-One, M.I.A. and Kendrick Lamar to name a few.

This 13-hour exploration on shining a light into our societies dark places and making the world a better place features jazz, soul, reggae and afrobeat.

Nina Simone and Max Roach are here beside Uganda’s Bobi Wine and Ivory Coast’s Alpha Blondy.

Please enjoy this daylong celebration of tenacity and hope. See ya next month!

And as always, stay safe, sane, and kind.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Soulful Christmas 2023” – a New Holiday Recordings Playlist (LISTEN)

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Happy Holidays, you all.

We are half way through Hanukkah, with Christmas and Kwanzaa coming up quick. We’ve offered several funky and soulful and jazz and reggae seasonal playlists over the years. Search Spotify by “marlonwest” and they are all still there to enjoy this Yuletide Season.

This Music Monday offering features holiday-themed songs that have all been dropped in 2023.

There are new tracks from new and emerging artists like Cliff Beach, Samara Joy, Fitz and The Tantrums, and the ever-versatile Keke Palmer.

There’s new offers from Mary J. Blige, Brandy, War, and Kirk Franklin. Plus releases from the likes of Johnny Mathis and Carla Thomas.

Hope and yours have a delightful holiday season. Please enjoy this soulful collection offering in the days and weeks to come.

It has been an utter delight to sling good music your way here at Good Black News. See ya in January!

And as always, stay safe, sane, and kind.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Ultimate Soul of the Season” – The Black Christmas Soundtrack – Expanded Edition 2023

by Jeff Meier (FB: Jeff.Meier.90)

Welcome to the holiday season, Good Black News family!  We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving – and are counting down the 25 days of Christmas now that it’s December.

In what’s become a holiday tradition, we’ve updated our now massive Black Christmas music Spotify playlist with a whole heap of new songs. The month of November was spent searching far and wide across the internet for new releases, old classics now on Spotify, and other tunes and artists we missed in previous years.

So here it is – a refreshed and revived “Ultimate Soul of the Season – The Black Christmas Soundtrack – Expanded Edition 2023”.

We’ve now got over 700 songs across 40+ hours (and we’ll add more if some crucial tunes get released in the next few weeks) – with the goal to be one of the most definitive Black Christmas playlists around.

If you’re still subscribed to the list from a previous year, we’re here to let you know it’s now updated and bigger/better than ever.

If you’ve not subscribed, check it out while you are wrapping presents, baking cookies, decorating your tree, or just sitting cozily in front of a nice roaring fire, with football on mute in the next room.

As a reminder, we set out to make a mainstream Christmas radio station that you can use in the background all season long. But in the GBN tradition, the focus is on Black artists (plus occasional duet partners and a little Robin Thicke).

While other holiday radio focuses on Brenda Lee and Bing Crosby, we’ve got Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole. When they play Michael Buble, we play John Legend, or Hamilton star Leslie Odom.

Of course, we’ve got The Jackson 5, Donny Hathaway, the original Eartha Kitt version of “Santa Baby,” Stevie Wonder, and two different renditions of The Temptations doing “Silent Night.” And just like everyone else, Mariah Carey!

We’ve sequenced the list carefully – so that you don’t overload on the same songs, tempos or artists too frequently. You can just let it play – or hit shuffle. Or you can even use it as a base of songs to edit down into your own personal list of favorites.

In addition to soul and pop, there’s some jazz, some gospel, some blues, some a capella, and even disco, reggae and Black country in the mix. Hopefully you find all the classics you need, and some brand new surprises you didn’t know you wanted.

This year’s big new Christmas releases include albums from Brandy (currently starring in the new Netflix hit Best. Christmas. Ever!), jazz star Gregory Porter, and hot new soul star October London.

Ace producer Adam Blackstone has assembled an album with friends that include Keke Palmer and Boyz II Men. And on the traditional side, Grammy-winning Best New Artist Samara Joy has issued an EP, and the legendary Johnny Mathis has issued new tracks as well. We’ve got a couple songs from all of these.

MUSIC MONDAY: “Funky Halloween Music” Playlist (LISTEN)

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Happy first Monday of October, you all!

It’s Halloween time once again, and I’m back with another Funky Halloween Music playlist for this spooky season. Here is 13 hours of more Soul, Reggae, Funk, Jazz, and movie soundtracks.

[spotifyplaybutton play=”https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6Sry7T5O1DwY2mzATClKC6?si=979978a5499a44c7″]

I freely admit to casting a very wide net for this playlist, including tracks simply featured in The Blackening, Nope, Get Out, Us, The Master and others.

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Beyoncé, Gravediggaz, The Weekend, Ella Fitzgerald, Little Simz, Exuma, King Tubby, Geto Boys, Bessie Smith, The Specials, Ray Parker Jr., and others are all present on the ever-evolving collection of Halloween music.

This music won’t scare trick-or-treaters from your porch — you can use my collections, “Blacula Strikes!: Black Horror Music” and “Phantom Of The Panther: Black Horror Scores and More” for that.

However, this collection will keep your spooky spirits up all month long.

Until next month, stay safe, sane, and kind.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)

Good Black News Wishes You and Yours a Happy Easter in 2023

Here’s hoping that you, your loved ones, colleagues and friends are partaking of only the best during this year’s Easter celebration – enjoy your blessings and the day!

In gratitude,

The GBN Staff

MUSIC MONDAY: Groove Christmas 2022 (LISTEN)

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

For many of us 2022 was a time of recovering from lockdown. It was a return to normalcy for many of us. I am wishing you all safe and wonderful Holiday Season.

I am more than delighted to share this week’s playlist, Groove Christmas 2022, just in time to share and gather with friends and family.

[spotifyplaybutton play=”https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2DpEkDw9zhgXGNr4hcGLPo?si=9894be07cf80431d”]

As usual this is freewheeling and “afroclectic” collection season tunes from several genres. Soul, Jazz, Gospel, Reggae, and many other styles are on hand for the Christmastime collection. You know, Nat King Cole, Marvin Gaye, Eartha Kitt, Donny Hathaway, Sharon Jones and other Christmas standard-bearers are on hand.

Though there are artist like Aloe Blacc, Vika & Linda, Kontawa, and DRAM with recent releases.

Whether you are staying home, or traveling, please have a wonderful, and peaceful, holiday season.

It has been an honor and delight to share music with you all here on Good Black News for another trip around the sun. I’ll see you back here in January with a round-up of this year.

And until such time stay safe, sane, and kind.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)

MUSIC MONDAY: Ultimate “Soul of the Season” Christmas Soundtrack – Deluxe Expanded Edition (LISTEN)

by Jeff Meier (FB: Jeff.Meier.90)

We hope that all of you in the Good Black News family are enjoying the holiday season and all the prep that goes along with it.

As many longtime readers know, Good Black News couldn’t survive the holidays without our Spotify Christmas music mixes playing in the background.

So, today, we’ve updated one of our most popular playlists ever to share with you again, and offer you the chance to deep dive into holiday music that is a little different than the rotation of 20 Andy Williams, Burl Ives and Bing Crosby tunes you might hear on the regular radio.

Back for Year Three is our Ultimate Soul of the Season Christmas Soundtrack – Deluxe Expanded Edition – now filled with more than 60 new tracks, and lasting overall for over 34 hours.

[spotifyplaybutton play=”https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2FHQ8HVPzGR0pd9R4Tu1Zm?si=77040f88ca504bed”]

While you’re wrapping, decorating, baking, or just sipping eggnog by the fireplace, our playlist is a go-to that can last all season long.

Of course you can set it on shuffle and never know what’s coming next, or just let it play through.  We’ve carefully planned it out so that if you just let it play, you’ll get a mix of tempos and artists and soulful styles singing songs you know by heart mixed in with forgotten coulda-been classics and brand new originals that are classics in the making.

As a reminder, musically we’ve set out to create our own ‘radio’-like Christmas playlist, but as only GBN could, comprised entirely of songs performed by Black artists (or in the rare case of Robin Thicke, artists singing in a soulful tradition).

Of course, we’ve got Donny Hathaway, The Jackson 5, The Temptations‘ “Silent Night,” and plenty of Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Mathis, and yes, Mariah Carey.

But as we did last year, we’ve refreshed the playlist this year with a bunch of new tracks – titles that are freshly released in 2022, as well as older tunes that are new discoveries for us, and even some famous songs that had never before appeared on Spotify.

In the era of streaming music, new Christmas music is being released much differently than it used to be.  There are still a few new full-length Christmas ‘albums’ being issued.

Among them are collections from Alicia Keys, Regina Belle, and recent Emmy groundbreaker Sheryl Lee Ralph (working with gospel producer/artist B. Slade on her new release entitled ‘Sleigh.’).

We’ve got songs from all of the new releases above (although currently Alicia Keys has only made one single from her album available on Spotify).

Happy Thanksgiving to All and Congratulations to the Winners of “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day® Calendar for 2023!

As promised last week, GBN is giving thanks today to three members of the GBN community who entered our giveaway for the chance to receive one free copy each of our “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day® Calendar for 2023 .

Congratulations to Erica Donaldson-Ellison, Lise Andreasen and Karla Stewart-Tyson! We will be contacting you each shortly via email to arrange delivery of your free calendars from Workman Publishing.

Also, thank you so much to all who entered the giveaway. If you didn’t win today — good news! Due to popular demand, we will be holding a second drawing on December 9 and will announce three more lucky winners!

No need to enter again if you already have — you will automatically remain in the running.

To those who have yet to enter – it’s not too late! For a chance to win in December, send your first name, last name and email address with the subject heading “A Year of Good Black News Giveaway” to goodblacknewsgiveaways@yahoo.com from now until 11:59PM PT on December 8. One entry per unique email.

Already a Top 10 release in Multicultural Calendars on Amazon, A Year of Good Black News is filled with facts, history, bios, quotes, jokes and trivia in easy-to-read entries delivered on the daily.

In case you can’t wait to see if you’re the lucky winner, or if you want to buy copies as gifts for family, friends, teachers or loved ones,  you can use the code: CYBER22 at Workman.com or pageaday.com until November 30 to receive 25% OFF site-wide, plus Free Shipping on orders over $25.

If you want to support a Black-owned bookstore with your purchase, order through this link on Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/shop/esowonbooks, search “Good Black News Calendar” to add it to your cart, and a portion of the sale will go to directly to Eso Won Books in Los Angeles, CA.

Or, if you prefer, you can also order from the retailers below:

Onward and upward… and good luck!

“Food Griot” Tonya Hopkins to Host “The Kwanzaa Menu” Online Series on Food Network this December

The seven days of Kwanzaa just got tastier.

According to Variety.com“The Kwanzaa Menu” in concert with the beginning of Kwanzaa, will debut on December 26 on FoodNetwork.com.

Hosted by culinary scholar Tonya Hopkins, the series will discuss each of Kwanzaa’s seven principles using a special dish as the springboard to conversation.

To quote from Variety.com:

“Celebrating Kwanzaa through good food and drink not only allows us to reconnect to the vibrance of our culinary history that greatly informs who we are as Black people, our very identities — but also to take pride in that which has so profoundly shaped American foodways at large, for centuries,” Hopkins says of the series produced by Best Wishes Studio.

Per Food Network, “In each of the seven episodes Tonya and a special guest prepare a recipe that is connected to the day’s celebration. Together they will commemorate each day of Kwanzaa by cooking meaningful dishes and discussing the Nguzu Saba, the seven principles, and history of the holiday. When presented together, the collective dishes create a meaningful and celebratory Kwanzaa Menu.”

The series is a family affair for Hopkins, filmed at her family’s South Orange County, Calif. home and featuring guest appearances from her father Dr. Thomas A. Parham and sister Kenya Parham, who also serves as a writer and producer.

“Both my and Tonya’s life work centers around doing all things ‘for the culture!’ This project was a deeply personal labor of love — love for our people, love for ourselves, and love for the principles that anchor our lives,” cultural strategist Kenya says of the project. “To collaborate on this production with my brilliant sister, our family, an all-star (majority Black) crew led by Best Wishes Studio and Food Network is the kind of kismet synergy dreams are made of! We know we’ve created a cultural gem with ‘The Kwanzaa Menu’ and are tremendously excited for the world to receive it and celebrate with us!”

Read more about each episode’s inspiration, special guests and delicious dishes below:

“Umoja” (Unity) | Amazing Hibiscus Mulled Wine Kwanzaa Mimosa – Tonya is joined by her sister, Kenya Parham, to prepare a recipe celebrating the principle of Umoja, which emphasizes the importance of unity in all areas, including family, community, nation and race. Traditionally libations, served in a Kikombe Cha Umoja (Unity Cup) are presented to acknowledge and honor the family units of present and past.

“Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)” | Crispy Akara (Black-Eyed Pea Fritters) with Savory Smoky Sesame Sauce – The principle of Kujichagulia focuses on building one’s identity as a person and a community and in honor of that, Tonya whips up a dish with the help of special guest, Kareem Grimes. The majority of Black Americans descended from (or passed through) the West African region and the recipe is a way to make culinary contact and acknowledge that point of origin and ancestral journey.

GBN GIVEAWAY: Enter by 11/23 For Chance to Win Free “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day® Calendar for 2023!

Good Black News, in collaboration with Workman Publishing, is getting into the holiday spirit once again — by giving away three copies of our “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day® Calendar for 2023 on Thanksgiving Day!

A Year of Good Black News is filled with facts, history, bios, quotes, jokes and trivia in easy-to-read pages delivered on the daily, and GBN will be selecting at random three entrants to each receive one free copy of the calendar.

To enter for a chance to win, send your first and last name and an email address with the subject heading “A Year of Good Black News Giveaway” to goodblacknewsgiveaways@yahoo.com from now until 11:59PM PST on November 23.

One entry per email, and we will announce the names of the three winners in a post on Thanksgiving, then contact them for mailing addresses to receive their individual calendar prize.

In case you can’t wait to see if you’re the lucky winner and/or want to buy copies for gifts to family, friends, teachers, or loved ones, you can order at Workman.com or pageaday.com using code: CYBER22 from now until November 30, you will receive 25% off.

If you want to support a Black-owned bookstore with your purchase, order through this link on Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/shop/esowonbooks, search “Good Black News Calendar” to add it to your cart, and a portion of the sale will go to directly to Eso Won Books in Los Angeles, CA.

The calendar is also available through the following online retailers:

Onward and upward… and good luck!