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Born On This Day in 1973: Producer and Philanthropist Pharrell Williams (LISTEN)

Born On This Day in 1973: Producer and Philanthropist Pharrell Williams (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 5, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

As Pharrell Williams takes his 49th orbit around the sun today, GBN celebrates the music and contributions to the culture and community made by this prolific and inventive force of nature.

To read about him, read on. To hear about him, 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 Tuesday, April 5th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Born April 5, 1973 in Virginia Beach, VA, prolific music producer, composer and artist Pharrell Williams (“Drop It Like It’s Hot,” “Get Lucky,” “Hollaback Girl”) has also excelled as a fashion designer (Billionaire Boys Club, G Star Raw, Adidas) as a film and television producer (Dope, Hidden Figures, the Amazon Prime series Harlem) …and, importantly, as a philanthropist.

In 2019 Williams offered “A-List internships” to 114 college-bound high school students to help set them on their career paths.

More recently, Williams co-founded the Black Ambition Initiative to fund Black and Latinx entrepreneurs in tech, design, healthcare and consumer products and services start-ups. So, let’s wish a “Happy” birthday to this “Beautiful” Neptune on his 49th trip around the sun.

To learn more about Pharrell, read his books, Places and Spaces I’ve Been and Pharrell: A Fish Doesn’t Know It’s Wet, as well as his 2016 children’s board book Happy, check out the 2016 documentary Pharrell Williams: Happy Go Lucky on Amazon Prime Video or Free Movies on YouTube, Pharrell’s interview on The Breakfast Club, his 2019 conversation with Rick Rubin on GQ’s YouTube channel, or his 2021 appearance on PBS’s Finding Your Roots.You can also check out the 2020 Netflix series Voices of Fire, Pharrell’s interview with Mark Ronson on The FADER Uncovered podcast, and Pharrell’ own podcast, OTHERtone.

And, it goes without saying, stream or buy any and/or all of the innovative, industry-changing music he’s produced and performed over the decades.

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.

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

Excerpts from “Frontin’”, “Happy,” “Beautiful” and “Brand New” by Pharrell Williams permitted under fair use.

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, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

(amazon links are paid)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Grammys Got Soul” – Every Best R&B Song Winner Playlist (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Grammys Got Soul” – Every Best R&B Song Winner Playlist (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 4, 2022

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

At yesterday’s Grammy Awards, power group Silk Sonic (featuring Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars) and its signature song “Leave The Door Open” had a huge night, winning in both major categories for singles — Song of the Year and Record of the Year.

FYI, Silk Sonic was not nominated for Album of the Year — that Grammy went to Jon Batiste for We Are.

Black artists weren’t always so frequently celebrated in the key main categories.  As recently as 2015, there were no songs performed by Black artists in the Song of the Year or Record of the Year categories.  And wins for Black artists in the main categories have been infrequent through many of the past 6 decades+ of the Awards.

The Grammys, of course, have honored Black artists in the R&B and Hip Hop categories.  And they did it with Silk Sonic and “Leave The Door Open” last night too, as it tied with Jazmine Sullivan for Best R&B Performance and won in one more singles category that wasn’t televised — Best R&B Song.

In today’s #MusicMonday playlist, “Grammys’ Got Soul: All the Grammy R&B Song Winners,” we’re celebrating all those great tunes in the longest consistently running R&B Grammy category.

It’s a favorite sport of music fans to second guess whether  the Grammys got it right or not, but, as you’ll hear in today’s list, almost all the winners have ended up being — like “Leave The Door Open” is already — truly classic jams.

If you’ve been watching the Grammys for years, you know by now that the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences gives awards in Performance and Record categories (which go to the artists) and in the Song category (going to the songwriters – but not the artist, unless they also wrote the song).

In the twists and turns of the Grammy Awards, a single R&B Performance of the Year honor has actually not been given out consistently through the years.

Although it was awarded up through most of the ’60s (completely ignoring Motown and Stax, by the way, in favor of Ray Charles), it was then discontinued in favor of separate performance categories for Male R&B Performance, Female R&B Performance and Duo or Group R&B Performance – three categories that awarded artists up until 2011, when they were combined once again into a collective R&B Performance of the Year Award.

So R&B Song of the Year essentially became a unique declaration of the Grammys’ top choice in R&B music, starting in 1969 with Otis Redding‘s “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” and continuing to today.

It’s clear that the Grammys favored some trends and artists more than others.  After ignoring Motown in the 1960s, Grammy jumped into Motown fandom in the 1970s with Stevie Wonder and The Temptations – but in the process managed to almost completely ignore Philly Soul.

The Academy began to embrace Disco, but while awarding a Donna Summer song one year, the Grammy voters managed to relegate all the biggest Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards compositions to runner-up status through the years, yet somehow ended up awarding the R&B Song of the Year in 1978 to Leo Sayer‘s “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” over The Commodores’ “Easy” and “Brick House,” Thelma Houston‘s “Don’t Leave Me This Way” and The Emotions’ “Best of My Love.”

By the 1980s, the Grammys favored slick adult soul in the vein of Luther Vandross, Stephanie Mills, Earth, Wind & Fire’s “After the Love Has Gone” and George Benson over more funky fare.

In fact, Prince won the R&B Song Grammy for penning “I Feel For You” when it was a hit for Chaka Khan. But his first R&B Song of the Year nomination for one of his own recordings – for “Kiss” in 1987 – was defeated by Anita Baker‘s breakthrough “Sweet Love.”

The 1990s brought multiple wins for Babyface compositions for Boyz II Men and Whitney Houston, a win for Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis for their work with Janet Jackson, and yes, a win for R. Kelly.

And, if you wanted to win a R&B Song Grammy in the 2000s, you should have been writing songs for female performers, because the decade’s honorees were dominated by Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Destiny’s Child and Beyoncé tunes.

In the past decade, as hip hop has continued to dominate the story of Black artists crossing over to the mainstream, R&B crossover success on the charts has declined, along with the reach of R&B radio.

The Grammys have begun awarding more rootsy and alternative R&B fare.  While the vast majority of all the winning songs for decades had been major R&B and often major pop hits, multiple winners in the past decade have not even hit the Top 10 on Billboard R&B charts, including songs from Robert Glasper, P.J. Morton, D’Angelo and John Legend with the Roots.

Grammy finally seems to be putting musical achievement over sales figures. We hope you’ll enjoy this chronological journey through R&B history.

Quote from Jazz Virtuoso John Coltrane for #JazzAppreciationMonth (LISTEN)

Quote from Jazz Virtuoso John Coltrane for #JazzAppreciationMonth (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 3, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

In today’s Daily Drop, for #JazzAppreciationMonth we offer a quote from jazz legend and pioneer, the unparalleled saxophonist, composer and musician, North Carolina native John Coltrane. To hear it (and more on Coltrane), 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 Sunday, April 3rd, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Today, we offer a quote from jazz legend and pioneer, the unparalleled saxophonist, composer and musician, John Coltrane:

“That’s what music is to me—it’s just another way of saying this is a big, beautiful universe we live in, that’s been given to us, and here’s an example of just how magnificent and encompassing it is.”

It makes complete poetic sense that the name of the band John Coltrane played in while enlisted in the U.S. Navy was the Melody Masters.

With Johnny Hodges and Dexter Gordon as musical heroes and from a young age in thrall to big band music and its emerging successor, bebop, a young Coltrane dedicated himself to hours upon hours upon hours of practice, gigging whenever and wherever he could, and learning from whoever he could learn from.

Coltrane mastered and some even say transcended what was understood or known about the structure and composition of jazz music in the 1950s and 60s. After stints working with and learning from Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Ornette Coleman, among others, Coltrane began creating and recording with his own band.

Not only could Coltrane reimagine, reinvigorate and repopularize standards such as My Favorite Things, he composed the bulk of classic works such as Blue Train, Giant Steps, and his undisputed masterpiece recorded one day in 1965, A Love Supreme.

Coltrane passed in 1967 but his music and legacy live on.

In 1995, the United States Postal Service created a commemorative John Coltrane postage stamp and in 1997, the Grammys honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2001, the National Endowment for the Arts chose “My Favorite Things” for its list of 360 Songs of the Century, and in 2007, Coltrane was awarded a Pulitzer Prize as a Special Citation for a lifetime of innovative and influential work.

To learn more about Coltrane, check out the official website johncoltrane.com, which contains audio interviews with Coltrane, watch the 2016 documentary Chasing Trane, now streaming on Hulu, read Coltrane on Coltrane: The John Coltrane Interviews edited by Chris DeVito, John Coltrane: His Life and Music by Lewis Porter, visit or support the John and Alice Coltrane Home in New York, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

And of course, perhaps most importantly, buy or stream Coltrane’s music. 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, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.

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

Excerpts from “Blue Train,” “My Favorite Things” and “A Love Supreme, Pt. 1: Acknowledgement” performed by John Coltrane are included under fair use.

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, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

(amazon links are paid)

Celebrating the Jazz of Marvin Gaye – Yes, Jazz! – #JazzAppreciationMonth (LISTEN)

Celebrating the Jazz of Marvin Gaye – Yes, Jazz! – #JazzAppreciationMonth (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 2, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Marvin Gaye is known worldwide as a key R&B, soul and pop music innovator from the 1960s on. But what may not be well known about Gaye is that his earliest musical ambitions were to sing and perform jazz.

As it’s #JazzAppreciationMonth in addition to what would have been Gaye’s 83rd birthday, we  honor his contributions to the genre in today’s daily drop. To hear 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 bonus daily drop of Good Black News for Saturday, April 2nd, 2022, based on the format of the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

The incomparable musician and artist Marvin Gaye was born #onthisday in 1939 in Washington D.C.

From the 1960s on, he helped define the sound of R&B, soul and pop music, as well as blazed a trail for singer-songwriter concept albums exploring personal and social issues in depth with his classic 1972 LP What’s Going On.

But what may not be well known about Gaye, even though he started his professional career in the 1950s as a doo wop singer in the New Moonglows with Harvey Fuqua, it’s that his earliest musical ambitions for himself were to be a jazz singer and player in the ilk of Nat King Cole.

When Fuqua moved to Detroit in 1960, Gaye followed and soon signed his own solo contract with Motown subsidiary Tamla Records.

And even though his maiden release was titled The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye, as Berry Gordy had other ideas in mind for Gaye than Gaye had, 9 of the 11 tracks on it were, at Gaye’s insistence, jazz standards, such as “My Funny Valentine”:

[Excerpt of “My Funny Valentine”]

“Witchcraft”:

[Excerpt of “Witchcraft”]

and “How High The Moon”:

[Excerpt of “How High The Moon”]

Even though Gaye’s first album and the singles released from it didn’t sell well, the title track of his next album, That Stubborn Kind of Fellow became a Top 10 R&B hit and the trajectory of Gaye’s musical path in the public’s – and Berry Gordy’s — perception was set.

But Gaye, still a lover of jazz, returned right to it on his 1964 release When I’m Alone I Cry, this time with way better production value and input from respected jazz musicians and arrangers Melba Liston and Ernie Wilkins. The album starts with Gaye’s smoldering version of “You’ve Changed”:

[Excerpt of “You’ve Changed”]

The LP also includes Gaye’s takes on “I’ll Be Around”:

[Excerpt of “I’ll Be Around”]

 “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face”:

[Excerpt of “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face”]

And “Because of You”

[Excerpt of “Because of You”]

In 1965, Gaye even did a tribute album to Nat “King” Cole after Cole’s passing called A Tribute to the Great Nat “King” Cole where Gaye covered “Straighten Up and Fly Right”:

[Excerpt of “Straighten Up and Fly Right”]

“Mona Lisa”:

[Excerpt of “Mona Lisa”]

“It’s Only a Paper Moon”:

[Excerpt of “It’s Only a Paper Moon”]

and, of course, “Unforgettable”:

[Excerpt of “Unforgettable”]

After this album, the majority of Gaye’s recordings were contemporary soul, pop and R&B, even though he still managed to include a gorgeous, bluesy remake of “One for My Baby (And One for the Road)” on his 1966 The Moods of Marvin Gaye LP:

[Excerpt from “One for My Baby”]

Only after Marvin Gaye’s untimely passing in 1984, did more of his jazz-influenced recording sessions from the late 1960s and 1970s come to light on the posthumous albums Romantically Yours, which was issued in 1985 and Vulnerable which came out in 1997. On those you can hear Gaye’s takes on “I Won’t Cry Anymore”:

[Excerpt from “I Won’t Cry Anymore”]

His experimental version of “Shadow of Your Smile”:

[Excerpt from “Shadow of Your Smile”]

“Funny, Not Much”:

[Excerpt from “Funny, Not Much”]

And the arresting “I Wish I Didn’t Love You So” which seems to capture every nuance of Marvin Gaye’s voice, style and innovations across all the genres he loved:

[Excerpt from “I Wish I Didn’t Love You So”]

Even though Gaye’s indelible legacy was forged from different genres of music entirely, Gaye also gave us much to appreciate about him in the realm of jazz.

To learn more about Marvin Gaye and his jazz leanings, check out the “Standards of Marvin Gaye” episode of WFIU’s weekly music show Afterglow hosted by Mark Chilla, read Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye biography by David Ritz and of course, stream or buy all of the albums mentioned during this drop to hear even more of Marvin Gaye’s forays into jazz.

Links to these sources are 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 format of “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing. Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

All excerpts of music from Marvin Gaye are included under fair use.

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, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

(amazon links are paid)

#WomensHistoryMonth: Mary Lou Williams, Piano Prodigy and Jazz Music Legend (LISTEN)

#WomensHistoryMonth: Mary Lou Williams, Piano Prodigy and Jazz Music Legend (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 31, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

We close out #WomensHistoryMonth with Mary Lou Williams, one of the most talented and revered pianists, composers, and arrangers in jazz music history.

Williams, who grew up in Pittsburgh, was a self-taught musical prodigy who cited Lovie Austin, who we did a daily drop on yesterday, as her greatest influence.

Since 1996, The Kennedy Center in Washington DC has held an annual Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival – this year’s will be held in May. To hear our Drop on 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, still a little stuffed up, but here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Thursday, March 31st, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Born in 1910, composer and pianist Mary Lou Williams was a self-taught musical prodigy who cited Lovie Austin, who we did a daily drop on yesterday, as her greatest influence.

One of the first renowned female players, composers and arrangers in jazz, Williams was a working musician by the age of 15, and by 18 had joined the Andy Kirk Orchestra based out of Kansas City, Missouri.By the 1940s she had her own weekly radio show, Mary Lou Williams’s Piano Workshop, where she mentored Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.

In 1945, Williams composed one of her most noted works, Zodiac Suite, which she said was inspired by the astrological signs of famous friends in the jazz world. “Aries” which you are hearing now, was inspired by Billie Holiday and Ben Webster.

[Excerpt from “Aries”]

After converting to Catholicism in the 1950s, Williams quit performing to aid musicians with addictions, even turning her home into a halfway house.

When she returned to music years later, Williams composed sacred works such as 1971’s acclaimed Mary Lou’s Mass and supported musicians in need by tithing her proceeds for the rest of her life.

Even with her self-imposed break, in her lifetime, Williams composed over 350 songs and recorded over 35 albums. Williams passed in 1981 and in 1983, Duke University established the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture.

And since 1996, The Kennedy Center in Washington DC has held an annual Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival. The next one will be held this May.

To learn more about Mary Lou Williams, check out the Mary Lou Williams Foundation webpage, read the 2020 biography Soul on Soul: The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams by Tammy L. Kernodle, 2001’s Morning Glory: A Biography of Mary Lou Williams by Linda Dahl, watch the 2015 documentary Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band, currently available on Showtime, listen to National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” 2019 segment on her that includes interview audio of Williams, as well as NPR’s whole “Turning the Tables” series of features on Williams.

And if you really want to deep dive, like I know I do, you can listen to and read all seven tapes and transcripts of Mary Lou Williams’ interviews from the 1973 Jazz Oral History project where her archives are stored at Rutgers University.

And, of course, you can buy or stream her music on Apple Music or Spotify. 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, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.

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

Excerpts from “Aries” from Zodiac Suite and “Credo” (Instrumental) from Mary Lou’s Mass by Mary Lou Williams are included under fair use.

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, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

(paid links)

[Featured photo via marylouwilliams.foundation]

#WomensHistoryMonth: Cora “Lovie” Austin – 1920s Jazz and Blues Pianist, Composer and Bandleader (LISTEN)

#WomensHistoryMonth: Cora “Lovie” Austin – 1920s Jazz and Blues Pianist, Composer and Bandleader (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 30, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

As #WomensHistoryMonth comes to a close, today in our Daily Drop podcast, we spotlight Chicago-based blues and jazz pianist Cora “Lovie” Austin.

Austin isn’t well known now, but in her day she was a well-regarded bandleader and composer and one of the best accompanists around.

Austin played with singers such as Ma Rainey, Alberta Hunter, Bessie Smith, and Ethel Waters and musicians such as Louis Armstrong, lead her band the Blues Serenaders, and held down her spot as musical director at Chicago’s Monogram Theater for over 20 years:

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, a little stuffed up, but here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Wednesday, March 30th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Cora “Lovie” Austin did two incredibly rare things for a Black woman born in 1887: she studied formal music theory in college, then used that knowledge to gig the vaudeville circuit as a blues and jazz pianist!

Austin played with singers such as Ma Rainey, Alberta Hunter and Ethel Waters and was known as one of the best accompanists of her time.

She also led her own band, the Blues Serenaders, which played with top musicians like Louis Armstrong, and co-wrote the blues standard “Down Hearted Blues.”

[Excerpt from “Down Hearted Blues”]

Austin also composed and performed lively early jazz songs such as “Charleston Mad” and “Traveling Blues”:

[Excerpt of “Traveling Blues”]

Early in her career, Austin settled in Chicago, ultimately serving as musical director for Chicago’s Monogram Theater for over 20 years. In 1961, Austin  reunited with Alberta Hunter and the Blues Serenaders to record an album as part of Riverside Records Living Legends series entitled Chicago: The Living Legends (Live).

To learn more about Lovie Austin, stream or purchase her music on Apple Music or Amazon Music, or stream on Spotify, and check out the links to sources provided in today’s show notes or 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.

Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot. Excerpts of music by Lovie Austin are included under fair use.

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, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

(paid links)

Henry “Box” Brown Mails Himself from Slavery to Freedom 173 Years Ago #OnThisDay (LISTEN)

Henry “Box” Brown Mails Himself from Slavery to Freedom 173 Years Ago #OnThisDay (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 29, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Henry “Box” Brown gave literal meaning to the term “precious cargo” 173 years ago today, when he ingeniously shipped himself from enslavement in Virginia to freedom in Philadelphia by hiding inside a crate. Listen:

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 29th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

173 years ago on March 29, 1849, Henry “Box” Brown escaped to freedom in a most ingenious way — he had himself mailed in a wooden crate from Virginia to abolitionists in Philadelphia. To get out of work on the day of his escape, Brown burned his hand to the bone with sulfuric acid.

All together, the extremely rough journey took 27 hours, but Brown succeeded and was celebrated for his inventiveness.

His status as a fugitive from slavery led Brown to move to England in 1850, but in 1875 he returned to the United States, where he toured and performed as a speaker, mesmerist and magician, pulling off feats of prestidigitation until his dying day.

To learn more about Brown, read Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, Written by Himself, originally published in 1851 or read 2020’s BOX: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom written by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Michele Wood.

Links to these and other 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, 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, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social. Onward and upward.

Sources:

(paid links)

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!

Quote from Mary McLeod Bethune – Educator, Community Builder, Civil Rights Leader (LISTEN)

Quote from Mary McLeod Bethune – Educator, Community Builder, Civil Rights Leader (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 28, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today we share a quote from and some facts about the mighty Mary McLeod Bethune, educator, activist and founder of Bethune-Cookman University and the National Council of Negro Women.

This GBN Daily Drop is based on the Monday, March 28 entry in “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022:

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

Today we offer a quote from esteemed educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune:

“Without faith, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.”

Born during Reconstruction in Maysville, South Carolina in 1875, Bethune was the 15th out of 17thchild of formerly enslaved parents Samuel and Patsy McIntosh McLeod, and the first of theirs born into freedom.

At an early age, Bethune pursued education any way she could, even if it meant walking eight miles each way to the only school around. After attending college in North Carolina and Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Bethune became a teacher herself.

She eventually started a school of her own in Daytona, Florida with husband and fellow teacher Albertus Bethune, that evolved into what is now Bethune-Cookman University.

In her lifetime, Bethune went on to become a national advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of his “Black” cabinet, represented the NAACP at the founding of the United Nations in 1945, raised money to open the first hospital for Black people in Daytona, Florida, founded the National Council of Negro Women and co-founded the United Negro College Fund.

To learn more about Bethune and her legacy, read Mary McLeod Bethune: Building a Better World, Essays and Selected Documents edited by Audrey Thomas McCluskey and Elaine M. Smith, Mary McLeod Bethune in Florida: Bringing Social Justice to the Sunshine State by Dr. Ashley N. Robinson, and Mary McLeod Bethune: Her Life and Legacy by Nancy Ann Zrinyi Long.

Also check out the 2016 documentary Mary McLeod Bethune – African Americans Who Left Their Stamp on History, the Mary McLeod Bethune documentary posted by Gig Bag Media on YouTube, and cookman.libguides.com to access newsreels, videos and audio recordings of Bethune herself.

In fact, here’s a taste of her voice from a 1949 radio broadcast with Eleanor Roosevelt speaking on the importance of democracy, coalition and human rights:

[Excerpt from 1949 broadcast with Eleanor Roosevelt]

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, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

(paid links)

Black Oscar Firsts: A Brief History of the Trailblazing Academy Award Winners in Each Category (LISTEN)

Black Oscar Firsts: A Brief History of the Trailblazing Academy Award Winners in Each Category (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 27, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

You might know about Hattie McDaniel, Sidney Poitier or Halle Berry being the first Black recipients of Oscars in their respective acting categories, but have you ever wondered who were the first in all the others? Writing? Producing? Hair and Make-Up? Sound?

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is a bonus episode for Sunday, March 27 — the day the 94th Academy Awards ceremony are being held — that takes note of every Black Oscar first:

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.

SHOW 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 Sunday, March 27th, 2022, based on the format of the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

The 94th Academy Awards ceremony is being held today and with Will Packer producing, Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall among the hosts and Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Aunjanue Ellis and Questlove among the nominees, I thought I’d take a brief look at the talented Black people in film who were the first in their category to ever win an Oscar.

The very very first was Hattie McDaniel, who won in the Best Supporting Actress category for the 1939 film Gone With The Wind.

In 1948, actor James Baskett received a special Academy award for his characterization of Uncle Remus in Song of the South, but the next to win an award in competition was Sidney Poitier in 1963, who won Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field.

It took almost a decade after that for the next win, which was Isaac Hayes in the Original Song category for 1971’s “Theme from Shaft.”

[Excerpt from “Theme from Shaft”]

Up next 11 years later was Lou Gossett, Jr. for his Best Supporting Actor win in 1982 for An Officer and a Gentleman.

[Excerpt of “The Beautiful Ones”]

In 1984 Prince won Best Original Song Score for Purple Rain, and he was the first and last Black person to win in that category because after 1984, it was retired as a category from the Academy.

Contrary to popular belief, Prince didn’t win for the actual song “Purple Rain” — the Original Song Oscar that year went to Stevie Wonder for “I Just Called to Say I Love You” from the film The Woman in Red.

[Excerpt of “I Just Called To Say I Love You”]

The following year, in 1985, jazz titan Herbie Hancock took home the Oscar for his Original Score for ‘Round Midnight.

And jazz kept the Gold Guys a coming – in 1988 Willie D. Burton accepted the Best Sound Oscar for his and his team’s work on the Charlie Parker biopic Bird, and in 1994, though nominated for several of his scores, the Oscar that Quincy Jones brought home was the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

In 2001, Halle Berry won the Best Lead Actress Oscar for her work in Monster’s Ball, and 2009 saw Roger Ross Williams win for Best Documentary Short Subject for Music By Prudence and Geoffrey Fletcher won for Best Adapted Screenplay for Precious, which was based on the novel Push by Sapphire.

In 2012, T.J. Martin won for Best Documentary Feature for Undefeated, and in 2013, Steve McQueen shared his Best Picture Oscar with his producing partners for 12 Years A Slave.

In 2017, NBA legend Kobe Bryant won in the Best Animated Short Film category for Dear Basketball, and Jordan Peele won in the Best Original Screenplay category for Get Out.

The following year, Peter Ramsey won an Oscar in the Animated Feature Film category for co-directing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. 2018 also saw Ruth Carter win in the Costume Design category for her work on Black Panther and Hannah Beachler for Production Design for the same marvel of a movie directed by Ryan Coogler.

And for 2020, Travon Free won in the Best Live Action Short Film category for Two Distant Strangers, and Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson took home Oscars in the Make-Up and Hairstyling category for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

To learn more about Black Academy Award winners and nominees, read Black Oscars: From Mammy to Minny, What the Academy Awards Tell Us About African Americans by Frederick Gooding, Jr. and check out the links to more 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.

Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.  And any additional music included is done so under Fair Use.

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, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

(paid links)