Throughout history countless women have given the blues their unique stamp. They have fought their way to the front of the testosterone saturated genre, oftentimes with little praise.
Here’s a collection of modern and early masters of the form, including Ma Rainey, Memphis Minnie, Koko Taylor, Etta James, Ann Peebles, Odetta, Aretha Franklin, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Bettye Swann, Bettye LaVette, Irma Thomas, LaVern Baker and so many more.
Please enjoy. And as always, stay safe, sane, and kind.
City College Center for the Arts, on the campus of City College of New York, is honoring the 60-year history of Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and Grammy® Award-winning Otis Williams of The Temptations, on Monday, November 1 at 7:30pm ET with a special live, virtual event.
Williams, who is a founding member of the legendary musical group and the sole surviving member of the original Temptations, will have a live conversation with distinguished musician, composer and entrepreneur K. Sparks.
Williams will be sharing memories on the “Evolution of The Temptations’ Music, 1961 – 2021”, and the conversation will be simulcast from CCCA’s Aaron Davis Hall, in the renowned Marian Anderson Theatre. It will also feature other special guests.
Audience members can join the free, virtual event by registering for tickets at the CCCA website, citycollegecenterforthearts.org. The special conversation is also being held in honor of the 80th birthday of Mr. Williams, who turned 80 on October 30.
CCCA’s Managing Director Greg Shanck said, “For more than four decades, Aaron Davis Hall has been Harlem’s performing arts center. World scholars, artistic giants and academic geniuses like Nelson Mandela, Alicia Keys, President Barack Obama and Ella Fitzgerald, just to name a few, have blessed these stages through the years. The City College of New York is so proud of the contributions The Temptations have made, and continue to make, to the American cultural landscape and we are honored to add their name to that distinguished list.”
Williams himself said, “I am thrilled to be celebrating the group’s 60th Anniversary and my 80th birthday with our extended Tempts’ family from across the City College campus in Harlem, and throughout New York and the rest of the country. The Temptations had some of its most memorable performances in Harlem and other parts of New York during our career. To mark these capstones with an online discussion about my career at the prestigious and diverse City College of New York, a college known for its commitment to the Performing Arts, and for recognizing one of the greatest trailblazers in American music history, Marian Anderson, is an incredible honor for me and The Temptations.”
Williams reunited with Smokey Robinson earlier this year to co-write and co-produce the recently released single “Is It Gonna Be Yes Or No” from the new Temptations 60 album due in 2022.
“A friend of mine, Derek Porter, him and I were riding down the freeways of L.A. and we’re talking about the 60th anniversary album and Smokey’s name came about. And I said, ‘Smokey. Let me call Smokey, I’d love to have him on the album,'” Williams shared in a phone interview about his historic reunion with friend and writer of classic Temptations hits such as “Get Ready,” “The Way You Do The Things You Do,” and their signature song, “My Girl.”
“So I called him and I say, ‘Smoke, I would love for you to produce a song for us, write it, and not only stop there, I would like for you to perform with us on it.’ And he calls me ‘Oak’. And he says, ‘Oak, anytime just let me know,'” Williams continued. “Here it is now, it’s out and I hear tell it’s doing very good, and that’s fine.”
Other celebratory events of the Temptations includes recent re-opening at the Imperial Theatre in NY of the Broadway musical, Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, based on Williams’ personal journey.
The Temptations’ presence across multi-media platforms has never been more vivid. Their hit “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” was used as the foundation of the Migos smash “Avalanche.”
Temptations founding member Otis Williams (Photography by Scott Leon. Courtesy of UMe)
Additionally, Williams’ autobiography, Temptations, was recently released as an audiobook edition for the first time, with a new introduction by Williams.
When asked what current artists he likes, Williams offered, “Bruno Mars… He’s a heck of a showman. And he can sing. I look at that, also. And the reason I love them [Mars and Anderson.Paak as Silk Sonic] is because they’re singing what the Tempts is all about. They’re singing what Marvin Gaye is all about.”
“They’re singing great songs, great melodies. Lyric content is good, structured, right… See we were taught all those things at Motown. You know, how to be able to tell a great song. That song [“Leave The Door Open“] when I first heard it, I said, ‘They got another one, they got another one.’ And so I love listening as they come out with that kind of songs that have those elements.”
To learn more about Williams, the Temptations, and the group’s touring schedule, check out their social:
The U.S. Department of Justice announced today it has reached an agreement to settle the civil cases arising out of the June 2015 Mother Emanuel AME Church mass shooting in Charleston, South Carolina.
Nine people were killed when 21-year-old white supremacist Dylann Roof entered Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church during Bible study and began shooting the congregants. He later confessed, saying he acted in hopes of igniting a race war.
Plaintiffs agreed to settle claims that the FBI was negligent when it failed to prohibit the sale of a gun by a licensed firearms dealer to Roof, a self-proclaimed white supremacist, who specifically targeted the 200-year-old historically African-American congregation.
The settlement provides $63 million for families of those killed in the shooting rampage and $25 million for survivors, according to lawyers involved in the agreement. For those killed in the shooting, the settlements range from $6 million to $7.5 million per claimant. For the survivors, the settlements are for $5 million per claimant.
The parties have been in litigation since 2016, including before the district court and the federal court of appeals.
“The mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church was a horrific hate crime that caused immeasurable suffering for the families of the victims and the survivors,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “Since the day of the shooting, the Justice Department has sought to bring justice to the community, first by a successful hate crime prosecution and today by settling civil claims.”
On June 17, 2015, Mother Emanuel congregants welcomed a stranger who had entered their church. They invited him to participate in their Wednesday night bible study.
Tragically, at the close of the bible study, Roof shot and killed Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Tywanza Sanders, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Daniel L. Simmons, Ethel Lee Lance, Myra Thompson, Rev. Depayne Middleton-Doctor and Mother Emanuel’s pastor, Reverend Clementa Pinckney, also a South Carolina State Senator.
The families of the Emanuel Nine, as well as the five survivors who were inside the church at the time of the shooting, sued the government. They sought to recover for wrongful death and physical injuries arising from the shooting.
Plaintiffs asserted that the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Checks System (NICS) failed to timely discover that the shooter was a person prohibited by federal law from possessing a firearm. Plaintiffs alleged that because of this delay, the shooter was able to purchase the handgun that he used to commit the atrocity.
The families sued after the FBI revealed that its system for conducting background checks failed to catch a fact that should have blocked the sale of the gun Roof used in the shooting. He bought the Glock 41 two months earlier at a shopping mall in West Columbia.
Esteemed poet, professor and activist Sonia Sanchez, 87, has been awarded the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for being an artist who “has pushed the boundaries of an art form” and “contributed to social change.” The prize includes a cash award of $250,000.
Sanchez has been a leading figure of the 1960s Black Arts Movement, having written more than 20 books including Homecoming, We a BaddDDD People, I’ve Been a Woman, A Sound Investment and Other Stories, Homegirls and Handgrenades, Under a Soprano Sky, Wounded in the House of a Friend(1995),Does Your House Have Lions? (1997), Like the Singing Coming off the Drums (1998), Shake Loose My Skin(1999), Morning Haiku(2010) and most recently, Collected Poems (2021).Her subjects range from Black culture, feminism, civil rights, philosophy and peace, and Sanchez, according to the New York Times, “is known for melding musical formats like the blues with traditional poetic forms like the haiku and tanka, using American Black speech patterns and experimenting with punctuation and spelling.”“When we come out of the pandemic, it’s so important that we don’t insist that we go back to the way things were,” Sanchez said to the New York Times. “We’ve got to strive for beauty, which is something I’ve tried to do in my work.”
Other notable recipients of the Gish Prize include artists such as Ava DuVernay, Spike Lee, Suzan-Lori Parks, Walter Hood and Chinua Achebe.
Among dozens of distinguished honors that Sanchez has received throughout her life Sanchez has also received the 1985 American Book Award for Homegirls and Handgrenades, the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Humanities for 1988, the Langston Hughes Poetry Award for 1999, the Wallace Stevens Award of the Academy of American Poets, the Robert Frost Medal and the Shelley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America, and the Academy of American Poets’ inaugural Leadership Award.
Howard University recently announced a $5 million gift from alumni Eddie C. Brown (B.S.E.E. ’61) and C. Sylvia Brown(B.S. ’62), donated to support the Graduation Retention Access to Continued Excellence (GRACE) Grant for students facing financial barriers. It is the largest donation from alumni in the HBCU’s 154-year history.
Eddie Brown is the founder, chairman and CEO of Brown Capital Management, a Baltimore-based asset management firm that is the second oldest African-American-owned investment management firm in the world.
“We are extremely grateful to Eddie and Sylvia for making this historic gift to Howard University,” said Howard University President Dr.Wayne A. I. Frederick. “The GRACE Grant has helped to eliminate financial barriers to education for Howard students, and I am thrilled that the Browns were inspired to commit such a generous gift to this important fund. My hope is that students will be inspired by their story and generosity and that others in our alumni community will consider the many ways they, too, can impact current and future generations of Howard students.”
The Browns met on Howard’s campus in 1957. Eddie came to Howard from Allentown, Pennsylvania at just 16 years old as a student in the College of Engineering, and Sylvia came to Howard from King William, Virginia as a student in what was then the College of Liberal Arts.
While equally committed to education, the couple recall two very different stories as it pertains to their opportunities to pursue a college education. Whereas Sylvia came from a family of educators and always knew she had the support to pursue higher education, Eddie’s journey to Howard was made possible because of a caring teacher and anonymous “angel” donor.
Congratulations to Daphne Gervais! We will be contacting you shortly via email to arrange delivery of your free calendar.
Thank you to all who have entered so far – and you are still in the running as we will continue to announce one winner a month until January 2022. To those who have yet to enter – it’s not too late!
For a chance to win, send your name and email address with the subject heading “A Year of Good Black News Giveaway” to goodblacknewsgiveaways@yahoo.com from now until December 31. One entry per email, and we will continue to choose at random one winner per month and announce their names here.
Already the #1 new 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.
If you want to buy copies for gifts to family, friends, teachers or loved ones, you can order using code: GOODBLACKNEWS at Workman.comfrom now until December 31 and receive 20% off.
Or, if you prefer, you can also order from the retailers below:
Other women being honored in the series include Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, Nina Otero-Warren, a leader in New Mexico’s suffrage movement and the first female superintendent of Santa Fe public schools, Anna May Wong, the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood and Dr. Sally Ride, physicist, astronaut, educator, and the first American woman in space.
Each woman will appear on the reverse (tails) side of the quarter, with George Washington’s image remaining on the obverse (heads) side of the coin.
A celebrated writer, performer, and social activist, Maya Angelou rose to international prominence after the publication of her groundbreaking 1969 autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Angelou’s published works of verse, non-fiction, and fiction include more than 30 bestselling titles.
Maya Angelou was an inspiring writer/performer/social activist. The reverse design of #HerQuarter depicts Angelou with her arms uplifted. Behind her are a bird in flight and a rising sun, images inspired by her poetry and symbolic of the way she lived. https://t.co/Enr1I5EbXrpic.twitter.com/XFZHlmAVGh
Angelou’s remarkable career encompasses dance, theater, journalism, and social activism. She appeared in Broadway and off-Broadway plays, including Cabaret for Freedom, which she wrote with Godfrey Cambridge.
At the request of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Angelou served as northern coordinator of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.Angelou read “On the Pulse of Morning” at the 1992 inauguration of President Clinton. Angelou’s reading marked the first time an African American woman wrote and presented a poem at a presidential inauguration.
Angelou received more than 30 honorary degrees and was inducted into the Wake Forest University Hall of Fame for Writers. In 2010, President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
She was also the 2013 recipient of the Literarian Award, an honorary National Book Award for contributions to the literary community.
“I walked forty-seven miles of barbed wire / I got a cobra snake for a necktie / A brand new house on the roadside / and it’s a-made out of rattlesnake hide / Got a brand new chimney put on top / and it’s a-made outta human skull / I’ve got a tombstone hand and a graveyard mind / I’m just twenty-two and I don’t mind dying.”
Just a few lyrics from Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love” that go a long way towards illustrating the nature of the Halloween collection. Of course, there’s Screamin Jay Hawkins and Lambert, Hendricks and Ross vocalizing overt spooky tales.
Though there are many tracks in this collection that simply reference dark imagery to warn of the perils of romantic love, and make social commentary.
Geto Boys, Brittany Howard, Funkadelic, and others all are here to tell of real-world horrors. While Alice Smith is present with an umpteenth version of “I Put A Spell On You,” and sista manages to transform it into a statement all her own.
There are several versions of St. Louis true folktale “Stagger Lee.” You can bet there are songs aplenty of about vampires, ghosts, and zombies too. More chills to come next week.
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, and GBN will be announcing one winner a month until January 2022.
To enter for a chance to win, send your name and email address with the subject heading “A Year of Good Black News Giveaway” to goodblacknewsgiveaways@yahoo.com from now until December 31. One entry per email, and we will choose at random one winner per month and announce their names here.
As the calendar’s official drop date is next Tuesday, October 12, that’s when we will announce the first winner.
In case you can’t wait to see if you’re the lucky winner or want to buy copies for gifts to family, friends or loved ones, you can order at Workman.comusing code: GOODBLACKNEWS from now until December 31, you will receive 20% off.
Happy first Monday of October! It’s your friend and selector, Marlon, back with another GBN offering.
‘Tis the season again. Halloween season, that is. Here’s the first of four October offerings. “Strange Things” is a collection of reggae, ska, and calypso hand-picked for this time of year.
This ain’t the collection to scare kids off your porch with. Though it is almost certain to make you (and them) move. Here’s a casket of new and classic reggae trucking in duppies, ghosts, vampires, zombies, and other undead creatures.
It’s scary, just how many reggae tunes there are that fall into this ghoulish category once you start, wait for it… digging.
Dad jokes aside, this playlist gathers tracks dealing with monsters and devils from the earliest ‘60s rocksteady to today’s reggaeton. More Halloween season tunes to follow next week.
