Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica, who won the bee in 1998, was the competition’s first Black champion.
This was the first Bee held since the COVID-19 pandemic forced its cancellation in 2020.
Posts published in “U.S.”
by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)
Happy Monday, the 5th. I hope many of you have the day off.
So many of the playlists I’ve created for GOOD BLACK NEWS have been to celebrate a particular artist, region, or genre. There have been more than a few to honor the fight for freedom and civil rights.
This collection is hopefully just pure joy.
This playlist is for firing up the grill in the backyard or park. It’s for listening to while eating your auntie’s potato salad and deviled eggs. It’s to enjoy while pulling the foil off that peach cobbler. It’s for when your jam comes on from back in the day, and you show them youngsters you still got dance moves.
Play it while driving with your peeps with all the windows down. Savor it while you’re eating carnitas on a warm tortilla with a cold drink, or crispy chicken and a side of collards. It’s for kickin’ it too while those old heads form a “Soul Train” line in the grass.
Dig it while you are feeling sand and surf between your toes, while sipping grape Kool Aid, while eating a Dreamsicle, and while hugging friends and family.
Enjoy that summer, y’all.
by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)
James Weldon Johnson, an NAACP field secretary, civil rights activist, Broadway composer and professor who investigated and spoke out about lynchings in the first decades of the 20th century, also wrote the classic novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, first published in 1912.
But perhaps the publication Weldon is best known for was that of a song he wrote with his brother John Rosamond Johnson. In 1900, in honor of Tuskegee Institute founder Booker T. Washington as part of a tribute to Abraham Lincoln‘s birthday, they crafted a poem that was read by 500 schoolchildren entitled “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
The poem celebrated freedom as it recognized a brutal past never to be repeated. “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was so well received that the brothers set it to music and by 1919 the NAACP dubbed it “the Negro national anthem.” It has functioned in that capacity ever since.
Sung for decades at countless meetings, events, and ceremonies, a 1990 version of the song performed by Melba Moore (which can be heard here on GBN’s “Black Americana” playlist ) was entered into the Congressional Record and, in 2016, into the National Recording Registry.
Singing this song today makes as much sense as any other American anthem, as it is a song of independence from tyranny, inhumanity and injustice. It is sung in honor of Americans who died building this country by progeny who seek to embrace the liberty, hope and prosperity freedom promises.
Enjoy Aretha Franklin, whose voice literally was designated an American natural resource, singing the song we might all lift our voices to sing. Full lyrics published below.
After working for over 30 years in several different positions within the Chicago Fire Department, Annette Nance-Holt recently became the first woman to lead the CFD.
Her appointment to the top position of Fire Commissioner was confirmed last week by Chicago’s City Council, wgntv.com reports.
“Commissioner Holt has more than three decades of proven leadership and a passion for public service that makes her the perfect fit for this role,” said Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
“Furthermore, in a time where more work remains in order to eliminate discrimination, racism and sexism from the firefighter profession, Commissioner Holt’s history-making appointment as the first woman and Black woman to lead as Fire Commissioner couldn’t have come at a better moment.”
I'm proud to announce that Annette Nance-Holt will make history as not only the first woman but the first Black woman to serve as Commissioner of the Chicago Fire Department. After more than 30 years of service, she’s the right choice to lead the department into the future. pic.twitter.com/KYtdOoVo0y
— Archived: Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot (@mayorlightfoot) May 14, 2021
Holt was appointed first deputy commissioner in 2018 and has been serving as acting commissioner since Richard C. Ford retired earlier this year.
In 2007, tragedy put Nance-Holt into the news when her 16-year-old son Blair Holt was shot and killed on a CTA bus while shielding a classmate from gunfire.
Nance-Holt since then has helped start Purpose Over Pain, a non-profit which aids parents who have lost children to gun violence.
Commissioner Nance-Holt was mainly raised in the Maple Park community on the south side of Chicago and attended both parochial and public schools. She learned responsibility at an early age, having worked at the family-owned grocery store on the south and west sides of Chicago.
While studying and working full time, she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Chicago State University, and later obtained a Master’s in Public Administration in Fire and Emergency Services from Anna Maria College.
Prior to joining the CFD, Commissioner Nance-Holt worked in the private sector for eight years.
[Dr. Kymberly Pinder, seen with a black and white drawing by Jami Porter Lara. Photo by Eve Caughey via news.yale.edu]
Starting July 1, Dr. Kymberly Pinder, renowned scholar of race, representation, and murals, will become Dean of the Yale School of Art.
Pinder, who earned her master’s degree and Ph.D. in art history at Yale, most recently was acting president of Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Prior to that, Pinder served as dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico.
Pinder also taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1996 to 2012, during which time she edited the book Race-ing Art History: Critical Readings in Race and Art History (2002). She also taught courses that led to the creation of murals in Chicago and Albuquerque.
To quote from jbhe.com:
“The Yale School of Art provides an unmatched platform for promoting excellence while effecting positive change,” said Dr. Pinder, who earned her Ph.D. in art history from Yale in 1995.
“I look forward to working with colleagues and students across the campus, the city, and the globe to extend the boundaries of arts practice and education. Objects and their making unlock and shape dialogues in some of the most transformative ways for both makers and viewers. It is an honor to return to Yale to help nurture its rich culture of rigorous inquiry. I am excited to bring my Yale education full circle.”
Pinder’s most recent book-length publication is 2016’s Painting the Gospel: Black Public Art and Religion in Chicago, where she explores how Black imagery in the public sphere empowered communities in that city. Pinder collaborated with local artists, from well-known muralists to anonymous graffiti writers and worked with different artists and local officials.
by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)
On this Monday nestled between Juneteenth and Independence Day, Lori Lakin Hutcherson and I thought it prudent to offer this collection of music celebrating freedom and liberty.
Many of these tracks even have the word freedom in their title. Others have just long been associated with the fight for Civil Rights and reform for years.
There are tracks here long-considered, classics, and other new songs on the subject. Clocking in at under 6 hours, this one is a comparatively short collection for me.
Hope you dig this collection of Freedom songs. And if there are any overt omissions, hit me in the comments, y’all.
Have a great week, and stay safe, sane, and kind.
[Photo via blackgirl44.com]
Black Girl 44, the scholarship established by Deesha Dyer, founder & CEO of social impact firm Hook & Fasten and former social secretary for the Obama White House, recently announced its recipients for 2021.
Through contributions from more than 55 Black women who worked in the Obama White House, Dyer established the scholarship as part of an initiative to expose Black women to policy, community engagement, community service, advocacy, global relations and politics.
To quote from thegrio.com:
“When you hear the word politics, people get turned off,” Dyer explained. “So they’re like ‘politics is the Hill and the White House and the president.’ That’s how I thought for years, that I didn’t belong in politics and I don’t belong there. But that’s not necessarily all that it is. There’s a whole realm of politics and public service that we don’t talk about, that really is broad.”
This summer, 10 young women from across the country will participate in the Black Girl 44 scholarship. Due to the pandemic, some scholars may be in a position to experience the public service field remotely. The ultimate goal is that the experience entices the women to pursue careers in these fields.
Through the Black Girl 44 Scholarship, Deesha hopes to redefine the “face of what politics looks like” and reimagine “what it means.”
To see a full list of the scholars and their interests, click here.
by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)
Happy Monday, you all.
Juneteenth, Father’s Day, and a trip to St. Louis for the first time in 15 months put this brotha in a mood for mushy stuff.
In this, more than a year of making playlists for GBN, I haven’t done a collection of love songs. Haven’t even done one for Valentine’s Day. Well, here’s an eclectic dose of lovey dove songs:
Some are overtly romantic, others about longing, and still some about loss. Jazz, R&B, Reggae, Rock ‘n Roll, and other genres are presented here.
Hope you enjoy these hours of love songs. Have a great week.
We’ve been wanting to post to acknowledge all the fathers, uncles, stepfathers and loved ones who have been parenting, raising and advising the next generations, but our site has been having serious server issues since dawn.
So even though we are nearing dusk, and we posted what we could on our social media, we’re taking advantage of this moment of connectivity to say “Happy Father’s Day” on our main page and offer a playlist dedicated to the dads called “Color Him Father” – A Father’s Day Collection:
This 20-songs compilation offers praise, introspection, dreams, admonition and advice from myriad genres and perspectives – from The Winstons‘ appreciation of a stepfather on “Color Him Father,” to Will Smith‘s heartfelt expression of how it feels to become a dad on “Just The Two Of Us,” to Beyoncé’s appreciation of different aspects of her father on “Daddy” and “Daddy Lessons.”
Also included are Prince‘s declaration of love for his father amid complexities on “Purple Rain” and Kirk Whalum‘s soulful, jazz cover of “Because You Loved Me” which Diane Warren wrote about her relationship with her father, DMX and Usher‘s heartbreaking plea “Letter To My Son (Call Your Father)”, and classics like “Daddy’s Home” – the popular cover by Jermaine Jackson as well as the original version by Shep and The Limelites.
We hope it’s been a great day for all those in the dad role today, and hope you enjoy the above, knowing you are seen, honored and loved through thick and thin.
Today President Joe Biden signed into law that June 19, best known as “Juneteenth” will now be a U.S. federal holiday, effective immediately.
“Juneteeth” is the term that has been used across centuries to commemorate June 19, 1865, the day enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, first learned from Union Army Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger that the Civil War was over, and they were free by order of the president (Lincoln, who had issued the Emancipation 2 1/2 years earlier). Celebrations occurred every year in Texas on Juneteenth, and later spread across the South as the idea caught on.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which is the human resources office for the federal government, tweeted today that most federal employees will observe the new holiday — Juneteenth National Independence Day — on Friday since June 19 falls on a Saturday this year.
Today @POTUS will sign the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, establishing June 19th as a federal holiday. As the 19th falls on a Saturday, most federal employees will observe the holiday tomorrow, June 18th.
— U.S. Office of Personnel Management (@USOPM) June 17, 2021
Biden said signing the legislation into law is one of the greatest honors he will have as president. Vice President Kamala Harris also signed the legislation in her capacity as President of the Senate.
By making Juneteenth a federal holiday, “all Americans can feel the power of this day, and learn from our history, and celebrate progress and grapple with the distance we’ve come but the distance we have to travel,” Biden said.
Biden also praised the efforts of Opal Lee, 94, an activist who at the age of 89 walked from her home in Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., to get Juneteenth named a national holiday. Biden referred to her as “a grandmother of the movement to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.”