Happy Black History Month, you all. Now it might seem counterintuitive to use my February offering to feature and honor Burt Bacharach, who died on February 8 at age 94.
The prolific composer, songwriter, record producer, and pianist is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential figures of 20th-century popular music. He was a six-time Grammy Award winner and three-time Academy Award winner, Bacharach’s songs have been recorded by more than 1,000 different artists.
However, no one would disagree that Bacharach’s (and his lyricist partner Hal David‘s) most popular success was with Dionne Warwick. They created a string of 39 consecutive chart hits including “Don’t Make Me Over,” “Walk On By,” and “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again.” Their collaboration would continue for decades including his production of “That’s What Friends Are For.”
This “Close To You: Soulful Burt Bacharach Covers” collection features generations of Black artists who have collaborated directly with Bacharach (Ronald Isley), covered beautifully (Aretha Franklin, Love), and sampled (Mos Def, Masta Ace, Floetry) the work of Burt Bacharach.
Stevie Wonder‘s live performance in 1972, of “Close To You” and the Jackson 5′s “Never Can Say Goodbye utilizing the ‘talkbox,’ inspired Frank Ocean’s cover on his 2016 album, Blonde.
Bobby Womack and Isaac Hayes each spent ample time covering Bacharach while pushing against what they saw as limits of what was acceptable for Black artists.
The 5th Dimension, who were stung by being called “the Black group, with the white sound,” are present with “One Less Bell To Answer.”Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. perform it twice in this collection.
There are ample examples of hip-hop artists using Warwick and Bacharach’s work on “Recognize,” “Hold U,” “Must Be Bobby,” “Know That” and other tracks.
So please enjoy this Black History Month celebration of Burt Bacharach’s impactful work through the creation of these great Black artists.
by Lori Lakin Hutcherson, GBN founder and Editor-in-Chief
Well, here we are, once again. Forty seven years after February was officially recognized by the U.S. government as Black History Month, and ninety seven years after Negro History Weekwas founded by Carter G. Woodson, “The Father of Black History.”
We are also, once again, deeply distressed by the murder of a young Black person (Tyre Nichols) at the hands of police officers. The fact that the officers and the police chief are Black this time around doesn’t complicate but instead amplifies the grotesque, stark, ironically colorblind reality of systemic racism — it is a pernicious construct of power and oppression that can be upheld or enforced by anyone of any color or gender or creed.
So, how do we reconcile the two — the celebration of Black people and their achievements while constantly experiencing injustice, inequity and increasingly, erasure?
As Editor-in-Chief of Good Black News, a site which for over a decade has literally been dedicated year-round to the celebration of Black people and their achievements, I have been wrestling with this question for a while, particularly in the last eight months.
After the murder of 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, NY by a white supremacist in May 2022 and the continued downplaying of racially-based domestic terrorism, I felt depleted and bereft. Of hope, of faith, of purpose. It didn’t seem to matter how much Black people achieved or prospered or protested or suffered in America — we couldn’t even buy our groceries in peace.
And once again, the narrative of the “lone, mentally unstable shooter” was trotted out. One person was (rightfully) punished, but the racist political and economic system he embraced in its most violent extreme? It remained (and remains) steadfastly in place. As did the onus remain on the shoulders of Black people to be seen as worthy of basic human rights.
America quickly got back to the business of forgetting and moving on, even after experiencing only two years before what seemed like a watershed moment of racial reckoning after the police murder of George Floyd.
But here were are again today, literally TODAY, with civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump saying during his call to action during Tyre Nichols’ funeral: “Why couldn’t they see the humanity in Tyre?… We have to make sure they see us as human beings worthy of respect and justice!”
We do?
I’ll admit in many ways, I understand where Crump is coming from. “Show the humanity” has essentially been the GBN operating philosophy since 2010 — to create a site and space where we can see and celebrate our humanity, while offering access to anyone else who wants to take a gander.
But now, in 2023, I must push myself to dig deeper and firmly challenge why it should it ever be the responsibility of any human being to convince any other human being of their humanity. To state the obvious, once, and for all:
BLACK PEOPLE ARE HUMAN BEINGS.
If the words above are not inherently understood to be true, why is that? Why does this have to be shown? Proven? Over and over and over again?
My answer, also obvious, is that they don’t. Not ever.
So, while I absolutely respect and still intend to celebrate the legacies of people such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, Sidney Poitier and the like, going forward I also need for GBN’s Black History Month and GBN in general to engage more actively in the interrogation and disempowering any systems, institutions or public policies that do not recognize or uphold this truth and all the basic rights that should flow from it (e.g. respect, freedom, safety, equality).
Maybe I’m not giving enough credit to GBN in its past and present form — I acknowledge that GBN has been helpful and appreciated by many for the way we offer information via the lens of celebration and positivity.
What I’m aiming to add to our existing ethos is more critical thinking and opinion about cultural topics and cultural content, boosting political, economic and social policies that are truly about protecting, serving and uplifting Black people, and working to upend those that don’t.
The College Board creates and administers the AP program. Join us in demanding that they:
Reject the narrow interpretation of Florida law that contradicts principles of academic freedom and autonomy in determining what to teach in classrooms.
Take swift action to make sure Florida does not modify the curriculum of the proposed AP African-American Studies course designed with the help of respected Black scholars, but rather, maintains the integrity of the proposed curriculum.
Florida’s current agenda of political interference in the AP African American studies curriculum directly conflicts with the values of equity, fairness, and justice. Our students deserve better.
Additionally, I want to highlight Nikole Hannah-Jones’ The 1619 Projectseries now streaming on Hulu as well as promote the excellent “Intersectionality Matters” podcast by law professor Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw whose name is among the writers expunged from the AP African American studies curriculum.
I also want to give props to Beyoncéfor officially announcing her 2023 Renaissance World Tour! A definite bright spot on this first day of Black History Month, the efforts Beyoncé and her team are making via the Verified Fan system and its tiers of engagement (first priority given to the BeyHive!) to ensure real fans get access to tickets over usurious resale entities is for sure worth a shout out.
Frankly, I am tired of us being caught out there, and I want GBN to do more, offer more, share more and speak out more. In our tweets, reels, stories, posts, playlists, comments — however.
Maybe I’ll get it wrong sometimes, but with deep love for this community as my true north, may my faith, purpose and hope never again be broken.
The first track by Little Simz dropped in the last weeks of December. And this British Nigerian artist kicks off the truly international musical journey.
Nigeria’s Burna Boy sets up a string of American artists including Compton’s own Steve Lacy and Kendrick Lamar. The playlist features big names like Beyoncé, Lizzo, Drake,Black Thought & Danger Mouse, though this collection is also heavy on comparative newcomers including Yaya Bey, Amber Mark, Koffee, and Jensen McRae.
Here is the best of hip-hop, R&B, Jazz, Afrobeat, Reggae and much more in over five freewheeling hours of music that features established favorites and certainly a few new surprises.
Hope you enjoy this collection of good music. See ya next month. And until such time, stay safe, sane, and kind.
As GBN Editor-in-Chief, firstly I apologize for the delay in the announcement of the latest winners in the GBN calendar giveaway, which was supposed to occur on December 9th. It was wholly due to me being overwhelmed with other professional and personal commitments and nothing else.
Secondly, I hope everyone is having as relaxing and peaceful a holiday season as possible. Thirdly, because of the delay, we have randomly selected one extra winner, so here are the four winners from the second round of giveaways of one free copy each of our “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day® Calendar for 2023!
Congratulations to Kelly Kennedy, Cheryl Kiras, Sonja Combs and Dawna Smith! We will be contacting you each shortly via email to arrange delivery of your free calendars from Page-A-Day.
Thank you so much to all who entered the giveaway, and if you want to buy the calendar for yourself or for family, friends, teachers or loved ones, you can use the code: CALS22 at pageaday.comuntil January 3 to receive 15% OFF site-wide, plus Free Shipping on orders over $35.
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.
Additionally, A Year of Good Black News is a Top 7 release in Multicultural Calendars on Amazon and is filled with facts, history, bios, quotes, jokes and trivia in easy-to-read entries delivered on the daily.
Or, if you prefer, you can also order from the retailers below:
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.
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.
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.
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).
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 orpageaday.comuntil 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:
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.
“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.
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 orpageaday.comusing 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:
Thank you so much to all who entered the giveaway, and if you want to buy the calendar for yourself or for family, friends, teachers or loved ones, you can use the code: CALS22 at 
Social scientist and dean of largest University faculty excited to seize “moment of possibility.”
