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Posts tagged as “California”

Berkeley’s First Woman Firefighter Debra Pryor Retires as First Woman Chief

By goodblacknews on December 28, 2012

Berkeley Fire Chief Debra Pryor is retiring Dec. 28, 2012 after 27 years in the Berkeley fire department. She was the city’s first woman firefighter, the first woman chief and the second black woman to head a fire department in the nation. (Doug Oakley/Staff)

BERKELEY, CA — It’s a drizzly cold Tuesday evening and Berkeley Fire Chief Debra Pryor is outside the city’s public safety building talking to a homeless man with two shopping carts piled high with possessions.  The man loops in and out of lucidity, but Pryor doesn’t appear annoyed, pressed for time or afraid. She listens and talks to him, then politely wraps it up and approaches a second man to ask if he needs help deciphering the front desk hours of the police station.

Pryor, 51, is retiring Friday after 27 years in the fire department and 27 years of smashing race and gender barriers: she was the city’s first female firefighter, its first female fire chief and the second black female fire chief in the country behind Rosemary Cloud of East Point, Ga. (Earlier this year Oakland named Teresa Deloach Reed as its fire chief, making her the first black woman fire chief of a major metropolitan city.)

Pan African Designs Adorn Leatherworker Shaka Camera’s Hand-Tooled Bags at the KPFA Crafts Fair

By goodblacknews on December 2, 2012

Shaka Camera of Oakland has been a leather worker for over 43 years, specializing in hand stitched and hand tooled leather bags. His designs are earthy with a sophisticated touch – his bags practical yet unusual. Shaka’s pouches, purses, bags, even computer cases are embellished with beads, shells, silver and bronze acquired from his multiple trips to Africa.

Radiating from Burkina Faso in West Africa, where he has family, he collects beautiful objects for his finished work from the Baoule, Tuareg and Dogon people. The Tuareg of the Saharan interior of North Africa are well known for their fine silver jewelry.

Shaka may incorporate Tuareg crosses and cowry shells with other adornments in what he calls a “mixed Pan-African” esthetic. The Tuareg cross translates into a protective symbol and cowry shells, which were used for centuries as a currency in Africa, represent wealth, new growth and abundance. Carrying a bag with such adornments may have value beyond its beauty!

Shaka, whose company is Bogolani Designs, will show his work at the 42nd annual KPFA Crafts Fair on Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 8 and 9, at the Concourse in San Francisco. His wife of 12 years, Amatula, will share his booth with her original clothing designs made with hand-woven fibers.

Read more at: Pan African designs adorn leatherworker Shaka Camera’s hand tooled bags at the KPFA Crafts Fair | San Francisco Bay View.

R.I.P. R&B Singer Billy Scott of The Georgia Prophets

By goodblacknews on November 20, 2012

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Rhythm and blues singer Billy Scott died November 17 in North Carolina at age 70.

Bill Kopald with the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame said Scott died from pancreatic and liver cancer Saturday at his home in Charlotte.

Born Peter Pendleton in Huntington, W. Va., he sang with various groups while in the Army. After he was discharged in 1964, he changed his name and with his wife, Barbara, in 1966 began recording as The Prophets. Their first gold record was 1968’s “I Got the Fever.” Other hits included “California” and “Seaside Love” as the Georgia Prophets.

The group recorded a number of hits in the 1970s in the beach music genre, a regional variant of R&B. Scott was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 1999.

Learn more about his life and music here and watch/listen to “I Got The Fever” below:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3EHUHW-xQ&w=420&h=315]

BlackGirlsCode Wins $50,000 Philanthropy Award

By goodblacknews on November 18, 2012

Black Girls Code wins $50,000 Philanthropy AwardThe Bank of the West awarded $210,000 in cash grants during its third annual philanthropy award program that took place in San Francisco on November 13.

BlackGirlsCode, a nonprofit devoted to promoting young women of color in the technology industry was recognized as one of three winning laureates and received a $50,000 grant.

BlackGirlsCode reaches out to the community and introduces young black females to the world of computer programming via languages such as Scratch or Ruby on Rails. By introducing computer coding lessons to young girls from underrepresented communities, BlackGirlCode is attempting to show that girls of every color can become the programmers of tomorrow. Following their motto of “Imagine. Build. Create,” the non-profit attempts to bridge the digital divide where young black women grow up in homes where their White counterparts are twice as likely to have home internet access then they are.

Antron Brown Makes History as First African-American Top Fuel Champion

By goodblacknews on November 12, 2012

POMONA, Calif. (AP) — Antron Brown became the first black auto-racing champion in any NHRA pro series when he won the Top Fuel title on Sunday at the season-ending event.  Brown suffered minor burns to his hands when his engine popped in an opening-round loss during eliminations, then had to wait to celebrate his victory until the final, when teammate Tony Schumacher lost in a photo finish to Brandon Bernstein.

"Mickalene Thomas: Origin of the Universe" Exhibit Opens at Brooklyn Museum

By goodblacknews on September 29, 2012
Mickalene Thomas: Origin of the Universe Portraits by this artist in this Brooklyn Museum show. (Librado Romero/The New York Times)

Mickalene Thomas’s brash, exuberant paintings don’t care what you think of them; they are much too busy simply — or not so simply — being themselves. Their sense of independence is driven home by this artist’s invigorating exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, along with the realization that the museum’s populist program sometimes hits the nail on the head.
Organized by the Santa Monica Museum of Art in California, and substantially expanded in Brooklyn, “Mickalene Thomas: Origin of the Universe” is a show of broad appeal, free of dumbing down. It has examples of the large, color photo-portraits and clusters of the small, truculent collages that function as studies for Ms. Thomas’s paintings while being works of art themselves.

“Mickalene Thomas: Origin of the Universe” Exhibit Opens at Brooklyn Museum

By goodblacknews on September 29, 2012
Mickalene Thomas: Origin of the Universe Portraits by this artist in this Brooklyn Museum show. (Librado Romero/The New York Times)

Mickalene Thomas’s brash, exuberant paintings don’t care what you think of them; they are much too busy simply — or not so simply — being themselves. Their sense of independence is driven home by this artist’s invigorating exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, along with the realization that the museum’s populist program sometimes hits the nail on the head.

Organized by the Santa Monica Museum of Art in California, and substantially expanded in Brooklyn, “Mickalene Thomas: Origin of the Universe” is a show of broad appeal, free of dumbing down. It has examples of the large, color photo-portraits and clusters of the small, truculent collages that function as studies for Ms. Thomas’s paintings while being works of art themselves.

California Resident Ronald Willis Wins $120 Million Lottery

By goodblacknews on September 17, 2012

After six years of playing his lucky numbers, Ronald Willis finally hit the jackpot. But this time, he strayed from his usual spots in Rialto to purchase a ticket in Riverside.

Willis’ fiancée says she was the first to figure out he’d won the $120 million Mega Millions jackpot. When asked if he knew he had the winning numbers, Willis was convinced he’d bought his ticket in Rialto, not Riverside.