Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcastis based on the Sunday, February 27 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 celebrates Marla Gibbs, 90, Executive Producer and star of NBC’s 227as well as the long-running CBS series The Jeffersons:
You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):
FULL 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 Sunday, February 27th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.
Even though she cleaned up during her unexpected star turn as no-nonsense housekeeper Florence Johnston on the hit CBS sitcom The Jeffersons, acting newcomer Marla Gibbs, then 41, was reluctant to give up her day job at United Airlines until the show became a bona fide hit.
Ten years later, Gibbs moved on up into the power seat when she bought the rights to star in and executive produce the TV version of a play entitled 227. The family comedy ran for five years on NBC and introduced the world to a young Regina King.
To learn more about Marla Gibbs, check out the links to sources 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, and available at workman.com, Amazon,Bookshop and other online retailers.
Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.
If you like our Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon,Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You could give us a positive rating or review, share your favorite episodes on social media, or go old school and tell a friend.
For more Good Black News, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodbinlacknews anywhere on social.
We highlight singer/songrwriter Gaitana and athlete-turned-politician Zhan Belenuik, two Black Ukrainians or Afro Ukrainians who represent a small but important part of the Ukrainian citizenry affected by the recent Russian invasion of that nation.
You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):
FULL 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 Saturday, February 26th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” format, published by Workman Publishing.
As the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces dominates global news, I’d like to dedicate this week’s bonus daily drop to the small but very real population of Afro-Ukrainians who are part of the citizenry that is struggling to survive as a nation.
Two Afro-Ukrainians with prominent international profiles are singer/ songwriter Gaitana, and politician and athlete Zhan Belenuik.
Gaitana made history when she represented Ukraine in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest and performed the song “Be My Guest,” placing 15th in the final.
Gaitana has a lovely, soulful voice and you can learn more about her and her music, sung mostly in her native tongue, on her website, gaitana.com, and you can stream her songs on Apple Music and Spotify.
Zhan Belenuik also made history in Ukraine with his 2019 election to Parliament as a member of President Zelensky’s Servant of the People party. In addition to being a former member of the Ukrainian Army, Belenuik has also represented Ukraine as a Greco Roman wrestler.
Belenuik competed and won the silver medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics and brought home the gold from the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Gaitana and Belenuik both have spoken about facing racism in their home country, but also embrace their and support their homeland.
I’d also like to shout out The Root reporter Terrell Jermaine Starr, who has reported about the history of Blacks in Ukraine, about Ukraine in general, hosts a podcast called Black Diplomats, and is currently in Ukraine reporting for CNN on the war as well as posting about it on Twitter.
To learn more about Belenuik, Gaitana and other Afro Ukrainians, check out the links to 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, and available at workman.com,Amazon, Bookshop and other online retailers. Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.
For more Good Black News, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodbinlacknews anywhere on social.
You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):
FULL 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 Friday, February 25th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing. It’s in the category for Black Trivia we call “We Got Game”:
Okay, so today’s daily drop episode is going to be a little unique, as it’s the first time presenting the Trivia category, which is a multiple choice question that we want to give you time to answer. So, what I’m going to do is read the question, I’ll read the choices, and then I’ll prompt you to pause the episode if you want to take longer than the 10 seconds that I’m going to let pass before I share the answer. Sound good? Ready to see if you got game? All right, here we go:
For which movie did Denzel Washington win the Academy Award for Best Actor? Was it…
A. Malcolm X? B.Training DayC. Glory… or D. Fences?
Now go ahead and pause the episode now if you want to take more than 10 seconds before you hear the answer. Otherwise, I’ll be back in 10… Okay, time’s up. The answer is… B. Training Day.
Including his recent nod for The Tragedy of MacBeth, Washington has been nominated by the Academy for his acting ten times, and so far, he’s won twice, once in 1989 as Best Supporting Actor for Glory and then for Best Actor in 2001’s Training Day.
Washington was nominated for his role in Fences in 2017 but lost the Best Actor gold guy to Gary Oldman, star of The Darkest Hour. Still, a win might have felt like déjà vu to Washington that year – he won the Best Actor Tony Award for the same part in 2010.
To learn more about Denzel Washington and his award-winning career, check out the links to sources 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, and available at workman.com, Amazon, Bookshop and other online retailers.
Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.
If you like our Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You could give us a positive rating or review, share your favorite episodes on social media, 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.
Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcastis based on the Thursday, February 24 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 about Lt. Henry O. Flipper, the first African American graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point:
You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):
FULL 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 Thursday, February 24th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.
Justice came slowly to Henry O. Flipper, the first African American West Point Academy graduate, but come it did. After graduating in 1877, Flipper became the first non-white US Army officer to lead the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry.
During the Apache Wars and the Victorio Campaign though, Flipper was court-martialed for alleged improprieties, but in 1994 his descendants pushed to get Flipper’s case reviewed, and President Bill Clinton pardoned Flipper after it was concluded that his conviction was unjust.
West Point now bestows an annual Henry O. Flipper Award to graduates who exhibit, quote, “leadership, self-discipline, and perseverance in the face of unusual difficulties.”
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, and available at workman.com, Amazon,Bookshop and other online retailers.
Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.
If you like GBN’s Daily Drops, please consider following us wherever you get your podcasts, give us a positive rating or review, share your favorites on social media 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.
Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcastis based on the Wednesday, February 23 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 and offers a quote from renowned Harlem Renaissance artist and arts educator Aaron Douglas:
You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):
FULL 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 Wednesday, February 23rd, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing. Today we offer a quote from Kansas-born artist and arts educator Aaron Douglas:
“Labor has been one of the most important aspects of our development . . . It is a thing that we should be proud of, because we have that part of our life that has gone into the building of America. Not only of ourselves, but in the building of American life.”
Douglas created a style that soon became the visual signature of the Harlem Renaissance and earned him the moniker “The Father of African American Art.”
Aspects of Negro Life: Song of the Towers by Aaron Douglas, 1934 (courtesy nypl.org)
Douglas went on to paint several public murals including the Aspects of Negro Life mural series at the Countee Cullen branch of the New York Public Library, which is still there today.
Douglas influenced artists such as Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden, and he schooled countless others while serving as chair of the art department and HBCU Fisk University for over 25 years.
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, and available at workman.com, Amazon,Bookshop and other online retailers.
Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.
For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
In it we talk about legendary duo Eric B. & Rakim and the song that became their industry calling card and helped up the game in hip hop – 1986’s “Eric B. Is President.”
You can also follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):
FULL 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, February 22nd, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.
With the 1986 release of their first single, “Eric. B is President,”Eric. B & Rakim shook up the proverbial hip-hop tree. Deploying complex rhymes, internal musings, and visual storytelling, Rakim revolutionized the MC game, referencing Greek mythology in one bar and Janet Jackson songs in the next.
Eric B., meanwhile, as the DJ scratched, mixed, and sampled the bassline from Fonda Rae’s 1982 single “Over Like a Fat Rat,” added in drums from James Brown’s “Funky President (People It’s Bad),” threw in bits of “The Champ” by the Mohawks, along with the Honey Drippers’ “Impeach the President,” a few more samples, and one of the all-time classic punch lines ever rapped, “Eric B. Is President” was just the ticket to land them a major record deal at RCA and solidify their place in hip hop history.
To learn more about “Eric B. Is President,” check out the links to sources 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, and available at workman.com, Amazon,Bookshop and other online retailers.
Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.
For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
Hey, it’s Lori, GBN’s Editor-in-Chief, stepping in with this week’s Music Monday share. As yesterday was what would have been song stylist Nancy Wilson’s 85th birthday, I have crafted an 85-song tribute playlist that spans her six decades-long recording career.
A prolific singer who recorded and released 52 albums, three-time Grammy Award winner Wilson was one of the greats who often is not given her just due in popular music history. For a time in the 1960s, Wilson was the second biggest recording artist at Capitol Records – the biggest being the Beatles.
Born on February 20, 1937 in Chillicothe, Ohio, Nancy Sue Wilson knew by the time she was four years old she would be a singer. By her teen years she won a talent contest and began performing on a local television program called Skyline Melodies, then became its host.
She soon met jazz saxophonist and bandleader Julius “Cannonball” Adderley, who was impressed with her talent and suggested she move to New York City. The move lead to Wilson landing a recording contract with Capitol and releasing her first single and album in 1960.
The first five songs that kick off this compilation are some of Wilson’s best known recordings, some of which charted on Billboard Magazine’s pop and/or R&B charts: “(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am” – Pop #11; “Save Your Love For Me” – R&B #11; “Tell Me The Truth” – R&B #22 – others which are considered Nancy Wilson standards.
From Wilson’s rendition of “Fly Me To The Moon” off her first album, Like in Love, until the playlist’s conclusion, I’ve ordered the songs to play mostly in chronological order, to offer a sense of how Wilson’s music and voice developed from the 1960s on.
Highlights include her recordings with George Shearing and Cannonball Adderley (The Swingin’s Mutualand Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderleyare two classic Nancy Wilson albums that deserve to be purchased and heard in their entirety), and the live tracks from The Nancy Wilson Show recorded live at the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles, and the tracks from one of my personal favorite Nancy Wilson albums, 1971’s But Beautiful, where she is backed brilliantly by the Hank Jones Quartet.
I’d also like to point out Wilson’s superlative cover of “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” from her 1970 album Can’t Take My Eyes Off You and the utterly surprising and borderline funky “Tell The Truth” from her 1974 All in Love is Fair LP written by Wilson along with Tennyson Stephens. And YES, the first line is “Bitches taking money and they livin’ well.” Seriously, enjoy.
There are more treasures than I can count in this playlist, especially her later recordings towards the end of her career before she stopped recording such as “When October Goes,” “Peel Me A Grape” and “The Golden Years.”
Wilson passed in 2018 but her music deserves and needs to continued to be appreciated and shared for generations to come. To quote GBN music contributor Jeff Meier from his Facebook tribute to Wilson when she passed:
“While she was probably not a jazz purists favorite jazz performer, a pop fan’s favorite pop singer, nor a soul fan’s top soul artist, she was something in the middle, an accurately self-proclaimed ‘song stylist’ who was a true pioneer in African-American ‘supper club’ entertainment, blending the best from the American songbook – pop, jazz, blues, show tunes into one stylish mix.
In the vein of Johnny Mathis and Lena Horne, she was beautiful, elegant, classy – and therefore also the perfect archetype of ‘guest’ to help integrate television in the early ’60s, when she was regularly featured on variety shows like Andy Williams, Hollywood Palace, Danny Kaye, Smothers Brothers, Carol Burnett and many more.
She is undoubtedly what Columbia Records was trying to turn Aretha Franklin into before Aretha broke free for Atlantic to become her true self. Good thing, because just as there was only one Aretha, there was also only one Nancy Wilson.”
I hope you enjoy this playlist, and please know we are still working behind the scenes on re-creating and offering our playlists via Apple Music for those who would like a non-Spotify option. As soon as they are ready, I’ll be sure to post and let you know.
2/22/22 UPDATE:
Good Black News is now officially on Apple Music! Going forward, we will offer all MUSIC MONDAY playlists on both platforms. Slowly but surely, we will add the playlists from past Music Mondays on Apple Music as well. Enjoy!
Today’s GBN Daily Drop Podcastis a bonus episode for Sunday, February 20, 2022 based on the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 format. It’s about Raven Wilkinson, who, when she joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, became the first African American ballerina to dance with a major company in the U.S:
You can also follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):
FULL 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, February 20th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.
Born in 1935, New York native Raven Wilkinson attended her first ballet when she was five years old, a performance of Coppélia, danced by the esteemed Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. From that moment on, Wilkinson wanted to be a ballerina. Fortunately, her parents were able to find her a teacher, and Wilkinson trained with Russian instructor Maria Swoboda, who was a former member of the Bolshoi Ballet.
Wilkinson eventually got the opportunity to audition for Ballet Russe, the same high-profile company which inspired her to dance. Ballet Russe was reluctant to hire Wilkinson, however, for fear of backlash when performing in the South.
Wilkinson nevertheless persisted, and by her fourth audition, Ballet Russe could no longer deny her talent and hired her, making Wilkinson the first African American woman to dance with a major ballet company in the U.S.
Her appearances in the South though, they did incur hostility and threats. Wilkinson was encouraged to wear pale makeup while dancing to “pass,” but she always refused to hide her race. The racism she did encounter did take its toll however, and Wilkinson stopped touring in the South and eventually everywhere.
A few years later in 1967, encouraged by Sylvester Campbell, another African-American dancer, Wilkinson auditioned with the Dutch National Ballet, got in, and stayed with the Netherlands-based troupe for seven years. Wilkinson then returned to New York and at nearly 40 joined the New York City Opera, serving first as a member of its ballet ensemble and then in other roles until she retired from performing altogether.
A mentor and friend to Misty Copeland, in 2015 Wilkinson attended Copeland’s debut in the lead role of Swan Lake, as she became the first African American principal dancer at an elite company, the American Ballet Theater in New York.
Wilkinson brought Copeland flowers onstage, and in 2019, Copeland paid tribute to Wilkinson in a video produced by The Root:
“Every black person that’s accomplished something incredible has had to endure some really awful things. I think that Raven is a very special case. Because I think that she was so good at making the worst situations into a learning experience or something that she made into a good situation. It’s amazing that we found each other and, and that it kind of just came full circle, you know, for her to be able to witness my promotion to principal dancer, to be able to have her come on to the stage during my curtain calls of my New York debut of Swan Lake was, was really overwhelming.
She told me she didn’t think she’d ever see a Black woman become a principal dancer in an elite company. To have her walk into events and walk into the ballet and for people to like, recognize her, and, and give her the due credit that she deserved all of these years. I think, again, it’s just kind of part of what I think my purpose was to be here. To tell the stories of all of these Black ballerinas, especially Raven’s. There’s just no real record of our existence through history. And the more stories we tell of Black dancers, the more that we can make it our history and make ballet our own.”
To learn even more about Raven Wilkinson, check out the 2016 documentaryBlack Ballerina in which Wilkinson is featured, Stillness Broken, the Columbia University School of Journalism student film about Wilkinson, the 2018 picture book based on her life titled Trailblazer: The Story of Ballerina Raven Wilkinson that includes a forward by Copeland, as well as several other 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, and available at workman.com,Amazon, Bookshop and other online retailers.
Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot. Additional songs permitted under Public Domain license included were “The Festival Dance” from Coppelia composed by Delibes, and “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” from The Nutcracker composed by Tchaikovsky.
For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
Today’s GBN Daily Drop Podcastis based on the Saturday, February 19 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 about the multi-talented former Disney Channel star, global box-office phenom and fashion icon Zendaya Coleman, in the category of what else… Black Girl Magic!
You can also follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):
FULL 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 Friday, February 18th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing. Today’s category? Black Girl Magic. The person? Zendaya.
“Euphoria” must describe the feeling Zendaya Coleman has on the regular. Not only did she become the youngest person ever to win a Primetime Emmy for Best Actress in a Drama Series in 2020 for her performance in HBO’s Euphoria, the multi-talented performer has landed Top 40 hits as a musical artist, starred in blockbusters such as Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home and The Greatest Showman—she can even do a convincing trapeze act!
The Duneand Malcolm and Marie star also claimed fashion icon status with various magazine covers, red carpet arrivals and the 2019 launch of her Zendaya x Tommy collection with Tommy Hilfiger.
To learn more about Oakland native Zendaya, 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, and available at workman.com, Amazon, Bookshop and other online retailers. Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.
For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
You can also follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):
FULL 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 Friday, February 18th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.
But did you know that the first African American model to grace any Vogue cover ever did so eight years before Beverly? In 1966, Donyale Luna graced the March cover of British Vogue. A Detroit native, Luna is widely considered to be the world’s first Black supermodel and served as one of the inspirations for the 1975 Diana Ross film Mahogany.
Luna’s career was unfortunately short-lived as she passed in 1979 at the age of 32, but her legacy lives on. To learn more about Luna and to see photos from her modeling days, check out the links provided in today’s show notes and also 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, and available at workman.com, Amazon,Bookshop and other online retailers. Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.
For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
You can also check out the 
