Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts tagged as “Teddy Tenenbaum”

Eleven Years Ago Today: Good Black News Was Founded

GOOD BLACK NEWS proudly celebrates its eleventh anniversary today, March 18, 2021. GBN initially launched in 2010 as a Facebook page (read the story behind GBN’s creation here), and in 2012, we created a dedicated website, goodblacknews.org, which has allowed us to provide archives, search functions and easy access to our most popular social media to you, our readers.

The outpouring of appreciation you’ve shown us over the years via follows, likes, comments, shares, reblogs, DMs and e-mails means the world (even when we are overwhelmed and can’t respond to them all), and inspires GBN to keep working to find ways to expand, improve, and offer more content on the main page as well as on FacebookTwitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTubeRSS feed, LinkedIn and Flipboard (new)!

In the past year, we were honored to not only have GBN’s 2016 Editorial “What I Said When My White Friend Asked for My Black Opinion on White Privilege” recirculate across the internet, but also to see the May 2020 editorial, A Letter to Friends Who Really Want to End Racism, spark much-needed conversation on both topics.

Additionally, GBN was featured in the April 2020 New York Times article “The News Is Making People Anxious. You’ll Never Believe What They’re Reading Instead.” and the June 2020 Good Housekeeping piece How To Explain White Privilege to Someone Who Doesn’t Think it Exists.

In July 2020 GBN Founder and Editor-in-Chief Lori Lakin Hutcherson was interviewed about Good Black News on Barry Shore’s Joy of Living podcast and in Fall 2020 finally spoke with Jason, the high school friend whose Facebook post lead to “What I Said When My White Friend Asked for My Black Opinion on White Privilege” on the premiere episode of the Three Uncanny Four podcast Do The Work:

In 2020, Lori also started a Q&A column entitled “Dear Lori” where she responds to questions about white privilege and race she’s been asked by readers that she intends to resume shortly, because the questions just don’t stop.

And after years of promising in these anniversary posts, we finally launched the GBN newsletter via email. The intention is for it to be weekly but for myriad reasons, it hasn’t been consistent. In the coming months, we aim to make it so.

GBN is super proud to announce that in Fall 2021 Workman Publishing will be offering our first physical product: a Page-A-Day® Calendar entitled A Year of Good Black News for 2022, chock full of history, trivia and fun Black facts to enjoy every day of the year. We will offer more information on the calendar and its availability in the coming months.

Good Black News remains a labor of love for Founder/Editor-In-Chief Lori Lakin Hutcherson and co-editor Lesa Lakin, and we must gratefully acknowledge 2020’s volunteer contributors: Susan Cartsonis, Julie Adelle Bibb, Beck Carpenter, Hanelle Culpepper Meier, Jessie Davis, Dan Evans, Gina Fattore, Julie Fishman, Michael Giltz, Eric Greene, Thaddeus Grimes-Gruczka, Ashanti Hutcherson, Warren Hutcherson, Fred Johnson, Epiphany Jordan, Brenda Lakin, Joyce Lakin, Ray Lancon, Lois Leveen, John Levinson, Rob Lowry, Catherine Metcalf, Lara Olsen, Flynn Richardson, Maeve RichardsonRosanna Rossetto and Becky Schonbrun

Special thanks to Zyda Culpepper Mellon for allowing GBN to share her powerful video testimony on how white friends and family can be allies, to TedX speaker and contributor Dena Crowder for creating and sharing her Power Shot video series on GBN, to incredible Tech Jedi Samer Shenouda for migrating and revamping the GBN website to make us bigger, stronger, faster, and to Jeff Meier, Teddy Tenenbaum and Marlon West for creating incredible Spotify playlists and posts covering a variety of genres, sub-genres and artists celebrating the musical diaspora, past and present. You are all deeply, greatly appreciated.

Please continue to help us spread GBN by sharing, liking, re-tweeting and commenting, and consider following GBN here on the main page, as well as wherever you are on social media.

Please also consider joining our e-mail list via our “Contact Us” tab. We will only use this list to keep you updated on GBN and send you our e-newsletter. And, of course, you may opt out at any time.

GBN believes in bringing you positive news, reviews and stories of interest about black people all over the world, and greatly value your participation in continuing to build our shared vision.

Thank you again for your support, and we look forward to providing you with more Good Black News in the coming year, and beyond!

Warmly,

The Good Black News Team

#AAMAM: “The Great Black Way” – Celebrating African Americans on Broadway (LISTEN)

by Teddy Tenenbaum (@teddyt)

We talk about how African Americans invented rock and roll. We talk about the great musicians Scott Joplin and W.C. Handy, the giant of ragtime and the “Father of the Blues.” Before rock and roll was a gleam in Chuck Berry’s mother’s eye, Jazz was the great American music form, a creation of Black artists.

And of course, rap and R&B rule the Billboard charts in the 21st century. And a century before Lil Nas X reimagined country music, the genre was born with the help of the banjo, a descendent of the West African lute brought to America by Africans who were enslaved, and with inspiration from early forms of Black music, such as spirituals and “field tunes.”

But there’s one more great American musical tradition, one where the contributions of Black people is sometimes forgotten, often under-appreciated. Maybe it shouldn’t surprise us that African Americans are often ignored when the discussion turns to the history of the Broadway musical, when Broadway itself is known as the “Great White Way.”

Broadway has never been an easy world for an outsider to break in, even when that outsider is White, wealthy, and part of the New York establishment. Mounting a Broadway show costs a small fortune, and there’s no cheap or easy way to distribute it. It’s a medium for people with powerful connections or large assets.

But African-American artists have made a tremendous impact, primarily as writers and performers, but also as creators of source material for Broadway shows and music. I don’t profess to be a historian of Broadway or African-American music, but I will do my best to take you on a fan’s journey through the long, storied history of African Americans and Broadway.

Savion Glover in “Bring In ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk”

To limit the scope a bit, this playlist is focused on Broadway shows only, ignoring the contributions made to Hollywood musicals, Off-Broadway, regional theater and West End theater in London. And even though I could add another hundred amazing cuts (thanks to Hamilton, Dreamgirls, Jelly’s Last Jam, etc.), I’ve limited the playlist to one crucial number from each show… with two notable exceptions (and for good reason).

These liner notes contain a short intro for every cut, but you don’t need them to enjoy the music. So without further ado, curtains up on the historic African-American tradition on Broadway, aka the Great Black Way.

Personal note: This playlist is dedicated to Good Black News’ Lori Lakin Hutcherson (who suggested and inspired it, and who has always inspired me), and musicologist Chris Molanphy, whose Slate columns on music and podcast Hit Parade feed the hungry amateur music historian in me.

  1. “I’m Just Wild About Harry” (1921)

Even though Shuffle Along was not the first Broadway musical featuring a Black cast in a Broadway theater (that distinction belongs to In Dahomey in 1903), it was the first Broadway musical written, composed and performed entirely by Black artists. Previous to the opening of Shuffle Along, there hadn’t been a successful “Black musical” on Broadway in 12 years, which made it particularly hard to mount the production. (Not to mention the fact that just a couple of decades before, African-Americans were prohibited from performing for White audiences, unless in – believe it or not – blackface). But Black vaudevillians Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles teamed with Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle (who wrote the music and lyrics) and put every nickel they could find into creating this musical comedy. It paid off; Shuffle Along was a huge success. Shuffle Along deserves note for a few other reasons. It was the first production where a White audience witnessed two Black people on stage romancing and touching each other. It also helped launch the careers of two legends – Paul Robeson and Josephine Baker.    

  1. Ol’ Man River” (1927)

Six years before Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote Showboat, a musical about a Mississippi River showboat, Paul Robeson was making his powerful baritone heard in Shuffle Along. His star only grew from there, and Hammerstein and Kern specifically wrote the crucial Showboat role of Joe for Robeson. Sadly, he wasn’t available for the original production, but took over the role in the 1932 revival and the film adaptation. Because one can’t think of Ol’ Man River without thinking of Robeson, his is the version I’ve included on this playlist. When Hammerstein and Kern adapted the Edna Ferber novel that among other things deals with prejudice in the South, they changed Broadway forever. It is generally considered the first successful musical to bring a serious topic to the genre, which was a revelation after years of vaudeville, revues, and musical comedies. It was also the first well-known racially integrated musical and the first musical to deal with the issue of interracial marriage. And it also has its share of controversy due to the stereotypical use of vernacular and its outdated stereotypes. But it was another milestone for African-Americans on Broadway.

  1. “Summertime” (1935)

So much has been written about Porgy and Bess and its treatment of African-American characters, both bad and good. Porgy and Bess has its detractors and supporters. It is a troubling artifact of American culture’s history of the depiction of African Americans. But no one can deny the impact the show has had on American pop culture. In fact, “Summertime” is one of the most covered songs in history (over 25,000 times)! Which is why, instead of featuring the original version, I decided to include one of the most famous covers, by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. This is also to make the point that just as Broadway has used African-American artists, African-American artists have used Broadway music to great advantage. In fact, Louis Armstrong makes one more appearance on this playlist, in a similar historical role.

THE GOODS: Do Some Good, Get Some Good – H&M Garment Collecting – GBN

Dr. Thomas G. Lakin
Dr. Thomas G. Lakin

Today we are doing the Holiday Gift Guide a little differently. We’d like you to GIVE for sure. But this time how about giving AND helping the planet at the same time?
The picture above is of my father, Dr. Thomas G. Lakin. He was an educator, the first African-American chancellor of the Ventura County Community College District in California, in fact.
He believed whole-heartedly in the art of giving back… that knowledge is power… and that the Earth was ours to protect and nurture. With that instilled in us, my sister decided to do her part in giving back by creating what she hoped would become an online archive of all the great things that African-Americans do. Thus, Good Black News began. And yes, it is great to have a site that only reports on the GOOD we do (because, um…there is a lot of it!)

No doubt Dr. Lakin (if he were still alive) would be really proud of Good Black News. I am, and that is why I help out when time permits. In the photo above, our Dad is wearing a “Funky Planet “ T-shirt from a now-defunct, eco-conscious clothing venture of my sister Lori Lakin Hutcherson and her partners Teddy Tenenbaum and Bill Kuluva (I was the artist). My Dad loved it… and would often be photographed in Funky Planet product since it was “his daughters’” and well, he liked the idea of a cool planet.
Logo of an H and M store pictured in WarsawMy father was also one of the first guys I knew to get into health food and recycling… and that whole “earthy” thing way before it was the norm. So today, we’d like to help the Earth and get you a little discount on holiday shopping at the same time.
H&M is doing something great for the planet. Bring in your old clothes – no matter what brand or condition. And for every bag you turn in, you get a 15% discount card to be used on any purchase. Its GARMENT COLLECTING initiative earns H&M the proud label of being the first fashion company to collect clothes we no longer want and recycle or repurpose them. And for this we receive a 15% discount! Yep… it’s a Win Win.
For more information:
http://about.hm.com/en/About/sustainability/commitments/reduce-waste/garment-collecting.html
Shop H&M for affordable fashion: http://www.hm.com/us/
Lesa Lakin
article by Lesa Lakin