Like millions of others, I’ve watched Francis N’gannou’s incredible story unfold. The soft-spoken strong man from Cameroon, now risen from among the poorest of villages to the heights of sports celebrity is a compelling example of success. Burdened yet emboldened by back-breaking hard labor and low wages eked from Africa’s dehumanizing mine fields, N’gannou’s fierce… Continue Reading
I’ve long hoped that some form of scholarly and cultural collaboration would evolve between Fisk University, my alma mater, and Harlem’s historic Schomburg Center for the Study of Black History and Culture. The prospect of an ongoing scholastic and cultural bond between these two storied institutions has intrigued me, and now it has come to pass.… Continue Reading
Childhood images and memories of my father cascade like a kaleidoscope of colors, sounds, and designs. Years serve as a prism and now at my age, like a child peering into the kaleidoscope, a momentary fusion of abstractions, streams of brilliance, opaqueness, symmetry, and distortion are glimpsed through the lens of time. Images changing within… Continue Reading
(Originally published June 8, 2023) Last week jazz saxophonist Donald Harrison, the “Big Chief of the Congo Square Nation Afro-New Orleans Cultural Group,” made an unusual appeal online on Facebook during his medical emergency; an anxious request for our prayers as he awaited arrival of EMR to be taken to hospital. Many people reacted and… Continue Reading
(Originally published June 4, 2023) Continue Reading
(Originally posted May 25, 2023) Guided by Love: Navigating a Mother with Memory Loss, a new book by award-winning jazz pianist and author Sarah Cion that includes poems with artful drawings by her mother, Elizabeth Heller, is a tour de force. Its power and appeal draw deeply from a wellspring of human sensitivity and compassion,… Continue Reading
(Originally posted May 15, 2023) More than two decades ago I interviewed my esteemed former neighbor, community leader Mrs. Rosemary Moore, RN, a lovely woman of great dignity. Maturing ever so gracefully, she personifies wisdom and experience. My hope was that our conversation would yield a unique story and perspective about life’s joys and the… Continue Reading
This Black History Month 2023 we look back at the opening of a landmark educational institution spearheaded by the late civil rights leader, educator, and pastor of Abyssinian Baptist church, Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts III. This is a picture of the opening of Thurgood Marshall Training Academy for Social Change in Central Harlem in… Continue Reading
As Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, family, and friends along with citizens of New York City and beyond are joining to celebrate the life of Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts III, I invite those who may not be familiar with Rev. Butts to watch this interview from the show Explorations in Black Leadership, produced and hosted… Continue Reading
The Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) Orchestra, directed by Wynton Marsalis, led a spectacular jazz tribute to New Orleans and Jazz Music on October 15. “A Night in New Orleans” – Michigan vs Penn State – Oct 15, 2022 JALC partnered with the extraordinary University of Michigan Marching band in a spectacular half-time performance before a… Continue Reading