Communities That Care Coalition
Promoting health, well-being, and equity among young people in Franklin County and the North Quabbin
NPR’s Picture Show spoke with Tyler Jones who is part of a narrative studio based in Birmingham called 1504. They have been collaborating with the Wallace Center for Arts and Reconciliation to recenter the stories of Black descendant communities through creative, embodied storytelling.
https://council.nyc.gov/district-36
Chi Ossé is the Council Member for New York City’s 36th District, representing Bedford-Stuyvesant and North Crown Heights. He entered politics as an organizer and prominent figure in the Black Lives Matter movement. At 23 years old, Ossé was elected in 2021 as the youngest member of this Council and its only member hailing from Gen-Z.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Hamilton_(actress)
Alzenia Lynn Hamilton (April 25, 1930 – June 19, 2025)[1] was an American actress. She was best known for her recurring roles as Donna Harris, Fred Sanford‘s girlfriend and later fiancée on the sitcom Sanford and Son (1972–1977) and Verdie Grant Foster on The Waltons (1973–1981). She also portrayed cousin Georgia Anderson in Roots: The Next Generations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otis_Davis
Otis Crandall Davis (July 12, 1932 – September 14, 2024) was an American athlete, winner of two gold medals for record-breaking performances in the 400 m and 4 × 400 m relay at the 1960 Summer Olympics. He set a new world record of 44.9 seconds in the 400 m and became the first person to break the 45-second barrier.[1]
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/06/17/poet-laureate-charleston-church-shooting
Ten years after a white supremacist killed nine parishioners of Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, the community is still coping with the loss and navigating the impact of the racial attack.
Marcus Amaker, the first poet laureate of Charleston, South Carolina, said many Black residents of South Carolina became afraid to go to church, a fear that lingers to this day.
“Going to church, especially for people in the south, especially for Black people in the south, has always been a safe haven,” Amaker said. “So for that to be sort of laced and infused with anxiety is a really hard thing for a lot of people to deal with, and I don’t really feel like a lot of us talk about it that much.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tia_Fuller
Tia Fuller (born March 27, 1976) is an American saxophonist, composer, and educator, and a member of the all-female band touring with Beyoncé. Fuller is currently a faculty member in the ensembles department at Berklee College of Music.[1] Fuller was a Featured Jazz Musician in Pixar‘s animated film Soul. For the film Fuller plays an alto saxophone with a Vandoren mouthpiece for the character Dorothea Williams. The appearance of Dorothea Williams is influenced by Fuller, and the character’s speaking lines are voiced by Angela Bassett.[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey_Lincoln
Anna Marie Wooldridge (August 6, 1930 – August 14, 2010),[1] known professionally as Abbey Lincoln, was an American jazz vocalist and songwriter. She was a civil rights activist beginning in the 1960s.[2][3] Lincoln made a career out of delivering deeply felt presentations of standards, as well as writing and singing her own material.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lil_Hardin_Armstrong
Lillian Hardin Armstrong (née Hardin; February 3, 1898 – August 27, 1971) was an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, singer, and bandleader. She was the second wife of Louis Armstrong, with whom she collaborated on many recordings in the 1920s.[1]
Her compositions include “Struttin’ with Some Barbecue”, “Don’t Jive Me”, “Two Deuces”, “Knee Drops”, “Doin’ the Suzie-Q”, “Just for a Thrill” (which was a hit when revived by Ray Charles in 1959),[2] “Clip Joint”, and “Bad Boy” (a hit for the Jive Bombers in 1957). Armstrong was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2014.[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Lou_Williams
Mary Lou Williams (born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs; May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981[1]) was an American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. She wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, and LP versions).[2] Williams wrote and arranged for Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and she was friend, mentor, and teacher to Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Tadd Dameron, Bud Powell, and Dizzy Gillespie.
I started playing drums in the church at an early age. That’s the place where I molded my passion for the drums and I eventually started playing gigs professionally. Later on I started developing a desire to play other genres of music besides Gospel, RnB and Funk. Playing with different types of bands and artists throughout Chicago such as Ari Brown, Willie Pickens and Robert Irving III helped me learn different aspects of each genre of music. Something that sets me off is a crazy bass line from the bass player.