Author: Rachel Stoler

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Diébédo Francis Kéré appears on a Zoom screen in a loose white Oxford shirt and an enormous, slightly flabbergasted smile.

“Can you imagine?” the newest Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate exclaims. “I was born in Burkina Faso, in this little village where there was no school. And my father wanted me to learn how to read and write very simply because then I could then translate or read him his letters.”

Kéré spoke to NPR from Porto-Novo, the capital of Benin, where Kéré Architecture is currently working a new parliamentary building inspired by the palaver tree. It is, he says, a West African symbol of consensus building, and he hopes the building will reflect a commitment both to tradition and democratic process. “Literally speaking, it is a tree under which people come together to make decisions, to celebrate,” Kéré explains. “You know, you get to think together and everyone can be part of the debate or the discussion.”

The first Black winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize had already received numerous accolades in his field, including the Aga Khan Award and the Thomas Jefferson medal, but Kéré was as surprised as anyone else to be selected for the field’s most famous prize. Many architects and critics had openly supposed that 2022 would be Sir David Adjaye’s year. The most prominent Black “starchitect” is best known for designing such notable buildings as the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. Kéré, who is based in Berlin but centers much of his practice in Africa, has been – until now — far lesser known, with signature buildings that include primary schools and a health care clinic.

“Francis Kéré is pioneering architecture — sustainable to the earth and its inhabitants — in lands of extreme scarcity,” said committee chair, Tom Pritzker, in a statement. “He is equally architect and servant, improving upon the lives and experiences of countless citizens in a region of the world that is at times forgotten. Through buildings that demonstrate beauty, modesty, boldness and invention, and by the integrity of his architecture and geste, Kéré gracefully upholds the mission of this Prize.”

Kéré says his architectural practice was inspired by his own experience attending school with around 100 other children in a region where temperatures regularly exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit. “You will sit and it’s very hot inside,” he told NPR. “And there was no light, while outside, the sunlight was abundant and in my head, I think, the idea one day grew [that] as an adult, I should make it better. I was thinking about space, about room, about how I can feel better.”

In his designs for Gando Primary School and Naaba Belem Goumma Secondary School in Burkina Faso, Kéré drew on traditional building materials such as local clay mixed with concrete, and emphasized shade and shadows with well-ventilated spaces that reduce the need for air conditioning. He wanted the buildings to evoke the sense of an oasis. “I am creating a huge canopy for many, many children, to be happy and learn how to read and write,” he says.

When he was twenty, in 1985, Kéré earned a vocational scholarship to study carpentry in Berlin. But while immersed in the practicality of roofing and furniture making, he also attended night school and was admitted to Technische Universität Berlin, from which he graduated in 2004 with an advanced degree in architecture. He was still a student when he designed and built the innovative Gando Primary School. The recognition it earned helped Kéré establish his own practice in Berlin.

“He knows, from within, that architecture is not about the object but the objective; not the product, but the process,” says the 2022 Jury Citation, in part. “Francis Kéré’s entire body of work shows us the power of materiality rooted in place. His buildings, for and with communities, are directly of those communities – in their making, their materials, their programs and their unique characters.”

https://www.npr.org/2022/03/15/1085457169/pritzker-architecture-prize-2022-diebedo-francis-kere

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!

I’m Tiffy, the voice behind Fidgets and Fries. I’m an Autistic mother, advocate, and storyteller who uses my personal experiences with Autism and parenting two Autistic boys to guid others on their journey. My activism is rooted in challenging the current perception of Autism as a lifelong burden, cultivating a community that explores the concept of Intersectionality, and inspiring thought leaders through storytelling, education, and critical discourse. 

I am a dreamer by day and writer by night. I don’t often like to write about myself but can be persuaded to do so every once in a while. I live in Texas with my husband, Hammy, our two boys, Aidan and Josiah, and our cats. 

https://lnk.bio/fidgets.and.fries

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Ron Finley is a rebel with a green thumb. In 2010 Ron set out to fix a problem in his South Central neighborhood parkways; those often neglected dirt patches next to our streets. He planted some vegetables there. Soon after he was cited for gardening without a permit by the apparent owners of those dirt patches: the City of Los Angeles. Queue the beginning of a horticulture revolution. 

Ron fought back, and won. He started a petition with fellow green activists, and demanded the right to garden and grow food in his neighborhood. Having grown up in the South Central Los Angeles food prison, Ron is familiar with the area’s lack of fresh produce. He knew what it was like to drive 45 minutes just to get a fresh tomato. Boldly and tenderly, Ron’s vision to rejuvenate communities around the world through gardening, knowledge, and togetherness has taken root. 

https://ronfinley.com/pages/about

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman is an award-winning Ghanaian-American researcher, entrepreneur, and writer. She graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 2019 with a Bachelors of Arts in Mathematics and a minor in Economics. Currently, she is a graduate student at Harvard Kennedy School studying public policy and economics.

 In 2018, Anna Gifty co-founded The Sadie Collective, the only non-profit organization addressing the underrepresentation of Black women in economics, finance, and policy. She also co-founded the viral and award-winning digital campaign #BlackBirdersWeek.

Her advocacy, research, and commentary lie at the intersection of social justice and quantitative analysis

and are featured widely by media outlets such as Bloomberg, NPR, Teen Vogue, Slate, and The New York Times.

To date, Anna Gifty remains the youngest recipient for a CEDAW Women’s Rights Award by the UN Convention on the Elimination all forms of Discrimination Against Women— previously awarded to Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Her new book, THE BLACK AGENDA (St. Martin’s), has received praise from New York Timesbestselling authors, Wes Moore, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, and Chelsea Clinton. The book is the first publication to exclusively feature Black policy and research experts for a trade audience.

https://www.blackagendabook.com/bio

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer rose from humble beginnings in the Mississippi Delta to become one of the most important, passionate, and powerful voices of the civil and voting rights movements and a leader in the efforts for greater economic opportunities for African Americans.

Hamer was born on October 6, 1917 in Montgomery County, Mississippi, the 20^th and last child of sharecroppers Lou Ella and James Townsend. She grew up in poverty, and at age six Hamer joined her family picking cotton. By age 12, she left school to work. In 1944, she married Perry Hamer and the couple toiled on the Mississippi plantation owned by B.D. Marlowe until 1962. Because Hamer was the only worker who could read and write, she also served as plantation timekeeper.

In 1961, Hamer received a hysterectomy by a white doctor without her consent while undergoing surgery to remove a uterine tumor. Such forced sterilization of Black women, as a way to reduce the Black population, was so widespread it was dubbed a “Mississippi appendectomy.” Unable to have children of their own, the Hamers adopted two daughters.

That summer, Hamer attended a meeting led by civil rights activists James Forman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and James Bevel of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Hamer was incensed by efforts to deny Blacks the right to vote. She became a SNCC organizer and on August 31, 1962 led 17 volunteers to register to vote at the Indianola, Mississippi Courthouse. Denied the right to vote due to an unfair literacy test, the group was harassed on their way home, when police stopped their bus and fined them $100 for the trumped-up charge that the bus was too yellow. That night, Marlow fired Hamer for her attempt to vote; her husband was required to stay until the harvest. Marlow confiscated much of their property. The Hamers moved to Ruleville, Mississippi in Sunflower County with very little.

In June 1963, after successfully completing a voter registration program in Charleston, South Carolina, Hamer and several other Black women were arrested for sitting in a “whites-only” bus station restaurant in Winona, Mississippi. At the Winona jailhouse, she and several of the women were brutally beaten, leaving Hamer with lifelong injuries from a blood clot in her eye, kidney damage, and leg damage.

In 1964, Hamer’s national reputation soared as she co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), which challenged the local Democratic Party’s efforts to block Black participation. Hamer and other MFDP members went to the Democratic National Convention that year, arguing to be recognized as the official delegation. When Hamer spoke before the Credentials Committee, calling for mandatory integrated state delegations, President Lyndon Johnson held a televised press conference so she would not get any television airtime. But her speech, with its poignant descriptions of racial prejudice in the South, was televised later. By 1968, Hamer’s vision for racial parity in delegations had become a reality and Hamer was a member of Mississippi’s first integrated delegation.

In 1964 Hamer helped organize Freedom Summer, which brought hundreds of college students, Black and white, to help with African American voter registration in the segregated South. In 1964, she announced her candidacy for the Mississippi House of Representatives but was barred from the ballot. A year later, Hamer, Victoria Gray, and Annie Devine became the first Black women to stand in the U.S. Congress when they unsuccessfully protested the Mississippi House election of 1964. She also traveled extensively, giving powerful speeches on behalf of civil rights. In 1971, Hamer helped to found the National Women’s Political Caucus.

Frustrated by the political process, Hamer turned to economics as a strategy for greater racial equality. In 1968, she began a “pig bank” to provide free pigs for Black farmers to breed, raise, and slaughter. A year later she launched the Freedom Farm Cooperative (FFC), buying up land that Blacks could own and farm collectively. With the assistance of donors (including famed singer Harry Belafonte), she purchased 640 acres and launched a coop store, boutique, and sewing enterprise. She single-handedly ensured that 200 units of low-income housing were built—many still exist in Ruleville today. The FFC lasted until the mid-1970s; at its heyday, it was among the largest employers in Sunflower County. Extensive travel and fundraising took Hamer away from the day-to-day operations, as did her failing health, and the FFC hobbled along until folding. Not long after, in 1977, Hamer died of breast cancer at age 59.

Edited by Debra Michals, Ph.D. | 2017

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/fannie-lou-hamer

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Craig V. Hickman (born December 8, 1967) is an American writer,^[1] farmer,^[2] and Democratic politician from Maine currently representing Maine Senate District 14. He served in the 126th Maine House of Representatives as the representative for Maine’s 82nd district from 2012-2018. Hickman won his 2012 primary election by nearly 80%,^[3] and campaigned on ending hunger,^[4][5] eliminating regulations for small farms and businesses, and investing in sustainable energy initiatives.^[6] Hickman was elected to the Maine Senate in a 2021 special election, succeeding Shenna Bellows.^[7]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Hickman

Senator Hickman was instrumental in getting the first “Right to Food” amendment in the US passed. It amends the Maine State Constitution.

https://thehill.com/regulation/legislation/579819-maine-voters-pass-first-right-to-food-amendment-in-us

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Beethoven’s opera Fidelio is the story of a man who has been unjustly imprisoned. Through that story, a group of enterprising artists has found a way to bring Fidelio, quite literally, into today’s incarceration system — and to bring the voices of those men and women to the stage.

In this updated version of Fidelio staged by New York City’s Heartbeat Opera, the main character is Stan, a Black Lives Matter activist who has been thrown into solitary confinement. His wife, Leah, tries to rescue him. The music is still sung in German, but the spoken parts are in English.

In person, this production is small: there’s just a handful each of instrumentalists and singers on stage at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Daniel Schlosberg, Heartbeat’s co-musical director, strips the full orchestra down to just two pianos, two cellos, two French horns and a percussionist. The effect is strikingly intimate and imaginative, texturally effective, and also slightly claustrophobia-inducing — not out of place in a prison.)

But this production is a much larger effort, notes Ethan Heard, who is a co-founder and artistic director of Heartbeat Opera.

“I revisited the story and was just so struck by the idea of a wrongfully incarcerated man and this amazing woman, his wife, who infiltrates the prison where she believes he’s been kept. And it felt like an opera we could really update for a contemporary American version,” Heard says.

Heartbeat first staged its version of Fidelio in 2018, with plans to bring it back in 2020. Of course, the pandemic disrupted those plans — and the creative team updated their piece again to reflect certain events of the past couple of years, from the nation’s racial reckoning to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

Stan has been jailed by the corrupt prison governor Pizarro. In the 2022 Heartbeat staging, Pizarro quotes former President Donald Trump, exhorting his cronies to “stand back and stand by” as he plots Stan’s murder. A senior guard, Roc — who is Black himself — comes to wrestle with his position in the system as he watches largely Black and brown men being imprisoned.

Roc’s daughter, Marcy, who also works at the prison, falls in love with Leah, who has taken a job there to find her husband. (In Beethoven’s original opera, Leah has disguised herself as a young man to infiltrate the jail; here, she is queer.)

The emotional apex of any version of Fidelio is a scene in which the prisoners are allowed a brief outing into the fresh air, exulting in a passing moment that feels just a little bit like freedom.

In thinking about that scene, Heard and co-musical director Daniel Schlosberg hit upon a much larger idea that spoke to what they really wanted this production to address: mass incarceration in America. https://www.youtube.com/embed/x5O1fBAnhvo?rel=0 Heartbeat Opera YouTube

They connected with an old friend of Schlosberg: Amanda Weber, a prison choir director in Minnesota. She in turn helped put them in touch with other such groups. As a result, in Heartbeat’s production, singers from six prison musical groups — a mix of over 100 men and women who are incarcerated as well as about 70 community volunteers — are the ones singing the “Prisoners’ Chorus.”

The groups are the Oakdale Community Choir in Iowa; KUJI Men’s Chorus, UBUNTU Men’s Chorus and HOPE Thru Harmony Women’s Choir in Ohio; East Hill Singers in Kansas; and the group Weber leads, Voices of Hope in Minnesota.

“In March of 2018, Dan and I were able to visit these choirs in person — four of the choirs — and film and record and incorporate that into the show,” Heard explains. (The wardens at the other two prisons would not allow filming, he says.)

Their recordings, made in the prison facilities and stitched together digitally, are projected onto the stage in the Heartbeat Opera production.

Schlosberg says that this moment in the opera is everything — its heart and soul.

“This is where for me Beethoven really shines, both in his philosophy about justice and freedom,” Schlosberg observes. “It is some of the most gorgeous music ever written for chorus in an opera, and that is the center, both emotionally and musically. Everything about this piece kind of comes from there.”

In order to make this collaboration happen, the Heartbeat team had to earn the trust of the singers in prison. Michael Powell is one of those chorus members; he’s also known by the name Black. He was formerly incarcerated in Ohio, at Marion Correctional, and sang in the KUJI Men’s Chorus there. Above all, Black says, they didn’t want to be used as a prop.

“KUJI is full of characters, but we are not characters for other people, you know what I mean?” Black laughs. “From when Danny and Ethan came in, it was like the quick feel-out process — let’s see what’s going on there because we don’t want to feel exploited in any way. We already get exploited enough.”

Derrell Acon is the associate artistic director of Heartbeat. In Fidelio, he sings the role of Roc. Acon says that opera can be a great vehicle for addressing and reflecting social movements.

“In the 1830s and 40s,” Acon notes, “folks were out on the street screaming ‘Viva Verdi!’ because opera was such a relevant space for disruption, relevant space for human connection and reflection. For me, it’s always OK, so here’s the 18th, 19th-century version. What’s the 2022 version?”

Acon also says that this reworked version of Fidelio had particular meaning for him.

“I’m someone who has been impacted by the carceral system. I have a sibling who was incarcerated for a very long time,” he says. “And, you know, clearly it affects family dynamics. So there’s that piece.”

“But there’s also just a piece of the fact that this is not actually a mechanism for justice, but rather revenue,” Acon continues, referring to the use of privatized prisons. “It sits on the backs of Black and brown people. Racism is at the core of what makes that machine continue to roll forward.”

Black, the singer from the KUJI men’s chorus, was released from prison in 2020. He’s now the director of outreach and new initiatives for a small non-profit in Columbus, Ohio, Healing Broken Circles, which works with people touched by the justice system. He’s also a musician and actor.

“If you really want to try to impact lives or if you care anything about prison justice reform or any of those things,” Black says, “support the arts going into those prisons and support the community coming out of prison, their dreams and aspirations of continuing the art that they’ve learned.”

Before the performances at the Met, the museum posted letters from some of the singers who are incarcerated, in which they described their feelings about the collaboration.

“Gradually,” one person from the East Hill Singers wrote in an unsigned letter, “the gravity of what I was doing settled in, it was an honor that someone wanted us to be a part of not just their opera but their careers and lives. Having been in prison for more than 20 years I have not had a place in the free world and this has been an opportunity for me to share something truly positive with my friends and family… I have had the opportunity to meet and bond with a great group of people and I almost feel free.”

Heartbeat Opera’s staging of Fidelio is currently touring the country, with performances in California and Arizona.

https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2022/02/19/1081609788/fidelio-black-lives-matter-opera

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Since 2007, Stephen Satterfield has spent his career redefining food and beverage as means of organizing, activating and educating. He is the founder of Whetstone, a groundbreaking magazine and media company dedicated to food origins and culture from around the world. 

Prior to his career in media, Satterfield was a sommelier and social entrepreneur promoting wine as a catalyst for socioeconomic development for Black wine workers in South Africa. Satterfield is among the most prominent and respected voices in U.S. food media, and host of the critically acclaimed Netflix docuseries, High on the Hog.

https://www.whetstonemedia.co/about

Also check out High on the Hog:

https://www.netflix.com/title/81034518

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Raven Baxter, Ph.D., aka Dr. Raven the Science Maven, is an internationally acclaimed American educator and molecular biologist known for effortlessly merging science with pop culture. Using her magnetic personality, she challenges the status quo to prove that science communicators aren’t all one and the same. 

Raised by a single mother in North Carolina and New York, Dr. Baxter’s curiosity to explore the world around her at a young age developed into a lifelong affinity for science. Today, whether producing viral hip-hop videos such as her “Antibodyody Antibody Song” or her “Wipe it Down” to teach science lessons to the masses or hosting a STEM-themed talk show she created called STEMbassy, she joyfully disrupts traditional cultural perceptions about scientists.

Passionate about diversity in STEM, Dr. Baxter builds community with her participation in the Black in Science Communication group and recognizes the importance of service as a legacy member of the prestigious Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, which counts Vice President Kamala Harris and civil rights activist Rosa Parks as distinguished members.

As an entrepreneur—and unapologetic fashionista—Dr. Baxter recognized the importance of inclusive fashions for science fans from all walks of life, which led her to found her own online store, Smarty Pants. Her shop features of-the-moment, whimsical STEM-themed apparel and accessories designed by her with a portion of the profits benefiting STEM students.

In addition, Dr. Baxter is a sought after public speaker who maintains a strong voice in science academia as the Director of Diversity Initiatives in the UC Irvine School of Biological Sciences. She has earned numerous awards for her achievements, including the State University of New York’s Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence in honor of her service in educating the public about COVID-19, and recognition on Fortune Magazine’s 40 Under 40 list. 

For the upcoming 2021/2022 school year, Dr. Baxter will join a 4-person team of celebrities and influencers commissioned by NASA to inspire student participation in the NASA TechRise Student Challenge. The team will create a video that challenges students in grades 6 – 12 to build and test a design based on Dr. Baxter’s hypothesis about what a maraca would sound like in microgravity, during the NASA TechRise Virtual Field Trip in September.

https://www.scimaven.com/about

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!

662 is the next chapter in the still-unfolding story of Christone “Kingfish” Ingram. He describes 662 as his own personal journey, a story that sits upon the legacy of his influential blues elders. The songs—reflecting his life in and away from his home in the Delta—speak to universal truths, as well as to similar experiences shared by his large and growing multi-generational, multi-cultural fan base. From the blistering, hometown title track, 662, to the irresistible She Calls Me Kingfish to the slow, soulful and poignant Another Life Goes By to the funky truth-telling Too Young To Remember, 662 overflows with hard-hitting songs, jaw-dropping guitar work and deep, soul-possessed vocals. NPR Music says Ingram’s playing is “astounding…it’s almost like he’s singing through the guitar.”

Ingram’s journey began in the 662 in the city of Clarksdale, in Coahoma County, Mississippi, just ten miles from the legendary crossroads of Highways 61 and 49.Born to a musical family, he fell in love with music as a small child, initially playing drums and then bass. At a young age, he got his first guitar and quickly soaked up music from Robert Johnson to Lightnin’ Hopkins, from B.B. King to Muddy Waters, from Jimi Hendrix to Prince, but all the while developing his own sound and style. He progressed quickly, making his stage debut a few months later at Clarksdale’s famous Ground Zero Blues Club, playing behind one of his mentors, Mississippi blues icon Bill “Howl-N-Madd” Perry. Perry gifted the young musician with a new stage name, “Kingfish.” He performed at the White House for Michelle Obama in 2014 as part of a delegation of student musicians from the Delta Blues Museum. By age 16 he was turning heads and winning awards, including the 2015 Rising Star Award, presented by The Rhythm & Blues Foundation. Ingram’s appeal beyond blues was immediate. Even before he cut his debut album and while still a teenager, many of Ingram’s YouTube performance videos garnered millions of views. He performed two songs in Season Two of the Netflix show Luke Cage after the series’ lead producer saw one of his videos. Both songs appear on the official soundtrack album, which introduced him to a young audience, many of whom had never heard Ingram’s brand of blues before. As part of Luke Cage promotion, Ingram performed in an NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert with rap legend Rakim, who also appeared in Luke Cage, and, in 2020, Ingram hosted his own Tiny Desk (Home) Concert.

https://www.christonekingfishingram.com/kingfish-biography/