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

I don’t eat out a lot. I’m a good cook so I can easily prepare most meals I need. In addition, I don’t have a huge income, and restaurants can be expensive. Luckily, I get to sample dishes at a number of local eateries, thanks to this column.

I try not to choose favorites among area restaurants. I’m a reporter, not a food critic, so my job is to describe rather than rate the food served. Nevertheless, a few chefs have won my heart with their culinary skills and their attitude toward food.

Foremost among these is Michaelangelo Wescott at the Gypsy Apple Bistro on Bridge Street in Shelburne Falls.

True to his first name, Wescott is an artist in the kitchen. The Gypsy Apple is small; it serves about 20 indoors and a few more on its small patio. The chef likes it that way. With limited people to feed, he can indulge his creativity in the menu and can put his personal touch on everything the restaurant serves.

The Gypsy Apple is a family affair, managed by Wescott’s friendly, highly competent wife, Ami Jean Aubin.

Unfortunately, the bistro’s small size made limited seating unsustainable during the recent shutdown. Other problems plagued the restaurant as well. I sat down recently to talk to Michaelangelo Wescott about his past year and his path forward.

He explained that the restaurant was able to reopen briefly from July through August in 2020. It also offered takeout during the summer for those reluctant to gather even outdoors.

“Then I got sick. I was in the hospital for a month,” he told me. He was struck by two devastating tick-borne illnesses.

“It took me four months for my legs to feel normal,” he explained. “My doctor advised me not to go back to work. He told me to wait until I got vaccinated.” A cancer survivor, Wescott was particularly vulnerable.

I asked him how he managed. “I just kind of gathered most of my resources, kept things alive,” he responded. “There were moments that were really hard because the restaurant wasn’t open and we were not generating any money. Paying rent and everything else. But we came through it.”

Wescott and Aubin set up a GoFundMe campaign to help pay some of the chef’s hospital expenses. They also brought in extra income at Thanksgiving and Christmas by selling meat and fish pies for people to take home and enjoy. My family devoured one happily on Christmas Eve.

Although times were tough, Wescott informed me, he found solace and even inspiration during the dark months.

“In the last year, I had a lot of time to do a lot of cooking at home,” he noted. “It was really interesting to do more experimental things and feel confident enough to go back into the restaurant and put some things that I’ve been playing with at home on the table.

“I’ve been a little more creative,” he reflected. “I’m inspired just because I’m alive.”

The bistro reopened on April 13. So far, it is operating pretty much at full capacity as it serves dinner Thursdays through Sundays.

“It’s going really well. We’ve been super busy,” said Wescott. “People are really excited for us to be back open. It’s really great to see my clients, especially my older clients. I’m glad to see some of my people that have been supporting me for the past 13, 14 years come back through my door.”

Wescott added that he is happy to see Shelburne Falls as a whole bouncing back as well. “It’s really nice seeing people out again and comfortable somewhat here in town,” he observed.

Although Wescott continues employing his traditional French technique in the kitchen, he enjoys “bringing different cultures and ethnicities” into his cooking.

He also enjoys savoring each new local comestible as it comes into season.

“Last year, there were things that I loved cooking and working with that I just missed,” he sighed.

More than ever, Michaelangelo Wescott wants to change his menu every week to take advantage of the area’s food diversity.

“There’s always something new for people to try as an adventure,” he told me with a smile. “I’m doing things that I love, things that I don’t usually see on menus. I’m very inspired at this time in my career. I’m going to continue what I’m doing, to continue cooking with heart and with love.” Gypsy Apple Pan-Seared Scallops around a Potato and Pea Salad with Crème Fraîche and Caviar

Ingredients:

For the potato salad:

1½ pounds fingerling potatoes

½ cup green peas

1 large shallot, minced

1 tablespoon fresh tarragon

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons white-wine vinegar

4 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

for the scallops:

12 large scallops (U 10, that is, with 10 or fewer to a pound)

1 tablespoon oil

½ tablespoon butter

for assembly:

1/3 cup crème fraîche or sour cream

1 ounce caviar of your choice

Instructions:

Boil the potatoes until they are done, about 10 minutes. While they are cooking, lightly steam or boil the peas for a couple of minutes. Cut the potatoes in half and combine them and the peas with the remaining salad ingredients.

Pan sear the scallops in oil and butter until they brown on each side. Let them rest for 5 to 8 minutes. Place the potato salad on a plate or platter, arrange the scallops around the salad, and top with crème fraîche and caviar.

Serves 3 to 4 people for dinner or 6 to 12 as an appetizer.

Tinky Weisblat is the award-winning author of “The Pudding Hollow Cookbook,” “Pulling Taffy,” and “Love, Laughter, and Rhubarb.” Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.

https://www.recorder.com/Elegant-inspiration-at-the-Gypsy-Apple-41152913

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

Stacey Abrams is a political leader, voting rights activist and New York Times bestselling author. After serving for eleven years in the Georgia House of Representatives, seven as Democratic Leader, in 2018, Abrams became the Democratic nominee for Governor of Georgia, winning at the time more votes than any other Democrat in the state’s history. Abrams was the first black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in the United States, and she was the first black woman and first Georgian to deliver a Response to the State of the Union. After witnessing the gross mismanagement of the 2018 election by the Secretary of State’s office, Abrams launched Fair Fight to ensure every American has a voice in our election system through programs such as Fair Fight 2020, an initiative to fund and train voter protection teams in 20 battleground states. Over the course of her career, Abrams has founded multiple organizations devoted to voting rights, training and hiring young people of color, and tackling social issues at both the state and national levels. In 2019, she launched Fair Count to ensure accuracy in the 2020 Census and greater participation in civic engagement, and the Southern Economic Advancement Project, a public policy initiative to broaden economic power and build equity in the South.

Abrams is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations, where she serves on the Subcommittee on Diversity. As a Next Generation Fellow of the American Assembly on U.S. Global Policy and the Future of International Institutions, she also served as a discussion leader, editor, and essay contributor. As the top-ranking Democrat in Georgia, she traveled to and met with leaders in South Korea, Israel and Taiwan, and she worked closely with several members of the consular corps. Abrams is a member of former Secretary of State John Kerry’s World War Zero bipartisan coalition on climate change. She has been a featured speaker at the Aspen Ministers Forum, the Kerry Initiative-Yale Jackson Institute of Global Affairs, the National Security Action Forum and The German Marshall Fund, as well as a contributor to Foreign Affairs Magazine.

She currently serves on the boards of several organizations including the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation, the Marguerite Casey Foundation, the Center for American Progress, and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association.

Abrams is the author of Lead from the Outside, Our Time is Now, While Justice Sleeps, in addition to eight eight romantic suspense novels under the pen name Selena Montgomery.

Abrams received degrees from Spelman College, the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas and Yale Law School. Born in Madison, Wisconsin, she and her five siblings grew up in Gulfport, Mississippi and were raised in Georgia.

www.fairfight.com

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

Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, president emerita of Spelman College, is the author of the best-selling book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations about Race, now in its 20^th anniversary edition.

A thought-leader in higher education, she was the 2013 recipient of the Carnegie Academic Leadership Award and the 2014 recipient of the American Psychological Association Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contributions to Psychology. Dr. Tatum holds a B.A. degree in psychology from Wesleyan University, a M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from University of Michigan, and a M.A. in Religious Studies from Hartford Seminary.

About

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

Steve Robinson’s family has owned their ranch in Becket, MA since 1906.

Thursday March 22, 2012

BECKET — Whenever one of Catherine Robinson’s children came to her with a special request, something they were especially passionate about, she would acquiesce.

Catherine, who passed away this past February at the age of 81, saw in her children’s desires something that went beyond the surface.

“I always remembered that we would discuss buying something for them, and no matter how high the cost, she would get it,” said Bill Robinson, thinking of his wife’s efforts.

On the day I visited Bill and his son, Steve, at the sprawling 200-acre ranch, the sky was overcast, with a bit of chill in the air. Clad in thick rubber boots, jeans and a plaid shirt, Steve who was outside working near the stables, looked every bit the part of a cowboy.

Today, that is in fact who he is. After retiring as a firefighter in New Haven, Conn., Steve is a full-time professional cowboy and horse trainer. The stables at Sunny Banks are filled with horses.

Steve’s great-grandfather on his dad’s side bought the ranch for $900 in 1906, and since then it has never left the family’s control.

It has become not only a place where Steve’s love of horses can take center stage through rodeos, clinics and trail rides offered to the public, but for a time, it has also served as a refuge for young people who’ve encountered difficulties and challenges in their lives.

Perhaps, this is the vision that Catherine saw of her son before her he could fully imagine the possibilities.

“When I was a baby, I would get excited when I saw a horse. (As a child), everybody wanted to play army and I wanted to play cowboys and Indians. The cowboys from TV became my heroes,” Steve said. “My mother was the facilitator of our dreams. She bought my brother and me saddles. We didn’t even have horses at the time.”

But Catherine was a woman who not only envisioned who her children could be, but also had a vision of who she could be as well, despite a society that encouraged women to stay in the home.

“My mom started the Tiny Tots program in New Haven; she was a licensed practical nurse, an educator on several academic boards, and one of her best friends was Joseph Liebermann,” Steve said. “I remember (Liebermann) sitting in my house when she was running for alderwoman. She was a feminist. For a black woman to be a feminist there were many lines to cross over.”

She became an alderwoman and the first person of color to serve on the board of the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven. She was later invited by President Lyndon B. Johnson to come to Washington, D.C. for a civil rights event, Bill said.

Bill attributed his wife’s many accomplishments to one thing: her character.

“At the time, there was a big clamor about inequality in the northern schools. At that time, in the late ‘50s and ‘60s, when they had the riots, that was a big change for all of us,” Bill said. “I think things just happened and she was there. She saw a need, and she did it.”

And Bill helped to facilitate her vision as well.

“A lot of times she’d have to go away, and yes, I took care of the kids. I was a policeman and worked the midnight shift,” said Bill, who also received help from Catherine’s nearby family. “We made it work; we never left our kids alone.”

Indeed, Catherine set such a strong example that the legacy of her actions continue to reverberate with Steve today. Inspired by her, he wants to move Sunny Banks in a new direction. In the midst of a tight economy, Steve still wants to provide offerings to those seeking his services; however, he wants to devote his time to one group in particular.

“I have championships in the rodeo associations I’m in, but God wants me to stay (here); this is a gift,” Steve said. “Going forward, I want to take some kids who need mentoring, or those going into programs, and bring them to the farm. It’s a better chance to put this in their system than jail.”

https://www.berkshireeagle.com/archives/keep-vision-alive/article_54d5c630-a33e-571b-a126-8335f304b953.html

And check out this recent article: Not their first rodeo: How Black riders are reclaiming their place in cowboy culture

https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2022/02/19/1074792510/black-cowboys-mississippi-big-rodeo-project-justin-hardiman

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

Wordsmith. Change-maker.

Amanda Gorman is the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, as well as an award-winning writer and cum laude graduate of Harvard University, where she studied Sociology. She has written for the New York Times and has three books forthcoming with Penguin Random House.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, she began writing at only a few years of age. Now her words have won her invitations to the Obama White House and to perform for Lin-Manuel Miranda, Al Gore, Secretary Hillary Clinton, Malala Yousafzai, and others. Amanda has performed multiple commissioned poems for CBS This Morning and she has spoken at events and venues across the country, including the Library of Congress and Lincoln Center. She has received a Genius Grant from OZY Media, as well as recognition from Scholastic Inc., YoungArts, the Glamour magazine College Women of the Year Awards, and the Webby Awards. She has written for the New York Times newsletter The Edit and penned the manifesto for Nike’s 2020 Black History Month campaign. In 2017, Amanda Gorman was appointed the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate by Urban Word – a program that supports Youth Poets Laureate in more than 60 cities, regions and states nationally. She is the recipient of the Poets & Writers Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, and is the youngest board member of 826 National, the largest youth writing network in the United States.

https://www.theamandagorman.com/

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence every day this February….and beyond! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Calpurnyia Roberts, PhD, is Director of A Place to Live, a new initiative at MHSA, that will advocate for new models to house chronic and long term homeless persons. Before arriving at MHSA, Calpurnyia led Rising Together, a coordinated effort among Boston’s lead organizations on youth homelessness to improve job outcomes for young people in need of housing. She has more than a decade of experience in launching, coordinating, and evaluating public health programs with an equity-infused lens to improve outcomes for marginalized populations. Calpurnyia graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology and Human Biology from Emory University. She received a Master of Science and a Doctorate in Epidemiology from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, respectively.

https://mhsa.net/team/calpurnyia-roberts/

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence every day this February….and beyond! Feel free to send us suggestions!

BRATTLEBORO — Organizers of annual Fourth of July festivities couldn’t let another year go by without having Alfred Hughes Jr. parade through downtown, sharing his love for the community. 

As Hughes got ready to leave the Brattleboro Union High School in the back of Downtown Brattleboro Alliance’s new pickup truck used for watering flowers and known as Bloom, he expressed joy about vaccinations against COVID-19 allowing Brattleboro Goes Fourth to go forth in a small but meaningful way. 

“I like to laugh,” he said in back of the pickup during the parade. “I’m an American.”  

Usually, the annual parade begins with a massive American flag and ends with Hughes in some kind of gown. Last year, event organizers had to cancel all activities due to the pandemic and released a video compilation showing Hughes throughout the last decade in which he participated in the parade. 

This time around, Hughes wore a silver sequined gown and feather headdress. He spoke about the importance of community and openness as cars honked from the road, and people cheered from the sides of Canal Street and Main Street. 

Love for Hughes, known simply as Alfred in the community, also came via comments on a livestream video posted on facebook.com/BrattleboroGoesFourth. His creativity and enthusiasm were commended. 

Behind the wheel of Bloom was Dick DeGray, who helps run the downtown flower program. The town police and fire departments escorted. 

In a Facebook post, the Brattleboro Goes Fourth committee and Brattleboro Recreation and Parks Department saluted their longtime sponsors — including the Elks, C&S Wholesale Grocers, G.S Precision, Holstein Association USA and the Richards Group. They said they hope to return to their regular offerings next year.

In a statement regarding the holiday, Gov. Phil Scott said, “After 16 long and difficult months dealing with a once-in-a-century pandemic, this Independence Day, Vermonters are together once again, celebrating the birth of our great nation with friends and family. Many around the state will be attending parades, cookouts and firework displays — heading to state parks, the lake or downtown, with a new sense of independence, born from our collective efforts, hard work and determination in our battle against COVID-19.”

Since the founding of the United States, Scott said, “Vermonters have served as an example. Our response these past months has been no exception. As we enter our recovery phase, let us be inspired by the words of our founders, build on the progress we’ve made and have the courage to do things differently and boldly in pursuit of a more perfect union.”

https://www.reformer.com/local-news/going-fourth-with-more-freedom/article_666164a4-dcc4-11eb-99e0-13fba5a202d3.html

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence every day this February….and beyond! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Daisy Bates

1914-1999 By Arlisha Norwood, NWHM Fellow | 2017

When Daisy Bates was three years old her mother was killed by three white men. Although Bates, was just a child, her biological mother’s death made an emotional and mental imprint on her. The unfortunate death forced Bates to confront racism at an early age and pushed her to dedicate her life to ending racial injustice.

Daisy Bates was born in Huttig, Arkansas in 1914 and raised in a foster home. When she was fifteen, she met her future husband and began travelling with him throughout the South. The couple settled in Little Rock, Arkansas and started their own newspaper. The Arkansas Weekly was one of the only African American newspapers solely dedicated to the Civil Rights Movement. The paper was circulated state wide. Bates not only worked as an editor, but also regularly contributed articles.

Naturally, Bates also worked with local Civil Rights organizations. For many years, she served as the President of the Arkansas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Her work with the NAACP not only transformed the Civil Rights Movement but it also made Bates a household name.

In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled segregated schools unconstitutional. After the ruling Bates began gathering African American students to enroll at all white schools. Often the white schools refused to let black students attend. Bates used her newspaper to publicize the schools who did follow the federal mandate. Despite the continuous rejection from many Arkansas public schools, she pushed forward.

When the national NAACP office started to focus on Arkansas’ schools, they looked to Bates to plan the strategy. She took the reins and organized the Little Rock Nine. Bates selected nine students to integrate Central High School in Little Rock in 1957. She regularly drove the students to school and worked tirelessly to ensure they were protected from violent crowds. She also advised the group and even joined the school’s parent organization.

Due to Bates’ role in the integration, she was often a target for intimidation. Rocks were thrown into her home several times and she received bullet shells in the mail. The threats forced the Bates family to shut down their newspaper.

After the success of the Little Rock Nine, Bates continued to work on improving the status of African Americans in the South. Her influential work with school integration brought her national recognition. In 1962, she published her memoirs, The Long Shadow of Little Rock. Eventually, the book would win an American Book Award. Bates was invited to sit on the stage during the program at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Due to a last-minute change, Bates was invited to speak at the march.

In 1968, Bates moved to Mitchellville, Arkansas. The majority black town was impoverished and lacked economic resources. When Bates arrived, she used her organizational skills to pull together residents and improve the community.

Bates died on November 4^th, 1999. For her work, the state of Arkansas proclaimed the third Monday in February, Daisy Gatson Bates Day. She was posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1999.

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/daisy-bates

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence every day this February….and beyond! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Meet the first Black skeleton athlete to compete for the U.S. at the Olympics

BEIJING — Skeleton is a heart-racing, adrenaline-fueled event where a single racer flies face-first down a frozen track, sometimes going more than 80 mph, belly-down on a sled.

Kelly Curtis is quick to acknowledge this sport is “crazy.” That doesn’t make her love it any less.

The event has been a mainstay at the Winter Games since 2002. At the Beijing Winter Olympics, just three Americans will compete for a medal — and Curtis is one of them.

As soon as Curtis shot herself down a topsy-turvy track in Beijing on Friday, she made history.

Curtis is the first Black athlete, man or woman, to represent the U.S. at the Olympics in skeleton. The 33-year-old is also the only member of the U.S. Air Force at this year’s Winter Games.

Curtis joins a small group of Black athletes competing for the U.S. at the Beijing Olympics.

The inherent pressure of being “the first” and “only” isn’t fazing her, she said.

“I am treating this like every race,” she said.

After the start of her two-day event Friday morning, Curtis stands 18th. Her teammate Katie Uhlaender is eighth. They are scheduled to next compete for the final round of skeleton runs at 9:55 p.m. Beijing time (8:55 a.m. EST) on Saturday.

https://www.npr.org/2022/02/10/1079798400/kelly-curtis-first-black-skeleton-olympian

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence every day this February….and beyond! Feel free to send us suggestions!

After an enrichment program at Sally Ride Elementary School, a young Jessica Watkins realized what she wanted to do when she grew up: study the geology of other planets.

Today, at 33 years old, Watkins is training for a mission to do just that.

This April, Watkins is set to become the first Black woman to live and work on the International Space Station for an extended mission. She will arrive there onboard a SpaceX capsule and then spend six months on the ISS as part of NASA’s Artemis program, a multi-billion dollar effort designed to return humans to the surface of the moon in 2025.

“We are building on the foundation that was laid by the Black women astronauts who have come before me,” Watkins told NPR’s Morning Edition. “I’m definitely honored to be a small part of that legacy, but ultimately be an equal member of the crew.”

Of the roughly 250 people who have boarded the ISS, fewer than 10 have been Black. Prior to the inception of the space station, Mae Jemison, an engineer and physician, became the first Black woman to travel to space in 1992. Other Black women have followed, including NASA astronauts Stephanie Wilson and Joan Higginbotham.

NASA selected Watkins for its astronaut program in 2017. She holds a bachelor’s degree in geological and environmental sciences from Stanford University and a doctorate in geology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Watkins will cover a lot of ground on her mission: earth and space science, biological science and human research into things like the effects of long-duration spaceflight for humans. That’s when the astronauts themselves become “the lab rats,” Watkins told NPR.

Over the course of her six-month mission, Watkins will also observe and photograph geological changes on Earth.

Ahead of her journey, Watkins said she’s done training on the systems of the International Space Station and how to fix anything if it isn’t working properly. She’s also practiced walking in space by wearing a puffy white suit in an underwater ISS mockup that’s housed in a giant pool.

Watkins said the journey to space has wide-ranging implications on everything from medical research “with direct impacts into our daily lives,” to international collaboration. Even amid tensions here on Earth between Washington and Moscow over Ukraine, she notes, the U.S. portion of the ISS is docked to the Russian segment.

“We are all coming together to accomplish this really hard thing that none of us would be able to do on our own,” Watkins said. “I think that is just such a beautiful picture of what we can all do if we come together and put all of our resources and skill sets together.”

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/31/1077009955/jessica-watkins-nasa-astronaut-international-space-station-artemis