We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send suggestions to Rachel at rstoler@frcog.org.

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Black Excellence: Dr. Imani Perry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imani_Perry Imani Perry (born September 5, 1972) is an American interdisciplinary scholar of race, law, literature, and African-American culture. She is currently the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and a columnist for The Atlantic.[1] Perry won the 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction for South to…

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Black Excellence: Booker T. Whatley

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_T._Whatley Booker T. Whatley (November 5, 1915 in Calhoun County, Alabama – September 3, 2005 in Montgomery, Alabama) was an agriculture professor at Tuskegee University, Alabama, and a pioneer of sustainable agriculture in the post-World War II era. He also aimed to “generate an agrarian black middle class”.[1]

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Black Excellence: Maria Thompson Corley

https://mariacorley.com/ https://mariacorley.com/about/ Maria Thompson Corley was born in Jamaica and raised in Canada. She has appeared as a solo or collaborative pianist on radio, television, and/or concert stages in North and Central America, the Caribbean, Bermuda and Europe, performing with artists like Metropolitan Opera soprano Priscilla Baskerville, Juno Award-winning clarinetist…

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Black History 365: Jonathan Harris

https://jonathanharrisart.bigcartel.com/biography Jonathan Harris (b. 1988) is a visual artist who was born and raised in the city of Detroit. After attending the Detroit School for the Fine and Performing Arts, he attended Henry Ford Community College and Oakland University, where he majored in Graphic Design and minored in Studio Art.…

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Black History 365: Shevrin Jones

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shevrin_Jones Shevrin D. Jones (born October 12, 1983) is an American politician from the state of Florida. He was elected to the Florida State Senate in 2020 to represent the 35th District. He previously was a Democratic member of the Florida House of Representatives, representing the 101st District, which included…

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Black History 365: The Museum of the National Center of AfroAmerican Artists, Boston, MA

https://ncaaa.org/the-museum/ Welcome to our Museum that is a gateway to black artistic heritage globally. The Museum of the National Center of Afro American Artists (NCAAA) is dedicated to the celebration, exhibition, collection and criticism of black visual arts heritage worldwide. The Museum presents a wide range of historical and contemporary…

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Black History 365: Dasia Taylor

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/high-schooler-invented-color-changing-sutures-detect-infection-180977345/ This High Schooler Invented Color-Changing Sutures to Detect Infection After winning a state science fair and becoming a finalist in a national competition, Dasia Taylor now has her sights set on a patent

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Black History 365: Ranky Tanky

https://www.rankytanky.com/ https://www.rankytanky.com/about Gullah Music of the Carolina Coast This Grammy Award winning, Charleston, SC-based quintet, performs timeless music born from the Gullah culture of the southeastern Sea Islands. Their debut album was featured on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross and the TODAY show. It also soared to the #1…

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Black History 365: Kehinde Wiley

https://kehindewiley.com/ Los Angeles native and New York based visual artist, Kehinde Wiley has firmly situated himself within art history’s portrait painting tradition. As a contemporary descendent of a long line of portraitists, including Reynolds, Gainsborough, Titian, Ingres, among others, Wiley, engages the signs and visual rhetoric of the heroic, powerful,…

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