Category: Black Excellence

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/

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

OCTAVIA E. BUTLER was a renowned African American author who received a MacArthur “Genius” Grant and PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work. Born in Pasadena in 1947, she was raised by her mother and her grandmother.  She was the author of several award-winning novels including PARABLE OF THE SOWER (1993), which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and PARABLE OF THE TALENTS (1995) winner of the Nebula Award for the best science fiction novel published that year. She was acclaimed for her lean prose, strong protagonists, and social observations in stories that range from the distant past to the far future.

Though the MacArthur Grant made life easier in later years, she struggled for decades when her dystopian novels exploring themes of Black injustice, global warming, women’s rights and political disparity were, to say the least, not in commercial demand. 

During these years of obscurity Butler, always an early riser, woke at 2 a.m. every day to write, and then went to work as a telemarketer, potato chip inspector, and dishwasher, among other things. 

She passed away on February 24, 2006. At the time of her death, interest in her books was beginning to rise, and in recent years, sales of her books have increased enormously as the issues she addressed in her Afro-Futuristic, feminist novels and short fiction have only become more relevant.

Her work is now taught in over 200 colleges and universities nationwide. The #1 New York Times bestselling graphic novel adaptation of her book KINDRED, created by Damian Duffy and John Jennings, received the Eisner Award for best adaptation. 

In media, her novel DAWN is being developed for television by Ava DuVernay (“Selma”; “A Wrinkle In Time”). An opera by Toshi Reagon based on Butler’s novel PARABLE OF THE SOWER was part of The Public Theatre “Under the Radar” festival and toured worldwide in 2018. Amazon Studios and JuVee Productions (Viola Davis and Julius Tennon’s production company) are developing a drama series from Butler’s PATTERNIST series, beginning with WILD SEED, and the series is being co-written by Nnedi Okorafor and Wanuri Kahiu, who will also direct.

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Awards and Recognition

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• 2018, Eisner Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium – Kindred, by Octavia Butler, adapted by Damian Duffy and John Jennings (Abrams ComicArts)
• 2012, Solstice Award, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America
• 2010, Inductee Science Fiction Hall of Fame
• 2000, PEN American Center Lifetime Achievement Award in Writing
• 1999, Nebula Award for Best Novel – Parable of the Talents
• 1995, MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant
• 1985, Hugo Award for Best Novelette – Bloodchild
• 1985, Locus Award for Best Novelette – Bloodchild
• 1985, Science Fiction Chronicle Award for Best Novelette – Bloodchild
• 1984, Hugo Award for Best Short Story – Speech Sounds
• 1984, Nebula Award for Best Novelette – Bloodchild
• 1980, Creative Arts Award, L.A. YWCA

https://www.octaviabutler.com/theauthor

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.

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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