Black Excellence: Lydia Polgreen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Polgreen
Lydia Frances Polgreen (born 1975) is an American journalist. She was editorial director of NYT Global at The New York Times, and the West Africa bureau chief for the same publication, based in Dakar, Senegal, from 2005 to 2009. She also reported from India.[1][2] She spent much of her early career in Johannesburg, South Africa where she was The New York Times South African Bureau Chief as well. She was editor-in-chief of HuffPost from 2016 to 2020,[3] after which she spent about one year between 2021 and 2022 as the head of content for Gimlet Media.[4] In 2022, after leaving Gimlet, she returned to The New York Times as an opinion columnist.[5]
Black Excellence: Major Handy
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/26/1240892110/acadiana-music-showcase-major-handy
Louisiana’s Cajun Country is one of the most unique areas of the United States. It’s officially called Acadiana, after the French-speaking Acadians — or Cajuns — who settled there after being exiled from Canada by the British in the 18th century.
Our monthly series, Acadiana Music Showcase, is produced by our friends at Lafayette, La., affiliate station KRVS, and it explores this vibrant cultural melting pot through music.
Today, on a new installment of the Acadiana Music Showcase, you’ll hear a performance from a fixture in the Louisiana blues and zydeco scene: Major Handy.
http://archive.musicmaker.org/artists/major-handy/
Major Handy is a Zydeco musician and blues accordion player who was born in 1947 in Lafayette, Louisiana. Surrounded by Creole music while growing up, he has since fine-tuned his skills on the guitar, bass, piano and accordion, along with becoming a vocalist. His past gigs include playing guitar with Rockin’ Dopsie’s band for 12 years and with Buckwheat Zydeco’s original lineup for about a year. Over the years, he has held various jobs including acting as deputy sheriff in the late 1970s, holding a regular gig in Canada that include doing a cooking show before his set and running his own auto business.
Black Excellence: Tituss Burgess
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tituss_Burgess
Tituss Burgess (born February 21, 1979)[1] is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in several Broadway musicals and is known for his high tenor voice. He is best known for starring as Titus Andromedon on the Netflix comedy series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015–2020), for which he received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He was also featured in Schmigadoon! (2023).
Black Excellence: Michael A. Walrond
It was his own mental health crisis that helped Michael A. Walrond, Jr. to understand and embrace mental health care. “Out of nowhere, I had a suicidal ideation,” Walrond recalls. He was in his late 30s at the time, already busy building a life and expanding his congregation at First Corinthian Baptist in Harlem, New York.
Black Excellence: Natasha Rothwell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natasha_Rothwell
Natasha Rothwell (born October 18, 1980)[1][2] is an American actress, writer, and producer. She is best known for her work on the HBO series Insecure as Kelli Prenny, and The White Lotus as Belinda, for which she earned a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. In September 2024, Hulu released How to Die Alone, a comedy series starring and co-created by Rothwell.
Black Excellence: Marian Anderson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marian_Anderson
Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897 – April 8, 1993)[1] was an American contralto. She performed a wide range of music, from opera to spirituals. Anderson performed with renowned orchestras in major concert and recital venues throughout the United States and Europe between 1925 and 1965.
Black Excellence: Timothy Paule Jackson and Nicole Lindsey
The idea for Detroit Hives was sparked in the winter of 2016 when Timothy Paule Jackson discovered that local raw honey was able to cure a cold that no other remedy had. After learning about the medicinal properties of honey and seeing how it was able to provide his immune system the boost it needed, he and partner Nicole Lindsey became fascinated with bees. The couple learned as much as they could, enrolling in local beekeeping classes over the next few months. Both being proud Detroit natives, they recognized the abandoned lots in the city could serve a greater purpose and combined their new knowledge with a need in the community. They bought their first lot in 2017, started their first urban bee farm, and Detroit Hives was born. They’ve generated buzz with their work, expanding to other lots, multiplying their number of hives and continuing to build their colony ever since. Our founders created Detroit Hives with the purpose to bring diversity and cognizance to bee awareness and rebuilding inner-city communities introducing Detroit as the place to “BEE”.