Black History 365: Omari McQueen
The 14-year-old superstar chef shares his desire to bring people together
Black History 365: Jessy Wilson
How a triumphant anthem for ‘The Woman King’ brought Jessy Wilson back to music
The Woman King — director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s historical epic starring Viola Davis about a mighty army of West African warrior women protecting their kingdom — is only the second film with a Black woman director to open at number one at the box office. The film’s renown means that millions have had a chance to hear the song that plays over its closing credits, but what’s received considerably less attention is the story of life-altering triumph tied to that undaunted pop anthem, “Keep Rising.”
Jessy Wilson wrote and recorded it with producer Jeremy Lutito in the studio behind his East Nashville, Tenn. home during the summer of 2020. She barely touched a microphone after that, soon stepping away from songwriting altogether. What drew her back one day in early October to that same, small studio space — and to music — was the chance to truly embrace the song’s role in a powerful piece of filmmaking. Without a label budget behind her, she’d decided to lay down a regally deliberate, acoustic version for a simple, live-looking music video. “After all this time, I hope I’m like a pro, that it’s like riding a bike,” Wilson shared after arriving on site and stowing her bag.
She certainly seemed in her element that day on the shoot, not only the lead performer who knew her instrument and how to apply it to the supple insistence of the verses and the chorus’ more inflamed exhortation, but the one steering the backing vocal trio’s arrangement, too. Once she got the vocal takes she was looking for, finished lip syncing for the videographers and took a seat on the same couch where she’d come up with “Keep Rising,” she was a compelling narrator.
The decision to briefly give up music was a consequential one for Wilson. She’s no dabbler. At age 8, she’d already convinced her mom and an agent that she had the vocal ability, stage presence and drive to begin auditioning for off-Broadway roles. While attending LaGuardia, the Fame-famous Manhattan performing arts high school, she lied about her age to land a regular café gig. “They all thought it was weird,” she recalled, “like, ‘Why does she come with her mom every weekend?’ Eventually I told them the truth, but for a while, I just told them that I was a student at NYU, because I really wanted that experience.”
She was hungry to learn the studio side of her craft when John Legend hired her as a backup vocalist right after high school. “I think I had only been singing with him for, like, four weeks. And I said, ‘Can I come with you to the studio, please? I’ll be a fly on the wall. I won’t make a sound. I just wanna come,’ ” Wilson said. “He was like, ‘Yeah, absolutely.’ “
That’s Wilson supplying some resplendent, cooing echoes on Legend’s bossa nova-tinged 2006 track “Maxine.” She got into songwriting with his encouragement, eventually supplying cuts to other major R&B stars. Wilson thought she might become one of those herself, but kept coming up against colorism in the industry: “Being a dark-skinned Black woman, you know, being told that that wasn’t marketable, being told that that’s not worldwide, being told that no one would really be able to relate to me because of my complexion.”
“That was a concept that was very new to me, because in my home, my mother and my father taught me to love my complexion, to love my Blackness, to love my features that look like African features,” she went on. “It was a rude awakening when I realized that that isn’t the worldview and that somehow Black people are true victims of white supremacy when it comes to how we view ourselves, even in the mirror. When you have so much inside of you, that’s very painful as well, because you’re waiting for someone to give you that [professional] shot, and you’re waiting for someone to see you in that way [as an artist].”
After accompanying Legend to Nashville on a songwriting expedition, Wilson decided to give the city a try, relocating in 2013. In writing circles there Wilson was introduced to white musical partner Kallie North, and their soul-steeped, roots rock duo Muddy Magnolias was a revelation to a country-adjacent scene that made more room for Black musical influence than Black music-makers. “Those first two months of living here,” said Wilson, “I circled Music Row over and over, and I said, ‘God make me a pioneer.’ “
With Muddy Magnolias, Wilson finally got the record deal she’d been working for, a success she thinks was twofold. “The [vocal] blend was unmatched. It does something to the heart when you see a Black girl and a white girl up there singing in harmony, what it means to the spirit,” Wilson said. “But then also, you’ve got to think about the business side. It wasn’t a gimmick to us, but I think the industry found it easy to latch on to.”
Country singer-songwriter Brittney Spencer took note of the mark made by her Black predecessor back when she was a health food store employee who routinely filled Wilson’s juice orders, and recently called her to tell her so. “The opportunities that a lot of artists like me are able to get right now, I think, is because little by little people have been sowing seeds,” Spencer observed during a separate interview. “And even if this space wasn’t necessarily ready five, seven years ago, man, I was there and I watched it and I didn’t forget.”
When Muddy Magnolias broke up, Wilson started finding her voice as a solo artist on the sensually sophisticated, atmospheric side of rock and soul with the Patrick Carney-produced album Phase. She wanted to complicate the perception of her as “just this big singer.” “Phase gave me an opportunity to get quiet,” Wilson reflected. “People underestimate the power in getting quiet. I made an intentional decision to never open up my voice past a certain place on my album, because I had been singing full out my whole life and I wanted to hear the subtleties in my voice on record. … I wanted people to hear what I had to say.”
Around that same time, Tyler, the Creator tracked Wilson down on social media, urging her to sing on his album IGOR; he hadn’t been able to get her voice out of his head since he heard it billowing through “Maxine.” But those professional landmarks gave way to a string of personal losses. Wilson’s beloved grandmother died, and her New York healthcare worker dad barely survived COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic. Then she and her husband lost a pregnancy.
“Unfortunately, after four months, we lost our child,” said Wilson. “It felt like I was just down in a hole. I kept looking for things to grab on to, but nothing was pulling me out. It’s even hard to really communicate or even think about those times, because the despair was just…” She trailed off, unable to find sufficient words.
In her compounded grief, it grew difficult for Wilson to deliver the songs she owed her publisher. One that she did submit was “Keep Rising.” “When I wrote the song, I was talking to Black people,” she explained. “There’s a part of the lyrics that I’m also talking to myself about myself: ‘Been marching so long. How far is it to get to where we’re going?’ Like, how long do we have to wait in America? How long does Jessy have to wait? When will we be seen as enough? When will I be seen as enough?”
At the time, Wilson didn’t have much hope that anything would come of that song, or any others she wrote. She lost her publishing deal in early 2021, and turned to making visual art. But on what would’ve been her baby’s 2022 due date she received big news. The director of The Woman King, Prince-Bythewood, had initially envisioned Terence Blanchard‘s score soundtracking the entire film, but her search for just the right music to carry the audience out of the closing scene had led her to “Keep Rising.”
Sent a collection of unreleased tracks to listen to, Prince-Bythewood found in Wilson’s “exactly what I wanted the audience to feel. It makes you stand up and move. It was as if it was written for the movie.”
“When I wrote the song, I was talking to Black people,” Wilson says of “Keep Rising.”
“One of the things I’m most excited by,” she added, “is I love hearing Jessy’s story and who she is as an artist, where she was at the moment that this call came. I love that we have the power to elevate artists who deserve it. And Jessy, her voice, the depth that she brings to her work, absolutely deserves this opportunity.”
Prince-Bythewood asked Wilson to adapt two lyrics to the film’s time period and agree to a feature from legendary singer Angélique Kidjo, who’s from the region where the film takes place, then known as the kingdom of Dahomey. “She is the first lady of Benin, essentially,” the director notes, “so important to the empowerment of girls in Africa, an incredible activist. I wanted her voice and I wanted to kind of bridge the two, America and Africa.”
Wilson didn’t at all mind making those adjustments. “I feel so connected to the intention in their mission for what they want this movie to accomplish in our industries,” she said with serene conviction. “I want to see more opportunities for women who have a message, who are dark-skinned. And so if I can somehow open any doors, then I feel like I can hold on to that, the possibility of that, as my newfound purpose.”
https://www.npr.org/2022/11/05/1134296014/jessy-wilson-the-woman-king-keep-rising-interview
Black History 365: Nnenna Lynch
Nnenna Lynch is the New NYRR Chairwoman Nominee
Nnenna Lynch is having a full-circle moment: She has been nominated to take the post of chairwoman of the New York Road Runners (NYRR) board of directors, the organization announced earlier this morning.
Lynch has been on the NYRR board since 2014 and currently serves as the chair of the NYRR Youth and Community Impact committee.
Lynch’s appointment is historic: She becomes the first woman and the first Black American at the helm of the board. It’s a watershed moment for NYRR, whose roots start with Ted Corbitt, a Black Olympic marathoner and the organization’s first president.
“There’s a wealth of very deep talent among women; there’s a wealth of incredibly talented African Americans, and certainly there’s a wealth of very talented African American women. It’s really exciting to be one of them and to have the opportunity to lend my experience and talent to a phenomenal organization to the extent to which it inspires others,” Lynch told Women’s Running during a recent interview on a bench in Central Park. “I’m still getting my head around this piece of it, that I represent more than just who I am.”
As chairwoman, Lynch will help set high-level strategy and ensure that the organization continues to work toward its mission of inspiring people to run and building up communities through running.
In addition to serving on NYRR’s board, Lynch is the founder and CEO of Xylem Projects, a mission-driven real estate and development firm focused on creating sustainable and affordable housing and developing mixed-use projects in transitioning neighborhoods. She started her career in developing affordable housing and served on the board of the New York City Housing Authority. Prior to Xylem, Lynch worked for former Mayor Mike Bloomberg to set economic development and policy.
“I think it’s such a happy fit because so much of what we do [at NYRR] really ties in with what I’ve done prior to Xylem when I was working in government, doing affordable housing, and working in communities. It draws so much of my experiences. It’s the intersection of impact and business,” she says.
Lynch will succeed George Hirsch, who has been chairman of the board since 2004. She officially takes the position in June 2023, after the board approves her nomination at the annual board meeting.
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A Lifelong Love of Running
Lynch’s ties to running go back to childhood. Lynch, who went to school in the Upper East Side, started running at the age of 10 in Central Park, which she lovingly calls her childhood track.
“It was a classic sort of schoolyard experience where I realized I could beat all the boys in my grade. I always knew I was fast,” Lynch says.
“I have an older sister who started running and the father of a friend of hers wanted to get them into a running program. He found a coach who worked with youth. My sister first joined the team, and I would follow her to practice but wasn’t signed up so I waited around. The coach noticed me and said, ‘Hey, you’re able-bodied. Get out there.’”
At first, Lynch’s parents and sister were adamantly against her joining the team and even encouraged her to do ballet and tennis instead. Although she had given them both a try, she knew her place wasn’t on the court or on stage, but out on the track.
“The way they saw it was that this was my sister’s thing. But I had a taste of what it was—the team, the coach—and knew this is what I wanted to do, and eventually, everyone accepted it,” Lynch says.
Lynch thrived on the track and that “schoolyard experience” quickly flourished into a decorated collegiate running career. Lynch attended Villanova University, where she won five NCAA titles in track and field and was a seven-time All-American distance runner. Lynch went on to compete in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Trials and was a finalist for the 3,000-meter and semifinalist for the 1,500-meter.
Running remains a big part of Lynch’s life. As a busy mom of two and CEO, Lynch manages to pound the ground five to six days a week. Except she isn’t focused on time or distance during this season in her life.
“Honestly, it’s not about performance. It’s mostly about health and well-being. My favorite runs are ones that are long and slow,” Lynch says. “What I love most about running is the experience of being outside. I find it incredibly relaxing and meditative.”
That’s not to say that Lynch hasn’t had some harder-effort runs under her belt, too. She recently ran the NYRR Brooklyn Half Marathon in May and the New York Mini 10K—the first official women-only road race—which celebrated its 50th anniversary earlier this month.
Serving on the Board of New York Road Runners
Lynch became involved with NYRR through Mary Wittenberg, former president and CEO of NYRR and race director of the New York City Marathon, who recruited her to join the board. Although the organization’s deeply rich history in running and the iconic New York City marathon were major selling points to get involved, Lynch says it was their youth programs was what cinched it for her.
“One of the things that I wasn’t aware of when I originally sat down with Mary and what really pulled me in was this focus they had on youth and community. As someone who started running as a youngster, that was the appealing piece of getting involved in an organization that had that community and wanted to foster youth,” Lynch says. “So over the time I’ve been on the board and as chair, we’ve been focused on deepening and furthering our impact.”
During her time as chair of the youth and community impact committee, Lynch helped lead the transition of the Mighty Milers program, in which kids had a goal of running a total of 26.2 miles throughout the school year, to Rising NYRR, a nationwide program that helps kids from Pre-K to 12th grade become lifelong athletes. The Rising program provides age-appropriate education to help kids build physical literacy.
“You don’t have to start with running. When you look at what kids do, some of it is running-based, but it’s really games like tag. So we created curriculum that teachers and parents can use that help kids develop physical literacy but doing it in fun ways,” Lynch says.
RELATED: 360 YOU: How to Serve the Running Community
Looking Ahead: What’s Next for NYRR
When Lynch becomes chairwoman next June, she plans to take that same forward thinking into all of NYRR’s programs and events, which includes 37 races. In addition to overseeing executive management and high-level strategy, Lynch’s job is to ensure that the organization continues to stay true to its core mission of inspiring all runners and building up communities through running.
But more importantly, Lynch is thinking more broadly on how NYRR can improve accessibility and inclusivity.
“When you think of the overall history of the organization—[it] started in 1958 and the marathon started in 1971—it took a while for the marathon to become this iconic event, so if I think about where we are in the evolution of our community events, I would say we’re still pretty early on,” Lynch says.
“The larger goal is to broaden and deepen our impact, so it’s about thinking through that lens for every event we do. How can we deepen our impact with youth, with seniors, with otherly abled athletes? That’s something as chairwoman, I will continue to beat the drum on.”
For example, one area of focus for Lynch is expanding NYRR’s Open Run program, which are community-led runs and walks held at parks in all five boroughs, and how they can widen their reach within different communities in New York City and elsewhere.
“We’re always thinking about what is New York? Who is New York? How can we broaden our reach to New Yorkers and beyond,” says Lynch. “We’ve had interest from other cities about replicating Open Run. Our youth programs are national. We’re cultivating relationships here, but we have mechanisms to support remotely.”
The pandemic has also forced the organization to innovate ways of building community. NYRR partnered with the running app, Strava, in 2018 to allow runners from all over the world to take part in their races wherever they are. Creating and cultivating a community through technology is an area Lynch is also hoping to grow.
“As the world’s premier running organization, there’s a lot of work that goes into maintaining that status. So we are always looking for new ways of reaching people, new ways of expanding our efforts. I think we’ve done quite a good job of embracing technology, so continuing to leverage what’s out there is one of the ways we want to connect and build a community,” Lynch says.
Lynch’s nomination signifies a period of rebirth for NYRR, which has received criticism in recent years for failing to address diversity issues within the organization and the running community.
When former CEO and president Michael Capiraso was forced to resign in 2020, it brought a reckoning within the organization to take a closer look at ways its events and programs can do a better job of promoting diversity and representation. This is also top of mind for Lynch when she becomes chairwoman.
“I think it starts with listening and making sure we have strong, deep ties with organizations and people within the community. Some of the feedback really was a wake-up call that we need to reinforce those efforts and deepen those efforts with various run clubs. It was an opportunity to reflect on how we can do better. There’s no doubt that there’s a commitment—from me personally and the board,” Lynch says.
NYRR started taking some steps to create a more diverse and inclusive environment for their staff and the broader running community before Capiraso’s exit. It hired Erica Edwards-O’Neal as the senior vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion in 2020. In early 2021, the organization put in place a new diversity, equity, inclusion, and social responsibility framework. It’s also launching a community council for staff and community members who can weigh in on how to make its platforms a more inclusive environment, particularly reaching the Black running community.
“We’re going to be doing more listening and more acting, and the greater infrastructure we’ve created with both the committee on the board and the SVP role will help further those efforts,” Lynch says.
While Lynch is 12 months out from her official start date, she is already working closely with Hirsch and the rest of the board to hire a new CEO to replace Kerin Hempel, who became interim chief executive and president in 2020. They hope to select someone in the next few months and have a new CEO by the end of the year.
“We’re looking for a really energetic individual who can build on the amazing strength of the organization and take us to the next level,” Lynch says.
As the gatekeeper of NYRR’s mission, Lynch doesn’t see the organization’s fundamental mission changing in any way, but looking at what it can do better.
“The question is how we can continue to grow, amplify, and deepen the work we do.”
Black History 365: The first satellites launched by Uganda and Zimbabwe aim to improve life on the ground
When Uganda’s very first satellite was launched into space last week on Nov. 7, Bonny Omara, the lead engineer on the satellite development team, was filled with emotion.
“I was watching it on TV, together with my Honourable Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation,” he says. “It was really amazing and we hugged each other! To see my baby takeoff from the ground headed for the International Space Station — it’s really a great feeling of my life.”
The satellite developed by Omara and his team, named PearlAfricaSat-1, was launched aboard a Northrop Grumman Cygnus resupply spacecraft, which lifted off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. In addition, the rocket was also carrying ZimSat-1, Zimbabwe’s first satellite.
Both satellites were developed through the Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Project 5, BIRDS-5, in collaboration with the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan. Omara, when asked about collaborating with engineers from Zimbabwe and Japan, says, “I feel really great to work with our neighbors in Africa … to have a team of engineers and great men joining hands to work together towards attaining a common goal.”
Uganda and Zimbabwe join an ever growing number of African countries that are building up their space technology capabilities. To date, 52 satellites have been launched by 14 African countries, including the two launched last week.
The satellites, which have by now reached the International Space Station, are set to be deployed over the next few weeks, depending upon environmental conditions.
It is a historic moment for the two countries, who now hope the data collected by the satellites will help improve life on the ground.
Big things come in small packages
Many of the modern devices we use every day function because of satellite technology — something that’s often taken for granted.
“Space technologies are essentially the backbone of the modern economy,” says Kwaku Sumah, founder of SpaceHubs Africa, a service company that helps stimulate the African space ecosystem. “You sometimes don’t even know that you’re using them. But for example, if you’re using Google Maps … or even things like Zoom, or broadband communication, that’s all powered by satellite services.”
Sumah and SpaceHubs Africa were not involved in the development of the recently launched satellites.
However, Uganda and Zimbabwe’s satellites won’t be providing wireless services to anyone. Instead, they’ve been developed for the purposes of earth observation.
“[The satellites] have a multispectral camera, which allows the satellite to essentially take pictures of the Earth,” says Sumah. Multispectral cameras can take pictures that capture information from wavelengths of light not visible to the human eye.
What this does is provide data that can help determine the health of land for the agricultural sector, among other things. Omara says the multispectral camera will be used to “perform analysis of water quality, land use cover, and soil fertility.” That information will then be provided to citizens so that they can make the best use of the natural resources in their countries.
But there are still possibilities to do even more with the satellites. Sumah says that one of the main purposes of a satellite Ghana launched in 2019 was to “monitor illegal mining that was occurring in the north of Ghana.”
And all of those capabilities are made possible by a satellite that only measures 10cm in each direction. They’re called CubeSats — and their small size and low cost to develop makes them perfect first satellites for nations developing their space technology sectors. But don’t let their size fool you. While small – only a bit larger than a Rubik’s cube — CubeSats can still pack a big punch.
However, there is one downside to CubeSats. Their lifetime of operation is only about 24 to 30 months. So unless Uganda and Zimbabwe commit to building and launching more of these satellites, the benefits will be short-lived.
One small step for Africa, but giant leaps still needed
The satellites launched by Uganda and Zimbabwe aren’t the first satellites launched by African nations, and they won’t be the last. According to Sumah, “Ethiopia is looking to launch a new satellite, as well as Nigeria and Ghana,” all hopefully within the next year.
Despite plans for future launches by African nations, Sumah is a bit hesitant to suggest bigger things are unquestionably on the way. “I’m hoping that these are not just one-off events that are just used for PR, but that there’s a sustained momentum that helps lead the charge for Africa to really maximize the use of these new technologies,” he says.
At least with respect to Uganda, Omara believes one thing will help make sure this new foray into space will be sustainable. “A couple of countries have launched their first satellite, or even many, by paying money to other institutions who then give them the satellite,” he says. “But Uganda is unique in the sense that we participated, we have now got three engineers who are fully grounded in the process of developing satellites.”
Even though the human capital is there to provide sustainable development of satellites, Omara thinks there’s still more political and social investment needed before space technologies in Africa can fully mature.
“In the field of science and technology on the African continent, we are still limping,” he says. “The reason is very simple — it’s because we do not believe in ourselves. I always tell everyone that we can make it, we have every single resource that we need. The only thing is us believing in ourselves.”
Black History 365: Emelyn Stuart and Stuart Cinema
New York’s first Black Latina-owned movie theater is ready to grow, owner says
Stuart Cinema & Cafe owner Emelyn Stuart is a solution-oriented person. If there’s a problem, she says there has to be a way to fix it. That’s what led her to start the first Black Latina-owned movie theater in New York – and why she’s now preparing to build a multiplex in another location.
Having produced films for a decade, Stuart was frustrated with the obstacle of getting distribution. She said the higher-ups who would decide her projects had no audience, like when she met with a “gatekeeper” while trying to get her movie The Turnaround into theaters.
“I remember walking out of there and thinking, so that’s it. So my entire investment, the investment of all these people, the work of all these writers, directors, actors, is void. Because this one guy in this one place made this decision, why does he get to decide that?” she said. “I said, I’m going to build my own movie theater, and I will decide what people should watch.'”
She found a warehouse in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Greenpoint that had trucks parked in it, signed the lease in April of 2018, built her theater from scratch and opened by Sept. 1 that same year.
“The electricity, the floor, the carpeting, the walls – everything I built from scratch,” she recalled. “I could have bought a theater that was already built that was going out of business that was vacant. But I didn’t want that […] Because I’m essentially buying somebody else’s dream, right?”
Stuart struggled to get a loan, and investors who had supported her past films weren’t interested in contributing. So she liquidated her assets – houses, cars, she said – and paid for everything with cash.
Stuart, who is Dominican, had a vision for her theater to be different. She wanted to be able to eat empanadas, a lamb burger and tres leches cake. “I like to eat dinner, I don’t want to have a hot dog,” she said.
Her contractors and architect were doubtful, saying her building plans wouldn’t work for a theater and this was going to be “different.”
“Yeah, that’s the point,” she said.
The project was a massive learning process, she explained. She had to learn how to get movies from studios and how to serve food. But she could tell people liked what Stuart Cinema was doing.
The 50-seat theater does more than just show movies in English and Spanish. It has seen five film festivals, including Stuart’s own Ocktober Film Festival. It also hosts church services, meditations, panels, meetings, video game sessions and comedy shows.
Now, Stuart said her single screen at Stuart Cinema is maxed out. There’s a waitlist for the space, so she’s decided to build a multiplex.
“I’ve accomplished the things I wanted to accomplish with the space,” she said. “I’m ready to expand and do it, you know, four times over – because I’m going from one screen to three screens, one location to two locations, a cafe to a full restaurant, and I’m even including a bookstore, because I love books.”
She’s working to build the new project in the neighborhood where she grew up in Sunset Park.
“When I was looking to open the multiplex, I thought, ‘Well, why not build it in my childhood neighborhood?” she said. “They haven’t had a movie theater in over 30 years in that neighborhood, and it’s predominantly Latinos.”
Stuart said that as much as she’s a business owner, she’s a community leader, and she’s a servant at heart.
“I’m Black-Latina. I’m a woman, I’m also a veteran,” she said “Like, I can’t be any more of a minority. But I feel like in many ways, it’s transparent. And that’s what I want, right? Yes, I’m a Black owned business. And yes, I’m Latina. And yes, I’m a veteran, and all these things. But most importantly, it’s a business that you enjoy coming to.”
During Stuart Cinema’s Black history month series, she said she was honored that the theater was filled with white people there to see great films like Malcolm X.
“I love the fact that despite the fact that I am a Black-owned business in a white neighborhood, the people in the neighborhood embrace the business because of the service that we provide,” she said.
On Wednesdays, movies are $8 and popcorn is $3, because she feels everyone should have access to watch movies on the big screen. There are also special “mommy and me” movies for young kids who might be disruptive during other movies. Stuart worked out a way to pick up seniors in the community to come to the theater for their own screenings.
Especially since COVID, Stuart said, the number of people going to the movies has decreased. If there weren’t other sources of income built into the business, like offering affordable catering services, it would be struggling.
During the pandemic, Stuart Cinema & Cafe upgraded its filtration system and hand sanitizers. It made computers publicly available for people to file for unemployment. People could also rent the theater to watch their loved ones’ funerals and burials via livestream.
“There was nowhere else where people could safely get together like that. And so I didn’t charge people. I said, whatever you can afford,” she recounted. “Some people can only afford $50. Other people could afford $5,000.”
Stuart Cinema also hooked up DVD players in the homes of senior citizens, and dropped off DVDs to keep them connected to movies.
The businesses ended up making more in 2020 than the year before.
“Nothing prepares you for success,” Stuart said. Growing up without a lot of money and with English as her second language, Stuart said she felt she didn’t have everything needed to be successful, but she could work hard.
“I certainly feel a sense of responsibility. Because I feel like if I fail, it’s not going to be like, ‘Oh Emelyn failed, I feel it’s going to be like Latinos and Blacks and small businesses […] and veterans because I check off so many boxes,” she said. “Sometimes I have to just check myself and say, ‘You know what, you’re going to make mistakes.'”
There are moments that remind Stuart why she created the theater. She recalled when a program brought in a group of kindergarten-age children from an underrepresented neighborhood. For some kids, it was their first time ever in a movie theater.
“And they were so happy,” she said, remembering what it felt like to watch them. “I was just like, ‘Wow, this is – this is what it is. It’s these experiences that they get to have.”
Black History 365: Jerome Avery
Name: Jerome Avery
Sport: Track and Field
Discipline(s): Track and Field
Event(s): 100m, 200m
Classification: Guide Runner
Height: 5-9
Weight: 170
DOB: 12/22/1978
Birthplace: Lemoore, Calif.
Hometown: Lemoore, Calif.
High School: Lemoore High School (Lemoore, Calif.) ‘97
College: Fresno City College ‘01, Kinesiology (Associates)
Paralympic Experience
- Four-time Paralympian (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016); Three-time Paralympic medalist guide runner (2 gold, 1 silver)
- Paralympic Games Rio 2016, gold (100m – David Brown)
- Paralympic Games London 2012, 12th (200m – Josiah Jamison)
- Paralympic Games Beijing 2008, gold (100m – Josiah Jamison)
- Paralympic Games Athens 2004, silver (Long jump – Lex Gillette)
World Championship Experience
- Most recent: 2019 – semifinals (100m – David Brown)
- Years of Participation: 2006, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019
- Medals: 6 (3 gold, 3 silver)
- Gold – 2017 (100m – David Brown), 2015 (100m – David Brown), 2006 (100m – Josiah Jamison)
- Silver – 2017 (200m – David Brown), 2013 (4x100m relay – Josiah Jamison), 2006 (Long jump – Lex Gillette)
Personal: Jerome Avery has been a guide runner with U.S. Paralympics Track & Field since 2004, guiding Paralympians such as Lex Gillette, Josiah Jamison and David Brown. He is currently the guide for Paralympic champion and world record holder David Brown, nicknaming themselves “Team BrAvery”. An Olympic hopeful himself, Avery finished in the top 20 in the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials and in the top 15 in the 2004 Olympic Trials. In high school, Avery was his school’s MVP all four years, and he was ranked fifth in the state of California in the 100-meters. He competed two years at Fresno City College before training at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Center (CVEATC) under Brooks Johnson. Bound by a tether, Avery and Brown sprint in lanes side-by-side, communicating by touch and sound with every synched stride as Avery tugs the tether to keep Brown in line to reach the finish line. They train at the CVEATC where they are coached by Brazilian Olympic middle distance champion Joaquim Cruz…Son of Bonnie and Jerome Avery…Has four siblings, Dominque, Jacques, Jaelin and Zonyea…His hobbies include shopping, watching movies, running, relaxing, beach, fishing, making music and dancing.
https://www.teamusa.org/para-track-and-field/athletes/Jerome-Avery
Black History 365: Birth workers in Kansas keep black babies alive
WICHITA, Kansas — Peggy Jones-Foxx knows what it takes to raise a baby.
“It’s the hardest work I’ve ever done,” she says.
At the Dellrose United Methodist Church in Wichita, she teaches pregnant women, particularly Black women, about that work — with the understanding that, statistically, their babies are less likely to live to see their first birthday than white children.
So she coaches them on how to stay healthy during pregnancy: Are they taking their prenatal vitamins? Do they have strategies for managing stress? Do they know what resources exist if they need help buying healthy food?
On a recent fall afternoon, Jones-Foxx, a licensed practical nurse and president of the Wichita Black Nurses Association, lingers on a PowerPointslide about the importance of communicating with their doctors. She tells the small group of women to write down any questions they might have ahead of a checkup, and insist that they get answers.
“Sometimes that can be pretty intimidating because we’re all a little shy when it comes to professionals,” she tells her class. “They ask if you have any questions as they’re already walking out the door — but that’s your time to ask those questions that may be weighing on you.”
After all, she says, it can make a big difference when it comes to keeping Black mothers and their children alive.
These “Baby Talk” prenatal education classes represent a new partnership started this year between the nurses association and the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita’s Center for Research for Infant and Birth Survival, or CRIBS. Participants meet for two hours every Wednesday over a six-week period.
Infant mortality declined to a record low nationally in 2020 but rose significantly in Kansas
Nationally, infant mortality declined to a record low in 2020, but in Kansas, it rose 19% — and for Black babies, it surged 58%. Black infant mortality in Kansas is now three and a half times the rate of white infant mortality.
That disparity exists to a lesser extent across the U.S., where the mortality rate for Black babies is more than double that for white babies.
Experts say why such stark disparities exist lie in racial differences in the causes of infant deaths. White and Hispanic infant mortality is most commonly caused by birth defects. Black infant deaths more frequently stem from complications related to being born too early and being underweight.
“The rate of preterm birth is usually about double, consistently, over decades in the U.S.” in Black communities, says Dawn Misra, a professor at Michigan State University who studies adverse birth outcomes among Black families. “And even as we’ve seen the preterm birth rate go down, the disparity remains.”
Misra says that, across the U.S., racism is a fundamental factor that contributes to more frequent premature births in Black communities.
“It affects things like segregation of housing, which affects neighborhood environments,” she says. “It has all of these different downstream effects.”
A pregnant person’s pre-existing health issues and challenges accessing prenatal care are also factors.
Sharla Smith,a University of Kansas Medical Center professor who directs the Kansas Birth Equity Network, says both can stem from bias within the medical field. Research shows doctors are less likely to diagnose Black women with endometriosis or refer them for cardiac treatment and are more likely to ignore their pain.
“This is not just about getting an appointment,” she says. “Black women are just not heard.”
Focusing on the health of Black mothers will be crucial to addressing Black infant mortality going forward, she says.
Public health officials are trying to understand why Kansas saw such a big surge in 2020
One key change that’s helped reduce infant mortality in other states is the expansion of Medicaid. Research shows that between 2013-2017, states that expanded Medicaid saw a 50% larger reduction in infant mortality than states that didn’t. Experts attribute the decrease to greater access to health care for women of childbearing age. Kansas is among the states that has not expanded Medicaid and has long seen higher rates of infant mortality than the rest of the country.
Now, public health officials are trying to understand why Kansas saw such a big surge in 2020, during the first year of the pandemic. Most suspect the virus played a part – whether from direct impacts to fetal development or stress from job loss and isolation.
Smith says those experiences were more common in Black communities because African Americans were more likely to get COVID-19 and they tended to feel the pandemic’s vast economic fallout more acutely.
“All of this has just contributed to the stress on the Black body,” she says.
Researchers say poverty can play a role in infant mortality too, but it’s far from the only reason. A 1992 study found a stark infant mortality gap between babies born to Black and white parents even when both were college-educated. Among that group, Black babies were nearly twice as likely to die as white babies. And a 2019 paper found an even larger gap: babies born to Black college-educated women died at over three times the rate of those born to college-educated white women.
“If you’re only saying it’s poverty, then you’re missing a huge piece of this,” says Michelle Redmond, a Kansas University School of Medicine-Wichita professor and Smith’s collaborator at the Kansas Birth Equity Network. “You really have to look at what we define as social determinants of health — it’s social, environmental, economic, educational.”
Nonprofit offers holistic approach to improve both maternal and infant health to reduce mortality
A few miles away in North Wichita, Sapphire Garcia-Lies is trying to tackle those factors through the Kansas Birth Justice Society, a nonprofit that serves Black, Latino and Native American families. Its approach is holistic, focused on improving both maternal and infant health.
“We can’t separate the two,” says Garcia-Lies, who founded the center during the pandemic. “They’re two sides of the exact same coin.”
So the center provides supplies that low-income families might struggle to buy. The building houses a room stacked floor-to-ceiling with free diapers and baby clothes, a community fridge, and a lending library full of books about the birthing experiences of women and queer people of color. There’s also a meditation room and a meeting area for parent support circles.
The organization also recruits and trains lactation consultants of color.
“This is the first space in the Wichita area that has lactation consultants of color on staff,” Garcia-Lies says. “Because people need culturally affirming care. They need to feel like they belong.”
The goal is to help Black, Native American and Latino families, who breastfeed at lower rates than white and Asian families, continue breastfeeding past the newborn stage. Research indicates that extended time reduces the risk of infant death.
“It provides protection from infectious diseases and sudden infant death syndrome,” says Lisette Jacobson, a KU School of Medicine-Wichita professor who studies the relationship between breastfeeding and infant health. “To optimize those benefits, you want to be exclusively breastfeeding for at least six months.”
Kansas Birth Justice Society will pair families with doulas to offer support from pregnancy to infancy
For families of color, meeting that target often involves navigating more roadblocks than white families do.
“Lots of times, the biggest obstacle is that they have to go back to work really early,” Garcia-Lies says. “For some of them, it’s two weeks or less after they give birth.”
This year, the Kansas Birth Justice Society will pair around 75 families with doulas who’ll support them throughout pregnancy, birth and infancy. That can involve advocating for patients during doctor’s visits and ensuring they aren’t pressured into medical interventions in the delivery room, like labor induction or C-sections.
It’s an issue close to Garcia-Lies’ heart. She lost her second daughter to stillbirth in 2013 after, she says, a doctor brushed aside red flags she’d brought up about the pregnancy.
“By the time I went for a second opinion, she had passed away,” she says. “I was full-term. We were days from her due date.”
“And it didn’t just happen to me — it’s continuing to happen all the time.”
Now, she works so that fewer families have to go through that heartbreak.
Reducing racial disparities around infant mortality, she said, requires community-driven support for Black and brown families in a world that’s hostile to them.
“We know that as soon as they walk outside these four walls, they’re going to face all the same things that they walked in with,” she says. “But when they’re here, we love on them and we nurture them. And we try to make sure that everyone who walks through those doors understands that they matter.”
Black History 365: Alice Augusta Ball
Alice Augusta Ball was born on July 24, 1892 in Seattle, Washington with James Presley and Laura Louise (Howard) Ball. Ball was one of four children. She had two older brothers, William and Robert, along with a younger sister named Addie. Her family was considered middle class to upper-middle class, as Ball’s father was a newspaper editor, photographer, and a lawyer. Her grandfather, James Ball Sr., was a famous photographer, and was one of the first African Americans in the United States to learn to daguerreotype, which is a process of printing photographs onto metal plates.
Alice Ball and her family moved from Seattle to Honolulu during Alice’s childhood in hopes that the warm weather would help with her grandfather’s, James Ball Sr.’s, arthritis. He died shortly after their move and they relocated back to Seattle only after a year of living in Hawaii. After returning to Seattle, Ball attended Seattle High School and received top grades in the sciences. She graduated from Seattle High School in 1910.
Ball studied chemistry at the University of Washington, While she was at the University of Washington she earned a bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical chemistry and two years later she received a second degree in pharmacy two years later. With her pharmacy instructor, she published a 10-page article in the prestigious Journal of the American Chemical Society titled “Benzoylations in Ether Solution.” This kind of accomplishment was very rare for not only African American women, but women of any race.
Following her graduation, Ball was offered many scholarships. She had offers to attend both the University of California Berkeley and the University of Hawaii. She decided to move back to Hawaii to pursue a master’s degree in chemistry. While she was studied at the University of Hawaii she studied chaulmoogra oil and its chemical properties. While chaulmoogra oil had previously been used for leprosy, however Alice Ball revolutionized it and made it injectable by discovering the ester ethyl form, meaning that it was water-soluble and able to dissolve in the bloodstream. In 1915, she became the first woman and first African American to graduate with a master’s degree from the University of Hawaii. Alice Ball was also the first African American and woman chemistry professor at the University of Hawaii’s chemistry department.
In her postgraduate research career at the University of Hawaii, Ball investigated the chemical makeup and active principle of Piper methysticum (kava) for her master’s thesis. From 1866 to 1942 whenever a patient was diagnosed with leprosy they were arrested and sent to the Hawaiian island of Molokai. Dr. Harry T. Hollmann was a doctor during the time at Kalihi Hospital in Hawaii. He was one of the few physicians that was not satisfied with the inconsistent results of the Chaulmoogra oil in its natural form. He needed an assistant to help develop a method to isolate the active chemical compounds in chaulmoogra oil and reached out to Alice Ball who was working on her thesis The Chemical Constituents of Piper Methysticum.
Chaulmoogra oil had previously been used in the treatment of Hansen’s disease (leprosy) with mixed results and every form of the treatment had problems. Chaulmoogra oil was first used as a topical straight from the tree in eastern medicine starting in the 1300s. However, it was originally too sticky to be used effectively as a topical and it was extremely painful to be used as an injection. However, some hospitals still attempted to use it as an injection even though the sticky consistency of the oil caused it to clump under the skin and form blisters. These blisters formed in perfect rows and made the skin “look as if the patient’s skin had been replaced by with bubble wrap.” Ingesting the oil was not effective either because it had an acrid taste that usually made the patients vomit upon attempting to swallow it.
At just the young age of 23, Ball developed a technique that would allow the oil from chaulmoogra tree seeds to become injectable and absorbable by the body. Her newly developed technique involved isolating ethyl ester compounds from the fatty acids of the chaulmoogra oil. This isolation technique, known as the “Ball Method”, was the only treatment for Hansen’s disease that was effective and “left no abscesses or bitter taste,”. Unfortunately, due to her untimely death, Alice was unable to publish her revolutionary findings. Arthur L. Dean, a chemist and the president of the University of Hawaii, continued her work, published the findings, and began producing large quantities of the injectable chaulmoogra extract. Dean published the findings without giving credit to Ball, and renamed the technique the Dean Method, until Hollmann spoke out about this. In 1918, a Hawaii physician reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association that a total of 78 patients were released from Kalihi Hospital by the board of health examiners after treatment with injections. The isolated ethyl ester remained the preferred treatment for Hansen’s disease until sulfonamide drugs were developed in the 1940s.
Alice Augusta Ball died on December 31, 1916, at the age of 24. She had become ill during her research and returned to Seattle for treatment a few months before her death. A 1917 newspaper article from the Pacific Commercial Advertiser suggested that the cause may have been chlorine poisoning due to exposure that occurred while teaching a laboratory. It was reported that Ball was giving a demonstration on how to properly use a gas mask in preparation for an attack since World War I was raging in Europe. However, the cause of her death is unknown as her original death certificate was altered, giving the cause of death as tuberculosis.
Alice Ball’s work directly impacted the eight thousand people that were diagnosed with leprosy and taken out of their homes. Because of her research patients were no longer exiled to Kalaupapa, Molokai; instead they were able to be treated out of their own homes. Families no longer had to hold funerals for their loved ones before they were exiled because there was no cure, and they had Alice Ball to thank for this.
Although her research career was short, Ball introduced a new treatment of Hansen’s disease which continued to be used until the 1940s. The University of Hawaii did not recognize her work for nearly ninety years. In 2000, the university finally honored Ball by dedicating a plaque to her on the school’s lone chaulmoogra tree behind Bachman Hall. On the same day, the former Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii, Mazie Hirono, declared February 29 “Alice Ball Day” which is now celebrated every four years. More recently, Ball was honored by the University of Hawaii Board of Regents with a Medal of Distinction in 2007 by mounting a plaque in her honor on the only chaulmoogra tree on the campus. In March 2016, Hawai’i Magazine ranked Ball in a list of the most influential women in Hawaiian history.
Black History 365: Lenora Higginbotham, MD
Lenora Higginbotham, MD, is senior associate in the Department of Neurology at Emory in Atlanta, Georgia and a 2018 Edmond J. Safra Fellowship graduate. From her own personal connection to Parkinson’s, she deeply understands the value of diversity in research to truly grasp disease variability. Dr. Higginbotham’s care for her grandmother, Ruby “Mamere” Higginbotham, sparked her professional curiosity, but also her work to raise awareness for neurological disorders in minority communities:
“As a movement disorder specialist working with minority populations through diversity programs, it’s not just about bringing people into research or giving them the best care. It’s also about making sure these communities have access to information and resources. Drawing parallels from my grandmother’s experience, I’m not sure if race had to do with her delay in diagnosis, but many people in my family had no prior exposure to the disease and we just thought it was old age. Now looking back on it and hearing from minority patient experiences in delayed diagnosis, I’m not surprised.”
Clinical Research Training Scholarship in Lewy Body Diseases
Dementia with Lewy bodies (LBD) is the most common form of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease, yet there is still no reliable diagnostic test, and many cases are either missed or misdiagnosed. LBD shares similar symptoms found in other brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and can also occur alongside these diseases. A biomarker could help distinguish LBD from these other diseases, but because of the overlap between them, such a diagnostic test will likely require three or more markers.
Dr. Higginbotham’s project will use network-based proteomics, which enables the mapping of complex biological systems, to develop a marker for LBD diagnosis.
This research is funded by The Mary E. Groff Charitable Trust, the Alzheimer’s Association, and the American Brain Foundation, in collaboration with the American Academy of Neurology. Dr. Higginbotham is a Senior Associate in Neurology at Emory University.
Black History 365: Jawole Willa Jo Zollar
Dancer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, of Urban Bush Women, wins prestigious Gish Award
A pioneer in the world of dance has been awarded one of the largest cash prizes for artists in the United States.
Jawole Willa Jo Zollar founded the dance ensemble Urban Bush Women in 1984. It was one of the first major dance companies composed entirely of female African-American dancers. Almost immediately, it was a sensation in the dance world. Revolutionary at the time – and still cutting edge — Zollar’s choreography synthesizes movement from modern dance and traditional folk African dance styles with the kind of text and shouted language the company describes as “the urgent dialogue of the 21st century.”
Zollar, who grew up in Kansas City, Mo., can trace her artistic lineage to Katherine Dunham, one of the most influential dancers, choreographers and educators of the 20th century. (Zollar studied with one of Dunham’s former students). Like Dunham, Zollar emphasizes community engagement and combining activism and dance. Now in her seventies, Zollar continues to perform, collaborate and choreograph and her company still thrives.
The Lillian and Dorothy Gish Prize was established in 1994 from the will of early screen actor Lillian Gish. It comes with a cash prize of approximately $250,000. Other recipients have included Sonia Sanchez, Ava DuVernay, Gustavo Dudamel, Suzan-Lori Parks, Spike Lee, Anna Deavere Smith, Maya Lin, Trisha Brown and Chinua Achebe.
“I became aware of the Gish Prize when Bill T. Jones received it, back in 2003,” Zollar said in a statement. “It’s amazing now to have my name included in the extraordinary list of Gish Prize winners, and above all to be recognized both for the work onstage and for the impact I’ve sought to have as an organizer and activist in the community. We artists don’t work for the sake of validation, but when you get the Gish Prize, it’s another way to keep moving forward.”
Just last year, Zollar was recognized with a MacArthur “genius” grant; her numerous other prizes include a Guggenheim fellowship and a Doris Duke Performing Arts award.
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/18/1112133099/jawole-willa-jo-zollar-urban-bush-women-gish-prize