Black History 365: Frederick McKinley Jones

Frederick McKinley Jones was a prolific early 20th century black inventor who helped to revolutionize both the cinema and refrigeration industries.  Between 1919 and 1945 he patented more than sixty inventions in divergent fields with forty of those patents in refrigeration. He is best known for inventing the first automatic refrigeration system for trucks.

Jones was born on May 17, 1893 in Cincinnati, Ohio.  His mother died when he was nine, and he was forced to drop out of school.  A priest in Covington, Kentucky, raised him until he was sixteen.

Upon leaving the rectory, Jones began working as a mechanic’s helper at the R.C. Crothers Garage in Cincinnati.  Jones would spend much of his time observing the mechanics as they worked on cars, taking in as much information as possible.  These observations, along with an insatiable appetite for learning through reading helped Jones develop an incredible base of knowledge about automobiles and their inner workings. Within three years his skills and love for cars had netted him a promotion to shop foreman.  By nineteen, he had built and driven several cars in racing exhibitions and soon became one of the most well know racers in the Great Lakes region.

During World War I, Jones was a sergeant in the U.S. Army and served in France as an electrician. While serving, he rewired his camp for electricity, telephone, and telegraph service.  In 1919, after being discharged by the Army, he moved to Hallock, Minnesota where he began his study of electronics, eventually building a transmitter for a local radio station.  To make ends meet, Jones often aided local doctors by driving them around for house calls during the winter season. When navigation through the snow proved difficult, Jones attached skis to the undercarriage of an old airplane body and attached an airplane propeller to a motor.  He was soon whisking doctors around town at high speeds in his new “snow machine.”

Over the next few years he would invent more and more innovative machines.  When one of the doctors he worked for complained that he had to wait for patients to come into his office for x-ray exams, Jones created a portable x-ray machine that could be taken to the patient. Unfortunately, like many of his early inventions, Jones never thought to apply for a patent.  He watched helplessly as other men made fortunes off of their versions of the same device. Impervious, Jones began new projects including a radio transmitter, personal radio sets, and eventually motion picture devices.

In 1927, Joseph Numero, the head of Ultraphone Sound Systems, hired Jones as an electrical engineer.  Numero’s company made sound equipment that was used in movie houses throughout the Midwest.  Always the innovator, Jones converted silent-movie projectors into talking projectors by using scrap metal for parts.  In addition, he devised ways to stabilize and improve the picture quality.

In 1939, Jones invented and received a patent for an automatic ticket-dispensing machine to be used at movie theaters. He later sold the patent rights to RCA.

Eventually, Numero and Jones formed a partnership called the U.S. Thermo Control Company, with Jones as vice president.  He was given the task of developing a device that would allow large trucks to transport perishable products without spoiling. Jones set to work and his automatic refrigeration system, the Thermo King, was born.  Eventually, he modified the original design so it could be outfitted for trains, boats, and ships.

The Thermo King transformed the shipping and grocery businesses. Grocery chains were now able to import and export products that previously could only have been shipped as canned goods. As a result, the frozen food industry was born and for the first time consumers could enjoy fresh foods from around the globe and U.S. Thermo became a multimillion-dollar company.

During World War II, a need for a unit for storing blood serum for transfusions and medicines led Jones into further refrigeration research.  For this, he created an air-conditioning unit for military field hospitals and a refrigerator for military field kitchens.  As a result, may lives were saved.  A modified form of his device is still in use today.

In 1944, Jones became the first African American to be elected into the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers.  During the 1950s, he was a consultant to the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Bureau of Standards.

When he died on February 21, 1961, Jones had more than sixty patents.  In honor of his tremendous achievements as an inventor, he was posthumously awarded the National Medal of Technology.  Jones was the first black inventor to ever receive such an honor.

Black History 365: Skye Blakely

Birthdate: 2/4/2005
Program: Women’s Artistic
Level: Senior
Current Residence: Frisco, TX
Club: WOGA Gymnastics
Head Coach: Yevgeny Marchenko
Other Coaches: Haiou Sun and Emmanuel Domingues

Career Highlights

  • 2022 Winter Cup all-around & floor exercise silver medalist and balance beam bronze medalist
  • 2021 Winter Cup balance beam champion

About Skye Blakely

Birthplace: Dallas, TX
Hometown: Frisco, TX
Twitter:@skyeblakely_
Instagram:Instagram.com/skyeblakely
Name of High School: N/A
High School Graduation Year: 2023
Name of College: University of Florida
College Graduation Year: 2027
Degree/Major: N/A
Year you began gymnastics: 2008
Favorite Event: Bars!
How did you get involved in gymnastics: My mother wanted to add another activity in addition to ballet and tap.
Favorite thing about gymnastics: I like being able to show the skills that I’ve been working on and I like that it challenges me.
What are your goals for gymnastics?: To compete at the 2024 Olympics and in the NCAA
Names of parents/guardians/spouse: Steven and Stephanie Blakely
Names of sibling(s): Sloane Blakely
Family members in sports: Sloane Blakely

Interests Outside the Gym

Favorite school subject: Math and Science
Hobbies or favorite activities: listening to music, buying shoes, and hanging with friends
Favorite music: Hip Hop, R&B, Gospel
Favorite book(s): The Hate U Give
Favorite movie(s): Black Panther
Favorite TV show(s): Stranger Things
Favorite Food: Chicken and Waffles
Charity Involvement: N/A
Other sports involvement: N/A

National Competition Results

  • 2022 OOFOS U.S. Gymnastics Championships, Tampa, Fla. – 5th-UB; 6th-AA, FX
  • 2022 Winter Cup, Frisco, Texas – 2nd-AA, FX; 3rd-BB(T); 7th-UB
  • 2021 U.S. Gymnastics Championships, Fort Worth, Texas – 7th-AA(T); 8th-BB
  • 2021 GK U.S. Classic, Indianapolis, Ind. – 3rd-UB; 7th-AA, FX(T)
  • 2021 American Classic, Indianapolis, Ind. – 1st-AA; 2nd-BB; 4th-VT, UB, FX
  • 2021 2021 Winter Cup, Indianapolis, Ind. – 1st-BB; 8th-FX(T)
  • 2019 U.S. Gymnastics Championships, Kansas City, Mo. – 2nd-BB(T); 3rd-FX; 4th-AA; 6th-VT(T); 8th-UB (Jr. Div.)
  • 2019 GK U.S. Classic, Louisville, Ky. – 1st-FX; 2nd-VT; 4th-AA (Jr. Div.)
  • 2018 U.S. Gymnastics Championships, Boston, Mass. – 2nd-FX; 3rd-VT; 4th-AA; 5th-UB; 8th-BB (Jr. Div.)
  • 2018 GK U.S. Classic, Columbus, Ohio – 3rd-VT; 6th-AA (Jr. Div.)
  • 2018 American Classic, Salt Lake City, Utah – 2nd-UB; 3rd-AA, VT; 5th-FX(T) (Jr. Div.)

International Competition Results

  • 2022 Pan American Championships, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 2nd-Team; 3rd-AA, FX; 4th-UB; 7th-BB
  • 2022 DTB Pokal Cup, Stuttgart, Germany – 1st-Team
  • 2020 Gymnix International, Montreal, Canada – 1st-Team, AA; 2nd-VT, UB, BB; 3rd-FX (Jr. Div.)
  • 2019 Junior World Championships, Gyor, Hungary – 3rd-Team; 4th-UB; 5th-FX
  • 2019 Gymnix International, Montreal, Canada – 1st-Team, VT, UB; 3rd-AA (Jr. Div.)

https://usagym.org/pages/athletes/athleteListDetail.html?id=496577

Black History 365: Albert I. Cassell

Albert Irvin Cassell (1895–1969) was a prominent mid-twentieth-century African-American architect in Washington, D.C., whose work shaped many academic communities in the United States. He designed buildings for Howard University in Washington D.C., Morgan State University in Baltimore, and Virginia Union University in Richmond. Cassell also designed and built civic structures for the State of Maryland and the District of Columbia.

Early life

Albert Irvin Cassell was born in Towson, Maryland, on June 25, 1895, the third child of Albert Truman Cassell and Charlotte Cassell. His father Albert T. Cassell was a coal truck driver and his mother Charlotte Cassell aka “Lottie” was a laundress. Albert Cassell began his education in the segregated Baltimore public school system, but moved to New York in 1909 where he began attending Douglas High School. At Douglas High, Cassell studied drafting under Ralph Victor Cook. With Cook’s assistance, Cassell was admitted to the Cornell University architecture program in 1915, where he was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha.[1]

After completing two years at Cornell, Cassell’s studies were interrupted by service in the US Army in World War I. He served in France, but not in combat, and was honorably discharged in 1919 as a second lieutenant in the 351st Heavy Field Artillery Regiment. In 1919 Cassell was awarded his degree from Cornell University, and began his career working with architect William A. Hazel. In 1920, Mr. Cassell joined in the Architecture Department of Howard University as assistant professor. Just two years later, in 1922, Cassell had become University Architect and head of the Architecture Department at Howard.

Career

Cassell worked at Howard University for eighteen years, serving as an instructor, land manager, surveyor, and architect. Cassell’s vision and work helped shape the campus through his “Twenty Year Plan”, through which he designed numerous campus buildings. His most important design at Howard, was the Founders Library, a building which evoked both the Georgian architecture revival style and Independence Hall in Philadelphia. This building would become an architectural and educational symbol for the university.

While at Howard, Cassell also designed buildings for other institutional clients. His work included buildings at Virginia Union University, Provident Hospital in Baltimore, various Masonic temples, as well as smaller works for select commercial and residential clients.

Following his time at Howard University, Cassell went on to design several buildings for Morgan State College (now Morgan State University) in Baltimore. In his later years he joined with other African-American architects to form the firm of Cassell, Gray & Sutton. He went on to work for several other large clients such as the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and the government of the District of Columbia.

As his final project, Cassell sought to develop Chesapeake Heights on the Bay, a 520-acre (2.1 km2) summer resort community for African-Americans in Prince Frederick, Calvert County, Maryland. The project was to feature houses, a motel, shopping centers, a pier, a marina, beaches, and a clubhouse fronting the Chesapeake Bay. Roads and a few homes were built by 1969, but the project ended with Cassell’s death in that same year.

Legacy

At a young age Albert Cassell determined that his children would all go to Cornell and all become architects.[2] Cassell had 8 children.[3] Four children would attended Cornell; Charles Cassell (’46), Martha Cassell (’47) Alberta Jeannette Cassell (’48) Paula Cassell (’76).[2] Of the Cornell graduates, all but Paula became architects.

Works

  • Campbell Ave Church, Washington, DC, 1917
  • Carver War Public Housing, Arlington, VA, 1942
  • Catholic Diocese, Washington, DC
  • Corinthian Baptist Church, Washington, DC
  • Crownsville Hospital Housing & Recreation Center, Crownsville, MD, 1950
  • Glenarden City Hall, Glenarden, Maryland
  • Howard University Armory, Washington, DC, 1925
  • Howard University Baldwin Hall, Washington, DC, 1951
  • Howard University Chemistry Building, Washington, DC, 1936
  • Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC, 1927
  • Howard University Crandall Women’s Dormitory, Washington, DC, 1931
  • Howard University Dining Hall, Washington, DC, 1922
  • Howard University Douglas Men’s Dormitory, Washington, DC, 1936
  • Howard University Founders Library, Washington, DC, 1937
  • Howard University Frazier Women’s Dormitory, Washington, DC
  • Howard University Greene Stadium and Football Field, Washington, DC, 1926
  • Howard University President’s Home, Washington, DC
  • Howard University Truth Women’s Dormitory, Washington, DC
  • Howard University Wheatley Hall, Washington, DC
  • Howard University Women’s Gym, Washington, DC
  • James Creek Public Housing, Washington, DC
  • Mayfair Garden, Washington, DC
  • Mayfair Mansions Apartments, (built 1938), 3819 Jay St., NE., Washington, DC, NRHP-listed
  • Morgan State College (various buildings), Baltimore, MD
  • Odd Fellows Temple, Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD, 1932
  • Prince Hall Masonic Temple, 1000 U St., NW, Washington, DC, NRHP-listed
  • Provident Hospital, Baltimore, MD, 1928
  • Seaton Elementary School, Washington, DC
  • Soller’s Point War Housing, Dundalk, MD
  • St. Paul’s Baptist Church, Baltimore, MD
  • Tuskegee Institute Trade Buildings, Tuskegee, AL
  • Virginia Union Hartshorn Dormitory, Richmond, VA, 1928
  • Wheatley YMCA, Washington, DC

Two of Cassell’s Washington, DC works, the Mayfair Mansions Apartments and the Prince Hall Masonic Temple, are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Cassell

Black History 365: Dr. Khara Gresham

Khara C Gresham, DMD, MPH  

Dr. Gresham received her Bachelors of Science from Brown University in 2010. She received her Doctorate in Medical Dentistry at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in 2014, followed by her Masters in Public Health in 2015 from Tufts University School of Medicine. She has been a practicing clinician incorporating public health practice into dental care since her graduation in 2014. Dr. Gresham is a member of the American Dental Association, Massachusetts Dental Society, and the National Dental Association.

Dr. Gresham focus is providing comprehensive dental care to her patients through a variety of services as well as including patients in the decision making process. Outside of dentistry she enjoys spending time with family and friends, travel and running.

https://www.trinitydentalboston.com/meet-us/dr-khara-gresham/

Black History 365: Dennis Mathews

Dennis Mathews is co-founder and CEO of Revelation Interactive and CTO at Codicast Interactive. He was mentioned as 1 of the top 10 African American game developers by Black Enterprise. He is an avid programmer and has been programming for over 15+ years for games, websites, hardware, and custom business applications. His expertise has been composed of evaluating and integrating new technologies and platforms which include AR/VR, for the casino, entertainment, game design, and oil & gas industries.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennis-mathews-6284401

Black History 365: Billy Porter

Billy Porter calls out Vogue after featuring Harry Styles on cover in dress: ‘I changed the whole game’

The Emmy, Grammy and Tony-winning actor/singer says ‘I was the first one doing it and now everybody is doing it.’

Billy Porter has been slaying red carpets for years in provocative dresses and gowns, advancing the taboo conversation of forward-facing non-binary fashion in Hollywood. However, when Vogue Magazine decided to finally put a man in a dress on its front cover last year, they chose British musician Harry Styles.

Porter noticed, and for the first time, he’s speaking about it.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, the Pose actor says he should be credited for changing perceptions.

“I changed the whole game,” Porter said. “I. Personally. Changed. The. Whole. Game. And that is not ego, that is just fact. I was the first one doing it and now everybody is doing it.”

Styles was featured on the December 2020 issue of Vogue wearing a Gucci dress, with the headline, ‘Harry Styles Makes His Own Rules.’ The “Watermelon Sugar” singer made headlines after wearing dresses at outings, something he discussed in the cover story.

.@harry_styles is our December issue cover star!

Read how the star is making and playing by his own rules: https://t.co/tQPLi5OEtj pic.twitter.com/AxZgxE68Rx— Vogue Magazine (@voguemagazine) November 13, 2020

“Clothes are there to have fun with and experiment with and play with. What’s really exciting is that all of these lines are just kind of crumbling away,” Styles said during his Vogue interview. “When you take away ‘There’s clothes for men and there’s clothes for women,’ once you remove any barriers, obviously you open up the arena in which you can play.”

Porter, 52, also commented on the reasoning behind Styles’ new fashion sense. He stated that his decision to wear gowns was more of a social statement.

“He doesn’t care, he’s just doing it because it’s the thing to do,” Porter said. “This is politics for me. This is my life. I had to fight my entire life to get to the place where I could wear a dress to the Oscars and not be gunned down. All he has to do is be white and straight.”

In 2019, Porter talked to Vogue about his decision to wear a gown instead of a tuxedo to the Academy Awards that year. He explained the political and personal implications behind it and subsequent events in which he wore gowns.

“I grew up loving fashion, but there was a limit to the ways in which I could express myself. When you’re Black and you’re gay, one’s masculinity is in question. I dealt with a lot of homophobia in relation to my clothing choices.”

He continued, “My goal is to be a walking piece of political art every time I show up. To challenge expectations. What is masculinity? What does that mean? Women show up every day in pants, but the minute a man wears a dress, the seas part.”

Billy Porter calls out Vogue after featuring Harry Styles on cover in dress: ‘I changed the whole game’

Black History 365: Deon Haywood, Women with a Vision

Ahead of election, Louisiana activists know abortion ban is staying; but they’re still fighting

A group of four phone-bankers sat around a conference table at the offices of Women With A Vision in New Orleans, a group that advocates for abortion rights, about a month before the midterm elections, dialing up voters across Louisiana to ask them about reproductive rights.

They didn’t use the word abortion — it tends to make people hang up on them. Instead, they said they were calling about “Louisiana’s statewide decision in regards to family planning” and “women’s reproductive rights,” euphemisms for Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

Then they asked whether the voter wanted more information about family planning. Oftentimes, the answer was “yes.” In that case, they took down an email address to add to Women With A Vision listserv.

The group’s phone banking efforts are part of a push to send out 100 phone bankers and canvassers ahead of the election, organized by the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, a group dedicated to increasing voter turnout especially among Black people and people of color in Louisiana. It’s also one way abortion rights groups are trying to raise awareness about the impact of Louisiana’s abortion bans and mobilize voters across the state.

Nationally, the midterms are set to be a referendum on abortion rights — and a chance in some states to protect abortion rights at the state level.

But that’s not on the table in Louisiana, where the anti-abortion movement holds a political monopoly. And that leaves abortion rights supporters faced with the question of how to fight back when they’ve already lost so much.

“We’re not going to get Roe back right away,” said Deon Haywood, the executive director of Women With A Vision.

But when Women With A Vision volunteers knock on doors ahead of November, Haywood hopes the conversation will move beyond the need to vote. She wants people to start seeing abortion rights as deeply entwined with every other issue that might motivate them to get to the polls — and she sees an opportunity to galvanize Louisianans who did not want Roe v. Wade overturned.

“[Abortion] has to be a part of the larger narrative,” Haywood said. “It can no longer be in a silo over there called ‘abortion land.’ It has to be included in every oppression that people are feeling.”

For Haywood and Erenberg, the strategy is to make abortion part of a larger political agenda for a more equal society, from housing and education to policing. It’s a framework developed by Black women called reproductive justice — a way of combining reproductive rights with the conditions that actually help families thrive.

“It is the right to have children, the right to not have children. It is the right to raise our children and our families, both chosen and biological, in communities that are safe,” Haywood said, “And I should have a job that allows me to afford to give my family what they need, right? We should have education.”

Both Women With A Vision and Lift Louisiana, a group that lobbies and litigates for abortion rights, are building partnerships with progressive groups that might not have seen a need to join forces around reproductive rights in the past, including groups that advocate for better housing and criminal justice reforms.

Haywood believes that reproductive justice is the framework needed to get more people who support abortion rights in Louisiana to vote like it.

The state’s abortion rights supporters have long believed more people in Louisiana agree with them than the Capitol’s politics would suggest.

The Republican Party controls the state house; a number of prominent Democrats oppose abortion rights, including Gov. John Bel Edwards, who signed Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban into law, and State Sen. Katrina Jackson (D-Monroe), who wrote it. The ban passed with the bipartisan support of more than 70% of the legislature.

Then there’s the constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2020 which declares that there can be no right to an abortion found within the Louisiana Constitution. Roughly 62% of voters supported the amendment and 38% voted against it. (The amendment is similar in language to the Kansas abortion amendment voted down over the summer, though Louisiana’s vote occurred when many believed Roe v. Wade was safe, and even Louisiana Right to Life, which helped author the amendment, argued the vote wouldn’t ban abortion in Louisiana.)

But more recent polling paints a more divided state. An LSU survey released in April — as speculation was growing that the U.S. Supreme Court might overturn Roe v. Wade — found support for abortion rights has grown in the last six years in Louisiana; the public is now split 46% in support of legal abortion in all or most cases, compared to 49% against legal abortion in all or most cases.

For Haywood and Erenberg, tying abortion rights to other urgent problems could turn some of those 46% who support legal abortion into abortion-rights voters.

Erenberg will also be watching to see if the elections show evidence of opposition to the ban that abortion-rights groups can build upon.

“I’m definitely going to be looking at voter turnout — I think that that will be a big indicator,” Erenberg said.

Democrats who support abortion rights are running for a number of seats on the state and national level, and they’re making abortion a key issue in their campaigns. Those races could be a barometer for how Louisianans feel about banning nearly all abortions.

But it likely won’t be because pro-choice candidates upset the well-funded, anti-abortion Republican incumbents, such as Sen. John Kennedy and House Whip Steve Scalise.

Instead, John Couvillon, founder of JMC Analytics and Polling, said the question will be just how much of the vote Democratic candidates manage to win in those races, especially in parishes with high percentages of white-collar and professional women.

“I’m thinking about East Baton Rouge, St Tammany, Jefferson, places like that,” Couvillion said.

National polls show women of reproductive age in particular are motivated to vote in the midterms because of the Supreme Court decision.

Couvillon said one race to watch is the Sixth Congressional District, to see if there’s an “abnormally high” vote for Libertarian Rufus Craig, who’s running against incumbent Garret Graves in one of two congressional seats where the Democrats didn’t field a candidate this election cycle.

And Couvillon said to look for whether Katie Darling gets a higher-than-expected share of the vote against Scalise, who won with 72% of the vote in 2020.

Darling, a mother of two, went viral last week with an abortion rights campaign ad featuring video footage of her giving birth to her new son, part of a trend of abortion rights campaign ads released in recent months by Louisiana Democrats, including Gary Chambers, Luke Mixon and State Rep. Royce Duplessis.

Meanwhile, Louisiana Republicans — like many in the GOP across the country — have been relatively quiet on abortion since the Dobbs decision. Scalise has focused on the economy; Kennedy released his own viral ad on crime, telling critics of police brutality to “call a crackhead” next time they need help; and Congressman Clay Higgins has touted his support for the oil and gas industry.

That could leave a void for Democrats to speak to voters who think Louisiana’s abortion ban, which has no exceptions for rape or incest, goes too far.

“The lane is open” for Democrats, Couvillon said. “The key is, what else can you present to the voters to show that, ‘Hey, I have a coherent alternative platform relative to what the other guys are proposing, which is burying this issue in the sand.’”

Despite the political landscape that makes abortion rights all but impossible to win back anytime soon, Erenberg said voters who support abortion rights still need to show up to every election.

“Every election should be considered the most important election to restore abortion access,” Erenberg said.

“And if we don’t start voting like that, if we don’t start voting on this issue, and really scrutinizing the candidates on this issue,” she added, “then we really don’t have any chance of restoring access in Louisiana ever.”

Beyond the midterm elections, Erenberg sees one opportunity to make substantial, immediate changes to what awaits pregnant women in Louisiana: the upcoming legislative session.

There might be a slim chance to enhance abortion access at the margins, she said, by adding an exception to the near-total ban for survivors of rape and incest.

Louisiana Right to Life, which helped draft the law, opposes exceptions for rape or incest. But polling suggests those exceptions are likely supported by a majority of people in Louisiana.

A 2022 national survey by the Pew Research Center found that among those who oppose legal abortion in all or most cases nationally, over half support some kind of exception for rape, and a poll released this week by the Penn Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies and SurveyMonkey found that 76% of Republicans support rape and incest exceptions.

But Erenberg said the biggest avenue for change could come in the areas around abortion.

There could be a chance to expand comprehensive sex education in schools, she said. Louisiana doesn’t require sex education in schools, and when sex is addressed, schools must emphasize abstinence.

Lift Louisiana also wants to increase access to reproductive health care services, including expanding access to contraception, investing more in family planning services and prenatal care, and focusing on addressing the maternal mortality crisis in Louisiana, where Black women who give birth are more likely than White women.

The impact of Louisiana’s near-total ban could aid these efforts. Between 8,000 and 10,000 abortions a year took place in Louisiana in recent years. With most abortions now banned, the state is potentially facing many more babies born each year, more women needing prenatal and postnatal care and more families needing support.

“If people are going to be forced to carry pregnancies to term in Louisiana,” Erenberg said, “then we really need to be pushing to make the conditions better for them so that they can actually take care of those children and have fulfilling lives.”

https://www.wwno.org/public-health/2022-10-27/ahead-of-election-louisiana-activists-know-abortion-ban-is-staying-but-theyre-still-fighting

Black History 365: Tara Roberts

Tara Roberts is a National Geographic Storytelling Fellow and the host and executive producer of the “Into the Depths” podcast. She spent the last few years following, diving with and telling stories about Black scuba divers as they search for and help document slave shipwrecks around the world. Her goal is to reimagine and reframe the origin story of Africans in the Americas and to tell stories that humanize and bring empathy, nuance and complexity to their human journey.

Tara was a Fellow at MIT’s Open Documentary Lab. She has also worked as an editor for CosmoGirl, Essence, AOL, EBONY and Heart & Soul and edited several books for girls. She founded her own magazine for women ‘too bold for boundaries.’ And she spent an amazing and fulfilling year backpacking around the world to find and tell stories about women social entrepreneurs. This journey led to the creation of a social enterprise that supported and funded the big ideas of those female change agents, a stint running communications for Ashoka and time coaching social entrepreneurs for Red Bull’s Amaphiko Academy. 

https://www.tararoberts.me/about

Black History 365: Naomi Beckwith

In her role as Deputy Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator, Beckwith oversees collections, exhibitions, publications, and curatorial programs and archives at the Guggenheim Museum, and provides strategic direction within the international network of affiliate museums for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Beckwith works closely with the Director, Trustees, and staff on planning and implementing strategy across the museum and on its global initiatives and plays an instrumental role in shaping the museum’s vision.

Beckwith comes to the Guggenheim from the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, where she has held curatorial posts since 2011 and served as Manilow Senior Curator since 2018. During her tenure at the MCA, her exhibitions and publications have centered on the impact of identity and the resonance of Black culture on multidisciplinary practices within global contemporary art. She organized and co-organized acclaimed exhibitions such as Howardena Pindell: What Remains to Be Seen, the first survey of the artist, and whose catalogue received the George Wittenborn Memorial Book Award. Beckwith also developed The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now and Homebodies, as well as solo shows on The Propeller Group, Keren Cytter, Leslie Hewitt, William J. O’Brien, and Jimmy Robert; and a project with Yinka Shonibare CBE. Before joining the MCA, Beckwith was Associate Curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem, where she organized exhibitions such as Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Any Number of Preoccupations (2011) and 30 Seconds off an Inch (2009–10).

Beckwith is a member of the curatorial team realizing Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America, an exhibition conceived by the late curator Okwui Enwezor for the New Museum. Other recent shows include The Long Dream, a presentation of 70 Chicago artists organized in response to the pandemic and social unrest; Prisoner of Love, centered around Arthur Jafa’s video phenomenon Love Is the Message, the Message Is Death; and Laurie Simmons: Big Camera/Little Camera, a retrospective that traveled from the Museum of Modern Art Fort Worth.

Beckwith serves on the boards of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Laundromat Project, and chaired the inaugural Curatorial Leadership Summit at the Armory Show in 2018.

She has received fellowships at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, the Center for Curatorial Leadership, and other institutions. Beckwith holds an MA, with Distinction, from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London and a BA in history from Northwestern University in Chicago.

https://www.guggenheim.org/staff/naomi-beckwith

Black History 365: Latonia Moore

Latonia Moore remembers clearly the moment she fell in love with opera. She entered the University of North Texas as a jazz performance major, but a classical music requirement led her to sing in the chorus for Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (“Clowns”).

“I was just in the chorus, lowly little chorus girl, but I fell in love with being someone else,” Moore said in an interview with Leila Fadel of NPR’s Morning Edition. “Like me, Latonia from Houston, Texas, could be an Italian villager watching this comedia dell’arte troop come through town. I felt just so alive and at home.”

Moore says she didn’t grow up watching or performing opera — “my family’s not into opera, that’s not their thing” — but other types of music were a big part of her childhood. She sang gospel music — including in her pastor grandfather’s own church — R&B and jazz. Her older sister Yolanda introduced her to art songs, and she joined a choir.

Today, Moore has graced opera stages around the world, with the title role in Verdi’s Aida being her most performed and recognized one. But it’s also one that comes with its fair share of controversy, since non-Black singers often perform in blackface or have their bodies painted to portray the enslaved Ethiopian princess, long after such practices have been shunned in other performing arts.

Moore says she’s fine with the practice for the sake of art, so long as it doesn’t go “over the line for most people.” She herself has been painted darker in some cases for the role.

“When I started into opera, I didn’t really think about the fact that I was black. … It didn’t matter what my skin was, because this is an art form that’s based on suspension of disbelief,” Moore said. “Anyone should be able to go up in any brand of skin and be able to convince you that they’re an Ethiopian princess. So the makeup is not necessary … but if most people are offended, then drop it. You don’t need to do it.

“Convince them with your acting, with your voice. That’s our job.”

Moore pointed to other Black divas as sources of inspiration, including Leontyne Price, Shirley Verrett and Marian Anderson. “Being a Black opera singer, not a challenge — not really,” Moore said. “I have no obstacles.”

Singing her star-crossed character into existence

She spoke with NPR as she readied her performance as Leonora in Verdi’s Il Trovatore at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. The Washington National Opera season opener runs through November 7.

Moore says the multifaceted nature of her character Leonora is “reflected in the staging and the costuming and definitely in the way I sing it.”

Moore is quick to admit the notoriously difficult role was one she long avoided. “Vocally, whew baby, this is a big mama to sing!” she said. But as the soprano studied for the role, she uncovered more layers about the character, who with Manrico (played by Gwyn Hughes Jones) forms a pair of star-crossed lovers.

“This is a chick that’s kind of more like Juliet than people give her credit for. … She sees this guy, she falls for him immediately, and she’s like, ‘I don’t care about anything else in the world,’ ” Moore explained. “So she gets to be young and youthful, but at the same time, kind of like this strong warrior-like chick, which you’re going to see reflected in the staging and the costuming and definitely in the way I sing it.”

Erhard Rom’s spare sets of stairs, grids and drapes sharpen the psychological drama that unfolds on stage, with stark shadow projections by S. Katy Tucker bringing to life the traumatic past of Azucena the gypsy (played by an electrifying Raehann Bryce-Davis) and Manrico’s tragic end. The lavish costumes designed by Martin Pakledinaz are richly detailed, from the soldiers’ shining armor to bright, multilayered dresses.

On stage, Moore inhabits her character with joy, lifting her voice to the rafters, and with despair, convulsing it as she pleads for Manrico’s life to the controlling and obsessive Count di Luna (played by Christopher Maltman).

Opera is an art form based on the “suspension of disbelief,” Moore says.

“Our job as opera singers is to sing the character into existence, and the way to do that starts with the words and being able to speak them like a normal human being,” she said. “It’s way more important to have a pulse than to just be perfect and only do what’s on the page.” As part of her preparation, Moore painstakingly spoke her parts and those of the other characters in English in order to help her “get it all sung into my voice.”

Thriving where jazz and opera meet

She demonstrated similar vocal agility in a production of Fire Shut Up in My Bones by Terence Blanchard that opened the Metropolitan Opera’s last season — the first time the Met staged an opera by a Black composer. The two had met when Moore was still in high school. She described it as “a full circle moment.”

“I was a jazz singer and, of course, he’s a jazz trumpeter,” Moore recalled. “It was such a beautiful coming together of opera and jazz and gospel and church and all of the things that I’ve known.”

She noted that Black opera singers often are told to avoid getting “stuck” performing in Black operas or productions like George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess — in which Moore has performed many times.

“See, I’m that one opera singer that was totally cool with being stuck, because I didn’t view it as stuck at all,” Moore says. “For me, opera in jazz, jazz opera is the best of both worlds. … There’s something about these operas where I feel like I was put here for them.”

Moore recalled Blanchard’s simple guidance to the cast simply to be “real” on stage — a real person with real feelings, and just let the music sing itself. As a result, she says, the singers bared themselves emotionally. “I remember at opening night I could barely even sing my lines. I was already crying so badly. It just it hit home so deeply,” Moore said.

The story, inspired by Charles M. Blow’s memoir, recounts the poverty-stricken childhood of a man who as an adult ultimately decides not to take revenge against a cousin who sexually abused him.

Moore is keen on making opera more accessible. Eschewing a highfalutin attitude over the rich, complex nature of an art form that involves so many different dimensions — from the human voice and orchestral music to visual arts and drama — she notes that opera in its most basic form involves people telling stories about other people.

“What’s more human that that?” she asks. “It should have never gotten to the point to where it was this hoity-toity, sort of snobby art form,” she added. “Your mind expands when you listen to this kind of music. Yes, it’s high art, but it’s for everybody. Opera for all.”

https://www.npr.org/2022/10/24/1129630509/from-gospel-to-opera-soprano-latonia-moore-makes-the-world-her-stage