Black History 365: Jonathan P. Jones

November 22, 2022

Describe your organization and your role.

I’m the Commissioner of Recreation, Youth & Workforce Services in Albany, NY – the Capital City of New York! My departments are the connecting links to get healthier and wealthier in our community.

Describe the most pressing challenges in your community, particularly for Black people, that your organization is addressing.

The Child Opportunity Index identified that over 50 percent of our Black boys are disconnected from opportunities in the areas of health & environment, education, and income. My departments have action plans and engagement strategies to help our residents routinely connect to opportunities in physical fitness, employment training, and career pathway exposure. 

We know that within the Albany region, there are areas that have been historically disenfranchised. So, this is long-term work. 

The investments in our youth programs aim to educate, expose, and explore opportunities in the work, business, and sports worlds. Because our programs serve people who are over 70 percent Black and half male, the goal is to educate these young men when they’re between 14 and 18 years old so this generation is not so disconnected from opportunity later.  We want to ensure that all of our city’s youth get a chance to contribute in places where their voice or input may not be heard at all.

Describe three of your proudest achievements for your organization and you.

My proudest moments of all time were delivering my daughter and son recently. My family means the world to me, and I’m most proud to be Dad.

Secondly, earning the U.S. Conference of Mayor’s Livability Award for our Summer Youth Employment Program model. We redesigned this program in the second year of a 4-year term to add a paid day for 1,200 youth that required them to expand their education by going to different postsecondary campuses on Fridays. This is not something that typically goes over well with a new administration, but we had faith that our youth would excel if we set a high bar. This recognition was validated when research concluded that participants were 66 percent more likely to graduate from high school than non-participants. 

And my third proudest moment comes when we have ribbon cutting ceremonies for our parks.  Working with the community to recreate a space that they have a hand in remaking brings the most joy. These parks are very special places. They’ve given me a lot of wonderful memories and feelings from my days as a child playing on playground, with all the stories I imagined and created with my friends. Working with the community, our department has been able to renovate equipment in 15 parks around the city since 2015. It’s a public servant’s dream to hear and see the community come together to work with each other and then see kids playing and enjoying our parks.

Why is this work so important in your community?

It’s a purpose I can’t run from. The work I’m doing was done for me. Sports changed my life and gave me networks that I’m still connected with and lessons that I continue to learn from. I’m also the product of grant-funded, government-supported enrichment programs, making me a direct example of how a government agency can foster growth and improve the life of a young person. 

What is your vision for your community and your work?

My vision for my community is a place where our unity is commonplace and it’s cool to be educated and engaged fully in conversation with neighbors, friends, colleagues, etc. My vision and hope are that the abandoned properties in our community are renovated by the folks in those communities, and they get a tax credit for it. And finally, my vision as Commissioner of Recreation, Youth & Workforce Services for Albany is to turn around the Child Opportunity Index results so that we focus on creating opportunity for our youth, build on all the lessons, and inspire people. 

https://www.clasp.org/blog/jonathan-p-jones-ms-commissioner-recreation-youth-workforce-services-0/

Black History 365: Misty Copeland

November 22, 2022

Throughout her ballet career, Misty Copeland has worked to break racial barriers in the world of dance.

She is doing it again — this time with an after-school dance program for children of color.

The Be Bold initiative will “make ballet more accessible, affordable and fun,” according to the program’s website. It will be an affordable, 12-week extracurricular based in New York City for children ages 8-10.

The program will provide lessons on the basics of ballet, music and health as well as offer tutoring and mentoring. It will take place in Boys & Girls Club centers and similar community-based, child-serving sites.

Copeland herself dedicates part of her success to a free ballet class offered by the Boys & Girls Club. She would go on to become the first Black woman to be named principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre company.

During her time in ABT, she publicly spoke out against the racism of some dance critics who questioned her body type for being too “bulky” or “busty.”

“I think it’s just something maybe that I will never escape from,” Copeland told NPR’s Steve Inskeep in 2014.

“But my mission, my voice, my story, my message, is not for them. And I think it’s more important to think of the people that I am influencing and helping to see a broader picture of what beauty is.”

Copeland has also written several books exploring the experiences of dancers of color — including her own. A memoir about Copeland’s friendship with Raven Wilkinson, her mentor and the first African American ballerina to tour the U.S., will be coming out in November.

Copeland also told the New York Times she is planning to return to the stage next year after going on a hiatus in December 2019.

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/17/1123660178/misty-copeland-ballet-diversity-dance-program-be-bold

Black History 365: Octavia “Opi” Payne

November 22, 2022

Octavia Payne is a member of the USA Ultimate National Team.

My name is Octavia Payne, but most people call me Opi. I’ve been playing ultimate for 10 years, starting at the University of Pennsylvania. I’ve been on four different club teams, including Washington, DC Scandal with whom I won two USA Ultimate national titles. I also won a championship with the 2013 U.S. World Games team and the U.S. Women’s National Team at the 2016 World Ultimate and Guts Championships in London.

When I’m not playing ultimate, I spend a lot of time cooking. I also love rock climbing. My day job is with a non-profit called World Resources Institute. My group helps fight deforestation using satellites.

Fun Facts about Octavia:

  • Japanese is my first language.
  • George Stubbs and I have the same exact birthday. My little half brother and I also have the same birthday (popular day apparently!).
  • I’m an introvert and I hate thinking of fun facts about myself.

https://nationalteam.usaultimate.org/players/octavia-payne/

Black History 365: Maurice Ashley

November 22, 2022

Maurice Ashley (born March 6, 1966) is a Jamaican-American chess player, author, and commentator.[1][2] In 1999, he earned the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM),[3] making him the first black person to do so.[4]

Ashley is well known as a commentator for high-profile chess events.[5] He also spent many years teaching chess.[6][7] On April 13, 2016, Ashley was inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame.

Early life

Ashley was born in St. Andrew, Jamaica. He attended Wolmer’s Boys School in Jamaica, and then moved to the United States when he was 12.[8]

He went to Brooklyn Technical High School.[9] Ashley graduated from City College of New York (CCNY) with a B.A. in Creative Writing. While at City College, he represented the school in intercollegiate team competition.

Ashley said he discovered chess in Jamaica, where his brother played chess with his friends. He got more serious about chess during high school, where he grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and played in parks and clubs throughout New York City.[9]

Ashley coached the Raging Rooks of Harlem, and the Dark Knights (also from Harlem), both of which won national championships under his guidance.[6][10]

Career

In 1992, Ashley shared the United States Game/10 chess championship with Maxim Dlugy.[11]

On March 14, 1999, Ashley beat Adrian Negulescu to complete the requirements for the Grandmaster title. This made him the first black chess Grandmaster.[4]

In September 1999, Ashley founded the Harlem Chess Center,[5] which has attracted such celebrities as Larry Johnson[12] and Wynton Marsalis.

Along with GM Susan Polgar, Ashley was named 2003 Grandmaster of the Year by the U.S. Chess Federation.

In 2003, Ashley wrote an essay The End of the Draw Offer?, which raised discussion about ways to avoid quick agreed draws in chess tournaments.

In 2005, he wrote the book Chess for Success, relating his experiences and the positive aspects of chess. He was the main organizer for the 2005 HB Global Chess Challenge, with the biggest cash prize in history for an open chess tournament.

In 2007, Ashley returned to his birth country of Jamaica and became the first GM to ever participate in a tournament there. The tournament was the Frederick Cameron Open. After sweeping a field consisting of several of Jamaica’s top players, Ashley was upset in the final round by Jamaican National Master Jomo Pitterson.[8]

In 2008, Ashley was featured in an interview for the CNN documentary Black in America. He was shown during one scene in the film Brooklyn Castle mentoring a young chess player. He was mentioned in the chess movie Life of a King starring Cuba Gooding, Jr.

Starting in the Fall of 2012, Ashley was a Director’s Fellow at the MIT Media Lab and, between 2013 and 2015, Maurice was also a Fellow at Harvard University‘s Berkman Center for Internet & Society in a joint fellowship at both Harvard’s Berkman Center and the Media Lab at MIT. Currently, Maurice is a Research affiliate at the Media Lab at MIT.[13][14][15]

In 2013, Ashley announced he was planning the highest-stakes open chess tournament in history, Millionaire Chess Open. Its first edition took place October 9–13, 2014 in Las Vegas.

In 2015, Maurice announced a partnership with the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis and Ascension, Your Move Chess. This program supports after school chess in the Florissant-Ferguson School District alongside other schools in the Saint Louis area. Longer term, the goal is to expand the program on a national level.[16]

In February 2016, a video of Ashley defeating a “trash-talking” amateur chess player in Washington Square Park went viral.[17][18]

On April 13, 2016, Ashley was inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame along with Chess Grandmaster Gata Kamsky.[19]

Commentator

Ashley has worked, and currently is working, as a chess commentator covering many events, including those of the Grand Chess Tour. He was one of the commentators of the two matches between world champion Garry Kasparov and IBM’s Deep Blue that took place in 1996 and 1997. He provided commentary for the Kasparov vs. Anand World Championship match in 1995. In 2003, Ashley hosted ESPN‘s broadcast of Kasparov’s match against X3D Fritz. He has also served as a commentator for the 2013–19 Sinquefield Cups, several US Chess Championships, and many other chess events.

Personal life

In 1993, Ashley married Michele Ashley-Johnson. Their daughter Nia was born the following year. Their son Jayden was born in 2002. The couple divorced in 2014.

Maurice’s sister is former world boxing champion Alicia Ashley, and his brother is former world kickboxing champion Devon Ashley.[20][21] He once said “African[-]continent GMs do exist; but, according to the system of racial classification, I am the first Black GM in history… it matters, and doesn’t matter, all at the same time.”[22][23]

Works and publications

Monographs

Multimedia

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

Black History 365: Leah Penniman

November 22, 2022

Leah Penniman (c. 1980) is a farmer, educator, author, and food sovereignty activist.[1] Penniman is Co-Founder, Co-Director and Program Manager of Soul Fire Farm, in Grafton, New York.[2]

Biography

Leah Penniman was born to Reverend doctor Adele Smith Penniman, a Haitian American pastor and activist, and a white father. Penniman was raised in central Massachusetts with two siblings as the only family of color after the parents split and Adele moved to Boston.[3][4] Penniman began farming at age 16, working with The Food Project in Boston in 1996 when staying with their mother.[3][5][6] Penniman received an MA in Science Education and BA in Environmental Science and International Development from Clark University.[5] After graduation, Penniman lived in a food desert in Albany, New York and was on WIC after giving birth. This experience led Penniman to see the need for food sovereignty in Black and Brown communities.[3]

In 2006, Penniman purchased 72-acres of land in Grafton, New York to co-found Soul Fire Farm, and the farm officially opened in 2011. The name is taken from the song Soulfire by Lee “Scratch” Perry and originally focused on a farm share for low-income people.[3] As Soul Fire Farm has grown, its mission is to end racism and injustice in the food system and by reclaiming the inherent right to belong to the earth and to have agency in the food system as Black and Brown people.[5] The farm’s flagship program is the Black Latinx Farmers Immersion, a 50-hour course to train beginner farmers. By 2018, 500 individuals had taken the course.[6]

Penniman has been farming since 1996 and teaching since 2002. Penniman has worked at the Food Project, Farm School, Many Hands Organic Farm, Youth Grow and with farmers internationally in Ghana, Haiti, and Mexico.[5] Penniman has also worked as a science teacher at University Park Campus School, Tech Valley High School, and Darrow School and was founding director of the Harriet Tubman Democratic High School.[7]

In 2018, Penniman published Farming While Black, a book designed to create sustainable, equitable, profitable, and dignified relationships with food that historically disenfranchised communities eat, and the land it comes from.[6]

Recognition

The work of Penniman and Soul Fire Farm has been recognized by the Soros Racial Justice Fellowship, Fulbright Program, Presidential Award for Science Teaching, NYS Health Emerging Innovator Awards, and Andrew Goodman Foundation, among others.[8]

In 2019, Penniman was awarded the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award for facilitating food sovereignty programs.[9]

Publications

  • 2020: To free ourselves we must feed ourselves. Rapid Response Opinion, Agriculture and Human Values (published May 11)
  • 2018: Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Decolonizing Land, Food, and Agriculture. Chelsea Green Publishing (November 8, 2018)[10]
  • 2018: Uprooting Racism, Seeding Sovereignty. Schumacher Center for a New Economics.
  • 2018: Sowing the Seeds of Food Justice: A Guide for Farmers Who Want to Supply Low Income Communities While Maintaining Financial Sustainability, SARE Research Manual
  • 2017: Land Justice, published by Food First. Contributing author.
  • 2017: Perma/Culture, published by Routledge. Contributing author.
  • 2017: Cherry Bombe Cookbook, published by Clarkson Potter, Contributing author.
  • 2017: 4 Not-So-Easy Ways to Dismantle Racism in the Food System. no ! Magazine
  • 2016: At Soul Fire Farm #blacklivesmatter and #black land matters, Fortune Magazine
  • 2016: After a Century of Decline, Black Farmers on the Rise YES!Magazine
  • 2015: USDA Puts $34.3 million into local food, but is it enough?YES! Magazine
  • 2015: Four Ways Mexico’s Indigenous Farmers are Practicing the Agriculture of the Future. YES! Magazine
  • 2015: Living and Learning in Oaxaca, New York Organic News, Volume 33, No 1, Spring
  • 2015: Radical Farmers Use Fresh Food to Fight Racial Injustice.YES! Magazine (Republished in Solutions Journal) 2014: Black and Latino Farmers Immersion. YES! Magazine (Republished 2015 in Urban Food Stories)

Personal life

Penniman identifies as genderqueer/multigender.[11] Penniman lives on the farm with a partner, Jonah Vitale-Wolff and their two children, Neshima and Emet Vitale-Penniman.[7]

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

Black History 365: Sandra Douglass Morgan

November 22, 2022

The NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders have hired the first Black female team president in the league’s history.

Sandra Douglass Morgan, a Las Vegas native, is not new to firsts. She was the first Black city attorney in Nevada, when she served for the City of North Las Vegas, and she was the first person of color named chair of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, the team said Thursday.

She is also an independent director at Allegiant Airlines, Caesars Entertainment and Fidelity National Financial Inc.

“It is the honor of a lifetime to join the Raiders at one of the most defining times in the team’s history,” Morgan said. “This team’s arrival in Las Vegas has created a new energy and opportunities we never dreamed possible. I look forward to taking this team’s integrity, spirit and commitment to excellence on the field into every facet of this organization.”

Morgan is a graduate of Eldorado High School; the University of Nevada, Reno; and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

“The Las Vegas connection was not a criteria, but it was something that was on the positive side of the ledger,” team owner Mark Davis said. “Obviously, somebody that knows this community, knows the people in it I think is very important for us to continue to build out foundation in Las Vegas.”

The hire of Morgan comes less than a year after Jon Gruden was dismissed as head coach of the team. In October 2021, a league investigation into the Washington Football Team examining workplace misconduct uncovered emails Gruden had sent years earlier that showed he used racist, misogynistic, and homophobic slurs.

Davis said the search for a new president took 10 months.

Morgan said while she has experienced many firsts throughout her career, she never wants to be the last person breaking barriers.

“I want to get to a point, obviously, where there is no more firsts,” she said. “If I could be an inspiration, or help, or open doors for any other woman and girl out there, then that’s an incredible accomplishment for me.”

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/08/1110427911/las-vegas-raiders-president-sandra-douglass-morgan-first-black-woman-nfl

Black History 365: Lee Odom

November 22, 2022

Lee Odom, instrumental spectrum includes, the clarinet, bass clarient, soprano/alto/tenor saxophone, flute, and oboe.  Lee is also a composer/band leader, whose musical spectrum includes, gospel,free improved music, jazz, R&B, and classical.

​

Lee has worked on selected virtual service projects for Canaan Baptist Church, Harlem and Mt. Zion AME, Bronx as sound engineer. Lee was commissioned as Producer/Director for the first virtual production of Joeseph Daley’s Colorations/Explorations, performed by the Dance Clarinets, directed by JD Parran. Sound/Video editing services are available.  Please fill out contact form below for more information. 

Lee has performed with many outstanding groups and musicians such as Don Byron, JD Parran, Whitney Marcelle, The Karl Berger Improv Orchestra, Canaan Baptist Church Music Ministry, 12 Houses Free Improv, the Makanda Project Boston, MA, Craig Harris, and the David Murray Octet.  Lee Odom also performs as band leader, with Sweet Lee Music, performing at various venues and festivals throughout NY, Boston, CT, New Jersey, Washington DC and Florida 

https://www.sweetleemusic.com/bio

Lee Odom played with the David Sanford Big Band at Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity in Florence, MA on September 11, 2022.

Black History 365: Damon Young

November 22, 2022

Damon Young is a writer, critic, humorist, satirist, and professional Black person.

He’s a co-founder and editor in chief of VerySmartBrothas—coined “the blackest thing that ever happened to the internet” by The Washington Post and recently acquired by Univision and Gizmodo Media Group to be a vertical of The Root—and a columnist for GQ. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, LitHub, Time Magazine, Slate, LongReads, Salon, The Guardian, New York Magazine, EBONY, Jezebel, and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

Damon’s writing—which vacillates from anthropological satire and absurdist racial insights to razor sharp cultural critique and unflinching indictments of privilege and bias—has often generated praise from from his peers. Ava DuVernay called his voice “clear and critical.” Micheal Eric Dyson said he’s “one of the most important young voices in humor writing today.” And Kiese Laymon called his work “the best of American twenty-first century writing.” 

Damon’s debut memoir—What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir In Essays (Ecco/HarperCollins)—is a 2019 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and is a tragicomic exploration of the angsts, anxieties, and absurdities of existing while black in America. NPR called it an “outstanding collection of nonfiction” and The Washington Post “hilarious” and “unflinching.”

https://www.damonjyoung.com/about

Black History 365: Sapelo Island

November 22, 2022

Gullah Geechee community reaches a deal with Ga. county in a fight for services

Sapelo Island, sitting off the coast of Georgia, has been home to one of America’s last intact Gullah Geechee communities. The Gullah Geechee is a community of descendants of enslaved people who arrived before the start of the Civil War. The island was also the focus of a legal battle between its residents and local and state governments.

The Gullah Geechee community filed a lawsuit against the state of Georgia and McIntosh County in 2015, complaining that they were neglected, taxed unfairly, and had their civil rights violated. In the suit, the Sapelo Island residents said they’ve been lacking basic resources like fire or police services and a ferry system that doesn’t run enough to link the island and mainland Georgia effectively.

Reginald Hall, one of the descendants who live on Sapelo Island, is an advocate for the community. On Thursday, Hall talked with Morning Edition about the current condition the Gullah Geechee community has been dealing with.

“At this very moment, we’re on the island at our own risk because we don’t have proper emergency services,” Hall said.

In addition to the lack of presence from a police or fire department, Hall also says that trash pickup on the island has been irregular, and old dirt roads have been poorly maintained.

The lack of services has had a devastating effect on the Gullah Geechee population that lives on Sapelo Island. At the turn of the 20th century, there were nearly 1,000 residents living on Sapelo Island, according to Time magazine.Now only 29 descendants are living on the Island, Hall says.

“There is a clear picture. When you have 29 Black family members left on an island surrounded by marsh and beautiful ocean,” Hall said. “Who in their right mind would purposely get up and leave that land?”

Hall says that people left the island because McIntosh County did not invest much money in essential services for the island, even though Sapelo residents have paid taxes similar to the mainland.

“My question is, when do you stop oppressing?” Hall said. “Let us live.”

Recently Hall and other residents of Sapelo Island have received some good news. In 2020, Georgia agreed to improve the docks and passenger ferry service.

Gullah Geechee community also reached a $2 million settlement with McIntosh County. The county has also committed to providing better emergency, medical, fire and road services to the island.

Hall hopes that the settlement and new commitments from both the local and state governments is the start of a bigger vision that Hall has for Sapelo Island.

“Bringing our children back home and our grandchildren back home and to sustain for the next 10 generations as we already have,” Hall said.

NPR’s Nell Clark and Reena Advani produced and edited this story for radio.

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/18/1118094337/gullah-geechee-community-reaches-a-deal-with-ga-county-in-a-fight-for-services

Black History 365: Makeda Smith

November 22, 2022

Makeda Smith of Sio Ceramics intertwines intriguing shapes and surprising details into her work.

Sio Ceramics 

Brookland Art Walk, Washington DC

Makeda Smith’s ceramics feature irresistible palates, intriguing shapes and surprising details. She first took a ceramics class in college and fell in love. After teaching for years and earning a Master’s in education, she missed her spark. She took another class, then an artist residency, and launched Sio Ceramics last year. 

It’s hard starting a second career, but the process keeps Smith motivated. “The work is really meditative,” Smith says, and then she gets to share it. “That people share stories about finding joy out of something I create is really, really satisfying,” she says. 

Smith just picked up the keys to her first retail and studio space. While she’s moving in, sales will still run through her retail partners (like Salt and Sundry and Shopmade in DC,) and her self-made website. The pandemic served as a catalyst, helping her pull it all together, but she’s not hustling. She’s savorying the process. “If it’s not sparking joy like Marie Kondo,” she says, “it’s gotta go.” 

Website – www.sioceramics.com

Instagram – @sioceramics

Smith recommends – @khaoscreates

https://craftindustryalliance.org/6-black-ceramicists-to-support-right-now/