Black Farmer’s Antibiotic-Free Meat Products Now Available in Grocery Stores and Online

Meet Ricky Dollison, a fourth-generation African American farmer who is the owner of Dollison Farms located in Poulan, Georgia. He is also the owner of a company called Warrior Creek Premium Meats that produces responsibly raised, antibiotic-free bacon, sausage, ground beef, ribeye steaks, pork tenderloins, and chicken leg quarters. The family-owned and operated business also produces a multitude of leafy greens, peanuts, cotton, soybeans, and corn for their livestock. They also raise cattle and their signature swine, “The Georgia Dolli”, in which their premium sausage, country cut bacon, and ham are derived.

Their high-quality meats are Georgia born and raised, without added hormones, by-products, nitrates, or antibiotics. Warrior Creek Premium Meats can be found at various grocery stores throughout Southwest Georgia such as Towson Meats, Snipes, Publix, and Piggly Wiggly.

Small farmers have always been the major food producers of the world, even before COVID-19. Now during a pandemic with scarce equipment and limited financial resources, creating value-added products and extending harvest offerings directly to customers is imperative for their survival beyond the next generation.

This Black-owned family farm operation is on the list of very few who are certified and able to sell nationwide. Dollison is also the CEO of AG First Community Co-op and a farmer advocate for the state of Georgia. He recognizes that bringing his company’s premium meats and their vegetable harvest directly to market is necessary for their survival.

Warrior Creek Premium Meats ship nationwide directly from the farm to your freezer. Monthly subscriptions are also available.

For more details and/or to place an order, visit WarriorCreekPremiumMeats.com

For press inquiries, contact (404) 484-6784 or warriorcreekpremiummeats@gmail.com

https://www.blackbusiness.com/2021/01/4th-generation-black-farmers-antibiotic-free-meat-products-available-grocery-stores.html

‘I just wanna surf’

Black women and nonbinary surfers are rarely in the spotlight. This photographer changes that

Photographs by Gabriella Angotti-Jones
Story by Leah Asmelash, CNN
Published October 7, 2022

Gabriella Angotti-Jones just wanted to surf.

It was the beginning of 2019. Fresh off an internship with the New York Times, photographer Angotti-Jones was stuck freelancing — constantly worrying about when her next assignment would come.

“I felt like I was stuck in a hamster wheel,” she told CNN. “I just felt like this working machine.”

So she turned inward. With the intention of pursuing a personal project, the Capistrano Beach, California, native’s mind went to one thing: surfing.

“Like f**k — I just wanna have fun,” Angotti-Jones said. “And I just wanna surf.”

That’s the title of Angotti-Jones’ new book of photography — “I Just Wanna Surf” — available now for preorder. Centered on Black women and nonbinary surfers, its pages are filled with lush images of the sea and the people who ride its waves, with locations ranging from California to Costa Rica. But it’s also a personal heirloom, chronicling Angotti-Jones’ own journey with surfing and depression.

The project, after all, became a homecoming for Angotti-Jones. She left New York for California for a month, connecting with a group called Black Girls Surf. Armed with cheap disposable cameras, she started snapping photos of other Black women and nonbinary folks on the water. At the time, she didn’t know where it was all going. She was just having fun.

The photos in the book reflect that feeling. Surrounded by water and sand, the joy of the surfers and their community is tangible. Their grins beckon the reader closer; their body language calls on us to jump in, too.

Angotti-Jones’ work is reminiscent of surfing photography from the 1950s — fuzzy photos of people hanging out on the beach and in the water, surfboards in tow. And it’s a direct contrast to what many may picture when envisioning more commercialized surf media, showing people riding 8- to 9-foot waves and making cutbacks.

“That’s not relatable,” Angotti-Jones said. “What’s relatable is the vibes.

But surfing and surf culture aren’t always about chill beach vibes. There can also be an intense culture of surf localism, the territorial idea that waves exist only for the locals of the area. It’s a mindset that can turn aggressive toward surfers deemed outsiders. Last year, for example, two Black surfers said they were called racist and homophobic slurs by an older White surfer while at Manhattan Beach, in an incident that quickly went viral through the local surfing community.

Angotti-Jones’ work stands in defiance to those localist ideas — highlighting instead the profound community surfing can create, particularly among Black surfers.

“I just wanted to show Black women and nonbinary people, and Black people in general, in the same context as what surfing is,” she said. “I thought that was a super powerful storytelling tool, to just be like, ‘Yeah, we’re here. We’re surfing.’”

It’s not a common sight. In the book, Angotti-Jones reveals she didn’t meet another Black surfer until January 2019.

One photo in particular stands out. Angotti-Jones captured Kimiko Russell-Halterman during 2021’s Black Sand Peace Paddle — a paddle-out at Manhattan Beach meant to raise awareness and create space for Black surfers following the incident of racial harassment.

And yet Russell-Halterman is captured in the midst of a gleeful scream, having gone out on her new longboard and popping up over a wave.

“When I look at Kimi, I just see the ocean’s joy, and I see what’s possible when you let the ocean ground you,” Angotti-Jones said.

But there are quieter moments, too. Moments spent waxing a board alone, or rubbing white-sheened sunscreen into dark skin.

In one image, a young Black girl is seen in her swimsuit in the foreground, walking ahead of a group of young White girls holding their surfboards. Though both are walking in the same direction, seemingly for the same thing, there’s a separation between the two.

All the girls were there for the same event, hosted by SurfearNegra, which aims to diversify the sport by making surfing more accessible to kids of color, and Sisters of the Sea, a group focused on introducing young women to surfing. Though the kids got along well, Angotti-Jones noticed there were still times when some of the Black surfers with less experience would separate from the White surfers, some of whom were already attending surfing competitions.

It was a feeling she recognized.

“I felt like I was reliving what I went through, which was not feeling like I was a part of it even though I was a part of it,” she said.

The book, on its surface, is about surfing. But it was also a vessel — a way for Angotti-Jones to process some of her own traumas and unearth the root causes of her depression. Her mental illness made her put up walls, she said; the Black people pictured radiate an openness she never let herself experience.

That’s what she wants her readers to remember — the Black surfer story is not defined by racism and conflict, but by love and friendship. We are not the bad things that happen to us. We are the joy and community we choose instead.

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2022/10/us/black-women-nonbinary-surfers-cec-cnnphotos/?iid=cnn-mobile-app&fbclid=IwAR15vksmvdNQ5JjNDntmR0kUsbqXvQqybhiNIEwNgCuoasICh6RmvTGnlQs

Founder of Black-Owned Food Service Business Wins $17M Contract With Boston Public Schools

Sheldon Lloyd, founder and CEO of City Fresh Foods, a Roxbury, Massachusetts-based Black-owned food service business, has landed a deal with Boston Public Schools to provide food to its thousands of students. The $17 million contract is reportedly the largest non-construction contract the city has awarded to a Black-owned business. The food service contract comes after a committee consisting of both BPS and city staff unanimously decided to choose City Fresh Foods due to its operational strength, commitment to reducing the use of processed foods, as well as dedication to the community.

City Fresh Foods will provide breakfast, lunch, afternoon meals, snacks, and summer meals to nearly 50,000 students in the city’s schools. The meals will be made fresh in their production facility using nutritious ingredients that are mostly locally sourced.

“Transformative change for BPS starts with the everyday experiences of our students, and this new contract ensures every child will have access to nutritious foods to energize and nourish them through the day,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said in a statement, according to Boston 25 News. “We’re proud to partner with a local, Roxbury-based, Black-owned business to deliver for our young people.”

City Fresh Foods will collaborate with BPS to ensure that the students receive high-quality and nutrient-rich meals. A dietician will be a part of the team to analyze the nutritional value of all meals and also monitor student participation and minimize food waste.

“Many of our employees, including me, have children in Boston Public Schools and we are deeply committed to further supporting our communities where we work, learn and live to simultaneously provide quality meals and support our local economy. We are grateful to the Wu Administration and Boston Public Schools for their partnership and look forward to getting started this summer,” said Sheldon Lloyd, Co-founder and CEO of City Fresh Foods.

For more information about City Fresh Foods, visit CityFresh.com

https://www.blackbusiness.com/2022/05/sheldon-lloyd-founder-city-fresh-foods-black-owned-business-food-service-contract-boston-public-schools.html

At the intersection of social justice, political empowerment, human development and the cultural arts one will find LaTosha Brown. As a catalyst for change, thought leader and social strategist, her national and global efforts have been known to organize, inspire and catapult people into action—not just lip service—enabling them to build power and wealth for themselves and their community. Honored to receive the 2010 White House Champion of Change Award, the 2006 Spirit of Democracy Award and the Louis Burnham Award for Human Rights, it is more than evident that LaTosha is passionate about leading social change for the purpose of advancing humanity, creating a more equitable redistribution of wealth and power around the globe.

Where other leaders see nothing but poverty, despair and destitution, this 2018 Bridge Jubilee Award and Liberty Bell Award recipient sees great opportunity. To her, there is more than enough resources on the planet to comfortably sustain every human being. Affectionately known by many as a “Black Renaissance” woman, her southern roots, coupled with her global thoughts toward people, ideas and money, have opened doors for her to maximize her voice in the U.S., as well as over 30 countries abroad. In addition to being recognized as a well-respected leader in the South who has led numerous initiatives, campaigns and special projects to empower marginalized communities, LaTosha is leading several international efforts to provide training, support and funding for women-led institutions based in Guyana, Senegal, Belize and Tanzania.

Having raised millions of dollars for a variety of causes throughout the U.S., she is most known for her philanthropic efforts as an effective fundraiser and resource person. From creating community-led funds to establishing donor networks, LaTosha has raised millions of dollars to support social justice causes and created projects that bring more investments into marginalized communities.

As the co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund and the BVM Capacity Building Institute, LaTosha is adamant about ensuring that all human beings have access to quality education, safety, security, peace, love and happiness. Striving daily to hear the voices of women in leadership amplified and supported, she is also working to eliminate human suffering through her vision of the Southern Black Girls & Women’s Consortium. Recognizing that her work is not rooted in strengthening political systems, governments or institutions—but in the advancement of people—LaTosha serves as an authoritative figure in the lives of thousands, if not millions. More than ever, she’s crystal clear that she is called to remind people of the power they hold within, pushing them through the birthing process of vision to manifestation.

Transforming culture through her singing and songwriting, this innovative storyteller is shifting the narrative of African-Americans through media, campaigns and nonprofit projects. Featured on CNN, HBO, MSNBC and Fox, to name a few, Latosha also proudly serves as the founder of Saving OurSelves Coalition, a community-led disaster relief organization that helped hundreds of families in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Currently, she serves on the board of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, the Southern Documentary Fund, the U.S. Human Rights Network and the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center. After having worked with her, clients, colleagues and friends alike gain more clarity about their vision and life’s work, connection to quality resources, and a deeper sense of their own humanity after having encountered the incomparable LaTosha Brown.

http://www.mslatoshabrown.com/about/

Parity Homes

Bree is the founder of Parity, an equitable development company that rehabilitates abandoned properties by the block to create affordable homeownership opportunities. At the core of her work is development without displacement – she aims to revitalize distressed neighborhoods while ensuring that legacy residents are able to participate in and benefit from reinvestment.

Prior to founding Parity, Bree had a career in finance and investments where she was an analyst at Morgan Stanley, a vice president at Point72 Asset Management, and an investment associate at venture capital firm Anthemis Group. These roles included deal structuring, capital raises, conducting due diligence, advanced data analysis, and deal management. 

Bree has been a lifelong social justice advocate, focused primarily on economic justice, affordable housing, anti-displacement, anti-gentrification, and anti-recidivism. As an advocate, Bree played a pivotal role in the creation of Community Benefits Agreements in her hometown, and advocated for community protections in local legislation and zoning.

Bree Jones

At Freedom House, these Black men saved lives. Paramedics are book topic

PITTSBURGH, Pa. — John Moon stands on the 2000 block of Centre Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. He’s in front of a building that houses the Hill District Federal Credit Union, but he points to a plaque affixed to the stone façade commemorating the Freedom House ambulance service, widely acknowledged as the first paramedic program in the United States.

A half-century ago, Moon was a Freedom House paramedic, and he remains fiercely proud of it: The service, staffed overwhelmingly by Black men from the neighborhood, revolutionized emergency street medicine on the same blocks where many were underemployed, or even believed to be “unemployable.”

“We were considered the least likely to succeed by society’s standards,” said Moon, who was 22 and a hospital orderly when he started training to join Freedom House. “But one problem I noticed is, no one told us that!”

Today, however, Moon worries that Freedom House is in danger of being forgotten – a victim not just of time, but of the deliberate erasure of its memory.

“Unfortunately, today there are probably people who live here that has never heard of Freedom House ambulance service,” he said.

A new book could help.

Their story is committed to the page

“American Sirens” (Hachette Books), by Kevin Hazzard, tells the story of Freedom House, which operated from 1967-75, its historic accomplishments, and its unjust and untimely demise.

Moon, himself, plays a central role. He spent much of his childhood in an Atlanta orphanage before relatives living in the Hill adopted him. As an orderly at Oakland’s Montefiore Hospital, he was astonished one night when two Black men entered with a patient on a stretcher, giving orders and clearly in command – a nearly unimaginable thing in those days. Moon learned they were from Freedom House, and he vowed to follow in their footsteps.

Hazzard sketches other key characters. One is Peter Safar, the storied Viennese-born anesthesiologist and Holocaust survivor who invented cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, in the 1950s, while working in Baltimore. Safar was also interested in emergency street medicine at a time when ambulances were driven by police, volunteer firefighters or even mortuary workers with little to no medical training. For victims of car crashes, heart attacks and gunshots, there was no on-site treatment, only an imperative to get them to the hospital as quickly as possible. Mortality rates were high. In the 1960s, working at Pittsburgh’s Presbyterian Hospital, Safar developed a plan to do emergency street medicine, but he had no means to implement it.

Enter Philip Hallen, a former ambulance driver who was now president of the Maurice Falk Medical Fund, a local foundation. Hallen also saw the need for street medicine, especially in the Hill, which was medically underserved. He reached out to James McCoy Jr., a Hill-based entrepreneur who ran a job-training program called Freedom House Enterprises. After connecting with Safar, the men took the unusual step of recruiting their first class of “paramedics” – a job that, technically, did not yet exist – from the Hill itself.

“So, what you end up with was, you know, a number of guys maybe who were fresh back from Vietnam. A number of guys maybe who were fresh out of prison. A number of guys who were in-between jobs, because literally they’re picking people up who they see kind of wandering the streets,” said Hazzard, an Atlanta-based writer and former paramedic.

The rigorous training paid off, Hazzard writes: Serving just the Hill and Oakland at first, Freedom House saved lives that would have been lost before. Tour the Hill today with Moon, for instance, and stops will include the site of his first call for a heroin overdose, as well as the story of how he became, he believes, the first paramedic to intubate a patient in the field. The latter story involves another key figure in the book, Nancy Caroline, a doctor who in later years was Freedom House’s medical director.

Doctors speak of Freedom House’s success

“They were the first true paramedic program in the world,” said Ronald Stewart, a Canadian expert in emergency medicine who was medical director for Pittsburgh’s Public Safety department in the 1970s and ’80s.

“It just amazes me, the quality of the program they were able to develop,” said Jon Krohmer, a Michigan-based expert in emergency medicine and a board member of the National EMS Museum.

One intangible impact of Freedom House was the community pride it generated: Highly trained technicians – dozens of them, over the years — were saving lives in their own neighborhood, which was often ignored by the rest of the city.

“Often times, when a person would call for assistance, they would say, ‘Don’t send the police, send Freedom House,’ ” said Moon.

The flip side: Hazzard recounts that some white patients refused treatment by Freedom House, even though their lives might have been at stake.

Freedom House operated under a city contract – meaning that for years, the Hill had better emergency care than the rest of the city, where ambulances were still driven by police. But, in fact, emergency medicine was in the midst of a revolution sparked in part by “Accidental Death and Disability: The Neglected Disease of Modern Society,” a 1966 report by the National Academies of Sciences/National Research Council. In this atmosphere, Freedom House’s influence spread nationally, too. Under a contract from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Freedom House director Dr. Caroline wrote the first national curricula on emergency street medicine.

Saving lives gets in the way

But despite such successes, in “American Sirens,” Hazzard writes, a new Pittsburgh mayor, Pete Flaherty, began to withhold support from Freedom House. At least one issue was racism: The overwhelmingly white police force saw the work of the overwhelmingly Black paramedics as an incursion onto their turf.

“There are many within Freedom House who eventually came to the conclusion that, you know, the problems that we’re having with City Hall are not what we’re doing, but rather who’s doing it,” said Hazzard.

Funding cuts were followed, in 1975, by the absorption of Freedom House into a new citywide EMS department. Many Freedom House paramedics stayed on, but most say they were treated poorly, their years of experience discounted. John Moon recalls being forced to “ride as the third person on a two-person crew.”

“I endured a concerted effort to eliminate as many, if not all, of Freedom House employees as humanly possible, and it was very, very successful,” he said.

But Moon himself persisted: In 2009, he retired as assistant chief of the department. These days, he is one of the main advocates for keeping the memory of Freedom House alive.

Savoring their memory

Public remembrances include the plaque on Centre Avenue (which was the headquarters of Jim McCoy’s Freedom House Enterprises), and another on the site of UPMC Presbyterian, where the Freedom House ambulance service actually operated (though the original building is gone). Heinz History Center also houses a Freedom House display as part of its permanent exhibit “Pittsburgh: A Tradition of Innovation.”

Moon hopes “American Sirens” helps spread the word. But in any case, Freedom House lives on in his heart.

“I owe Freedom House a debt that I don’t think I will ever be able to repay,” he said, “because they’re the ones that instilled that motivation and that drive into me that I could do something no matter what it is, no matter what the hurdle, no matter what the barrier.”

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/27/1124161896/at-freedom-house-these-black-men-saved-lives-paramedics-are-book-topic

It wasn’t until September 2021 that Sesame Street — which started in November 1969 — got its first full-time Black female puppeteer. That’s when Megan Piphus Peace joined the cast full time and landed the role of Gabrielle, a 6-year-old puppet on the classic children’s show.

This month, as she marks one year working with Sesame Street, she’s decided to dedicate her career to entertainment.

“I’m so glad I had the opportunity to be on Sesame Street and encourage other kids to dream as big as their imaginations will allow,” the 29-year-old tells NPR’s Weekend Edition.”I always dreamed of working in television, but I never imagined myself being at Sesame Street.”

A passion for puppetry

Her interest in puppetry and performing started when she was a child.

Piphus Peace says a woman at her church invited her to a puppetry conference where she first learned about the art. She saw female ventriloquists who would sing and tell stories with their characters.

She went home and told her parents she wanted to learn ventriloquism.

“I had never seen a ventriloquist before. And at the time, I didn’t realize that Shari Lewis, one of my idols … was a ventriloquist until I was much older because she was so good,” Piphus Peace says.

Lewis, the original puppeteer of Lamb Chop, performed puppetry and ventriloquism on television for decades, most notably on The Shari Lewis Show and the PBS program Lamb Chop’s Play-Along. Piphus Peace grew up watching her work.

“Lamb Chop was my friend and Shari was just her friend too,” she laughs.

Piphus Peace watched tapes, got her own puppet and started entertaining her classmates.

“I realized I found my passion in making children laugh and smile through puppetry.”

Becoming the show’s first Black female puppeteer

Her journey to Sesame Street was preceded by Kevin Clash, a Black male puppeteer who started with the show in the 1980s. It wasn’t until 2021 that a Black female puppeteer would do the same.

“It’s a matter of representation,” Piphus Peace says. “It’s not very often that you see women puppeteers in general and also Black women puppeteers. I can probably count on one hand the number that there are.”

She first performed with Sesame Street in 2020 as part of a special with CNN. Then after a year of training in what she calls Muppet-style puppetry, she formally joined the cast in 2021.

Piphus Peace says she hopes that by being the first Black female puppeteer on the show,more doors will open for women and people of color.

She notes that the show has had Black women in other production positions “who have been woven into the fabric of Sesame Street over the years.” That has inspired her to become a producer one day.

Discussing race on Sesame Street

Piphus Peace praises the show’s team of writers and producers, saying they take the hardest topics and frame them in a way that children can understand.

“One of the lessons that we have was on using your voice. It speaks subtly to equity,” she says. “You know, we didn’t have Gabrielle go into the camera and say, ‘Black Lives Matter.’ She says that we all have a voice that matters and we can use our voice.”

Piphus Peace hopes to bring an unwavering sense of confidence and love of self to her character.

“I want her confidence to just shine through the screen so that little girls and boys around the world are filled with confidence in themselves.”

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/25/1124974188/sesame-street-first-black-female-puppeteer-megan-piphus-peace

Revisiting San Juan Hill, the neighborhood destroyed to make way for Lincoln Center

Think back to the opening of the 2021 film version of the musical West Side Story. The very first thing we see is acres of rubble, and a sign: “This property purchased by the New York Housing Authority for slum clearance.”

That’s an allusion to a real neighborhood that was destroyed to make way for Lincoln Center. In the 1950s, San Juan Hill was mostly a community of Black and Puerto Rican residents. Their story — and even the name of their neighborhood — has been mostly scrubbed from history. Now, a new piece of music being premiered by the New York Philharmonic aims to acknowledge that past.

Long before Lincoln Center existed, San Juan Hill was a nexus for African American and Caribbean culture. It nurtured many jazz greats, who lived and played there — including alto saxophonist Benny Carter, who grew up in the neighborhood, and pianist Herbie Nichols, who was born there to parents from St. Kitts and Trinidad. Duke Ellington and cornet player Rex Stewart even co-wrote a tune named in tribute to this community, where dance halls and jazz clubs thrived.

But in the 1950s, the powerful urban planner Robert Moses led the effort to have San Juan Hill razed, with the intention of establishing a midtown campus for Fordham University and creating Lincoln Center. He displaced more than 7,000 families as well as some 800 businesses. In a 1977 interview with New York’s public television station, WNET, Moses defended destroying San Juan Hill.

When the interviewer asked about San Juan Hill, Moses retorted: “Now I ask you, what was that neighborhood? It was a Puerto Rican slum. You remember it?” No, the host admitted.

“Yeah, well, I lived on one of those streets there for a number of years, and I know exactly what it was like,” Moses responded. (There is no record of Moses residing in this neighborhood, according to Robert Caro’s magisterial biography of Moses, The Power Broker.)

“It was the worst slum in New York,” Moses insisted in the television interview. “You want to leave it there? Why? Out of account of neighborhood business? Christ, you never could have been there. That was the worst slum in New York,” he bellowed, clapping his hands for emphasis. “And we cleared it out.”

Professor Yarimar Bonilla is the director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College. She says Robert Moses intentionally used highly charged language about San Juan Hill.

“Robert Moses in particular,” Bonilla says, “He used a lot of kind of medical language talking about the slums as these cancers that had to be eradicated and cleaned up, almost as if it was a disease that could spread.”

60 years after Lincoln Center’s opening and a $550 million renovation later, the New York Philharmonic’s home at Lincoln Center, David Geffen Hall, is reopening this weekend. Lincoln Center is taking this opportunity to readdress the narrative of its founding.

It invited Etienne Charles — a composer, trumpet player, percussionist and Guggenheim fellow — to think deeply about that complicated past, and create a piece of music that would acknowledge that hidden history. So Etienne Charles created a new work for the Philharmonic and his band, Creole Soul called San Juan Hill: A New York Story.

Charles is originally from Trinidad. He had never heard of San Juan Hill until he moved to New York to study for a master’s degree at Juilliard, which is part of the Lincoln Center campus.

Charles eventually realized, however, that the razed neighborhood had significant Caribbean connections — and to jazz. Initially, Charles learned that pianist Herbie Nichols (whose roots were also in Trinidad) was from San Juan Hill. Not long after, the Jamaican pianist Monty Alexander told Charles that composer and pianist Thelonious Monk had also grown up in San Juan Hill.

“Monty Alexander came to my house,” Charles recounts, “And we were working on some music for his concert. He started playing Monk’s music and he’s like, ‘You realize Monk’s music has a Caribbean bounce, right?’ And I said, ‘I never thought about it.’ He started playing Green Chimneys — ‘Boom, boom, boom, boom, ba-doo-boo, boom, boom, boom, boom, ba doo,'” Charles says, enunciating the Monk tune’s rhythm. “Monk heard Caribbean music in San Jan Hill all around him.”

Charles notes that once Lincoln Center opened in 1962, even its physical campus felt literally exclusive to some. The institution’s general shape, he says, is of the letter C, with a large plaza and impressive fountain facing Broadway. “And the C has its back to the neighborhood,” he adds — an area that includes the Amsterdam Houses, a public housing project immediately behind Lincoln Center. “You can make huge statements with architecture,” the musician observes. “It’s body language with bricks.”

Charles recalls an interview that he and one of his San Juan Hill collaborators, photographer Hollis King, did for this project. “Hollis asked somebody who still lives in the neighborhood, ‘What was your most memorable musical event in the neighborhood?'”

“And he said,” Charles continues, “My most memorable musical event was when Tito Puente played.’ And then he added, ‘But it wasn’t in the neighborhood. It was at Lincoln Center.'” Charles pauses to let that exchange sink in. “There’s sometimes that moment when somebody tells you what you see.”

Charles’ meditation on San Juan Hill will be the very first piece of music to be heard in the newly renovated David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. It’s also the first time that Lincoln Center has ever commissioned music for the New York Philharmonic. Charles worked with a number of creative multi-discipline collaborators to make San Juan Hill come alive.

Shanta Thake is the chief artistic officer at Lincoln Center. She says commissioning Charles to write such a piece was a crucial moment of reckoning for the institution.

“What an example, what a moment that would be, to open David Geffen Hall with this commission, with this story, and really confront our past head-on as we move into the future,” Thake says. “Not kind of blank slate everything, but really make things more complicated for ourselves — and I think in a way actually allow us to make space for what’s next.”

Thake continues, “I think the cultural sector has even more of a responsibility to hold our histories and not to plaster over them. It matters whose stories we have historically told. It certainly matters that we tell our own story fully, and with all the complexity and the mistakes that we made. That’s okay.”

In his musical portrait of San Juan Hill, Etienne Charles wanted to move through many dimensions — chronological, stylistic, and demographic, from Gullah Geechee shipyard workers to recently arrived European communities, as well as historical moments and figures in the neighborhood.

“This piece is about showing the magic of the culture that was created when these people came together here,” Charles says. “Gullah dance here, paseo rhythm there, Antillean waltz here, Sicilian folk chant there, Irish drunk song there — all of these different pieces together mixed up, the blues from the South. It created a vibe that fed not just American culture, but influenced everything that would happen and come out of New York for the next 50 years.”

Charles’ piece references lots of music made and heard in the neighborhood — including the Charleston dance. Although it’s named after the South Carolina city, it was actually born right in San Juan Hill, thanks to composer and pianist James P. Johnson, who had grown up partly in the neighborhood and later frequently played at one of its clubs.

“Then from the Charleston, we get to the serious part,” Charles explains, “Which is urban removal, with the 10 years from 1949 to 1959 when it went from the Housing Act to the groundbreaking of Lincoln Center. And then the last part is a piece called House Rent Party, where was you know, we could all come together.”

Tickets for this world premiere are priced as pay-what-you-want, starting at $5 per seat, with some free tickets available the day of the performance — another way of making Lincoln Center a truly welcoming space for all New Yorkers.

San Juan Hill: A New York Story has its world premiere this Saturday.

https://www.npr.org/2022/10/07/1126189129/san-juan-hill-lincoln-center

Carla Diane Hayden (born August 10, 1952)^[1][2] is an American librarian and the 14th Librarian of Congress.^[3][4] Since the creation of the office of the Librarian of Congress in 1802, Hayden is both the first African American and the first woman to hold this post.^[5][6][7][8] Appointed in 2016, she is the first professional librarian to hold the post since 1974.^[9]

Born in Tallahassee, Florida, Hayden began her career at the Chicago Public Library, and earned a doctorate in library science from the University of Chicago. From 1993 until 2016, she was the CEO of Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland, and president of the American Library Association (ALA) from 2003 to 2004.^[10][11][12] During her presidency, she was the leading voice of the ALA in speaking out against provisions of the newly passed United States Patriot Act, which impacted public information services.^[13][14]

In 2020, she was elected to the American Philosophical Society.^[15]

Early life

Hayden was born in Tallahassee, Florida, to Bruce Kennard Hayden Jr., at that time director of the String Department at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, and Colleen Hayden (née Dowling), a social worker.^[2][16] Her parents met while attending Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois.^[2] Hayden grew up in Queens, New York. When she was 10 years old, her parents divorced and she moved with her mother to Chicago, Illinois.^[2][17] She had a younger half-brother from her father’s second marriage, Bruce Kennard Hayden, III, who died in 1992.^[18]

Hayden’s mother’s side of the family comes from Helena, Arkansas. Her father’s maternal side of the family, who eventually settled in Du Quoin, Illinois, had been enslaved, which is chronicled in the book, It’s Good to Be Black, by Ruby Berkley Goodwin.^[2][19]

Hayden said that her passion for reading was inspired by Marguerite de Angeli’s Bright April, the 1946 book about a young African-American girl who was in the Brownies. At Chicago’s South Shore High School, Hayden became interested in books on British history and “cozy mysteries”.^[20] She attended MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois, and then transferred to Roosevelt University.^[2]

While she loved libraries she didn’t consider it as a career until after she had graduated from Roosevelt University with majors in political science and African history in 1973. Hayden received her master’s degree in Library Science in 1977, and a doctorate degree in Library Science in 1987,^[21] both from the University of Chicago Graduate Library School.^[22]

Career

Hayden began her library career at the Chicago Public Library telling stories to children with autism.^[8] From 1973 to 1979, she worked as an Associate/Children’s Librarian at the Whitney Young branch. From 1979 to 1982, she served as the Young Adult Services Coordinator. From 1982 to 1987, Hayden worked as a Library Services Coordinator at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.^[23]

Hayden moved to Pittsburgh, where she was an associate professor, teaching at the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences from 1987 to 1991.^[23] At the time, well known African-American librarians, E. J. Josey and Spencer Shaw, were on the faculty there.^[2]

Hayden then moved back to Chicago and became Deputy Commissioner and Chief Librarian of the Chicago Public Library, posts she held from 1991 to 1993.^[23] During her time working at the Chicago Public Library, Hayden became acquainted with Michelle Obama and Barack Obama.^[24]

From 1993 to 2016, Hayden was Executive Director of Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Free Library.^[23]

Enoch Pratt Free Library

On July 1, 1993, Hayden began the appointed position of Director at Enoch Pratt Free Library, the public library system in Baltimore, Maryland.^[25]

During her tenure, Hayden oversaw a library co-operative with 22 locations, hundreds of employees, and an annual budget of $40 million. She also oversaw the first new branch opening in 35 years along with the renovation of the co-operative’s central branch, at a cost of $112 million. During the 2015 protests of the death of Freddie Gray, Hayden kept Baltimore’s libraries open, an act for which she received extensive praise.^[26] When asked about the incident in a 2016 Time magazine interview she stated that the library became a command center of sorts as many stores in the community closed, and that “we knew that [people] would look for that place of refuge and relief and opportunity.”^[27] She left this position on August 11, 2016, when she was appointed to the Library of Congress.^[18]

ALA presidency

As president of the American Library Association (ALA) from 2003 to 2004, Hayden chose the theme “Equity of Access”.^{[28][29][30][31]}

In her role as ALA President, Hayden was vocal in her public opposition to the Patriot Act, leading a battle for the protections of library users’ privacy.^[2][32] She especially objected to the special permissions contained in Section 215 of that law, which gave the Justice Department and the FBI the power to access library user records. Hayden often sparred publicly with then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft over the language of the law.^[33] Ashcroft often ridiculed the library community, and stated that the ALA had been “misled into opposing provisions of the act that make it easier for FBI agents to fish through library records”.^[34] Hayden’s response was immediate, stating that the ALA was “deeply concerned that the Attorney General would be so openly contemptuous” (to the library community), while also pointing out that librarians had been monitored and been under FBI surveillance as far back as the McCarthy Era. Hayden asserted that Ashcroft should release information as to the number of libraries that had been visited under the provisions of Section 215.^[35] She has stated that the concern stemmed from making sure that a balance existed “between security and personal freedoms.”^[27]

As a result of her stand for the rights of every American, she became Ms. magazine’s 2003 Woman of the Year. In her interview with the magazine, she stated:

Libraries are a cornerstone of democracy—where information is free and equally available to everyone. People tend to take that for granted, and they don’t realize what is at stake when that is put at risk.^[36]

Hayden says, “[Librarians] are activists, engaged in the social work aspect of librarianship. Now we are fighters for freedom”.^[36]

Along with her objections of the Patriot Act, Hayden has done much in her career in outreach programs. As ALA President she wrote:

At a time when our public is challenged on multiple fronts, we need to recommit ourselves to the ideal of providing equal access to everyone, anywhere, anytime, and in any format … By finally embracing equity of access we will be affirming our core values, recognizing realities, and assuring our future.^[28][37]

One program she is notable for is for the outreach program she began at the Enoch Pratt Free Library. This outreach program included “an after school center for Baltimore teens offering homework assistance and college and career counseling.” Because of this, Hayden received Library Journal‘s Librarian of the Year Award.^[38]

In January 2010, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Hayden as a member of the National Museum and Library Services Board and National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities.^[39]

14th Librarian of Congress

On February 24, 2016, President Barack Obama nominated Hayden to serve as the next Librarian of Congress.^[24] In a press release from the White House, President Obama stated:

Michelle and I have known Carla Hayden for a long time, since her days working at the Chicago Public Library, and I am proud to nominate her to lead our nation’s oldest federal institution as our 14th Librarian of Congress. Hayden has devoted her career to modernizing libraries so that everyone can participate in today’s digital culture. She has the proven experience, dedication, and deep knowledge of our nation’s libraries to serve our country well and that’s why I look forward to working with her in the months ahead. If confirmed, Hayden would be the first woman and the first African American to hold the position – both of which are long overdue.^[24]

After her nomination, more than 140 library, publishing, educational, and academic organizations signed a letter of support. The letter said in part that Congress had “an opportunity to equip the Library and the nation with the unique combination of professional skills and sensibilities that Dr. Hayden will bring to the post.”^[42]

The nomination was received by the U.S. Senate and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration.^[43][44] On April 20, 2016, the Committee on Rules and Administration, chaired by Senator Roy Blunt with Charles E. Schumer as ranking member, held the confirmation hearing.^[41][45][46] Hayden opposed the 2000 Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which was a sticking point in her nomination to become Librarian of Congress.^[3][47]

On July 13, 2016, she was confirmed as Librarian of Congress by a 74–18 vote in the United States Senate.^[26] Hayden was sworn in by Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts on September 14, 2016.^[48][49] Even though more than eighty percent of American librarians are women, for over two hundred years the position of Librarian of Congress was filled exclusively by white men,^[50] making Hayden the first woman and the first African American to hold the position. Notably, she is also a librarian by profession. Many past Librarians of Congress have been scholars and historians.^[51]

As Librarian of Congress, Hayden says she hopes to continue “the movement to open the treasure chest that is the Library of Congress.”^[52] Hayden said much of her early effort will focus on building and retaining staff.^[53] In the next five years, Hayden will also focus on making sure that at least half of the library’s 162 million items are digitized, especially rare collections.^[20] Hayden hopes for the library to have live performances and broadcasts and have traveling exhibits tour America that tie in with educational programming for schoolkids.^[54]

Hayden aspires to modernize the institution during her tenure by both preserving the collection and modernizing access to it, as she will be the first Librarian of Congress appointed “since the advent of the internet.” In a press release by the ALA Washington Office, ALA President Julie Todaro said, “Hayden holds a profound understanding of the integral role libraries play in formal education, community-based learning, and the promotion of individual opportunity and community progress. I believe that through her visionary leadership the Library of Congress will soon mirror society’s rapidly changing information environment, while successfully preserving the cultural record of the United States.”^[9] She spoke of her desire to reach people outside of Washington, D.C., especially in rural areas and in accessible formats to people with visual disabilities. Another one of her main goals is to improve the infrastructure and “technological capacity” of the Library of Congress.^[23] She is undecided if the United States Copyright Office, which is overseen by the Library, should be independent of the Library, but believes the Office should be “fully functional” and be able carry to out its mandates to protect creators.^[41]

In January 2017, Hayden hosted 4-year old Daliyah Marie Arana as Librarian of Congress for the day.^[55]

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

Lizzo played James Madison’s crystal flute onstage in D.C., proving history rocks

Some people visit Washington, D.C., for the tourist attractions, like monuments and museums. They probably don’t expect to see history being made at a pop concert — but that’s what happened to an arena full of fans at Lizzo’s concert Tuesday night.

The superstar singer, rapper and classically trained flutist took a quick but momentous break from the setlist of “The Special Tour” to play a crystal flute that was owned by former President James Madison and loaned to her by the Library of Congress.

That makes Lizzo the first and only person to play the centuries-old flute, she said in a tweet. At least one other person has played it before, as NPR reported in 2001.

“NOBODY HAS EVER HEARD THIS FAMOUS CRYSTAL FLUTE BEFORE,” she wrote. “NOW YOU HAVE.”

NOBODY HAS EVER HEARD THIS FAMOUS CRYSTAL FLUTE BEFORE

NOW YOU HAVE

IM THE FIRST & ONLY PERSON TO EVER PLAY THIS PRESIDENTIAL 200-YEAR-OLD CRYSTAL FLUTE— THANK YOU @librarycongress ❤️ pic.twitter.com/VgXjpC49sO— FOLLOW @YITTY (@lizzo) September 28, 2022

A French fluter made the ornate instrument in 1813 specifically for Madison in honor of his second inauguration, according to the Library of Congress. It says it’s possible that the flute was one of a handful of valuables that former first lady Dolley Madison took with her from the White House as she fled just before British troops set fire to Washington, D.C., in 1814.

So how did it make its way onto the Capital One Arena stage and into the hands of the chart-topping artist? With a lot of security, is the short answer.

Here’s the longer version. The flute is among the more than 1,800 flutes that now live in the Library of Congress, which has the largest such collection in the world, according to Carla Hayden, the librarian of Congress (a position nominated by the U.S. president and confirmed by the Senate). Notably, Hayden is the first woman and first African American to hold the title.

On Friday, Hayden tagged Lizzo in a tweet showcasing some of Library’s flutes — including Madison’s — and inviting her “to come see it and even play a couple when you are in D.C. next week.”

“Like your song they are ‘Good as hell,’ ” she added, with a winking emoji.

Lizzo quickly RSVP’ed with an enthusiastic tweet of her own:

IM COMING CARLA! AND IM PLAYIN THAT CRYSTAL FLUTE!!!!! https://t.co/aPcIthlqeo— FOLLOW @YITTY (@lizzo) September 24, 2022

It’s worth noting that Lizzo has been playing the flute since she was in grade school, first learning by ear and then in private lessons (she initially dreamed of becoming a concert flautist before getting into rap and singing). She whips out her flute — which is named Sasha after Beyonce’s “I Am Sasha Fierce” and has its own Instagram account — often, including on Saturday Night Live and at her NPR Tiny Desk Concert.

On Monday, a patron tweeted that they had spotted Lizzo at the Library of Congress and that Hayden had personally asked if it was OK with them if she broke the library’s “quiet rule” to play the flute (they said yes, of course). The Library of Congress also dropped a hint about its celebrity visitor, tweeting a photo of a sign with Lizzo’s picture and a piece of tape reading, in all caps, “flute guest.”

👀 pic.twitter.com/abm5yPoD5G— Library of Congress (@librarycongress) September 28, 2022

Handlers brought the flute onstage at Lizzo’s concert the next night. Clad in a shimmering bodysuit, she gingerly accepted the instrument and carried it carefully to the standing microphone a few steps away, remarking that “it’s like playing out of a wine glass, so be patient.”

Lizzo lined up her fingers and played a clear, reverberating note — then widened her eyes and stuck out her tongue in apparent amazement. She played another trill while twerking to the beat, as the audience roared. After that she returned the instrument and ran back to the mic.

“B***h, I just twerked and played James Madison’s crystal flute from the 1800s,” she exclaimed. “We just made history tonight!”

She thanked the Library of Congress for “preserving our history and making history freaking cool.”

Carrie Arnold, who was in the crowd on Tuesday, told NPR that the moment felt like a celebration of progress, in a way.

“It’s not often you see founding father’s personal artifacts reclaimed as a symbol of pop culture and a celebration [of] Black female empowerment,” she wrote via text. “It was so uniquely a moment that could only happen in D.C. and … the audience took pride in that.”

YALL…

I PLAYED THE 200-YEAR-OLD CRYSTAL FLUTE FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ON STAGE IN D.C. 😭😭😭😭 @LibnOfCongress thank you ❤️ pic.twitter.com/u07gCaRTH4— FOLLOW @YITTY (@lizzo) September 28, 2022

The library later tweeted that the flute had made it back safely, thanks to an escort from Capitol Police, and hinted it will be sharing more from Lizzo’s visit soon.

In the meantime, D.C. residents as well as history buffs and Lizzo fans from far and wide are amplifying the videos on social media and praising all involved for making the unforgettable moment possible — and especially Lizzo for championing the importance of history. As she said herself onstage:

“History is freaking cool, you guys!”

Clarification Sept. 28, 2022

Lizzo said she was the first person to play the flute. This story has been updated to reflect that at least one other person has played it, though that was not onstage.

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/28/1125564856/lizzo-james-madison-crystal-flute-concert