Black History 365: Dreyton McDonald

Dreyton McDonald knows he’s not a regular kid and he likes it that way.

“I guess you can say, I’m a businessman, ma’am,” the 12-year-old politely told NPR.

And he has been for several years now.

At age 9, he said his father, Dominic McDonald, approached him with a proposition: “My dad told me to choose between selling doughnuts or selling snow cones and I didn’t want to sell doughnuts,” he explained.

With that, the elder McDonald was off to buy his son a 14-by-8-foot trailer that’s been converted into a mobile snow cone shop called Ice Ice Dreyton. On weekends, the trailer is set up at parks and special events across Ocala, Fla., where Dreyton and his dad live.

“I drive and I set up the generator but really, he’s the one calling the shots. He does everything else,” McDonald said.

That means Dreyton is responsible, not just for making the snow cones, but also choosing which flavors to offer — Dreamsicle and cotton candy are his favorites — luring in customers, and handling all of the money.

When asked what his favorite part of the job is, Dreyton said, “Making sure the customers are satisfied with their snow cones and are satisfied with the payment they made.”

For his father, who runs a massage therapy business, part of the inspiration for the snow cone shop was to help Dreyton feel connected to Ocala, where he moved after McDonald got full custody of him. But it also came out of need.

“I’m a single dad,” McDonald said. “It’s hard to get by … and I wanted him to learn he also has to contribute.”

It helps that it also keeps his son occupied in a constructive way.

“I wanted something to keep him and his peers out of trouble,” McDonald said. “It’s a way they can make money so they can buy themselves things they need or want, like school clothes or toys or games, shoes, whatever. And, if I can help him and his peers do that, that means I’m helping other families and that’s what I’m about.”

Dreyton said that he likes being in charge and having his friends work alongside him.

“I think I’m a good boss,” he said after some consideration, before adding, “That’s what my friends say.”

He also likes the independence of it all.

“It feels good to know I have my own money and that I can buy things I want but also my dad is saving money for me,” he said, in one of his more talkative moments.

McDonald is storing the lion’s share of the profits for Dreyton’s college tuition or a new business venture he may want to take on in the future. So far, there are a couple thousand dollars in the bank and by the time the now-7th grader graduates from high school, there will be significantly more, he added.

That’s not to say McDonald doesn’t allow his son the occasional indulgence.

Dreyton recently splurged on a new school wardrobe and a coveted pair of Nike Air Jordans.

“They were $150!” Dreyton said gleefully. It’s the most expensive purchase he’s ever made.

Dreyton would work more if he could, he said. But with school work and basketball practice, he’s limited to weekends and the rare school night special event where he gets to sling “snow cones that make people happy.”

He’s definitely caught the entrepreneurial bug from his father, he said. The two now talk about someday opening up a storefront that his dad would run during the day and he would take over at night. And he hopes to someday expand beyond shaved ice.

“I’m taking cooking in school this year so maybe I’ll learn some recipes and I can start selling food, too,” he said.

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/13/1122558915/florida-boy-snow-cone-business-ice-ice-dreyton-ocala

Black History 365: Nectali “Sumo Hair” Diaz

Photo courtesy of Farah Sosa.

Nectali ‘Sumo Hair’ Díaz, L.A.’s Tropical Music Visionary and Activist for Afro Mexico, Dies Tragically at 42

Javier Cabral·August 4, 2022

FeaturedObituaryPeople

On the early morning of July 30th, the birdsong echoing through the swaying palm trees in the concrete jungle known as Los Angeles was somber as friends, fans, and family woke up to the devastating news that prolific, self-taught Afro-diasporic DJ Nectali “Sumohair” Diaz left this earth. 

He died tragically in an e-scooter accident in downtown Los Angeles. His longtime friend and fellow DJ, Diego Guerrero, confirmed his death. Nectali was a beloved son, brother, uncle, friend, collaborator, artist, educator, and inspiration to many who crossed paths with him and experienced his bold spirit. He was the embodiment of a cultural revolution and a multifaceted human. 

He is survived by his mother, Magdalena Duran Galarza, and father, Laurentino Díaz Salvador, and his “musical soulmate,” Fabi Reyna, the other half of his emerging musical project, Reyna Tropical.  

Born in Arcelia, in La Costa Chica region in Guerrero on November 16, 1979, Diaz used his DIY approach to music production, graphic visuals, and video design to uplift his native country’s marginalized Afro-Mexican community. He dreamed of one day publishing a book about this underrepresented area in Mexico. 

Nectali’s infinite passion for tropical culture lives on in the countless tracks he produced throughout the last decade of his career and for his breakout band. His untimely death is felt far and wide, from his hometown community of Long Beach, where he was raised, all the way to Latin America’s tropical music scene, a tight-knit community that revered him for his ability to create innovative, extremely catchy beats by weaving together atmospheric sounds of birds chirping and Afro-Indigenous instruments. 

Nectali’s band gained an international audience after touring around the country with Colombian megastars Bomba Estereo last year, and opening for Monsieur Periné at The Ford Theater in Hollywood on Sunday, July 24th, 2022—in what would sadly be Diaz’s last show. A few months prior, Reyna Tropical sold out a hometown show they headlined at the Paramount Theater in Boyle Heights. Their memorable performances featured colorful video projections that Nectali created, offering abstract and radical depictions of Indigeneity, queerness, Afro-diasporic identities, activism, and dancing. This gesture, along with lyrics celebrating all these themes, attracted people from all backgrounds but was especially revered by BIPOC and LGBTQ communities around the world.    

Nectali was raised in Long Beach in the 90s, a humbling urban coastal environment in Los Ángeles County that shaped his street smarts and barrio-rooted approach to music and life. He graduated from Lakewood High School, where he was a champion wrestler. His academic and athletic legacy lives on through his niece, Leslie Díaz, who is also a league champion in cross country running in Long Beach. 

Nectali was a self-described “rude boy” (a devout fan of ska music) since his teenage years. This is when he picked up an upright bass, contributing to L.A.’s thriving Latino ska scene by starting a band and activating backyards. His adoration for reggae and rocksteady was a direct inspiration for his musical career. His love for dub was unwavering throughout his life, attending as many shows as he could. He loved getting in the pit and rushed to help and pick up fellow skankers who would fall. This passion persisted all the way to his final hours in this realm, attending a ska show to see Raskahuele, Steady 45s, and Cafe con Tequila hours before his accident.  

The image of his bright, omnipresent, brightly colored beanie, his deep dimples, and what his friends lovingly called his “babyface” will stay etched in all who knew him.

After high school, Diaz picked up the craft of hairdressing, which led him to move to New York to study at the prestigious Sassoon Academy. Before committing to music full-time last year, he had a successful career as a hairdresser in L.A. He eventually also became a teacher of the craft, teaching a generation of L.A. hairdressers his confident, but unconceited haircutting style. His students referred to Nectali as “Mr. Díaz.” Even as his musical career picked up, self-managing Reyna Tropical’s tours and sound production, he still carved out time to cut his friends’ hair upon request. Those hairdressing sessions with friends at his home studio doubled as therapy to have meaningful deep conversations about family, relationships and overcoming mental obstacles as a creative professional. 

Nectali was proudly stubborn in his habits and notorious for being down for whatever. The image of his bright, omnipresent, brightly colored beanie, his deep dimples, and what his friends lovingly called his “babyface” will stay etched in all who knew him. If having lunch with him, he would take you to his favorite under-the-radar street vendors, which he loved to support. He loved eating Puebla-style smoked lamb barbacoa tacos or ceviche tostadas, and brown-bagging cold Mexican tallboys to wash it down. If having dinner, he would take you to his favorite low-key Korean spot to have spicy wings and salmon sashimi. He drank coffee all day long.

He was an OG gamer who collected retro gaming consoles and arcade cabinets at home. He particularly loved playing Street Fighter 2 and was masterful at hadoken fireballs. He kept in touch with childhood friends from Long Beach but made hundreds of new friends around the world online through their devotion to music. He met Fabi Reyna, as part of Red Bull Music Academy’s Bass Camp at Bonnaroo Music Festival in 2017—chosen as two of 20 up-and-coming producers and musicians from around the country. It was there that they bonded over their love for the tropical diaspora and began experimenting with their unique writing process: a process inclusive of pure improvisation consisting of a four-hour session per song aimed at capturing the moment and the environment.  

Rest In Peace, Sumo Hair. Your próxima estación is esperanza.

In 2013, Nectali co-starred in a KCET Artbound documentary for his pioneering work in L.A.’s electro-cumbia scene, along with Diego Guerrero and Eduardo Gómez, his close Long Beach-raised friends and DJs that formed Metralleta de Oro

But DJing wasn’t enough for him.

“We loved spinning vinyl, but Nectali loved creating his own sound, ” Guerrero tells L.A. TACO.  

Earlier this year, Nectali posted a screenshot on his Instagram account notifying him that his favorite artist, someone he was directly inspired by, Manu Chao, listened to Reyna Tropical and liked it. 

“Wow! the only kind of validation I ever needed,” he posted in his caption.   

Hundreds of Nectali’s fans around the world have been posting their memories and condolences to their tropical music star, all of which are being shared on Reyna Tropical’s Instagram account. His bandmate, Fabi, has announced that she will keep Reyna Tropical going because that is what Nectali would want her to do.

“I am going to make sure his vision, art, and music live and get distributed as far as my body has the capacity for in this lifetime. And as long as you are all open to receiving it,” she says.  

Reyna Tropical is performing at a music festival this Saturday, August 6th, in Chicago. 

The funeral services for Nectali will be held at Forest Lawn cemetery in Long Beach, the same resting grounds where his favorite singer also from Long Beach, Nate Dogg, is buried.      

Rest In Peace, Nectali Diaz. Your próxima estación is esperanza.

https://www.lataco.com/nectali-diaz-dead-reyna-tropical-sumo-hair/?fbclid=IwAR0zF-UHppCPfYsBqZ_mZb6IdPER6ZlvuUu8DSsuB09Bb8awu0bh8bm7Df4

Black History 365: Lucianna Padmore

Bronx native, New York based drummer Lucianna Padmore has been praised by Modern Drummer magazine for “Deep grooves and serious fusion chops.” Lucianna’s versatile drumming is featured with artists in the Jazz, Hip-Hop, Funk, Rock, Pop and Fusion genres. An alumnus of LaGuardia High School for Music and the Performing Arts and the New School University, she has received awards from Jazz at Lincoln Center and BMI for her jazz improvisation. 

As an educator, she is active in drum instruction and jazz outreach in the N.Y. Tri-State area and abroad.Lucianna’s current live performance projects include residencies in and around the Tri- state area with the John Smith Trio, A member of HotJazz Jumpers,Drummer for Singer Songwriter Alyson Murray,Bertha Hope’s Nu Trio and Quintet As well as leading her own Quartet.

Lucianna Is working on various compositions of her own. In which she has just independently released a single entitled Life Long Love Affair featuring the incredible saxophonist Mr.Gerald Albright on Alto saxophone. LIfe Long Love Affair is now available for purchase on all major digital platforms. 

Lucianna is featured in the book “Sticks and Skins”, Endorses Soul-Tone Cymbals and plays her signature Scorpion 3A drumsticks.

https://www.luciannapadmore.com/

Black History 365: Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Sister Rosetta Tharpe was a singer, songwriter, and guitarist of gospel, jazz, blues, and rock-and-roll.  She was born on March 20, 1915 near Cotton Plant, Arkansas to Katie (née Harper) Bell Nubin and Willis B. Atkins.  Her mother, a mandolin-playing evangelist in the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), toured with P.W. McGhee’s revivals in the Southeast before moving with her daughter to Chicago in 1921.  There, mother and daughter performed together at the Fortieth Street Church of God in Christ (now Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ).  She also toured as a teenager with her mother as a COGIC evangelist across the country.

On November 17, 1934, at the age of 19, Rosetta Atkins married Pastor Thomas J. Thorpe, a COGIC minister.  She toured with him and her mother until 1938.  By October 1938, she had separated from her husband, moved to New York, and begun working at the Cotton Club.  She remained there until 1940.

Tharpe made her first gospel recordings for the Decca label on October 31, 1938.  Two months later on December 23, 1938 she performed at Carnegie Hall in John Hammond’s first “From Spirituals to Swing” concert, and again at the second one of 1939.

Between 1938 and 1941, she performed at various venues around New York, including the Paramount Theater, the Savoy Ballroom, and the Apollo Theater with bandleaders Cab Calloway and Louis Jordan.

During World War II, she recorded V-Discs for the Armed Forces Radio Service and appeared in the Service’s variety radio show, Jubilee.  In 1943, she spent six months in Los Angeles working first with the Lucky Millinder Orchestra and later as a soloist.  During the year she divorced Tharpe and married Foch Pershing Allen, whom she divorced in 1947. Later that year, she began working with Marie Knight of Newark, New Jersey.

On July 3, 1951, Tharpe married her third husband, Russell Morrison, in a ceremony at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. before twenty thousand people.  Two years later, she recorded her first blues album with Marie Knight.  She first toured Europe between November 1957 and April 1958.  By the late 1960s, Tharpe had acquired a growing non-black audience, appearing, for example, at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1967.

She also toured Europe in 1964, 1966, and in 1970, where she fell ill in Switzerland while touring with the American Folk, Blues, and Gospel Caravan.  She returned to America and then suffered a stroke due to her diabetes.  Shortly afterwards, her leg was amputated.  Sister Rosetta Tharpe died of a second stroke on October 9, 1973 at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia.

Black History 365: Kwame Onwuachi

Kwame Onwuachi (/ˈkwɑːmi ənˈwɑːtʃi/)[1] is an American chef based in Los Angeles, CA.[2] He was a contestant on Top Chef (season 13) in 2015. He has been recognized by Food & Wine magazine, Esquire magazine, and the James Beard Foundation as “Rising Star Chef of the year.”

Early life

Onwuachi was born on Long Island, New York, and grew up in The Bronx. At the age of 10, he was sent to live with his grandfather in Nigeria for two years.[3]

Education and career

Onwuachi was expelled from several schools for behavioral issues and eventually graduated from Bronx Leadership Academy high school . He enrolled at the University of Bridgeport, from which he was expelled after several months for dealing and using illegal drugs. He then moved to live with his mother in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he was hired to cook on a boat serving crews cleaning up the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.[3][4][5]

He returned to New York City in 2010, waiting tables at Tom Colicchio‘s Craft before opening his own catering business, Onwuachi’s Coterie Catering. In 2012, Onwuachi enrolled at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. During culinary school, Onwuachi worked an externship at Per Se, and after graduation he worked as a line cook at Eleven Madison Park. In 2015, he was a contestant on Top Chef (season 13).[4][3][6]

In November 2016, Onwuachi opened his own restaurant in a converted townhouse in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C., called the Shaw Bijou, serving a 13-course tasting menu. The reviews were mixed, and critics questioned whether it was worth the price. After two months, Onwuachi scaled back the menu and reduced prices, but the primary investor closed the restaurant in January 2017.[3][7]

In late 2017, Onwuachi was hired to open a restaurant in the new InterContinental Hotel on D.C.’s Southwest Waterfront. He named it “Kith and Kin”, serving Afro-Caribbean cuisine influenced by his family ties to Louisiana, Jamaica, Trinidad, and Nigeria. The restaurant received positive reviews from the Washington Post and the Michelin Guide.[8][9] In July 2020, Onwuachi resigned his position at Kith/Kin.[10]

In 2019, Onwuachi published a memoir, Notes from a Young Black Chef, with Joshua David Stein.[11] The book tells the story of his childhood in New York and Nigeria, and the opening of the Shaw Bijou.[5] A followup cookbook, My America: Recipes from a Young Black Chef was published in May 2022.[12]

Food & Wine magazine named Onwuachi one of its Best New Chefs in 2019.[13] At the 2019 James Beard Awards, Onwuachi was named Rising Star Chef of the Year.[14] Esquire named Onwuachi its Chef of the Year for 2019, identifying Kith/Kin as one of the Best New Restaurants in America.[15]

In February 2021, Onwuachi joined Food & Wine magazine as Executive Producer.

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

Black History 365: Matthew MacKenzie “Mack” Robinson

Matthew MacKenzie “Mack” Robinson (July 18, 1914 – March 12, 2000) was an American track and field athlete. He is best known for winning a silver medal in the 1936 Summer Olympics, where he broke the Olympic record in the 200 meters but still finished behind Jesse Owens (like Jesse Owens, Robinson was an African-American). He was the older brother of Baseball Hall of Fame member Jackie Robinson.[1]

Early life

Mack was born in Cairo, Georgia, in 1914. He and his siblings were left fatherless at an early age, leaving their mother, Mallie Robinson, as the sole support of the children. She performed in a variety of manual labor tasks, and moved with her children to Pasadena, California, while the children were still young. At the start of middle school Mack was diagnosed with a heart murmur that got worse with age, and was advised to only play non-contact sports. He remained in town for school, and set national junior college records in the 100 meter, 200 meter, and long jump at Pasadena Junior College.[2][3]

1936 Olympics

He placed second in the 200 meters at the United States Olympic Trials in 1936, earning himself a place on the Olympic team.[4]: 80  He went on to win the silver medal at the Summer Olympics in Berlin, finishing 0.4 seconds behind Jesse Owens. In 2016, the 1936 Olympic journey of the eighteen Black American athletes, including Robinson, was documented in the film Olympic Pride, American Prejudice.[5]

Later career and life

Mack Robinson attended the University of Oregon, graduating in 1941. With Oregon he won numerous titles in NCAA, AAU and Pacific Coast Conference track meets. He has been honored as being one of the most distinguished graduates of the University of Oregon and is a member of the University of Oregon Hall of Fame and the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame.

For a time in the early 1970s, Mack was a park director of Lemon Grove Park, a park in the East Hollywood part of the City of Los Angeles.

Later in life, he was known for leading the fight against street crime in his home town of Pasadena. The Pasadena Robinson Memorial, dedicated to both Matthew and Jackie, was dedicated in 1997. The memorial statue of Jackie Robinson by sculptor Richard H. Ellis at UCLA Bruins baseball team’s home Jackie Robinson Stadium,[6] was installed by the efforts of Jackie’s brother, Mack.[7]

Several locations are named in honor of Matthew Robinson. In addition to the Pasadena Robinson Memorial, the stadium of Pasadena City College was dedicated to him in 2000. That same year, the United States Postal Service approved naming the new post office in Pasadena the Matthew ‘Mack’ Robinson Post Office Building.[8]

Robinson died of complications from diabetes, kidney failure, and pneumonia, on March 12, 2000, at a hospital in Pasadena, California; he was 85.[9] He is interred at Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum, Altadena, California.

Matthew MacKenzie “Mack” Robinson (July 18, 1914 – March 12, 2000) was an American track and field athlete. He is best known for winning a silver medal in the 1936 Summer Olympics, where he broke the Olympic record in the 200 meters but still finished behind Jesse Owens (like Jesse Owens, Robinson was an African-American). He was the older brother of Baseball Hall of Fame member Jackie Robinson.[1]

Early life

Mack was born in Cairo, Georgia, in 1914. He and his siblings were left fatherless at an early age, leaving their mother, Mallie Robinson, as the sole support of the children. She performed in a variety of manual labor tasks, and moved with her children to Pasadena, California, while the children were still young. At the start of middle school Mack was diagnosed with a heart murmur that got worse with age, and was advised to only play non-contact sports. He remained in town for school, and set national junior college records in the 100 meter, 200 meter, and long jump at Pasadena Junior College.[2][3]

1936 Olympics

He placed second in the 200 meters at the United States Olympic Trials in 1936, earning himself a place on the Olympic team.[4]: 80  He went on to win the silver medal at the Summer Olympics in Berlin, finishing 0.4 seconds behind Jesse Owens. In 2016, the 1936 Olympic journey of the eighteen Black American athletes, including Robinson, was documented in the film Olympic Pride, American Prejudice.[5]

Later career and life

Mack Robinson attended the University of Oregon, graduating in 1941. With Oregon he won numerous titles in NCAA, AAU and Pacific Coast Conference track meets. He has been honored as being one of the most distinguished graduates of the University of Oregon and is a member of the University of Oregon Hall of Fame and the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame.

For a time in the early 1970s, Mack was a park director of Lemon Grove Park, a park in the East Hollywood part of the City of Los Angeles.

Later in life, he was known for leading the fight against street crime in his home town of Pasadena. The Pasadena Robinson Memorial, dedicated to both Matthew and Jackie, was dedicated in 1997. The memorial statue of Jackie Robinson by sculptor Richard H. Ellis at UCLA Bruins baseball team’s home Jackie Robinson Stadium,[6] was installed by the efforts of Jackie’s brother, Mack.[7]

Several locations are named in honor of Matthew Robinson. In addition to the Pasadena Robinson Memorial, the stadium of Pasadena City College was dedicated to him in 2000. That same year, the United States Postal Service approved naming the new post office in Pasadena the Matthew ‘Mack’ Robinson Post Office Building.[8]

Robinson died of complications from diabetes, kidney failure, and pneumonia, on March 12, 2000, at a hospital in Pasadena, California; he was 85.[9] He is interred at Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum, Altadena, California.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mack_Robinson_(athlete)

Black History 365: Gina Prince-Bythewood

Gina Maria Prince-Bythewood (born June 10, 1969)[1] is an American film director and screenwriter.[2] She is known for directing the films Love & Basketball (2000), Disappearing Acts (2000), The Secret Life of Bees (2008), Beyond the Lights (2014), and The Old Guard (2020).

Prince-Bythewood was born in Los Angeles, California,[1] and adopted by Bob Prince, a computer programmer, and Maria Prince, a nurse, when she was 3 weeks old.[3] Her adoptive father is white and her adoptive mother is of Salvadoran and German descent.[4][5] She grew up in the white middle-class neighborhood of Pacific Grove, California.[6] She has four siblings through her adoptive family.[3]

In 1987, Prince-Bythewood graduated from Pacific Grove High School.[3] She attended UCLA’s film school, where she also ran competitive track.[7] At UCLA, she received the Gene Reynolds Scholarship for Directing and the Ray Stark Memorial Scholarship for Outstanding Undergraduates. She graduated in 1991.[8]

She sought out her birth mother around 2014, but it was “not a positive experience”. Her birth mother, who is white, was a teenager when she gave her up for adoption, because her family knew her child would be multiracial and they wanted her to have an abortion.[9][10]

Career

After five years working in TV as a writer on shows like A Different World and South Central, Prince-Bythewood wrote her first film, 2000’s Love & Basketball.[11] The film was based on Prince-Bythewood’s personal life and her experiences growing up.[3] It was developed at the Sundance Institute‘s directing and writing lab.[6] The film won 12 awards and was nominated for three more. It won Best Film and Best Film Poster at the Black Reel Awards, and Best First Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards. The film also grossed $27.7 million worldwide, making it the ninth most popular basketball film in the United States at that time.

She directed the feature film The Secret Life of Bees, adapted from the best-selling book by Sue Monk Kidd. It was released by Fox Searchlight in October 2008, and debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival and Urbanworld Film Festival that same year.[12]

In 2014, Prince-Bythewood directed Beyond the Lights, starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw.[13] Prince-Bythewood began work on the film in 2007, before work on 2008’s The Secret Life of Bees was completed, but struggled to find financing when the original production company, Sony, backed out after she insisted on casting Mbatha-Raw.[14][15] The film premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.[16]

Beyond the Lights, originally called Blackbird, is based on the Nina Simone song “Blackbird” from the record Nina Simone with Strings.[17] Prince-Bythewood said: “That song really inspired the movie and inspired Noni’s story.”[15] The main character’s story was loosely inspired by the lives of Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland.[18] Prince-Bythewood also stated that the movie is filled with intense personal issues with some resulting from her own adoption and her fraught encounter with her birth mother.[19] Prince-Bythewood did research with the assistance of a number of singers, including Alicia Keys.[20] The story was also inspired by an experience seeing Keys play the song “Diary.” Elements of the film, especially the sexualization of female pop artists, act as a “critique of American media culture.”[21] The film was shot in 29 days and cost $7 million.[7] All of the key crew members on the film were women, including costume designer Sandra Hernandez, production designer Cecilia Montiel, cinematographer Tami Reiker, and editor Teri Shropshire.[22] Other collaborators were choreographer Laurieann Gibson (Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj), hairstylist Kimberly Kimble (Beyoncé), and record producer The-Dream.[23]

In 2016 Prince-Bythewood announced her next project would be an adaptation of Roxane Gay‘s novel An Untamed State. The project would be co-written by herself and Gay and would star Gugu Mbatha-Raw.[24]

In 2017 Prince-Bythewood, along with her husband Reggie Rock Bythewood, created the show Shots Fired for Fox.[25] Later that year, Prince-Bythewood was announced as the director for Silver & Black, a movie based on Marvel Comics characters Silver Sable and Black Cat.[26]

She wrote the screenplay for the movie adaptation of the novel Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. The film had an estimated $12,498,674 worldwide box office take by March 2017 after its release date (January 21, 2017). She directed the 2020 film adaptation of Greg Rucka‘s The Old Guard for Netflix, starring Charlize Theron and KiKi Layne.[27] She is the first mixed race woman to make a comic-book film.[28]

In 2020, she and her husband signed a deal with Touchstone Television to produce their output using the banner “Undisputed Cinema.”[29]

Prince-Bythewood is currently working on directing TriStar Pictures epic The Woman King, a feature inspired by true events that took place in the Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries, The Woman King tells the story of Nanisca (Viola Davis), general of the all-female military unit known as the Amazons, and her daughter, Nawi, who together fought the French and neighboring tribes who violated their honor, enslaved their people and threatened to destroy everything they’ve lived for.[30] She also directed the first episode of ABC’s Women of the Movement.[31]

In March 2021, Prince-Bythewood took on a new role as Co-Chair of the Directors Guild of America African American Steering Committee (AASC). Working alongside Director Jeffrey W. Byrd, Prince-Bythewood will be addressing needs of the African American members of the Guild such as job creation and career advancement in this new position.[32] On August 26, It was announced that because of Prince-Bythewood’s commitments to other projects, she would not direct The Old Guard 2 and will be replaced by Victoria Mahoney. Prince-Bythewood will remain as producer on the film.[33]

Personal life

In 1998 Prince-Bythewood married film director and writer Reggie Rock Bythewood, whom she met on the writing staff of A Different World.[19] The couple have two sons, Cassius and Toussaint, and live in Southern California.

Along with friends Mara Brock Akil, Sara Finney Johnson and Felicia D. Henderson, Prince-Bythewood endows The Four Sisters Scholarship.[34]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina_Prince-Bythewood

Black History 365: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (15 August 1875 – 1 September 1912) was a British composer and conductor.

Of mixed-race birth, Coleridge-Taylor achieved such success that he was referred to by white New York musicians as the “African Mahler” when he had three tours of the United States in the early 1900s.[1] He was particularly known for his three cantatas on the epic poem Song of Hiawatha by American Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Coleridge-Taylor premiered the first section in 1898, when he was 22.

He married a British woman, Jessie Walmisley, and both their children had musical careers.[2] Their son Hiawatha adapted his father’s music for a variety of performances. Their daughter Avril Coleridge-Taylor became a composer-conductor.

Early life and education

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was born at 15 Theobalds Road, Holborn, London,[3] in 1875 to Alice Hare Martin (1856–1953),[4] an English woman, and Daniel Peter Hughes Taylor, a Krio man from Sierra Leone who had studied medicine in the capital and became a prominent administrator in West Africa. They were not married, and Daniel Taylor returned to Africa without learning that Alice was pregnant. (Alice Hare Martin’s parents were not married at her birth, either.)[5] Alice Martin named her son Samuel Coleridge Taylor (without a hyphen) after the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.[6]

Alice lived with her father Benjamin Holmans and his family after she had the boy. Her father was a skilled farrier and was married to a woman other than her mother; they had four daughters and at least one son. Alice and her father called her son Coleridge. The family lived in Croydon, Surrey. In 1887 Alice Martin married George Evans, a railway worker. Their street had a railway line at its end.[7]

Taylor was brought up in Croydon. There were numerous musicians on his mother’s side and her father played the violin. He started teaching it to Coleridge when he was young. His ability quickly was obvious, and his grandfather paid for the boy to have violin lessons. The extended family arranged for Taylor to study at the Royal College of Music, beginning at the age of 15. He changed from violin to composition, working under professor Charles Villiers Stanford. After completing his degree, Taylor became a professional musician, soon being appointed a professor at the Crystal Palace School of Music and conducting the orchestra at the Croydon Conservatoire.

The young man later used the name “Samuel Coleridge-Taylor”, with a hyphen, said to be following a printer’s typographical error.[8] In 1894, his father Daniel Taylor was appointed coroner for the British Empire in the Province of Senegambia.[9]

Marriage

In 1899 Coleridge-Taylor married Jessie Walmisley, whom he had met as a fellow student at the Royal College of Music. Six years older than him, Jessie had left the college in 1893. Her parents objected to the marriage because Taylor was of mixed-race parentage, but relented and attended the wedding. The couple had a son, named Hiawatha (1900–1980) after a Native American immortalised in poetry, and a daughter Gwendolyn Avril (1903–1998). Both had careers in music: Hiawatha adapted his father’s works.[10] Gwendolyn started composing music early in life, and also became a conductor-composer; she used the professional name of Avril Coleridge-Taylor.

Career

By 1896, Coleridge-Taylor was already earning a reputation as a composer. He was later helped by Edward Elgar, who recommended him to the Three Choirs Festival. His “Ballade in A minor” was premiered there. His early work was also guided by the influential music editor and critic August Jaeger of music publisher Novello; he told Elgar that Taylor was “a genius”.

On the strength of Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, which was conducted by Professor Charles Villiers Stanford at its 1898 premiere and proved to be highly popular, Coleridge-Taylor made three tours of the United States.[11] In the United States, he became increasingly interested in his paternal racial heritage. Coleridge-Taylor participated as the youngest delegate at the 1900 First Pan-African Conference held in London, and met leading Americans through this connection, including poet Paul Laurence Dunbar and scholar and activist W.E.B. Du Bois.[11]

Coleridge-Taylor’s father Daniel Taylor was descended from African-American slaves who were freed by the British and evacuated from the colonies at the end of the American War of Independence; some 3,000 of these Black Loyalists were resettled in Nova Scotia. Others were resettled in London and the Caribbean. In 1792 some 1200 blacks from Nova Scotia chose to leave what they considered a hostile climate and society, and moved to Sierra Leone, which the British had established as a colony for free blacks. The Black Loyalists joined free blacks (some of whom were also African Americans) from London, and were joined by maroons from Jamaica, and slaves liberated at sea from illegal slave ships by the British navy. At one stage Coleridge-Taylor seriously considered emigrating to the United States, as he was intrigued by his father’s family’s past there.

In 1904, on his first tour to the United States, Coleridge-Taylor was received by President Theodore Roosevelt at the White House, a rare event in those days for a man of African descent. His music was widely performed and he had great support among African Americans. Coleridge-Taylor sought to draw from traditional African music and integrate it into the classical tradition, which he considered Johannes Brahms to have done with Hungarian music and Antonín Dvořák with Bohemian music. Having met the African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar in London, Taylor set some of his poems to music. A joint recital between Taylor and Dunbar was arranged in London, under the patronage of US Ambassador John Milton Hay. It was organised by Henry Francis Downing, an African-American playwright and London resident.[12] Dunbar and other black people encouraged Coleridge-Taylor to draw from his Sierra Leonean ancestry and the music of the African continent.[citation needed]

Due to his success, Coleridge-Taylor was invited to be one of the judges at music festivals. He was said to be personally shy but was still effective as a conductor.[citation needed]

Composers were not handsomely paid for their music, and they often sold the rights to works outright in order to make immediate income. This caused them to lose the royalties earned by the publishers who had invested in the music distribution through publication. The popular Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast sold hundreds of thousands of copies, but Coleridge-Taylor had sold the music outright for the sum of 15 guineas, so did not benefit directly.[13][14][15] He learned to retain his rights and earned royalties for other compositions after achieving wide renown but always struggled financially.[citation needed]

Death

Coleridge-Taylor was 37 when he died of pneumonia. His death is often attributed to the stress of his financial situation.[16] He was buried in Bandon Hill Cemetery, Wallington, Surrey (today in the London Borough of Sutton).[17] He was survived by his wife Jessie (1869–1962), their daughter Avril and their son Hiawatha.

Honours

  • The inscription on Coleridge-Taylor’s carved headstone includes four bars of music from the composer’s best-known work, Hiawatha, and a tribute from his close friend, the poet Alfred Noyes, that includes these words:

Too young to die: his great simplicity, his happy courage in an alien world, his gentleness, made all that knew him love him.

  • King George V granted Jessie Coleridge-Taylor, the young widow, an annual pension of £100, evidence of the high regard in which the composer was held.[18]
  • In 1912 a memorial concert was held at the Royal Albert Hall and garnered over £1400 for the composer’s family.
  • After Coleridge-Taylor’s death in 1912, musicians were concerned that he and his family had received no royalties from his Song of Hiawatha, which was one of the most successful and popular works written in the previous 50 years. (He had sold the rights early in order to get income.) His case contributed to their formation of the Performing Rights Society, an effort to gain revenues for musicians through performance as well as publication and distribution of music.[4]

Coleridge-Taylor’s work continued to be popular. He was later championed by conductor Malcolm Sargent. Between 1928 and 1939, Sargent conducted ten seasons of a large costumed ballet version of The Song of Hiawatha at the Royal Albert Hall, performed by the Royal Choral Society (600 to 800 singers) and 200 dancers.

Legacy

Coleridge-Taylor’s greatest success was undoubtedly his cantata Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, which was widely performed by choral groups in England during Coleridge-Taylor’s lifetime and in the decades after his death. Its popularity was rivalled only by the choral standards Handel‘s Messiah and Mendelssohn‘s Elijah.[19] The composer soon followed Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast with two other cantatas about Hiawatha, The Death of Minnehaha and Hiawatha’s Departure. All three were published together, along with an Overture, as The Song of Hiawatha, Op. 30. The tremendously popular Hiawatha seasons at the Royal Albert Hall, which continued until 1939, were conducted by Sargent and involved hundreds of choristers, and scenery covering the organ loft. Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast is still occasionally revived.

Coleridge-Taylor also composed chamber music, anthems, and the African Dances for violin, among other works. The Petite Suite de Concert is still regularly played.[20] He set one poem by his namesake Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Legend of Kubla Khan”.

Coleridge-Taylor was greatly admired by African Americans; in 1901, a 200-voice African-American chorus was founded in Washington, D.C., named the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Society. He visited the United States three times in the early 1900s, receiving great acclaim, and earned the title “the African Mahler” from the white orchestral musicians in New York in 1910.[1] Public schools were named after him in Louisville, Kentucky, and in Baltimore, Maryland.

Coleridge-Taylor composed a violin concerto for the American violinist Maud Powell. The American performance of the work was subject to rewriting because the parts were lost en route—not, as legend has it, on the RMS Titanic but on another ship.[11] The concerto has been recorded by Philippe Graffin and the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra under Michael Hankinson (nominated “Editor’s Choice” in Gramophone magazine), Anthony Marwood and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins (on Hyperion Records), and Lorraine McAslan and the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Braithwaite (on the Lyrita label). It was also performed at Harvard University‘s Sanders Theatre in the autumn of 1998 by John McLaughlin Williams and William Thomas, as part of the 100th-anniversary celebration of the composition of Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Lists of Coleridge-Taylor’s compositions and recordings of his work and of the many articles, papers and books about Coleridge-Taylor’s life and legacy are available through the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Foundation and the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Network.[21]

There are two blue plaques in his memory, one in Dagnall Park, South Norwood,[22] and the other in St Leonards Road, Croydon, at the house where he died. A metal figure in the likeness of Coleridge-Taylor has been installed in Charles Street, Croydon.[23]

A two-hour documentary, Samuel Coleridge Taylor and His Music in America, 1900–1912 (2013), was made about him and includes a performance of several of his pieces, as well as information about him and his prominent place in music. It was written and directed by Charles Kaufmann, and produced by The Longfellow Chorus.[24]

A feature animation, The Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Story (2013),[25] was made about him, written and directed by Jason Young.[26] It was screened as part of Southwark Black History Month[27] and Croydon Black History Month in 2020.[28]

On 26 August 2021 Coleridge-Taylor’s Symphony in A minor received its Proms premier by the Chineke! Orchestra with Kalena Bovell.[29]

Posthumous publishing

In 1999, freelance music editor Patrick Meadows identified three important chamber works by Coleridge-Taylor that had never been printed or made widely available to musicians. A handwritten performing parts edition of the Piano Quintet, from the original in the Royal College of Music (RCM) Library, had been prepared earlier by violinist Martin Anthony Burrage of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. The first modern performance of the Piano Quintet was given on 7 November 2001 by Burrage’s chamber music group, Ensemble Liverpool / Live-A-Music in Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. The lunchtime recital included the Fantasiestücke. Live recordings of this performance are lodged with the RCM and the British Library.[6] The artists were Andrew Berridge (violin), Martin Anthony (Tony) Burrage (violin), Joanna Lacey (viola), Michael Parrott (cello) and John Peace (piano).

After receiving copies of the work from the RCM in London, Patrick Meadows made printed playing editions of the Nonet, Piano Quintet and Piano Trio. The works were performed in Meadows’s regular chamber music festival on the island of Majorca, and were well received by the public as well as the performers. The first modern performances of some of these works were done in the early 1990s by the Boston, Massachusetts-based Coleridge Ensemble, led by William Thomas of Phillips Academy, Andover. This group subsequently made world premiere recordings of the Nonet, Fantasiestücke for string quartet and Six Negro Folksongs for piano trio, which were released in 1998 by Afka Records. Thomas, a champion of lost works by black composers, also revived Coleridge’s Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast in a performance commemorating the composition’s 100th anniversary with the Cambridge Community Chorus at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre in the spring of 1998.[30]

The Nash Ensemble‘s recording of the Piano Quintet was released in 2007.

In 2006, Meadows finished engraving the first edition of Coleridge-Taylor’s Symphony in A minor. Meadows has also transcribed from the RCM manuscript the Haytian Dances, a work virtually identical to the Noveletten but with a fifth movement inserted by Coleridge-Taylor, based on the Scherzo of the symphony. This work is for string orchestra, tambourine and triangle.

Thelma, the missing opera

Coleridge-Taylor’s only large-scale operatic work, Thelma, was long believed to have been lost. As recently as 1995, Geoffrey Self in his biography of Coleridge-Taylor, The Hiawatha Man, stated that the manuscript of Thelma had not been located, and that the piece may have been destroyed by its creator. While researching for a PhD on the life and music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Catherine Carr unearthed the manuscripts of Thelma in the British Library. She assembled a libretto and catalogued the opera in her thesis, presenting a first critical examination of the work by a thorough investigation of the discovered manuscripts (including copious typeset examples).[31] The work subsequently appeared as such on the catalogue of the British Library.

Thelma is a saga of deceit, magic, retribution and the triumph of love over wickedness. The composer has followed Richard Wagner‘s manner in eschewing the established “numbers” opera format, preferring to blend recitative, aria and ensemble into a seamless whole. It is possible that he had read Marie Corelli‘s 1887 “Nordic” novel Thelma (it appears that the name “Thelma” may have been created by Corelli for her heroine). Coleridge-Taylor composed Thelma between 1907 and 1909; it is alternatively entitled The Amulet.

The full score and vocal score in the British Library are both in the composer’s hand – the full score is unbound but complete (save that the vocal parts do not have the words after the first few folios) but the vocal score is bound (in three volumes) and complete with words. Patrick Meadows and Lionel Harrison have prepared a type-set full score, vocal score and libretto (the librettist is uncredited and may be Coleridge-Taylor himself). As to the heroine of the title, the composer changed her name to “Freda” in both full and vocal scores (although in the full score he occasionally forgets himself and writes “Thelma” instead of “Freda”). Perhaps Coleridge-Taylor changed the name of his heroine (and might have changed the name of the opera, had it been produced) to avoid creating the assumption that his work was a treatment of Corelli’s then very popular novel. Since that precaution is scarcely necessary today, Meadows and Harrison decided to revert to the original Thelma.

There are minor discrepancies between the full score and the vocal score (the occasional passage occurring in different keys in the two, for example), but nothing that would inhibit the production of a complete, staged performance.

Thelma received its world première in Croydon‘s Ashcroft Theatre in February 2012, the centenary year of the composer’s death, performed by Surrey Opera, using an edition prepared by Stephen Anthony Brown.[32] It was conducted by Jonathan Butcher, directed by Christopher Cowell and designed by Bridget Kimak. Joanna Weeks sang the title role, with Alberto Sousa as Eric and Håkan Vramsmo as Carl.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Coleridge-Taylor

Black History 365: Randall Goosby

“For me, personally, music has been a way to inspire others” – Randall Goosby’s own words sum up perfectly his commitment to being an artist who makes a difference.

Signed exclusively to Decca Classics in 2020 at the age of 24, American violinist Randall Goosby is acclaimed for the sensitivity and intensity of his musicianship alongside his determination to make music more inclusive and accessible, as well as bringing the music of under-represented composers to light.

Highlights of Randall Goosby’s 2021/22 season include debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel at the Hollywood Bowl, Baltimore Symphony under Dalia Stasevska, Detroit Symphony under Jader Bignamini, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra. He makes recital appearances at London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s 92nd Street Y, San Francisco Symphony’s Davies Symphony Hall and Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

June 2021 marks the release of Goosby’s debut album for Decca entitled Roots, a celebration of African-American music which explores its evolution from the spiritual through to present-day compositions. Collaborating with pianist Zhu Wang, Goosby has curated an album paying homage to the pioneering artists that paved the way for him and other artists of color. It features three world-premiere recordings of music written by African-American composer Florence Price, and includes works by composers William Grant Still and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson plus a newly commissioned piece by acclaimed double bassist Xavier Foley, a fellow Sphinx, Perlman Music Program and Young Concert Artists alumnus.

Randall Goosby has performed with orchestras across the United States including the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Nashville Symphony and New World Symphony. Recital appearances have included the Kennedy Center, Kravis Center and Wigmore Hall.

Goosby is deeply passionate about inspiring and serving others through education, social engagement and outreach activities. He has enjoyed working with non-profit organizations such as the Opportunity Music Project and Concerts in Motion in New York City, as well as participating in community engagement programs for schools, hospitals and assisted living facilities across the United States.

Randall Goosby was First Prize Winner in the 2018 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. In 2019, he was named the inaugural Robey Artist by Young Classical Artists Trust in partnership with Music Masters in London; and in 2020 he became an Ambassador for Music Masters, a role that sees him mentoring and inspiring students in schools around the United Kingdom.

Goosby made his debut with the Jacksonville Symphony at age nine. At age 13, he performed with the New York Philharmonic on a Young People’s Concert at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall and became the youngest recipient ever to win the Sphinx Concerto Competition. He is a recipient of Sphinx’s Isaac Stern Award and of a career advancement grant from the Bagby Foundation. A graduate of the Juilliard School, he continues his studies there, pursuing an Artist Diploma under Itzhak Perlman and Catherine Cho. An active chamber musician, he has spent his summers studying at the Perlman Music Program, Verbier Festival Academy and Mozarteum Summer Academy among others.

Randall Goosby plays a 1735 Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu on generous loan from the Stradivari Society.

https://randallgoosby.com/bio/

And check out Randall Goosby’s Tiny Desk Concert!

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/06/1120602267/randall-goosby-tiny-desk-concert

Black History 365: Serena Williams

Most people are not fortunate enough to realize the impact their life has made on others because, well, the majority of the accolades often come at memorials. But when you are Serena Williams, playing what is expected to be the final major tournament of a career emblazoned with the acronym G.O.A.T, you must recognize how your presence and accomplishments on and off the tennis court have inspired the hopes and dreams of African Americans, in particular female athletes, how you have introduced a sport that appeared off limits to a new, diverse audience, and how you have rewritten society’s definition of beauty – all this by doing things your way.

Not even father Richard Williams, shunned, disrespected and laughed at when he shuttled his two young daughters, Venus and Serena, from their home in Compton, Calif., where they learned to play on public courts, to tennis clinics and tournaments throughout Southern California, could have predicted the influence his baby girl would have in a country club sport – and beyond. He knew they would both be No. 1. But that wasn’t enough for Serena.

In her 2009 memoir, On The Line, Serena wrote about how a national newspaper article on Venus, published after the two started playing tournaments, spurred her because the article “suggested that I’d never be anything more than a footnote to Venus’s career…I promised myself I’d never forget that article, that one day I’d prove the reporter wrong.”

Venus, 15 months older, certainly paved the way for Serena. Then Serena, with that article fueling the fire that burned inside her, blazed her own path to become the most dominant female athlete of all time with a jaw-dropping 23 Grand Slam singles championships, a record in the Open era, that fittingly began at the U.S. Open in 1999.

Just two years prior, in August 1997, Richard sat with this journalist in the family’s West Palm Beach, Fla., home and wondered aloud if he was doing the right thing by delaying Serena’s U.S. Open debut. Serena was itching to play. But dad wanted to bring his tennis prodigies along slowly so the sisters could enjoy being youths and focus on their studies. Serena had turned pro when she was 14 but only played one tournament in 1995, none in 1996 then five in 1997. The following year, it was game on as she made her first appearance in each of the four Grand Slam tournaments.

Soon, there was no surface Serena couldn’t master, from grass at the prestigious All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, where she won seven prestigious Wimbledon titles, to the hardcourts at Melbourne Park, where she also claimed seven Australian Open titles, and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, where she earned six U.S. Open trophies, to the hallowed clay courts at Stade Roland Garros, where three French Open championships came her way. Few people knew Serena was pregnant with her daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. when she beat Venus in the 2017 Australian Open finals for her 23rd Grand Slam singles trophy. In all, seven of Serena’s Grand Slam triumphs have come against Venus, the sister who taught her so much.

Serena always had the luxury of having her protective big sister share tips on how to play opponents whom Venus may have already faced. With Venus, Serena also had a confidant who knew exactly what she was going through when it came to matters of race in the sport. Althea Gibson, who in 1956 became the first African American to win a Grand Slam title, and Arthur Ashe, who won three Grand Slam titles and remains the only African American male tennis player to win the U.S. Open and Wimbledon singles titles, didn’t have this advantage.

At 42, Venus has not mentioned retiring. Serena also hasn’t used the R word, preferring evolving. Yet hasn’t she already changed so much? The Williams sisters brought to tennis something never before seen in their sport. They flaunted their cultural heritage with braids and beads in their early years on the tour. They played with an aggressiveness and phenomenal power that was decried but has become more commonplace in the women’s game. Serena, with her bulging biceps, took twice the criticism with detractors body shaming her. The younger, more muscular sister accepted being blessed with thick thighs and a round buttocks that women pay good money to achieve through surgery. She proved that her thighs and butt didn’t slow her down when it came to chasing opponents’ shots on the court and returning blistering winners. Instead of hiding her curves, she flaunted them in her outfits on the court and posed nude for the cover of Vanity Fair while pregnant.

Not afraid to show emotion and possessing passion and confidence while winning on her terms in a white man’s sports, Serena inspired little girls and boys of color to pick up racquets. Were it not for the Williams sisters, it’s highly unlikely the 2020 U.S. Open would have boasted 16 either Black or multiracial players, including 12 on the women’s side.

African American players Zina Garrison, the 1990 Wimbledon singles runner-up, and Lori McNeil, a singles semifinalist at the U.S. Open in 1987 and Wimbledon in 1994, were role models for Serena, who in turn inspired Grand Slam champions Naomi Osaka and Sloane Stephens, along with Coco Gauff and Frances Tiafoe, currently ranked second, respectively, among U.S. women and men. Even race car driver Lewis Hamilton, the record holder with 103 Formula One wins and a record-tying seven world championships, has stated how much the Williams sisters inspired him in his sport where he is the only Black driver.

For the past 27 years, Serena has given her all to the game. Now it’s time to say goodbye, to let her continue to blossom into the mother, wife and businesswoman roles she has taken on while excelling on the court. We say, thank you, Serena.

https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2022/09/01/1120097181/serena-williams-us-open