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New York Times best-selling author Kwame Alexander is on a mission to change the world one word at a time. Alexander, who is also an award-winning poet, Emmy-winning television producer and educator, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ijDLqGM6Jc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">visited Detroit recently</a> to discuss his book, &#8221;<a href="https://kwamealexander.com/product/this-is-the-honey-an-anthology-of-contemporary-black-poets/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This is the Honey</a>: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets,&#8221; and read excerpts from his many writings as part of <a href="https://www.thewright.org/about/news/charles-h-wright-museum-proudly-presents-wright-conversations-and-wright-performances-0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Wright Conversations series</a> at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American history. <span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559685&quot;:-20,&quot;335559737&quot;:-20,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0}"> 
Alexander is a recipient of the 2025 NAACP Image Award, the founder of AuthorStudy.com and the Michael I. Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts for Chautauqua Literary Arts. 
While in Detroit, Alexander sat down with “American Black Journal” <a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/about/who-is-detroit-pbs/senior-staff/stephen-henderson/">host Stephen Henderson</a> for a wide-ranging discussion about his literary works, career and passion for reading and writing. He talked about how he got started writing books and poetry and explains the inspiration behind his more than 44 best-selling books, many of which are geared toward children and teens.
Alexander also discussed his newest book, &#8220;<a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kwame-alexander/how-sweet-the-sound/9780316442497/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How Sweet the Sound</a>,&#8221; and its focus on the history of Black music in America. The book has more than 80 references to artists including Miles Davis, James Brown, Grandmaster Flash, Jimi Hendrix, Whitney Houston, Lauryn Hill, Kendrick Lamar, Beyonce and others.
Plus, he talks about his new animated series, &#8220;<a href="https://pbskids.org/videos/acoustic-rooster" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Acoustic Rooster: Jazzy Jams</a>,&#8221; a PBS KIDS special and series of shorts based on his beloved children&#8217;s book, “<a href="https://kwamealexander.com/product/acoustic-rooster/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Acoustic Rooster and his Barnyard Band</a>.”

Kwame Alexander discusses latest book ‘How Sweet the Sound’ and new PBS KIDS series

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As technology continues to expand, so does the need for cybersecurity experts. Yet, according to the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics</a>, only 18% of African Americans currently work in the field. As a <a href="https://www.sakinahtanzil.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">25-year cybersecurity veteran and career coach</a>, Sakinah Tanzil is raising awareness about the need for more African Americans in the industry. <span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0}"> 
Tanzil is the author of “<a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/breaking-the-cyber-code-sakinah-a-tanzil/1139228796" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Breaking the Cyber Code</a>: A Game Changer That Prepares Our Workforce and Secures the Future.” The book shares Tanzil’s professional journey and the steps it took to reach her goals in the industry. It also provides information on 52 professions in the cybersecurity industry and her advice on how to succeed.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559685&quot;:0,&quot;335559737&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/about/who-is-detroit-pbs/senior-staff/stephen-henderson/">Host Stephen Henderson</a> sat down with Tanzil to discuss opportunities in cybersecurity, especially for African Americans. She reflects on what led her to a career in cybersecurity and explains what readers will learn in her book. Plus, she discusses the importance of cybersecurity, the shortage of cybersecurity experts nationally and globally, and the risks we face today with technology.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559685&quot;:0,&quot;335559737&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}">

Cybersecurity expert Sakinah Tanzil pushes for more African Americans in the tech industry

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The Michigan Department of Education and Library of Michigan have named Detroit native <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/melba-joyce-boyd" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr. Melba Joyce Boyd</a> as the state’s new poet laureate. Boyd is only the third poet laureate to serve Michigan, succeeding Nandi Comer who held the position from 2023-2024. 
As Michigan poet laureate, Boyd will connect with Michigan residents, educators and youth across the state to promote literary arts and poetry. <span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0}"> 
“I am honored and excited being named the poet laureate of Michigan,” Dr. Boyd <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/mde/news-and-information/press-releases/2025/02/20/dr-melba-joyce-boyd-award-winning-detroit-author-named-michigan-poet-laureate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said in a press release.</a> “Although I have lived in other states and other parts of the world, Michigan is where I was born and raised. I have spent most of my life here. This is where I became a poet, learned to appreciate and respect nature, and to cherish and inspire humanity. I look forward to sharing my poetry with a broad range of audiences across the two peninsulas and encouraging our young people to recognize the power of poetry to stimulate creative thinking and as a passionate cultural resource.”<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0}"> 
An award-winning author, Boyd has published 13 books, nine of which are poetry. Two of them, “<a href="https://aalbc.com/books/9780615312903">Death Dance of a Butterfly</a>” and “<a href="https://wsupress.wayne.edu/9780814334454/">Roses and Revolutions: The Selected Writings of Dudley Randall</a>,” have been selected as <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/libraryofmichigan/public/mnb">Michigan Notable Books</a> by the Library of Michigan. Her writing has also appeared in anthologies, academic journals, cultural periodicals and newspapers across the U.S. and Europe. In 2023, she was named the <a href="https://kresgeartsindetroit.org/artist/melba-joyce-boyd/">Kresge Eminent Artist</a>.
Boyd is a <a href="https://clas.wayne.edu/afamstudies/spotlights/melba-boyd-a-thought-leader-in-african-american-literature-and-cinema-107891">retired distinguished professor of African American Studies</a> at Wayne State University and is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Michigan’s Department of Afroamerican and African Studies. She received a Doctor of Arts in English from the University of Michigan, as well as master’s and bachelor’s degrees in English from Western Michigan University.
<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/about/who-is-detroit-pbs/senior-staff/stephen-henderson/">Host Stephen Henderson</a> sat down with Boyd to talk about her new position as Michigan poet laureate, the role other creative art forms play in poetry, and what influences her own writings. Plus, Boyd reads one of her many Detroit-centric poems, “Stage Black.”<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0}">

Detroit native Dr. Melba Joyce Boyd named Michigan’s third-ever poet laureate

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The Michigan Chronicle recently honored 50 outstanding Black women leaders at its 18th Annual &#8220;Women of Excellence&#8221; Awards. The awards highlight the extraordinary contributions of Black women in Michigan, recognizing those who have broken barriers, created new opportunities, and paved the way for others. Since its inception, the event has honored more than 900 women who are driving change in various industries across the state.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559685&quot;:-20,&quot;335559737&quot;:-20,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0}"> 
<a href="https://michiganchronicle.com/golden-night-of-excellence-50-women-honored-in-a-soulful-celebration-of-black-leadership/#:~:text=When%20Wendy%20Lewis%20Jackson%2C%20Managing,our%20communities%20and%20our%20people." target="_blank" rel="noopener">Among the recipients this year</a> are <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/meaghan-madison-13400b207/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Meaghan Madison</a>, the Vice President: Financial Center Manager of Bank of America, and <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/egle/about/team/strong-regina" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Regina Strong</a>, Head of the Office of the Environmental Justice Public Advocate for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE).<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559685&quot;:-20,&quot;335559737&quot;:-20,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0}"> 
In honor of Women&#8217;s History Month, “American Black Journal” host <a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/about/who-is-detroit-pbs/senior-staff/stephen-henderson/">Stephen Henderson</a> talks with Madison and Strong about what it means to be among this year’s recipients. They both reflect on their professional progress, the people who played key roles in their growth, and how rewarding their work has been.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559685&quot;:-20,&quot;335559737&quot;:-20,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0}"> 
<a href="https://kresge.org/person/wendy-lewis-jackson/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wendy Lewis Jackson</a>, Managing Director of the Detroit Program at The Kresge Foundation, was named 2025 Woman of the Year, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-forte-39a7896/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Linda Forte</a>, retired Senior Vice President at Comerica, earned the Lifetime Achievement Award. Charity R. Dean<a href="https://www.michigan.gov/mwc/commissioners/charity-r-dean">,</a> President and CEO of the <a href="https://youtu.be/bJB7Jv5VniQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Metro Detroit Black Business Alliance</a>, and <a href="http://s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Renee Fluker</a>, Founder and President of The Midnight Golf Program, both received the Vanguard Award.

Michigan Chronicle’s 2025 ‘Women of Excellence’ Awards honor 50 Black women leaders

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Detroit techno pioneer <a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/news-media/american-black-journal/techno-producer-carl-craig/">Carl Craig</a> is celebrating Black History Month with his “All Black Vinyl” series <a href="https://www.instagram.com/carlcraignet/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on Instagram</a>, where he showcases Black artists from his extensive record collection every Wednesday throughout February. <a href="https://www.diaart.blog/home/artistplaylistsallblackvinyl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The series</a>, now in its fifth year, highlights the rich legacy of Black musicians who have shaped genres, broken barriers and influenced music history. 
With the series, Craig not only celebrates the artistry of past and present Black musicians, but he also reflects on how his own career has been shaped by their influence. By sharing these vinyl selections, Craig invites his followers to learn about the impact of Black music and its impact on American history.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:0,&quot;335559737&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:240,&quot;335559739&quot;:240,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
BridgeDetroit <a href="https://www.bridgedetroit.com/about/our-team/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Engagement Editor Bryce Huffman</a> and “American Black Journal” <a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/about/who-is-detroit-pbs/senior-staff/daijah-moss/">contributor Daijah Moss</a> talked with Craig to learn more about the series. Craig shares why he created the series and the significance of highlighting African American contributions to music during Black History Month.

Carl Craig celebrates Black History Month with “All Black Vinyl” series

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Award-winning jazz bassist, educator and mentor <a href="https://kresgeartsindetroit.org/announcement/marion-hayden-named-2025-kresge-eminent-artist/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marion Hayden has been named</a> the 2025 Kresge Eminent Artist, which is regarded as metro Detroit’s highest honor for lifetime artistic achievement. At 68, Hayden is the youngest artist to ever receive the award. She is also the second recipient to have previously been awarded a Kresge Artist Fellowship, which she received in 2016. 
The Kresge Eminent Artist award includes a $100,000 monetary prize, along with a short film and a monograph celebrating Hayden’s life and career. With this recognition, <a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/news-media/one-detroit/detroit-jazz-bassist-marion-hayden-discusses-detroits-renowned-jazz-culture/">Hayden</a> joins a select group of jazz musicians, becoming the third to receive the award and the first from her generation.
Born and raised in Detroit, <a href="https://kresgeartsindetroit.org/artist/marion-hayden/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hayden began her musical journey</a> at nine years old and throughout her career has performed with Marcus Belgrave, Wendell Harrison, Nancy Wilson, Geri Allen, <a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/news-media/american-black-journal/detroit-born-violinist-regina-carter-receives-2023-nea-jazz-master-award/">Regina Carter</a> and James Carter. Hayden is also a co-founder of the Grammy-nominated all-woman jazz ensemble <a href="https://youtu.be/1RGWO_L5TYg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Straight Ahead</a>. Additionally, she has made significant contributions to the education and mentorship of young jazz musicians.
<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/about/who-is-detroit-pbs/senior-staff/stephen-henderson/">Host Stephen Henderson</a> talks with Hayden about her musical journey, which began in the Detroit Public Schools Community District. They talk about Detroit’s jazz legacy and the legendary musicians that have influenced her along the way. Plus, she performs in-studio.

Detroit jazz legend Marion Hayden named 2025 Kresge Eminent Artist

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PBS is set to premiere a new documentary series, “Great Migrations: People on the Move,” with the first episode airing on Jan. 28. From host, writer, and executive producer <a href="https://www.pbs.org/franchise/henry-louis-gates-jr/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Henry Louis </a>Gates Jr., the four-part series examines the historic migration of African Americans from the South to northern and western cities between 1910 and 1970 and the impact on U.S. culture, politics and society.
<a href="https://www.pbs.org/show/great-migrations-a-people-on-the-move/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Through four episodes</a>, “Great Migrations” explores the initial wave of Black migration, driven by the search for better economic opportunities, as well as the &#8220;New Great Migration,&#8221; when African Americans moved back to the South following the Civil Rights Movement. The series also examines the &#8220;Next Great Migration,&#8221; which highlights the influx of Caribbean and African immigrants and their growing influence on American society. 
Detroit emerged as a key destination for many in the first wave of the Great Migration. <a href="https://michigancentral.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michigan Central Station</a>, where Gates previewed the series on Jan. 23, served as a gateway of opportunity for those arriving in the city. The series highlights how this migration reshaped Detroit and helped define its culture as a predominantly Black city. It also explores the struggle for civil rights, the political mobilization of African Americans, and the impact of neo-slavery on migration patterns. 
American Black Journal contributor Orlando Bailey, <a href="https://outliermedia.org/meet-orlando-bailey-outlier-media-detroit-new-executive-director/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">executive director of Outlier Media</a>, sat down with Gates at Michigan Central Station to discuss the docuseries. They talk about Detroit’s significance in the Great Migration, the three waves of African American migration, and the impact of not growing up in the Jim Crow South.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. discusses ‘Great Migrations’ docuseries and its connection to Detroit

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Michigan Supreme Court Justice Kyra Harris Bolden secured a victory in the Nov. 5 election to retain her seat on the state’s highest court. <a href="https://www.courts.michigan.gov/courts/supreme-court/justices/justice-kyra-h.-bolden/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bolden</a>, who was <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/news/press-releases/2022/11/22/gov-whitmer-announces-historic-selection" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appointed to the court in 2023</a> by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to fill the vacancy left by Justice Bridget Mary McCormack, defeated Branch County Circuit Judge <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Patrick_W._O%27Grady" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Patrick William O’Grady</a> with 61% of the vote.
The win enables Bolden to serve out the remaining four years of McCormack’s term. The 39-year-old is the first Black woman to serve on the state’s highest court and the youngest justice in its history. Throughout her campaign, Bolden focused on improving equity within Michigan’s justice system. Since assuming office on January 1, 2023, Bolden has been part of several key rulings, including landmark decisions on <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/leo/news/2024/10/01/michigan-minimum-wage-rate-2025-increase-schedule" target="_blank" rel="noopener">minimum wage laws</a> and election candidate eligibility. <span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559685&quot;:-20,&quot;335559737&quot;:-20,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0}"> 
Born and raised in Southfield, Bolden earned her high school diploma from Southfield High School, then went on to graduate from Grand Valley State University in 2010. She earned her law degree from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law in 2013. Bolden’s professional journey includes serving as a civil litigation attorney, criminal defense attorney, and judge. She also represented her community as a member of the <a href="https://www.house.mi.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michigan State House</a> from 2019 to 2023.
<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/shows/american-black-journal/about/meet-the-team/">Host Stephen Henderson</a> speaks with Bolden about her historic election victory. Plus, Bolden talks about the goals she has set for herself, and the importance of addressing the systemic barriers that have made it difficult for African Americans and women to serve on the State Supreme Court.

Michigan Supreme Court Justice Kyra Harris Bolden the first Black woman, youngest justice in court’s history

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Award-winning actor, writer, and director <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0809793/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Roger Guenveur Smith</a> was in Detroit recently for <a href="https://www.thewright.org/wright-performances-roger-guenveur-smith">three solo performances</a> at The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History’s newly renovated theater. The one-man plays pay homage to Frederick Douglass, Otto Frank and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Smith’s one-man shows are kicking off the premiere of “<a href="https://www.thewright.org/wright-conversations-wright-performances" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Wright Performances</a>,” a curated collection of events featuring dynamic performers chosen by The Charles H. Wright Museum’s President &amp; CEO Neil Barclay. 
Best known for his collaborations with Spike Lee and roles in movies like &#8220;Do The Right Thing,&#8221; &#8220;Malcolm X,&#8221; and &#8221; American Gangster,&#8221; Smith joined American Black Journal contributor <a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/shows/american-black-journal/about/meet-the-team/">Cecelia Sharpe of 90.9 WRCJ</a> to talk about the major role literature has played in his life and his collaborations with filmmaker Spike Lee.
In an extended interview with Sharpe, Smith also takes us on a trip down memory lane, recounting his introduction to the world of acting, his three solo performances, and the moving inspiration from his dear friend, the late <a href="https://basquiat.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jean-Michel Basquiat</a>. Watch the <a href="https://youtu.be/vAJ6C2Qk4ig" target="_blank" rel="noopener">extended interview here</a>.
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Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.onedetroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.
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Watch American Black Journal on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit PBS, WTVS-Channel 56.

Actor Roger Guenveur Smith visits The Wright Museum, discusses his collaborations with Spike Lee

Award-winning poet jessica Care moore discusses her role as Detroit’s new Poet Laureate

Earlier this year, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced jessica Care moore will serve as the city’s new Poet Laureate. Based in Detroit, <a href="https://www.jessicacaremoore.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">moore is an award-winning poet</a>, activist, and filmmaker. She succeeds the late <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/naomi-long-madgett" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Naomi Long Madgett</a>, a revered figure in the city’s literary history. <span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
In her role as <a href="https://detroitmi.gov/news/mayor-detroit-ace-and-ford-foundation-announce-jessica-care-moore-new-detroit-poet-laureate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Poet Laureate</a>, she will be responsible for leading poetry events across Detroit, delivering an annual address at the Detroit Public Library, and participating in programs that reflect the city’s diversity. She will also compose a special poem for a year-end presentation.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
Moore is the founder of <a href="https://blackwomenrock.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Black WOMEN Rock! – Daughters of Betty</a>, an organization that has long championed women’s empowerment through music. She also established The Moore Art House, a nonprofit focused on enhancing literacy through the arts, and Moore Black Press. <span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
In 2023, Moore gained attention as the new voice of Pure Michigan, with her poem “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYLzSkFhz3c" target="_blank" rel="noopener">I Am Detroit Summer</a>” receiving acclaim for its celebration of the city’s working class spirit. Additionally, her 2022 poem, “<a href="https://equilibrium.gucci.com/celebrating-detroit-with-an-original-poem-by-jessica-care-moore/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">We Wear The Working Day</a>,” commissioned by Gucci, was displayed at <a href="https://ash.world/hotels/the-siren/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Siren Hotel</a> in Detroit.
<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/american-black-journal/contributors/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Host Stephen Henderson</a> sits down with <a href="https://www.instagram.com/jessicacaremoor/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">moore</a> to talk about her appointment to the role of Detroit Poet Laureate and her responsibilities.  She discusses how she came to love poetry and its impact on people. She also talks about the 20th anniversary of the Black Women Rock concert, which <a href="https://visitdetroit.com/events/jessica-care-moore-presents-black-women-rock-20th-anniversary/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">takes place on Aug. 31</a> at The Fillmore Detroit, and other creative projects including her feature film debut.
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<h2>Stay Connected: </h2>
Subscribe to Detroit PBS’<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/detroitpublictv56"> YouTube Channel</a> and don’t miss &#8220;American Black Journal&#8221; on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit PBS, WTVS-Channel 56.
Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.
<h3><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/">View Past Episodes &gt;</a></h3>
Watch American Black Journal on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit PBS, WTVS-Channel 56.

<li>Detroit Public Theater partnership/collaborative</li>

Born and raised in Detroit, <a href="https://www.blkbok.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Charles Wilson III</a>, known professionally as BLKBOK, has carved a unique path in the music world. Identified as a piano prodigy by the age of eight, Wilson’s early accolades in statewide competitions showcased his talent. His professional name, BLKBOK, reflects a homage to renowned composer Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as his deep roots in pop and hip-hop culture.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
BLKBOK’s debut album, “<a href="https://blkbok.ffm.to/blackbook" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Black Book</a>,” was a breakout success, earning recognition from The New York Times as one of the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/30/arts/music/classical-music-albums-june.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">5 Classical Albums to Listen to Right Now</a>.” This album established his innovative voice in the music industry, blending classical piano with contemporary influences. Collaborative works, such as “Angels Watching Over Me” with Lawrence Brownlee, further highlight his versatility and creative breadth.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:240,&quot;335559739&quot;:240,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
In a notable career milestone, BLKBOK’s original track “Stars (Ad Astra)” was the first piano duet performed from space, underscoring his commitment to pushing musical boundaries. His <a href="https://lnk.dmsmusic.co/blkbok_9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sophomore album</a>, “9,” pays tribute to the Little Rock 9, exploring themes of disparity, equity, and Black excellence.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:240,&quot;335559739&quot;:240,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
For <a href="https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/celebrating-black-music-month#:~:text=June%20is%20African%20American%20Music,our%20nation's%20treasured%20cultural%20heritage." target="_blank" rel="noopener">Black Music Month</a>, BLKBOK talks with “American Black Journal” guest host Trudy Gallant-Stokes about how he blends classical and contemporary music, the significance of his name, his parents’ influence, and Detroit’s impact on his career.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:240,&quot;335559739&quot;:240,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
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<h2>Stay Connected: </h2>
Subscribe to Detroit PBS’<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/detroitpublictv56"> YouTube Channel</a> and don’t miss &#8220;American Black Journal&#8221; on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit PBS, WTVS-Channel 56.
Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.
<h3><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/">View Past Episodes &gt;</a></h3>
Watch American Black Journal on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit PBS, WTVS-Channel 56.

Detroit piano prodigy BLKBOK bridges classical and contemporary to create his unique sound

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A new exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts pays homage to Black Detroiter’s style and culture. <a href="https://dia.org/events/exhibitions/tiff-massey-7-mile-livernois" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The exhibit</a>, “7 Mile + Livernois,” was created by Detroit artist Tiff Massey, the youngest artist to exhibit at the museum. Massey, a metalsmith and sculptor, shares the memories of her upbringing near Detroit’s 7 Mile and Livernois “Avenue of Fashion” corridor in her exhibit, the largest by a Detroit artist to appear at the DIA. She specializes in creating jewelry, installations, public art, and wearable sculptures.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559685&quot;:-20,&quot;335559737&quot;:-20,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
At the heart of &#8220;7 Mile + Livernois&#8221; is an exploration of identity, community, and heritage. Massey&#8217;s sculptures draw inspiration from the history of West African and Black American culture and style, reflecting also on the evolution of Detroit&#8217;s neighborhoods. Through her art, she invites viewers to engage with the art in public spaces.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559685&quot;:-20,&quot;335559737&quot;:-20,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
<figure id="attachment_35714" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35714" style="width: 650px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-35714" src="https://wordpress.detroitpbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/ABJ5224-FullEp-Thumbnail.png" alt="&quot;Tiff Massey: 7 Mile + Livernois&quot; exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts" width="650" height="366" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-35714" class="wp-caption-text">Detroit artist Tiff Massey&#8217;s &#8220;7 Mile + Livernois&#8221; exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts. | Photo by American Black Journal</figcaption></figure>
Massey’s exhibit has also sparked new collaborations with <a href="https://dia.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the DIA</a>, which has led to the creation of new sculptures within the museum’s vast collection. Her artistic vision extends beyond the museum too, with plans for a new art and community space in the neighborhood that inspired her work.
<a href="https://x.com/SHDetroit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Host Stephen Henderson</a> talks with <a href="https://tiffmassey.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Massey</a> about why she named the exhibit after the Detroit neighborhood where she grew up. They also discuss the meaning behind the large-scale sculptures she created to celebrate Detroiters, the Avenue of Fashion, and how Black people adorn themselves.
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<h2>Stay Connected: </h2>
Subscribe to Detroit PBS’<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/detroitpublictv56"> YouTube Channel</a> and don’t miss &#8220;American Black Journal&#8221; on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit PBS, WTVS-Channel 56.
Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.
<h3><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/">View Past Episodes &gt;</a></h3>
Watch American Black Journal on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit PBS, WTVS-Channel 56.

Tiff Massey’s ‘7 Mile + Livernois’ exhibit celebrates Black Detroiters’ style and culture

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The <a href="https://dabodetroitinc.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Detroit Association of Black Organizations</a> (DABO) has launched a Community Empowerment Speaker Series with the aim to enlighten and energize Detroit residents through insightful lectures and conversations. <a href="https://dabodetroitinc.com/speaker-series/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The free series</a>, led by DABO, features a lineup of well-known entertainers, activists, academics and journalists speaking on some of the critical issues impacting the Black community. <span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
Among the notable speakers who have already participated are CBS National News Correspondent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts4f_mZLzHQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jerika Duncan</a>, renowned obesity physician <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riPX9ULZ6cI" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fatima Cody Stanford</a>, and attorney <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsAVRmCbmr8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Corey Minor Smith</a>. Additional upcoming speakers include Radio DJ and TV Personality Donnie Simpson, Law Professor Stacy Hawkins, GRAMMY-nominated artist Mumu Fresh, Project Restart Founder Tiffany Kirk, Professor of Global Black Studies Dr. James Peterson, and Journalist Roland Martin. <span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
The guest speakers will discuss their views on empowerment and community progress. DABO CEO <a href="https://horacesheffield.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rev. Horace Sheffield III</a> says the speaker series will also emphasize the importance of civic engagement, particularly encouraging voter turnout in the upcoming November elections.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
RELATED: 
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/american-black-journal/detroit-lacks-black-representation-in-congress/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">For first time in nearly 70 years, Detroit lacks Black representation in Congress</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/american-black-journal/adolph-mongo-on-detroits-black-political-past-and-present/">A shift in representation: Detroit’s Black political past and present with Adolph Mongo</a></li>
</ul>
<a href="https://x.com/SHDetroit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Host Stephen Henderson</a> talks with Sheffield about the series and some of the notable speakers involved, as well as the importance of getting out the vote during the 2024 presidential election.
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<h2>Stay Connected: </h2>
Subscribe to Detroit PBS’<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/detroitpublictv56"> YouTube Channel</a> and don’t miss &#8220;American Black Journal&#8221; on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit PBS, WTVS-Channel 56.
Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.
<h3><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/">View Past Episodes &gt;</a></h3>
Watch American Black Journal on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit PBS, WTVS-Channel 56.

Detroit Association of Black Organizations launches free Community Empowerment Speaker Series

Screenshot 2024-09-19 at 10.49.41

The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History <a href="https://www.thewright.org/news/charles-h-wright-museum-presents-works-cch-pounder-kone-collection-double-id" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has opened</a> “Double ID,” a new art exhibit featuring 54 works from the private collection of acclaimed actress CCH Pounder. Running through Oct. 20, <a href="https://www.thewright.org/exhibitions/double-id" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the exhibit</a> showcases the CCH Pounder-Koné Collection and delves into the representation of Black men through the lens of W.E.B. Du Bois’ <a href="https://study.com/learn/lesson/video/web-du-bois-double-consciousness-overview-background-examples.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">theory of “double consciousness,”</a> which depicts the complex inner lives and identities of Black men.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559685&quot;:-20,&quot;335559737&quot;:-20,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
The exhibit brings together an intergenerational group of artists from across the African diaspora, offering a complex portrayal of Black masculinity and challenging historical and cultural stereotypes through artistic expressions. Artists featured in the exhibit include <a href="https://www.instagram.com/gregbaileyart/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Greg Bailey</a>, <a href="https://nmwa.org/art/artists/elizabeth-catlett/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elizabeth Catlett</a>, <a href="https://www.louisdelsarte.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Louis Delsarte</a>, <a href="https://kristinhjellegjerde.com/artists/257-tewodros-hagos/overview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tewodros Hagos</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sesseelangwe/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sesse Ngeselin-Elangwe</a>, <a href="https://www.fahamupecouart.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fahamu Pecou</a>, <a href="https://ebonygpatterson.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ebony G. Patterson</a>, <a href="https://www.moma.org/artists/26555" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Malick Sidibé</a>, <a href="https://alexitorres.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alexi Torres</a>, and <a href="https://kehindewiley.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kehinde Wiley</a>.
In addition to her notable film and television roles, including “NCIS: New Orleans” and “ER,” Pounder is celebrated for her extensive art collection and dedication to the arts. Her collection, comprising over 500 works, has been showcased in numerous exhibitions including “<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/one-detroit/cch-pounder-art-exhibit-queen/">QUEEN: From the Collection of CCH Pounder</a>,” which was on display at The Wright in 2020.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559738&quot;:300,&quot;335559739&quot;:300,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
Host <a href="https://x.com/SHDetroit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stephen Henderson</a> sits down with <a href="https://cchpounder.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pounder</a> at The Wright to discuss the significance of the exhibit’s title and its thematic connection to Du Bois’ theory. She also shared insights into her passion for art and her own creative pursuits both on-screen and in visual arts.
<h2>Stay Connected: </h2>
Subscribe to Detroit Public Television’s<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/detroitpublictv56"> YouTube Channel</a> &amp; Don’t miss American Black Journal on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit Public TV, WTVS-Channel 56.
Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.
<h3><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/">View Past Episodes &gt;</a></h3>
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The Wright Museum opens ‘Double ID’ exhibit from TV actress, art collector CCH Pounder

Brian-Blade-DJF-2024

The Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation has announced acclaimed drummer, composer, and bandleader Brian Blade as the <a href="https://www.detroitjazzfest.org/press-release/drummer-composer-bandleader-brian-blade-named-as-2024-artist-in-residence/">artist-in-residence for the upcoming Detroit Jazz Festival</a>. This two-time Grammy Award winner musician is set to take center stage during the Labor Day weekend festivities. The 2024 festival will take place from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2 in downtown Detroit.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
Hailing from Shreveport, Louisiana, <a href="https://www.brianblade.com/">Blade</a> grew from his gospel roots to becoming one of the most revered jazz drummers in the nation. As the 2024 artist-in-residence, Blade will not only participate in multiple performances but also actively engage with educational initiatives and community outreach programs spearheaded by the Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
RELATED: 
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<li><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/one-detroit/detroit-jazz-festival-announces-2023-lineup-featuring-artist-in-residence-karriem-riggins/">Karriem Riggins announced as 2023 Detroit Jazz Festival artist-in-residence with lineup of local jazz masters</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/american-black-journal/2023-detroit-jazz-festival-to-feature-nea-jazz-masters-performances-tribute-to-gretchen-valade/">44th Detroit Jazz Festival to feature NEA Jazz Masters’ performances, tribute to Gretchen Valade</a></li>
</ul>
Among the highlights of Blade&#8217;s residency was a special festival preview event at the <a href="https://music.wayne.edu/gvjc">Gretchen C. Valade Jazz Center</a> on the Wayne State University campus on April 10 featuring an exclusive performance by Brian Blade &amp; The Fellowship Band. Watch a portion of Blade’s performance. <span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
Blade&#8217;s band, <a href="https://www.brianblade.com/bands/the-fellowship-band" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Fellowship Band</a>, boasts a discography spanning 25 years, with seven critically acclaimed recordings to their name. From their debut album in 1998 to the latest release, &#8220;Kings Highway&#8221; in 2023, Blade and his ensemble have consistently pushed the boundaries of jazz, captivating audiences worldwide with their innovative sound.
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<h2>Stay Connected: </h2>
Subscribe to Detroit Public Television’s<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/detroitpublictv56"> YouTube Channel</a> and don’t miss American Black Journal on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit Public TV, WTVS-Channel 56.
Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.
<h3><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/">View Past Episodes &gt;</a></h3>
Watch American Black Journal on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit Public TV, WTVS-Channel 56.

2024 Detroit Jazz Festival artist-in-residence Brian Blade and The Fellowship Band perform

Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump talks social

Renowned civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump recently graced the stage for the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History’s <a href="https://www.thewright.org/programs/wright-conversations-benjamin-crump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Wright Conversations lecture series</a>. Crump’s appearance offered profound insights into pressing issues of social justice and legal advocacy.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
During his remarks, Crump discussed the need for justice and equality in contemporary society. Drawing from his extensive experience in the legal arena, he shed light on the challenges faced by marginalized communities and emphasized the role of advocacy in creating change. As the founder and principal owner of <a href="https://bencrump.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ben Crump Law</a>, Crump has solidified his reputation as a stalwart champion of civil rights, earning the moniker “Black America’s Attorney General.”<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559685&quot;:0,&quot;335559737&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:300,&quot;335559739&quot;:300,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
The Wright Conversations series, curated by Neil A. Barclay, President and CEO of the <a href="https://www.thewright.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Charles H. Wright Museum</a>, serves as a platform for dynamic discourse on pivotal issues ranging from civic engagement to cultural heritage. By hosting esteemed speakers like Benjamin Crump, the series aims to foster insightful conversations that resonate with the Detroit community and beyond.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559738&quot;:300,&quot;335559739&quot;:300,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
Watch an excerpt from Crump’s address, where he talks about achieving racial and social justice and making this world a better place for our children’s future. Plus, watch the full lecture <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xPiW80BCMs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here.</a>
<h2>Stay Connected: </h2>
Subscribe to Detroit Public Television’s<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/detroitpublictv56"> YouTube Channel</a> and don’t miss American Black Journal on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit Public TV, WTVS-Channel 56.
Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.
<h3><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/">View Past Episodes &gt;</a></h3>
Watch American Black Journal on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit Public TV, WTVS-Channel 56.

Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump talks social, racial justice during The Wright Conversations

Student Advocacy Center of Michigan

A new documentary details the extraordinary life and career of African American poet Nikki Giovanni. The HBO original documentary, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyb3NV1U9SA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project,</a>” premiered in January and is now available to <a href="https://www.max.com/movies/going-to-mars-the-nikki-giovanni-project/851ad3b3-c7ea-4e3d-af7c-06045a93f922" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stream on MAX</a>. The film chronicles Giovanni’s rise to fame and the impact she’s had on American culture. Giovanni discussed the documentary during the Charles H. Wright Museum’s “The Wright Conversations” series on March 13. The museum will <a href="https://www.thewright.org/programs/going-mars-nikki-giovanni-project" target="_blank" rel="noopener">show the documentary</a> for free on Sunday, March 24. <span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559685&quot;:-20,&quot;335559737&quot;:-20,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
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<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xPiW80BCMs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Wright Conversations Presents: Benjamin Crump</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/american-black-journal/alexander-smalls-joins-the-wright-conversation-lecture-series/">James Beard chef, author and restaurateur Alexander Smalls joins “The Wright Conversation” series</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/american-black-journal/oscar-winning-costume-designer-ruth-e-carter-exhibits-black-panther-wakanda-forever-costumes-at-the-wright-museum/">Ruth E. Carter exhibits costumes from iconic Black films at The Wright Museum</a></li>
</ul>
As one of the nation’s most widely read poets, <a href="https://nikki-giovanni.com/biography/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Giovanni</a> has earned numerous awards throughout her career as a writer, including seven Image Awards from the N.A.A.C.P., the first Rosa Parks Woman of Courage Award, the Langston Hughes Medal for Poetry, and more. In 2005, Oprah Winfrey recognized Giovanni as one of 25 “Living Legends.” Giovanni continues to write and publish, with her latest collection <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/make-me-rain-nikki-giovanni?variant=33051652522018" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Make Me Rain,”</a> released in October 2020. <span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335557856&quot;:16777215,&quot;335559685&quot;:-20,&quot;335559737&quot;:-20,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
“American Black Journal” contributor <a href="https://www.wrcjfm.org/about/staff/cecelia-sharpe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cecelia Sharpe of 90.9 WRCJ</a> sat down with Giovanni at <a href="https://www.thewright.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Wright Museum</a> for a wide-ranging conversation about her life, career, literary works and plans for the future. Giovanni talks about how her career got off the ground after she convinced the famous Birdland Jazz Club in New York to host readings of her poems.
She also explains how her mother’s love of jazz-inspired many of her works and what led her to create her popular “Quilts” poem. Plus, Giovanni discusses the “Going to Mars” documentary about her life and talks about her fascination with outer space and the solar system. She closes out the interview by reading a poem from her book, <a href="https://nikki-giovanni.com/works/poetry/the-collected-poetry-of-nikki-giovanni/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998.”</a>
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Poet Nikki Giovanni discusses her literary works, outer space and a new documentary about her life

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Many electronic music aficionados likely know the origin of techno music in Detroit. It’s a conversation that includes pioneering African American producer Carl Craig, a leading figure in the second wave of Detroit techno. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Craig">The Detroit-born producer</a> has found acclaim as a techno artist, Grammy-nominated producer, label manager and music festival creator.  
Craig’s music career started in 1989 under a number of aliases — 69, BFC, Psyche, Innerzone Orchestra, No Boundaries and several others. In 1991, Craig opened his own music label, Planet E Communications, followed by the release of his first studio album in 1995.  
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In 2000 and 2001, Craig served as the co-creator and artistic director of the Detroit Electronic Music Festival. He received a Grammy nomination in 2008 for his mix of Junior Boys’ “Like a Child.” For Black History Month, contributor Stephen Henderson, host of “American Black Journal,” sat down with Craig for a conversation about techno’s Black roots in Detroit.  
Craig shares memories of growing up in Detroit and how his role models – techno artists <a href="https://www.instagram.com/juan.cybotron.atkins/">Juan Atkins</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/kevinsaunderson/?hl=en">Kevin Saunderson</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/derrickmay/?hl=en">Derrick May</a> – created a music genre that now dominates the electronic music scene around the world. He also talks about the importance and influence of the Black music experience locally and globally. 
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Techno’s African American roots: Pioneering producer Carl Craig on carving a lane for Black electronic music

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Tracing one’s family roots is a journey of self-discovery, but for many African Americans, it’s a path fraught with challenges. The ability to trace ancestral roots has often been hindered by the scarcity of pre-1870 census records, and any records that were kept by enslaved individuals were often handwritten, poorly maintained and lost over time. <span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}"> 
Nearly four-in-ten (41%) Black adults report their ancestors were enslaved in the United States, according to a <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/race-ethnicity/2022/04/14/black-americans-family-history-slavery-and-knowledge-of-black-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2022 Pew Research Study</a>. One-third (34%) say they are not sure if their ancestors were enslaved, while 8% say their ancestors were not enslaved.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}"> 
RELATED: <a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/american-black-journal/tracing-your-family-roots-with-tony-burroughs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tracing your family roots: The unique challenges faced by African Americans</a>
<figure id="attachment_33505" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-33505" style="width: 650px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-33505" src="https://wordpress.detroitpbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2-1.png" alt="Rose Morton traces her ancestry" width="650" height="366" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-33505" class="wp-caption-text">Rose Morton shares some of the research she uncovered while tracing her ancestry and learning about her family tree with &#8220;American Black Journal&#8221; contributor Daijah Moss. | Photo by American Black Journal</figcaption></figure>
Amidst African Americans’ challenge to trace their ancestry, Rose Morton has emerged as an example of the poignant history that can be discovered by finding your roots. In Morton’s book, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Familys-Keepers-Rose-Ella-Morton/dp/B0B5KXF4K9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Our Family’s Keepers</a>,” she chronicles her ancestors’ story set against the backdrop of the renowned Middleton Plantation in South Carolina. Morton&#8217;s narrative delves into the complexities of slave life, exploring controversial and dynamic issues faced by enslaved African Americans and their owner and shedding light on the resilience and strength that shaped their destinies.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}"> 
In a conversation with Rose Morton, “American Black Journal” contributor Daijah Moss delves into the intricacies of Morton&#8217;s quest for identity and the profound impact it had on her and others connected to the <a href="https://www.middletonplace.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Middleton Plantation</a>. Plus, Morton provides a powerful testament to the importance of understanding and embracing history, no matter how challenging or painful it may be.
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Rose Morton unravels her family’s history of slavery in her book ‘Our Family’s Keepers’

Detroit and the nation are mourning the loss of one of this country’s most influential African American ministers. <a href="https://hmbcdetroit.org/dr-charles-g-adams/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rev. Dr. Charles G. Adams</a>, pastor emeritus of Detroit’s <a href="https://hmbcdetroit.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hartford Memorial Baptist Church</a>, passed away last month at the age of 86. He left behind an enduring legacy as a prominent minister, civil rights activist, and community service leader.
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<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-58eKFII2E" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rev. Charles G. Adams of Detroit’s Hartford Memorial Baptist Church celebrates 50 years as pastor</a></li>
</ul>
“American Black Journal” host <a href="https://twitter.com/SHDetroit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stephen Henderson</a> sits down for a conversation with Rev. Adams’ son, <a href="https://hmbcdetroit.org/our-pastor/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rev. Charles Christian Adams</a>, who became the senior pastor at Hartford when his father retired in 2019 after more than 50 years in the pulpit. Pastor Adams reflects on his father’s many contributions and achievements, including serving as president of the <a href="https://www.detroitnaacp.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Detroit Branch NAACP</a>, being among the first to ordain women into the ministry, and traveling to the Mideast with then-President Bill Clinton for the signing of the Jordan-Israel peace treaty in 1994.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}"> 
Plus, Pastor Adams, who is a member of American Black Journal’s “<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/abj-church/">Black Church in Detroit</a>” advisory committee, also talks about his relationship with his dad and the profound impact of the loss of his father on his life.
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Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.
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Remembering the legacy of African American minister Rev. Dr. Charles G. Adams

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This story was updated on February 1, 2024.
<a href="https://twitter.com/IamRobEdwards" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rob Edwards</a>, a Detroit-born screenwriter best known for Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog” and “Treasure Planet,” and the TV shows “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air&#8221; and “In Living Color,” has a new graphic novel set to release in February 2024 detailing a little-known, yet highly prominent figure of America’s Black history: Robert Smalls.
Titled “Defiant,” <a href="https://join.legionm.com/robert-smalls-defiant/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the graphic novel</a> chronicles the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/which-slave-sailed-himself-to-freedom/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">extraordinary life of Smalls,</a> who as a 23-year-old slave successfully commandeered a Confederate Civil War ship and surrendered it to the Union Army, before joining the Union Army and becoming a war hero himself. Smalls went on to run for Congress five times, and won, the longest-serving Black congressman during Reconstruction, among several other successes.  
Volume One of Edward&#8217;s graphic novel is set for a digital release in late February, during Black History Month. The release date for a  physical copy of &#8220;Defiant&#8221; has not yet been announced. Subsequent volumes of the graphic novel are expected to be released throughout the year.
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“He started a printing press. He started a railroad. He’s the reason why we have Black people in the military, because they showed courage, you know, intelligence and strength. He’s the reason why we have public schools,” Edwards said during an interview with One Detroit’s Chris Jordan. It’s a story Edwards felt compelled to tell as a Black author and one that readers were hungry to get their hands on. The graphic novel has been backed by almost 2,000 supporters, bringing more than $150,000 on <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/legionmofficial/defiant-the-story-of-robert-smalls/community" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kickstarter</a> to help fund the project.  
<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/about/contributors/#chris">One Detroit’s Chris Jordan</a> caught up with Edwards on a recent visit home to Michigan, at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/p/Comics-More-100051183056045/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Comics &amp; More</a> in Madison Heights, where they talked about “Defiant,” the support he’s received through Kickstarter, and why a comic book is a perfect, if unorthodox, way to teach kids Black history. 
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Rob Edwards’ forthcoming graphic novel details a little-known story in America’s Black history

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Nicole Wells Stallworth <a href="https://www.thechildrenscenter.com/2023/05/31/nicole-wells-stallworth-tapped-to-lead-the-childrens-center-as-new-ceo/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has been selected</a> as the new Chief Executive Officer of The Children&#8217;s Center, a long-standing nonprofit that has advocated for Detroit-area children and families since 1929. Stallworth began her new role on July 10. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/debora-matthews-4b7a2316/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Former CEO Debora Matthews</a> stayed with the company post-retirement to provide support in the changeover. She spent nearly two decades of her career with The Children’s Center. 
<a href="https://www.thechildrenscenter.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Children’s Center</a> Board of Directors CEO Search Committee felt Wells Stallworth’s two decades of leadership experience in issues related to equity and quality of life made her the ideal choice after a year-long, nationwide search. Her diverse expertise in nonprofit management, advocacy, child welfare and more positions her to lead the center into a new era.  
Stallworth previously served as the executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan. As she takes the reins of The Children’s Center, she plans to continue building upon the momentum and legacy of the organization with a focus on the stability, success, and growth of families in the region. 
In a conversation with host <a href="https://twitter.com/SHDetroit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stephen Henderson</a>, Wells Stallworth shared her vision for the organization, expressing her commitment to shaping better futures and life outcomes for the community. She talked about her focus on children’s mental and emotional health, particularly addressing the <a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/american-black-journal/how-covid-has-impacted-childrens-mental-health/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic</a>. Plus, she details The Children’s Center’s clinical services, which treat and help prevent behavioral, emotional, developmental and educational challenges in children and youth. 
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New CEO Nicole Wells Stallworth leads The Children’s Center into new era with focus on children’s mental health

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As one of the first African American operatic performers, renowned tenor and trailblazer George Shirley’s contributions to the world of opera and his enduring commitment to music education have left an indelible mark on the industry. Notably, he was the first African American tenor and the second African American male to sing leading roles with the <a href="https://www.metopera.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Metropolitan Opera</a>, where he graced the stage for an impressive eleven years. <span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}"> 
<figure id="attachment_32941" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-32941" style="width: 144px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-32941" src="https://wordpress.detroitpbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GeorgeShirley1-1-e1698182121481.jpg" alt="Cecelia Sharpe and George Shirley" width="144" height="250" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-32941" class="wp-caption-text">Cecelia Sharpe and George Shirley at Shirley&#8217;s home.</figcaption></figure>
His achievements extended beyond the spotlight as the first Black member of the United States Army Chorus in Washington, D.C. and the first African American to hold a high school music teaching post in Detroit. Shirley has a music education career spanning nearly five decades, and he is a Grammy Award-winning artist who has been passionate about the profound value of music education and the pivotal role it plays in nurturing future talent.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:0,&quot;335559737&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}"> 
In a candid and insightful discussion, Shirley sat down for an exclusive one-on-one conversation with 90.9 WRCJ contributor Cecelia Sharpe about his remarkable entry into the opera scene and his history as a music educator. He also talks about his dedication to championing classical works by Black composers and emphasizing the importance of recognizing and preserving this rich musical heritage.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}"> 
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African American tenor, trailblazer George Shirley reflects on his storied career

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In the vibrant city of Detroit, the intertwined issues of affordable housing and homelessness form a complex tapestry that weaves through the lives of its residents. The struggle to secure safe and affordable housing has become a pressing concern for many individuals and families, while homelessness threatens to erode the stability and well-being of those already struggling to make ends meet.  
RELATED: <a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/american-black-journal/detroits-affordable-housing-shortage-intertwines-with-homelessness-amplifying-hardships-for-residents/">Detroit’s affordable housing shortage intertwines with homelessness, amplifying hardships for residents</a>
For Tonya Hogan, that stability crumbled after losing her husband to COVID-19. Without him, Hogan found herself homeless, experiencing the challenges of trying to find quality housing again. Sitting down with BridgeDetroit and Detroit Free Press <a href="https://www.bridgedetroit.com/author/nushrat-rahman/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reporter Nushrat Rahman</a>, Hogan delves into the intricate connection between affordable housing and homelessness in Detroit, shedding light on the challenges faced by its residents as they navigate these profound hardships. 
RELATED: <a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/american-black-journal/pope-francis-center-mariners-inn-working-to-curb-chronic-homelessness-in-detroit/">Pope Francis Center, Mariners Inn working to curb chronic homelessness in Detroit</a>
RELATED: <a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/american-black-journal/united-way-alice-report-2023/">United Way ALICE Report highlights the magnitude of financial hardship for some Michigan families</a>
Plus, <a href="https://drmm.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries</a> CEO Dr. Chad Audi talks about the increased number of families seeking shelter, and David Bowser from the City of Detroit shares a few programs the city offers to help individuals and families experiencing housing emergencies. 
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<h2>Stay Connected: </h2>
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Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.
<h3><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/">View Past Episodes &gt;</a></h3>
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A Detroit woman found herself homeless after losing her husband to COVID-19

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Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, the trailblazing <a href="https://www.arts.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Endowment for the Arts</a> (NEA) Chair, will speak to a public audience during an upcoming conversation at the <a href="https://www.thewright.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History</a> in Detroit as part of the <a href="https://www.concertofcolors.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 Concert of Colors</a>, Michigan&#8217;s largest free diversity festival.  
<a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-conversation-with-nea-chair-maria-rosario-jackson-phd-tickets-673194501877" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The free conversation</a>, presented by the Michigan Council for the Arts, Concert of Colors and The Wright Museum, will take place from 10-11:30 a.m. Friday, July 21 at The Wright Museum Community Gallery.  
During her conversation with Wright Museum President Neil Barclay, <a href="https://www.arts.gov/about/leadership-staff/dr-maria-rosario-jackson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr. Jackson</a> is expected to share her journey as the first African American and Mexican American woman to lead the NEA, as well as the power of creativity and the transformative impact it can have on society.  
RELATED: <a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/entertainment/national-arab-orchestra-brings-arab-music-back-home-for-2023-detroit-concert-of-colors/">National Arab Orchestra Founder Michael Ibrahim shares importance of uniting communities through global music</a> 
In advance of her visit to Detroit, Dr. Jackson sat down with American Black Journal <a href="https://twitter.com/SHDetroit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">host Stephen Henderson</a> to talk about the importance of the arts in building healthy communities. Drawing from her own experiences, she emphasized the importance of diversity and inclusivity in the arts, highlighting how it can promote understanding, empathy, and social change.  
Plus, they discuss Dr. Jackson&#8217;s professional background and her groundbreaking appointment as the <a href="https://www.arts.gov/news/press-releases/2021/dr-maria-rosario-jackson-nominated-be-chair-national-endowment-arts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first African American and Mexican American woman to chair the NEA</a>. 
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<h2>Stay Connected: </h2>
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Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.
<h3><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/">View Past Episodes &gt;</a></h3>
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NEA Chair Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson heads to Detroit to discuss ‘living an artful life’

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Detroit DJ sensation and a true luminary in the electronic music realm, lifelong Detroiter <a href="https://www.whodat313.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Terri McQueen</a>, popularly known as Whodat, is set to perform at the highly anticipated 2023 <a href="https://movementfestival.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Movement music festival</a> in Detroit’s Hart Plaza. The festival is set to take place May 27-29. 
With a global career that spans over a decade, Whodat has solidified her position as a driving force within Detroit’s electronic music scene and the city’s vibrant arts community.  
RELATED: <a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/one-detroit/stacey-hotwaxx-hale-detroits-godmother-of-electronic-house-music/">Stacey ‘Hotwaxx’ Hale: Detroit’s godmother of electronic house music</a>
“American Black Journal” contributor Chien-An Yuan caught up with Whodat ahead of her May 29th appearance at Movement to talk about her love for house music, being an African American woman in the music industry, and what motivates her to create the soulful, expansive mixes and eclectic productions that make up her unique sound.  
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<h2>Stay Connected: </h2>
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Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.
<h3><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/">View Past Episodes &gt;</a></h3>
Watch American Black Journal on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit Public TV, WTVS-Channel 56.

Detroit DJ Whodat talks love of house music, Black women artistry ahead of Movement music festival

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Urban Consulate, a network that brings people together to share ideas on building just and equitable communities, is launching <a href="http://www.urbanconsulate.com/insession" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a collection of videos</a>, titled “Urban Consulate: In Session,” featuring African American changemakers who offer knowledge in their respective fields of expertise.  
Founded in 2016, <a href="http://www.urbanconsulate.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Consulate</a> has hosted hundreds of conversations across the nation around the belief that open dialogue and information-sharing are critical to transforming ourselves and our communities. 
Ahead of the video series launch, “American Black Journal” <a href="https://twitter.com/SHDetroit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">host Stephen Henderson</a> talks with Urban Consulate Detroit host <a href="https://twitter.com/orlandopbailey" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Orlando Bailey</a> and one of the video instructors, Shari Davis, co-executive director of the <a href="https://www.participatorybudgeting.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Participatory Budgeting Project</a> in Oakland, California.  
They discuss Urban Consulate’s mission, the critical conversations that take place in cities across the country, and the premiere of the &#8220;Urban Consulate: In Session&#8221; video series at <a href="http://www.urbanconsulate.com/jasonreynolds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an April 5 event in Detroit</a> featuring New York Times <a href="https://www.jasonwritesbooks.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bestselling author Jason Reynolds</a> and moderated by Bailey. 
&nbsp;
<h2>Full Transcript:</h2>
Stephen Henderson, Host, American Black Journal: Orlando Bailey and Shari Davis. Welcome to American Black Journal. 
Orlando Bailey, Host, Urban Consulate Detroit: Thank you for having us. We&#8217;re excited. 
Shari Davis, Co-Executive Director, Participatory Budgeting Project:  Excited to be here. 
Stephen Henderson: Okay, Orlando, I&#8217;m going to start with you. Tell me about Urban Consulate In Session, how you come up with this and what you guys are hoping to achieve.
Orlando Bailey: Yeah. Thanks, Steve. And first, I want to tell you a little bit about Urban Consulate for those folks who may have been living under a rock since 2015. 
Stephen Henderson: I was going to say, it&#8217;s been around for a while now. 
Orlando Bailey: But it is basically people that have critical conversations about cities. And I came on as host in 2008 and we&#8217;ve explored cities and a really multifaceted way from equity, equitable development to equity and jobs, equity and construction. We talk a little bit about community redevelopment and that sector, just all kinds of things that amazing black people are doing in the city and around the nation. And so in 2021, we released a survey asking our audience, What do you want to learn about?
If you can learn about one specific thing or multiple things, what would it be? Right. And so we got feedback around participatory budgeting, equitable real estate, commercial development, architecture, but with an activist approach, narrative power and storytelling, as well as community organizing and artistry. And so, we took that feedback and we looked&#8211;we did a national scan and a local scan of who the experts are in these particular areas and for participatory budgeting, who other than Sherry Davis. 
In the arts feel right? We talked to Jessica Care Moore and community organizing, Davida Davison, Darnell Adams for Equitable Development, Dr. Craig Wilkins for activist architecture, and myself for amplifying black voices. Folks who are in this space doing the work, who can teach an audience how to do it. And so it&#8217;s our version of a master class, quote-unquote, but we&#8217;re calling it In Session. 
Stephen Henderson: Yeah. Yeah. So, Shari, you&#8217;re from the Participatory Budgeting Project in Oakland, California. I want to have you have our viewers learn a little more about that, but also how that connects in with what the Urban Consulate is doing. 
Shari Davis: Yeah, totally. Well, thank you so much, Stephen, and so good to see you, Orlando. The Participatory Budgeting Project&#8217;s mission is to transform democracy. And at the center of that is centering community members most impacted by public budgets and decisions. And so that is black and brown people, folks that have been formerly and currently incarcerated, individuals that may have been pulled into the justice system or have a jaded experience by local government. They may also have an experience that looks like a long history of exclusion. 
Participatory budgeting and participatory democracy creates the opportunity for people to build power, to make decisions that are equitable, to build processes that are accessible, to decide over things that impact their lives in a significant way. And so we build and design process with community that looks like community members having a say over what the process design looks like. 
That looks like building spaces for radical imagination for folks closest to the issues. To really dream about solutions and use their practical lived experience to direct investments toward building communities that work for us that are built by us. And I think that&#8217;s really how it connects to the amazing work that&#8217;s happening with Urban Consulate and with this opportunity for in session, for folks to really understand or be introduced to innovative opportunities for folks to kind of direct what happens around them. 
Stephen Henderson: So, give me some examples of how this ends up looking different in communities where you&#8217;re doing it, then the processes and the institutions that we already have, like in government and business and nonprofit. What is adding these other voices to the process end up looking like?
Shari Davis: Participatory democracy and participatory budgeting is radically different. And this has been a growing movement, right? And so it&#8217;s relatively new in the United States. But in the last 13 years where we&#8217;ve seen participatory budgeting grow, it&#8217;s grown from instances where community members are maybe deciding on a couple hundred thousand dollars or deciding on maybe $1,000,000 in their community to multimillion-dollar processes, like what&#8217;s happening in L.A. right now with the L.A. repair process. And repair is a long acronym. 
But one of those words, one of those R&#8217;s in there is about reparations. And so what does it look like for community members to be able to address harm by directing resources into most harmed communities Historically and traditionally, that&#8217;s what the L.A. repair process is like. And participants in that process are saying things like, Wow, I&#8217;ve never had an opportunity to make decisions about public funds. 
I&#8217;ve never had an opportunity to actually drive resources to root causes that I experience and that my expertise, my lived experience in this community says are very present and valid. It also looks like one of the largest participatory budgeting processes in the country right now, which is in Seattle. It&#8217;s a nearly $30 million participatory budgeting process that includes a multimillion-dollar divestment from the local police department and again, an opportunity for community members to direct how that funding is spent to build safe, strong communities. 
Stephen Henderson: Yeah. 
Orlando Bailey: How serendipitous is it, Stephen, that right now Detroit is going through budget season and the fact that we just erected a reparations task force to look at the feasibility of what that could look like in the city of Detroit? 
Stephen Henderson: Yeah, I mean, we have been kind of circling around this idea of more participatory budgeting, more inclusive decision-making in the city. I think we&#8217;re going to get there sooner rather than later. At least I hope we do. I do want to talk a little about Jason Reynolds and the session that you&#8217;re planning with him. Talk about that. 
Orlando Bailey: Yes. So, Jason Reynolds, he just finished his term as the national ambassador for Young People&#8217;s Literature with the Library of Congress. He&#8217;s a number one New York Times best-selling author and literally one of my favorite people to read and to watch. And so, with the amazing experts that are featured in In Session, we wanted a premiere that was splashy with a name that would get people out revved up and excited about it. And Jason Reynolds, I mean, who&#8217;s a better ambassador for learning in the United States than Jason Reynolds? And so on April 5th at the Garden Theater at 6:30, I will be in conversation on stage at the Garden Theater with Jason Reynolds to talk about his work, his love of learning, and to celebrate the amazing experts that are in the series and to premiere the series that evening on April 5th. So we&#8217;re really, really excited that we got Jason to come and be a part of it. 
Stephen Henderson: And the idea here is some sort of instruction for people. People are supposed to take away from this, a real empowerment around the ideas and the material. And again, Shari, that&#8217;s where your work really overlaps with what they&#8217;re doing here at Urban Consulate. 
Shari Davis: Yeah, I&#8217;m really excited for folks to hear from all of the experts. I feel like my modules in In Session are really an opportunity to think about what radical imagination looks like. What it looks like to bring an Afro-futurist lens to this work. What it looks like to think about us surviving and thriving and building a blueprint toward that. And so I&#8217;m excited to share those reflections. I&#8217;m really excited to also hear from the other incredible experts in the series. 
Stephen Henderson: Yeah. Orlando, talk more about how this overlaps with this moment in Detroit and the things that we are doing, the things that we are thinking about, the things that we&#8217;re talking about all of a sudden. This is a really different time than just three or five years ago in the city, in terms of how activated I feel like people are around this question of who gets to have a say. Who gets to sit at the table? Who gets to make the decisions? 
Orlando Bailey: Well, first off, I love that question, Stephen. The consciousness of Detroiters has been rising by the minute. And what is reflective of that is the In Session series. And so when folks are talking about, you know, architecture and activism and architecture, when you walk into a new space, how does it make your soul and spirit feel? Do you feel welcomed by the architecture? Is it reflective of a culture that is familiar to you? And Dr. Craig Wilkins breaks that down immaculately. 
We are always having conversations around development. Just yesterday, the City Council approved tax abatements for District Detroit, and a lot of Detroiters have things to say about development and how it&#8217;s done. Well, Darnell Adams has been at the forefront of a lot of equity-based development projects here in the city of Detroit. Whether it is closing the gap on that capital stack in the performer or his role currently at the Gilbert Family Foundation and implementing a $500 million spend down. 
So he&#8217;s there to talk about that and how he&#8217;s been doing it. And for me, what&#8217;s so important is that Detroit is the largest majority-black city in the nation, right? Does the record reflect that? And if not, how do we get the record to reflect that? How do we get black people on record? How do we get black folks to recognize the power that already exists within themselves to tell their stories and to document what is observed, it&#8217;s so important. So, so many things that are literally reflective of the time that we&#8217;re living in. And we didn&#8217;t anticipate that, but it happened. 
Stephen Henderson: Well, I guess the hope is that this adds fuel to the fire, right? This pushes all of those things and all of that consciousness to a higher level. Tell people how they can attend the talk with Jason Reynolds on April 5th. 
Orlando Bailey: We&#8217;re sold out. But there is a waitlist. More seats will open up so you can go to urbanconsulate.com to sign up for the waitlist and hopefully, we&#8217;ll see you April 5th, 6:30 at the Garden Theater. 
Stephen Henderson: It&#8217;s going to be exciting. All right, Orlando and Shari, congratulations on the work, and thanks very much for being here with us on American Black Journal. 
Shari Davis: Thank you. 
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<h2>Stay Connected: </h2>
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Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.

Urban Consulate creates new video series featuring African American changemakers

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If you’re a fan of Detroit house music, you’re likely familiar with the name Stacey “Hotwaxx” Hale. known as the <a href="https://djhotwaxx.com/dj-stacey-hotwaxx-bio">Godmother of House music</a>, Hale was the first female DJ to play house music on Detroit’s radio airwaves and she did it all in the birthplace of American techno music — Detroit.  
Hale’s multi-genre blend of House music with flavors of funk, gospel, hip hop and Motown soul has set her apart from other DJs on the scene and has afforded her opportunities to DJ at the <a href="https://www.apollotheater.org/">Apollo Theatre in New York</a> as well as major cities across the globe. It’s also gifted her the opportunity to give back to the community through music education for youth and adults. She was inducted into the <a href="https://www.nmaam.org/">National Museum of African American Music</a> in 2019.  
<figure id="attachment_29789" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-29789" style="width: 650px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-29789" src="https://wordpress.detroitpbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/ONE-DETROIT-743-Stacey-Hotwaxx-Hale-Still-2.jpg" alt="Stacey &quot;Hotwaxx&quot; Hale performs in Detroit" width="650" height="366" srcset="https://detroit-pbs-admin-vpb.3lanemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/ONE-DETROIT-743-Stacey-Hotwaxx-Hale-Still-2.jpg 1920w, https://detroit-pbs-admin-vpb.3lanemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/ONE-DETROIT-743-Stacey-Hotwaxx-Hale-Still-2.jpg 300w, https://detroit-pbs-admin-vpb.3lanemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/ONE-DETROIT-743-Stacey-Hotwaxx-Hale-Still-2.jpg 1024w, https://detroit-pbs-admin-vpb.3lanemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/ONE-DETROIT-743-Stacey-Hotwaxx-Hale-Still-2.jpg 768w, https://detroit-pbs-admin-vpb.3lanemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/ONE-DETROIT-743-Stacey-Hotwaxx-Hale-Still-2.jpg 1536w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-29789" class="wp-caption-text">The Godmother of House music, Stacey &#8220;Hotwaxx&#8221; Hale, performs a live set at Detroit&#8217;s Hart Plaza.</figcaption></figure>
In recognition of Women’s History Month, One Detroit contributor <a href="https://www.wrcjfm.org/about/staff/cecelia-sharpe/">Cecelia Sharpe of 90.9 WRCJ</a> talks with Stacey &#8220;Hotwaxx&#8221; Hale about her early roots and rise in Deejaying, what was at the time a male-dominated industry. They talk about how she developed her unique multi-genre style, her passion for mentorship and the importance of music education, and about the mission of her <a href="https://sheometry.org/">Sheometry Music &amp; Arts Festival</a>, which she created in 2019. The festival is planned to return July, 15 2023. 
<h2>Full Transcript:</h2>
Cecelia Sharpe, Host, 90.9 WRCJ: Hi, I&#8217;m Cecilia Sharpe, and we are celebrating Women&#8217;s History Month and highlighting women in music. Today, my guest is Stacy &#8220;Hotwaxx&#8221; Hale. The first deejay in Detroit to play house music on the radio in the early eighties. And the godmother of House. Thanks for being on the show. 
Stacey &#8220;Hotwaxx&#8221; Hale: Thanks for having me. 
Cecelia Sharpe: Absolutely. You started during a time when it wasn&#8217;t quite necessarily popular for women to DJ. What attracted you to DJ&#8217;ing? 
Stacey &#8220;Hotwaxx&#8221; Hale: Well, I don&#8217;t think it was not popular for women to be DJs, but you recognize them as on the radio, as air personalities versus playing in the club. And that&#8217;s what was unusual for women to be doing that. I was determined and the male/female thing wasn&#8217;t even in my thought process. It was the love of the music. 
And to be able to play it and present it to people. My brother was big into electronics, so I was always looking at reel-to-reel and cassette players and turntables and things like that. So he was just one that like to play music and hear it. You know, he never aspired to be a DJ or anything, so I kind of got that from him and I took it to another level. 
I stumbled in an old club that used to be a coffee shop. It was called the Chess Mate. It&#8217;s a laundromat now on McNichols and Livernois. And inside of there, this organization called True Disco, which consists of Ken Collier, Duane Bradley, Renaldo Smith and Maurice Mitchell.  They created this thing called True Disco, and they were in there playing. I heard the records mixing, and I went, What? I found my way up to that booth and looked and I saw two turntables and a mixer and I set ahh that&#8217;s what I need to be doing. 
Cecelia Sharpe: You also performed at the Apollo Theater in Harlem? 
Stacey &#8220;Hotwaxx&#8221; Hale: The Apollo Theater.
Cecelia Sharpe: Yes, the Apollo Theater. What brought you to the Apollo? 
Stacey &#8220;Hotwaxx&#8221; Hale: Jessica Caremore, Black women rock. We&#8217;re now called the Daughters of Betty. Yes, that&#8217;s what brought me there. And I work as the assistant music director helping Kat Dyson. And in addition to me doing that, being able to play with the band, the Apollo actually called and asked me would I DJ. Didn&#8217;t have to ask me twice. 
Cecelia Sharpe: Of course they didn&#8217;t. They barely got it out their mouth before you said yes, right? 
Stacey &#8220;Hotwaxx&#8221; Hale: Yup.  I&#8217;m like, what.  All my friends came to New York and they were dancing in the aisles up by the seats. 
Cecelia Sharpe: The way that you engage your audience, you make everyone feel invited. It&#8217;s a warm environment. Everyone knows that they can get down to the music, the way you blend house music with other genres, from gospel to&#8230;
Stacey &#8220;Hotwaxx&#8221; Hale: Oh yeah. 
Cecelia Sharpe: R&amp;B. A little bit of classical, jazz. You incorporate acoustic live instruments. It&#8217;s just amazing. How did you develop that style? 
Stacey &#8220;Hotwaxx&#8221; Hale: I listen, you know, that&#8217;s the first thing I tell my students to do is to listen. Use your ears. And if you just pay attention to some things around you, then that allows the creativity inside of you to go on and incorporate it into something that you enjoyed doing. 
Cecelia Sharpe: You talked about student Stacy and you&#8217;re definitely passionate about not just performing and sharing your gifts with the audience and the people that love your music, but passing on your knowledge, your wisdom to other young people, to students. Why is it so important to you as a DJ, as an artist, to pass on that craft?
Stacey &#8220;Hotwaxx&#8221; Hale: It&#8217;s so important for it to come from someone like me to be able to pass it on, Because I can tell you real stories. I can let you know by different things. My real feelings. You don&#8217;t have to go to YouTube University to find out. The best that I could do is to pass this on is I want someone else to be able to do it. And we&#8217;d like to have this not only be historic, but for someone 50 years from now to be able to do that, or at least take the theory of that and present themselves in that way. 
Cecelia Sharpe: This Sheometry Music and Arts festival that you created and launched in 2019, what is the mission of the Sheometry Music and Arts Festival? 
Stacey &#8220;Hotwaxx&#8221; Hale: The mission is to be able to show off women that are good in music, in many different genres, live instrument, DJ&#8217;ing and in the business of music itself. And it&#8217;s primarily women with a splash of men to be able to show off the arts and things that they do within this big world of music. 
Cecelia Sharpe: Because a lot of times it&#8217;s the reverse. A lot of men in the festival.. 
Stacey &#8220;Hotwaxx&#8221; Hale: Correct. 
Cecelia Sharpe: with a slash of women&#8230; 
Stacey &#8220;Hotwaxx&#8221; Hale: Correct. 
Cecelia Sharpe: But this time, this festival highlights women in music. You have style on the turntables. But you also have your own fashionable style when you&#8217;re rocking out. You always just bring it with the clothes, with the jewelry, with the hair.  Even today, you got your&#8230; You&#8217;re representing the D with your old English D earrings on. You got these wonderful bangles and this piece that you are wearing as a necklace. Tell us about that piece. 
Stacey &#8220;Hotwaxx&#8221; Hale: This right here is a 45 spindle and it spins. And I realized there&#8217;s three generations that don&#8217;t even know what this is. And this used to be the item that you would place inside of the 45 records that you put on the turntable in order to play records. And so, I love to show this, and I wear it all the time. This is actually a keychain. 
Cecelia Sharpe: Stacey, what makes your music so unique? 
Stacey &#8220;Hotwaxx&#8221; Hale: My music is so unique is because I believe in making people happy. When I play music, it&#8217;s my job to make you happy. So therefore I place myself in environments where people are going to enjoy the types of sound I deliver. I&#8217;m very spiritual. I love gospel house music. 
Many of the selections that I play have that type of thing in it, and I have been successful in those that say &#8220;I don&#8217;t like house music, but I like yours&#8221;. And that&#8217;s because it&#8217;s coming from the heart and the vibe like that and they make you feel good. And that&#8217;s my whole point and everything. And it&#8217;s been proven. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. 
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Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="http://onedetroitpbs.org/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/onedetroit/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/DPTVOneDetroit"> Twitter</a> @DPTVOneDetroit, and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/one.detroit/?hl=en"> Instagram</a> @One.Detroit
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Stacey ‘Hotwaxx’ Hale: Detroit’s godmother of electronic house music

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“American Black Journal” marks an important day in Black history: <a href="https://www.3rdcc.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michigan Third Circuit Court</a> Judge, the Honorable John A. Murphy, has announced his retirement after 44 years on the bench. Murphy was the longest-serving judge in Michigan and the longest-serving state-elected African American judge in the state. He was elected to the Third Circuit Court bench in 1986.  
Prior to his tenure in Michigan’s Third Circuit Court, Murphy served on <a href="https://www.waynecourtofcommonpleas.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wayne County’s Common Pleas Court</a> and <a href="https://www.36thdistrictcourt.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">36</a>th District Court. He also worked as a private practice lawyer specializing in labor relations. <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/John_A._Murphy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Judge Murphy</a> received a bachelor&#8217;s degree from the University of Michigan in 1971 and a Juris Doctorate from Wayne State University in 1974.  
“American Black Journal” host <a href="https://twitter.com/SHDetroit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stephen Henderson</a> talks with Judge Murphy about the various courts he has sat on, the important cases he has ruled on, and what he has experienced in regard to African American representation in the judicial profession. 
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Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.
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Judge John A. Murphy, Michigan’s longest-serving African American judge, retires after 44 years

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Forgotten Harvest CEO and community leader <a class="Hyperlink SCXW46416514 BCX0" href="https://twitter.com/KirkBMayes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kirk Mayes</a> has announced he&#8217;s stepping down from his role as CEO of the Oak Park-based food rescue nonprofit at the end of this year. The news comes shortly after <a class="Hyperlink SCXW46416514 BCX0" href="https://www.forgottenharvest.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Forgotten Harvest</a> moved into a new 78,000-square-foot building on Eight Mile Road, more than doubling its footprint and capacity for serving the community. Mayes recently received the <a class="Hyperlink SCXW46416514 BCX0" href="https://shininglightawards.semcog.org/Honorees" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Eleanor Josaitis Unsung Hero Award</a> from the Detroit Free Press. 
As a Detroit native, Mayes grew up on the city&#8217;s West Side, where he learned early on he could be a catalyst for change in his hometown. As he entered the workforce after graduating from Michigan State University, Mayes&#8217; affinity for investing in Detroit continued to show up in his work, from founding his own business, Village Gardeners, to his roles as executive director of the <a href="https://www.brightmooralliance.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brightmoor Alliance</a> and CEO at Forgotten Harvest. Now, after eight years at the helm, what does the future hold for Mayes and the organization?
Mayes joins <a class="Hyperlink SCXW222877245 BCX0" href="https://www.bridgedetroit.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BridgeDetroit</a> Engagement Director <a class="Hyperlink SCXW222877245 BCX0" href="https://twitter.com/orlandopbailey" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Orlando Bailey</a> at the new Forgotten Harvest warehouse facility, at 15000 Eight Mile Road, for an exclusive, wide-ranging conversation. They talk more about Mayes&#8217; decision to step down and the impact he&#8217;s had at the organization since he started there in 2014. 
&#8220;I&#8217;ve got a couple more months till the end of the year, to continue to focus on being (CEO) of Forgotten Harvest, and that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m going to be doing,&#8221; Mayes says during the interview. &#8220;Once I complete this role and my responsibilities here, there&#8217;s a lot of things that I&#8217;ve been wanting to do&#8230; that would allow me to spread my wings and chase my dreams as an entrepreneur.&#8221;
As Mayes rounds out his time with Forgotten Harvest, he talks with Bailey about his future aspirations as a consultant, speaker and author, as well as potential plans to visit Africa and establish his roots there. Plus, Mayes weighs in on the speculation that he&#8217;s running for mayor, as well as discusses Detroiters&#8217; most urgent needs right now, his love for the African diaspora, and what legacy and impact he thinks he&#8217;s been able to make on the world so far.
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Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.
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Forgotten Harvest CEO Kirk Mayes Announces His Resignation, Talks About Future Entrepreneurial Plans

Black-Midwest-Symposium

The second biennial Black Midwest Symposium is <a href="https://3eproductions.swoogo.com/blackmidwest2022/home" target="_blank" rel="noopener">coming to Detroit Oct. 20-22</a>, 2022, at the <a href="https://www.wcccd.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wayne County Community College District</a>’s <a href="https://www.wcccd.edu/wcccdcampus/downtown/index.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Curtis L. Ivery Downtown Campus</a>. The event will explore the unique challenges Black Midwesterners face. Since the inaugural convening in the fall of 2019, Black Midwestern communities have been at the core of racial injustices and social justice movements.  
This year, the convening will bring community members and Black thought leaders together to discuss the struggles of African Americans in the Midwest and Rust Belt regions, and the opportunities to bring about change in their local communities. “American Black Journal” host <a href="https://twitter.com/SHDetroit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stephen Henderson</a> sits down with one of the event’s planning committee members, Marquis Taylor, to learn more about the goal of the symposium, this year’s theme— Presence and Protest, and the featured speakers. 
<h2>Full Transcript:</h2>
Stephen Henderson, Host, American Black Journal: The Black Midwest Symposium. I&#8217;m not sure lots of people even know about this wonderful gathering of Black intellectuals, let&#8217;s call it.
Marquis Taylor, Planning Committee Member, Black Midwest Symposium: Yeah, for sure. So to kind of give you a backstory, the Symposium was started or rather is created by the Black Midwest Initiative, which is a group of scholars, activists, students, you name it.
We came together in 2017 when we were founded, and in 2019 we had our inaugural convening in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which I had the pleasure of living at for many years. And then we decided to do something biannually. So initially we wanted to do it in 2021, but everything that happened, so we moved it to 2022. So here we are in Detroit, my hometown, and excited to be here to have it.
And what it is, is a collection of, again, scholars, activists, speakers, poets, (and) writers. And we&#8217;re going to be convening October 20th through the 22nd over at Wayne County Community College, where, as I know it as, WC3 and we&#8217;ll be there and we&#8217;ll be able to connect with many different individuals, whether they be from Minneapolis, Detroit, Chicago, St Louis. But also amplifying other cities that people may not know about.
So the founder and the director of the program, Dr. Terrion Williamson, who&#8217;s out of the University of Illinois, Chicago. She is from Peoria, Illinois, to my understanding. So being able to amplify those places, Iowa. And for us to just kind of come together and just amplify our voices and just come together as a unit. So we&#8217;re excited to have this in Detroit.
Stephen Henderson: Yeah. So there is something about life in the Midwest and especially life in rust belt cities that have a different effect on African-Americans and a different history really with African-Americans than other parts of the country. Talk about what those differences are and why it&#8217;s important to be able to talk and think about those things consciously right now.
Marquis Taylor: Yeah, I think the Midwest, with respect to the West Coast, East Coast and even down South, we are oftentimes overlooked. And I know in many cases and I&#8217;ll use myself as an example. I&#8217;m born and raised in Detroit, lived in the twin cities for a number of years but my family migrated from Georgia. And centering our voices in contrast to the West and East Coast and again the deep South is that we were built on industry and thinking about the trade, the automotive industry. Think about Pittsburgh and some of the other places. Cleveland, same thing.
They were building on steel and, you know, the industrial portion. But it&#8217;s important to center our voices because in going to the things that happened in 2020 with the murder of George Floyd, we were there living in living color. And there were so many uprisings and protests and we wanted to center what happened.
But also looking at it from the perspective of how do we navigate all that had happened, but also navigating the historical development of the Midwest, again, paying homage to the Detroit, Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis and in some of the other cities as well. But it just is so important that we focus on who we are and just the things that we&#8217;ve been able to accomplish historically. And yeah.
Stephen Henderson: Yeah. So one of the panels that I&#8217;m really interested in that you&#8217;re holding is called The Commitment to Place Cultivating and Reclaiming Black Land in Michigan. That&#8217;s a fascinating title as a fascinating subject. It&#8217;s something that I feel like we&#8217;re just now really starting to see people acknowledge and want to know more about. But tell me about that panel.
Marquis Taylor: Yeah. So that reclaiming space to my understanding is going to feature a variety of individuals and thinking about what does it mean to reclaim that space. And I know historically we being on indigenous land and is also just thinking about who we are and you know, what we&#8217;ve been able to accomplish in the Midwest. So that panel in particular and so many panels that one escapes me off the top of my head. But to my understanding that&#8217;s more or less thinking about just reclaiming the space, focusing our energies, you know, being here in the Midwest.
Stephen Henderson: Yeah. Talk about the things that you would like people who attend this to be able to take away and talk about it, both in terms of African-American people, but also in terms of non-African-American people who might decide, hey, I want to show up for this too.
Marquis Taylor: I will say the biggest takeaway that we would want people to get from this or why we would want people to attend is number one, thinking about the synergy that exists in the Midwest. Again, thinking about those the cities that I highlighted, Detroit, Minneapolis (and) Chicago.
But in also just the work that we&#8217;ve been able to do. So I&#8217;m a big music fan, big fan of music, and one of the panels that I&#8217;m most excited about, I think, is the Black Midwestern futures. Where they&#8217;re going to be talking about the Minneapolis sound. Talking about Motown, talking about some of the other musical movements that have taken place in the Midwest. So just in terms of the speakers that we have. Aaron Foley is one of the opening speakers who is a Michigan State graduate, a Renaissance graduate, who&#8217;s a writer, an author, and there are other writers and panelists as well from the Midwest.
Jeff and Tamal Ray, who are renowned faculty at Michigan State University. But I would say just in terms of people wanting to learn about the diaspora, the Black diaspora or African diaspora that exists across the Midwest, how we&#8217;ve been able to leverage and do great things and being able to, you know, learn about the poets, the activists, the arts, and most importantly, how we were able to navigate the pandemic of 2020, but also just the protest and uprisings. And for us to kind of come together. So I would say those who are Black-identified and those who are not Black-identified, I think you&#8217;ll find something in it for everyone.
Stephen Henderson: Yeah. That Black diaspora dimension of this is a subject of a panel as well. And that really concentrates on the idea that there are lots of us in these places who came from other places in America, mostly the American South. But this continues to be a place of immigration for people from Africa. Talk about the importance of that mix and acknowledging that there is this diversity among blackness in the Midwest.
Marquis Taylor: That is a great question Stephen and I think with respect to where both myself and Terrion or Dr. Williamson where we connected in Minneapolis, Minnesota, there is a high concentration of East African immigrants. And for me personally, growing up in Detroit, I didn&#8217;t see that per se.
You see it in pockets, but I think I was able to see it more so living in the twin cities. And it&#8217;s important for us to recognize their contributions as well and us to kind of come together in unity, in the sense of understanding, you know, how they were able to come to this country versus, you know, us, those of us who were American born descendants of slavery.
And recognizing that we&#8217;re part of, you know, in many cases the same fight and the same struggle. But, you know, in respect to Minneapolis, I think Columbus, Ohio, also has a high concentration of East African immigrants. And there are other parts of the Midwest that escape me right now.
But I really just think that we just, you know, need to come together to unify. And again, having this lived experience, living in the twin cities, knowing what that was like and, you know, Dr. Williamson as well and as well as a few other panelists and people on the committee just to recognize our collective contributions because we&#8217;re more alike than we are different.
Stephen Henderson: Yeah. Okay. Marquis Taylor, really great to have you here on American Black Journal and congratulation on the second biannual Black Midwest Symposium. Thanks for being with us.
Marquis Taylor: Thank you.
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Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.
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Black Midwest Symposium in Detroit Focuses on Unique Midwest Challenges, Solutions

Michigan-Barber-School-2-scaled-1

The Michigan Barber School, a historic Detroit barbershops and school that&#8217;s known for providing training opportunities to aspiring African American barbers and hairstylists, celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. Founded in <a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/american-black-journal/12-09-18-american-black-journal-black-bottom-historical-marker-junior/">Detroit&#8217;s Black Bottom neighborhood</a> in 1947, the barber school and public shop has since moved to a newer 6,000-square-foot space, but the school&#8217;s mission to prepare students for the barbering business hasn&#8217;t changed.  
RELATED: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=277k3ibJ7_s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michigan Historical Marker Designated to Detroit’s Historic Black Bottom Neighborhood </a>
RELATED: <a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/one-detroit/plowshares-theatre-premieres-hastings-street-musical-a-story-of-detroits-black-bottom-neighborhood/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Plowshares Theatre Premieres ‘Hastings Street’ Musical, A Story of Detroit’s Black Bottom Neighborhood </a>
Michigan Barber School Director Saul Green sits down with &#8220;American Black Journal&#8221; guest host Trudy Gallant-Stokes, who&#8217;s filling in for Stephen Henderson, to talk about the 75-year history of the Black-owned and operated barber school founded by his father. The duo reflects on the barber school’s success in training and producing expert licensed and educated barbers, stylists and entrepreneurs. 
<h2>Full Transcript:</h2>
Trudy Gallant-Stokes, Guest Host, American Black Journal: Back to the beginning. Started by your father, Forest Green. And he came to Detroit. And he already had that heritage of the Barber College from the South.
Saul Green, Director, Michigan Barber School: That&#8217;s correct, Trudy. My dad is from East Point, Georgia, which is just outside of Atlanta, the suburbs of Atlanta. And his father had a barbershop there in East Point as he was growing up. And so he learned the trade there in the barbershop. My dad went on to Morehouse College there in Atlanta.
And cut a lot of hair when he was in Atlanta at Morehouse; cut a lot of his students&#8217; hair. He often talked about the business he had going as a student. And so there were very early roots. And then there was part of the Great Migration that came here in the mid-1930s to Detroit after graduating from Morehouse.
Trudy Gallant-Stokes: So great opportunities in Detroit, I know, but still a lot of limitations back then. What were the challenges that he faced when he came here?
Saul Green: Well, first of all, his degree from Morehouse was in social work, so he worked for several different social work organizations in Detroit. Found that it just wasn&#8217;t quite what was exciting for him. He still loved barbering and he was an entrepreneur. And so he looked around though and he saw that the opportunities for Black men and women to become barbers was limited in Detroit. To become even then, a licensed barber, you had to go to barber school. You had to graduate from a barber school, and then you had to pass a state examination.
When he started Michigan Barber School, the Black students, people who wanted to become barbers, Black persons, they could go to what was called the theory part of barber school, learning about the history of barbering, sanitation, that type of thing. But then you couldn&#8217;t cut white people&#8217;s hair in the barber school.
So then you were apprenticed out to barber shops in order to get that segment of the education. He thought that was wrong and actually had to get go through a process with the state to get the barber school approved so that it could do both&#8230; That we could teach theory and have the practical portion of people coming in for barber services. So it was, it wasn&#8217;t an easy start, but he was determined and clearly it has worked out.
Trudy Gallant-Stokes: So that&#8217;s excellent. Talk about the first location and paint the picture of what Detroit was like back then and what that neighborhood was like.
Saul Green: Well, as many Detroiters know, either based on perhaps having been around or certainly the history of Detroit, that Detroit, of course, was highly segregated, both residentially and from a business perspective. And there were only certain places in Detroit that Black people could live, and there were only certain places that Black people could open businesses.
One of those areas was Black Bottom, where there was a large concentration of Black businesses. From barbershops to cleaners to entertainment spots to whatever the services and needs of the Black community were. They were, for the most part, located there in Black Bottom. So he, of course, ended up with his first location on Hastings Street, which was the renowned main street of Black Bottom. And the Michigan Barber School had its beginnings there.
Trudy Gallant-Stokes: Absolutely. And not only is Hastings Street, like you said, so renowned before it was destroyed, that whole neighborhood. But then barbershops in the Black community have always historically been a place where people kind of gather. So what was it like back then?
Saul Green: Well, so in all honesty, since they actually started&#8230;
Trudy Gallant-Stokes: Before your time&#8230;
Saul Green: But I did visit the school as a child, but don&#8217;t have a lot of recollections of it. I think there&#8217;s some pictures that might be available for everybody to see. It&#8217;ll give, I think, a real flavor of what it was like. It was small in relationship to what we have now. Now we&#8217;ve got about 50 chairs that we can accommodate people. Back then, I think there was less than 20. And the first, interestingly enough, the first class had one woman and so that we were educating Black women in barber, even going back that far. It&#8217;s the next move over to Adams. The second location was on Adams Street that I was more familiar with.
Trudy Gallant-Stokes: Okay. So Adams Street downtown?
Saul Green: Yes. Where Comerica Park is essentially is where the Michigan Barber School was until 1963 when it moved on to Grand River.
Trudy Gallant-Stokes: Okay. And became an institution out there on Grand River and still there.
Saul Green: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Trudy Gallant-Stokes: Do you have particular success stories that either you remember or that your dad told you about, about people who came through those doors and I don&#8217;t know, maybe started a barber shop of their own or maybe went on to other great things?
Saul Green: Well, the number of people that we have impacted over 75 years. First of all, just the sheer number we&#8217;re talking about thousands of people who have gone to Michigan Barber School, become licensed and are operating in Detroit and around Michigan and really around the country. We get, we hear from our former students who have moved on to places. To Florida, New York, other states where they are doing very well. And they are extremely appreciative of what Michigan Barber School taught them. They often say that the best barbers come from Michigan and the best Michigan barbers come from Michigan Barber School.
So we have spread our talents nationwide. But it was a place where a lot of entertainers came where I mean, back in the &#8217;50s and &#8217;60s, the difference in hairstyles was significant. I mean, on a Friday or Saturday night at the Michigan Barber School, half of the chairs would be filled with people getting, men getting their hair straightened. And as it was called back then, compted with the finger waves and so forth. And so I got a chance to watch all of that unfold because my dad really started taking me to&#8230; I started accompanying my dad to barber school when I was around 12-13 years old.
I would go down on Saturdays and just help out. Whether it was sweeping up there or ringing the cash register, doing whatever was necessary. So I&#8217;ve seen this transition over a long, long period of time and it&#8217;s been amazing.
Trudy Gallant-Stokes: So now you&#8217;re celebrating the 75th anniversary of Michigan Barber School. So tell us about the event coming up in November.
Saul Green: Well, again, when you, we thought about just how amazing it is to be in existence for 75 years. I often tell our students, particularly if we&#8217;re bringing in a new class, I ask them, how long does the average business, small business last in the United States. And they guess all sorts of different numbers.
And I tell them that on the SBA, Small Business Administration website, they say the average rate of time is eight and a half years. So when you&#8217;re approaching almost eight decades, you ought to do something significant. So we&#8217;re having an event at the International Banquet Center in downtown Detroit at Monroe, where we will commemorate both the founding and all of the important contributions of the Michigan Barber School. Also, we&#8217;re going to take good time to recognize a number of our recent graduates. We have been doing graduations but COVID kind of squelched that. And so we&#8217;re going to also take the time to recognize recent graduates.
Trudy Gallant-Stokes: Exciting. We look forward to that. And of course, you didn&#8217;t become a barber, but you&#8217;ve had an incredible legal career in the community and a public servant. And from U.S. attorney to deputy mayor representing Aretha Franklin at times. So you have done it all and we appreciate your support in this community. And I&#8217;m sure that was because of your dad&#8217;s encouragement and laying that foundation.
Saul Green: There&#8217;s no question about it. My dad and my mom, because I have to say, my mom worked there at the barber school in an administrative capacity for a long period of time. But I also have to correct you to say I am a barber. There&#8217;s no Green who doesn&#8217;t become a barber. And so I cut hair all through undergrad and law school. And I must admit, I tell people often that I think that maybe the qualities of being in the barbershop and those kinds of interactions that you have may be as important to having become a pretty good lawyer and some of the things I&#8217;ve accomplished as anything else that I&#8217;ve experienced. So the Michigan Barber School has played a big role in my life.
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<h2>Stay Connected: </h2>
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Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.
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Michigan Barber School Reflects on 75 Years of Training Black Barbers and Hair Stylists

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Detroit is a city that&#8217;s filled with many firsts, including being home to the nation’s first black-owned and operated television station, WGPR-TV 62. <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/wgpr-tv-1975-1995/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WGPR-TV 62</a> went on the air in 1975 and launched the careers of several African American media professionals before being sold in 1995. The TV station&#8217;s legacy hasn&#8217;t dwindled since leaving the air, however. Today, the former site is used as a broadcast museum founded by the <a href="https://wgprmuseum.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WGPR Historical Society</a>, and next month the group is hosting a major fundraiser celebrating minorities in the media.
<a href="https://www.espn.com/espnradio/show?showId=stephenasmith" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ESPN commentator</a> and sports journalist <a href="https://twitter.com/stephenasmith" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stephen A. Smith</a>, the keynote speaker for the Sept. 10, 2022 event, and WGPR Historical Society President Joe Spencer join &#8220;American Black Journal&#8221; host <a href="https://twitter.com/SHDetroit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stephen Henderson</a> to talk about an upcoming fundraising gala celebrating the legacy of WGPR-TV 62. The gala will also feature the first annual WGPR Enduring Legacy Awards, which will be presented to four Detroiters. The gala benefits the expansion of <a href="https://wgprmuseum.org/about-us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WGPR&#8217;s William V. Banks Broadcast Museum &amp; Media Center</a>, housed at the former TV 62 studios.
<h2>Full Transcript:</h2>
Stephen Henderson: I want to start with you. Tell me about this event at WGPR, this fundraiser.
Joe Spencer, President, WGPR Historical Society: Well, the WGPR Historical Society is putting on a fundraiser for the William V. Banks Museum. And we have it scheduled for September 9th and 10th, it&#8217;s actually a two-day event. And we are raising funds to expand the museum and to expand our training that we plan for the museum. And, you know, just have some new exhibits. And we have a very, very nice lineup for our Enduring Legacy banquet of people that we&#8217;re going to honor. Stephen A. Smith has agreed to be our keynote speaker, so we are planning to have a very exciting evening on September 10th at the Icon, here in Detroit.
Stephen Henderson:  Stephen A. Smith, welcome to America Black Journal. Welcome to Detroit. You know, it seems to me when I watch you, on ESPN or other places I see you, I think all the time about the kinds of opportunities that you&#8217;ve had as an African-American man, that I&#8217;ve had as an African-American man in the media. And I think about WGPR, which, you know, went on the air here when I was about 4 years old and was the first place I could see people who look like me on television doing their thing, and being in control of the space, being the owners, being the operators, being the managers. Talk about how stations like GPR influence your career.
Stephen A. Smith, ESPN Commentator &amp; Sports Journalist: Well, to me it&#8217;s never really been whether it&#8217;s a station or it&#8217;s a company, it&#8217;s about the individuals, because as an individual, that&#8217;s what you gravitate to. We should think about it more expansively. We should think about institutions that have really played the role as pioneers and spearheading movements that ultimately benefit the African-American community or what have you. But on far too many occasions, there&#8217;s such a level of loftiness that gets attached to it that you don&#8217;t view it that way. It&#8217;s the individuals that you attach yourself to.
Joe, I&#8217;ve come to know because my boss is Mr. Dave Roberts, who is a Detroit native. He&#8217;s one of the elite executives in this game. And the relationship that I have with him, what he&#8217;s done for me, what he&#8217;s meant to my career, I just can&#8217;t say enough. But it&#8217;s not because of the jobs that I&#8217;ve been able to capture, the money that I&#8217;ve been able to accumulate, and I&#8217;ve been blessed and fortunate enough to have a prosperous career, particularly over the last decade, the level of guidance that I&#8217;m given by being able to have a front row seat to watch him work, enabled me to do other things. 10 years ago, I was an on-air talent.
And over the years, under his stewardship, I&#8217;ve grown and I&#8217;ve matured and I&#8217;ve become more successful. But now I own my own production company, and I&#8217;m about to own and start my own podcast, and I&#8217;m an executive producer and I&#8217;m not just making decisions for myself, but for other people. I&#8217;m employing, I&#8217;m firing, I&#8217;m doing a whole bunch of things that come along with it. You know, Some of it is great, some of it is not so great. But having an individual like that to provide the level of guidance and counsel and tutelage along the way, and not always directly, sometimes just through osmosis, those are the kind of things that you can&#8217;t, you know, you just can&#8217;t put a price on.
Because it&#8217;s so invaluable that ultimately it allows you to propel yourself to a point where you can ultimately become a company, where you can ultimately become an institution and you can ultimately have a profound, lengthy impact that will potentially affect generations. That&#8217;s what it&#8217;s all about. And when you find individuals that you can attach, you know, you can identify with, that can provide you the guidance and tutelage through osmosis, through direct counseling and tutoring and interaction, or just by being able to play the role of spectators, you just can&#8217;t put a price on those experiences.
Stephen Henderson: Yeah. Stephen, talk a little about barriers and obstacles that you might have faced as a younger journalist, before you got opportunities that were about race and opportunity.
Stephen A. Smith: I remember when I was an intern coming out of college and I thought I had an impeccable resume. And I was competing against thousands of students and I missed out on the opportunity because the person&#8217;s name was Alan, A L, L, A, N and I spelled his name, A, L, A, N, and I was immediately disqualified from that opportunity. And when you see an experience like that, I&#8217;d like to believe that person regrets not giving me the opportunity. But the reality of the situation is that, if you&#8217;re comparing it to other resumes that didn&#8217;t make that kind of mistake, then they deserve the opportunity and I didn&#8217;t. And so, when you talk about obstacles, you&#8217;re talking about the need to make sure that you maneuver. You find out where the minefields lie. You find out how to maneuver your way through those minefields. You take stock of the obstacles and the barriers that are placed before you.
Being black, being a black man, being from an impoverished background, not having a proverbial silver spoon in your mouth, not necessarily knowing people well enough to, you know, to ingratiate yourself in such a way that you&#8217;ve cultivated relationships that will span potentially a lifetime, or at least your career. All of these things are things that you&#8217;re learning and the classroom can&#8217;t teach that to you. It can tell you about, but it can&#8217;t teach it. Only practical experience gets out there. Who you&#8217;re communicating with, how you communicate with them, how do you present yourself, how do you articulate whatever message that you want to say? When you go before somebody that is interviewing or talking to you, are you talking to them in a fashion that you&#8217;re telling them the kind of things that would benefit them? Or are you telling them the kind of things that would benefit you, why you&#8217;ve got your hand out for their help? Who are you going to be more inclined to help? Somebody that&#8217;s looking to help you or somebody that&#8217;s looking to help themselves?
These are all the kinds of things that you think about, but you don&#8217;t think about nearly as much as you should when you&#8217;re young, black, impoverished, didn&#8217;t have the connections to those people who are in the know, that could provide you the counsel and tutelage so you don&#8217;t make those kinds of mistakes. These are the kind of things that happen that no one ever tells you. And those are barriers in and of itself. It&#8217;s the barrier of the unknown. And you&#8217;ve got to hope and pray that you learn as much as you possibly can as early as you possibly can make it, while also hoping that you&#8217;re lucky enough to run into somebody that would give you the benefit of the doubt because they understand what plight you&#8217;re trying to fight through.
Stephen Henderson: Yeah. Joe, just sitting here listening to Stephen talk about this, you know, it makes me think of all those barriers you all broke in 1975 and all the people who benefited from you breaking through those barriers.
Joe Spencer: Well, there&#8217;s two things that Stephen said that, to me, just ring so true. Number one, as he spoke of David Roberts and WGPR gave David Roberts his very first job and he got some decent training. So much about the success of a person depends on, as Stephen has said, who you know, who gives you the opportunity. And that&#8217;s what WGPR did, it gave opportunity to many young journalists, as well as technicians, and writers, and salespeople, who would not have been in the broadcast game had it not been for William V. Banks, who is our enduring legacy and what is part of what we are celebrating in our fundraiser come September 10th.
The enduring legacy of so many men and women who have laid the groundwork and allowed other people to step on their shoulders. And, you know, David Roberts is a perfect example, because I would not know Stephen A. Smith if it had not been for David Roberts. And David Roberts began with us as an intern, now he&#8217;s the executive vice president of a major network and that shows you the impact of WGPR.  And we&#8217;re just so glad that Stephen became a part of what we&#8217;re doing.
Stephen Henderson: Yeah, all right. Well, congratulations on the fundraiser. Of course, congratulations on all the great work at that museum, at WGPR. It really is, it is mind-blowing to walk through there and feel all the things that happened there and see all the results up on the walls. And of course, Stephen A., thanks for coming to town.
Stephen A. Smith:  Thank you. I&#8217;m looking forward to it.
Stephen Henderson:  We&#8217;re going to have to have you come back on the show to talk about the Lions later this fall.
Stephen A. Smith: You don&#8217;t want to do that. You want to make sure you keep yourself in high spirits. You&#8217;ve got a lot of things to look forward to in the city of Detroit, the Lions ain&#8217;t one of them.
Stephen Henderson:  All right. Thanks, guys.
Stephen A. Smith: Take care.
Joe Spencer: Thank you.
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<h2>Stay Connected: </h2>
Subscribe to Detroit Public Television’s<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/detroitpublictv56"> YouTube Channel</a> &amp; Don’t miss American Black Journal on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit Public TV, WTVS-Channel 56.
Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.
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Watch American Black Journal on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit Public TV, WTVS-Channel 56.

Fundraising gala celebrates legacy of WGPR-TV 62, America’s first Black-owned TV station

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Forty years ago, the Detroit nonprofit Coalition on Temporary Shelter <a href="https://cotsdetroit.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">(COTS)</a> started in the basement of the old <a href="https://www.stpetersdetroit.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">St. Peter&#8217;s Episcopal Church</a> with the mission to help individuals experiencing homelessness get off the street. Over time, however, they began to notice a greater need to not just help individuals, but also families experiencing homelessness. Now, still standing four decades later, COTS celebrates its 40th anniversary of providing support for homeless people in need.
Coalition on Temporary Shelter CEO Cheryl Johnson joins &#8220;American Black Journal&#8221; host <a href="https://twitter.com/SHDetroit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stephen Henderson</a> for a conversation about how the organization has evolved over the years to meet the changing needs of the community, and how its focus has shifted from not only providing temporary housing solutions, but also offering long-term strategies to help disrupt the cycle of generational poverty.
<h2>Full Transcript:</h2>
Stephen Henderson: Congratulations on 40 years of COTS. I think on the one hand, it&#8217;s a remarkable milestone and something to be really proud of. But on the other hand, it also suggests that we still have this profound need in our community and that we have not yet found a way to solve it permanently for enough people.
Cheryl Johnson, CEO, COTS: Yeah, it is. And thank you for the congratulations. I love to say that out of those 40 years I&#8217;ve been with the organization for 32.
Stephen Henderson: Wow.
Cheryl Johnson: So to be able to see a full generation and we can talk a little bit about how that has evolved and what we see in the future. But the issue, we don&#8217;t talk about it in terms of homelessness anymore. We talk about it in terms of generational poverty. Because really, at the root of all of that, we have to tackle that piece of it in order to address homelessness.
Stephen Henderson: Yeah. So let&#8217;s go back to 40 years ago and compare what the problem looks like then to what it looks like now and what the organization was doing then versus what it&#8217;s doing now.
Cheryl Johnson: Yeah. So, back in &#8217;82, it&#8217;s basically a group of clergy and community folks that came together to say, hey, there&#8217;s an issue basically at that time with single folk on the street, like, how do we address that? And in the basement of Old Saint Peter&#8217;s Episcopal Church, right across from old Tiger Stadium, COTS started and its Coalition on Temporary Shelter, that was the legal name of it with really getting these single folk off the street.
Cheryl Johnson: Over time, we began to see something very different, and that is whole families like parents and children now who are experiencing homelessness. You know, many sleeping in their cars in other places where they should not be sleeping. And then today, you see now a totally different view of what that looks like even across our country.
Stephen Henderson: Yeah. The idea, though, of trying to address it from a systemic context, I think is a really important point to go back to because you know, it&#8217;s I think people don&#8217;t understand all the time that people can move in and out of this issue and that that is what you see over time. Multi-generational struggle with home insecurity, with the inability to keep your family in one place.
Cheryl Johnson: And that&#8217;s exactly what it is. And what resulted in us transitioning about eight years ago from serving what we say homeless folk to really laser focusing on families was the fact that we began to hear what I call a narrative from folk.
Cheryl Johnson: And these are people who are now adult people in our emergency shelter with their children who would say something like this, Steve, and they would say, you know, I remember being here when I was six. I was here when I was seven. And now a full generation later, they&#8217;re here with their children.
Cheryl Johnson: So that was one issue. The other issue was we saw more than two generations. I remember seeing four great grandparent, grandparent, parent and child altogether. So that speaks to this ongoing cycle of not being able to address poverty.
Cheryl Johnson: So that&#8217;s when we decided to really kind of stop things and began to look at generational poverty and create a very different theory of change about how to move people into communities where they are now thriving and not, you know, caught up in this vicious cycle.
Cheryl Johnson: And so we really focus on these five areas of family stability, education, education career goals, employment and career goals. Health and well-being and economic mobility goals that they set. They are assets. They are able, with the help of coaching, to really move through this and have great generational impact.
Stephen Henderson: Yeah, I want to talk just a little about the pandemic and how much it set families back on this issue here in Detroit. I know that if you go to any neighborhood, you can see the impact that it had on families and again, on their housing security.
Cheryl Johnson: Yeah, so we are, I am saying this and I believe it to be a truth that we haven&#8217;t seen, like the real impact of that yet because right now courts are still behind. There was you know the moratorium on and folk were able to kind of stay put but across our country and Detroit is going to be hit really hard. You got prices of housing, rent&#8217;s just going through the roof. People cannot support that.
Cheryl Johnson: And a bit that we don&#8217;t talk about is the impact on our children. Our kids are not going to catch up, folks. And that&#8217;s a real thing. And so how do we mitigate that? And for kids that have already experienced homelessness, we&#8217;re already behind. There is this now increased gap of how do we address that and mitigate it? We can&#8217;t fix it. We&#8217;ve got to mitigate the impact of it.
Stephen Henderson: And that was going to be my next question, Was this impact on children and how you address that separately? I mean, the goals that you&#8217;re talking about are adult goals for head of households and people who are in charge. But this visit so, so hard on our kids. How do you and how do you get them to not repeat the cycle? Right.
Cheryl Johnson: Yeah. So our work really is two-generational. I mentioned those goals specifically around parents. However, our children, we have a youth coach who works particularly with our kids on things that matter to them. And so everything from their executive functioning. How they think, how they see themselves in the world, their goals and aspirations.
Cheryl Johnson: And believe it or not, kids are dreaming and they are thinking, like they actually want things. And so when you pair working with parents and the child together and I shouldn&#8217;t always say parents, it&#8217;s the adult person. Because our families now consist of grandparents, aunts, sisters, whoever, right?
Cheryl Johnson: And so we work with all families as long as it&#8217;s an adult person accompanied by our children. But our kids specifically have goals that they are creating for themselves. And working with a coach, that&#8217;s important. And their overall health and well-being is at the center of all of that.
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Detroit’s Coalition on Temporary Shelter Nonprofit celebrates 40 years fighting homelessness

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How has policing in Detroit and the City&#8217;s efforts to reduce gun violence changed under the present leadership? “American Black Journal” revisits a conversation from the <a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/mackinac-policy-conference/2022-mackinac-policy-conference/2022mpc/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2022 Mackinac Policy Conference</a> with Detroit <a href="https://twitter.com/mayormikeduggan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mayor Mike Duggan</a> and <a href="https://detroitmi.gov/government/mayors-office/police-chief" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Detroit Police Chief James White</a>.  
RELATED: <a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/american-black-journal/15th-annual-silence-the-violence-march-rallies-to-stop-gun-violence-in-detroit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">15th Annual Silence the Violence March Rallies to Stop Gun Violence in Detroit</a>
RELATED: <a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/american-black-journal/force-detroit-discusses-creative-solutions-to-gun-violence-in-communities-of-color/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FORCE Detroit Discusses Creative Solutions to Gun Violence in Communities of Color</a>
Host <a href="https://twitter.com/SHDetroit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stephen Henderson</a> moderates a conversation with Duggan and White at the <a href="https://www.detroitchamber.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Detroit Regional Chamber</a>’s annual conference focusing on violence, crime and policing in Detroit. 
<h2>Full Transcript:</h2>
Mike Duggan, Mayor, City of Detroit: Had an issue of violence in the city for decades. But if you look at what&#8217;s happened in America since COVID and we&#8217;ve studied it, violent crime has soared. You&#8217;ve had shootings, homicide double, some states, triple. And Chief White and I are very much data-driven. There is no question what is causing the post-COVID violence. Is it that the courts shut down? There are no jury trials, which means that prisoners are backed up into jail.
Mike Duggan: We had COVID in jails so they released prisoners. I don&#8217;t know what we&#8217;ve got. Probably a couple of thousand out on tethers today. And what is happening is people who have been charged with gun crimes, people, you know, in the neighborhood that the cops caught, they got caught in a gun crime and they&#8217;re still walking the streets. Two years later, you&#8217;re starting to think, &#8220;I need to carry a gun myself for protection.&#8221;
Mike Duggan: And so what&#8217;s happened across this country is a lot of folks are carrying guns that didn&#8217;t want to carry guns. And now every single inter-personal conflict is turning into violence. We are seeing drug turf wars, the kind of things we have seen 20 years ago. That&#8217;s not what we&#8217;re seeing. And so what the Chief and I have done and we speak the same language, the key to reducing crime is not to arrest people and lock them up. It&#8217;s to change decisions.
Mike Duggan: The moment that individual sticks the gun under their waistband and walks out of the house in the morning, we&#8217;ve lost.. Because something&#8217;s going to happen. And so everything we are doing, is saying to people, leave the gun at home. And what you have seen and we were just at the White House because Detroit is down so far this year, the end of May, 20% in homicides and shootings from a year ago.
Mike Duggan: We stand out in the country. Every Chief in America is talking to us. Now, Chief White doesn&#8217;t let me talk about this, because summer is coming and nobody declares victory before summer&#8217;s coming. But the fact is, the steps that this department has taken to get people to make different decisions is making a difference.
Mike Duggan: And if we can build on it and the courts are being cooperative, Prosecutor Worthy is being cooperative, Don Ison and the U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office has been phenomenal in this strategy. It&#8217;s going to get better and better. I really feel that. And I feel that the way this Chief has this department going, we&#8217;re going to be okay.
Stephen Henderson: Chief, you released a five-point plan for policing the city. Talk about that plan and talk about how that might look different from what we were doing before.
Chief James White, Detroit Police Department: Yeah. I mean, we talk about using data to drive our resources. You know, you can&#8217;t arrest your way out of crime. You&#8217;ve got to be innovative. You&#8217;ve got to use technology, you&#8217;ve got to do deployment. You&#8217;ve got to look at ways of policing smarter. The kids, I call them the kids, but, you know, they&#8217;re using technology now to get around what we&#8217;re doing.
Chief James White: They&#8217;re using Instagram. You know, we&#8217;ve got a drifting and drag racing problem where, you know, the draft, the drag racers and the drifters are picking parts of our community to come out, endanger their community with these vehicles driving, you know, very recklessly and using social media, which has no culpability, by the way. But that&#8217;s a whole other conversation to talk about.. Let&#8217;s get in these areas. Let&#8217;s do this behavior. Let&#8217;s get these likes and, you know, let&#8217;s make money off of these likes, which we&#8217;ve just found out.
Chief James White: But we&#8217;ve got a real-time crime center. And with that real-time crime center, we&#8217;ve got civilian analysts who are super smart. They use our technology. They get into these chat groups, private groups. In fact, most recently, we had one where the kids were meeting up and we had gotten a little ahead of the curve and somewhat sophisticated in how we were tracking them.
Chief James White: Well, they got even more sophisticated, so they started charging for the maps that they were going to drag race. Well, we had our analysts buy the app and pay and go in and infiltrate that group. So we would be there waiting on them. And so, you know, we have to be smart. We have to deploy our five-point plan.
Chief James White: With that in mind, that, as the Mayor indicated, you know, some of these criminals are smart. I mean, if they did something else for a living, they would be very successful business people. They just choose to break the law. So they&#8217;re using innovation and technology to not be arrested. And so our strategy focuses on really the key areas that we&#8217;re struggling with or was struggling with.
Chief James White: Not that we&#8217;re declaring victory by any means, but we&#8217;ve had some degree of success. And one of the things is crowd control and crowd management. You know, when I walked in last year, we had an uptick of 44% in nonfatal shootings. And that was a problem. And we knew that people are bringing guns to areas where people congregate. They would have very simple conflict, resolve it with the gun. They were, you bump into me, you step on my shoes, I&#8217;m going to shoot you.
Chief James White: Impulse decision-making. So what we decided to do.. Look at those areas, pinpoint where the high likelihood were in our communities and deploy in those communities where there was a likelihood of the behavior happening. We had some success with that. We took a lot of guns off the street.
Chief James White: And but again, with the course being closed, it&#8217;s a turnstile. They go into the court system. Many of them get a tether. They walk right out their door and engage in similar behavior. So, you know, we were able to do some things.
Chief James White: The other issue or the other area that we decided to focus on besides drag racing was just general traffic enforcement. When you see officers in communities doing traffic stops, you see those lights on. It changes behavior, it changes decision making.
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Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.
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Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Police Chief James White on Violence, Crime and Policing in Detroit

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Michigan&#8217;s Black Leadership Advisory Council, created by <a href="https://twitter.com/GovWhitmer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gov. Gretchen Whitmer</a> in late 2020, has made 11 new policy recommendations to close racial equity gaps and build a more inclusive, stronger state. <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/leo/news/2022/05/10/black-leadership-advisory-council-finalizes-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The council&#8217;s recommendations</a> focus on kitchen-table issues that affect the Black community, like education, community safety, justice, health, and business leadership and growth.  
&#8220;The Black Leadership Advisory Council recommendations are a step in the right direction to create a more inclusive, equitable Michigan,&#8221; Governor Gretchen Whitmer said in a press release. &#8220;We are committed to working together and enacting these recommendations as we build a more inclusive state and continue delivering on the kitchen-table issues that matter most to working families and communities of color including great schools, good jobs, clean water, safe roads, and so much more.&#8221;
RELATED: <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/leo/news/2022/05/10/black-leadership-advisory-council-finalizes-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Black Leadership Advisory Council finalizes report to build a stronger, more inclusive Michigan</a>
<a href="https://www.michigan.gov/leo/about/executive-leadership/kim-trent" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kim Trent</a>, the deputy director of prosperity for the Michigan <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/leo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity</a> (LEO), joins &#8220;American Black Journal&#8221; host <a href="https://twitter.com/SHDetroit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stephen Henderson</a> to talk about the recommendations <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/appointments/oma/all/1/black-leadership-advisory-council" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the council</a> shared with Gov. Whitmer, including supporting the <a href="https://www.thecrownact.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CROWN Act</a>, diversity on corporate boards and in C-suites, a better collection and analysis of criminal justice data, a ban on no-knock warrants, school funding, mental health support, and protecting Black voting rights.  
“The Council has been diligent throughout the year to create recommendations that will help Michigan be more equitable for Black communities throughout the state and tackle issues that have plagued Black communities for far too long,” said Robert Womack, a Kent County Commissioner who also serves as the council’s co-chair.
<h2>Full Transcript:</h2>
Stephen Henderson, Host, American Black Journal: 2021, the governor announced this group. I can remember people being pretty excited and really interested in what would happen. Of course, two years later, I think a lot of people have just kind of forgotten that this happened and that you all have been working for two years on all of this.
Stephen Henderson: So catch us up. What did you discover over that two-year period and talk about these recommendations that you&#8217;re making of the governor?
Kim Trent, Deputy Director, Prosperity MI Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity: Well, it&#8217;s not even been two years yet. It&#8217;s been about a year and a half. So we in that year and a half, we have 16 members who came from all over the state of Michigan.. From a variety of backgrounds, former elected officials, former journalists. We have all kinds of people at the table.
Kim Trent: And what we wanted to do, you know, of course, we could have had 100 different issues that we talked about, but we narrowed it down to 11. We have four committees; Education, Community Safety and Justice, Business Leadership and Health. So all of those are really incredibly important issues.
Kim Trent: There are a million subset issues that we could have talked about, but we think that we got the right mix for our first report.
Kim Trent: Now comes the work of working with our legislators, working with stakeholders to ensure that some of these recommendations at least get a conversation. I mean, the sad reality is some of these issues that we think are really important don&#8217;t even get a conversation in our state capital. So we want to leverage whatever influence that we have as leaders in the state of Michigan to at least have conversations happening.
Stephen Henderson: Yeah. And of course, we&#8217;ll post links to your work on our Web page. But if you could pull out, you know, a couple of things that you think are kind of high-line suggestions for the governor or things that would make a huge difference. If we could do them, what would they be?
Kim Trent: Oh, okay. So, you know, I have to narrow those 11 down to a few, but I&#8217;m happy to do it. I think the one that we really thought about a lot, certainly in the wake of the George Floyd murder and you know, he&#8217;s just emblematic. He&#8217;s just one of far too many people who saw their lives end because of, you know, violence on behalf of the police.
Kim Trent: So what we have called for with our Community Safety and Justice Committee is that there be a real, deliberate effort to have the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards work with the attorney general and with law enforcement to really do a deep dive into statistics.
Kim Trent: I mean, what we saw happening, what we saw that happened in Grand Rapids recently, I know that the Michigan Civil Rights Commission has already kind of taken a look at, even before this happened, at complaints about the Grand Rapids Police Department. How do we use our voices to talk about the need to have to use data?
Kim Trent: Because data, if you don&#8217;t use data, it&#8217;s irrelevant. So use the data that we have. Collect better data and leverage it so that we have better policing in our communities. I think that&#8217;s one that has a lot of impact. We have $10 billion that&#8217;s coming to our state for infrastructure improvement, you know, really trying to ensure that business, black business owners participate.
Kim Trent: You know, there are federal mandates that there have to be there has to be participation of disadvantaged business organizations. How is the state going to ensure that we have we see that participation so that the tax dollars that we put into also come back to our business leaders here in the state of Michigan?
Kim Trent: And then as a black woman, I can say and this is you know, it may sound trivial to some people, but the Crown Act, which was introduced by Representative Fair AP to ensure that black women are not discriminated against because of the texture of their hair, because they choose their hair to use it to where their hair in a way that&#8217;s culturally significant to them.
Kim Trent: You know, that is something that many states, 12 states, I think right now we&#8217;re at 12 states now across the country have already taken action to ensure that there is not discrimination in education set, educational settings or at the workplace. And Michigan has been elected to take that step. So those are just three. But there are many proposals among the 11 that I think could really be powerful tools to help improve the lives of African-Americans in our state.
Stephen Henderson: Was there anything that you and your work and a lot of it was, of course, research and into the many different ways that this gap shows up? Was there anything you found that was surprising or was this pretty much, you know, I mean, as African-Americans, I think we live with this stuff all the time? But was there anything that shocked you or surprised you?
Kim Trent: Shocked, I would say no. You know, any time you dig into statistics about how black people are living anywhere in America, I think you will be disappointed, is probably the best word to describe it. You know, I think that when we talk about how maybe health dollars are expended in our state, ensuring that we have, you know, people of color who particularly with mental health, we know that, you know, there has been disparate treatment for mental health, for behavioral health problems in our state.
Kim Trent: When African-Americans have behavioral health challenges or crises, they end up in prison far too often. So, you know, when we looked at how we can be more strategic about ensuring that we&#8217;re getting those services, I think that that was something that, you know, it continues to be disappointing that we are not getting.
Kim Trent: And I&#8217;m really happy to see that Governor Whitmer is trying to be very strategic about putting dollars in for mental health and being aware of the equity gaps that exist for that. But the fact that it took a pandemic and the resulting mental health crises that have emerged from that pandemic, for state government to be responsive in a meaningful way is disappointing.
Kim Trent: But we&#8217;re also really happy that there is movement in that direction and we&#8217;re very happy about that.
Stephen Henderson: Earlier you mentioned the legislature and the need to have some legislative action around some of these proposals. That&#8217;s always pretty tough here in Michigan right now. Give us a sense of whether you&#8217;re hopeful that legislators are open to these ideas and whether they will actually do something.
Kim Trent: I mean, obviously, that&#8217;s always the big question, right? So I think that one of the things one of the proposals we have is supporting lifting, or having a cap on, the APR that could be charged by payday lenders. You know, we would love for the legislature to take action on this. We also know that it&#8217;s very unlikely that they will.
Kim Trent: But there is a ballot proposal that will likely be on the ballot for Michiganders to decide. So we&#8217;ll get involved on that front. And I think increasingly you&#8217;re going to see people going if the legislature will not take action on things that matter to our community. I think you&#8217;re going to start seeing more ballot proposals. You&#8217;re going to start seeing people really demanding.
Kim Trent: And so I think that&#8217;s how we see our role, to lift up these issues to make. For example, we talked about one of our proposals is to ban no-knock warrants. And I&#8217;m happy to say that the City of Pontiac City Council passed a resolution in support of the legislation that has just been sitting there with no action, and they credit it to the Black Report.
Kim Trent: So those are the kind of, that&#8217;s the kind of movement that we want to see. We have a long way to go. We know that, you know, getting things through the legislature is a challenge, will probably continue to be a challenge in the near future. But we want to be really innovative and aggressive and figure out other strategies if that approach doesn&#8217;t work.
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<h2>Stay Connected: </h2>
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Black Leadership Advisory Council Announces Policy Recommendations to Reduce Racial Equity Gaps in Michigan 

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Technology meets theology: Three local pastors talk changes to church worship during COVID

Wolverine-Bar-Assocation-Barristers-Ball-2022

The Wolverine Bar Association&#8217;s major fundraising event, the Barristers&#8217; Ball, has returned after a two-year pandemic-related hiatus. Before this year&#8217;s Barristers&#8217; Ball, titled &#8220;<a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2022-barristers-ball-the-come-back-tickets-271229293117">The Come Back,</a>&#8221; host <a href="https://twitter.com/SHDetroit">Stephen Henderson</a> talks with Wolverine Bar President Kim Ward and retired judge Craig Strong, a recipient of the association&#8217;s Golden Gavel Award, about the importance of the association to the African American legal community in Michigan and how it supports aspiring lawyers and judge.  
The <a href="https://www.barassociationdirectory.com/mi/wolverine-bar-association/">Wolverine Bar Association</a>, located in Detroit, began in 1930 to promote racial equality in legal matters for Detroit&#8217;s Black community. Today, the bar association provides a number of resources, programs and scholarships for young African Americans interested in pursuing a career in law. 
<h2>Full Transcript:</h2>
Stephen Henderson: Kim, tell me two years of hiatus for the Barristers&#8217; Ball. It&#8217;s going to be a lot of fun to get back together.
Kim Ward, President, Wolverine Bar Association: Definitely. Yes, that is the goal. We are excited to bring back the ball. It&#8217;s as you&#8217;ve indicated, it&#8217;s been two years. Everyone is excited. We&#8217;re actually almost nearly sold out on our table. So that is an indication of how excited everyone is to return. Of course, we&#8217;re returning back to the Marriott, which we know so well.
Kim Ward: The ball has been at the Marriott Detroit Renaissance Center for many, many years. This is our 60th and it means a lot to us. It&#8217;s a milestone year and it means that we have been planted firm, I would like to say, as a tree. We&#8217;ve grown out, our branches have extended over many, many years and this is one of our largest charitable events for the organization which our foundation puts on every year. So we&#8217;re looking forward to it as well. Hope to see you.
Stephen Henderson: Yeah. Let&#8217;s talk a little more about the Wolverine Bar Association, just how critical an institution that is here in the Detroit area.
Kim Ward: Sure, it&#8217;s paramount. As I&#8217;ve indicated, just alone just for the ball itself being its 60th annual. Of course, the organization itself goes back many, many years, as early as 1919, on which we were founded by the Harlan Law Club, which was the original name under the name of one of our U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harlan, who had a very, made a very bold decision, I would say, dissenting opinion in terms of equality, rights and segregation.
Kim Ward: So many, many years later, of course, the organization wanting to expand out and we&#8217;re talking about that growth. We wanted to stand out across the entire state. And Michigan being a Wolverine State, of course, the name Wolverine Bar Association was born. And as you&#8217;ve indicated, Stephen, it is very critical. It&#8217;s very critical for African-American attorneys as well as judges, as well as our law students.
Kim Ward: And the organization was founded for that purpose to assist with minority attorneys, as well as law students at the time who were looking to get into law school and just needed to have a good networking to be able to communicate, to be able to bounce things off of. And so the organization has grown to be able to create programs.
Kim Ward: So we&#8217;re pretty much large. We have since that time we can carry probably before Covid overall between 5 to 800 members per year. And so our ball is well attended and supported by the public and we&#8217;re continuing to grow in numbers even after the pandemic. As you&#8217;ve just indicated, we can tell that our numbers have increased since the two-year hiatus.
Stephen Henderson: So, Judge Strong, first of all, congratulations on receiving this award from the Wolverine Bar Association. It&#8217;s not the first award you&#8217;ve been given. But tell me how important it is to be honored this way.
Hon. Craig Strong, Honoree, Wolverine Bar Golden Gavel Award: Well, to me it&#8217;s important because it&#8217;s the organization that I love. I believe that I would not have been a judge at the time of my life, when I was 30, I got on the bench as a referee. But it was because of the Wolverine Bar. The fact that the Wolverine Bar allowed me to participate in so many activities and encouraged me and allowed me to expand and grow. Bar associations are very important. Bar associations actually control and shape the legal profession and influence so much, even the appointment of judges.
Hon. Craig Strong: And that&#8217;s one of the reasons why the Wolverine Bar became in existence, because the White Bar Association, the good old boys, would not let blacks in. So the blacks at that time determined that they needed to come together and form their own bar association, which they did. And they had their seminars, they helped each other.
Hon. Craig Strong: They got involved in civil rights issues, and they tried to break down the barriers of discrimination and racism in the court system, because back in those days, everything was white. White judges, white jurors, white police, white and court employees, and black folks didn&#8217;t feel they had a fair chance.
Hon. Craig Strong: So the Wolverine Bar Association basically was formed back in those days to knock down the barriers of racism, which they helped do. When we talk about the Barristers&#8217; Ball, I look back at the days when the Wolverine Bar hosted a dinner and it would invite the white judges. And once again, they were trying to break down the barriers in the court system.
Hon. Craig Strong: And that evolved into the Barristers&#8217; Ball, where it became a more of a social event. Where the lawyers can invite their spouses, they can entertain their clients, and the presidents would invite dignitaries, local and national. People that could help the members of the association, the association and the community. And I happened to have a photograph of the first Barristers&#8217; Ball.
Stephen Henderson: Oh, my goodness. Look at that.
Hon. Craig Strong: The lawyer at the mic, who was the president at the time and he thought big. He just didn&#8217;t invite local people. I have a letter here from Robert Kennedy, who was the attorney general, the brother of President John Kennedy. And he was thanking the Wolverine Bar for inviting him to the event, but he was unable to do so.
Hon. Craig Strong: I also have another letter by him in which he is thanking the Wolverine Bar for endorsing the Honorable Wade McCree for appointment as the United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan. You see. The Wolverine Bar just did not think local, it thought big. And we also have a letter from Justice Hastie. He was the first black federal judge.
Hon. Craig Strong: He was a judge in the Virgin Islands and the Wolverine Bar invited him to the Barristers&#8217; Ball and paid his expenses. Wolverine Bar became the biggest social event around. The guest did not have to pay. They were the guests of the Wolverine Bar lawyers. And it was a place to be. It was featured in the newspapers. Everybody got dressed up, the women in great gowns, the newspapers covered the event, and people wanted to attend.
Hon. Craig Strong: One of the things that I thought was very important was the role of the president in inviting his or her guests, because these were dignitaries. These were people that could help out, and all the governors would show up. And the governors are the ones that make judicial appointments. So it was very important.
Hon. Craig Strong: As a matter of fact, I remember seeing Governor G. Mennen Williams, who appointed the first black judge. That was Charles Jones back in 1950. He would attend our balls. Governor Milliken who appointed more black judges than any governor would be in attendance. Everyone thought it was that important and it was because it helped break down barriers. It helped end stereotypes and it brought people together then and it still does now.
Stephen Henderson: Yeah, this is one of my things I absolutely love about Judge Strong is that he&#8217;s got such a command of history and remembers all the important things that happened to get us to get us where we are. Go ahead Kim Ward.
Kim Ward: Yeah, that&#8217;s exactly why Judge Strong is being honored and still as humble as he is, judge Strong was also a past president for Wolverine Bar Association, as well as for the Association of Black Judges of Michigan. So even in his retirement, he is still giving of himself, of history, of knowledge, as well as networking and mentoring to our students, which is so important and which is why we have the Barristers&#8217; Ball.
Kim Ward: The money that we receive from that event definitely goes towards our law student programs, our pipeline programs. Some of those programs include our Judicial Externship Program, in which we try to place students into our circuit courts and our federal courts to give them the opportunity to work very closely as clerks for judges.
Kim Ward: We even have our summer clerkship program in which we provide students with the opportunities to work with them. Law departments, in-house departments, with law firms, giving them that on hands experience, putting them right into what a brief is, depositions, giving them that knowledge so that they are best prepared when they do graduate and walk into the legal profession.
Kim Ward: So we have a huge pipeline. You know, we try to make sure that our students are prepared to pass the bar. We have essay programs to strengthen their writing skills. We provide mock trials. We definitely place them into opportunities to even reach further back to our high school students as well as our undergraduate students by preparing them with law student I&#8217;m sorry, LSAT preparation exams.
Kim Ward: And so the foundation is huge in that sense. Also in terms of our membership, we have a great membership base. Our members have included not only Judge Strong as past president, but also Reginald Turner, who is currently the American Bar Association president, as well as Dennis Archer, and of course, I have to mention Victoria Roberts, chief judge, as well as the late Damon, Damon J. Keith.
Kim Ward: And I say that because we have scholarships that are named after them in which we provide scholarships to our students to help them through law school as well. So our organization is vast. We are definitely ready to do the work. We understand our community&#8217;s needs. We provide programs in terms of expungements, in terms of legal advocacy, voting rights. So we&#8217;re on the front line of standing for justice as well.
Kim Ward: And so having Judge Strong here with us to continue to assist on the board, as you know, he wears many hats. As you can tell, he&#8217;s very philanthropic and of course, fashion-forward. Everyone has seen him here in Detroit. And so definitely, you know, as many hats as he wears, we definitely tip our hats off to him. And so we are definitely happy to have him as one of our honorees amongst the other judges that we&#8217;re honoring as well, which definitely will include some of our federal and circuit court judges, you know, among Judge Strong.
Kim Ward: So we&#8217;re definitely happy to honor Denise Page Hood as well as Denise Langford Morris. Honorable Leo Bowman. We&#8217;re definitely happy to, of course, Judge Strong, as I mentioned, and we&#8217;re also honoring some local individuals that do civic and community work, which includes Shaheed Timothy, Aretha Franklin Theatre, formerly Shane Park, as well as our Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence. And we&#8217;re also honoring Reverend Kenneth J. Flowers for his activism on the legal front. So we have a number of people that we are honoring as well.
Stephen Henderson: All right. Well, again, congratulations, Judge Strong, and congratulations Kim Ward for bringing the Barristers&#8217; Ball back. Thanks for being here with us, too.
Kim Ward and Hon. Craig Strong: Thank you.
&nbsp;
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Wolverine Bar Association’s Barristers’ Ball Returns After Two-Year Hiatus

Screen-Shot-2022-02-22-at-2.33.15-PM

As part of American Black Journal&#8217;s Black Church in Detroit one-year anniversary episode, BridgeDetroit&#8217;s <a href="https://www.bridgedetroit.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BridgeDetroit’s</a> Engagement Director <a href="https://twitter.com/orlandopbailey" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Orlando Bailey</a> meets with Bishop J. Drew Sheard and his wife Karen Clark Sheard at the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ (<a href="https://www.geicogic.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">C.O.G.I.C.</a>) for an extensive never-before-seen interview ranging from their roles as leaders of the largest African American Pentecostal denomination in America to a look inside their personal journeys of growth in the Black church.
RELATED: <a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/the-black-church-in-detroit-one-year-anniversary-special-episode/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Watch the Black Church in Detroit One-Year Anniversary Special Episode</a>
Bishop Sheard shares his early desires to be a leader in the church from a young age, the strong family foundation that helped pave the way, and how a kid from Detroit&#8217;s west side became the leader of the largest Black Pentecostal denomination. Plus, Bishop Sheard discusses the impact of COVID-19 on his church congregation and the increasing need for an online presence and accessibility as congregates tuned in virtually from across the nation.
Then, Orlando turns to Karen Clark Sheard for a closer look at her role as the First Lady of C.O.G.I.C. She talks about her evolution as the First Lady alongside her success as a Grammy award-winning gospel artist with <a href="http://theclarksisters.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Clark Sisters</a>. Finally, Bishop Sheard and First Lady Sheard take stock of where their denomination stands today and the importance of the Black church as an institution that works to uplift and progress the Black community and culture.
<h2>Abbreviated Transcript: </h2>
Stephen Henderson, American Black Journal: Orlando Bailey, great to see you here on &#8220;American Black Journal.&#8221; We&#8217;ve been at this for a year now, talking about the Black Church in Detroit and its importance to people in Detroit and to the culture in Detroit. I really wonder what your favorite moment, though, was in that last year?
Orlando Bailey, Engagement Director, BridgeDetroit: Oh man, it&#8217;s been a tremendous year, and the thing that stands out for me is the opportunity to sit across from, in a socially distanced way, the Bishop Edgar Vann of Second Ebenezer Church. An amazing Detroiter and one whom I will call, you know, Detroit&#8217;s pastor, right, with that, with that amazing voice. And we had the opportunity to talk about just how he sees the role of the black church in the progression and upliftment of black folks in the past, and, you know, in the present, and it was a really palpable, relevant, real and open and honest conversation. Talking to Bishop Edgar Vann, that was my mentor.
Stephen Henderson: And in so many ways, you&#8217;re right. He does symbolize not just the church in the congregation he leads here in Detroit, but he symbolizes the relationship between clergy and culture, clergy and politics, clergy and civic duty here in Detroit in a way that that that most other people don&#8217;t. And I think that was kind of a pivotal part of the series, was getting to the essence of somebody like that and the role, the role that they&#8217;re playing.
Orlando Bailey: Yeah, and how he has been able, for decades now, to navigate all of those roles. Pastor, dad, husband, one time, a Police Commissioner and Appointee to this board and that task force. I mean, he&#8217;s a he&#8217;s a polymath and he&#8217;s still at it, and it was an honor to be able to sit across from him. It wasn&#8217;t a Zoom interview; it was in person across from him and we had that conversation. My grandfather was one of his mentors, and so it was it was a full circle moment, yeah.
Stephen Henderson: Wow. So, we&#8217;re not done with the Black Church in Detroit. How could we ever be done with a subject like that, but certainly not after a year, and we&#8217;ve got lots of new material for viewers. Tell me about what you have coming up.
Orlando Bailey: I am so excited about this. I had the opportunity to interview Bishop J. Drew Sheard and Lady Karen Clark-Sheard. I say, Karen &#8220;The Clark&#8221; Sheard, I mean, she is a legend in her own right. And you know, Bishop Sheard, within the last year, ascended to the Chief Apostle leadership role of the Church of God in Christ, which is the largest African-American Pentecostal denomination in the world. And I wanted to ask him how significant it is for the leader of that denomination to be based in the largest majority black city in the United States of America.
And what that means for Black America and what that means for the City of Detroit. We had a really open and honest conversation, you know, about the journey, his ascent, the ups and downs. While he was coming to power, he lost both of his parents to COVID complications. And so there&#8217;s some, you know, exuberant moments there, but there&#8217;s also a pensive sadness that he still carries and that he&#8217;s working through. But it was an amazing conversation. And you know, his wife, Karen Clark-Sheard, First Lady, multi-platinum selling gospel artist, Legendary just in her own right, talking about the ever evolving role of First Lady; it was an amazing conversation.
Stephen Henderson: Yeah. All right, let&#8217;s take a look.
Orlando Bailey: So Bishop Sheard, I want to start with you. You are the leader of America&#8217;s, of the world&#8217;s largest African-American denomination, The Church of God in Christ, right? How does a J. Drew from Sorento on the west side of Detroit, rise to be the presiding bishop of the C.O.G.I.C Church?
Bishop J. Drew Sheard, Greater Emmanuel Institutional C.O.G.I.C: Well, I had great parents. I mean, they instilled in me this godliness form of godliness and I&#8217;ve always, from the time I was in the fifth grade, always aspired for leadership. And  I worked at it, to be an effective leader in my school while I was going through school. And, you know, God, had an encounter with God as a very young child. And I was always very sincere about God and the church. I love church. This is, I&#8217;m the kid that would gather everybody when we didn&#8217;t have nothing to do and make everybody have church.
Orlando Bailey: You would play church?
Bishop J. Drew Sheard: Yeah, oh yeah, oh man. Yeah, I love church. And so, just to be involved in church was my heart&#8217;s desire. And so, I&#8217;m excited about what God has done in my life, and my aspirations to be in leadership. And not only in secular leadership, but in the church leadership. And God favored me because he knows my heart.
Orlando Bailey: Yeah, talk about your journey to this position.
Bishop J. Drew Sheard: Well, it hasn&#8217;t been an easy journey, of course. We have had some setbacks, some major setbacks in our personal lives, and we&#8217;ve had some challenges as we, you know, fast forward it to in our church life, we&#8217;ve had some real heartbreakers and but nevertheless, we never lost our faith in God. And that is so critical when you&#8217;re doing the work of the Lord because, you know, the scripture says, &#8220;And we know that all things work together for the good of them that love the Lord and who are the called according to its purpose.&#8221;
So, the bad things, the ugly things, the good things, the sweet things, the bitter things, they all work for our ultimate good. And I don&#8217;t, you know, we&#8217;ve had some real challenges. You know, Orlando, we&#8217;ve had some faults, we had to fight some hard battles when the enemy thought he was destroying us. We&#8217;ve had some challenges when, you know, with my wife and, you know, her health and whatnot, but God saw us through.
Orlando Bailey: Lady Karen, I got to ask you, this man said since the fifth grade, he knew he wanted to be in leadership, and I heard you all grew up down the street from each other. Talk about, because I heard his story, I want to hear your version of the story, talk about where you guys met all the way to, &#8220;I do&#8221;, and what is now? Did you envision that it would be this?
Evangelist Karen Clark Sheard, Greater Emmanuel Institutional C.O.G.I.C: Well, first of all, the greatest decision I could have ever made in my life was saying, &#8220;yes,&#8221; and &#8220;I do”, to this man of God. Of course, the beginning of our journey, as he stated, he was friends with Twinkie, and of course, she was like a big sister to him. And so, to make a long story short, Twinkie came to me and said, &#8220;You have an admirer&#8221;, and I&#8217;m like, Oh Lord, who is this.
Orlando Bailey: Twinkie was your wingman?
Bishop J. Drew Sheard: That was my partner. Twinkie was my partner.
Evangelist Karen Clark Sheard: And when she told me who it was, when she said it was him, I said, &#8220;Oh no, no, no, no, not him!&#8221;, because I saw him being such a gentleman that loved God in the church, and I just saw those great attributes. And I said, &#8220;Wow&#8221;, I said, &#8220;Wow that&#8217;s&#8230;&#8221;, and I felt that, to be honest, I just felt I wasn&#8217;t there yet. I don&#8217;t feel that, you know, because of what I saw in him.
You know, I gave him that respect then, even when we were younger, you know, I just saw it in him and, you know, as we went on, and when he asked me to marry him, we had our ups and downs. When he asked me to marry him..
Bishop J. Drew Sheard: No, I saw your mind go right there. He wants to know some of those downs.
Orlando Bailey: I&#8217;ll leave you alone Bishop.
Evangelist Karen Clark Sheard: Well, we had those down moments of, you know, I realized, Wow. I, of course, was in the singing group, The Clark Sisters, and felt, Oh, I&#8217;m an artist then, and then when I found out he was doing his trial sermon to be a minister, I&#8217;m like, Oh, that&#8217;s a whole different hat that I&#8217;m gonna have to wear if he becomes pastor.
Then as we began to grow together and I said yes and he became a pastor and I&#8217;m like, wow, here&#8217;s another, I&#8217;m a pastor&#8217;s wife, you know. So, it&#8217;s just so many things that I had to, I want to put it right, because I don&#8217;t want anybody to misinterpret this, but a lot of things that I knew that as an artist you couldn&#8217;t do, which was nothing bad, but as a pastor&#8217;s wife, you had to, you know what I’m saying?
Orlando Bailey: There&#8217;s an added layer there.
Evangelist Karen Clark Sheard: It&#8217;s a whole nother thing. So, I&#8217;m glad I had a relationship with God to tell me, it&#8217;s not that hard, you know, just respect the anointing on his life, and I&#8217;ll bless you, you&#8217;ll be rewarded for it. And I&#8217;ve been rewarded every since I said yes to this gentleman I have. And as you, you know, you were asking, you know, how was this journey? It was a great journey, even during our moments of when I got sick. He still was there, you know? He was a pastor then, but he still honored me as his wife.
You know, he didn&#8217;t step away from being a pastor, but you know, the human side came in and he was there for me when doctors gave up on me, gave me 2% chance. We got closer, even after I was, you know, after I had, I went through my coma and when I was in my coma, I came out. When I found out all of what he began to explain to me what had actually happened, and I&#8217;m like, I took you through all of that and it&#8217;s just the human side of him being a great leader, but yet step out of that and become a great husband, oh my goodness, it just took our relationship, made it stronger, and it took our relationship to a whole nother level.
I mean, even dealing with our children, you know, I was glad that, you know, he was able to portray him being that godly man, even in front of my son, because sometimes that&#8217;s all they have to look at. And I hear them now saying, &#8220;Wow, when my mother was sick, it was amazing to watch my father, you know, not be so involved in the church and then taking away from what he&#8217;s supposed to do at home&#8221;, and he just portrayed a great, being a great man of God.
Orlando Bailey: Let&#8217;s talk about your leadership role with the largest African-American Pentecostal denomination in the world, the Church of God in Christ. How significant is it for the leadership of the C.O.G.I.C church to reside in America&#8217;s largest majority black city? How significant and historic is it for the leadership to be headquartered right here in the city of Detroit?
Bishop J. Drew Sheard: Well I&#8217;m gonna be honest with you, I never thought about that until you asked me that, but it is key because I&#8217;ve always said that Detroit is a church city.
Orlando Bailey: I&#8217;ve said the same thing!
Bishop J. Drew Sheard: OK, so me and you touching in agreeance?
Orlando Bailey: Yes, we are!
Bishop J. Drew Sheard: OK, so Detroit is a church city. There&#8217;s a couple of cities around the nation that you classify as church city, but Detroit is among the top, if not the top. OK, so..
Orlando Bailey: Preaching, signing, all of it.
Bishop J. Drew Sheard: You see what I&#8217;m saying? And so, you got, we&#8217;re church city, I&#8217;m a church man, I love church, you know? I had before this pandemic, and I&#8217;m looking forward to going back to it, we had Bible study Wednesday, Friday night service, I had two Sunday morning service, and a Sunday night service, so I&#8217;m looking forward to that.
Orlando Bailey: Lady Karen, you wanted to talk a little bit more about the role of the first lady. Say more about that.
Evangelist Karen Clark Sheard: Thank you, Orlando. I just want to make a point that, they see me singing as an artist all the time. And as you stated, I do, you know, teach and speak the word as well. But, our ministry, my husband as the leader of our ministry, is totally built off of the word of God. And my point I want to make is that, singing soothes the soul, but preaching frees the soul. That&#8217;s all I wanted to say.
&nbsp;
Subscribe to Detroit Public Television’s<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/detroitpublictv56"> YouTube Channel</a> &amp; Don’t miss American Black Journal on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit Public TV, WTVS-Channel 56.
Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.
<h3><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/">View Past Episodes &gt;</a></h3>
Watch American Black Journal on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit Public TV, WTVS-Channel 56.

Bishop J. Drew Sheard and Karen Clark Sheard talk C.O.G.I.C. leadership, The Clark Sisters

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In celebration of Black History Month, host Stephen Henderson explores the legacy of Horace Sheffield, Jr., a trailblazer in the African American labor union movement. Stephen talks with the late <a href="https://horacesheffield.com/about/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sheffield’s son</a>, Rev. Horace Sheffield III, about the influence and impact his father had on the trade unions during the civil rights movement. Plus, Sheffield III talks about upcoming plans to house thousands of items from his father’s archives in a massive collection at <a href="https://wayne.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wayne State University</a> and <a href="https://www.wcccd.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wayne County Community College District</a>.
<h2>Full Transcript:</h2>
Stephen Henderson: Excited to talk to you about your dad and the work that you&#8217;re doing to preserve his archives and his legacy. But I figure we probably ought to start with just a simple recitation of who your dad was, what he did and why he&#8217;s so important. Not just to the legacy of labor here in the city of Detroit, but especially to the legacy of civil rights. He really was something else.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III, Executive Director, Detroit Association of Black Organizations (DABO): Well, you know, and my dad, much like me, was not a self-promoter. You know, he was a race man. And in that generation, as you know, because your family is a part of that. These are people who deferred their own aspirations for future generations to experience what they never had an opportunity to.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: So it wasn&#8217;t about him getting the job, it was about opening the door, making sure certain other folks came in. But I think Willie Felder opened my eyes to who my dad was at his 100th birthday celebration and told me he was in Birmingham, Alabama. And A.G. Gaston who was a millionaire invited my dad down and my dad brought Thurgood Marshall with him.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: And they were having a meeting because these Black veterans who have come back from the war were being discriminated against, not able to get the, you know, the veterans loan. And so, he said, when my dad walked in the room, everybody knew who he was and knew that things were about to get started now.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: So my dad&#8217;s history is this. He, by the way, was Vice President, of Negro American Labor Council on A. Philip Randolph. He and Bayard Rustin served in that same capacity. Both of them were the staff organizers of the March on Washington for jobs in the war industry and of course, was the first person to bring Dr. King to Detroit. What people don&#8217;t understand is the success of the civil rights movement because you have Black labor organizers.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: Also, one tidbit is in his archives is that I discovered that he was the first person that they asked to be mayor to run as a Black mayor and my dad loathed politics. So it was very interesting that my daughter would become president of the council. But one good example. Five plus one, they went down and met with Mary Annie of Van Antwerp because of police brutality. The Big Four and all those things.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: And if you read B.J. Whittak&#8217;s book, you know that they brought the Klan here. And Charles Bowles almost won the mayor&#8217;s race in the 20s to discourage the growth of the Black population. And the police took on that mantra. And when they went down and met about what was happening, they said, that&#8217;s what we do. It&#8217;s in my dad&#8217;s archive.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: And what did they do? My dad came back to TULC had a big meeting and organized a slate called five plus one. The one was Jerry Cavanaugh and five Liberal Council and they won. They beat the UAW. They beat the white power structure. And that was a powerful moment in the history of TULC and Black trade unionism, which my dad was a part of.
Stephen Henderson: You know, just hearing you talk about those things, those events, you know, those moments in history, you can connect so much of what we see and experience today in Detroit to those moments that things are the way they are for us, in particular in the city because of those things that your dad and those other folks did.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: So what&#8217;s interesting is the same person who did Daisy Bates and Robert Kennedy and Jackie Robinson&#8217;s archives. We spent $90,000 dollars digitizing this and kind of tongue in cheek. The white guy says, you know this is one of the best collections. He didn&#8217;t want to say period, you know, but really, my dad had already annotated everything. I mean, back to a pamphlet he wrote with a pseudonym called Unite regarders encouraging Black workers to join the UAW, which my grandfather did until after it was accepted by the, you know, the collective bargaining agent.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: My grandfather thought that Henry Ford was the second coming of Jesus Christ. But my dad saved absolutely everything. And what&#8217;s important to me about all of this is that if I, you know you have family members, for example, that were in the trade union movement right, you can literally pull up people&#8217;s names, people that folks everyday people don&#8217;t know like.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: Ann Jones or, you know, George Cherry. I mean, and you will find information that my dad has. I know I&#8217;m running my mouth, but I&#8217;m so excited about this. But one of the most important pieces that I&#8217;ve read recently about where my dad took me where I was able to connect the dots was when he came home from King&#8217;s funeral, had to walk behind his coffin and an African-American trade unionist were absent from Memphis. And some of them were absent from the funeral because the white unions had turned against Dr. King because of his stance on the Vietnam War.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: And this five-page letter my dad wrote to Black Trade Unions asked the question. When are we even as a part of white institutions not going to be afraid to stick up for our own interests? They stuck up for theirs and make us bow to theirs. When are we going to make them bow to ours?
Stephen Henderson: So I know you&#8217;re doing this work now, trying to preserve his legacy and his archives. But I want you to talk just a little about growing up with your dad. I mean, this was your dad. He wasn&#8217;t just a civil rights activist. You know, this was the man who raised you. Talk about the things that you believe and the things you work on today, that were influenced by growing up in a household with him.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: Well, you know, my dad&#8217;s favorite question he asked in any meeting that he was organizing for an issue was what&#8217;s the difference between a pile of bricks and a cathedral? And no one would get it. He&#8217;d always say an organization the bricks are organized. So one of the things I got out was, by the way, this humongous movement. I mean, the social upheaval and all that you saw happen. I was there in that cauldron and that crucible.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: I mean, I watched Dr. King speak. You know, I went to Walter Ruth&#8217;s funeral. I mean, these are things that I experienced. And I asked myself I&#8217;m like the day when people would Tik Tok it and Instagram it and Facebook it. I asked myself, why? Why was I providentially placed in this era to be exposed to these people and to know them by name? You know, sleep in King&#8217;s House and all that. And I came away with it that I was to carry on the legacy of selfless service.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: My dad said the true measure of a person&#8217;s life is not how much they have, but how much they give. And I really think they came home in &#8217;63 when we went to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and Lyndon Johnson received my dad and my sisters and I at his house, and my sister swam in his swimming pool as my dad met with Lyndon Johnson.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: And I didn&#8217;t come out of there thinking, Oh my God, I&#8217;m somebody, you know, look at us. I came away from it knowing that my dad was a pivotal, pivotal person in the movement for Civil Rights and that this blue-collar worker, he was a blue-collar worker. My grandfather had a fourth-grade education, came out of the foundry at Ford, organized workers, and his they called him a champion of the working poor and blue-collar workers that took him into Lyndon Johnson&#8217;s front room and was known by him and by name.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: And by the way, I got an interesting story about Lyndon Johnson. It&#8217;s in his archives you want to hear. And it was timely because Aavin Cone wrote this and told me it&#8217;s in the archives that Lyndon Johnson called my dad. He was the floor general at the convention and asked my dad not to seat the lady from Mississippi what&#8217;s her name, Fannie Lou Hamer.
Stephen Henderson: Oh, really?
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: And Aavin Cone was standing next to him. He told vice president or President Johnson, that he would not not seat those delegations who were delegates to Fannie Lou Hamer. And you know, I love Aavin Cone by the way, you know, he contributed a lot of stuff to my dad&#8217;s archives and brought a lot of stuff together for me. He&#8217;s part of that Black Jewish coalition that began, you know, back in the 40s and 50s that really desegregated the city.
Stephen Henderson: So, I think for anybody who is looking for an obvious sign of the power of your dad&#8217;s legacy, of course your daughter is now, you know, a great symbol of that. She&#8217;s the president of the Detroit City Council. But I also wonder if you look around the city and see other things that for you are a reminder of all of the things that he did.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: Well, I will be perfectly honest with you. When I set out to do this collection, the only support I got was for my sister Laban, who passed. Who wrote a $50,000 dollar check. The rest of it, I had to raise. The UAW put in some money. Some of their archives have been lost and I&#8217;m working on an agreement with them. But Dr. Curtis Ivory, at Wayne County Community College, embraced this project, helped me raise the money and actually spent money to have an architectural layout and the build out for where this is going to go.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: So now, Wayne State, you know, I&#8217;ve yielded to Wayne State. I want it to be broader because my dad was broader and I knew the issues he had with Walter Reuther. And when I talked to them, they knew there were issues. So we&#8217;ve addressed those. But I&#8217;m excited and I think, you know, when I look around town, that community college with that many young African-Americans who will get an opportunity to go to college and go on.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: My wife, my wife, who grew up on the eastside, went to Kettering, fatherless, you know. Almost homeless as a teenager, went to that college and she now is practicing medicine in the city of Detroit. So I think that&#8217;s a powerful thing because one of the things you know and I know was what they always believed was that education was the great game changer.
Stephen Henderson: Everything, it was everything to them. Yeah, so for just average people who might want to access this, learn about your dad, see this legacy. They can just go to Wayne State..
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: It&#8217;s not up on the platform yet. It will be. What&#8217;s going to happen is Wayne will house it. It&#8217;ll be shared with Wayne County Community College District, where actual physical artifacts from the archives will be on display. We&#8217;re hiring a guy, name Joseph Wilson out of New Jersey, who was one of the foremost labor Black labor historians in the world who, when I call him, he told me stuff about my dad, you know, and we&#8217;re going to be excited because we&#8217;ll be doing seminars.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: Here&#8217;s the real power of this. The real power of this is these rank and file people. Micky Welch and people like that I grew up with, you know, the Thomas&#8217;s, the Dillard&#8217;s, will now have an opportunity for their lives to be opened up to others so that people understand it doesn&#8217;t take a whole lot of folks, doesn&#8217;t take grand folks, it takes just committed folks.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III: And these blue collar rank and file people changed the history of this city and this nation.
&nbsp;
Subscribe to Detroit Public Television’s<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/detroitpublictv56"> YouTube Channel</a> &amp; Don’t miss American Black Journal on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit Public TV, WTVS-Channel 56.
Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.
<h3><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/">View Past Episodes &gt;</a></h3>
Watch American Black Journal on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit Public TV, WTVS-Channel 56.

Collection of Horace Sheffield, Jr.’s Archives Coming to Wayne State University, WCCCD

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<h2>This Week on American Black Journal: </h2>
<h4><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/horace-sheffield-iii-on-moving-fathers-archives-to-wsu-wcccd-abj/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Collection of Horace Sheffield, Jr.&#8217;s Archives Coming to Wayne State University, WCCCD</a></h4>
In celebration of Black History Month, host Stephen Henderson explores the legacy of Horace Sheffield, Jr., a trailblazer in the African American labor union movement. Stephen talks with the late Sheffield&#8217;s son, <a href="https://horacesheffield.com/about/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rev. Horace Sheffield III</a>, about the influence and impact his father had on the trade unions during the civil rights movement. Plus, Sheffield III talks about upcoming plans to house thousands of items from his father&#8217;s archives in a massive collection at <a href="https://wayne.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wayne State University</a> and <a href="https://www.wcccd.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wayne County Community College District</a>.
<h4><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/olayami-dabls-kresge-eminent-artist-american-black-journal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2022 Kresge Eminent Artist Award Presented to Olayami Dabls </a></h4>
Each year for the past 14 years, <a href="http://www.kresgeartsindetroit.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kresge Arts in Detroit</a>, a local program under <a href="https://kresge.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Kresge Foundation</a>, has recognized a local artist with the Eminent Artist award for their artistic works and community engagement. American Black Journal Producer Marcus Green sat down with Kresge Detroit&#8217;s <a href="http://www.kresgeartsindetroit.org/2022/01/27/2022-eminent-artist" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2022 Eminent Artist</a> Olayami Dabls at his <a href="http://www.mbad.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MBAD African Bead Museum</a> on Detroit&#8217;s west side for a conversation about what influences his unique style of art.
RELATED: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gxp442OEoc&amp;t=2s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dabl&#8217;s African Bead Museum | Detroit Performs</a>
As a visual storyteller and muralist, Dabls has received the annual award for the artwork he&#8217;s created in the city as well as the contributions, growth and vibrancy he&#8217;s brought back to the Grand River Avenue and Grand Boulevard intersection, where his museum sits.
<h4 class="entry-title"><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/northwest-detroit-development-named-after-artist-tylonn-sawyer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Northwest Detroit Development Named After Artist Tylonn Sawyer </a></h4>
<a href="http://www.onedetroitpbs.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">One Detroit</a> Associate Producer Will glover sits down with Detroit-based contemporary artist and educator <a href="http://www.tylonn-j-sawyer.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tylonn Sawyer</a> to discuss the importance of depicting contemporary messages in his artwork. Sawyer also offers advice to aspiring artists on the work ethic needed to succeed in a creative space.
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<h3>WATCH NOW:</h3>
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Subscribe to Detroit Public Television’s<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/detroitpublictv56"> YouTube Channel</a> &amp; Don’t miss American Black Journal on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit Public TV, WTVS-Channel 56.
Catch the daily conversations on our<a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBlackJournal/"> Facebook</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/amblackjournal"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amblackjournal/"> Instagram</a> @amblackjournal.
<h3><a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/category/american-black-journal/">View Past Episodes &gt;</a></h3>
Watch American Black Journal on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit Public TV, WTVS-Channel 56.
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2/15/22: American Black Journal – Horace Sheffield Jr.’s Archives, Olayami Dabls, Tylonn Sawyer

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Orlando Bailey of <a href="https://www.bridgedetroit.com/">BridgeDetroit</a> visits <a href="https://secondebenezer.org/">Second Ebenezer Church</a> to talk with its senior pastor, Bishop Edgar Vann, about the specific needs his church is addressing in 2021.
This is a part of a <a href="https://www.detroitpbs.org/abj-church/">yearlong series on the black church in Detroit</a>, produced in partnership with the ecumenical theological seminary and Charles H. Wright Museum of African American history. Today, we’re looking at the important role of the black church in the community. Historically, churches have served as a foundation for African Americans by meeting their religious, economic, social, and cultural needs.
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<h2>View More About The Black Church in Detroit</h2>
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Bishop Edgar Vann on the Black Church

U.S. Capitol Attack & President Trump’s Impeachment

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Michigan Congresswoman <a href="https://lawrence.house.gov/">Brenda Lawrence</a> gives her firsthand account of the frightening attack at the U.S. Capitol to ABJ contributor Orlando Bailey of <a href="https://www.bridgedetroit.com/">BridgeDetroit</a>. She also talks about the significance of accountability, the disparity in treatment of the rioters vs. BLM protesters, and the importance of a public display of a legal transfer of power at the upcoming inauguration for President-elect Joe Biden.
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American Black Journal | Stephen Henderson talks with Snoop Dogg

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It’s been 25 years since a young rapper named <a href="http://snoopdogg.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Snoop Dogg</a> burst onto the scene with his first album. Since then, he’s built a resume that includes film, television, internet projects, and charitable work in the community. His latest venture is a stage musical titled, &#8220;<a href="https://jecaryous.com/tour/redemption-of-a-dogg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Redemption of a Dogg</a>&#8221; and will take on a 10 city tour. Stephen Henderson talks to Snoop about the upcoming play.
Featured Image: Album cover Neva Left by the artist Snoop Dogg, Photo by Doggystyle Records
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