Joel Elias Spingarn

I was unaware until 5-27-2020 that May is Jewish Heritage Month   https://www.jewishheritagemonth.gov/. As a African American member of Long Beach Chapter of NAACP,  I salute  Joel Elias Spingarn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Elias_Spingarn and the NAACP Spingarn Medal https://www.naacp.org/awards/spingarn-medal/ .

Memorial Day has a little known African American root

  Memorial Day has a little known African American root. Please see https://time.com/5836444/black-memorial-day/ .  Many are unaware that  over 200,000 African American  Union soldiers helped save our NATION. Please see photo of 3,000 school children who carried bouquets of flowers and sang “John Brown’s Body” to honor captured Union soldiers in Charleston, South Carolina.  Members of the famed Union 54th…

Audio Library No. 3 – Ulysses Simpson Kay

OBJECTIVE: Heighten awareness of historically significant, but little known, symphonic, chamber, and vocal music -including operas. No. 3   Whatever the gatekeepers standard of evaluation or determination to program classical music and operas by American composers on radio, symphony and opera stages, the voluminous contributions of Ulysses Simpson Kay offer only two reasons for his…

Audio Library No. 2 – Composer Hale Smith (1925-2009) RITUAL and INCANTATIONS

OBJECTIVE: Heighten awareness of historically significant, but little known, symphonic, chamber, and vocal music -including operas. No. 2     Composer Hale Smith (1925-2009) RITUAL and INCANTATIONS suffer benign neglect. Hale Smith desired that his works be evaluated for their merit and not featured exclusively for African American programs. However, he was proud of his…

Audio Library No. 1 – William Levi Dawson

OBJECTIVE: Heighten awareness of historically significant, but little known, symphonic, chamber, and vocal music -including operas. No. 1     William Levi Dawson was an African American composer, professor and choir director born on September 26, 1899 in Anniston, Alabama. His 1934 NEGRO FOLK SYMPHONY had a successful world premiere with conductor Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra.…

2020 Pulitzer Prizes

    In addition to Pulitzer Prizes for Anthony Davis (Music); Nikole Hannah-Jones (Commentary); Ida B. Wells (Special Citation) already reported; Colson Whitehead won Fiction https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/colson-whitehead-0 and Michael R. Jackson won Drama https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/michael-r-jackson.