Blackvoices Black History

Black History's Future: Graphic Designer Karla Moy

Timothy Cornwall — 2011-02-28T20:18:00+00:00

There aren't many teenagers that can say they've worked with for Lil' Wayne, designed a birthday cake for Nicki Minaj or toured with Drake. But Karla Moy can.

Editor's Note: For Black History Month, we've chosen to not only remind readers of African Americans' rich past, but to also spotlight some of the young people who're poised to make history in the coming years -- our "black future."

Moy is an 18-year old Canadian graphic designer based in Toronto, that goes by the name, hustleGRL. Self-taught, and just barely out of high school, Moy already has a solid amount of experience to boast about. Her work runs the gamut, from designing the cover of Lil Wayne's last mixtape before he went into the slammer and running Drake's fan site.

Moy has been designing since she was 10-years-old--it didn't hurt that her father was a computer technician--but she mostly educated herself through research and asking questions. But, maybe the most impressive part about Moy, is not that she taught herself how to use Adobe Suite programs, but her natural ability to network and make things happen.

But despite all her accomplishments, Moy hasn't been blinded by the lights and cameras. Moy understands the importance of a solid education and has applied for post-secondary school in the fall.

You've already seen some success, what's important to you about going to school now?

Both of my parents are teachers, so for me to not to be in school, is not an option. But I think school is important because you can never really stop learning. I just felt like I still have some things to learn and if I want to work in this business I have to know more than just graphic design-I have to know the business behind it and how managing a company works.

You're self-taught, what was the hardest thing to teach yourself how to do?

There's nothing that's really hard to learn. If you want to learn how to do something like an illustration, you just have to put some time aside. It was more so finding the time to teach myself something new.

And you've been using computers to design since you were 10?

Yes, since I was 10. My father actually used to be a computer technician and when he would work, I would always watch over his shoulder. I think that's where I got my interest from.

How did the opportunity to work with Lil Wayne and Drake come about?

Well, for Lil' Wayne I got hooked up with him through a blogger named Karen Civil and it was around the time he was getting ready to go to jail and he wanted to release one last project before he actually went in. And it was his "No Ceilings" mixtape. I designed the cover and he ended up liking it and using it and that's just how our relationship started and I kept working with him and Karen Civil and Cortez [Bryant] and the whole Young Money crew.

And with Drake, I was actually a fan before the whole Young Money thing. I started listening to Drake when he was still on Degrassi. I went on the Internet to find more information about his career and there was nothing, so I was like, "Okay let's start a fan site." Months went by and he somehow found out about it and he gave me a shout out on his MySpace and we ended up having mutual friends from networking in Toronto. We exchanged Blackberry Messenger contacts and we became friends and started hanging out.

What sort of things are you doing while you're on tour with Drake?

He really just invited me to hang out but I have this big Canon [digital camera] and I want to practice my photography skills, so I took it upon myself to start taking behind the scenes photos-you know on the tour bus or in the green room or rehearsing performing.

Who would be the ultimate person for you to work with?

I'd like to step it up to Jay-Z, when it comes to artists and when it comes to entertainment I'd say someone like Oprah.

Why is Black History Month important to you?

It's important to me because obviously as Black Americans we came a long way. And for us to come from Africa and go all the way to America in such a, I'd say, painful way, I think it's good that we recognize all the people that fought for our freedom. It doesn't have to be something that's brought up just during one month but should be brought up during the whole year.

Who are other black professionals that you admire?

Well, the whole presidential thing in the United States. I'm not American, so it doesn't really affect me as an individual, but us as people I'm happy we have a black president. So I'd say barrack Obama is one of them.

How do you see yourself fitting into the continuum of black achievement?

Well, I'm hoping that one day I can become the Creative Director of a huge corporate company, whether it's in America or anywhere else in the world, Europe or Asia. I just want to really mark my territory in my field in a big corporate company.

What message would you want to get across to other young black women?

I'd say don't be limited to yourself, keep working hard don't let your race or your gender or your age, get in the way of anything. You know, I was young I was Black, well I am Black, [laughs] I'm a woman, and I still made it. I'm only 18 and I've accomplished a lot of stuff and it just proves that anything is possible. So don't let anyone bring you down. If someone says you can't do this because you're a female, use those words and show them that, "Yo check it out, I'm doing this and I'm going to make it." So really just be true to yourself. Don't ever stop working because the second that you fall asleep there's someone else that's working harder behind you to surpass you.

What's next for you?

I'm working on Cortez Bryant's website who is the CEO of Young Money, as well as the manager of Drake, Lil' Wayne and Lil' Twist. I'll be traveling a lot, with Drake you know like going to Grammy's. Whatever really comes.

It's so weird because a lot of the stuff that I do, like it was never really planned out, it sort of just happened. So I'm just preparing myself for whatever is next to come.

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Black History Month: The Past And Present Is Our Future

Charles A. Ray — 2011-02-28T17:18:00+00:00

Filed under: Open Mic

I grew up in rural east Texas during the late 1940s through 1962; a time when education for people of color scarcely made mention of the role blacks in the development of the United States.

Except for brief mentions of Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, and on occasion, people like Sojourner Truth, black contributions to history, if indeed they were mentioned at all, went by so fast, I grew up thinking that the primary role of my black ancestors was as slave labor, and the shuffling, slow talking, goggle-eyed comic relief in films dominated by heroic, blue-eyed white characters.

Except for the slave part, the same could be said of Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asians.

In 1962, when I graduated from my segregated high school, I decided to pass on the scholarship to a black land grant college that was offered to each class valedictorian and, strike out to learn more about the world beyond the pine-covered hills of Shelby County, Texas.

My options for doing that were limited. I could become a hobo, and ride the rails, but that would limit me to places reached by train, or I could enlist in the military. I opted for the latter, and four days after my seventeenth birthday I took the oath of enlistment in the U.S. Army.

Pay for a private in those days was lousy; $72 per month; but I had a place to sleep, three meals a day, and I didn't have to worry about what to wear every day.

Over the next 20 years, I did indeed get to see and learn about the world, from Europe to Asia. But, what was more important was I got to fill in a lot of blanks about the history of my own people.

I learned that a black navigator had been on the voyage with Columbus when he stumbled into a Caribbean island in his futile search for a new route to India. As a Texan, I was surprised to discover that not all of the cowboys of the old west were white; there had been many black ranch hands, gunslingers, rustlers, and the like.

The black troopers of the 9th and 10th Colored Cavalry helped to open up the west, and protected settlers and wagon trains from marauders. Crispus Attucks, a black man, was one of the first casualties in the war for American independence.

These and a thousand other snippets of missing information were gleaned from dusty books and old papers found in libraries and archives of a dozen colleges where I took night courses to get that degree that I'd passed up in my quest to see the world. They were like a drink of water to someone who has been stranded in the desert.

I wasn't the descendant of people who had been nothing but property, brought to the continent in chains to work on cotton and rice plantations. My ancestors had been players, making things, and doing things that mattered.

When I retired from the army in 1982, and became a Foreign Service Officer, I continued my quest, only now it was not just to see the world, but to learn the true story of history; to restore the pages that had been missing from my history books.

Black History Month, I have come to realize, is not just the history of one race; it is an integral component of the history of humanity. It is filling in the blanks that too often exist in our knowledge of our past, whether we're black or white, or whatever.

It is an opportunity for us to pause and learn about, think about, what we have all meant to each other, and done for each other, over the millennia of recorded history - a record that was often incomplete.

Humanity is a big tent, and people of every color and creed helped to create and erect that tent. Black History Month helps to open the flaps to allow everyone to enter the warmth of that tent, and in the end, we're all better off for the experience.

Charles A. Ray, the Ambassador of the United States of America to the Republic of Zimbabwe, is the author of Taking Charge: Effective Leadership for The Twenty-First Century, as well as numerous articles on history, culture, and leadership. Read his blog on Red Room.

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Jill Scott Talks Dr. Martin L. King Jr., Importance of Black History

Abena Agyeman-Fisher — 2011-02-28T15:20:00+00:00

Ever since she came on the scene with the Root's Questlove, Jill Scott has been wowing audiences both on the screen and stage.

With her latest appearances in Tyler Perry's "Why Did I Get Married Too" and "Law and Order: SVU," 2010 was a succesful year.

Now, as she readies her fourth album, "The Light of the Sun," Scott takes a break from recording to talk with Aol. Black Voices about what black history means to her.

Black Voices: What was the most pivotal moment in history that impacted you and why?

Jill Scott: The most pivotal moment in history for me was the time Martin Luther King Jr. delivered one of the most inspiring, influential speeches in American history on August 28, 1963.

That speech impacted American history and culture and continues to influence the way I lead my life and includes lessons I hope to pass on to my son at some point.

BV: Do you celebrate black history?

JS: Every time someone stands up for their rights, stands up against the norms for their principles, I connect with that. Because it's so easy to follow the norm and follow direction, for African Americans, we've had a lot of those amazing individuals that have paved the way for all of us in the past, present and future.

I'm always inspired by leaders such as Dr. King and Thurgood Marshall, but it also inspires me to see the young Mother or Father fight through obstacles and care for a child at the same time. That is taking our history and influencing the future, those are the inspirations that black history stands for ... it connect us every single day.

BV: Did you celebrate Black History Month as a youth? How?

JS: Yes, I celebrated Black History Month as a child, but not in a particular way. I read books, watched films and documentaries all the time, but when doing those things during this specific time, it meant so much more.

BV: Do you think Black History Month is important?

JS: Without a doubt. While I do believe that black history is every day, Black History Month acknowledges the trials, tribulations and struggles we've endured while also recognizing that we've overcome all the challenges that's come our way.

BV: What would you say to people who say Black History Month is no longer relevant?

JS: I'd say look a bit closer to Americans nationwide - is everyone really educated in black history? That answer is a clear-cut, simple no. It's not just about one single law or the accomplishments of one individual, it's a state of mind.

Are we conscious that every step we take every day is black history? I don't think we're there yet. With that said, Black History Month gives people exposure to history that's usually ignored and overlooked, giving black history month relevance and so much more.

BV: What do you hope your child can take away from black history month and your career as an artist, actress and philanthropist?

JS: I hope he can appreciate the significance of pushing yourself to enjoy life the best way you can - not everybody is a singer or actress or lawyer or doctor - and those things are great.

But at most, it's your family and raising an amazing family that lasts with you long after you've been gone. I hope to instill these ideals that allow him to never stop pushing himself, follow his dreams and settle for anything less than the best. That's what I've done and continue to do as best I can, if he can take that away, then I'm happy.

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Will Black Artists Of Today Transform Our Politics & Culture?

Dolen Perkins-Valdez — 2011-02-28T14:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Open Mic

Each February, when I think of Black History Month, I think of the black artists who have contributed to the making of America through their writing, painting, sculpting, dancing, singing, composing, and acting.

In some ways, the very act of creating was political. Yet I can't help but wonder about the power of art in contemporary society. Can an observation of the beautiful make us more morally just? Furthermore, is this question still relevant?

Since Jupiter Hammon and Phillis Wheatley published in the eighteenth century, African- American writers have maintained a tradition of public expression. Over the years, we turned to various forms of art to assert our humanity as well as to articulate notions of social uplift.

The Harlem Renaissance was, in no small part, a social justice movement. Whether you sided with the Old Guard's notions of propriety or the younger artists' insistence on creative freedom, the message was clear: African Americans would be seen and heard.

Although it is certainly true that not all African-American artists are or have been politically motivated, expressive culture for African Americans can be historically tied to issues of social justice. Sometimes those expressions have been straightforwardly political, and other times not.

As a novelist, I often feel a bit disoriented when in the company of people who are doing what society considers "important" work. I cannot perform a heart transplant. I do not defend the innocent. I am completely lost in a laboratory. And, yet, the world is my laboratory. I am constantly sifting, sorting, pushing my thoughts through a sieve. Some days, I feel the whimsy of artistic play. Is this important? Does it really matter?

If one reads Langson Hughes' passionate editorials for the Chicago Defender, it is clear that he thought it did. Zora Neale Hurston was an ardent collector of southern folklore and brought the skills of an anthropologist to her work.

Romare Bearden worked tirelessly to create an exceptional oeuvre that included over 2,000 works. When Duke Ellington composed 'Black, Brown & Beige' he translated into music the journey of black America.

August Wilson's completion of his life work before his untimely death is an outstanding testament to the sheer force of will that occurs within the context of a belief in art's power.

Thinking about these artists' contributions can remind us of their hopefulness. If one believes in the power of beauty to improve our moral sensibilities, and actively works to produce such objects, there is an inherent optimism in that approach. It is that optimism that has always been the bedrock of African-American struggle.

In fact, I would argue that optimism lies at the heart of the American struggle writ large. All Americans share this ideal, and this is the reason the black American story is and always has been an integral part of the American story.

During this year's Black History Month celebration, we should not only celebrate black America's achievements, but also the underpinnings of black America's idealism. It is a powerful move to consider the possibilities of art and its ability to transform us.

When I return to this question of the relevance of art to issues of social justice in a world where notions of race have changed since the times of these artistic luminaries, I remember author Elaine Scarry's assertion that "beauty really is allied with truth."

Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the author of 'Wench.' Her fiction and essays have appeared in Robert Olen Butler Prize Stories 2009, 'The Kenyon Review,' and 'North Carolina Literary Review.' To find about more about her work and to read her blog, visit Red Room.

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Black History's Future: Impresario Steve-O

BV Staff — 2011-02-28T12:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Game Changers

Steven Brown, better known as Steve-O, calls himself a renaissance man, and its not just because he's from Harlem. By definition the renaissance man is "a modern man who has acquired profound knowledge or proficiency in more than one field" and as an entrepreneur, music manager, marketing consultant and photographer Steve-O definitely falls within that definition and exists in a period of independence and innovation.

Reminiscent of how Langston Hughes and his peers created a magazine as a voice for the youth during the Harlem Renaissance by the name of 'Fire!!' Steve-O put his name on the map in his industry when he launched a sneaker mag called 'Laced.' Now, he's making his mark in the music realm, steering the careers of JIVE/Battery Records artist Mickey Factz and Def Jam artist Big K.R.I.T. While also launching tours such as The Smokers Club featuring Curren$y, Big KRIT, Smoke DZA and more. -- Rhonesha Byng

Editor's Note: For Black History Month, we've chosen to not only remind readers of African Americans' rich past, but to also spotlight some of the young people who're poised to make history in the coming years -- our "black future."

When we spoke about how you started out in your career, you mentioned the word renaissance, do you think being from Harlem influenced your perspective at all?

Of course growing up in Harlem, I always heard about the Renaissance. I'm from a place where it's about doing your thing, getting your own and being on your own; being an entrepreneur and creating your own McDonald's, you know, your own Starbucks. That's where I'm from. There's a new Renaissance in Harlem, it's just not discovered yet.

When you meet someone for the first time and they ask you what you do, what do you tell them?

One word to describe it: I call it "Steve-ography." Steve-ography is like a combination of everything. I do so much, and I learn so much, but the reason I've learned what I've learned is because I had no choice. We didn't have a photographer so I had to take the pictures. We needed to shoot videos so I had to learn how to use a video camera. We had to do it on our own. I didn't go to college for marketing, I learned.

Looking at sense of identity in terms of who you are, where you come from, and you as a black man, how does that fit into your work?

I look at it like, we weren't expected to do what we do. When I pull out my Canon camera, they look at me like wow, how did he get that? They really don't expect us to do what we do. As an African American man, you have to beat the odds. Regardless of whether Obama won as the president, we are still pushing the envelope. They still look at us like wow, he's educated. They expect us to only do certain things. So I just want to be one of those guys that's able to do it all.

Historically, they didn't give black people a chance to succeed, or access to the same opportunities that whites did and so in order to gain that chance Black people created their own platforms (i.e. The Black Negro League, Langston Hughes created his own magazine to showcase the work of all his writer friends that couldn't get published anywhere else). Do you feel like what we see in today's innovators is a refection of that?

It's like we were born rebellious, and we were always the underdog. So we always felt like we had to do it on our own. A lot of times they don't show us love, so we have to create it on our own to get a chance. Look at Spike Lee, I'm sure he tried to become a great director working for other people, and you know be an assistant to other people but he didn't get a chance to do that so he had to create it on his own.

What are your thoughts on those in the past who founded record labels like Berry Gordy, who founded Motown, and how Jay-Z and Damon developed Rocafella Records, and how their stories, their successes and their failures impact what you strive for today?

They taught us to do it on our own. When Jay-Z first came out he didn't get love, he didn't really become Jay-Z until he was like 26/27. They had to use their own money, that's just inspirational if you're starting your own label. Relationships and personal issues got in the way. In life, you have to separate business and personal. There's times when its business, and times when its personal, but keep it business when its business. When you start broke together, you share one common goal, but when you make that money and you rise, goals change. They didn't agree.

In the continuum of Black Achievement in your industry, who do you believe came right before you to allow you to do what you do?

Steve Stoute; he was directly working with Nas, he was right there with the artist and then he went on to do bigger business. He's the cool, he's the guy, he knows what's hot for a company like Reebok because he's in the streets directly. He's the middle man between urban and commercial consumerism. That's how I want to be when I get older. There's always a next person. But that's the problem with the game right now, they're not letting us in. Like how Andre Harrell put on Diddy, and I'm sure Dame had someone above him like Russell to school him, we don't have anyone that's schooling the next entrepreneurs on how to do it. I have personal mentors but not someone like Steve Stoute in my ear like this is how you gotta do it. It's not even about me, I don't see anybody. Who are they mentoring? Where are they at?

So, you appreciate history and the doors that have been opened but you look to and study the new innovators of today to really get you motivated?

People like Dee & Ricky. They're talented and I appreciate what they've done. They came from the bottom, where I came from, and they were able to turn LEGOs into profit. That's a success story. You can do it on your own. Someone tweeted today, when you're working for someone you help their dreams come to life, not yours. That's not your vision, it's his. That's so true. When you work at someplace like Best Buy, you are pushing Best Buy's vision of what success is, you're not pushing yours. You are pushing yours to the back.

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How My Father's Roots Helped Me Find Myself

Deborah Santana — 2011-02-28T06:28:00+00:00

Filed under: Open Mic

I do not know as much about my family as I would like.

My father, Saunders Samuel King, was born in Staple, Louisiana, seventeen miles south of Shreveport, on March 13, 1909. His parents, Judge, L. and Sarah Anasilistine Mitchell King were born in Alexandria and Sabine, Louisiana, respectively. Grandfather worked in sawmills and traveled from town to town earning a top wage in his field. Grandmother was educated through the ninth grade, married and gave birth to five children, my father the baby.I began researching my genealogy when my first child, Salvador was born. I began with my father's family because I had an aching desire to understand the origins of my black ancestors. I had a bit more information about my mother, Jo Francis Willis King, of English and Irish descent, but I knew that the records of my father's birth would be more difficult to find because records for black Americans were not written down at the time of my father's birth.

My father's family moved from Louisiana to Oakland when dad was a young boy. He played piano, banjo and ukelele in the Pentecostal church his parents founded on the corner of Willow and Seventh Streets. I don't know if the church, with its rousing gospel singing and tambourine rhythms, gave dad his musical style or his elegant posture and gracious way of speaking, but he was a source of strength, beauty, and wisdom.

I saw my dad in Nelson Mandela's stride when Mr. Mandela walked into the auditorium of the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg and I was there, and I've heard dad's voice in the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu's lilting speeches.

You see my father endured the racism of America, shot in the stomach by a white landlord who felt entitled to comment with a bullet on my father visiting with a white woman in his apartment, but dad chose to live above oppression with his own understanding and unshakable fortitude.

Dad became a professional musician during World War II, playing guitar in his eponymous sextet in Chicago, the South, and many San Francisco and Los Angeles nightclubs and theatres. His double-sided recording of 'S.K. Blues' became a million seller for the independent West Coast record company Rhythm. Dad's other popular recording, 'What's Your Story Morning Glory,' raised his popularity to equal other black musicians in post war years: T-Bone Walker, Ivory Joe Hunter, and Joe Turner. It was a privilege to grow up listening to my father's sweet tenor voice echoing through our San Francisco living room, transforming it into a sanctuary. His fingers moving over the frets of his Gibson guitar, played chord progressions with major and minor notes that were a balm to my life.

Dad's brothers were inventors, and we had a legend that Uncle Jay had created a formula for shoe polish that later became Shinola[TM]. One night he got drunk and the formula was stolen from him. Other family stories included my aunt Daisy, a Hollywood actress, being courted by jazz trumpeter, Satchmo Louis Armstrong. A strikingly beautiful woman, she did not want to marry, and Louis married another. Dad's older brother Ulysses assumed the mantel of Bishop of the family church.

History contains power. When I researched my father's childhood, his parent's lives, his musical legacy, how deeply B.B. King loved the beautiful sound of his electric guitar, I grew with pride as I heard notes singing from the past into the present.

Saunders King's legacy is in his grandson Salvador's piano playing, in granddaughters' Stella's bright flashing mind, and Angelica's poetry. He and my mother broke barriers of segregation in 1948 when interracial marriage was still illegal in seventeen states, and they married anyway.

Like a cartographer, I have created a map of my history so that it cannot be ignored or denied, but celebrated every month in the multihued glory of America.

Deborah Santana is a philanthropist, a supporter of peace and social justice, and the author of the memoir 'Space Between The Stars: My Journey to an Open Heart.' Deborah founded Do a Little, a nonprofit whose mission is to support women in the areas of health, education and happiness. To find out more about her life and work, read her blog on Red Room.

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Black History 2011: Finding My Father's Roots To Find Myself

Deborah Santana — 2011-02-28T06:28:00+00:00

Filed under: Open Mic

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Tracing My Black and Native American Roots

Jewelle Gomez — 2011-02-26T18:18:00+00:00

Filed under: Open Mic

Gracias Archelina Sportsman Morandus, my great-grandmother, was the reason I wrote a vampire novel. Born in 1883 to an Ioway Indian horse trainer and an African-American New Englander, Gracias, moved with her mother back east after her father died.

There Gracias was married off to a Wampanoag. Living with her in an African American neighborhood of Boston until I was 22 years old I came to understand what it meant to live on the complexity of the margins.

Her relationship to the Black Boston neighborhood where we lived was always just slightly off kilter. We watched TV coverage of the Freedom Riders and lunch counter sit-ins with both pride and cultural curiosity.In 1969 we eagerly read about the Supreme Court ruling that desegregated school districts. But she scanned the back pages of the local papers for news about the Native American takeover of Alcatraz and at college (in those pre-Google days) I searched the campus' free rags for news of Stonewall.

But neither of us would talk of these things with our neighbors. In what felt like a split second the slogan had switched from 'If you're Black stay Back' to 'Black is beautiful.' However, Black was still very specific.

No one wanted to be accused of using 'Indian blood' to avoid being just plain Black in the 1960s. Yet Gracias repeatedly told me stories of her childhood to assure her past was not forgotten: the buckskin dress she'd loved which was stolen, the silent Wampanoag husband she didn't understand as a 14-year-old bride.

I admired how she stood in two worlds when the 'one-drop' rule about Negro ancestry still held sway and way before the term 'bi-racial' was coined. The blood quantum wasn't significant to her; it was living a life in which the divergent paths of who she was met internally even though the external culture had no real place for that complexity.

When I started writing my novel, 'The Gilda Stories,' Gracias' ability to hold those vastly different ways of being was my inspiration. She led me to the creation of a Black feminist vampire who is human but not mortal and who lives out a myriad of philosophical/political dilemmas.

How can you hold power over life and death and not abuse it? Who should be invited into one's family, who not? What is the value and meaning of family?

Twenty years after the publication of the novel and 40 years after Gracias' death I'm still talking with students and others who are reading 'The Gilda Stories' for the first time. Those moral dilemmas that emerge when different cultures come together and conflicting philosophical and political realities clash remain the same.

Whether within the context of vampire lore or not--how we embrace the ideas of power, family and social responsibility are always crucial debates and inform how we transmit history.

Our new president has helped us understand that the concept of blackness is a lot more complex than any slogan can convey. I'll always be grateful that I learned that at my great- grandmother's knee. Gracias.

Jewelle Gomez is the author of The Gilda Stories, the only Black, lesbian, feminist vampire novel that marries lyrical language to epic action over a span of 200 years. Additional works include two poetry collections, a book of personal essays, and a collection of short stories. Read Jewelle's blog on Red Room.

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Black History's Future: Entrepreneurs Angela & Vanessa Simmons

BV Staff — 2011-02-25T17:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Game Changers

The Simmons name certainly rings bells, and Simmons sisters Vanessa and Angela are continuing to meet and exceed the standards set by their uncle Russell and their father Rev. Run while serving as role models for young Black women.

After two reality shows, launching Pastry, a footwear company turned mega brand, what's next for the dynamic duo? Looks like creating content will be their next venture with the launch of their production company called Simmons Two. From new ventures, to reflections on the legacy of the past, the Simmons sisters reflect, and reveal what is on their minds for this historical season.-- Rhonesha Byng

Editor's Note: For Black History Month, we've chosen to not only remind readers of African Americans' rich past, but to also spotlight some of the young people who're poised to make history in the coming years -- our "black future."

When you think of Black History and Black Achievement, what do you think of, and how
do you see yourselves fitting into that legacy?

Vanessa: When I think of Black history and Black achievement I think of all the people that fought hard to make sure we have the rights that we have today. We now have equal rights and opportunities. I think of the people who fought so hard for us to have those rights--my grandfather included. As far as continuing it, I think my job here is to encourage and inspire people to fulfill their dreams and go for it no matter the circumstances or situations you come from. That's the legacy I hope to leave behind with my family name and all the things in entertainment I do.

Angela: The first person that I think of of course is Martin Luther King Jr. What has happened over time is tremendous...I think about the power and the unity and how much times have changed. I feel like for my sister and I, young girls in the industry, we're paving our way and starting our own companies, us as CEOs is not something you see everyday and I really feel like we're inspiring a lot of young kids to do the same thing.

Vanessa, you mentioned your grandfather, was he very active in the civil rights
movement?

Vanessa: You know what's so funny growing up I really didn't know about it and my professor in school for Black history reminded me so much of my grandfather so one day I told him and he's like yea, actually me and your grandfather used to march together in D.C. and other places for civil rights. And then I started looking into more. It made it more realistic than something that just happened years ago before our time. I'm happy that my family had a part in doing that.

How does the legacy of Black history impact you today?

Vanessa: I think that being able to see things growing up and watching other Black people make moves it gave me a sense of inspiration and a sense of the sky can be the limit for me. The people before me have done great things and gave our culture some depth and richness. I feel their fearlessness which is something that I'm tackling-- to be fearless.

Who would you identify as history making in your field?

Vanessa: Acting wise, this is someone I've actually looked up to my entire life: Halle Berry. I feel like she broke so many barriers as far as the acting world goes. There's also people like Dorothy Dandridge who actually Halle Berry played and she's the one who opened my eyes to the greatness of people who came before us and the struggle they had to go through which was entirely different. The women that came before us that were actresses and broke through in a time where it just seemed like it would be impossible. She's definitely my idol as far as acting goes, and I just admire the way she broke down barriers. She didn't even think about it, she was just doing what she loved to do.

Angela: I would definitely say my father, my uncle, and my family. They definitely are the reason I'm doing what I'm doing, so that would definitely be the chapter before mine. Whenever I am faced with challenges I like to take their advice but I also am able to watch them and how they handle business and learn from that. I can go to the source or I can watch the source. But I don't like to ask them everything I like to figure things out for myself as well.

Who are some innovative people in our generation that are making a difference in their

industry today?

Angela: There's a lot of young kids I see will make a lot of impact like Willow Smith and my little brother. You didn't see that before. The fact that the youth and our generation are coming up and really doing what they want to do, and just being able to be proud. Now you don't have to be a certain age to do what you want to do or a certain race. You can be and do what you want as any race and at any age. Seeing the younger generation take charge is cool.

Are there still barriers to be tackled?

Vanessa: With acting I think there needs to be more roles created for us. There shouldn't just be three or four movies that come out each year with Black people in it. We have just as rich of a history and just as much of a story as any other race on this planet. As far as entrepreneurship I'm just going to keep doing what I do and breaking down barriers and showing that you can be young and do it you can be Black and do it. It's about showing people your worth, showing people that you're worth it and not having an ego.

Identify your role in your field.

Vanessa: I'm learning and taking notes and trying my best today. I'm up and coming and I'm looking forward to breaking down some more barriers and hopefully creating more opportunities for people like myself. Me and Angela we started our own production company, Simmons Two, so we plan on bringing you guys some good quality programming soon from film, to tv to web content. I'm completing my screen play with one of my best friends from college and just creating opportunities is what its all about. You have to get out there, you can't wait for other people to get things done, sometimes you have to do it yourself. You might not know where the funding will come from or any of that stuff but you just have to create and do. Do some of the things you want to see done, be the change that you want to see in the world.

Do you think that the work you are doing now is leading to creating a legacy?

Angela: My sister and I we are working on an empire. I would hope to leave a legacy because there's so much I want to do and so many people I want to help. I know that the work I want to do isn't normal, and if I can impact a large group of people there's definitely a legacy behind it and there's something special there and something to teach and something to show. [I see a connection with ground breaking women like Madame CJ Walker] because she did exactly what my sister and I did. But she was the first to do it. She actually laid the road that made it possible for us today to make these choices.

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Black History Month Moment: Actor Noah Gray Gabey

Karu F. Daniels — 2011-02-25T12:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Open Mic

In honor of Black History Month, BlackVoices.com took to the red carpet during this year's annual 'BET Honors.' We caught up with some of your favorite icons and asked them who would they honor this year and their most memorable moments in black history.

Check out what Noah Gray Gabey had to say about his most significant moment in black history.

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To Be Young, Biracial And Absolutely Not A Tragic Mulatta

Kirsten Imani Kasai — 2011-02-25T10:19:00+00:00

Filed under: Open Mic

"Do you even have a black identity?" asked my husband, a black man, and my friend, a white woman, when they heard I was writing an article for BlackVoices.com.

It was my question, too. Certainly as a light-skinned, biracial woman with hazel eyes, my skintone has not afforded me much opportunity to be viewed by society as a black woman.

But my black identity is a uniquely American one, crafted of connection, empathy, triumph and struggle for acceptance. My story is just one thread of a historical tapestry of secrecy, defiance, shame and pride.I was raised in Denver, Colorado and grew up straddling two cultures. Summers were spent with my African-American, paternal grandparents in Alabama, where my grandfather was a Methodist minister.

Though those long drives have assumed an idyllic childhood sheen, I know now that my many memories of stargazing through the car's rear window had another purpose. In 1977, just a decade after Loving vs. Virginia was overturned and anti-miscegenation laws were struck from the books, my parents--a white woman and black man--drove through the Deep South at night to avoid harassment by police and locals.

My father says, "We traveled nonstop on our long journeys, much to your mother's chagrin, because I could not risk exposing my family to harm or harassment by stopping to eat or sleep in public places that remained inhospitable to families like ours."

During the '60s, he worked for civil rights in the South and nationally. An old-fashioned portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr. held a place of prominence on our piano top, and I loved to see photos of my father in action, one of many faces surrounding the civil rights leader.

My mother marched for civil rights and heard Dr. King speak in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. in 1963. My grandmother's lovely cousin, Arthurine Lucy, was the first black student to attend the University of Alabama in 1956.

Her expulsion--three days later--was finally overturned in 1980 and in 1992, Arthurine completed her Masters degree and was written about in the book, 'I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women who Changed America.'

In my twenties, I actively explored the myth of the tragic mulatta, read Nella Larsen's novels 'Passing' and 'Quicksand,' William Wells Brown's 'Clotel' and Fannie Hurst's famous 'Imitation of Life,' which was turned into a movie.

Was I meant to be an unhappy accessory, weighed down by tainted stereotypes, both fetishized and victimized for my skin color or "good hair?"

What a disastrous legacy to come into! I responded by issuing an empowering call to other biracial people.

When we gathered for our first brunch, we all expressed the same sense of wonder--"I've never been in a room with so many other people like me before!" After years of invisibility, we felt seen.

The world is different now. Biracial families have shed their cloaks of secrecy.

Prejudice still exists in many forms, but I need only look to Barack Obama in the White House to recognize how very far we've come. It always delights me to see mixed couples holding hands, taking their children on outings and enjoying the rights and freedoms denied my parents and so many others.

After years of being "Other," there's finally a box for me to check on the U.S. Census form ("Two or more races"), however vague its designation.

When I think of my paternal grandfather as a little boy, having to cross the street to avoid walking on the same side of the street as a white person, it is almost beyond my comprehension.

My son skips to public school, where he sits in class with white, black, Asian and Latino children. He's growing up in a world where no one questions his right to attend school, or travel with family members whose skin or eye color is different.

His future is being shaped by a president who looks like him (literally, put my boy in a jacket and tie and you've got a mini-Obama), thanks to the untiring efforts of my family and countless others, who fought for equality in education, love and life.

Kirsten Imani Kasai is the author of the fantasy novels Ice Song and Tattoo, about a gender-fluctuate single mother and the half-human inhabitants of the frozen Sigue. She lives in San Diego with her husband and children. Read her blog on Red Room.

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White House Honors Motown With All-Star Black History Month Tribute

BV Staff — 2011-02-25T08:04:00+00:00

Filed under: Game Changers

Motown Records founder Berry Gordy (pictured above) could have told a tall tale about why he created his legendary recording empire. Instead he told the truth most people could relate to:

"I wanted to make some music, make some money and get some girls - not necessarily in that order," Gordy said to laughs and applause at the History of Motown Student workshop hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama on Thursday.

The workshop, featuring Gordy, Smokey Robinson and crooner John Legend, brought together more than 100 teens from around the country to honor the Motown sound as part of the White House Black History Month celebration.

Later in the evening, the Obamas paid tribute to Motown with an all-star concert at the White House, featuring Robinson, Legend, Stevie Wonder, Nick Jonas, Jamie Foxx, Sheryl Crow and others singing classic Motown hits.

"We are celebrating the music at the heart of the American story," President Barack Obama said to the crowd. The president even endured some gentle chiding on his dance moves from Jamie Foxx.

While the inspiration behind the creation of Motown might have been for mere girls and money, it has achieved far more than that for Gordy. Mrs. Obama credited him with giving birth to the soul-infused pop sound that changed American music by uniting black and white fans who shared the love of its sound.

"It was so much more than a soundtrack, it was a heartbeat," she said. "Motown made music for all people no matter where you came from and no matter what you looked like."

In words directed toward the student audience, she added that many of the artists who went on to be Motown stars, such as Robinson, Diana Ross and the singer she claimed as her personal favorite, Stevie Wonder, didn't grow up wealthy.

"None of them were named on the Billboard Top 10 at birth," Mrs. Obama said. "The message they showed us is that with enough hard work and a willingness to take risks, you can make it."

Gordy, a former auto worker, took a huge risk when he borrowed $800 from relatives to start a record company in Detroit 51 years ago. Luckily for him, few cities could match the musical talent that blessed the city at the time.

Robinson recalled that he knew both Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross from the age of 8 or 9, because they all grew up in the same neighborhood.

He also knew the founding members of the Four Tops and the Temptations, with whom Robinson's first singing group, the Chimes, would compete against in neighborhood singing battles.

Despite the natural talent of the Motown crew, Robinson gave praise to Gordy's ability to write songs, discover talented musicians others might pass over and create a sound that captured the nation and beyond:

"People have asked me why so much talent came out of Detroit," Robinson said. "I say it's because of Berry Gordy."

Legend (pictured above) said he learned of the Motown sound listening to his older relatives play the piano and sing classics like "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" and "Tears of a Clown."

"That's what made me want to sing," Legend said before taking to the piano and singing a stirring rendition of Wonder's classic "Love's in Need of Love Today."

The concert will be shown on PBS stations nationwide Tuesday, March 1, at 8 p.m. and on American Forces Network March 11 to American service men and women around the world.

- Paul Shepard

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Black History Month Moment: Singer Ne-Yo

Karu F. Daniels — 2011-02-25T06:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Open Mic

In honor of Black History Month, BlackVoices.com took to the red carpet during this year's annual 'BET Honors.' We caught up with some of your favorite icons and asked them who would they honor this year and their most memorable moments in black history.

Check out what Ne-Yo had to say about his most significant moment in black history.

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Smokey Robinson Headlines White House Tribute

Brennan Williams — 2011-02-24T14:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Icons

With Black History Month coming to an end next week, the nation's First Family are set to celebrate Motown Records' iconic legacy during a special tribute event set to take place at the White House today.

The star-studded concert dubbed, 'The Motown Sound: In Performance at the White House,' will feature tributes in honor of the historic label's countless string of hits in addition to appearances from one of the label's legendary artists, Smokey Robinson.

President Obama and the First Lady also invited some of today's contemporary artists such as Jamie Foxx, Ledisi, John Legend, Amber Riley, Seal, and Jordin Sparks to pay homage to the legacy of the Detroit hit factory founded by Berry Gordy in 1959.

Prior to the evening concert, Michelle Obama will host a special interactive workshop for over 100 students to discuss the history of Motown Records.

'The Motown Sound: In Performance at the White House' will stream live on http://www.whitehouse.gov/live on Feb. 24 at 6:30 p.m. and will broadcast on PBS stations nationwide on March 1 at 8 p.m.

See video below.

JOIN THE LIVE CHAT

VISIT WHITEHOUSE.GOV

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California Teen Spreads Awareness, Pride in Community

BV Staff — 2011-02-24T13:59:00+00:00

Filed under: Game Changers

Seventeen-year-old Jahbrielle Henning-Rayford (pictured) is a young woman on a mission. Born in St. Louis, Mo., but raised in Los Angeles, Calif., Rayford has made it her goal to spread awareness and cultural pride throughout her community.

A senior honors student in Crenshaw Senior High School's prestigious Gifted Magnet Program, Jahbrielle will be attending Howard University this fall, where she plans on majoring in radio, TV and film. She also plans to focus on creative writing classes and African-American studies, especially philosophy, literature and history.

Currently a member of her school's yearbook staff, she is also a member of her church choir and praise team and is a student at Amazing Grace Conservatory, a performing arts academy owned by actress Wendy Raquel Robinson.

While rocking her natural Afro and proudly displaying Black Power buttons, she shines the light on African-American achievements and conditions with no hesitation. Jahbrielle believes her message of self-awareness is gradually making a difference."Brainwashing didn't happen overnight; it happened gradually. I can't expect to do something one time and things to up and change. Most of our young people are influenced by entertainment, and most entertainment is very subliminal. This is why I implement social media in my empowerment strategy. The messages are subtle, but they are there. The key to entertainment is that they're exposed to it every day. They'll pick it up, and begin to emulate it.

"This is exactly what happened during slavery. Master didn't whip us one time, and things changed. We weren't called the N-word once, and a whole entire race of people was damaged. No, it happened gradually."

Realizing that our youth is exposed to a myriad of negative influences, Jahbrielle vehemently speaks out against negative stereotypes and the detrimental effect that hip-hop is having on the psyches of her peers:

"Every generation that is once young, follows society. Our generation is often frowned upon; however, it is not our fault that we are this way. We are simply following society, as all generations have. The fault lies in society. It takes a village to raise a child. We all have to be on one accord, and when there are 50 people yapping in your ear about violence, sex and money, the one person on the side telling you the opposite will not be heard.

"Hip-hop once communicated the cries of poverty-stricken children. Now it does nothing but add to the violence that exists in our inner-city communities. Not only does it do that, but it also brings the streets to young Bback men who would never have encountered them. The situations create hip-hop, but now at an alarming rate, hip-hop creates the situations."

"Jahbrielle is an extraordinary young lady," says Rochelle Hall, Gifted Magnet coordinator and counselor at Crenshaw Senior High and CEO of conscious clothing line, my black skin.

"After the tragic death of her mother," Hall continues, "she began to question the answers rather answering the questions. Marching to the beat of her own drum has encouraged her to attempt to discover how she can leave her mark on a culture and society that appears to be spiraling out of control.

"She is constantly reading and doing research on historical topics and events that have helped to shape and mold many of the standards that we so often see exhibited on a daily basis. It is her contention to change some of these standards for members of the African-American community and for the community overall.

"I unequivocally believe that she will be successful in her post-secondary endeavors, and will become a trailblazer and a trendsetter as a productive member of our society."

Not content with just improving her immediate surroundings, during the summer Jahbrielle travels to Liberia, West Africa, to assist her grandmother with impoverished villagers needing access to clean water.

With the illnesses that many of the villagers face, Jahbrielle represents a lifeline to people with little hope. To Jahbrielle, her travels are "a beautiful experience."

With all the distractions working against our evolvement as a people, Jahbrielle always encourages her peers to look beyond their own backyard to embrace their brothers and sisters throughout the African Diaspora, imploring them to realize that we are all "one fist":

"The Black Power fist symbolizes unity. The five fingers separated won't get a lot done, but when you put those fingers together in a fist, you'll get power that you never had before.

A person is not going to be able to survive in a world where they cannot get along with people who are most like them. We have to first unite among ourselves before we can think about doing anything as a race in this global society. I believe that is the reason why we haven't progressed the way we want to in society, because we haven't learned to love and respect each other. How can someone love and respect someone else when they do not first love themselves."

Not only realizing the importance of cultural pride and unity, she is involved with the Richard Allen Foundation, an organization which teaches the importance of being economically stable. Jahbrielle is passionate about supporting black-owned businesses and her vision is to see our communities "powerful beyond measure."

Jahbrielle ultimately plans to become a television producer creating entertainment that depicts the African-American community in a positive light, as opposed to the gang-ridden, half-naked minstrel shows that inundate the airways today.

Jahbrielle Henning-Rayford is a shining example of both purpose and action. Not willing to simply talk about change, she is ready, willing and able to pound the pavement until our brothers and sisters reach their full potential. She hopes that her actions will spark a renaissance in the African-American community and believes that her vision is within reach:

"When people see my Afro or my black power T-shirt or my button that emphasizes black pride and black unity, it has an effect. People know me for having black pride, and that's exactly the way I want it to be. Yesterday, my friends were talking about how much pride I have, and one girl said, 'I wish I could be that way.' Now, change cannot happen overnight, but I know that my work is not in vain. I know the power of constant exposure and subliminal messages. I believe that as long as I keep on being myself, things can change."

- Kirsten Savali

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Black History Month Moment: Washington D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray

Karu F. Daniels — 2011-02-24T12:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Open Mic

Check out what Mayor Vincent Gray had to say about his most significant moment in black history.

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Tuskegee Airman Alex A. Boudreaux Dies

Yannique Benitez — 2011-02-24T10:49:00+00:00

Filed under: 365 history

Yesterday, family members reported that Alex A. Boudreaux (pictured above in inset), one of World War II's elite group of Tuskegee Airmen, died in his sleep at the age of 90 at a Columbus, Ohio nursing center.

Growing up in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Boudreaux developed a fascination with aviation and he became one of approximately 1,000 black soldiers trained in the segregated Tuskegee, Alabama Army Air Field. He was a bomber and fighter pilot in the United States Air Force between 1943 and 1946.In total, 16,000 ground and air crew soldiers were trained at the Tuskegee Army Air Field and The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs noted that these men destroyed more than 250 enemy air crafts, flew more than 150,000 sorties and escorted Allied bombers. They have a nearly flawless record of never losing a plane in their charge.

Yet while the Tuskegee Airmen experienced unparalled success with the execution of their jobs, the men grappled with tremendous racism from their white superiors and fellow airmen.

Former Tuskegee Airman Bill Wheeler told students at Lehman College in New York that "we were treated better by our German captors than some of our own senior officers."

Nevetheless, they persevered; never letting the words or actions of those around them shake their focus. And it paid off. The nearly flawless success rate achieved on their missions became so renowned it served as a pivotal impetus for President Harry S. Truman to enact Executive Order Number 9981 to desegregate the military in 1948.

In 1946, following Boudreaux's discharge from the army, he became the first black civilian air-traffic controller for Civil Aeronautics Administration in Columbus, OH, and eventually worked as an air-traffic controller at the city's Rickenbacker International Airport for more than 30 years.

He retired in 1977 and spent most of his adult life in Port Columbus. He was married to Mary, his wife of 56 years before her death and is survived by his children John and Anita as well four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

In 2007, Boudreaux along with the late Colonel Lee Archer and 330 other Tuskegee airmen were honored with the Congressional Gold Medal from President George W. Bush.
President George W. Bush mentioned that "they were fighting two wars: one was in Europe, and the other took place in the hearts and minds of our citizens."

Then Senator Barack Obama added: "My career in public service was made possible by the path heroes like the Tuskegee Airmen trailblazed."

In 2008, the remaining 200 airmen were honored at newly elected President Obama's inauguration for their contributions to the United States military and the Civil Rights Movement.

It is estimated that only about 100 of the airmen are alive today, but their contributions and legacy are a vital part of American history and worthy of praise this Black History Month. Their accomplishments were depicted in the 1995 film The Tuskegee Airmen and their Congressional Medals have been cast in the U.S. Mint for permanent display in the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.

Boudreaux's funeral service was today at St. Dominic Catholic Church in Columbus, OH.

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Black History Month Moment: TV Personality April Woodard

Karu F. Daniels — 2011-02-24T06:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Open Mic

Check out what April Woodard had to say about her most significant moment in black history.

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Black History Month 2011: Why Black Bedtime Stories Matter More

Alice Randall — 2011-02-24T04:18:00+00:00

Filed under: Open Mic

Bedtime stories are complicated for black families. Take Addy. I will never forget page 23 of 'Meet Addy: An American Girl.' Addy is forced, by an overseerer with a whip in his hands, to eat live worms that she missed while tending tobacco plants.

I came to page 23 while reading aloud to my 6-year-old daughter. She was tucked beneath a patchwork quilt. Her room had two lovely windows looking out onto a pear tree. There was a three-story dollhouse that looked just like our pink townhouse down to the sponge-painted interior walls. Her head was resting on a floral Laura Ashley pillow.

When I got to the part in the story where Addy's Poppa was sold, Caroline's brown eyes looked worried. When we got to the live worms exploding in Addy's mouth, I saw tears.

My daughter asked me to keep reading. She wanted to know what happened. I wasn't sure if I should keep reading. Was Caroline old enough to take in the harsh realities of slavery and stolen childhood? Was Addy stealing my daughter's innocence?

We kept reading.

Eventually Caroline asked why the author hadn't chosen to write about a black girl living in Harlem during the Renaissance, or a black girl growing up as a campus kid on a historically black college like Fisk. She wanted to know why her white friends got books with characters who looked like them and drank tea in Colonial Williamsburg (Felicity), or lived in a mansion (Samantha) while she got a character that looked like her and got tortured.

I didn't have an easy answer.

What I had was a great big library, hundreds and hundreds of books, fiction and non-fiction, poetry and prose, song books and picture books, depicting a very wide variety of black lives written to uplift and to provoke, to entertain and to educate, written to inspire young black readers.

But most importantly, I had 'Popo and Fifina' a book written by Langston Hughes and Caroline's great grandfather, Arna Bontemps.

Published in 1932 'Popo and Fifina' is a quietly exuberant tale of a brother and a sister growing up in Haiti. The children have adventures, a trip to a Lighthouse, and adjustments, a move from the hill town they know to the seaside town they don't. The tone is at once realistic and serene.

'Popo and Fifina' is an invitation to explore the world and language. It's an invitation not to let difficulties eclipse us. It's a respite from slavery narratives. And it is a black kid lit classic.

I'm feeling pretty good about "Addy" these days. Caroline graduated from Harvard last May. In June she began teaching in the Mississippi Delta. All her first graders have brown faces. And they love to read. She tells me their favorite book is Hamilton's 'Her Stories.' Caroline loved that book too, but she didn't love it till she was about ten. Her six year old students are precocious in many good ways.

Caroline's contribution to that has everything to do with reading about how hard Addy had it, and how Addy worked to make a difference--prepared for by all the Bontemps, Hughes, Du Boise, Hamilton, Dunbar, Woodson and others she had been read before Addy.

This Black History Month let's stop to honor the black kid lit greats:

W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) who created and published The Brownies' Book (1920-1921) a magazine for black kids that is arguably the best magazine for children ever published in America

Arna Bontemps (1902-1973) who writing fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, and editing anthologies has been acclaimed the father of the modern African-American children's book.

Virginia Hamilton (1936-2002) black kid lit's great novelist; Paul Lawrence Dunbar (1872- 1906) whose poetry first dared celebrate the beauty and brilliance of black children and black language; and Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) the man who gave us Black History Week and who, through mentoring and publishing ,played a defining role in the development of black kid lit non-fiction.

These five knew what none of us can afford to forget: Young black readers grow to be strong black leaders.

Bedtime in the briarpatch is the powerful place black children grow the intellectual and emotional strength to discern when to upturn a world that will not uplift them.

Alice Randall is the author of The Wind Done Gone and other works of fiction. A Writer-in-Residence at Vanderbilt University, she teaches Bedtime in the Briarpatch, an intensive examination of African-American children's literature from the seventeenth century to the present. Read her blog on Red Room.

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Black History Month: Michael Boatman On Being Black with A Capital B

Michael Boatman — 2011-02-23T13:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Open Mic

I wake up and immediately feel the difference. The air in my bedroom smells like fresh peaches and warm Georgia sunshine-like jerk chicken, etouféé and Chicago blues. Then I remember:

It's Black History Month.

And so on the first day, I rose. I sprung from my bed like a panther streaking across the Serengeti, into my bathroom, where I gripped my toothbrush and tore open the medicine cabinet, much like John Henry, that steel-drivin' man of myth, tore through a mountain of stone with only his hammer and his bare black hands.

It's Day 1 of my new life, you feel me? Our time has come! If I'm going to make the most of my new identity, I'd better get crack-a-lackin':

"Kids... we're black."

At breakfast, my four children squint at me the way Thomas Edison squinted at Lewis Latimer when Latimer invented the carbon filament (without which Edison's lightbulb would have remained a dark bulb).

"What are you talking about, daddy?" says my teenager, the future award-winning author/actress and thermonuclear supermodel.

"We're descended from proud, strong people, kids. Survivors. African-Americans. Mommy and I have been meaning to tell you, but we never got around to it."

"Duh, daddy," shrugs the teenager.

"Yeah," chimes my 10-year-old daughter (future Olympic diver/mime/award-winning software developer). "That's, so, like, 'Duh!'"

My wife is staring at me, too. She doesn't get it yet. She's black too. We all are... for most of the year. But in February... we're Black with a capital B. That's what I've decided we're going to be from now on: In February, the Boatmans are... Super Black.

My kids head off to schools more shockingly diverse than the Kansas City Board of Education's worst nightmare, while I head off to celebrate Our Day. I don't do Christmas, and Thanksgiving makes me nauseous, so, for the new me, February is Our Holiday. I mean to make the most of it.

"I'm going on a national tour to celebrate my Blackness," I announce.

"Have fun, Fredrick Douglass," my wife says, and heads off to her law practice.

Thanks to the Internet, I can travel to and through places which my ancestors in the Jim Crow South could have only dreamed.

By noon, I've visited New York's Apollo Theater and the Schaumburg Center; toured African-American Museums in Philadelphia, Chicago and Dayton, Ohio; I visited the campuses of historically black colleges-Tuskegee, Medgar Evers and Wilberforce. I eat lunch with the Huxtables, the Jeffersons and Fred and Lamont Sanford.

I read Cornell West, James Baldwin and President Barack Obama, accompanied by Stevie Wonder, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Lizz Wright. By the time my kids return home, my eyes are bleary and my back feels like I've been workin' on the railroad.

"Daddy, are there still slaves?" (This from my 7-year-old daughter: future Supreme Court Justice/concert pianist/fashion designer.) "Yes, honey," I answer. "Unfortunately, there are people who keep people as slaves."

"Were our ancestors slaves?"

"Yes, honey. And you know what's amazing about them?"

"What?"

"All those people worked and fought and died without recognition from anybody. They helped build this country: We wouldn't be where we are today without them. And look how far we've come. We're judges and architects and artists and astronauts..."

"And presidents!" This from my 6-year-old son: future astrophysicist/award-winning eco-activist/singer-songwriter.

That's right, guys. And presidents. Pretty amazing, huh?"

"Yup. Daddy?"

"Yes, honey?"

"If we had a slave, would I still have to clean my room?"

Later that night, after dinner and my one-man reading of 'Manchild in the Promised Land,' I'm sitting with my wife, exhausted by my day of quiet reflection. I'm thinking of the career of one of my heroes: Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist, African-American and curator of the Hayden Planetarium at New York's Natural History Museum. I'm struck by the wonder of our common history, by pride in the sacrifices of those who went before us, and the amount of celebration still ahead: It's only Day 1.

"I'm only at deGrasse Tyson," I yawn, reaching to turn out my Harold Washington night-light. "I've still got 29 days of Blackness left."

"Twenty-seven," my wife says. "February's the shortest month of the year."

Oh snap!

Michael Boatman is an actor and author currently seen on 'The Good Wife' and on 'Gossip Girl.' He is the author of two novels 'The Revenant Road' and 'The Red Wake,' numerous short stories, and the short story collection 'God Laughs When You Die.' You can read his blog on Red Room.

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