Amanda Gorman: Shines again at the Super Bowl LV
Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, after drawing wide acclaim after her stunning poem recital at President Biden's inauguration, presented another masterpiece last Sunday ahead of Super Bowl 55.
The poem, titles “Chorus of the Captains” celebrated three community heroes chosen by the NFL to serve as honorary captains at Sunday’s game, including educator Trimaine Davis, nurse manager Suzie Dorner and Marine Corps veteran James Martin.
“Today we honor our three captains. For their actions and impact in a time of uncertainty and need,” Gorman read on Sunday.
“They’ve taken the lead. Exceeding all expectations and limitations, uplifting their communities and neighbors. As leaders, healers, and educators,” she continued.
Here’s the transcription of her poem:
“Chorus of the Captains”
"Today we honor our three captains
For their actions and impact in
A time of uncertainty and need.
They’ve taken the lead,
Exceeding all expectations and limitations
Uplifting their communities and neighbors
As leaders, healers, and educators.
James has felt the wounds of warfare,
But this warrior still shares
His home with at-risk kids.
During Covid, he’s even lent a hand,
Live-streaming football for family and fans.
Trimaine is an educator who works nonstop,
Providing his community with hotspots,
Laptops, and tech workshops,
So his students have all the tools
They need to succeed in life and school.
Suzie is the ICU nurse manager at a Tampa Hospital.
Her chronicles prove that even in tragedy, hope is possible.
She lost her grandmothers to the pandemic,
And fights to save other lives in the ICU battle zone,
Defining the frontline heroes risking their lives for our own.
Let us walk with these warriors,
Charge on with these champions,
And carry forth the call of our captains!
We celebrate them by acting
With courage and compassion,
By doing what is right and just.
For while we honor them today,
It is them who every day honor us."
We adore you Amanda Gorman, shine on!
Even the sky is not the limit
Mae Jemison: First Black woman in space
More than an astronaut who served NASA for six years, Dr. Mae Jemison is a medical doctor, dance choreographer, actor. She has received 18 awards, has 6 institutions named for her and received 10 honorary doctorates. She has also written, or co-written numerous publications. No wonder, she is a part of the National Women’s Hall of Fame (1993) and the international Space Hall of Fame (2004) as a champion of women rights and civil rights movement.
Born on October 17, 1956, Jemison graduated in 1977 with a B.S. degree in chemical engineering and a B.A. degree in African and African American studies. While at Stanford, Dr. Jemison continued to study dance, enrolling in classes at the Alvin Alley American Dance Theater. She also pursued studies related to space and considered applying to NASA. In 1981, Dr. Jemison graduated with her M.D. degree from the Cornell Medical School, then interned at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.
She later joined the Peace Corps, where she worked for two years, and after her return, she entered private medical practice and enrolled in graduate level engineering courses. Dr. Jemison was inspired by astronauts Sally Ride and Guion Bluford. She applied for NASA's astronaut training program in 1985.
On September 28, 1989, Dr. Jemison was selected to be a Science Mission Specialist aboard STS-47 on the Space Shuttle Endeavor. The Science Mission Specialist was a new astronaut role being tested by NASA to focus on scientific experiments.
Dr. Jemison and the crew of Space Shuttle Endeavor lifted off on September 12, 1992.The launch marked a cooperative mission between the United States and Japan. It was also the 50th shuttle mission. In all, Dr. Jemison logged 190 hours, 30 minutes, and 23 seconds in space, orbiting the earth 127 times. The crew was split into two shifts, with Dr. Jemison assigned to the Blue Shift. Throughout the mission she opened communications with the salute, "Hailing frequencies open," a quote from Star Trek.
After her endeavor, Jemison continues to be a vocal advocate for improving education access and advocating for greater inclusion of girls in STEM programs.
In 1994, Jemison founded the international science camp - The Earth We Share (TEWS) for students 12-16 years old from around the world. In 2011, Jemison also launched the TEWS-Space Race, with the goal of improving science achievement for underserved Los Angeles-area students who are underrepresented in the sciences.
Her book, Find Where the Wind Goes, is geared for teenagers, and explores her experiences growing up on the South Side of Chicago, cultivating her aspirations to be a scientist, and her history-making journey into space.
Following her time in NASA, Jemison founded both The Jemison Group and BioSentient Corporation. A technology consulting firm, The Jemison Group explores and develops stand-alone science and technology programs, integrating the critical impact of socio-cultural issues with revolutionary technologies.
Currently, Jemison leads “The 100 Year Starship (100YSS)”, a revolutionary initiative to assure the capability for human interstellar space travel to another star within the next century.
This article is a compilation of information from Wikipedia and other publications.
Amelia Boynton Robinson: The pioneer civil rights activist
Amelia Boynton Robinson: The pioneer civil rights activist
Amelia Boynton Robinson, the matriarch of the voting rights movement, is known for her struggles and sacrifices that brought change in American political system.
She was among those beaten during the voting rights march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in March 1965 that is known as “Bloody Sunday”. The troopers tear-gassed and clubbed the marchers as they tried to cross the bridge. Her photo in a newspaper, that showed her beaten unconscious, drew wide attention to the movement.
Mrs. Boynton Robinson was one of the organizers of the march, the first of three attempts by demonstrators in March 1965 to walk the 54 miles from Selma, Alabama, to the capital, Montgomery, to demand the right to register to vote.
As shown in “Selma” the Oscar-nominated 2014 film directed by Ava DuVernay, Mrs. Boynton Robinson (played by Lorraine Toussaint) had helped persuade the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who would lead the second and third marches, to concentrate his efforts in that city.
Bloody Sunday took place on March 7, 1965. As they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, some 600 black demonstrators, led by John Lewis and the Rev. Hosea Williams, were set upon by Alabama state troopers armed with tear gas, clubs and whips. Walking near the front of the line and subject to the full force of the troopers’ blows, Mrs. Boynton Robinson, then known as Amelia Boynton, was knocked unconscious.
Half a century later the first black president of the United States Barak Obama joined her in a trip across the bridge during a commemoration. Frail, but resolute, Robinson joined the other veterans in the ceremonial bridge crossing in her wheelchair.
Mrs. Robinson reminisced in an interview that she could have died in the 1965 incident, but it made her even more resolute and determined to do anything that could make African Americans, the first-class citizens, and destroy the fear in them. She was invited to the White House for President Lyndon B. Johnson’s signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. A monument in her honor stands at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
In 1964, Robinson became the first African American and first female democratic candidate to run for US Congress in Alabama. She received 11 percent of the primary votes in an area where only 5 percent of African Americans could vote. In the same year, she invited King and the SCLC to Selma, and she organized the Selma to Montgomery rights March.
Among her laurels is the Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Medal, which she received in 1990. Amelia Boynton Robinson was an amazingly strong and inspiring woman who had great vision and courage, strength, and her life will continue to inspire every single citizens of the world till eternity.
The Kia D Unplugged Show feat. Alexis Dendy
The Kia D Unplugged Show feat. Alexis Dendy (CEO of the Jewerly Box)
The History of the Black History Month
Black History Month is observed each February in the United States, many people are not aware of how this started. And most people do not know that a Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson is the man behind this tradition. As a descendent of a formerly enslaved race, he was thoroughly familiar with how black Americans were being left out of the narrative of American history. His dream to correct this glaring oversight realized when he and an organization funded by him, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) announced and celebrated Negro History Week in 1925 during February, as the month encompasses the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
Woodson hoped that Negro History Week would encourage better relations between black and white people in the United States as well as inspire young Black Americans to celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of their ancestors.
The response from the celebration of the Black History Week was overwhelming: Black history clubs sprang up; teachers demanded materials to instruct their pupils; and progressive whites, not simply white scholars and philanthropists, stepped forward to endorse the effort.
During the Civil Rights Movement, South’s Freedom Schools started observing the week and its curriculum to be a part of the mission. There were major problems with the then history textbooks like in the mid-1960s, the most popular textbook for eighth-grade U.S. history classes mentioned only two black people in the entire century of history that had transpired since the Civil War. To rectify such issues, colleges and universities across the country transformed the week into a Black History Month on campus.
American educators and historians both white and black started observing black history week and expanding the historical narrative to include black Americans. In 1976, when the USA celebrated its bicentennial, Woodman’s ASALH extended the weeklong celebration into a month, and that was the beginning of the Black History month.
President Gerald Ford urged Americans to observe Black History Month, but it was President Carter who officially recognized Black History Month in 1978. Each year, the ASALH gave Negro History Week themes, and that tradition has extended into Black History Month to help narrow people's focus to aspects of Black history. In 2021, the theme is "The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity".
Taking a stand to help others
Kia D to speak at the UNT on Survivor Advocate Program
Sometimes one inspiring story, one kind word or a small encouragement can change a life. A small support can help a victim become a survivor. This is the mission of Kia D.
Kia D, today, is the Founder and the CEO of the popular radio network “wetalkradio.com”, and a non-profit “Heels on the Move to Heal”, but once she has been a victim of domestic violence and sexual assault. When she left her abuser, she was not left with anything but courage and strength to rebuild her life once again.
Kia D is going to speak at UNT in March 2021 for their Survivor Advocate program.
Her participation in this program is in alignment with her work to let others know that it is possible to overcome the trauma of domestic violence and sexual assault. Being the CEO of WeTalkRadio Radio Station and founder of “Heels on the Move to Heal”, she uses her platform as a survivor to supply others like her with clothes and resources. Heels on the Move to Heal also stages an annual charity fashion show, where local youth create and produce local events, allowing them to explore roles like emcee, performer, producer, DJ, photographer and videographer.
She truly believes that it is more important to walk with people, just pointing in the right direction may not be enough.
John W. Jones: The runaway slave who buried nearly 3000 confederate soldiers
Who was John Jones? John Jones was a simple man with a fantastic back story. John Jones was born in Virginia in June of 1817. Jones had a hard life. He was a slave. In 1844 Jones left Virginia headed for the North in search of a better life, in search of his freedom. Jones made his way out of Virginia, fighting slave hunters in Virginia and Maryland. Jones made his way to upstate New York.
As a freeman, John would build a happy life in New York State. He became a respected Elmira society member. He would take a wife and become a father of three sons and one daughter. The family had been honorable members of a church.
If you take a walk in Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira, New York, you will see the legacy of John Jones. He and his family lived in a small house on Woodlawn Cemetery's grounds. The family home still stands and is a historical museum. John Jones left a forever-lasting mark in the graveyard of Woodlawn Cemetery.
Woodlawn the resting place for many men who lost their lives in the American Civil War. There was a prison camp located in Upstate New York, and this camp was a place where Confederate soldiers were held. The Confederates who died in the camp were laid to rest in the cemetery. Jones was put in charge of the burials. He laid the confederate and union soldiers alike to rest on these grounds. Jones took decided to make a statement about the war; before burial, Jones would carefully place each man's belongings in a safe place and, if possible, label the items with the dead men’s identifying details.
What gives John Jones a place in Civil War History is the graveyard's Civil War section's symbolic design. Because Jones kept such organized records, he knew the identity of each soldier. Jones knew which bodies belong to union soldiers and which belonged to the confederate soldiers. To make a statement, Jon Jones, but all of the graves belonging to Confederate soldiers in one place and been surrounded that plot of land with all of the graves belonging to Union Soldiers. His choice to forever imprison the confederates will forever be a reminder of the power of perseverance.
- Keely Messino