Black History Pioneer: Billy Taylor

Billy Taylor (July 24, 1921 – December 28, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster and educator. He was the Robert L. Jones Distinguished Professor of Music at East Carolina University in Greenville, and since 1994, he was the artistic director for jazz at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

Taylor was a also a Jazz activist. He sat on the Honorary Founders Board of The Jazz Foundation of America. In 1989, Billy Taylor, Ann Ruckert, Herb Storfer and Phoebe Jacobs started The Jazz Foundation to save the homes and the lives of America's elderly jazz and blues musicians, later including musicians that survived Hurricane Katrina.

Nikki Giovanni

‎"Poetry is an evolving expression. We have always told our stories trough poetry. Poetry has been the engine that drives our cultural train"

'Still Standing'

INTRODUCING a sizzling new book that will reveal, revive and reward your life. Each chapter exposes the shocking thoughts and encounters of women brave enough to lay their secret truths on the table. Get the full spectrum of the human experience; sex, love, loss, esteem and spirituality. This non-fiction is hilarious, heartbreaking and sometimes disturbing in an attempt to teach, generate self-actualization and change. A person doesn't have to suffer through everything first hand to satisfy the soul’s need to know and understand. Men and women from all walks of life will benefit from this raw and real talk. Order this book at the link below. Thank you in advance for supporting my desire to entertain, educate and empower.

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ArtOfficial Intelligence: Dear Winter

Black History Pioneer: George Moses Horton

George Moses Horton (1797–1884) was an African-American slave who composed poetry. He was born into slavery on William Horton's plantation in Northampton County, NC. As a very young child, he and several family members were moved to a tobacco farm in rural Chatham County, North Carolina, when his owner relocated. Horton composed poems in his mind through his teen years. He was allowed by his master to visit the nearby University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he recited poems to students who eagerly wrote them down and paid him for his compositions. His fame spread, and a collection of poems was published under the title The Hope of Liberty (1829). Horton was the first black southern author and the first African American poet to produce a volume in more than half a century.

Two more collections of Horton's poetry include Poetical Works (1845) and Naked Genius (1865). Horton began calling himself "the Colored Bard of North Carolina." Many of his works were vivid and powerful attacks on slavery.
After the American Civil War, Horton moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he lived until his death. Once in the north, he never published another verse.
During the summer of 2006, UNC Chapel Hill renamed a newly built dorm, previously known as Hinton James North, to George Moses Horton dormitory.

Lupe Fiasco - Lasers Track list Released

01. Letting Go (Feat. Sarah Green)
02. Words I Never Said (Feat. Skylar Grey)
03. Till I Get There
04. I Don’t Wanna Care Right Now (Feat. MDMA)
05. Out Of My Head (Feat. Trey Songz)
06. The Show Goes On
07. Beautiful Lasers, (Two Ways) (Feat. MDMA)
08. Coming up (Feat. MDMA)
09. State Run Radio (Feat. Matt Mahaffey)
10. Break The Chain (Feat. Eric Turner & Sway)
11. All Black Everything
12. Never Forget You (Feat. John Legend)

Black History Pioneer: Claudette Colvin

Claudette Colvin (born September 5, 1939) is a pioneer of the African American civil rights movement. She was the first person to resist bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, preceding the better known Rosa Parks incident by nine months. The court case stemming from her refusal to give up her seat on the bus, decided by the U.S. District Court, ended bus segregation in Alabama.
Colvin's pioneering effort was not publicized for long by Montgomery's black leaders because she was an unmarried pregnant woman.