On 2/18/2018 Jazz on the JNote Celebrates the Excellent Story of Harriet Tubman

“We are what we repeatedly do.

Excellence then is not an act, but a habit” 

(Aristotle)

I am always looking for a good topic to base each episode of my show on. I spend some time making a frantic effort to allow the blanket of the non-stop flow of music that you find on Jazz on the JNote, to have a concentration of focus so that as the show barrels ahead, the music can fuel the momentum of the topic at hand.

The main theme of every episode of Jazz on the JNote is jazz, identity and race, as was my college thesis, which was how this radio show started back in June of 2015. The show was a way to help me to conduct research as I sojourned to write 30 pages on jazz and how it helped to implement an identity and political tongue for people of color. 

And so, in trying to keep each episode as new as possible without too many repeats being aired, as each week progresses, not only do I do an extensive search of “today in jazz history,” but also one on “today in black history” and then narrow down my search to one particular area of focus from the information populated, which caused the most overflow of words to hit my blank page.

Here are a few of the things that I found:

Some of This Week’s Jazz Birthdays

Henry Threadgill – February 15, 1944

Randy Crawford – February 18, 1952

Nancy Wilson – February 20, 1937

Nina Simone – February 21, 1933

It Happened This Week in Jazz History

Mahalia Jackson recorded “Come Sunday” with Duke Ellington – February 12, 1958

Nat King Cole Died – February 15, 1965

Bessie Smith made her first recording “Downhearted Blues” -  February 16, 1923

Thelonious Monk Died – February 17, 1982

Billie Holiday recorded “Lady in Satin” – February 18, 1958

It Happened this week in Black History

February 12, 1793

The First Fugitive Slave Law was enacted by congress

February 12, 1900

First black secretary of the NAACP, James Weldon Johnson, wrote the lyrics to, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” for an Abraham Lincoln birthday celebration

February 12, 1908

NAACP founded in NYC following the race riot of 1908 in Springfield, IL, with a mission to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination. It was founded by bold and daring pioneers sociologist WEB DuBois, lawyer Archibald Grimke, civil rights activist Henry Moskowtiz, suffragists Mary White Ovington and Mary Church Terrell, labor reformer William English Walling, social and political reformer Florence Kelley, and journalists Charles Edward Russell, Oswald Garrington Villard and Ida B Wells all joining forces to eliminate race prejudice and to lead grassroots campaigns for social justice, equal protection of the law, equal opportunities and voter mobilization.

February 14, 1817

The man for whom Carter G Woodson based Black History Week around when it first became a notable time of celebration, Frederick Douglass, was born

February 17, 1891

A black inventor, A C Richardson, invented the patent for the churn

February 17, 1902

The first black person to ever be invited to sing in the White House, Marion Anderson, was born.

Focus for February 18, 2018

It didn’t happen this week in black history but rather this month . . . On February 1, 1978, Harriet Tubman became the first black woman to be honored with a US Postal stamp, and after a more extensive acquaintance with this heroine’s brilliant history, the topic of discussion based on the Fugitive Slave Law and the US Postal Stamp, became my focal point.

Harriet Tubman

“A woman does not run among thorns for no reason;

either she is chasing a snake

or a snake is chasing her.”

– (African Proverb)

This week, we celebrate the unwavering faith of Aramanta Ross, better known to the world as Harriett Tubman. She was also coined by many as Black Moses because she risked her own life out of stern necessity to rescue her people from their place of struggle, judgment and no justice in which they dwelt at the risk of harsh punishment, lashings to the skin or even assassination by lynching or beheading.  She was more than just a noble and brave, dedicated humanitarian but a respected leader in her own right.

This week’s episode is dedicated to Harriet Tubman's fugitive steps in her endeavor to help her people to pilot away from the south, guided by the steady light of the north star to freedom. Please join us as we celebrate her life and incredible story. 

Here is How You Can Listen

Tune in Sunday February 18, 2018

7:00 PM EST http://www.theenglishconnectionmedia.com  (worldwide)

7:30PM EST WNYE 91.5FM (NY, NJ, CT)

Thank you for stopping by my blog. If you are interested, Jazz on the JNote is on Facebook. Like our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/jazzonthejnote/

Happy May!

“One of the most tragic things I know about human nature

is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming

of some magical rose garden over the horizon

instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming

outside our windows today.”

- Dale Carnegie 

May Photo Challenge: Windows
Photo by Willie Tillman

Happy May! Enjoy the flowers, the sun, the outdoors, the warmer weather, 
the ragtime music playing from the ice cream trucks, the smell of barbecue, 
the outdoor music festivals,
the kids playing outside more,  each moment of it, and maybe 
some of my music blaring out of your car's booming system. 

Q is for Quotes For Earth Day

Since, 1970, Earth day has been reserved as a calendar day to dedicate to thinking about protecting the planet, the environmental climate, global warming, clean air and drinking water, using biodegradable goods and about the blue marble, for the good of humanity.  

It is a day to consider the oil spill of 1969 in Santa Barbara, CA and Flint’s present day, unclean water. Though we may not all be able to participate in the march for science in Washington, D.C. or may not be able to add ourselves into the 500-mile human chain in France, we can all put our hands into making a difference to this social safari by thinking about Mother Earth  more, loving her just a little bit more and by reducing, reusing, and recycling.

Here are some ways 

you can celebrate Earth Day:

“Close your eyes and turn your face into the wind. Feel it sweep along your skin in an invisible ocean of exultation.” - Vera Nazarian

“Take a quiet walk with Mother Nature. It will nurture your mind, body and soul” – Anthony Douglas Williams

Enjoy the day! “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished – Lao Tzu

Plant some flowers or a tree. “Trees are the earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening heaven” – Rabindranath Tagore

Sit in the park and enjoy the beauty of nature’s scenery. “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better” – Albert Einstein

One man’s garbage is another’s treasure. Donate your old clothes to a church or the salvation army or, bring your old, no-longer beneficial to you, items to a swap meet. "You can tell how high a society is by how much of its garbage is recycled."
-- Dhyani Ywahoo

Instead of buying bottled water and throwing those plastic bottles in the trash, invest in a stainless steel tumbler and carry it around with you to keep refilling as needed. 

Some things 

to consider on Earth Day:

“The earth laughs in flowers” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed” – Mahatma Gandhi

 “If you do not permit the earth to produce beauty and joy, it will in the end not produce food, either” – Joseph Wood Krutch

“The tress are our lungs, the rivers our circulation, the air our breath, and the earth our body” – Deepak Chopra

“The case for recycling is strong. The bottom line is clear. Recycling requires a trivial amount of our time. Recycling saves money and reduces pollution. Recycling creates more jobs than landfilling or incineration. And a largely ignored but very important consideration, recycling reduces our need to dump our garbage in someone else’s backyard.” – David Morris

 “For many of us, clean water is so plentiful and readily available that we rarely, if ever, pause to consider what life would be like without it.” – Marcus Samuelsson

“There's a lot to be said about what's happening to our ocean, big companies polluting it with their oil and all the raw garbage that's being spilled in there.” -  Lloyd Bridges

 “Nature is a numbers game. We need all the support we can get as our immune systems and health are under assault from pollution, stress, contaminated food and age-related diseases as our lifespans increase.” -  Paul Stamets

“Access by kids to the Internet should be like kids breathing clean air.”  - Nicholas Negroponte

 “The earth is a fine place and worth fighting for” – Ernest Hemingway

Happy Earth Day everyone! 

Here is a toast. 

The Earth is changing everyday.

 https://youtu.be/lIyQEJgnWuE

Let's Change with the earth and as it turns and keeps on changing, change with it and make it a better place for the the here now and for future generations.