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The Broad Presents ‘Black Fire Sessions’

LOS ANGELES SENTINEL — Inspired by the radical experimentation of the Black Arts Movement, The Broad Museum presents, “Black Fire Sessions,” a two-part series featuring “live music by innovators of free jazz alongside younger artists at the intersections of jazz, R&B, electronic, hip-hop and soul.” Since March, The Broad’s “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963-1983,” has celebrated the contributions of powerful Black Los Angeles-based artists during the Black Power movement. From this powerful exhibit emerges “Black Fire Sessions,” adding music to the conversation.

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By Lauren Floyd

Inspired by the radical experimentation of the Black Arts Movement, The Broad Museum presents, “Black Fire Sessions,” a two-part series featuring “live music by innovators of free jazz alongside younger artists at the intersections of jazz, R&B, electronic, hip-hop and soul.” Since March, The Broad’s “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963-1983,” has celebrated the contributions of powerful Black Los Angeles-based artists during the Black Power movement. From this powerful exhibit emerges “Black Fire Sessions,” adding music to the conversation.

Music, like jazz and hip-hop specifically, became a force of artistic expression and therapy for Black people in America and its connection to the Black Power movement is woven into the art presented in “Soul of a Nation.”

Night one of “Black Fire Sessions” featured performances by jazz-genre bending artists like Busdriver, Teebs and Georgia Anne Muldrow.  Muldrow’s set was energetic and vibrantly jazzy yet her rich, classic voice and soul-provoking lyrics invoke the smooth vibes you’d expect from a night of jazz at The Broad.

Singer-songwriter Georgia Anne Muldrow performs at ‘Black Fire Sessions,’ a night of jazz at The Broad celebrating the ‘Soul of a Nation’ exhibit. Photo by Timothy Norris/Courtesy of The Broad

Singer-songwriter Georgia Anne Muldrow performs at ‘Black Fire Sessions,’ a night of jazz at The Broad celebrating the ‘Soul of a Nation’ exhibit. (Photo by: Timothy Norris/Courtesy of The Broad)

Muldrow is a singer-songwriter signed to her label SomeOthaShip Connect, which she co-founded with her husband and music partner, rapper Dudley Perkins. Muldrow has appeared on albums with Erykah Badu, Mos Def and Blood Orange. Her spirit and style in combination with the beautiful essence of her voice and lyrical content meshed effortlessly with the content of the “Soul of a Nation” exhibit and the “Black Fire Sessions” event where she began her set with gratitude for the audience.

“What a special, special exhibit this is. What a focal point of Black energy,” she said as the crowd affirmed in a church-like cadence. “What a prideful moment.”

“As artists, you have revolutionary goals and aspirations,” Muldrow told the Sentinel after her performance. “As an artist, you feel the pain and the disenfranchisement of the majority of the world. A majority of the world is disenfranchised.”

“Soul of a Nation” celebrates artists like Betye Saar and David Hammons whose art advanced Black culture and the Black Power movement and “Black Fire Sessions” was an ode to a newer school of artists — musicians who are a continuation of that very movement.

“Thinking about that as an artist gives me so much, because sometimes we feel so powerless. It helps me with the lineage, it helps me know that I am a part of this,” said Muldrow who was born in 1983, the last year of the era that the “Soul of a Nation” focuses on.

The second night of The Broad’s “Black Fire Sessions” takes place August 14 at 8:30pm with performances by Anthony Braxton, Kelsey Lu and Jimetta Rose. You can still visit “The Soul of a Nation” at The Broad until September 1. To learn more, visit thebroad.org/events.

This article originally appeared in The Los Angeles Sentinel.

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#NNPA BlackPress

Chavis and Bryant Lead Charge as Target Boycott Grows

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Surrounded by civil rights leaders, economists, educators, and activists, Bryant declared the Black community’s power to hold corporations accountable for broken promises.

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By Stacy M. Brown
BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent

Calling for continued economic action and community solidarity, Dr. Jamal H. Bryant launched the second phase of the national boycott against retail giant Target this week at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta. Surrounded by civil rights leaders, economists, educators, and activists, Bryant declared the Black community’s power to hold corporations accountable for broken promises. “They said they were going to invest in Black communities. They said it — not us,” Bryant told the packed sanctuary. “Now they want to break those promises quietly. That ends tonight.” The town hall marked the conclusion of Bryant’s 40-day “Target fast,” initiated on March 3 after Target pulled back its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) commitments. Among those was a public pledge to spend $2 billion with Black-owned businesses by 2025—a pledge Bryant said was made voluntarily in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020.“No company would dare do to the Jewish or Asian communities what they’ve done to us,” Bryant said. “They think they can get away with it. But not this time.”

The evening featured voices from national movements, including civil rights icon and National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) President & CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., who reinforced the need for sustained consciousness and collective media engagement. The NNPA is the trade association of the 250 African American newspapers and media companies known as The Black Press of America. “On the front page of all of our papers this week will be the announcement that the boycott continues all over the United States,” said Chavis. “I would hope that everyone would subscribe to a Black newspaper, a Black-owned newspaper, subscribe to an economic development program — because the consciousness that we need has to be constantly fed.” Chavis warned against the bombardment of negativity and urged the community to stay engaged beyond single events. “You can come to an event and get that consciousness and then lose it tomorrow,” he said. “We’re bombarded with all of the disgust and hopelessness. But I believe that starting tonight, going forward, we should be more conscious about how we help one another.”

He added, “We can attain and gain a lot more ground even during this period if we turn to each other rather than turning on each other.” Other speakers included Tamika Mallory, Dr. David Johns, Dr. Rashad Richey, educator Dr. Karri Bryant, and U.S. Black Chambers President Ron Busby. Each speaker echoed Bryant’s demand that economic protests be paired with reinvestment in Black businesses and communities. “We are the moral consciousness of this country,” Bryant said. “When we move, the whole nation moves.” Sixteen-year-old William Moore Jr., the youngest attendee, captured the crowd with a challenge to reach younger generations through social media and direct engagement. “If we want to grow this movement, we have to push this narrative in a way that connects,” he said.

Dr. Johns stressed reclaiming cultural identity and resisting systems designed to keep communities uninformed and divided. “We don’t need validation from corporations. We need to teach our children who they are and support each other with love,” he said. Busby directed attendees to platforms like ByBlack.us, a digital directory of over 150,000 Black-owned businesses, encouraging them to shift their dollars from corporations like Target to Black enterprises. Bryant closed by urging the audience to register at targetfast.org, which will soon be renamed to reflect the expanding boycott movement. “They played on our sympathies in 2020. But now we know better,” Bryant said. “And now, we move.”

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The Department of Education is Collecting Delinquent Student Loan Debt

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — the Department of Education will withhold money from tax refunds and Social Security benefits, garnish federal employee wages, and withhold federal pensions from people who have defaulted on their student loan debt.

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By April Ryan

Trump Targets Wages for Forgiven Student Debt

The Department of Education, which the Trump administration is working to abolish, will now serve as the collection agency for delinquent student loan debt for 5.3 million people who the administration says are delinquent and owe at least a year’s worth of student loan payments. “It is a liability to taxpayers,” says White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt at Tuesday’s White House Press briefing. She also emphasized the student loan federal government portfolio is “worth nearly $1.6 trillion.” The Trump administration says borrowers must repay their loans, and those in “default will face involuntary collections.” Next month, the Department of Education will withhold money from tax refunds and Social Security benefits, garnish federal employee wages, and withhold federal pensions from people who have defaulted on their student loan debt. Leavitt says “we can not “kick the can down the road” any longer.”

Much of this delinquent debt is said to have resulted from the grace period the Biden administration gave for student loan repayment. The grace period initially was set for 12 months but extended into three years, ending September 30, 2024. The Trump administration will begin collecting the delinquent payments starting May 5. Dr. Walter M. Kimbrough, president of Talladega College, told Black Press USA, “We can have that conversation about people paying their loans as long as we talk about the broader income inequality. Put everything on the table, put it on the table, and we can have a conversation.” Kimbrough asserts, “The big picture is that Black people have a fraction of wealth of white so you’re… already starting with a gap and then when you look at higher education, for example, no one talks about Black G.I.’s that didn’t get the G.I. Bill. A lot of people go to school and build wealth for their family…Black people have a fraction of wealth, so you already start with a wide gap.”

According to the Education Data Initiative, https://educationdata.org/average-time-to-repay-student-loans It takes the average borrower 20 years to pay their student loan debt. It also highlights how some professional graduates take over 45 years to repay student loans. A high-profile example of the timeline of student loan repayment is the former president and former First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama, who paid off their student loans by 2005 while in their 40s. On a related note, then-president Joe Biden spent much time haggling with progressives and Democratic leaders like Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer on Capitol Hill about whether and how student loan forgiveness would even happen.

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VIDEO: The Rev. Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. at United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent

https://youtu.be/Uy_BMKVtRVQ Excellencies:       With all protocol noted and respected, I am speaking today on behalf of the Black Press of America and on behalf of the Press of People of African Descent throughout the world.  I thank the Proctor Conference that helped to ensure our presence here at the Fourth Session of the […]

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Excellencies:

      With all protocol noted and respected, I am speaking today on behalf of the Black Press of America and on behalf of the Press of People of African Descent throughout the world.  I thank the Proctor Conference that helped to ensure our presence here at the Fourth Session of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent.
      The focus on AI and digital equity is urgent within the real time realities today where there continues to be what is referred to as the so called mainstream national and international media companies that systematically undergird racism and imperialism against the interests of People of African Descent.
         We therefore call on this distinguished gathering of leaders and experts to challenge member states to cite and to prevent the institutionalization of racism in all forms of media including social media, AI and any form of digital bias and algorithmic discrimination.
            We cannot trust nor entertains the notion that  former and contemporary enslavers will now use AI and digital transformation to respect our humanity and fundamental rights.
              Lastly we recommend that a priority should be given to the convening of an international collective of multimedia organizations  and digital associations that are owned and developed by Africans and People of African Descent.
Basta the crimes against our humanity!
Basta Racism!
Basta Imperialism!
A Luta Continua!
Victory is certain!
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