NEW YORK (AP) — For the debut Bartlett’s anthology of black quotations, editor Retha Powers wanted to capture the personal, the political and the artistic. “When you think about black history, you think about touch points like slavery, colonialism, apartheid,” Powers says. “Those are heavy and difficult topics. But there also lives being led and […]
JUNE 25, 2009 — “King of Pop” – “MICHAEL JACKSON” — dies at age 50.
In Detroit, this very day marks the beginning of a violent, race-fueled riot that lasted for days and left dozens dead and countless others injured.…
Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace (pictured) was gunned down on March 9, 1997, just two months shy of his 25th birthday. With fame and all the…
Timothy Wright was born June 17, 1947, in Brooklyn, New York, where his family attended St. John’s Fire Baptized Holiness Church of God. It was there that he began playing piano at the age of 12 and also began to compose music for the church’s choir. By 1969, he had moved on to Bishop […]
Clay Evans was once known as Jessie Jackson‘s personal pastor through a popular television commercial promoting music in the 1970’s, but gospel fans have long known him as a great traditional gospel artist who has created gospel gems such as “Room At The Cross”. Born on June 23, 1925, Brownsville, Tennessee, Evans was three years […]
Known as the Prince of Gospel, Kee picked up where Rev. James Cleveland left off when he passed away in 1991. Although there are modern elements to his music, Kee has largely kept the traditional black choir style that Cleveland popularized alive and well with such songs as “Show Up”, “New Life”, and “Wash […]
Through the 1980’s, the Clark Sisters had the most exciting and talked about stage show in the entire gospel field. There were no laser lights and no big rig props, it was just the girls and their band, and they never ceased to turn whatever church they entered inside out and upside down. As astounding […]
Now that Pope Benedict XVI has announced his resignation to poor health—becoming the first pope to resign in nearly 600 years—there is speculation as to who could replace him. Some even suggest that a younger, dynamic pontiff from Africa, Latin America or some other area of the developing world could be waiting in the wings. […]
DOVER, Delaware (AP) — Jazz musician Donald Byrd, a leading hard-bop trumpeter of the 1950s who collaborated on dozens of albums with the leading artists of his time and later enjoyed commercial success with hit jazz-funk fusion records such as “Black Byrd,” has died. He was 80. He died Feb. 4 in Delaware, according to […]