You Are Peace

Lyrical tenor/

 Whisper “Du bist die Ruh” to/

Divo profundis. 

Roland Hayes (1887-1977), by Van Vechten, 1954.

Verdi Hard Core

His baritone/

Performing Rigoletto/

History was made. 

Robert McFerrin (1921-2006), by Van Vechten, 1955.

Il Divo Week Begins!

Week of Il Divo/

Baritone extraordinaire/

She loves you, Porgy.

 William Warfield (1920-2002), by Van Vechten, 1954.

National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

Changing the Course of HIV/AIDS, 

ONE BLACK LIFE AT A TIME!

 Tuesday, February 7, 2012 was National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Black people continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, and today is a day that we can use to talk about HIV/AIDS. Below is a quote from Healthy Black Communities, Inc., on this year's initiative, along with startling information about shrinking resources and support for this continuing health crisis in the black community.

"For 2012, the structure and dynamics of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day was shattered as the support and resources dwindled causing many organizations to reconsider their commitment and ability to manage and direct the initiative as in the past. So, Healthy Black Communities, Inc. with its experience in overseeing the initiative and serving as the lead opted to incorporate it into its organization structure and continue mobilizing Black communities around HIV/AIDS. In addition, the organization is rebuilding the structure to develop a national planning body, regional planning bodies and local planning groups to assist with reigniting the fire within Black community stakeholders to make it a success."

The motto, as always, is: Get educated. Get tested. Get involved. Get treated!

All best,

 

Rebecca (Cross-posting here)

Zora Neale Hurston, American Writer

"Ships at a distance/
Have every man's wish on board"/
So wrote our Zora.

Photo by Carl Van Vechten, 1940

Today, Saturday, January 28, marks the anniversary of the death of Zora Neale Hurston (b. 1891 - d. 1960). I came across this rare color photo of her while surfing the Internet, only to discover that the Beineke Library at Yale had digitized all of Carl Van Vechten's nearly 2,000 color photos of African American authors, dancers, singers, intellectuals, and others involved in the arts and culture of America, mainly during the first half of the 20th century. Here is a link to the collection:  

Living Portraits: Carl Van Vechten's Color Photographs of 

African Americans, 1939-1964

Today is a good day to read Hurston's masterwork, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and to reflect upon her brilliant writing.

Original dust jacket, 1937

All best,

Rebecca

.

Constance Baker Motley, American Hero

The words she lived by/
We take note of them today/
"And justice for ALL."

Constance Baker Motley, 1921-2005

On this day (January 25) in 1966, the Hon. Constance Baker Motley was appointed as a federal judge by President Lyndon Johnson, representing New York's Southern District. She became the first African American woman so named. Her legacy endures--there are far too many accomplishments for me to list here. Below is a link to the Columbia School of Law entry on Judge Motley, a 1946 graduate.

Remarkable Columbians: Constance Baker Motley

 Here also, are a few excerpts from the Wikipedia entry on her life and accomplishments. Click on this link (here) for the complete entry:

[Judge Motley’s] legal career began as a law clerk in the fledgling NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), where she worked with a distinguished group of civil rights attorneys, among them future U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall, prominent Jewish-American civil-rights advocate Jack Greenberg, and many others. As the LDF's first female attorney, she became Associate Counsel to the LDF, making her a lead trial attorney in a number of early and significant civil rights cases.

In 1950 she wrote the original complaint in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. The first African-American woman ever to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, in Meredith v. Fair she successfully won James Meredith's effort to be the first black student to attend the University of Mississippi in 1962. Motley was successful in nine of the ten cases she argued before the Supreme Court. The tenth decision, regarding jury composition, was eventually overturned in her favor. She was otherwise a key legal strategist in the civil rights movement, helping to desegregate Southern schools, buses, and lunch counters.

Let's celebrate this American hero!

All best,

Rebecca

Tabula Rasa

A new semester/

Filled with freshness and promise/

Tabula rasa.