Black History Month

In the mid 1960’s, while touring with Ramsey Lewis, Maurice White introduced the Kalimba to American audiences. An African instrument, the Kalimba is made of a small wooden box with thin metal strips attached to the base. When the strips are plucked—they sound like vibes. Maurice went on to later form a group called the Salty Peppers; Capitol Records lures them to the left coast in 1969 with the promise of more to come.

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With the rising numbers of poor African-Americans in this country, the prison-industrial complex, and unemployment among African-Americans at an all-time high; Cornell West says that ‘Obama is a Republican in Blackface’!

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A pep rally skit by three white high school students who wore blackface and parodied Chris Brown's arrest for assaulting Rihanna has officials in a largely white New York district vowing to set clearer expectations for school events

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Well it is another Know Thyself Community Wednesday and on Monday I blogged about statements made by Stacey Dash and her support of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Now Stacey is also of Mexican heritage, she was called everything in the book after posting, “Vote for Romney—the only choice for your future.”

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Soul music originated in the 1950s and early 1960s, combining a mixture of African-American spirituals and rhythm and blues music. People of African descent have always used music to reflect their circumstances and experiences. In fact, Soul music solidified black pride and culture—the key terms here are BLACK PRIDE and CULTURE!

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Some people are up in arms about Serena Williams' crip walk after she won her Olympic gold medal the other day.

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During the first few days of our vacation, there was a lady in our group that had got information about me and what I do at WBLK.

She heard about the Know Thyself Campaign on the station and told Jim Smith (who is from Buffalo and on this tour) that she had come home on the Know Thyself Educational Tour to spread the ashes of her two sons, 17 and 18, who were killed by violence in the street, into the Hapi (a.k.a Nile River).

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Our morning started out with a 5 a.m. wake-up call, followed by breakfast at 6 a.m., when all luggage had to be outside the room for pick-up. At 7 a.m., we were on our way to Aswan, the land of Nubia -- but not before we made two stops.

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A few weeks ago while I was on the air, I received a call from Jim Smith asking me a few programming questions, one of which had to do with the Know Thyself campaign.

As we continued to talk, I mentioned to him that I was planning a two-week vacation in Kemet

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While my family and I spend our vacation time on a tour in Kemet -- now known as Egypt -- we're bringing updates to the WBLK audience as part of the "Know Thyself Educational Tour." The experience has been amazing so far, continuing our journeys to gain knowledge of self!

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It all started in March 2009. While watching from the 13th floor of the Rand Building here in downtown Buffalo, I saw a large group of high school students fighting and behaving in a very demoralizing and degrading way at the corner of Washington and Broadway. I remember the saggin' pants, the disrespect, the lack of discipline and low moral standards!

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A "portmanteau" is a word that's formed from the combination of two separate words...for example... SMOKE & FOG = SMOG!  How is that relative to Juneteenth?  JUNE & NINETEENTH = JUNETEENTH! June 19, 1865 marked the day that the state of Texas finally recognized the freeing of slaves.  Texas was the last state in the Union to recognize The Emancipation Proclamation which freed slaves and was signed three years earlier by Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862.  

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