Issue # 483
INSIDE
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Lisa Jacobson wins Brooklyn Park mayoral race by one vote
A F R IC A N
C OM MU N I T Y
N E W S PAP E R
Kenyan entrepreneur uses coffee to tell women’s stories
Spotlighting young African women in resistance
Hezekiah Walker to bring gospel music to HBCU
Margaret Nyamumbo, founder of Kahawa 1893, brews some of the coffee her company imports from the Gusii highlands of Kenya where it is farmed by women farmers. Photo: Provided
By Edwin Okong’o Mshale Contributing Editor
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Yola releases new record
Margaret Nyamumbo wants the world to know that the story of coffee cannot be complete without acknowledging the role African women play in the farming of one of the world’s most famous crops. It is a story she knows firsthand, but one that isn’t often told, she said. She is telling the story by introducing specialty Kenyan coffee to the world through her company, Kahawa 1893, which she founded in 2018. The idea occurred to her when she was living in New York. While exploring what she calls the “the vibrant specialty coffee
scene” there she noticed something that troubled her: Although Kenya, her country of birth, is considered the best in the world for production of high-quality coffee, there wasn’t a brand that was recognized internationally as representative of the East African country. “Imagine if France didn’t have a French wine brand,” Nyamumbo said. At the time, Nyamumbo, a graduate of Harvard Business School, was working as an investment banker on Wall Street, retail companies. As she learned more about how the companies used supply chain to move products from origin to retail shelves, she became more convinced that she
could make her idea of elevating Kenyan coffee to the prominence it deserves come to fruition. Kenyan coffee is consistently rated among the top five best coffees in the world because it’s grown on high altitude, which allows beans to develop slowly with more nutrients than coffee grown in lower elevations, giving it a unique taste with “powerful wine-like acidity and sweet fruity notes,” according to Intercontinental Coffee Trading. Today, Nyamumbo is one of only a handful Black entrepreneurs who have defied the odds to venture into the roasted and packaged coffee industry
dominated by people of European descent. The main reason there aren’t many Black people in the trading of a crop that is inherently African is the lack of capital. It’s not clear how much capital Black entrepreneurs in the coffee sector have access to, but generally it’s difficult for ideas of businesspeople of African descent to get seed funding. Available data shows that in 2020, U.S. companies founded by Black people received a measly 3 percent of the nearly $150 billion in capital that was issued by investors.
According to U.S. Census
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August 16-22, 2021 Issue 483
Lisa Jacobson wins Brooklyn Park mayoral race by one vote
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Lisa Jacobson, right, has won by one vote the August 10 special election for mayor of Brooklyn Park. Challenger Hollies Winston, left, is expected to request a publicly funded recount as allowed by state law for close elections
By Tom Gitaa Mshale
In the West District, Winston won five of the nine precincts with 711 votes to Jacobson’s 563.
Lisa Jacobson beat Hollies Winston by one vote, 3,415 to 3,414 in the August 10 special election for mayor.
The last time there was an election recount in a city election was in the August 14, 2012 in another special election to fill a vacant West District council seat. In that race, Wynfred Russell the current councilmember for that district lost by five votes to Bob Mata. A recount did not change the result.
Winston can request a publicly funded recount as allowed by Minnesota statutes by August 20. Jacobson won seven of the nine precincts in the East District with 1,718 votes against Winston’s 1,370. Winston carried all the eight precincts in the Central District, garnering 1,333 votes to Jacobson’s 1,134.
As this edition of Mshale went to press, a special city council meeting was scheduled for Friday, August 13 at 6:00 p.m. to canvass the results of the special election. Visit mshale.com for the latest on the election.
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Guest Commentary by By Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.
The movement for justice will not be deterred The right-wing majority on the Supreme Court just undercut the Voting Rights Act again. Having gutted the section that required pre-approval of state voting laws to protect the rights of minorities to vote in Shelby v. Holder, Republicanappointed justices now have castrated the backup clause — Section 2 — which bans racial discrimination in election practices in Brnovich v. DNC. The result will open the floodgates even further to the wave of partisan laws that Republicans are pushing in states across the country to suppress the votes of African Americans and other people of color. The right-wing justices continue their assault on the meaning and power of the Voting Rights Act, a triumph of the civil rights movement that Justice Elena Kagan, writing in dissent, noted represents the “best in America.” The reaction against the civil rights movement continues. Every movement for equal justice under the law in this country has been met with a brutal reaction. When reformers tried to limit the spread of slavery into new states coming into the republic, the slave states seceded, launching the Civil War, the deadliest war in American history. After losing the war, when the federal government began reconstruction to free the slaves and guarantee equal political and economic rights to all, the reaction was brutal, with lynching and terrorism — led by the Ku Klux Klan and others — spreading to suppress the newly freed slaves. In the end, segregation — America’s version of apartheid — spread through the South and the hope of the civil rights amendments was crushed. Now, after the civil rights movement, the Voting Rights Act and the election of Barack Obama, the reaction has been fierce. Across the country, Republican legislators have sought to make it harder for African Americans and other people of color to vote. The long lines that mark inner-city voting sites are a graphic demonstration of the success of those efforts, for many people can’t take the hours off from work to cast a ballot. In each era, the lawless reaction — and blatant violations of the Constitution — have been ratified by disgraceful decisions in the Supreme Court.
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The court ratified segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson, inventing the doctrine of separate but equal — a concept that existed only in the judge’s imaginations, not in the realities of any of the former slave states. Voter suppression following the civil rights movement was ratified in Shelby v. Holder and now in Brnovich vs. the DNC, that have essentially gutted the Voting Rights Act, the crown jewel of the civil rights The so-called “conservative” justices on the Supreme Court are rewriting the laws passed by Congress to serve their own partisan purposes. Now the excuse is to limit voter fraud, even though there is no evidence of such fraud other than in the ravings of partisan politicians. This struggle will continue. Clearly, Republicans across the country have decided that rather than seeking to win the votes of African Americans and other peoples of color, they would rather pass measures to suppress their vote — from discriminatory changes in voting practices, to gerrymandering of districts, to (most dangerously) empowering Republican legislatures to overturn the results of an election. Once more people of conscience must stand up and organize to protect the right to vote and to counter those who would suppress it. Once more, right-wing justices have written another shameful chapter of judicial ignominy that must simply be overturned. Once more Congress must act to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to counter the brazen efforts of the court’s right wing to neuter it. Once more, those standing in the way of equality under the law will find that the movement for justice will not be deterred. Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., is the founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition founded in 1996. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He wrote this commentary for the National Newspaper Publishers Association which represents Black-owned newspapers in the United States.
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Shining a spotlight on resistance among young women in Africa By Rosebell Kagumire NNPA “It is only by being “too much” that new cracks in the wall of patriarchal dictatorships can emerge.” These words from award-winning blogger and Pan-African feminist activist, Rosebell Kagumire in her essay entitled “African Young Women Resisting Beyond Borders” underscores young African women’s utilization of the Internet to bring attention to sexual violence, police brutality, and gender disparities. A recent chain of events emphasizing resistance on a global stage, has opened the doors for the composition to make its way to the forefront of conversations again. At the Tokyo Olympics, United States gymnast, Simone Biles, sent shockwaves throughout the world when she withdrew from the team competition and later individual events, to focus on her mental health. Citing the necessity of having her body and mind in sync, the now seven-time Olympic medalist chose not to follow the status quo of “pushing through.” Instead, she used her platform to emphasize the power of using one’s voice and actions to draw attention to unrealistic expectations, supremacy structures, and the muting of victims. Kagumire does the same by highlighting the various ways these women have developed a collective voice to demand an end to experienced injustices. Her essay begins with an explanation regarding last year’s Twitter uproar after dozens of Ugandan women disclosed they’re victims of sexual assault and harassment. Referencing movements that have pushed for accountability and consequences, Kagumire referred to the viral revealing as “Uganda’s own #MeToo movement.” “These young women were building on the bravery of women who had earlier told their stories despite the public wrath
“These young women were building on the bravery of women who had earlier told their stories despite the public wrath they faced.” Photo: Courtesy Black Press USA
they faced.” Noting mounting displeasure, Kagumire explains how the “patriarchal power” structure uses its authority to silence women. Standing in the gap for those afraid to speak publicly, Sheena Bageine, a social media activist, anonymously posted their stories online. Subsequently, her arrest triggered a new Twitter hashtag. “Young Ugandan women responded, from lawyers to mental health specialists to social media warriors, and the #FreeSheena hashtag trended. Within a few hours, she had become a liability for compromised police who released her on bail. Sheena’s case is still ongoing. But the actions of her peers and the solidarity
she evoked shows how agile young women’s mobilization in the digital age is, despite the entrenched hegemonies that still prevail in daily life.”
voices. Without the equal participation and leadership of young feminists, however, such a social transformation will remain elusive.”
Kagumire contends in her essay that despite the resistance, “millions of young women across the African continent have found a common voice for community building, organizing, and mobilization, taking advantage of the steady increase of Internet penetration and the proliferation of cheaper smartphones.”
Absolutes such as these are the reasons it’s imperative for women to gather to strategize and implement plans of action. While the organization of like-minded individuals in many African countries is becoming more of a focus in mainstream media, the years of work is evident.
To support this fact, she references a 2019 Afrobarometer report stating, “women who regularly use the Internet has more than doubled over the past five years in 34 African countries.” The percentage increased from 11 to 26. Despite the rise, women are still less likely to own a mobile phone, computer, or phone with Internet capabilities, access the Internet regularly, or receive their news from an online source.
In 2006, women from various African countries met to establish the African Feminist Forum. According to charter documents, “the space was crafted as an autonomous space in which African feminists from all walks of life at different levels of engagement within the feminist movement such as mobilizing at local levels for women’s empowerment to academia, could reflect on a collective basis and chart ways to strengthen and grow the feminist movement on the continent.”
Although accessibility is limited, women like Biles continue to seize opportunities to underline injustices as they arise. Later, in her writing, Kagumire steers the conversation back to the use of hashtags to create awareness around long perceived “women’s issues.” The #SudanWomenProtest, which began in 2019, targeted the leadership of Omar al Bashir (former Sudan head of state). Thousands of women united in rejecting policies that gave credence to sexist and discriminatory laws. The revolt was a shock to many despite the years of resistance from Sudanese women. Social media provided them with a platform to spread their message abroad, resulting in an overthrow of the Bashir regime. In areas where online access remains limited, “young feminist movements and collectives remain marginalized even in young people’s movements pushing for political changes.” Kagumire stated. “Young people in Africa are increasingly organizing in search of radical change in the way African nations are governed, to deliver dignity and respect for citizens’
As many of the movements have hinged upon grassroots efforts, Kagumire points out the necessity of women in parliament positions to generate lasting change. To create a power shift, women must continue to demand that their humanity be recognized even if it’s deemed as “asking for too much.” The writer is the current curator and editor of AfricanFeminism.com. She is also the co-editor of ‘The Role of Patriarchy in the Roll-back of Democracy, focusing on East Africa and the Horn of Africa (available for free download at https://ke.boell.org/en/2020/05/21/ challenging-patriarchythe-role-patriarchyroll-back-democracy).
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Kahawa from Pg. 1 data, about 10 percent of American companies are Black-owned. Of those, only 21 percent are owned by Black women like Nyamumbo, who use their savings, and modest loans from family and friends to launch. “If you want to do it, you got to do it yourself first and prove yourself, especially if you’re a person of color,” Nyamumbo said. Nyamumbo’s resilience is paying off. In May, she made history as the first Black woman to have her brand of coffee displayed for sale at all 200 California stores of Trader Joe’s, the trendy supermarket chain. She is currently close to making a deal with Target, which has stores in all 50 states. “What Maggy has done, building a business, knowing how difficult it is in an industry that is male-dominated, is impressive,” said Karen Nyawera, who has known Nyamumbo since 2011. But Nyawera, who was born in Zimbabwe and is also a graduate of Harvard Business School, said she wasn’t surprised because of how long she has known Nyamumbo. “Maggy’s ideas around Kenyan coffee were always something she talked about,” Nyawera said. “We would be walking the down the street in New York and she’d stop and look at coffee shops, saying that she wanted to do something similar with Kenyan coffee.” Nyamumbo began experimenting with
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roasting Kenyan coffee in her apartment and inviting friends over to sample it and give feedback. She found a commercial roasting and packaging place and started distributing small badges of coffee to cafés in Brooklyn. She also hosted tasting events, which Nyawera attended to help and cheer her friend on. “Throughout the process, Maggy always said she wanted to do it to help farmers,” Nyawera said. For Nyamumbo, the desire to help coffee farmers was personal. It was so strong that she left Wall Street to launch Kahawa 1893. The 1893 in her company’s name indicates the year commercial farming of coffee, which has its origins in Ethiopia, began in Kenya by British colonists who grew it for export to Europe. Because of coffee’s status as a top-earning commercial crop, the British used it as a political weapon, allowing only a select population of Black Kenyans to grow it for cash. The decree against Africans growing coffee was easier to enforce in areas around Nairobi, and in the Rift Valley, which was easily accessible from the capital. But in rural areas far from Nairobi, it was difficult for the British to enforce the laws. One such a region was the Gusii highlands of southwestern of Kenya. Home to the Gusii people, who make up about 6 percent of Kenya’s population of 52 million people, the region largely remained untouched by the colonialism. Except for a few outposts that later grew into larger towns, Gusii people
Kahawa 1893 coffee at a Trader Joe’s in California. The company is the brainchild of Margaret Nyamumbo, a Kenyan entrepreneur and former Wall Street investment worker. Photo: Edwin Okong’o/Mshale
did not lose their land to European settlers, perhaps because the area is mountainous and therefore unsuitable for the large-scale farming that attracted the British to places like the Rift Valley. But the British conducted regular raids and rounded up Gusii men and forced them to work in labor camps in other parts of the country, including in coffee farms. Some of the men escaped and brought with them crops like coffee. Many Gusii people took advantage of the highlands’ seclusion and began cultivating coffee illegally and smuggling
it into areas where Black farmers were allowed to grow. It was in those highlands that Nyamumbo was born, in 1987 in a village called Moromba. By then, Kenya had been independent for more than 20 years, and coffee had already been in her family for generations. Speaking by phone from Kenya, her Kahawa on Pg. 6
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father, Daniel Nyamumbo, remembered his daughter being obsessed with helping out in the family’s coffee plantation, unusual in an area where many children hated farm work. “Margaret was very passionate about picking coffee,” he said about the thirdborn of his six children. Of all his children, Margaret was the one who had a natural knack for knowing the perfect coffee bean to pick. “She just loved being in the fields,” he said. Like his daughter, Daniel Nyamumbo enjoyed working in his family’s coffee plantation when he was a boy. But as he grew older, he learned that coffee farming was backbreaking work that did not pay well. It was even more difficult for women, who do most of the work, from tending to the young plants, to the harvesting and processing of the beans. He and his wife Hellen did not want their children to grow up and continue the peasantry life. They decided to break the cycle by ensuring that their children received university education and went into lucrative careers.
“She would come back to the classroom with her hands full of red cherries and tell me, ‘Teacher, the coffee needs to be picked, or it will go to waste,’” said Rangi, who is also a coffee farmer. Margaret Nyamumbo would later change schools to Tabaka Girls Primary School, where she excelled, scoring 483 out of a possible 500 points in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exam that children must pass to qualify for high school. She was admitted to the prestigious [former President Daniel arap] Moi Girls High School, Eldoret, where she continued to shine. In her final year, she took the national college entrance exam. When the results were released, she was one of the top students in the country.
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August 16-22, 2021 Issue 483
to go against tradition and give equal access to education to all their three daughters. Margaret Nyamumbo’s fascination with coffee did not end when she began her schooling at Ng’enyi Primary School. Christine Nyakerario Rangi, one of her teachers during those early years, remembered a young girl spending her recess time in the school’s coffee farm picking up red cherries that had fallen off trees because they were too ripe.
But in Kenya, most students don’t get In the Gusii of those days, educating to choose what to study in college. It female children was not a priority. is the Ministry of Education that uses According to Gusii customs, a daughter examinations results to determine what must leave her home after marriage major students should pursue. Margaret and move in with her husband’s family. Nyamumbo, who scored a straight A, For that reason, many families believed was sent to the School of Medicine at it didn’t make sense to educate a girl the University of Nairobi. when the proceeds of her education would go 202136_KL_HennepinCounty_Printad_Mshale_Hibo_4.875x7.125_RD1.pdf to benefit her husband’s family. 1 5/13/21 2:10 PM “I was supposed to be a doctor,” she The Nyamumbos, however, decided
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Coffee farmers in Kenya with coffee cherries before they’re processed and exported to the United States by Kahawa 1893 and eventually in grocery store like Trader Joe’s. Photo: Courtesy
said with a laugh. But Kenya has a waiting period for students who qualify for university. It could last up to two years. While she was waiting, she ran into American professors who were visiting Kenya. They encouraged her to consider studying in the United States. She applied and a received a scholarship to Smith College, a small liberal arts institution in Northampton, Mass., where she began her studies in 2007. After her undergraduate studies, she went back to Kenya to work for the World Bank.
“That’s, in a way, when I started seeing the forest from the trees,” she said. “I really started getting interested in development, how we can use policy, how we can used trade to make an impact in people’s lives.” While working in Kenya, she did a lot of work in agribusiness, which strengthened her understanding of how the sector works. She got interested in learning how companies that packaged Kahawa on Pg. 8
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www.mshale.com Margaret Nyamumbo’s father, who is also her company’s general manager in Kenya, buys coffee directly from farmers and ships it to Berkeley, Calif., where it is roasted and packaged for sale under the Kahawa 1893 brand. To make sure the women who supplied the coffee met their basic needs, the company began by sharing 25 percent of its profits with them. Later, Kahawa 1893 added a QR code on every package, which when scanned sends buyers to a page where they can use credit cards, PayPal, and even Bitcoin to tip the women who grow the coffee. It became an instant success, with some shoppers tipping many times more the cost of the coffee. The money arrives in the women’s M-Pesa mobile wallets, which gives them more control than they had before.
Margaret Nyamumbo, (center, in red top) founder of Kahawa 1893, alongside some of the Kenyan farmers who grow the coffee she roasts and sells in the United States. Photo: Courtesy
Kahawa from Pg. 6 goods for retail to consumers procured the products. But she left Kenya once again in 2014 to begin her graduate studies at Harvard Business School, after which she went to work in New York, covering Wall Street companies that retail consumer products. In New York she began to think about coffee again. She noticed that people weren’t just drinking coffee; they were interested in where coffee was coming from and were ready to pay “premium price” for specialty coffee. “What was surprising is that it’s actually really hard to find Kenyan coffee,” she said. That’s when something clicked. Having grown up around coffee, and armed with her education and experience in business, Margaret Nyamumbo saw no one more qualified than her to introduce an authentic brand of Kenyan coffee to the world. But, there was one more challenge she had to overcome. Her parents had sacrificed everything to make sure their children never had to rely on coffee. All six of them had either graduated from university, or were still enrolled. How would they react to hear that the one who had gone to Harvard and worked in prestigious places like the World Bank now wanted to quit and begin selling coffee? “It nearly gave me a heart attack,”
Daniel Nyamumbo said. His wife Hellen was even more against the idea. But Daniel Nyamumbo, who has spent most of his life as an entrepreneur, gave his daughter a chance to present her business plan. “After I understood it and explained to my wife that our daughter was not returning to pick coffee, but to help farmers get a better market for their coffee, she gave her blessings,” he said. Margaret Nyamumbo said that although she was obsessed with coffee when she was a child, she did grow up to learn that it was not fun for the women who worked the fields. They worked long hours taking care of the crop. Many of them did not own the land they worked on because only male children and widows were allowed to inherit land. All farmers sold their coffee cherries to a local cooperative society, which processed them and sent beans to Nairobi, where they would be sold at a government-run auction. Farmers got paid months later at a rate determined by the government. When the money came, men – who worked very little in the plantations – decided how it would be spent. Many became irresponsible and went on drinking sprees, leaving their wives with only a fraction. While Margaret Nyamumbo could not change men, she knew she could empower women by providing them with an alternative.
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The extra money is already changing lives. Susan Magoma Onsongo, a 44-year-old mother of three, said that with increased earnings, she is not only able to provide for herself and her children, but she can take care of her parents, who have poor health. She said she reinvested some of her earnings in chickens so that her family can have a reliable source of protein in their diet. She is also able to pay for her children’s education. “Nowadays, I am so free of stress that if you looked at me you wouldn’t know I’m 44 years old,” Onsongo joked. “I look and feel like a 30-year-old girl.”
The money has revived enthusiasm for coffee farming, said Rangi, Margaret Nyamumbo’s primary school teacher. She explained that she and many women farmers in her village of Enamba had given up on coffee because the 20 shillings (about U.S. $0.20) they earned per kilo of fresh cherries was not worth it. “There were women who had abandoned their coffee crop and let cherries fall and rot on the ground,” Rangi said. It was during those desperate times, Rangi said, that Margaret Nyamumbo showed up. She visited dozens of farmers and began convincing them that she could find a better market for their coffee. Kahawa 1893 began working with agronomists and experts from the local coffee board to teach the farmers how to improve the quality of their coffee. Rangi said the women began working together to apply the knowledge they had acquired. They formed small neighborhood groups and took turns to harvest coffee from each other’s farms. Gradually, the percentage of specialtygrade coffee they produced rose from 10 percent to 40 percent, according to Margaret Nyamumbo. The farmers’ earnings more than doubled and now range between $.50 and $0.80 per kilo.
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Margaret Nyamumbo, a former investment banker, left Wall Street to found Kahawa 1893. She now works with Kenyan women coffee farmers to bring their coffee to the United States. Photo: Courtesy
The women also pooled together the tips they received from Kahawa 1893 customers in the United States to buy a grain milling machine, which has created employment and become an additional source of income for members. “Margaret has been a godsend,” Onsongo said. “We pray for her every day.”
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Religion Hezekiah Walker looks to bring gospel music center to HBCU By Jonathan Landrum, Jr. Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hezekiah Walker became a student at Virginia Union University two years ago, but the Grammywinning gospel singer took his collegiate experience to the next level by opening a gospel music center on the campus. He will lead the Hezekiah Walker Center of Gospel Music at Virginia Union University, in Richmond, Virginia. It’s being dubbed as the first academic center focused on gospel music at an historically Black college or university where students can learn the cultural and business aspects of the genre and industry. Walker said the center — which opens in Spring 2022 — would provide a tremendous outlet to “house our music.” “I thought it was a great opportunity to invite people to come to Virginia Union for gospel music and they can learn about our heritage,” said Walker, a two-time Grammy winner. He wants to make Virginia Union a prime destination for gospel music in hopes of breathing enthusiasm into a younger generation about the genre’s culture. With help from the school’s administration, Walker will curate the center’s curriculum geared toward aspiring songwriters, instrumentalists, vocalists, producers, managers and publicists within the gospel realm. He said the school will teach students primarily about gospel music unlike
any other college. Courses will be available to all Virginia Union students. Certification courses related to work in the industry will also be available to the general public. “When we send our kids to their schools, they kind of learn their music,” said the singer, who pastors a church in New York. “They learn their way of doing gospel. When those kids come back to our churches and come back to our culture, they go ‘We don’t want that.’ We’re losing our kids by the day.” Two years ago, Walker decided to return back to school. He spent some time researching universities who are known for their theological seminary schools and found that Virginia Union, a private Black university, had one of the best in the country. After registering, Walker was accepted into Virginia Union’s Samuel Dewitt Proctor School of Theology, where he’s currently a second-year student. But when the renowned gospel singer initially stepped on campus, he was mostly incognito sporting his hat backward with sunglasses. But Walker’s moment of obscurity lasted for a couple months until he met with Virginia Union president Hakim J. Lucas. The gospel singer said Lucas was unaware he was a student until a faculty member informed him.
Initially, the conversation was about Walker performing in a concert. But the two came up with the grand idea to create a gospel music school and convert one of the buildings on campus into “Gospel is a part of the legacy and story of the journey of Black spirituality, Black social justice and Black religion,” Lucas said. “If we’re going to be serious as an institution, committing ourselves to the empowerment of Black people, you have to create a way to study all of these institutions.” Lucas said the university felt compelled to embrace gospel because “we understood the academic roots of the music.” “You have other universities teaching people that gospel music is not Christian music and that it edifies something else,” Lucas said. “We’re here to stand up and say ‘No, gospel music is not only a part of the Black experience, it’s critical for the Black and African American religious experience.’ But it’s also a part of our continued struggle for social justice.” Walker is known for gospel songs such as “Souled Out,″ ”Every Praise” and the Grammy-nominated “Better.″ He believes his center can help up-andcomers who are willing to take pride in uplifting the genre, which he thinks is disconnected from other areas of the music industry. He said exploring the history and milestones of the genre — like the first time a gospel artist won a Grammy or received a big royalty check — are important to help students appreciate those who paved the way for them.
Yola from Pg. 10 ends with the title track “Stand For Myself.” Why did you want to bookend the album with those tracks? Yola: The plan was to start with “Barely Alive” because it speaks on the minimizing of my Blackness and of Black people broadly, but frankly anyone who is “an other” or is considered “an other” broadly. That’s what it feels like to be the only one of a type… That’s really where we are in “Barely Alive.” It’s that whole, “Well, I just want to be safe. I don’t want to be stopped and frisked by the bloody cops.” And so I am going to try and smile. Like I’m really going to try and make things as easy for myself as humanly possible. And actually you make it as hard as possible because you can’t self-actualize if you don’t have any self. If you diminish all the things that are self, you can’t actualize the self. AP: One of the standout tracks is a very danceable bop called “Break the Bough,” which was inspired by your late mother. How did you write that? Yola: I’m driving back from my mother’s funeral. And you should never drive a motorcycle to a funeral. This is what I realized because you can’t cry and ride a motorcycle. You will crash. So I’m trying not to crash and the bassline jumps into my head. And I’m like this is actually quite fortuitous
Hezekiah Walker poses for a portrait on Wednesday, July 7, 2021 in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Photo: Matt Licari/Invision/AP
“We need to teach our people so they can understand it,” he said. “Then they can appreciate where we are today and where we’re going as we look back to where we come from.” While Walker preps for the gospel center’s opening and continues as a student, he’s also working on a new album, which he expects to release in October. He worked with Teddy Riley to create a song with a New Jack Swing vibe meshed with inspirational messages. “I’m ready to minister to another group of people,” he said. “I’m ready to sing to another group. I think the church has been saturated with all different kinds of artists, which I’m grateful for. I’m a part of it. But I’m ready for a new group of people that I bring some inspiration.”
because I think I’m going to die if I don’t think about this bassline… And then it speaks on the imagined idyll of what would be my mother’s heaven, which would be like an old school Barbados, before they did the bait and switch by the power of the Windrush. AP: For the new Baz Luhrmann film, you’re stepping into the shoes of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who hasn’t really gotten the recognition she deserves for her contribution to rock. What did you take away from that experience? Yola: I’ve never done a solo in my bloody life. And so now I’m sweating bullets, as we say in the UK, sweating bullets trying to learn how to play like Sister Rosetta, which is really bloody hard. And I’m grateful that the pandemic gives me an extra year to learn how to do that because I needed every single day…I’ve got to do her mannerisms. I’ve got to physically act. I’ve got to interact with Elvis and the other characters in my scene. I have to hit my marks. I’ve got to be able to see Baz Luhrmann because he’s gonna be giving me directions. And I’ve got to do all of this just all at the same time. And the only one of these things I’ve done before is sing…. Honestly, I bloody nailed it and I have no idea how. I nailed it to the floor and I had to do it for 15 hours straight.
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August 16-22, 2021 Issue 483
Art & Entertainment
Yola embraces wide musical range on empowering new record By Kristin M. Hall Associated Press British-born singer Yola broke through in 2019 with her critically acclaimed solo record “Walk Through Fire” that earned her four Grammy nominations after decades working as a singer and songwriter. But the album that earned her praise from the likes of Elton John and Brandi Carlile was just a first glimpse into what the mononymous and multi-genre singer could do. On her new record “Stand For Myself,” the powerful and versatile singer tells the journey of reclaiming herself after being burdened by tokenism and inequities.
Yola’s musical branches are spread wide through classic pop and ’70s era R&B and soul, with sprinkles of disco, funk and rock. Working again with producer Dan Auerbach, Yola co-wrote some of the songs with Nashville hitmakers Natalie Hemby, Liz Rose and Ruby Amanfu, as well as new artist Joy Oladokun.
Considering her own expertise in merging genres, Yola seems a perfect fit to portray the rock pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe in a new film about Elvis Presley directed by Baz Luhrmann, which has been rescheduled for release in 2022. Yola spent much of the pandemic learning how to play like Tharpe, who is credited with being among the first artists to distort the electric guitar and influenced Elvis, Little Richard and Johnny Cash. Yola spoke with The Associated Press about how a motorcycle ride gave her an idea for a song, how she learned to stand for herself and the challenges of her first-time acting gig. Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Yola performs at the fifth annual Love Rocks NYC concert to benefit God’s Love We Deliver in New York on June 3, 2021. Yola’s latest album “Stand For Myself” released on July 30. Photo: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
“That was a lot of my life: ‘Put up, or shut up, and assimilate,’” said Yola.
AP: Your last album was hailed as a refreshing mix of country and soul, but did you want to avoid getting labeled with certain genre types?
AP: The new album starts with a song, “Barely Alive,” co-written with Oladokun, that is the beginning of a journey that
Now living in Nashville, Tennessee,
Yola: I was concerned about being
Yola was born in Bristol to immigrant parents from Ghana and Barbados, and the album’s imagery is awash in royal purple, a reflection of her African lineage. But for much of her early life and career, she felt like her Blackness had to be tamped down and she was unable to fully represent her style.
His first football season, Isaiah told us, ‘Wear a jersey with my name on it. I want everyone to know you’re here for me.’ Darnell and Denna, adopted 16-year-old Isaiah LEARN ABOUT ADOPTING A TEEN YO U C A N ’ T I M AG I N E T H E R E WA R D
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pigeonholed because even the single, the first song on the album was something that people just didn’t seem to be discussing. And I’m like, “Why is it so hard? Because it’s right in front of you.” It’s not country or soul. So you’re going to have to think of me outside of soul because I’m Black and country because I forced it on you as a conversation to have. And they’re
like, “Oh, but it’s so weird because you’re English.”
Yola on Pg. 9
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August 16-22, 2021 Issue 483
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+ Fair Housing
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August 16-22, 2021 Issue 483
A Better Community
The solution to housing discrimination starts with you. If you have been trying to buy or rent a house or apartment and you believe your rights have been violated, contact HUD or your local fair housing center. The Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination because of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, familial status or disability.
Fair Housing Is Your Right. Use It. Visit www.hud.gov/fairhousing or call the HUD Hotline 1-800-669-9777 (English/Español) 1-800-927-9275 (TTY)
SCAN HERE FOR MORE INFO A public service message from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in partnership with the National Fair Housing Alliance. The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status or disability. For more information, visit www.hud.gov/fairhousing.