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Omaha Star
The
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Dedicated to the Service of the People that NO Good Cause Shall Lack a Champion and that Evil Shall Not Go Unopposed
Nebraska’s Only Black Owned Newspaper Vol. 84 - No. 17 Omaha, Nebraska
Friday, August 19, 2022
75 cents
Omaha Star Reporter Profile
Family of the Week: George Family
Experience a day of jazz in the heart of North Omaha with award-winning musicians
North Omaha Music & Arts (NOMA), a new creative arts academy for the youth of our community is bringing together three of the country’s finest jazz musicians through a series of events on August 27, 2022. Russell Gunn, Dana Murray and Eric Revis will share their talents with music students and help support NOMA’s mission of enriching and empowering the community through music and art. This will mark Russell Gunn’s first appearance for NOMA. The day’s events include: • a free rhythm section clinic led by Dana Murray and Eric Revis at 3:30 p.m. • a free master class with Russell Gunn at 4:30 p.m. • an evening concert with Russell Gunn featuring Eric Revis and Dana Murray beginning at 7:00 p.m. Admission is $10 at the door. This is an opportunity for area music students to learn from world-class jazz musicians and see them perform live. All ages are invited to attend and all events will be held at the NOMA building at 2510 N. 24th Street in Omaha. Dana Murray, Executive Director of NOMA, shares his excitement about Russell Gunn bringing his talents to North Omaha, “Russell’s contribution to the progression
Symone Sanders Street Naming
Please join us in honoring Symone D. Sanders author, namesake show host, and seasoned political strategist on August 24th 2022 by naming a street after the Omaha Native. Symone Sanders’ impact began long before the election. Her earliest Symone Sanders impact, to the author’s personal recollection, started as a teenager being placed in charge of the front desk at the North Omaha Girls Incorporated. The author was just a child when she first met Symone. “I [Nared-Brooks] recall walking up to the front desk to go home. I saw a teenager in their school uniform at the front answering phones while multitasking and dealing with parents who are coming to get their kids. I was inspired. I wanted to be trusted with important jobs just like Symone,” the author shares. Sanders continued on page 2
of jazz is unquestionable. Any fan or student of hip hop or jazz should come listen to how his work has had a tremendous influence on those genres.” Born in Chicago and raised in East St. Louis, Russell Gunn is a Pan-African contemporary composer, producer and trumpeter. When he moved to New York City, Gunn became a member of the Wynton Marsalis big band now known as Jazz at Lincoln Center. He is the founder, composer, and director of the contemporary big band, The Royal Krunk Jazz Orkestra. As a trumpet player, he has performed and toured with many notable contemporary artists. Eric Revis is a Grammy Award-winning bassist and composer. He co-founded Tarbaby, alongside Orrin Evans and Nasheet Waits, as well as Options, featuring Waits and Bennie Maupin. About NOMA: North Omaha Music & Arts (northomahamusic.org) is a new creative academy offering equitable opportunities for the youth of the Omaha community. Located at the former Love’s Jazz & Arts building, NOMA is focused on creating a premier facility for music and arts education by industry-leading professionals. Its vision is to help shape the next generation of artists and the future of the North Omaha community. North Omaha Music & Arts is a tax-exempt organization under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3).
Asia Nared-Brooks is a reporter for the Omaha Star. The only Black owned newspaper in all of Nebraska’s 77,348 square miles. That is a fact that brings pride into her heart and fire into her feet. Understanding the importance of that fact has elevated her sense of purpose and love for the community. It was not always that way for the Omaha native. “My Asia Nared-Brooks story is slightly similar to the prodigal son’s return. I strayed away for a long time fighting the inevitable. Hiding from my truths. Sabotaging my potential. Shying away from the light that I was born into. What we all know about the light, is that it will always find you.” And boy did the light make its way to her, like the rising sun, it was inescapable. “I ran away. For almost seven years, I wanted to be small, I wanted to be invisible, I was afraid of my power. I spoke very low to the point many folks would have asked me to speak up. I almost fully disappeared.” Almost is the key word. One day Asia woke up and decided that running away truly meant that there would be a return one day. They packed their bags in January of 2022 and drove 12 hours straight from Texas to Nebraska. Fate, destiny, and the time that was spent on their education influenced this decision. “I was trained for this life. My mother’s involvement in the community, my father’s ability to out-write and out-talk just about anyone,” she shares. “I was a child of Douglas County Health Department’s community outreach efforts, my mother (Sherri Nared-Brooks) got the job eight months pregnant with me. My father (Walter Brooks [Former Omaha Star Reporter) has been writing since the 7th grade. I was born for this.” Nared-Brooks almost missed the most important opportunity. “I literally received a call that I did not want to answer. I was trying to take a nap and eat candy at the same time. Contradictory right?” That moment where you stare the future in the face, not knowing whether that moment can change your life or not. She answered and it changed everything. ‘Terri needs articles by 5, what do you have?’ NaredBrooks had absolutely nothing. At that point, she did what any person who has lived by the “11:59p.m.’’ lifestyle does, get it done. The interview that returned NaredBrooks to writing was about Allana Pommier and the
Publisher’s Pen
By Terri D. Sanders
COVID. Monkey Poxs. CDC has relaxed requirements for schools as they open this fall…To mask or not, that is the question. Numbers are rising in our state for infections, beware. Back to school! It has been noted and observed that the years of pandemic and Credit: Eric Robinson, Atlanta schools being closed has had an effect on our students’ capacity to socialize and have “age appropriate” reactions to situations are impaired. Even the most academic minded student is suffering when it comes to making decisions and socializing with their peers. Educators are aware but as family members we must be watchful and understanding of the children. There have been many great events in our community this summer. There was a Community Day at Bryant Center. Vendors and community resource tables for parents were available and there was a person with a barber chair under a canopy giving FREE haircuts to boys. The day culminated with 1000 backpacks being distributed to students. Throughout the summer there have been numerous school supply events. The students are well
The only justification for ever looking down on somebody is to pick them up. ~Rev. Jessie Jackson
Reporter continued on page 2
prepared for the start of school. For 105 years the Bryant-Fisher family has celebrated their family reunion and this year was no different. Known as the Dozens of Cousins, named for the twelve branches of the family. Emma Early Bryant-Fisher brought the family together in 1917 to celebrate her sons that were venturing off to serve in World War I. The family is on record with the state of Nebraska as the largest AfricanAmerican family in the state. Wednesday, August 24, 2022, at 3:00pm, the street where Symone Sanders-Townsend, grew up (22nd and Sprague Streets) will be named for her in a ceremony. This has been quite the year for our family and this is one of the highlights that we can share with the Omaha community. The Omaha Star is rolling out a new product! The Omaha Star PLUS will begin a weekly publication that will have as its content public notices. To be published on a Wednesday and it will have its own subscription fee of $52.00 for a year and will be available both for delivery by US mail and digitally. What is a public notice? Name changes, publication of new businesses, legal notices, notices by the city, legal announcements, and more. The fee for publishing a notice is $25.00 per notice per week. We are looking forward to serving Omaha with our proud tradition of publishing through this ADDITIONAL publication by the Omaha Star. We will begin on Wednesday, August 31, 2022. Stay tuned…
The secret of being a saint is being a saint in secret. ~Mary Mcleod Bethune