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The Boulder County NAACP will host its annual Freedom Fund event on Sunday, Feb. 18. The lineup includes Danielle Ponder, a former public defender turned globe-touring singer-songwriter whose newest release, Some of Us Are Brave has been featured on Jimmy Kimmel’s Tonight Show and Late Night with Seth Meyers. Late Night with Seth Meyers.

On this month’s Black Talk, host Michele Simpson talks with Ponder about her career as a public defender and her decision to share what many call an unforgettable voice with the world. Ponder’s music embraces themes of self-love, authenticity, resistance, and justice.

Also on Sunday’s ticket, the Freedom Fund presents Anthony Ray Hinton, who served on death row for 30 years for a crime he was found to have not committed. Michele Simpson discusses Hinton’s memoir and its impact on the students who read it in Simpson’s undergraduate courses.

The Freedom Fund began, nationally, in 1953 as a ten-year program to intensify efforts to complete the job of Black emancipation. Last year’s Freedom Fund event, Boulder’s NAACP presented the Nashville African American Wind Symphony

For more information about Sunday’s event, visit NAACP Boulder County’s website here.

Image via Danielle Ponder play_arrow*03_08_BLACKTALKAlexis Kenyon The post Danielle Ponder will be playing for free at CU’s Macky Auditorium next Sunday appeared first on KGNU Community Radio.

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Between 1925 and 1965, Winks Panorama Lodge at the Gilpin County Lincoln Hills Resort was the only resort west of the Mississippi open and available to Black Americans. A community of family-owned cabins in Lincoln Hills existed along with The Lodge during the height of Ku Klux Klan activity and political power in Denver.On this month’s Black Talk, KGNU’s Michele Simpson speaks with Denver Judge Gary Jackson, whose great-grandfather built his family’s cabin in 1926. Dr. Jeanette Patterson, Executive Director of Lincoln Hills Cares, and Terri Gentry, History Colorado’s Engagement Manager for Black Communities will join the conversationand talk about the history and current programs offered at what some have referred to as kind of “Black Utopia.”History Colorado/ Museum of Digital Learning: In the early 1920s, Denver entrepreneur Obrey Wendell Hamlet, known as “Wink,” set out to build a resort in Lincoln Hills. He and first wife Naomi broke ground on a three-story, six-bedroom lodge in 1925 and finished it three years later. They officially named it Wink’s Panorama, but everyone knew it as Wink’s Lodge. Wink’s Lodge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980History Colorado/Museum of Digital LearningHistory Colorado/Museum of Digital LearningHistory Colorado/Museum of Digital LearningHistory Colorado/Museum of Digital LearningHistory Colorado/Museum of Digital LearningListen:

play_arrowBlack Talk: Lincoln Hills/Winks Lodge ConversationAlexis Kenyon The post As the KKK reached its peak in Colorado, the Lincoln Hills Resort near Nederland was a haven for Black culture appeared first on KGNU Community Radio.

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On this month’s Black Talk, KGNU’s Michele Simpson talks with Khadi Oluwatoyin, the founder of the Sober Black Girls Club (SBGC). Oluwatoyin started SBGC as a blog in 2018 when Oluwatoyin began examining her relationship with alcohol and depression. When she went online for guidance, she noticed that many pro-sober platforms did not cater to girls and women who looked like her or shared similar cultural and societal experiences.

In an attempt to share her journey and connect with other Black folks practicing sobriety or curious about it, Oluwatoyin created the Sober Black Girls Club. Within s few years, SBGC took off. SBGC currently has four weekly support meetings a week, members from across the country and is continuing to grow.

Two books that Oluwatoyin recommends and that SBGC has read together in group are “Homecoming” by Dr. Thema Bryant and “Sister of the Yam, Black Women and Self-Recovery” by Bell Hooks.

play_arrowaudio2099367911 and Black Talk_ The Sober Black Girls Club-enhanced-90pAlexis Kenyon The post How addiction and recovery looks different for Black Women and Girls appeared first on KGNU Community Radio.

Homecoming: Overcome Fear and Trauma to Reclaim Your Whole, Authentic Self

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On November’s Black Talk, KGNU’s Michele Simpson talked with Dr. Reiland Rabaka the founder and director of the Center for African and African American Studies (the CAAAS) at CU Boulder. Rabaka, who began working at CU Boulder in 2005, says he considered not taking the job because of the school and city’s overwhelming lack of diversity and BIPOC representation.

Dr. Reiland Rabaka stands outside of Mackey Auditorium, home to the Center for African and African American Studies / University of Colorado, Boulder16 years later, in May of 2021, during the height of nationwide George Floyd protests and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, Rabaka opened the doors to CAAS.

Michele Simpson talks with Rabaka about building a legacy for African And African Americans at CU Boulder, Afrofutruism, poetry, his grandmother, how he loves trees, and celebrating the duality of unspeakable black trauma and triumph.

CAAAS Director Reiland Rabaka, CU Athletic Director Rick George and head football coach Deion Sanders at the CAAAS grand opening which they celebrated in February of 2023/ (Casey A. Cass/University of Colorado)Rabaka delivers keynote at MLK Day event at CU BoulderListen:

play_arrowHow one professor is paving the way for more diversity at CU BoulderAlexis Kenyon The post How one professor is paving the way for more diversity at CU Boulder appeared first on KGNU Community Radio.

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On this special edition of Black Talk, host Michele Simpson talks with Keyanna and Montii, whose last names we have reserved for the sake of privacy, about being a Black, unsheltered teen in Boulder.

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, Black people make up less than 13 percent of the US but more than 40 percent of the unhoused population across the US.

In Colorado, Black individuals, who only make up about 5 percent of the population, are 24 percent of the unhoused population. Indigenous communities face similar odds.

Kenyanna and Montii along with Breonna Bird and Cidnee Ray of TGTHR (formerly known as Attention Homes), a Colorado nonprofit that works with unhoused youth, discuss how Black, unhoused youth face a unique set of obstacles. We hear about disparities in services and general goodwill that are present in child welfare systems, education, criminal justice, housing, and employment.

play_arrowThere’s a lot that people don’t understand about Colorado’s Black, unhoused youthAlexis Kenyon Download Audio

The post There’s a lot that people don’t understand about Colorado’s Black, unhoused youth appeared first on KGNU Community Radio.

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There’s been a lot of buzz about the upcoming Museum of Boulder’s exhibit, Proclaiming Colorado’s Black History.

Colorado is perennially perceived as a mostly-white state. Proclaiming Colorado’s Black History unveils the stories of Black folks who made Colorado their home. On this month’s episode of Black Talk, KGNU’s Michele Simpson talks with Minister Glenda Strong Robinson and “The Soul Food Scholar,” Adrian Miller about what went into unearthing the stories that inspired and are shared in Proclaiming Colorado’s Black History Project.

Robinson and Miller say they hope the exhibit, which opens on Sept. 29, 2023, will generate conversation, and memories, and drive home the point that the Black Experience is embedded in everything we consider American history.

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play_arrowBlack communities have been largely written out of Colorado historyAlexis Kenyon Download Audio

The post Black communities have been largely written out of Colorado history appeared first on KGNU Community Radio.

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In his speech at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs & Freedom, John Lewis, the last of the speakers that day, stated: “Wake up America! Wake Up! For we cannot stop, and we will not be patient.” John Lewis was the youngest speaker and one of the few to use the phrase that day, “social revolution.”

Dr. Thomas L. Windham, longtime Boulder resident, psychologist, educator, and community activist, was there in Washington, D.C. when John Lewis, and many others, spoke to the 250,000 souls assembled initially at the Washington Monument and who eventually made their way to the Lincoln Memorial.

It was that March on Washington, over 60 years ago, that resulted in the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 – legislation that reflected the demands of the march and the marchers.

Images of that 28 August day can be found in old magazines and newspapers, history books, and Movement pictorials. However, it’s important to ask: What do we get wrong about the March on Washington for Jobs & Freedom? What was the experience, not of the celebrities, and civil rights luminaries, but of those who traveled such long distances to get there? What were their impressions, fears, and inspirations?

Please join us on Thursday, 31 August at 8:32 AM when we speak with Dr. Windham and learn about his impressions as a college student and labor representative who took a bus from New York City to Washington, D.C., sixty years ago, to join a revolution.

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play_arrow08_31_23_BLACKTALKAlexis Kenyon Download Audio

The post 60 years after the March on Washington, many civil rights disparities remain appeared first on KGNU Community Radio.

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Dr. Alana Morales from the March 2023 Principal Update from her YouTube Channel. For the August edition of Black Talk, Michele Simpson sits down with Dr. Alana Morales after her first year as Principal of Boulder High School to hear […]

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Photo Courtesy of CU Download Audio On today’s Black Talk, host Michele Simpson talks with Wanda James, the first Black CU Regent, and the nation’s first Black female marijuana dispensary owner. Wanda James, who grew up in a single-parent household–with […]

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Photo courtesy of Canva Download Audio This Black Talk features two children’s book authors who’ve been invited to this year’s Boulder County Juneteenth events. They discuss book bans, emphasize the importance of representation in books, and give a sneak peek […]

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Photo via Kriste People’s Instagram Black folks have always had a special connection to the land and outdoor spaces. However, due to racial terror, economic status, and/or access, many Black people have avoided engaging in outdoor recreational activities. Thoroughly cognizant […]

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