Photo courtesy of Franklin Garcia

Though it may not seem to be the case, any great communicator has to be a great listener as well, and there is no doubt that Saul Solorzano was just that. I met Saul more than 20 years ago when I was just learning to speak Spanish. Though [...]]]>

Photo courtesy of Franklin Garcia

Though it may not seem to be the case, any great communicator has to be a great listener as well, and there is no doubt that Saul Solorzano was just that. I met Saul more than 20 years ago when I was just learning to speak Spanish. Though my aptitude wasn’t great, I have always been a person with a lot to say, and Saul would listen. I am not sure how much of what I said made sense or if it was even that comprehensible, but Saul listened with the patience of a man much older and wiser than his years. This capacity to listen patiently, to wait and ruminate, and then break into an ear-splitting grin when he had something to say is what I will always remember about him. His incredible ability to listen, and listen and then listen some more put so many people at ease, because they truly felt heard. And so when he spoke on behalf of the community, people really felt that his words were those that they had shared with him, that his vision was made of up of so many voices and ideas from the community in which he lived and served for so many years. Saul—community leader, father, husband and extraordinary communicator for D.C.’s Latino community—was laid to rest today. Saul Solorzano, presente!



John Lennon: Musical Peace Maker

December 2010

John Lennon Musical Peace Maker

“Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one. ” ― “Imagine,” by John Lennon

John Lennon was a songwriter, lead singer [...]]]>

John Lennon: Musical Peace Maker

December 2010

John Lennon
Musical Peace Maker

“Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one. ”
― “Imagine,” by John Lennon

John Lennon was a songwriter, lead singer of the famed British band The Beatles, and one of the most iconic musical artists in history.

Lennon grew up in Liverpool, England, where he first gained an interest in music. His first band, The Quarrymen, later evolved into The Beatles in 1960. Along with Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, The Beatles — considered by many critics to be the greatest rock and roll band in history — enjoyed unprecedented success in their British homeland before journeying to the United States where they became an international phenomenon.

After their break-up in 1970, Lennon embarked on a moderately successful solo career. In particular, he sang about anti-war and world peace themes, while focusing on civil rights activities with his wife, Yoko Ono.

Lennon and Ono took advantage of their honeymoon as a Bed-In for Peace at the Amsterdam Hilton in the Netherlands and would later stage another at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, where they recorded the anti-war anthem, “Give Peace a Chance.” This would later be sung by 250,000 anti-war demonstrators in Washington, D.C., during the second Vietnam Moratorium Day. Many of Lennon’s songs became musical symbols of the anti-war movement.

Lennon died in December 1980 after being shot outside his home in New York City. In all, as a performer, writer or co-writer, Lennon had 27 No. 1 singles on the US Hot 100 chart. Although he has been gone for 30 years, his legacy as a musician and peace activist still carries strong emotions for those impacted by his work.

Ma Rainey: LGBT Blues Singer

October 2010

Ma Rainey LGBT Blues Singer

“You don’t sing to feel better. You sing ’cause that’s a way of understanding life.” —Ma Rainey

Ma Rainey was one of the earliest professional blues singers and one of the first women artists to record the blues. Her powerful yet raspy voice, unique melodic phrasing [...]]]>

Ma Rainey: LGBT Blues Singer

October 2010

Ma Rainey
LGBT Blues Singer

“You don’t sing to feel better. You sing ’cause that’s a way of understanding life.” —Ma Rainey

Ma Rainey was one of the earliest professional blues singers and one of the first women artists to record the blues. Her powerful yet raspy voice, unique melodic phrasing and trademark “moaning” style of singing earned her the title of “mother of the blues.” Rainey played a key role in meshing the less polished, male-dominated country blues with the smoother, female-concentrated urban blues of the 1920s.

Born Gertrude Pridgett on April 26, 1886, in Columbus, Georgia, Rainey began performing in her early teens. After she married Will Rainey, a fellow singer and entertainer, in 1904, she performed under the name “Ma Rainey.” The couple eventually formed their own group, Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues. She was discovered by a producer at Paramount Records in 1923 and signed a recording contract with the company. Ma Rainey made more than 100 recordings during her five years at Paramount, and at various times, her band included jazz stars Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey and Coleman Hawkins.

Although she was married to Pa Rainey, Ma Rainey was candid about her love of women, as is evident in her 1928 recording, “Prove It on Me Blues.” Today, Rainey is considered a woman of great courage for revealing her sexual orientation, as it was considered taboo during that era to speak of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) relations.

Rainey died of heart disease in 1939 at age 53. She was inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Blues Hall of Fame in 1983, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1992. She was named one of Georgia’s Women of Achievement in 1993.

Odetta Holmes: Voice of Civil Rights

Odetta Holmes Voice of Civil Rights

“No one can dub you with dignity. That’s yours to claim.” – Odetta Holmes

Odetta Holmes—known simply as Odetta—was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on December 31, 1930. At age six, she moved to Los Angeles, where she studied music at the Los Angeles City College. [...]]]>

Odetta Holmes: Voice of Civil Rights

Odetta Holmes
Voice of Civil Rights

“No one can dub you with dignity. That’s yours to claim.” – Odetta Holmes

Odetta Holmes—known simply as Odetta—was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on December 31, 1930. At age six, she moved to Los Angeles, where she studied music at the Los Angeles City College. Coached by a music teacher who heard her singing after school, the classically trained singer discovered folk music in her teens. Odetta created a name for herself using her powerful voice and acoustic guitar to give life to songs usually sung by ordinary people, as well as prison songs and slave plantation spirituals. Attention from Harry Belafonte helped push her into the national spotlight in the early 1950s.

Cited as a primary influence for songwriters such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, Odetta became a leader in American folk music. Injecting her songs with messages of equality and social justice, Odetta took an active role in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where she sang “O Freedom.” Her performance would forever serve as a powerful symbol of the civil rights movement, with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. going on to dub Odetta as “the queen of American folk music.” Despite this title, Odetta considered her role to be “one of the privates in a very big army.”

In 1999, Odetta was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts’ National Medal of the Arts. President Bill Clinton said her career showed “us all that songs have the power to change the heart and change the world.” Odetta was still performing as recently as October 2008 and had expressed wishes to sing at Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration. She died from heart disease at the age of 77 on December 2, 2008, in New York City.

This guest blog post is written by Beverly Lancaster-Jones, a Senior Account Supervisor at Vanguard Communications.

Today our nation mourns the passing of a true patriot – Dorothy Height. Height was among the coalition of African American leaders who pushed civil rights to the center of the American political stage after World War II, and [...]]]>

This guest blog post is written by Beverly Lancaster-Jones, a Senior Account Supervisor at Vanguard Communications.

Today our nation mourns the passing of a true patriot – Dorothy Height. Height was among the coalition of African American leaders who pushed civil rights to the center of the American political stage after World War II, and she was a key figure in the struggles for school desegregation, voting rights, employment opportunities and public accommodations in the 1950s and 1960s. She was president of the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years, relinquishing the title in 1997.

When I heard the news this morning, I retrieved a box of pictures that I hadn’t looked at since my mother passed almost a year ago. In that box was a picture of my mother making a presentation on Mary McLeod Bethune to Ms. Height. For those of you who may not be history buffs or are simply too young to have reason to know such things—Mary McLeod Bethune was to Dorothy Height what Mahatma Gandhi was to Martin Luther King, Jr. While the Alzheimer’s that eventually took my mother’s life led her to misplace many, many of her possessions that we have never been able to retrieve, this picture of her and Dorothy Height survived the siege of that disease. And now it is one of the many jewels of my inheritance.

But the true wealth of the inheritance that this picture represents for me is my mother’s indomitable decency and how that energy resonated with all like-spirited angels here on earth—like Ms. Height.

Marian Anderson: Barrier-Breaking Contralto

March 2010 Marian Anderson Barrier-Breaking Contralto

“When I sing, I don’t want them to see that my face is black. I don’t want them to see that my face is white. I want them to see my soul. And that is colorless.” – Marian Anderson

Born in the heart of Philadelphia, Marian Anderson rose [...]]]>

Marian Anderson: Barrier-Breaking Contralto

March 2010
Marian Anderson
Barrier-Breaking Contralto

“When I sing, I don’t want them to see that my face is black. I don’t want them to see that my face is white. I want them to see my soul. And that is colorless.” – Marian Anderson

Born in the heart of Philadelphia, Marian Anderson rose from humble beginnings to become recognized as one of America’s premier vocalists – and used her stunning contralto to promote racial harmony. When prevented from performing at Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1939, the resulting support of President and Eleanor Roosevelt led to an open-air performance at the Lincoln Memorial. The legendary concert attracted an integrated audience of 75,000 in still segregated Washington, D.C. Anderson continued to use her vocal talent to break racial barriers throughout her life, becoming the first African-American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera, serving as a singing cultural ambassadress for the U.S. Department of State, and appointed a representative to the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations by President Eisenhower. Anderson remained active in the Civil Rights Movement, giving benefit concerts and performing at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Shortly thereafter, she became one of the 31 original recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Winning countless awards, Anderson enjoyed critical and cultural successes throughout her career, until her death in 1993. The “Marian Anderson Award,” originally established in 1943 by Anderson herself as a singing competition, was re-established in 1990. After her passing, the award was reformed to recognize “Artists Whose Leadership On Behalf Of A Humanitarian Cause or Issue Benefits Society.”

Photo Credit: U.S. Census Bureau, Public Information Office

The Washington Post reports that 20 percent of people may not participate in the 2010 census, even though they are legally obligated to do so. According to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, many respondents said they are too busy or uninterested to fill [...]]]>

Photo Credit: U.S. Census Bureau, Public Information Office

The Washington Post reports that 20 percent of people may not participate in the 2010 census, even though they are legally obligated to do so. According to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, many respondents said they are too busy or uninterested to fill out the 10 question form, while many others simply distrust the government or worry about privacy.

In response to concerns from national civil rights groups, the Census Bureau has been touting a $133 million advertising campaign, which includes television spots in 28 different languages. The Bureau estimates it will reach the average person 42 times with slogans such as the “2010 census – it’s in our hands.”

Key to the Bureau’s success will not only be its ability to offer ads in-language, but also to provide messages that respond to cultural concerns and barriers to filling out the form. The Census Bureau reports that the emphasis in the message varies with the audience, with objects, backgrounds, and other props changing in some TV ads to reach different groups.

The question is, will that be enough? With the Census launching in March, two months of positive, culturally considerate messaging might not be adequate to mitigate years, even decades, of misinformation and distrust.

Census officials say that each percentage point of nonresponse to the initial survey costs $80-90 million to hire people to knock on doors. In preparing for the 2020 census, it might be wise to consider investing that money over the next decade in long-term, culturally competent messaging that increases dialogue and understanding about the need for and benefits of this critical decennial count.

Mary Travers: Social Justice Songbird

January 2010 Mary Travers Social Justice Songbird

“We’ve always been involved with issues that deal with the fundamental human rights of people, whether that means the right to political freedom or the right to breathe air that’s clean.” – Mary Travers

The passing of Mary Travers in September 2009 marked [...]]]>

Mary Travers: Social Justice Songbird

January 2010
Mary Travers
Social Justice Songbird

“We’ve always been involved with issues that deal with the fundamental human rights of people, whether that means the right to political freedom or the right to breathe air that’s clean.” – Mary Travers

The passing of Mary Travers in September 2009 marked a loss not only for the folk music community she helped create, but also for the many causes that she championed. As a founding member of Peter, Paul and Mary, Travers injected her music with messages of peace and hope, helping songs such as “Blowin’ In The Wind” and “If I Had a Hammer” to become synonymous with the anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s. When Peter, Paul and Mary reunited after splitting in 1970, Travers continued to back a variety of causes: opposing nuclear energy in the late ‘70s, taking on homelessness and South African apartheid in the ‘80s, and more recently performing in opposition to gun violence against children, for the rights of strawberry pickers in California, and to raise awareness about world hunger. Mary Travers used her voice as an instrument for social justice, singing on behalf of those going unheard.