Amanda Berry Smith (January 23, 1837 – February 24, 1915)was a former slave who funded The Amanda Smith Orphanage and Industrial Home for Abandoned and Destitute Colored Children. She was referred to as “God’s image carved in ebony”.
Smith worked as a cook and a washerwoman to provide for herself and her daughter after her husband was killed in the American Civil War. By the time Smith was thirty-two, she had lost two husbands and four of her five children. Attending religious camp meetings and revivals helped Smith work through her grief and avoid depression. She immersed herself in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.
In 1878, Smith arranged for her daughter, Mazie, to study in England. The two traveled overseas and stayed in England for two years. On the journey over, the captain invited her to conduct a religious service on board and she was so modest that the other passengers spread word of her.
She next traveled to and ministered in India, where she stayed for eighteen months. Smith then spent eight years in Africa, working with churches and evangelizing. She traveled to Liberia and West Africa. Smith also expanded her family by adopting two African boys. While in Africa she suffered from repeated attacks of “African Fever” but persisted in her work. As a strong proponent of the Temperance Movement both in Africa and in the United States, she was invited by noted temperance advocate Rev. Dr. Theodore Ledyard Cuyler to preach at his Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, New York, then the largest church in its denomination, on her return to America.
Look out for Ema Drei aka GIUNGLA and her new track ‘Turbulence‘. You like if you love alternative electro pop that’s a bit darker.
Her new single is about things we can’t control. She says, “It’s about missing life out there, with its ups and downs. “What often feels like the scariest part of an experience is just part of the journey. Sometimes you need to go though it, in order to keep flying”
She’s shared the stage with The xx, Foals, Grimes, Franz Ferdinand, and Mura Masa and has gained support from BBC Radio 1, The Line Of Best Fit, London In Stereo and Amazing Radio. Give it a stream.
Mildred Fay Jefferson (April 6, 1927 – October 15, 2010). She was an American physician and political activist. The first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School, the first woman to graduate in surgery from Harvard Medical School and the first woman to become a member of the Boston Surgical Society.
Listen to the remake Nothing Breaks Like A Heart –Mark Ronson (feat Miley Cyrus) by the Sea Girls. I’ll go on the record and say I may like this version better than the original. I must say, it made me into fan on the band, of course hoping they don’t add Miley’s Wrecking Ball to their cover catalog.
“The first time I heard it was when we were on our tour bus driving through Belgium in the middle of the night to play a festival in Germany the next day,” he said. “I couldn’t stop playing it for the next 24 hours. It just sounds like a classic. The lyrics are just infectious. ‘We live and die by pretty lies‘ tells a great story, you know?
You’ll like Sea Girls if you love acts like Capitol Cities, Kings of Leon, and Walk the Moon. The quartet plans to hit the road for a UK and European tour in late 2021. Give it a stream on KOAR’s Indie Invaders Playlist.
The industry and fans alike are drooling over the success of the viral song Drivers License by 17 year old Olivia Rodrigo. Many are scratching their heads pondering phenomena.
What some call a phenomena, I call a pop moment. The well crafted catchy heart break single was performed by Olivia that played the LEAD CHARACTER on Disney’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. Disney’s show has about 3 million viewers. Olivia’s preexisting fanbase helped propel the track. Let’s not forget Billie Eilish who tweeted advocating for the song and who also shares the same music label with Olivia – Interscope Records. Finally, you had a story swelling online about the song.
This is Olivia’s moment, probably won’t have another moment like this, but let’s see if she can knock another one out.
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