A Heartfelt Thanks to Our Everyday Heroes ❤️

As we navigate through the complexities of everyday life, it's important to pause and recognize the incredible individuals who make our communities safer, healthier, and stronger. To all public service workers—thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Your commitment to serving others, often under challenging conditions, inspires us all. You are the unsung heroes who contribute immensely to our well-being and quality of life.

Thank you for your unwavering support and dedication. Our community is brighter, safer, and infinitely better because of your hard work and compassion. Here's to you, our everyday heroes, for all that you do! 🙏💖

The story of Oprah Winfrey and Maya Angelou's mentorship offers profound lessons that resonate across various dimensions of life. Here are four key lessons to learn from their relationship:

The Power of Resilience:
Maya Angelou's life story exemplifies resilience in the face of adversity. Her ability to overcome personal and societal challenges is a powerful model for navigating life's obstacles. Oprah absorbed this lesson, using resilience as a cornerstone of her approach to personal hardships and professional challenges. The key takeaway is that resilience can be cultivated and is essential for long-term success and emotional health.

Embrace Emotional Wisdom and Authenticity:
Angelou's mentorship emphasized the importance of emotional wisdom and being true to oneself. She encouraged Oprah to embrace her emotions as a source of strength rather than weakness, promoting an authentic life. This lesson underlines the significance of self-awareness and genuine expression in achieving personal fulfillment and creating meaningful connections with others.

The Importance of Using One's Voice Responsibly:
Angelou taught Oprah the impact of words and the responsibility of having a platform. Through Angelou's poetic example and Oprah's application in her career, we learn the power of using our voices to uplift, educate, and inspire others. This lesson is crucial in understanding how our words and actions can influence the world around us, urging us to communicate with intention and compassion.
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The Virtue of Mentorship and Giving Back:
The dynamic between Angelou and Oprah highlights the invaluable role of mentors in personal and professional growth. Angelou's wisdom and guidance helped shape Oprah into a mentor herself, who has since inspired countless others. This lesson teaches us the importance of seeking mentorship and becoming mentors, creating a cycle of growth and learning that benefits wider communities.

Oprah Winfrey's inspiring and empowering relationship with her mentor, Maya Angelou, is a remarkable example of how mentorship can deeply influence personal and professional development. Their connection, complete with mutual admiration and profound wisdom, shaped Oprah's journey through personal and professional realms and continues to offer us timeless teachings on growth, resilience, and the transformative power of mentorship.
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Planting Seeds of a Lifelong Connection
Oprah Winfrey, a symbol of self-made achievement and empowerment, frequently acknowledges the significant influence Maya Angelou had on her personal and professional development. Angelou, an iconic poet, writer, and civil rights activist, went beyond the role of a mentor to serve as a pivotal figure for Oprah, with her wisdom rippling out to touch millions.
Their connection began in the early 1970s, during the formative stages of Oprah's media career. At that time, Maya Angelou had already established herself as a formidable force in American literature and a significant advocate in the civil rights movement. Her role in Oprah's life transcended that of a mere adviser; she offered Oprah a profound and substantial framework to perceive and interact with the world around her. This guidance shaped Oprah's professional career and profoundly influenced her personal philosophy, embedding within her a nuanced understanding of life's complexities and the power of an individual's voice in effecting change.

Lessons in Resilience and Courage
One of Maya Angelou's most lasting lessons to Oprah Winfrey was the profound value of resilience. Through challenges and victories, Maya Angelou's life stood as a living testament to perseverance and empowerment. Her maxim, "When you know better, you do better," became a guiding principle for Oprah, capturing the essence of learning from past mistakes and relentlessly pursuing personal growth.
This deeply resonated with Oprah, who had overcome many obstacles from early life into her flourishing career. Armed with Mays Angelou's wisdom, Oprah learned to confront these challenges not by sidestepping them but by facing them with courage and an open heart. Angelou's wisdom didn't just offer strategies for overcoming difficulties; it instilled a mindset of facing life's complexities with determination and grace, emphasizing that each challenge was an opportunity to learn and evolve.

The Power of Words
Maya Angelou's influence significantly shaped Oprah Winfrey's deep appreciation for the power of language. Angelou's powerful words to Oprah were a reminder of the importance of using one's voice with purpose and thoughtfulness, as it holds the potential to create a meaningful impact through lyrical and poignant expression. This lesson became a cornerstone of Oprah's communication style, evident in her interviews and public speeches.
Oprah's ability to connect with and uplift her audience through storytelling directly reflects Angelou's poetic grace. By integrating these lessons, Oprah learned to wield her voice as a means of expression and a powerful tool for change, inspiration, and building deep, meaningful connections. This adoption of Angelou's eloquent style allowed Oprah to resonate with people on a profound level, continuing the legacy of her mentor's influence through each word she speaks.

Emotional Wisdom and Self-Discovery
A pivotal aspect of Maya Angelou's mentorship involved cultivating emotional wisdom and authenticity. Angelou encouraged Oprah to view her emotions as a source of strength, advocating for genuine self-expression and fidelity to one's feelings. This guidance profoundly shaped Oprah's career choices and public persona, where authenticity and emotional resonance are consistently at the forefront. Passing on the Legacy
Maya Angelou's legacy, as carried forward by Oprah, extends beyond their achievements to embrace a philosophy of benevolence and community support. Oprah's various philanthropic efforts, educational initiatives, and advocacy for women and children worldwide are a tribute to Angelou's firm belief in the inherent capacity of every person to overcome adversity and effect positive change in society. Conclusion

Conclusion
The mentorship between Maya Angelou and Oprah Winfrey exemplifies the transformative power of wise, heartfelt guidance—it represents a profound exchange of wisdom and a shared journey through life's profound truths. Under the nurturing influence of courage, resilience, and steadfast commitment to growth, their intertwined paths unfold a vista of splendid possibilities. This relationship highlights what is achievable and beckons us to foster and cherish such significant connections in our lives, recognizing the profound impact that nurturing guidance can have on us and those around us. Their story invites us to reflect on the profound bonds that shape our journeys and embrace the wisdom from truly profound connections.

​Black History Month is a time filled with reflection. It’s a time of collective joy and celebration, a time of anger, of mourning, of pride and gratitude. We think of the incredible sacrifices and achievements — both known and unknown — that African Americans before us made to challenge the status quo and ensure our very survival.

It’s also a time to remember that the work they began is not finished.

Black folks across this country — as well as across the diaspora and across identities — are still working tirelessly to upend systems of oppression so our communities can, one day, truly thrive. Black History Month reminds us that despite all we’ve been through, we’re still here!

​And one of the many reasons we continue to endure is because of the care, love and mutual cooperation, built through community, that fueled many of the most successful movements in American history.

the institutions are still lacking in any analysis worth taking seriously in regards to the ongoing issues of political oppression, economic exploitation, and social degradation that black people are faced with (In the final analysis, we may find EDAI is anti-black on its face and at the core.  What it could/could not be depends on the activities of you and me and whether or not we are prepared to struggle for our perspective to be recognized).  

The disproportionate degree to which black people are affected by this antagonism is popularly reduced to being the effects of discrimination within the populace.  However, I have found a more accurate word than discriminate to relate the numerical disparities to our experience as Africans – that word is target.  This system doesn’t discriminate, contrary to popular belief.  Everyone can get it, but Africans and other global south people are targeted by this systemic, structural predatory violence.  

February is Black History Month, a time to honor and celebrate the achievements and contributions of Black Americans throughout history. But for BUILD, a group of Black state employees in Washington, the celebration does not end there.
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The theme for Black History Month 2024 is “African Americans and the Arts”. It celebrates the diverse and influential contributions of Black Americans to various forms of artistic and cultural expression, such as music, literature, visual arts, dance, and more. It also recognizes how Black artists have used their crafts to resist oppression, speak truth to power, and inspire a nation. You can learn more about this theme and the events and resources related to it from the Smithsonian Institution and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).

​Although Black History is all of our history, Black History Month has historically been a time when Blacks and African Americans take time out to learn and reflect on what our ancestors fought for in this country, since so much of that significant history was and continues to be left out of American history. But it has also been a time of rejoicing, celebrating, honoring, and thanking those same ancestors for the central role they played in U.S. history, and more importantly, for giving us hope.​​ Black History Month grew out of “Negro History Week,” the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans in 1926. It is said that the first celebration of Black History Month took place at Kent State University in February of 1970. Then, six years later in 1976, 50 years from the first celebration of Negro History Week, President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month, calling upon the public to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

So why is this time that we have specifically set aside still so important?  Well, it is important because it is part of the Untold Story. Even as a Black kid growing up in the deep South, my formal primary and secondary education did not afford me the privilege of learning about the contributions of Black Americans, with the exception of a few notable figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I learned the most about Black History through my parents and church. ​