In this excerpt, Chuck Hicks, aka Mr. DC Black History, recalls the beginnings of the DC Black Pride festival, the first such event in the United States. The full interview is available here.

Guest: Chuck Hicks

Host: Jeffrey Scott

Recorded: 2018

Ethan Foote is a bass player who made a name for himself in multiple genres including rock, jazz, contemporary classical, and folk music. As a composer, he is rooted in the traditions of jazz, Western classical, and folk, he writes and plays in many contexts, including theatre and interdisciplinary art. Ethan’s current focus is as a composer and performer of concert music, much of which may be described as falling on a spectrum between classical music and jazz.

Joyce Winslow has served as media strategist, speechwriter, and media liaison for the Administrator of Medicare, has worked as vice-president of corporate communication for two nonprofit associations and a Gannett TV station, and was Assistant Director of Proposal Management for Accenture. She is also a published and award-winning author of poetry and short stories and has taught at the University of Pittsburg, Temple University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, and locally at The Writer's Center.

Brian Wilbur Grundstrom is a composer who has written works for orchestra, opera, film, theater, chorus, piano and chamber ensembles. His music is performed across the globe, and in 2016, his album entitled An Orchestral Journey was released by Parma Recordings and distributed by Naxos. Brian is currently working on an opera based on For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway.

Lupi Quinteros-Grady is President and CEO of the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC), and has worked in the field of youth development for 20 years. LAYC offers over 50 programs and services in academics, arts and recreation, job readiness, safe housing, and health and wellness, serving over 4,000 youth and families each year across the District, Maryland, and Virginia.

Aziza Claudia Gibson-Hunter has exhibited in Washington DC, Maryland, New York, Illinois, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Texas, Florida, Great Britain, Argentina and Poland. A co-founder of Black Artists of DC, she represented BADC during Art Basel Miami 06, in the Design District. Ms. Gibson-Hunter completed a banner for the Washington DC Art Walk as part of a public art piece erected on the grounds of the former Washington DC Convention Center, and her “Wall of Unity” was completed in August of 2017 and installed in the Ron Brown College Preparatory High School in Washington DC.

Adam de Boer is a prize-winning painter who has exhibited nationally as well as in the United Kingdom, Indonesia and Colombia. He explores his Dutch-Indonesian heritage through his work and addresses broader themes of cultural hybridity, race, gender and sexuality. De Boer’s art encourages sustained engagement with cultural differences in order to address the racist and xenophobic response to colonization. The mix of conflicting aesthetics, made with both modern and traditional techniques, encapsulates these themes.

Richard E. Cytowic, MD, MFA is best known for returning synesthesia back to mainstream science after decades of disbelief. Today, synesthesia is recognized as fundamental to understanding the human mind and the human condition. How do we understand people who are not like us? How do non–synesthetes understand cross–sensory metaphors like “loud color” or “sweet person?” These are just some of the questions this captivating perceptual trait raises. Dr. Cytowic holds an MFA in Creative Writing from American University and is an alumnus of Duke, Wake Forest, and George Washington Universities, along with London’s National Hospital for Nervous Diseases. He is currently Clinical Professor of Neurology at George Washington University.

Packer studied music composition at the California Institute of the Arts (MFA) and at the University of California, Berkeley (PhD). He pursued post-graduate study in computer music in Paris, where he was a composer in residence at IRCAM (Institute for the Research and Coordination of Acoustics), Centres Georges Pompidou. In 2001, after over ten years of research into the history, theory, and practice of multimedia, his book, Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality, co-authored with Ken Jordan, was published by W.W. Norton with a companion Website sponsored by Intel.

Susan Fisher Sterling is the Director of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) is the only museum solely dedicated to celebrating the achievements of women in the visual, performing and literary arts. The museum’s collection features 3,000 works from the 16th century to the present by more than 800 artists. The museum also conducts multidisciplinary programs for diverse audiences and maintains a Library and Research Center.