✨ ROUTES | Cultural Wrap-Up – Friday, April 25, 2025
ROUTES: A Guide to African-American Culture
✨ Cultural Wrap-Up – Friday, April 25, 2025
🎉 Birthday Spotlight
Born April 25, 1917, Ella Fitzgerald redefined vocal jazz. Known as The First Lady of Song, she turned scat singing into high art. Her phrasing? Impeccable. Her tone? Untouchable. She was elegance wrapped in rhythm — and she made everything she touched unforgettable. WATCH: Ella Fitzgerald: “Something To Live For” (search on YouTube)
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🎉 Also Born This Week
- Luther Vandross (April 20, 1951) – love songs with depth and devotion
- Charles Mingus (April 22, 1922) – a mind as radical as his music
- Coretta Scott King (April 27, 1927) – voice, widow, warrior Coretta Scott King, Academy Class of 1997, Full Interview (search on YouTube)
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📜 On This Week in History
April 26, 1986 — The Oprah Winfrey Show aired its final regional episode in Chicago. A month later, it became national — and changed daytime television forever. Young Oprah Winfrey interview on her Life and Career (1991)(search on YouTube)
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🎭 Cultural Moment
In the early 2000s, Def Poetry Jam brought spoken word to HBO and redefined Black literary expression for a new generation. What Gil Scott-Heron sparked, it carried forward. Def Comedy Jam Creator Airs Everything! Exposes The Truth On All Comedians! (search on YouTube)
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🗣️ Reflect
How do we honor voices that lifted us — even when we didn’t know?
- A Night of Jazz, Legacy, and the Unexpected at Unterfahrt - June 18, 2025
- Cultural Wrap-Up May 27, 2025 | Gladys Knight … - May 27, 2025
- Cultural Wrap-Up May 23, 2025 | Patti LaBelle … - May 23, 2025