Features:
UMOJA Publisher/Editor: Happy New Year and Happy Birthday UMOJA!
A year ago, I packed up and headed to Madison for a job of lifetime. It’s been everything I imaged and much, much more. With the arrival of 2020, UMOJA Magazine has reached its 30th year of publication. UMOJA readers and our board members all agreed to honor this remarkable milestone with a year-long celebration.
Milele Untitled: A Tribute to a Master Mentor, Mother Figure
She walked with a sense of purpose into the entrance of Mirror Image hair salon on Madison’s Eastside.
MLK Day Keynote Speaker Joyce Ladner — On The Frontline of the Civil Rights Battlefield
Joyce Ann Ladner’s life has been shaped through her first-hand involvement with the civil rights movement in Mississippi, including her work as a staff member alongside Bayard Rustin and other civil rights leaders that organized the March on Washington in 1963. As a teenager, she helped organize an NAACP Youth Chapter in her hometown, she was expelled from college for organizing a civil rights protest, and she was jailed for attempting to integrate an all-white church.
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UMOJA Inside:
Publishers Note
UMOJA Publisher/Editor: Happy New Year and Happy Birthday UMOJA!
A year ago, I packed up and headed to Madison for a job of lifetime. It’s been everything I imaged and much, much more. With the arrival of 2020, UMOJA Magazine has reached its 30th year of publication. UMOJA readers and our board members all agreed to honor this remarkable milestone with a year-long celebration.
Feature
UMOJA Magazine — 30th Anniversary
January 1992 In January 1992, a two-page yellow and black publication of UMOJA was titled the African American Community Calendar for the Greater Madison Area, Volume 3, Number 1. Hats off to the achievements of community members including Pia James, promotion at the Madison Police Department. Jim and Yvonne Thomas opened Positive Images, an [...]
Feature
Looking Back — And Ahead: The History of UMOJA Magazine
For 30 years, UMOJA Magazine has been at the forefront of providing positive news in the African American community. It is the must-have, “never throw away” publication in homes and offices across Dane County since 1990.
Feature
Milele Chikasa Anana: My Mentor, My Kindred Spirit
I thought my heart would thump straight out of my chest the first time I walked into Milele Chikasa Anana’s home on Madison’s east side. Should I curtsy? Grab and hug her tight? I wasn’t sure what to do.
Feature
Milele Untitled: A Tribute to a Master Mentor, Mother Figure
She walked with a sense of purpose into the entrance of Mirror Image hair salon on Madison’s Eastside.
Feature
How Martin Luther King Jr Day Became A Holiday — The Timeline
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Just three people hold the distinction of having a U.S. national holiday observed in their [...]
Feature
MLK Day Keynote Speaker Joyce Ladner — On The Frontline of the Civil Rights Battlefield
Joyce Ann Ladner’s life has been shaped through her first-hand involvement with the civil rights movement in Mississippi, including her work as a staff member alongside Bayard Rustin and other civil rights leaders that organized the March on Washington in 1963. As a teenager, she helped organize an NAACP Youth Chapter in her hometown, she was expelled from college for organizing a civil rights protest, and she was jailed for attempting to integrate an all-white church.
Community Profile & Events
Hope at Christmas and All Year Long
Hope for kindness. Hope for love. Hope for better tomorrows.
Community Profile & Events
McKenzie Family Boys & Girls Club in Sun Prairie
Interactive walls. A soundproof recording studio. Art therapists. A theatrical stage. A mindful moment room. And even a fulltime chef.
Community Profile & Events
Meet Gail Ford: Higher Education Advocate Expands Access, Opportunity
From the outside looking in it appears Gail Ford’s life has come full circle. The newly installed director of University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Precollege Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Excellence, or PEOPLE program, was once enrolled in a similar college prep initiative as a teenager.
Community Profile & Events
Real-life Lessons Learned Around a BBQ Grill
Johnnie C. Milton, Sr. is someone you meet wishing you had been introduced to him sooner. At 90, he is quick witted and full of wisdom and charm. And his barbecuing skills are legendary around southeastern Wisconsin and back where he grew up in Bonita, Louisiana.
Community Profile & Events
Bridging the Racial Divide, Transforming the Future
The 18th annual YWCA Madison’s Racial Justice Summit provided a unique space for equity-minded people to gather, connect, explore and practice how to do the work of equity and inclusion, promote justice and enable all community members to flourish and thrive.
Community Profile & Events
Taking A Byte Out of the Future
It’s Saturday morning and a group of middle schoolers are fidgeting with gadgets that look like missing parts of a gutted computer. Carefully examining the unfamiliar pieces, apprehensiveness slowly turned into surreal confidence as participants of the Maydm’s Maker’s Epic Experience program discovered there is space for them in the world of developing technology.
Around the Village
5 Ways to Boost Your Social Media Brand Strength in 2020
5 WAYS TO BOOST YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA BRAND STRENGTH IN 2020
Around the Village
Give the Gift of Kindness All Year Long
New Year’s resolutions help create a guide for how someone is going to make the current year better than the last. Many people put “volunteering” on their list of resolutions. So, start 2020 off on the right foot by resolving to make the world a better place one act of kindness at a time. Commit to making a difference in Dane County and across Wisconsin.
Around the Village
2020 New Year’s Resolutions: Inspiration from Community Leaders
Whether or not you feel strongly about New Year’s resolutions, a brand new year is an excellent time to evaluate your life and identify opportunities to enhance your skills. From eating healthier to being more visionary with goals, local community leaders have big plans for 2020. Here’s what they have to say about their New [...]
UMOJA Shorts
Nation’s Largest Police Department Names First Black Detectives Chief In a first, the nation’s largest police department selected a Black chief for its detectives squad as bail reform and other challenges loom. New York City police Commissioner Dermot Shea called incoming Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison the “total package” and said he possesses a wealth [...]