It makes me angry that this R.I.P. thread did not even reach a second page after 2+ weeks even with half of the posts from H-Funk. And I'm still profoundly saddened that Jessye Norman didn't even warrant a sticky here, especially when (no offense) Jimmy Spicer received one immediately that's still up two weeks later even though he literally only recorded a handful of 12" singles 40 years ago and has a six sentence Wiki page.
Most people Black or White can not even name another Black Opera singer, and this woman went from a dirt road in Augusta Georgia to Howard University to decades at the top of the Opera stage, thriving under a level of overt and international racism that kids today could never imagine. Five Grammies, dozens of honorary doctorates and awards and literally every other honor someone in her profession could receive. Requested to sing at multiple presidential inaugurations and birthdays and funerals for kings and queens and prime ministers all over the world. She did it all as a proud and regal Black Queen.
And she never forgot her roots, personally working with or mentoring the vast majority of Black opera talent from the past 50 years. She developed several known Black enlegacy celebrations that went far beyond just opera, sat on boards of HBCUs and other groups and even helped to create a namesake School of the Arts that trains over 100 poor Black kids in Augusta, GA -tuition free- every year since 2003.
The Jessye Norman School of the Arts is a free, high quality, after school arts program for all children in the CSRA regardless of income.
www.jessyenormanschool.org
R.I.P. Jessye Norman... and thank you...
en.wikipedia.org
