Gabriel PROJ EC T

A VCU Special Commission on Slavery and Justice

Please join us at a learning and feedback session as we map VCU’s path to acknowledge and reconcile the university’s past and its plans to build a better and brighter future.

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

6:00 p.m.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School Cafeteria* 1000 Mosby St., Richmond, Virginia

Project Gabriel was launched in spring 2023 to report, reconcile and heal the wounds caused by VCU’s historic ties to the institution of slavery. This effort is so named after an enslaved Richmond man who organized a rebellion in 1800 intended to end slavery in Virginia.

This commission will be deliberate in its efforts to guide VCU on a path toward reckoning with its past, engaging with its present and strengthening all communities for the future.

Preregistration is encouraged at projectgabriel.vcu.edu/events by March 17.

Feedback can be submitted online at projectgabriel.vcu.edu/contact There will be additional opportunities to engage in the coming months.

*Guests should use the building’s rear entrance to access the cafeteria directly. For special accommodations, please email projgabriel@vcu.edu

Hall will host her friend who, during several Richmond engagements, will discuss Maasai culture along with challenges facing her African homeland. Mrs. Koisenke lives in Intashat, a sublocation in Kenya. The community of about 5,000 people has suffered from severe drought conditions

“We are a pastoral community that depends on animals — cows, goats and sheep, but now the animals are dying because of the drought,” she said. “At one time I had almost 40 cows and now I have two, and those two are very weak.

“Because of the drought everything has changed,” she continued. “When we go to the markets, there’s not enough food. In my community, we have one waterhole and we get very little water. It is not enough for us and it is not enough for what’s left of the animals to drink. Life now is totally changed.”

She said that on top of the severe drought, COVID-19 impacted her community as it did the rest of the world. Travel restrictions kept away tourists who normally would take in safaris and shop at their markets.

“We have a lot of hardship because we don’t have the capital to buy food and materials [for making jewelry],” Mrs. Koisenke said. “People in my community must depend on well-wishers to give them money.”

She hopes to raise awareness and make connections with people, as well as sell pieces of traditional beaded jewelry she and the Maasai women of her community have made.

She also hopes to share some life lessons she has learned from jewelry making.

“Even to make beads like this is not an easy job,” says Mrs. Koisenke. “First, you must be patient. Secondly, you need focus. Thirdly, you must be creative. When you have those three things, you need to be doing them with everything in your life.” throughout the Horn of Africa, which have persisted through four rainy seasons already.

Mrs. Koisenke will sell jewelry at St. Stephen’s Farmer’s Market on March 18 from 9 a.m. to noon, and will attend St. James’s Episcopal Church’s 9 a.m. worship service Sunday, March 19. A conversation, reception and sale will follow in the Michaux House Library from 10:15 to 11 a.m.

Last month, First Lady Jill Biden visited the Lositeti village in Keny to draw attention to the severe drought that has gripped East Africa and created an unprecedented food insecurity crisis in Kenya. Mrs. Koisenke and Ms. Hall stay in touch with WhatsApp. Although micro financing helped Mrs. Koisenke operate a shop that generated income for several years, the Horn of Africa, which includes Maasai, “has suffered a punishing fouryear drought, have lost all their livestock, cannot grow food, and even the animals in the bush are dying,” said Ms. Hall. “It is heartbreaking to witness such loss and desperation.”

Mrs. Koisenke described her country’s plight recently via text and video chat on WhatsApp.

Richmond

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Richmond-based jazz legend and civil rights leader William F. “Bill” McGee is releasing his latest CD, “Tree of Life,” Friday, March 17, through music streaming services and the website he owns and operates, 804jazz.com.

The 11-song album includes what he describes as “some of the best work of my 20-year-career as a solo artist” and 52-year career as a prolific musician, producer, arranger, songwriter and music educator.

Mr. McGee, a renowned jazz trumpet player who also is president of the Richmond Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, stated that the album features a collaboration with more than 45 colleagues, friends and current and former students.

Among the performers are trombonist Fred Wesley, saxophonist James “Plunky” Branch, flautist Najee, pianist Jay Baxter, trumpeter Tom Browne, guitarist Freddie Fox and bassist Christian “Big New York” de Mesones.

While primarily featuring original work, the album includes a new version of the Blackbyrd’s 50-yearold jazz hit “Flight Time” featuring one of the song’s original performers, pianist Kevin Toney, Mr. McGee noted.

Mr. McGee, who began his professional career in Atlanta in 1970 when he recorded with classmates from Morris Brown University, has come through a lot since releasing his first solo CD in 2002.

He wrote that he has survived prostate cancer, gained nine grandchildren, retired after 30 years as a music educator and administrator and released 10 CDs through his 804 Musical Group. That includes four previous solo albums plus releases for several performers in the group, keyboard artists Weldon Hill and Fabian Lance and saxophonist James “Saxsmo” Gates Jr., as well as a gospel album for Cora Harvey

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Armstrong.

A Grammy voter for the past 12 years, Mr. McGee has won two gold medals for past musical work and has performed and recorded with the likes of the The O’Jays, Fred Wesley, Patti LaBelle, Grandmaster Flash, Bob James and The Stylistics.

Along with a wide-ranging performance career, Mr. McGee has taught music to students in Richmond, Petersburg and other communities and served a stint as director of instrumental music at Morehouse College.

While teaching music, Mr. McGee is credited with mentoring Grammy-winning recording artist Michael “D’Angelo” Archer and others who have achieved substantial careers, such as Mad Skillz, Danja Mowf and radio personality/DJ Lonnie B.

Recently retired from Richmond Public Schools, he still teaches classes in sound recording and technology and applied trumpet as an adjunct professor at Virginia State University.

His new album shows the 70-year-old Richmond native is still going strong.