Pittsburgh Black Media Federation

Thank you, Pittsburgh!

Thank you for your tremendous support at the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation’s 2013 Soul Café on Feb. 23.  You showed up and showed out!  The Soul Café was amazing and we enjoyed celebrating with you.

This year’s Soul Café was a huge success.  I am happy to announce we raised a record amount for our Frank Bolden Urban Journalism Workshop scholarship fund.  We could not have done that without you.

As we celebrate 30 years of the workshop, we also celebrate the 40^th anniversary of PBMF.  You reminded us of the important role that our organization has played in Pittsburgh.

To our Soul Café emcee, Brother Marlon, featured speaker, Robert Hill, and venue, Roland’s Seafood Grill, thank you.

To our artists, you are so gifted and unique. We appreciate you donating your time and blessing our program with your gifts.  Kudos!

To our guests and sponsors, your support was integral to the success of the Soul Café.  Thank you.

Please keep in touch with us.  Visit us at www.pbmf.org, “like” us on Facebook and/or follow us on Twitter @pghblackmedia.  We look forward to celebrating African-American sights, songs and stories with you at next year’s Soul Café.

Thank you again!

Tonita L. Davidson, president of PBMF

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Like a cool breeze on a hot summer night, the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation’s Soul Café just makes you feel good. For the past few years, PBMF has brought that good feeling to Pittsburgh audiences across the city.

The Soul Café‘s lineup of some of the region’s most talented singers, musicians and spoken word artists makes everyone feel good. More important, the fact that the proceeds from the Soul Café benefit the PBMF Scholarship Fund makes everyone feel really good!

PBMF presents scholarships annually to college students who’ve participated in the organization’s summer urban journalism workshop while in high school. Successful alumni from the workshop include Keith Alexander, business reporter and columnist for The Washington Post; Sonya Toler, editor and publisher of Proclaim Magazine and former city editor for The New Pittsburgh Courier; and Sharon Epperson, a personal finance correspondent for CNBC.

For more information, contact Tory N. Parrish, Soul Café chair, at 412-339-0730 or soulcafe@pbmf.org.

2013 SOUL CAFÉ
Location: Roland’s Seafood Grill, 1904 Penn Ave., Strip District.

THE 2013 SOUL CAFÉ LINEUP:

Brother Marlon, the event’s master of ceremonies, is a husband, father and ordained elder. The Homestead resident has been in the communications field since 1992. His start was at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pa. He believes people should strive for the blessing of God by maintaining a true relationship with Jesus Christ.

Brother Marlon is the national producer for the Sheridan Gospel Network and a reporter for American Urban Radio Networks. He also is the host of “Morning Inspiration” on WAMO 100.1, which is heard in the Pittsburgh region, and around the world via the Internet and the WAMO app. Brother Marlon is also the host of the “iPraise” radio show on the Sheridan Gospel Network, heard in more than 40 markets on Saturday afternoons.

Contact Brother Marlon at booking@brothermarlon.com.

 

Robert Hill, this year’s Soul Café’s featured speaker, is vice chancellor for public affairs at the University of Pittsburgh.  As the institution’s chief communications officer, he is responsible for news, publications, marketing, media relations and other communications.  Robert serves as publisher of Pitt Magazine and the Pitt Chronicle, the university’s weekly newspaper. For more than 20 years, Robert was a vice president at Syracuse University.

A product of Jim Crow and de facto-segregated schools in St. Louis and New York City, respectively, Robert has interrogated issues of racial equality/inequality for more than 40 years. At Pitt, he has recounted the black experience in his exhibition “Free at Last? Slavery in Pittsburgh in the 18th and 19th Centuries”; in his documentary “K. Leroy Irvis: The Lion of Pennsylvania”; and in the biennial publication “Blue Gold & Black: Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg Reports on the Pitt African American Experience,” of which Robert is publisher.

Robert holds a Harvard University certificate in management, a Master of Science from Manhattan College, a Bachelor of Science from New York University’s Stern School of Business, and an Associate of Applied Science from Borough of Manhattan Community College.

 

Dessie Bey is the author of three poetry books and editor of “Three Rivers Run Deep: A Pittsburgh Poet’s Anthology.”  The West Mifflin resident is the co-founder of the Langston Hughes Poetry Society of Pittsburgh, a freelance writer and the principal organizer of slave narrative readings at events in Pittsburgh and surrounding areas.  As a social activist, Dessie is the founder of Mothers of African-American Males, or MAAMs, which provides a social support system for mothers of African-African boys.  She also is the owner-operator of db on point publishing.

Contact Dessie at dbeypoet@yahoo.com.

 

 

Charelle Unique, a native of Akron, Ohio, began formal musical training in her high school’s music and arts program and continued to further her training in classical music at Kent State University in 2006. Now a Swissvale resident, she has traveled throughout the Eastern U.S. competing in various talent competitions, placing second in the Rising Star Competition and first in the Akron Annual Easter Talent Showcase and Apollo Night at Kent State University.

With an alto and first-soprano vocal range, Charelle also has sung internationally in a number of events, including community festivals, gospel brunches and private weddings in Germany. She has worked as a vocal coach for Ascension Gospel Music Group and the Firestone High School Gospel Choir.

Contact Charelle at cmunnerl@yahoo.com.

 

Malik Vincent, of Penn Hills, began his music training as a freshman voice major at the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts in 2002. His talent took him up and down the East Coast as a dedicated, founding member of Travis Malloy and Nu-Prayz, which was a traveling urban gospel ensemble.  Music eventually took a back seat to his quest to become a professional journalist.
He was a two-time participant of the PBMF’s Frank Bolden Urban Journalism Workshop in 2005 and 2006. Malik moved on to study multimedia at Point Park University’s School of Communication and has been a regular contributor to the sports sections of both of the Burgh’s top newspapers, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, over the past five years.

Contact Malik at malikvincent@gmail.com.

 

Devan Rue’s musical career began when she started singing with her church choir at 7 years old.  She then began singing with every choir she could from elementary school through high school and all around her hometown of Youngstown, Ohio.  Devan soon built a reputation for herself as a prominent vocalist in the area.

She has lent her voice to many notable projects, including a PBS documentary titled “Jim Crow,” the self-titled album of Pittsburgh gospel artist Travis Malloy and the music of Trini Massie and Love Outreach, a renowned Pittsburgh choir of which she is a member.  Now a resident of Pittsburgh’s North Side, Devan has expanded her love of music by composing her own pieces.  Her latest song, “Living and Loving It,” encompasses her positive energy and love of life.

 

Contact Devan at devanrue@gmail.com.

 

Palermo Stone is the creator and leader of the R.A.R.E. movement (Revitalizing Art, Reinventing Emotion), hip-hop artist Palermo Stone has established successful musical relationships with Mac Miller, Dee-1, The Come Up and other hip hop focal points.

A resident of Pittsburgh’s Mt. Washington neighborhood, Palermo has three solo albums under his belt: “R.A.R.E.” – 2012; “For My Culture” – 2011; and “Beautiful Music” – 2010.

After receiving critical acclaim nationwide for his second album, Palermo began R.A.R.E. with the idea that something truly genuine is rare these days.  R.A.R.E. grew into an artistic movement, putting the power back in the hands of the artist with the goal of merging hip hop and art in an optimistic light, creating unique opportunities and results for the artists involved, and being a positive role model for youth and young adults.

Palermo’s third album, “R.A.R.E.,” was well-received nationally, resulting in coverage from numerous publications from the East Coast to the West Coast.

Contact Palermo at rarenationmgmt@gmail.com.

 

Ads Antalik offers a new voice for hip-hop that is not bound by city limits or subject matter.  He boasts a rapid-fire delivery mixed with intricate, yet easy-to-digest lyrics.  Citing influences from 90s hip hop artists, such as Pete Rock, Big L and Jay-Z, Ads began honing his skills through the lost art of the freestyle, but it wasn’t until hearing J. Cole’s “The Warm Up” that he felt the need to get into the studio to record his story.

A resident of Pittsburgh’s Mt. Washington neighborhood, Ads spent years perfecting his style and delivery, recording music until he felt he was ready to release his debut project, “The BrightSide: A Sunny Place for Shady People” in May 2012.  The project was noticed by the management at R.A.R.E. Nation (Revitalizing Art; Reinventing Emotion).  By July, he was officially welcomed as the second artist under the R.A.R.E. umbrella and began work on his second project, a collaborative mixtape with Palermo Stone, R.A.R.E.’s founder and lead artist.

Contact Ads at rarenationmgmt@gmail.com.

 

 

Scott “DJ Spillz” Sabatasso is a multitalented musician with years of musical experience.  Prior to joining R.A.R.E. Nation, Spillz was a drummer for The Victory Year, a rock band that toured around the nation and played festivals such as Warped Tour multiple times.  Today, Spillz is the musical director for Palermo Stone’s band as well as the DJ for R.A.R.E. Nation.  With an ear for musical excellence and the ability to pick up an instrument and play along to any song simply by hearing it, Spillz is one of the most talented musicians that R.A.R.E. Nation has to offer.

Contact DJ Spillz at rarenationmgmt@gmail.com.

 

 

 

Tameka Cage Conley, a literary artist and resident of Wilkinsburg, completed her doctoral degree in English at Louisiana State University, where she received the Huel Perkins Doctoral Fellowship. She was later awarded the Distinguished Dissertation Award for her manuscript “Painful Discourses: Borders, Regions, and Representations of Female Circumcision from Africa to America.”

In 2010, she received the August Wilson Center Fellowship in literary arts. Her first play, “Testimony,” was produced at the center in May 2011.  In fall 2011, she received the Advancing the Black Arts Grant for community-based theater. In 2012, Tameka became a Cave Canem Poetry fellow and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize for poetry.  In January, she was accepted into the Flight School Fellowship program, sponsored by Pittsburgh Filmmakers and Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.

Contact Tameka at tameka.cageconley@gmail.com.

 

Daniel L’M. Tate, also known as Mr. ColdYesterdays, started doing spoken-word poetry because it was the original means of creation and art, he said. “While I don’t have the ability to ‘create’ much of anything physically through my speech, I do believe my Bible declares the power of life and death to be in the tongue. I just want to speak the good life,” he said. 

 

Contact Daniel at daniel.lm.tate@gmail.com.

 

 

 

George Gist, a jazz musician, has played the bass in performances all over the country.  He is a member of a group he co-founded, Jazz Inc.  A Detroit native, Gist is also a muralist whose work has been recognized nationally.  The Hill District resident is listed as one the nation’s top black muralists in the 2000 book “Walls of Heritage, Walls of Pride: African-American Murals.”  In recognition of Gist’s art and activism in the community, the city of Pittsburgh declared Feb. 17, 2009, as George Gist Day in the city.

 

 

 

 

 

Tonita L. Davidson is a native of Penn Hills.  She is a public relations specialist and the president of the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation.  Tonita fell in love with performing arts at an early age.  She was a member of every theater ensemble, choir and school band in schools she attended — from elementary school to college.  Currently, she shares her voice at many churches, community events and weddings.

Tonita also sings with Trini L. Massie and 4 the Caz of Christ, 2012 How Sweet The Sound Washington DC Regional Winners.  Tonita performs with many local theaters. In 2011, Tonita won for Best Performed Monologue of the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Black and White Theatre Festival for “In My Sistah’s Closet.”  She also competed in the Opera Champion of Pittsburgh Amateur Competition, in which she placed third out of 30 finalists.

Contact Tonita at tonitadavidson23@gmail.com.