Category Archives: Explore

Dinner & A Movie

Living in New York City for any amount of time has a way of grinding the pixie dust from your eyes. However, tonight I was a bit star-struck for a moment and happy for the excitement it brought. On my way home I stopped by a restaurant in Times Square and sat in a windowContinueContinue reading “Dinner & A Movie”

Song & Verse: HELLO by Adele

This song was on repeat as soon as I saw the release on my FB feed at 6am the day Adele greeted the world again in song. Love her. Love her voice. Love her expression of her life journey. That said, I just watched Joe Thomas cover Hello and that’s why this post is happening! (Click to check out some covers of Hello.)

Fyodor Fyodorovich Tomas “The Black Russian”

Frederick Bruce Thomas was born in 1872 to former slaves who became prosperous farmers in Mississippi. When his father was brutally murdered, the teenaged Frederick fled the Deep South and headed for New York City where he worked as a waiter and valet.

Deploying charm, charisma and cunning, he emigrated to Europe, criss-crossing the continent to find employment as a multilingual waiter in locations as diverse as London and Leipzig, Venice and Vienna, before settling in Moscow in 1899. {Click to read more.}

No Pensions for Ex-Slaves: How Federal Agencies Suppressed Movement To Aid Freedpeople

In the late 19th century, the idea of pursuing pensions for ex-slaves—similar to pensions for Union veterans—took hold. If disabled elderly veterans were compensated for their years of service during the Civil War, why shouldn’t former slaves who had served the country in the process of nation building be compensated for their years of forced, unpaid labor?