Flowers, letters and stuffed animals at the trunk of a tree on Nelson Avenue and Griggs Street in southeast Grand Rapids, where the shooting of Patrick Lyoya occurred. | Photo by Bryce Huffman, BridgeDetroit

This Week on American Black Journal:

Patrick Lyoya and Police Reform: A Roundtable With the NAACP and Black Lives Matter

What have the weeks after 26-year-old African immigrant Patrick Lyoya was fatally shot by a white Grand Rapids police officer looked like for Grand Rapids? How has the community reacted and been impacted by another Black person dying after an interaction with police turned violent?

Host Stephen Henderson sits down with the Greater Grand Rapids NAACP President Cle Jackson and John Sloan III, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Detroit, to discuss the ramifications of the tragic incident on the Grand Rapids community. Plus, they take a critical look at police relations with people of color, police reform and the race relations and racial disparities that exist in West Michigan.

Portraying X: Davóne Tines Discusses Detroit Opera Residency, His Role as Malcolm X

He’s been called one of the most powerful voices of our generation by the Los Angeles Times, and he won the 2020 Sphinx Competition Medal of Excellence, which recognizes extraordinary classical musicians of color. Now, classically-trained bass-baritone opera singer Davóne Tines has landed in Detroit as the 2021-2022 artist-in-residence at Detroit Opera, where he’ll portray Malcolm X in the upcoming production of “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X.”

Host Stephen Henderson sits down with Tines to talk about his residency and his role in portraying Malcolm X in composer Anthony Davis’ “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X” for the May 14-22, 2022 show. Plus, Tines shares how he got involved in singing and music at an early age, and the barriers he’s had to face as an African American man coming up in a predominately white space.

 

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Watch American Black Journal on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on Detroit Public TV, WTVS-Channel 56.