Perspectives with Condace Pressley

Richard Hicks leads InspirEDU a nonprofit organization working to close the digital divide in our community. Never had this become more apparent than during this pandemic when students and families did not have access to technology and/or the internet to live and to learn. Next we meet 2 Sisters of the Skies. There are fewer than 200 black female pilots on the flight deck and this nonprofit is wor...

On Feb 13, we meet Leah Henderson, children's author. Her book is A "Daddy Speaks Love" and is a delightfully illustrated story about the importance of a father's love for his daughter. In our conversation we also learn about Henderson's other work and her passions. Then we head over to the Alliance Theater where now through February 27th on the Coca Cola Stage is the story of Toni Stone, the firs...

My guest is Kimberly Jones. In the midst of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the aftermath of the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Brianna Taylor and far too many others. In six minutes and 46 seconds jones captured the hearts, minds and spirit of a community coming to grips with the racial reckoning that is upon us. Kimberly jones is Atlanta-based. She’s an activist and now an autho...

COVID fatigue is real and it's having an impact on our kids. One metro Atlanta company is working with school systems in Georgia and across the country to make remote learning easier and more accessible to students as well as serving as a one stop repair shop. Stratix frees up teachers to teach and IT staff to work on desktops, not mobile devices. Next, he's one to watch on the Barnes and Noble Fe...

More than one-third of Georgia parents with young children say they or someone in their family has had to quit a job, not take a job, or greatly change jobs in the past year because of problems with childcare. The ongoing pandemic has only aggravated the problem. For more than a decade, GEEARS, the Georgia early education alliance for ready students, works to inspire and to provide leadership for...

The year was 1964 and the stakes were high. This was the last and only chance for David Harris. He wrestled with being forthright about his race. After all, with his light skin, wavy hair, and green eyes, he could pass for white. But Harris was determined to fly airplanes as a black male pilot – even though in 1964 black men were not commercial airline pilots. This is the story Michael Cottman tel...

He's performed with the greatest jazz musicians: DIzzy Gillespie, Betty Buckley, Lou Rawls and many more. What drives Kenny Werner, artistic director of the Effortless Mastery Institute at Berklee College of Music is not playing the instrument, but becoming the instrument. His book, Becoming the Instrument: Lessons on Self-Mastery from Music to Life mixes his philosophical, spiritual perspective w...

Thursday, January 6 at 8pm on ABC "Women of the Movement, a six-episode limited series event premiers. It is based on the true story of Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till-Mobley. For many, it is an unknown story. Till was a 14 year old boy murdered in Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman. The men arrested and charged with the crime were acquitted. Last year, the Justice Departme...

In America's Original Sin, author John Rhodehamel examines the life of John Wilkes Booth and his motive for the murder of President Abraham Lincoln. Rhodhamel argues Booth was a White Supremacist and his fear of the integration of a Black community under Lincoln threatened the life he and others like him enjoyed. Next we talk with Karen Comer Lowe, Executive Director and Chief Curator of Atlanta's...

Following a year-plus of being stuck inside because of the pandemic, live theater is slowly returning. The Alliance Theatre took the year to reimagine and build a new set for the holiday classic A Christmas Carol on the Coca Cola stage now through December 24. Additionally, a filmed version of the production is available to stream beginning December 17. Another holiday tradition has returned to th...

Our friends in education tell me the pandemic has set learning - especially in our public schools back four years. That's not the half of it. New research from the Atlanta-based organization Learn 4 Life found the number of students applying for financial aid to go to college has fallen. The reason for fewer applications, the lack of personal interaction with a trusted adult to help a student comp...

On this episode we conclude our conversation with educator and social media influencer Dr. Zackory Kirk with his thoughts on the debate over Critical Race Theory and the 1619 project. Next a conversation with Morehouse College senior Elisha Talley. This 25-year-old Chemistry major from Camden, New Jersey is more than a non-traditional student who benefited greatly from his UNCF scholarship. The Ma...

Topical conversation with educator and influencer Dr. Zackory Kirk about current events including the Atlanta Mayoral election, the race for Georgia Governor, the 2022 midterm elections, the debate over Critical Race Theory and cancel culture. Kirk is a new content creator for Linked In's education hub.

Mission Role Call is a nonpartisan movement working to provide America's veterans a powerful and unified voice in Washington. The organization's top priorities are ending veteran suicide, providing easier access to health care and serving as an advocate for unserved veterans. The group is led by Atlanta resident Patrick Griffith. Next, a conversation with the Executive Director of Ahimsa House, My...

November 30 is Giving Tuesday. It is Georgia's greatest day of generosity. After Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Shop Local Saturday and Cyber Monday, the community asks you go support the nonprofit organization that means something to you. For 130 years, Families First has been a change agent for families. This nonprofit seeks to accelerate families toward a permanent path of stability and success. O...

Imagine making the decision to go into business for yourself. Imagine beginning the journey in early 2020. Charise M. Williams has spent much of her career working in the nonprofit sector. In early 2020 she decided to embrace entrepreneurship as a professional leadership coach. What Williams did not anticipate was the start of a global pandemic. Nonetheless she persisted and also wrote a book, The...

In October, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp called a special session of the Georgia Legislature for the purposes of redistricting. This act determines who represents you in the legislature and in Congress. What influence do you have, if any in the process? We put this question to the Political Director of the Georgia ACLU, Christopher Bruce. Then we turn to a community issue. November is National Adop...

She's Atlanta born and bred. She comes from a family of entrepreneurs and thrives as a successful business owner. Dr. Felicia Philips is founder of MogulCon, a 2 day workshop for Black female entrepreneurs. She teaches would-be successful business owners how to build a sustainable strategy to accelerate their businesses. Additionally she's a wife and mother and shares with us how she manages the l...

Moving in The Spirit is an award-winning creative youth development organization that has worked to transform the lives of young people in Atlanta for 35 years through the art of dance. Last month Moving in the Spirit opened a new facility near the Candler/Edgewood MARTA station making the organization’s programs available to many. My guest is one of the organization’s three founders and its CEO,...

Black professionals hold only 3.2 percent of all executive or senior leadership roles in corporate America. When you drill down to the fortune 500 companies, it’s less than one percent. Why is that? A study from the consulting group McKinsey says Black employees are 23-percent less likely to say they receive a lot or quite a bit of support to advance in the workplace. Joining me to discuss is Denn...

After a harrowing interaction with police a a local D.C. park, Malcolm, 16, is angry and despondent and feels like nothing good ever happens for teens like him. The growing violence in his neighborhood leads his mother to send him to their family farm in Mississippi. What happens next is a fantastical journey through time to Reconstruction America. Black Was the Ink is the debut novel by Michelle...

In The Black President, the first interpretative, grand-narrative history of Barack Obama's presidency in its entirety, Claude A. Clegg III situates the former president in his dynamic, inspirational, yet contentious political context. He captures the America that made Obama's White House years possible, while insightfully rendering the America that resolutely resisted the idea of a Black chief ex...

When a loved one is diagnosed with cancer – it’s scary, you feel overwhelmed, isolated and at times just alone in your feelings. Author Mike Murphy shares his spiritual love story of meeting, marrying, and losing the love of his life, Margot, to cancer. His book, LIVING IN COLOR: A Story of Love in Sickness and in Health, Murphy shares a story of a loving, bonded, couple who teamed up as a force t...

Dr. Angella Banks aka Dr. A is leading a celebration of the late comedian Tommy Ford with a gala October 10 at the Buckhead Art Company. The Tommy Ford Legacy-a-Thon supports the Xcellence Leadership. This organization focuses on strategic areas of community leadership to develop and train future leaders.

Paula Chase has been wielding inclusion like a light saber against inequality in literature for more than 13 years. She has often been referred to as a Literary Warrior saving readers through her books that are making the transition from picture book to tween and middle grade literature. With nine children’s book to her credit, Chase is a long-time advocate for both readers’ choice and diversifyin...