Monday Speaker Series

Book review by Dorothy Longo

When Mike Longo—the New York jazz pianist who was a longtime protégé, collaborator, and friend of Dizzy Gillespie—passed away in 2020 from COVID-19, he left behind a manuscript of his journey to musical and spiritual fruition. His widow, Dorothy Longo, completed the memoir asThe Rhythm of Unity: A Jazz Musician’s Lifelong Journey Beyond Black and White, to be published May 9 by Redwood Publishing. To Mike’s chronicle of his personal quest, Dorothy added the story of their 39-year romance and life together.

Longo’s search for fulfillment as a jazz artist began when he was a very small child, growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, picking out tunes on his grandparents’ piano. His spiritual search began at roughly the same time, when he discovered the cruel absurdity of racism. Jazz was the vehicle that brought the two missions together, giving Longo a means of both developing his artistry and finding a world in which Black and White people could coexist in equality and mutual respect.

Inspired by hearing Dizzy Gillespie (at right with a young Mike Longo) on the radio as a teenager, Longo dove deep into bebop. After graduating from Western Kentucky University, he played his way to New York City, where he got a job as house pianist at Manhattan’s famed Metropole Café. There, he met Gillespie when the trumpeter and bebop titan came to play opposite Longo. The pianist spent some time studying with Oscar Peterson in Toronto before returning to New York and becoming Gillespie’s pianist and musical director for seven years (1966–1973). Their friendship and collaboration continued until Gillespie’s death in 1993.

Establishing his solo career in earnest after leaving Gillespie’s band, Longo recorded nearly two dozen albums under his own name

His relationship with Gillespie is also a major aspect of that journey. The Rhythm of Unity charts Longo’s path from being the bebop legend’s adoring fan, to employee, to comrade-in-arms battling the forces of racial prejudice, to, at last, close friend and confidant. In addition to discovering new musical frontiers, the pianist and trumpeter were also together in their exploration and acceptance of the Baháʼí faith—another journey that Longo documents as part of his story.

Ultimately, music, friendship, righteousness, and faith come together to shape Longo’s experience of the world as an artist and as a human. After decades of being told that he “sounded Black,” or that he shouldn’t or couldn’t fraternize with people he loved, the pianist comes to the firm realization that “unity in diversity” is the way forward for a harmonious society. While maintaining respect for the validity of diverse cultures and backgrounds, he sees that he “wasn’t Black or White and that any innate distinction between Blacks, Whites, Asians, Native Americans, and other races was based on false premises.”

A musician herself, Dorothy Longo serves as both an observer of and active participant in her late husband’s story. In addition to filling out his account with their shared one (titled “Reflections of a Jazz Wife”), Dorothy peppers Mike’s account with context and commentary about her husband’s experiences and philosophies as well as his character. Her contribution to The Rhythm of Unity elevates Mike Longo from just his own written-word perspective to a three-dimensional human being with compassion and empathy who puts his thoughts about humanity and brotherhood into practice.

Join Dr. Toya Mary Okonkwo on Monday, January 30, 2022 for a special presentation on 'Black Girls as Quasers'

Dr. Toya Mary Okonkwo is a well-wisher of humanity who strives to utilize the creative impulses of imagination as resistance to enact an ethos of arts as education and arts as central to advancing vibrant

individual and collective changes that contribute to an ever-advancing

civilization. Having recently earned her Ph.D. of English Literature (the first Black woman to graduate in the history of that program),

Dr. Toya Mary Okonkwo has been involved in higher education teaching at Purdue, TCU, Paul Quinn College, and UNT. In her dissertation, “OUR

REAL LIFE PECOLAS AND OGUU CHASES THE SUN - FROM COLLAPSING STARS TO

QUASARS: A COSMIC PLAY IN THREE ACTS & TWO INTERLUDES ON THE

IMPORTANCE OF IGBO STORYTELLING IN EXPANDING BLACK GIRLHOOD

IMAGINATIONS AS RESISTANCE TO SOCIAL ERASURE IN STOP SIX, TX.”, she

blends the creative power of performance and visual storytelling to explore the subjects of #blackgirlmagic as it relates to astrophysics and the neurobiology of escaping the confines of trauma. In her most

ardent dreams this project, along with her Master’s thesis and other writings, will be realized, as intended, for audiences to experience and thereby take up the reins of their own journeys towards becoming

well-wishers of humanity and lovers of the beauty of our essential oneness. Dr. Toya Mary Okonkwo is also an active volunteer with various Baha’i community service projects and with Opal’s Farm. Her

web presence includes: https://www.toyamaryokonkwo.com/

http://www.blacklanguagesyllabus.com/

On December 26, 2022 and January 1, 2022, we will discuss Kwanzaa.

We have a special program for people of African descent from December 26, 2022 through January 1, 2023. Please share the link with anyone you know of who is of African descent. This is a safe space for healing. Registrations are manually approved to make sure only the intended audience registers.  This Kwanzaa program is created especially to nurture and encourage POTE to love ourselves, take care of ourselves, and to rebuild the broken bonds between us!

Click here to view latest program

Click here to register for the program.

Sharable invitation

Radiance will share the back story on the 'Life with Lisa Ling" CNN finale. Two couples will be joining us featured in the episode. 

https://bahaiteachings.org/interracial-marriage-love-first-sight-story/

https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2022/12/09/this-is-life-lisa-ling-interracial-love-bah-faith-origseriesfilms.cnn

https://vimeo.com/782455228/406eddaff5?fbclid=IwAR2AAlmogj2yjhCP8ij0-SsfdRsl1zJE46g_ieJfvjN3kXMSjZinFEvjzg0

Integrative Wellness: A Bahai inspired Approach to Cultivating a Community of Well Beings

A designer and student of quantum physics, metaphysics and licensed BioGeometry Practitioner, and Feng Shui.