Crowd celebrating life of Michael Jackson after his death during Black Music Month 2009.  (Getty image) The basic idea underlying the concept of Pan Africanism is that of cultural awareness and connection leading to mutually beneficial cooperation between people of African descent throughout the Global Village . It is a concept which those who are possibly more politically, philosophically, and economically motivated have promoted at least since the year 1900. One of the ways this powerful theory has met with notable success in practice has been in the area of music. To help ensure the viability of African-American music in particular, famed music producer Kenny Gamble and broadcast executive Ed Wright in 1979 persuaded then President Jimmy Carter to declare June as Black Music Month. The crowning event that year was a celebration concert held on June 7 at the White House. Featured on that occasion were representatives of the broader spectrum of black music, from the rock...

Cover of first edition of I MADE MY BOY OUT OF POETRY featuring original art by celebrated New Orleans and New York artist Gustave Blache III . Recently I found myself on the verge of crossing over from ambivalence into guilt due to the amount of time and creative energy devoted this year to online journalism and other forms of prose-writing as opposed to a more luxurious immersion into the rich flow of poem-making. There were actually at least two instances in 2012 when I managed to combine the genres: the first came in February when writing about the death of WhitneyHouston and the second came, ironically enough, in August when writing about the life of one Michael Joseph Jackson. Although the poems included with the stories can stand well enough on their own, the fact that they were generated by journalistic concerns instead of employed as an initial means to a necessary end in themselves made me feel somewhat negligent. After all, where journalism was concerned I had ...

(Cover of Whitney Houston's brilliant debut album .) With the death of Soul Train founder Don Cornelius at the very beginning of the month, and that of Whitney Houston on February 11, Black History Month 2012 is fated to go down in history as one during which the world lost two of its greatest champions of African-American music. Moreover, since almost two weeks still remain in the month, one presents such a statement with noted caution. Yet as the world community and the good people of Newark, New Jersey, bid farewell to the elegant Whitney Elizabeth Houston, it seems appropriate to pause a moment and give some consideration to things of an elevated nature. To repeat myself from another occasion: Sometimes an angel gets in my head and refuses to leave until I write down whatever it says. It felt that way when Michael Jackson passed in 2009 and it feels like that now. Please click the following link to read the full editorial and poem by Aberjhani in honor of Whitney...