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Monday, September 7, 2026

Cassandra Wilson, Jazz Voice Who Gave "Strange Fruit" New Power, Dies at 70

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Sultry and Socially Conscious Jazz Legend Cassandra Wilson Dies At 70

Wilson at the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, NYC, 2007
Photo Credit Professor Bop

Cassandra Wilson, the Grammy Award-winning singer whose Mississippi blues roots shaped one of the most distinctive voices in modern jazz, died Tuesday, September 1st in Jackson, Mississippi, according to Hinds County Coroner Jeramiah Howard. Jeramiah Howard, confirmed her death at age 70; officials released no cause.

Wilson built her legacy as a musician who moved fluidly across genres, opening for Miles Davis and touring with Wynton Marsalis during a run of major jazz success through the 1980s and '90s. She embraced the title of musician above any single label, a stance that let her carry blues, folk, and soul into jazz spaces and expand who the genre could reach.

Her low, smoky voice brought fresh romance to Great American Songbook standards while she pulled covers from Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Neil Young, and Mississippi bluesman Robert Johnson into her repertoire, proving remarkably popular in decades when jazz lost mass audience share to rock and rap.

Wilson's rendition of "Strange Fruit" stands as one of her most powerful contributions to American music and memory. Billie Holiday's original recording exposed the horror of lynching in the Jim Crow South, and Wilson's version, with its slow-burning alto and spacious arrangement, carried that history forward for new listeners decades later. She turned the song into a bridge between generations, connecting the anti-lynching movement of the 20th century to ongoing conversations about racial violence today.

Checkout the Strange Fruit Video Below...

Dysfunctional Family Systems and Youth Violence

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Dysfunctional Family Systems and Youth Violence

Part One of the Create Conversations Community Educational Series

By Rozalyn Shepard

Is Youth Violence an Epidemic That Could Hurt Someone You Love?

Greetings, everyone, and welcome to the Create Conversations Community.

When we talk about youth violence, we often focus on what happened, who was involved, and how the situation should be handled after harm has occurred. Those conversations are important, but we must also be willing to look deeper. We must ask what young people may be experiencing before they become involved in crime or violent behavior.

Youth violence does not happen in isolation. It can be connected to the conditions surrounding a young person, including the family system, the community, education, and access to sustainable opportunity. Today, I want to focus on the first of the four obstacles to success faced by poor families, dysfunctional family systems.

Looking Within Our Families

A young person’s first understanding of love, communication, conflict, responsibility, and safety often begins at home. Family is where many young people first learn how to express emotions, respond to disagreement, trust others, accept accountability, and seek help.

When a family system is affected by unresolved wounds, instability, poor communication, constant conflict, emotional disconnection, or the absence of positive guidance, young people may struggle to develop the tools they need to handle life’s challenges. They may carry anger that has never been addressed, pain they do not know how to express, or fear they have learned to hide.

These circumstances do not mean that every young person from a difficult family environment will become violent. They do mean that when young people lack stability, support, guidance, and healthy examples, they may become more vulnerable to isolation, negative peer influence, retaliation, and harmful choices.

That is why this conversation must begin with honest self-examination. We cannot only ask what is wrong with young people. We must also ask what young people are receiving from the adults and family systems around them.

Get The Scoop On Fun and Empowering Events in Southeast Queens the Weekend of September 4th

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Fun and Empowering Events in Southeast Queens the Weekend of September 4th

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THE THREE GEORGES: A New Lens on the Revolutionary War — And the Black Patriot Who Represents Thousands Coming Into the Light

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THE THREE GEORGES: A New Lens on the Revolutionary War — And the Black Patriot Who Represents Thousands Coming Into the Light

United States — National Freedom Day Foundation (501(c)(3)) — The Revolutionary War’s 250th anniversary has already passed, yet one of its most powerful truths is only now being restored. Author Venita Maria Benitez releases The Three Georges: “3GS” 1776–1783 Revolutionary War (Commemorative Edition) — a warm, hopeful, and deeply human retelling of America’s founding years that finally brings George Key, a free Black Patriot, into the light where he always belonged.

For generations, America taught us about two Georges: George Washington and King George III.

But the story was never meant to be told in twos.

In this commemorative edition, all three Georges stand together — Washington, King George III, and George Key, the Black Patriot whose courage and presence shaped the Revolutionary War era but was left out of the nation’s memory.

And George Key is not standing alone. He represents thousands of Black Patriots whose names, stories, and sacrifices are finally coming into the light.

Is Youth Gun Violence an Epidemic That Could Hurt Someone You Love?

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Is Youth Gun Violence an Epidemic That Could Hurt Someone You Love?

Youth violence does not happen in isolation. It is connected to the four obstacles to success facing poor families, young people, and communities:

1. Dysfunctional family systems

2. Fractured communities

3. Poor education

4. A lack of sustainable income

These four obstacles can affect a young person’s stability, guidance, education, opportunities, and hope for the future. Fractured families can create fractured communities. Limited educational support can restrict future workforce opportunities. A lack of sustainable income can make it more difficult for families to move beyond poverty and can limit access to positive pathways.

The Create Conversations Community is designed to address these conditions through healing, communication, mentorship, education, leadership development, job training, employment, apprenticeships, workforce development, and wealth education.

Understanding the relationship between these obstacles and youth violence is an important step toward creating safer, more hopeful communities.

This is an introduction to a four-part series that will address youth violence, its relationship to the root causes of poverty and crime, the four obstacles to success faced by poor families, and the Create Conversations Community’s response.

I invite you to follow this series and join the conversation.

Which of these four obstacles do you believe has the greatest impact on young people and families in our communities?

Let’s Build the Future, Together. Click Here and Tap in to join the conversation.

Rozalyn Shepard

Create Conversations Community
Rise Network Community Development Corporation