Welcome to June 2025. This is Black Liberation Month. We’re celebrating Black History, Black Music Month, Black legends, Juneteenth and Black men – especially Black men- all month. On Sunday, June 15th, Father’s Day, from 3-6pm. Join us as we celebrate family and community at the 36th annual Real Men Cook fun, food-tasting event, with world-class local entertainment, Rousool and Toca Live, led by Tony (Toca) Carpenter. Real Men Cook is the largest, longest-running, and most-anticipated Father’s Day celebration honoring men and starring fathers and father figures. It was conceived and launched in Chicago in 1990 by entrepreneurs, yours truly and Kofi Moyo, as a local Father’s Day family celebration, which expanded to 13 cities with celebrities including Idris Elba and Ta-Nehisi Coates in New York. The Honorable Congressman Danny Davis, who cooked and served in the very first Real Men Cook event, also actively hosted or participated in over 15 celebrations and. helped to recruit Congressman John Conyers in Detroit, and Congressman John Lewis in Atlanta as Real Men Cook hosts. Today’s Minority Whip, James Clayborn representing South Carolina, has a recipe that can be found in the Real Men Cook book with the foreword by former U.S. President Barack Obama.
June is also the month that we celebrate Juneteenth. Juneteenth was officially recognized as a U.S. federal holiday on June 17, 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law.
In our last issue, I promised we would have a story in this month’s issue about Michael Damani, the young blues guitarist who appeared on the cover of our May issue. We’re keeping that promise, but as a bonus, we also feature Damani’s dad, Michael Strautmanis. To honor Father’s Day, father and son team up to talk about successes, challenges, mutual admiration and respect that make this father/son relationship so very special and inspiring.
Speaking of inspiration, if you love happy endings, you’ll love the article about Vamarr Hunter, Sr. (his name is pronounced like Lamarr with a V) and how he found his birth mother after years of enjoying her bakery treats. The story has been told in many publications, but our managing editor, Emma Young, is telling it with a new twist. Usually, the story of his adoptive mother’s abuse has been left out, but telling the entire story makes the happy ending that much sweeter.
You’ve heard me use the term “Queenager” frequently, referring to queens of the Baby Boomers and beyond generation. I’m delighted to introduce you to my friend and one of the most dynamic women I know, Soyini Walton, co-founder of the Betty Shabazz International Charter School and the personification of a Queenager. Her youthful looks, sharp mind, and boundless energy prompted us to ask this eighty-year-old beauty for the secret to her vibrancy. She complied, and we invite our readers to not only read the article, but heed the wholesome advice Soyini shares with us as she’s telling the secrets that keep her looking young and feeling younger.
