Regina Baiocchi

Haiku Festival celebrates children thru poetry workshops, readings & events, promotes literacy @haikufest.bsky.social 🦋

[Mzilikazi wa Afrika @IamMzilikazi]

THERE’S MUSIC IN THE AIR: The people shall dance and celebrate Afrika #Cina✊🏿 25

[AMI6 @dynaz4]

Cedar Walton

[AFRICAN & BLACK HISTORY @AfricanArchives]

In memory of the iconic Prince, he would've been 68 Today. Happy Birthday Prince! Gone but not forgotten.

“Dearly beloved, we have gathered here today to get through this thing called life.” —Prince

[Regina Baiocchi @HaikuFest]

Nina Simone #NinaSimone was an international treasure: a concert pianist who blended #Black #classical music with #Soul #Blues #Jazz & #Gospel #ProtestSong idioms to mint unique #music #genres

✅ #Mississippi goddamn” https://t.co/LjegmqbfL1

[Regina Baiocchi @HaikuFest]

Happy Birthday, Nikki Giovanni. ✅ my fav #Poem for Nina [Simone]

“We are all imprisoned in the castle of our skins
and some of us have said so be it
if I am in jail my castle shall become
my rendezvous
my courtyard will bloom with hyacinths…”

https://t.co/WwtfIp3AJy

[Regina Baiocchi @HaikuFest]

“#Poem for Nina, #NikkiGiovanni’s powerful #homage to Nina Simone is among Nikki’s classic tributes to #AfricanAmerican #Sisters and #Brothers:

✅ “Ego Tripping” https://t.co/Tf4WuYg8BN

✅ “Beautiful #Black Men”

[Regina Baiocchi @HaikuFest]

Dr. Gwendolyn Brooks was born #OTD and blazed many trails as
#poet #novelist #educator #humanitarian

IL #PoetLaureate 1968-2000

@PulitzerPrizes winner in 1950

FIRST US Poet Laureate in 1985

[Regina Baiocchi @HaikuFest]

Happy Birthday, Dr. Gwendolyn Brooks, longest reigning IL Poet Laureate. 1 of my fav poems:

“To Those Of My Sisters
Who Kept Their Naturals”
— never to look a hot comb in the teeth

Sisters!
I love you.
Because you love you.
Because you are erect…

https://t.co/hSecQ4Qgbv

[Left of Black @LeftOfBlack]

Donny Hathaway & Quincy Jones during the 'Come Black Charleston Blue' sessions.

#BlackMusicMonth

[Regina Baiocchi @HaikuFest]

@Brian1890violin 😎☔️

[Regina Baiocchi @HaikuFest]

GM Brian, HRU? 😎

[Brian @Brian1890violin]

Good Morning All from Katy Texas @LovesTravelStop made my delivery and now waiting on a preplan. Will see where we are heading next. Hope you all have a Blessed Sunday👋🏻🤗🙏🏽😊🎵🎶🎼🎻

[Melodies & Masterpieces @SVG__Collection]

There’s groove, and then there’s “The Ghetto” by Donny Hathaway

[Regina Baiocchi @HaikuFest]

@Brian1890violin It’s a balmy 69* F here with the high of 79* F in the forecast. The sun is showing out now bc there’s 50% chance of rain ~5pm. We gotta nice breeze off Lake Michigan keeping everything chill ☀️😎

[Regina Baiocchi @HaikuFest]

@Brian1890violin 🥳🥳🥳

[Regina Baiocchi @HaikuFest]

@Brian1890violin Happy birthday, Sean‼️
😎🎁 🎶 💝

Doing okay: njoying a beautiful day in The Chi, thankful for life, family, love, and creative gifts
🎶📚✍🏽😎

[Regina Baiocchi @HaikuFest]

@skiistiredasf 🥳🥳🥳

[SKI @skiistiredasf]

Meet Neville Shakespeare, this brilliant Black King from East New York, Brooklyn, who just broke barriers and earned his Juris Doctor (law degree) as a proud first-generation college graduate! 👏🏾
From the streets of Brooklyn to walking across the stage at Penn State Dickinson Law on May 16, 2026, Neville refused to let his starting point define his destiny. This first-gen scholar pushed through and made history for his family, his community, and every young Black boy who’s ever been overlooked.
“This is for my family, my community, and every Black boy and girl who was overlooked because of where they came from,” he shared. The little boy from Brooklyn did not quit!
This is what determination, excellence, and breaking cycles looks like. From the courtroom to the culture, the future is bright for this trailblazer.
Big congratulations, Neville! You did that, King. Keep rising and making your ancestors proud! 🙌🏾

[welearnSA @welearnSA]

Kareem’s father, Ferdinand Alcindor Sr., led an extraordinary double life. While he paid the bills by serving as a New York City Transit Police officer (eventually rising to the rank of lieutenant and receiving multiple commendations for bravery), he was also a highly accomplished musician. He attended the prestigious Juilliard School, mastered the trombone, and performed alongside legendary jazz icons like Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, and Tito Puente.

[VisionaryVoid @VisionaryVoid]

She Taught Herself to Write With Her Teeth. Then She Built a Machine to Feed the Armless.

In an elementary school classroom in Virginia in the 1920s, a teacher kept rapping young Bessie Blount's knuckles for writing with her left hand. The punishment continued until Bessie had a thought: if using her left hand was wrong, then using her right must be equally wrong. So she taught herself, in protest, to write with her teeth. Then her toes. She was not yet ten years old.

Three decades later, a physician at the Bronx Hospital told Blount, by then a licensed physical therapist, that the U.S. Army had been trying and failing to produce a working self-feeding device for amputees. Thousands of soldiers had returned from the Second World War without arms. Many could not feed themselves unaided. The psychological weight of that dependence, on top of the physical loss, was immense. If she really wanted to help, the doctor said, she should solve the problem. She went home and started building.

Working alone in her kitchen between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m., spending $3,000 of her own money over five years, Blount designed an electric feeding apparatus controlled by a single bite. A patient would bite down on a tube; a motor would deliver one measured portion of food through a spoon-shaped mouthpiece; the device would then shut off automatically, preventing choking. Every meal at whatever pace the patient chose, without assistance. She filed for a U.S. patent in 1948. Then she took the device to the Veterans Administration.

VA chief director Paul B. Magnuson wrote back that the device was "not needed" and "impractical." For three years she tried to change their minds. She did not. In 1952, Bessie Blount boarded a plane to Paris, walked into a signing ceremony with representatives of the French military, and donated the rights to her invention, free of charge, to France. Belgium purchased her second device, a disposable neck-mounted food receptacle for bedridden patients. When asked why she simply gave it away, she said: "A colored woman is capable of inventing something for the benefit of mankind." Within months of the Paris ceremony, more than twenty new assistive-device patents were filed in the United States citing her work as prior art.

She reinvented herself a second time at 55, becoming a forensic handwriting analyst. In 1977, she trained at Scotland Yard, the first Black American woman to do so. She ran her own forensic consulting firm until she was 83. She died in 2009, aged 95, still waiting for the VA to call back.

The knuckle-rapping teacher made her extraordinary. America made her a gift to France.

[Everything Georgia @GAFollowers]

Spelman announces that Ayanna Howard will be the new president.

Ayanna Howard is a world-renowned roboticist, AI expert, entrepreneur, and university leader who has spent her career pushing the boundaries of technology while expanding opportunities in STEM education.

[Jeanne Sparrow @JMSparrow]

We lost a Chicago giant this week who served our community with love and light... we honor the magic and servant leadership of Spencer Leak, Jr. and share details of his services next week. https://t.co/9TzB2a6XyV