It was a Love Supreme Friday on 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning, and hosts Paul B. and Buddy the God set the tone early. With political tensions running hot in the show’s online community, Paul B. made a deliberate call to lead with love. “There’s a lot of chatter going on on Friends of First Sky Omaha,” he said. “There’s a lot of back and forth, friends breaking up, all kinds of stuff happening over politics — and that just is like, okay, well, we have to make a decision. It’s going to be Love Supreme Friday today.” It was exactly the kind of grounding the morning called for.
The show’s centerpiece conversation brought in Dana Murray, executive director and founder of the North Omaha Music Academy — known to many longtime Omahans as Love’s Jazz — situated right on the storied North 24th Street corridor. A South Omaha native who spent eleven years in New York City before coming home, Murray has built NMA into something much bigger than a music school. It’s a vision for what North Omaha could become.
Paul B. has long had a name for that stretch of pavement. “I’ve always called it the most important black corner in Nebraska,” he said, “and we got to serve it. We have to be of service to it.” Viewer Pops echoed that sentiment from the chat: “Artists like Fats Domino used to stay at your grandfather’s home when he came to town to perform. So yes, more infrastructure for the artist around the Deuce corridor would be a godsend.”
Murray didn’t shy away from the big picture. When asked what the North 24th Street corridor should be, he laid out a clear-eyed vision — one grounded in both history and pragmatism. “Really, the area that has the most history and the one that can claim ‘we are a cultural and arts district’ for real is the North 24th Street corridor,” he said. He described the full ecosystem a thriving district needs: housing, services, parking, grocery stores, gas stations, entertainment, restaurants — and even a hotel. “With a hotel, you can throw larger attractions, music festivals, and conferences right in the community.”
But Murray was equally candid about what holds the corridor back. “One of the things that holds us back is this false sense of security with pride as it pertains to North Omaha,” he said. “At every opportunity, we fail at taking advantage of showcasing our culture and highlighting the excellence of who we are.” He pointed to Native Omaha Days as a missed opportunity — beloved at its core, but not structured to invite the broader city in. NMA, he argued, has already proven the skeptics wrong. “I’ve tried to be a beacon for all of Omaha to come down to North 24th Street, and people have no problem coming from wherever they are in Omaha or Iowa to hear jazz music. That taboo about the area and its ability to be an attraction was false. We’ve proven that.” Viewer Mark Manor backed him up from the chat: “When I go there it is the same people at shows at Waiting Room, Slow Down, and the Jewels. So people are coming from all around town and getting down at NMA, which I find impressive.”
So what exactly is NMA trying to build? Murray drew a striking parallel. “If you think of Omaha Performing Arts and what it means to downtown — not only as a cultural and music entertainment entity, but as an economic vehicle — they bring in $40 to $50 million in revenue every year.” His goal is nothing less than that kind of institutional anchor for North Omaha. And the mission runs deeper than music. “We’re not only raising musicians, but more importantly we’re raising more critical-thinking human beings,” he said. “All these young kids are not going to become musicians by choice. Some will become doctors, some lawyers, some business owners. Whatever they choose to do, they’re going to be better because they were aligned with artistry.”
Paul B. put a name to that idea — what he calls the “secondary matrix.” “Everything that we do has a secondary meaning, a deeper meaning,” he explained. “In Dana Murray’s case, he teaches kids music — but the secondary matrix is to create critical thinkers, create people that can go further in their fields because they have the discipline of musical training.” Viewer Pops connected with the concept personally: “I experienced my secondary matrix in junior high when I took algebra. I was gaining proficiency and noticed that I was suddenly able to think outside the box on several different levels. Music the same.”
Murray also spoke honestly about the challenge of reaching today’s kids. “We are in crisis with education — not just with young black kids, but young kids — because we are losing the ability to inspire them,” he said. “Most of their learning comes from Google, ChatGPT, YouTube, Instagram, things going viral. That’s their world, and we can act like that’s going away, but it’s not.” NMA’s approach is to meet students where they are rather than force an outdated curriculum on them. “The why you’re doing it is everything,” Murray added, “because they don’t need us for the what — they can go to YouTube and see anything we’re trying to teach them.”
As for where NMA is headed, Murray is thinking big. He announced plans for a capital campaign — with a first phase goal of $20 million — aimed at building a full NMA campus. “Money is not our issue in North Omaha,” he said. “It’s transformative ideas that are going to allow us to be not only sustainable but gainfully active.” NMA is also currently seeking qualified music instructors. Interested educators can reach Murray at dmurray@northomahamsic.org or his assistant Andrew Bailey at abailey@northomahamsic.org.
The conversation also touched on Nebraska’s recent primary elections and a sobering civic reality. Viewer Sean McCarthy noted from the chat that average primary voter turnout in Douglas County hovered around 35 percent. Buddy the God didn’t mince words: “None of this — a lot of this doesn’t matter if everybody voted.” He also offered a broader framework for the work ahead: “We got to do both. We got to do both in the now. We have to build our own ecosystems and continue to do the things that we’re about to talk about. But in the long run, we do got to figure this out as far as a nation.”
The show also celebrated some bright community news: Core Science Bio Diagnostics was awarded a $52,000 prize, and a new grocery store is coming to the area through Heart Ministry Center — a welcome development for a neighborhood that has long been underserved. And on a purely joyful note, viewer Aeros 402 shared: “On a love note, my only daughter gave birth to my second granddaughter. They are both new and good. I feel blessed.” The chat lit up — which is exactly what Love Supreme Friday is made for.
If you missed this one, make plans to catch the next episode. There’s always something worth waking up early for on 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning.
