It was a Love Supreme Friday on 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning, and hosts Paul B. and Buddy the God made good on that title — trading the week’s political heat for something warmer, deeper, and a little closer to the soul. The May 15th edition of the show brought the community together around a conversation that mattered: the future of North 24th Street, the power of music education, and the kind of long-game thinking that actually moves a neighborhood forward.
Paul B. set the tone early, acknowledging that the show had been living in the political trenches for a while. “We’ve been talking a lot of politics for a while and it’s time to change our mindsets over to something else,” he said. “It’s an effort, because it’s real easy to let your emotions take over when there’s so much to be emotional about.” And with that, the team exhaled — and turned to the work being done right on the ground in North Omaha.
Buddy the God didn’t let the civic conversation go entirely, though. Reflecting on voter turnout in the wake of the recent primary, he cut to the chase: “None of this really matters if everybody voted. It’s the missing piece. The reality is until we do that, we’re going to have to keep building our own ecosystems — and we got to do both.” Viewer Kimber Snipes echoed that complexity from the chat, writing, “I’ve been having conversations with people between the ages of 20 and 35. What I hear the most is most of them don’t really know what to do and know nothing about the candidates. I don’t think we should be slamming people for not voting when the system is really what has caused this. I think we need to have more education and deep dive discussions.” It was the kind of nuanced push-and-pull that makes the 1st Sky community worth tuning into.
But the heart of Friday’s show belonged to Dana Murray, founder and director of the North Omaha Music Academy (NMA), located right on the corridor the hosts lovingly call “the Deuce” — North 24th Street. A musician who spent eleven years in New York City before coming home to Omaha, Murray walked into the conversation with a vision as clear as a well-tuned note.
When asked what North 24th Street could and should become, Murray didn’t hesitate. “The area that has the most history and the one that can claim it is a cultural and arts district — for real — is the North 24th Street corridor,” he said. “Look at old pictures and you see on a Saturday morning North 24th Street is filled with people just walking around, shopping, going to eat breakfast — men in their suits. It was a vibe. There was a unity, a love, and a togetherness that was there.” He went on to describe the full ecosystem a thriving district requires — housing, parking, eateries, laundromats — and the destination anchors that bring people in from across the city. A hotel, he noted, would open the door to larger music festivals and conferences held right in the community.
Murray was equally candid about the cultural missed opportunities that have held the corridor back. He pointed to Native Omaha Days with both affection and honest critique. “I love Native Omaha Days at its core — anything that can bring us together — but it’s a failed opportunity to showcase our culture because it doesn’t invite the rest of Omaha down to partake in what we have to offer,” he said, contrasting it with South Omaha’s Cinco de Mayo celebration, which draws the entire city in. NMA, he said, has been proving that people will come. “People don’t have any problem coming from wherever they are in Omaha or Iowa to come down North 24th Street to hear jazz music. That taboo about the area and its ability to be an attraction was false. We’ve proven that.”
Viewer Pops jumped in with a piece of living history to underscore the point: “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.”
At its core, NMA is a youth music academy and performance venue — but Murray made clear it’s building something much larger. He drew a direct comparison to Omaha Performing Arts and the $40 to $50 million in annual economic activity it generates for downtown. “That’s what we’re trying to build for North Omaha,” he said. And the students coming through NMA aren’t just being shaped into musicians. “We’re not only raising musicians but, more importantly, we’re raising more critical thinking human beings,” Murray explained. “Some will become doctors, some lawyers, some business owners — whatever they choose, they’re going to be better because they were aligned with artistry.”
The academy’s programming extends well beyond instrument lessons. Students learn live sound engineering, broadcast production, podcasting, and even how to conduct interviews with visiting artists. “It’s not just telling them ‘you can be this’ — no, you can be this right now,” Murray said. The future plans are equally ambitious — a $20 million capital campaign as the first phase toward a full NMA campus that Murray envisions as a true economic and cultural engine for North Omaha. “What we have to sell in most Black communities is our culture,” he said plainly. “The sooner we understand that our culture is equity, that our brilliance and artistic genius is equity, the better off we’re going to be.”
Viewer Senator KML put it simply from the chat: “Thank you, Uncle Dana. You’re changing lives in big ways. We are the students.”
Paul B. brought the episode home by connecting all of it to what he calls the “secondary matrix” — the deeper purpose running beneath everything the show does. “Everything that we do has a secondary meaning, a deeper meaning,” he reflected. “On the surface, we’re a couple of talking heads that talk about some news with the community — but what we’re really trying to do is build community, build some coalition, build a family of people that we can regularly talk to and come to some conclusions so we can get to some action.” Dana Murray and the North Omaha Music Academy, it’s clear, are very much a part of that same matrix.
NMA Fest is on the horizon, and if Friday’s conversation was any indication, North 24th Street has plenty more story left to write. Join Paul B., Buddy the God, and the whole 1st Sky family Monday morning — and bring a neighbor along for the ride.
