It was a Love Supreme Friday on 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning, and hosts Paul B. and Buddy the God were determined to shift the energy. After weeks of dissecting Nebraska’s primary election results and the heat of political debate, the duo made a deliberate turn toward something more nourishing — community, creativity, and the quiet, steady work of building something that lasts.
“We’ve been talking a lot of politics for a while and it’s time for a break,” Paul B. told viewers. “Love Supreme Friday is going down today for sure.” But that didn’t mean stepping away from the hard questions. It meant approaching them differently — through art, education, and the people doing the unglamorous, essential work of strengthening Omaha from the inside out.
Before the main interview got underway, the hosts touched on a tension that clearly weighs on them: the gap between online outrage and real civic action. “Everybody has something to say. Everybody’s angry. Everybody’s debating policies and leadership decisions online. Everybody posting stats,” Paul B. said. “Where is that same energy when it’s time to organize, educate, mobilize, register, and actually vote?” Viewer Kimber Snipes offered a counterpoint worth sitting with: “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 exactly the kind of exchange that makes the show feel like a genuine community conversation, not a broadcast lecture.
Buddy the God framed the larger challenge with characteristic clarity: “In order to have solidarity in the now, we are going to need some love supreme, some creativity. We got to do both — build our own ecosystems and continue to engage in the political process.” That dual mandate — internal community building alongside external civic engagement — set the stage perfectly for the morning’s featured guest.
Dana Murray, founder and director of the North Omaha Music Academy (NMA), joined the show for a wide-ranging conversation that was equal parts vision, history lesson, and quiet inspiration. A working musician who spent eleven years in New York City before returning home, Murray has been teaching music in Omaha for two decades. His organization — formerly known as Loves Jazz, now housed on the storied North 24th Street corridor — has become a hub for youth music education, live performance, broadcasting, and community development.
Paul B. has long held a reverence for that stretch of North Omaha. “I’ve always called it the most important black corner in Nebraska,” he said, “and we have to be of service to it.” Murray agreed, and his vision for what that corridor could become is nothing short of ambitious. “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,” Murray said. “And we’ve been so far removed from that.” He outlined the practical ingredients any thriving district needs — housing, eateries, parking, services, transportation — and added one more: destinations. “It would be great to have a hotel,” he said. “With a hotel, now you can throw larger attractions, music festivals, and conferences right in the community.”
Murray, who grew up in South Omaha, was candid about his relationship to the North 24th Street community and why he feels a sense of obligation to it regardless of his zip code of origin. “If you’re black and you’re in Omaha, especially in the 70s and early 80s, North Omaha was the Mecca for us,” he said. “Everyone had a shared relationship with it.” He’s tried to position NMA as a beacon for all of Omaha, and by his account, the skeptics have been proven wrong. “People told me that was going to be very hard,” he said. “And people don’t have any problem coming from wherever they are in Omaha or Iowa to come down and hear jazz music or whatever we present.”
The conversation deepened when Murray described what NMA is really trying to build — not just musicians, but thinkers. Paul B. called it the “secondary matrix”: the deeper purpose beneath the surface mission. “In Dana Murray’s case, he teaches kids music — but the secondary matrix is to create critical thinkers,” Paul B. said. Murray put it plainly: “These young kids are not all going to become musicians. 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.”
That philosophy extends to how NMA teaches Omaha’s musical legacy. Rather than rattling off names and dates, Murray’s instructors give students context. “They’re not going to retain someone just saying, ‘Oh, Buddy Miles is from here and he played with Jimi Hendrix,'” he said. “That goes in one ear and out the other. We’re teaching them who Buddy Miles was, what he represented for the community and the world.” Beyond instrument instruction, NMA offers live sound engineering, broadcasting, podcasting, and even opportunities to interview visiting artists — right now, not someday. “It’s not just telling them ‘you can be this someday,'” Murray said. “No — you can be this right now.”
Viewer Senator KML summed up what many were feeling in the chat: “Thank you, Uncle Dana. You’re changing lives in big ways. We are the students.” And viewer Pops added warmly: “I love this interview. This brother’s vibe is so cool and his intentions are admirable. First Sky loves the kids.”
Murray also made a sweeping case for treating Black culture as economic equity — something he said communities too often give away. “The sooner we understand that our culture is equity, that our brilliance and our artistic genius is equity, the better off we’re going to be,” he said. “Every music in America has been built off of our experience, from the hardest rock to the jazziest jazz to the poppiest pop. You trace it all back to the music brought over from Africa. That’s equity.”
Looking ahead, Murray shared that NMA is preparing to launch a capital campaign — with a first phase goal of $20 million — aimed at building a full NMA campus that could serve North Omaha the way Omaha Performing Arts serves downtown. “Money is not our issue in North Omaha, really,” he said. “It’s transformative ideas that are going to allow us to be not only sustainable but gainfully active.” Music instructors interested in joining the team can reach Murray directly at dmurray@northomahamusic.org or assistant Andrew Bailey at abailey@northomahamusic.org.
The show also lifted up other community bright spots — Charell Shelton’s North Omaha diagnostic lab, Heart Ministry Center’s forthcoming grocery store, and filmmaker Boots Riley’s new project — weaving them into the same tapestry of local people building local solutions. And in the midst of all of it, viewer Aeros 402 shared a moment of pure, personal joy: “On a love note, my only daughter gave birth to my second granddaughter. They are both new and good. I feel blessed.” It was the kind of reminder that community is built one family at a time — and that some of the most important news of the day never makes the headlines.
If you missed this week’s Love Supreme Friday, make sure you’re tuned in Monday morning — because on 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning, the conversation that matters most is always just getting started.
