It was a Love Supreme Friday on the set of 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning, and hosts Paul B. and Buddy the God were determined to keep the energy grounded in gratitude and purpose — even as the conversation occasionally drifted toward the weight of the week’s Nebraska primary election results. The show, Season 4, Episode 53, aired May 15th and delivered one of its most community-rich hours yet, anchored by a deeply inspiring conversation with Dana Murray, founder and executive director of the North Omaha Music Academy.
Before the main interview got underway, the hosts took a moment to acknowledge what many viewers were feeling in the aftermath of primary election night. Buddy the God kept it plain:
“None of this really matters if everybody voted. That’s a pretty valid point — a lot of this doesn’t matter if everybody voted.”
Viewer Sean McCarthy chimed in from the chat with a sobering data point, noting that Douglas County’s average primary voter turnout hovered around just 35 percent. Viewer Kimber Snipes offered some important context, 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, honest pushback the show regularly invites — and exactly the kind of civic conversation Paul B. and Buddy seem to live for.
Rather than spiral into frustration, Paul B. made a conscious pivot. “We have to make a decision,” he said. “It’s going to be Love Supreme Friday today. And we’re going to change our mindsets over to something else — because it’s real easy to let your emotions take over when there’s so much to be emotional about.” That pivot set the tone for everything that followed.
Paul B. also took a moment to articulate what he calls the “secondary matrix” — the deeper mission running beneath the surface of the show itself. “Everything that we do has a secondary meaning, a deeper meaning,” he explained. “On the surface we’re a couple of talking heads — 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 and get to some action.” Viewer Pops connected with the concept immediately, writing that he first experienced his own secondary matrix in junior high algebra — and that music works the same way.
That framing couldn’t have set up the morning’s featured guest more perfectly. Dana Murray, a South Omaha native who spent eleven years in New York City before returning home, founded what was formerly known as Love’s Jazz and has since grown it into the North Omaha Music Academy — a youth music academy and performance venue anchored on the historic North 24th Street corridor. From the moment he started talking, it was clear Murray thinks in systems and legacy, not just lesson plans.
“The arts are the core of who we are as people — definitely as black people — and the history of North Omaha, and really Omaha,” Murray said. “With a lot of the development going on, there’s very little talked about the social, people development, healing, that has to happen to even take advantage of all the opportunities. A lot of that is unquantifiable, which as an artist, knowing the power of that, a lot of my agenda has been wrapped around shining light on the things you really can’t see, but are there.”
Murray was candid about the potential — and the missed opportunities — along North 24th Street, a corridor Paul B. has long called “the most important Black corner in Nebraska.” Murray sees it as Omaha’s most legitimate claim to a true cultural and arts district, pointing to comparable neighborhood revivals in Blackstone, Benson, and Little Bohemia. But he insists the X’s and O’s have to make sense. “There’s been a whole lot of stuff on North 24th Street that wasn’t sustainable,” he said plainly. His vision includes housing, services, restaurants, entertainment — and yes, eventually a hotel, which he argues would allow the corridor to attract larger festivals and conferences right in the heart of the community.
Viewer Pops offered a poignant piece of family history in the chat, noting that legends like Fats Domino once stayed at Paul B.’s grandfather’s home when they came to town to perform — a quiet reminder that the infrastructure Murray is calling for has deep roots. And viewer Mark Manor pointed out something he’s noticed firsthand: “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 as well.” Murray smiled at that, noting that the so-called taboo about the area being an attraction has already been proven false — people will drive from anywhere in Omaha, or across the river from Iowa, for good jazz.
On the subject of education, Murray didn’t sugarcoat the challenge. “We are in crisis with education — not just young Black kids, young kids — because we are losing the ability to inspire them,” he said. His approach at NMA is to meet students where they are rather than force outdated curricula on a generation raised on YouTube and ChatGPT. “We are the students,” he said — a line that landed so well, viewer Senator KML echoed it right back in the chat: “Thank you, Uncle Dana. You’re changing lives in big ways. We are the students.”
Murray’s long-range vision is bold: a $20 million capital campaign and a full NMA campus that could serve North Omaha the way Omaha Performing Arts serves downtown — not just as a cultural destination, but as a genuine economic engine. “What we have to sell in most black communities is our culture,” he said. “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.”
Those interested in getting involved or joining the NMA faculty can reach Dana Murray at dmurray@northomahamusic.org or his assistant Andrew Bailey at abailey@northomahamusic.org. Murray was clear that instructors need more than technical skill — they need the ability to inspire. “The why you’re doing it is everything,” he said, “because they don’t need us for the what — they can go to YouTube and see anything we’re trying to teach them.”
The show closed on a warm note, with viewer Aeros 402 sharing a piece of beautiful personal news: “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 perfect punctuation on a Love Supreme Friday — a reminder that community isn’t just built in concert halls and city corridors. It’s built in living rooms, hospitals, and chat boxes too.
If you missed this one, do yourself a favor and catch the replay. And be sure to tune in Monday morning for another conversation worth having — right here on 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning.
