Friday mornings on 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning have a particular kind of energy, and this past week’s “Love Supreme Friday” delivered exactly that — a warm, wide-ranging conversation about music, community, culture, and what it truly means to build something lasting on the north side of Omaha. Hosts Paul B. and Buddy the God welcomed a full chat room and a guest whose vision for North 24th Street is as ambitious as it is deeply rooted.
The show opened with a collective exhale after a busy primary election season. Paul B. set the tone right away: “We’ve been talking a lot of politics for a while and it’s — we got a little break after the primaries. Love Supreme’s going down today for sure.” But even on a celebratory Friday, the results of Tuesday’s primary lingered in the room. Viewer Raquel Henderson, quoted by the hosts, put it plainly: “Only 339,000 out of more than 1.2 million registered voters in Nebraska showed up yesterday. Think about that for a second. And yet everybody has something to say. Everybody’s angry. Everybody’s debating policies and leadership decisions online. Where is that same energy when it’s time to organize, educate, mobilize, register, and actually vote?”
Viewer Kimber Snipes offered a gentler perspective from the chat: “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.” Buddy the God threaded both ideas together thoughtfully, noting, “We got to do both. We got 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.”
That idea of building ecosystems — purposeful, self-sustaining communities within larger systems — is something Paul B. calls the “secondary matrix,” and it served as a quiet backbone for the entire episode. “Everything that we do has a secondary meaning, a deeper meaning,” he explained. “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, be able to speak to and build a family of people that we can regularly talk to and come to some conclusions and get to some action.”
Nowhere does that philosophy feel more alive right now than on North 24th Street, which Paul B. has long called “the most important black corner in Nebraska.” This week, that corridor came to life in the form of the show’s featured guest: Dana Murray, executive director of the North Omaha Music Academy (NMA), formerly known as Love’s Jazz. A South Omaha native and accomplished musician who spent eleven years in New York City before coming home, Murray has planted himself firmly at the heart of the 24th Street corridor — and his vision for what it could become is something to hear.
“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. “There’s so much shared history from North and South Omaha, and with a lot of the development going on, infrastructure-wise, very little is talked about the social, people development, healing that has to happen to even take advantage of all the opportunities.”
Murray painted a vivid picture of what the corridor once was — and what it could be again. “Look at old pictures — on a Saturday morning, North 24th Street is filled with people just walking around, shopping, going to eat breakfast, men in their suits. There was a unity, a love, and a togetherness that was there.” His blueprint for restoring that vitality is both practical and visionary: sufficient housing, eateries, services, parking, and destination attractions — and yes, eventually, a hotel. “With a hotel, now you can throw larger attractions, music festivals, conferences right in the community.”
The chat lit up in agreement. Viewer Pops offered a vivid piece of living history: “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 also addressed directly — and without defensiveness — the question of his place in the North Omaha ecosystem as someone who grew up in South Omaha. “If you’re black and you’re in Omaha, especially in the 70s and early 80s, everyone had a shared relationship with North Omaha — that was the Mecca for us,” he said. He pointed to South Omaha’s Cinco de Mayo celebrations as a model for what intentional cultural invitation looks like: “They champion their culture and invite everybody down. One of the things I’ve tried to do was reach out and be a beacon for all of Omaha to come down to North 24th Street.” The proof, he noted, is already in the room. People from across the metro and from Iowa are showing up on North 24th Street to hear jazz music — and the numbers are growing.
At its core, NMA is a youth music academy, a performance venue, and something Murray describes with the quiet confidence of someone who has done the math. “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 that brings in $40 to $50 million in revenue every year — that’s what we’re building toward for North Omaha.” But the mission runs deeper than economics. “We’re not only raising musicians but, more importantly, raising more critical-thinking human beings,” Murray said. “Whatever they choose, they’re going to be better because they were aligned with artistry.” Students at NMA learn live sound, broadcast, and live streaming — skills they’re using right now, not someday.
A $20 million capital campaign is on the horizon, with the longer goal of an NMA campus. Murray was candid about what the real obstacle is: “Money is not our issue really in North Omaha. It’s transformative ideas that are going to allow us to be not only sustainable but gainfully active. What we have to sell in most black communities is our culture. Because if we don’t monetize it — which 99% of the time we don’t — the rest of the country monetizes our culture for us.”
For those interested in joining NMA as music instructors, Murray extended an open invitation with one clear requirement beyond technical skill: the ability to inspire. “Unless you’re able to inspire a young person, they don’t really have the attention span for the X’s and O’s of music,” he said. “They don’t need us for the what — they can go to YouTube and see anything we’re trying to teach them.” Interested instructors can reach Murray at dmurray@northomahamusic.org or his assistant Andrew Bailey at abailey@northomahamusic.org.
As the show wound down on this Love Supreme Friday, the warmth in the chat room was palpable. Viewer Pops summed it up simply: “Thanks for another great week of shows. You and the Chat Chimers have made First Sky a true pillar in the community. Have a great weekend, and I’ll see you on Monday.” And in the spirit of celebration, Paul B. took a moment to congratulate viewer Aeros 402, who shared that his daughter had just given birth to his second granddaughter — a reminder that on Love Supreme Friday, every kind of new life is worth honoring.
Buddy the God closed out the season’s thread with a line that felt like both a compass and a challenge: “Follow the money. All the lanes are running. The lanes are wide open. Just get in where you fit in and make it happen.”
Tune in to 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning with Paul B. and Buddy the God — weekday mornings, live and in community. You won’t want to miss what’s coming next.
