It was a Friday morning in Omaha, and hosts Paul B. and Buddy the God made a conscious choice to steer the ship toward the light. In the wake of Nebraska’s primary elections — and all the emotions that come with civic disappointment — Paul B. set the tone early. “We have to make a decision,” he told viewers. “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.” And just like that, the conversation turned toward what’s being built, not what’s been lost.
Buddy the God didn’t shy away from the election entirely, offering a pointed observation that lingered in the air: “None of this really matters if everybody voted. And as I’ve been listening to conversations… that’s a pretty valid point — a lot of this doesn’t matter if everybody voted.” Viewer Mama God echoed the sentiment in the chat: “People say they want younger leaders, but are they prepared to donate their vote? Low to average turnout even when Spivey, McKinnie, Kimra, Wayne, etc. are on the ballot.” It’s a tension the community keeps returning to — and probably should.
From there, the show pivoted to the kind of stories that fill a person back up. The hosts highlighted a pair of remarkable community wins worth celebrating: Charell Shelton’s diagnostic lab was awarded a $52,000 prize, and Omaha North’s engineering program earned national recognition. These are the moments, Paul B. and Buddy reminded their audience, that don’t always make the front page but absolutely should.
The heart of Friday’s episode, though, belonged to Dana Murray — executive director and founder of the North Omaha Music Academy, known as NMA, located on the storied stretch of North 24th Street. Murray spent 11 years in New York City before returning home to Omaha, and he’s been teaching music here for two decades. What he’s building at NMA, however, is something far larger than a music school.
When asked about his vision for the North 24th Street corridor — what locals affectionately call “the Deuce” — Murray didn’t mince words. “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. “We’ve been so far removed from that — not even what the rest of Omaha views North 24th Street as. I’m more talking to the people that are there, who are so far removed from what that was, that it is hard to build momentum from within.”
Murray laid out a practical vision: enough housing, eateries, services, and — critically — destination attractions to draw visitors from across the metro and beyond. He even floated the idea of a hotel, which would unlock the possibility of larger music festivals and conferences right in the heart of the community. His model? Look south. “I wish we did more of what South Omaha does with Cinco de Mayo,” he said. “They champion their culture and they invite everybody down to be part of that.” Murray said NMA has already proven the skeptics wrong: “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 offered a poignant thread of history to the conversation: “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.” Paul B. has long held this corner in reverence. “I’ve always called it the most important Black corner in Nebraska,” he said. “We have some history there, some legacy there — and we have to be of service to it.”
At NMA, that service takes a remarkably hands-on form. Beyond traditional instrument instruction — bass, piano, and more — students learn live sound engineering, broadcasting, podcasting, and how to interview working artists. Murray’s philosophy is disarmingly direct: “They can go to YouTube and see anything we’re trying to teach them. The instructors we bring in have to have in their arsenal the ability to inspire another human being.” The curriculum also weaves in the deep history of Omaha’s Black musical legacy — figures like Preston Love Sr., Buddy Miles, and Victor Lewis — not as distant footnotes, but as living context. “If you give kids context, they connect the dots for themselves,” Murray said, “and they start to see the wins and the losses in not only Black people but the rest of the country.”
Paul B. framed this beautifully with what he called the “secondary matrix” — the idea that what appears on the surface to be music education is actually something much deeper. “The secondary matrix is to create critical thinkers, people that can go further in their fields because they have the discipline of musical training and the mind-expanding benefits of that training.” Viewer Pops connected 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’s ambitions for NMA don’t stop at the current building. He announced plans for a $20 million first-phase capital campaign aimed at developing a full NMA campus — something he envisions as North Omaha’s answer to what Omaha Performing Arts means for downtown. “If you can have bigger entertainment, if you can bring attractions, people will come,” he said. “What we have to sell in most Black communities is our culture. If we don’t monetize it — and 99% of the time we don’t — the rest of the country does it for us.”
NMA is currently seeking music instructors. Interested candidates can reach Dana Murray at dmurray@northomahamusic.org or assistant Andrew Bailey at abailey@northomahamusic.org. Viewer Derek Higgins summed up the room’s feeling simply: “Congrats, Dana, and what NMA is doing.”
The show also teased two upcoming events worth marking on your calendar: NMA Fest and a community film screening of Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters. And as the morning wrapped up, Paul B. left the audience with a line passed down from his grandmother — one that somehow fit the whole hour perfectly: “Dance is the shortcut to happiness.”
It was that kind of Friday. The kind that reminds you why community matters, why culture is equity, and why showing up — on the ballot, at the concert, in the classroom — is never wasted. Tune in Monday morning for more of 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning, right where Omaha comes together to start the day.
