Friday mornings have a certain energy on 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning, and this past week’s “Love Supreme Friday” edition delivered something special — a rich, wide-ranging conversation about music, community, culture, and the kind of intentional thinking it takes to build something lasting on North 24th Street.
Hosts Paul B. and Buddy the God opened the show by acknowledging that the week had been a heavy one. Nebraska’s primary election results were fresh, and the turnout numbers were hard to ignore. “Only 339,000 out of more than 1.2 million registered voters in Nebraska showed up yesterday,” Paul B. said. “Think about that for a second. And yet everybody has something to say. Everybody’s angry. Everybody’s debating policies and leadership decisions online. Posting on Facebook is not enough. Awareness without action changes nothing.”
Viewer Kimber Snipes offered a thoughtful counterpoint 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.” It was the kind of back-and-forth that makes the First Sky community feel less like an audience and more like a neighborhood conversation.
But rather than let the weight of the moment drag things down, Paul B. made a deliberate choice. “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.” With that, the show shifted into high gear.
The centerpiece of the morning was a conversation with Dana Murray, executive of the North Omaha Music Academy (NMA), located right on the historic North 24th Street corridor. Murray’s story is one of roots, detours, and return. He grew up in South Omaha, spent eleven years honing his craft as a musician in New York City, and came back to Omaha with a vision that goes far beyond teaching kids to play instruments.
“If you’re Black and you’re in Omaha, especially in the ’70s and early ’80s, everyone had a shared relationship with North Omaha,” Murray said. “That was the Mecca for us.” But he was candid about the work still ahead. “We’ve been so far removed — not even what the rest of Omaha views North 24th Street as. I’m more talking to the people that are there being so far removed from what that was, that it is hard to build momentum from within.”
Murray drew a pointed comparison between North Omaha’s Native Omaha Days and South Omaha’s Cinco de Mayo celebration — not to diminish either, but to challenge the community to think bigger. “It’s a failed opportunity to showcase our culture because none of that is trying to invite the rest of Omaha down to partake in what we have to offer,” he said. “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. People told me that was going to be very hard, but people have no problem coming from wherever they are in Omaha or Iowa to come down and hear jazz music. That taboo about the area and its ability to be an attraction was false. We’ve proven that.”
NMA, Murray explained, is far more than a music school. It’s a performance venue, a broadcast lab, a live sound training program — and a launching pad for young people’s futures. “These young kids are not all going to become musicians by choice,” he said. “Some will become doctors, lawyers, business owners. Whatever they choose to do, they’re going to be better because they were aligned with artistry.” He offered a quiet but powerful point about inspiration versus instruction: “The kids don’t need us for the ‘what’ — they can go to YouTube and see anything we’re trying to teach them. The ‘why’ they’re doing it is everything.”
That idea connected directly to a concept Paul B. introduced during the show: the “secondary matrix.” “In Dana Murray’s case, he teaches kids music — on the surface that’s what it is,” Paul B. explained. “But when you learn music, your brain synapses start firing in different ways. You become a better student, more intelligent. The secondary matrix for him is to create critical thinkers.” Viewer Pops resonated with the idea from personal experience: “I experienced my secondary matrix in junior high when I took algebra. I was gaining proficiency and noticed I was suddenly able to think outside the box on several different levels. Music the same.”
Murray also unveiled NMA’s long-term ambitions: a capital campaign with a first phase of $20 million, aimed at building a full NMA campus on North 24th Street — something he envisions as the North Omaha equivalent of what Omaha Performing Arts means to downtown, an institution that drives both cultural pride and economic activity. “What we have to sell in most Black communities is our culture,” he said. “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. Every music in America has been built off of our experience, from the hardest rock to the jazziest jazz — you trace it all the way back to the music brought over from Africa. That’s equity for us to build and monetize for our community.”
Paul B. echoed that sense of sacred responsibility toward the corridor. “I’ve always called it the most important Black corner in Nebraska,” he said. “We have some history there and some legacy there — and we got to serve it. We have to be of service to it.” Buddy the God grounded the conversation with a practical call to action: “We got to do both — build our own ecosystems and continue to vote and engage politically.”
The morning also made room for joy. Viewer Aeros 402 shared a beautiful personal note: “On a love note, my only daughter gave birth to my second granddaughter. They are both new and good. I feel blessed.” It was a perfect Love Supreme Friday reminder of why community matters in the first place.
Those interested in joining NMA as a music instructor can reach Dana Murray at dmurray@northomahamusic.org or assistant Andrew Bailey at abailey@northomahamusic.org.
If Friday’s show was any indication, 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning is doing exactly what the best community conversations do — holding the hard truths, celebrating the bright spots, and keeping the vision alive. Pull up a chair and join them Monday morning. You won’t want to miss what comes next.
