It was a Love Supreme Friday on 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning, and from the very first minutes of Season 4, Episode 53, hosts Paul B. and Buddy the God made clear that the energy was shifting. After weeks of heavy political coverage surrounding Nebraska’s midterm primary results, the show leaned into something more nourishing: community, culture, and the people quietly doing transformative work in Omaha’s backyard.
“We’ve been talking a lot of politics for a while and it’s time to change our mindsets over to something else,” Paul B. told the audience. “It’s Love Supreme Friday today — and that’s a decision.”
That decision paid off. The centerpiece of the morning was an in-depth conversation with Dana Murray, executive director and founder of the North Omaha Music Academy (NMA), located on the storied North 24th Street corridor. A musician and educator who spent eleven years honing his craft in New York City before returning home to Omaha, Murray brought the kind of grounded, visionary thinking that made the chat light up. Viewer Senator KML put it simply: “Thank you, Uncle Dana. You’re changing lives in big ways. We are the students.”
Murray’s vision for NMA goes well beyond music lessons. He described the academy as a youth music academy, a performance space, and a community venue — and then reached higher. “If you think of Omaha Performing Arts and what it means to downtown — not just as a cultural entity but as an economic vehicle bringing in 40 to 50 million dollars in revenue every year — that’s what we’re trying to build for North Omaha,” he said. The first phase of that dream is a $20 million capital campaign aimed at establishing a full NMA campus on the North 24th corridor.
But Murray was quick to reframe what success really looks like for the young people walking through NMA’s doors. “We’re not only raising musicians; more importantly, we’re raising more critical thinking human beings,” he explained. “Some of these young kids are going to become doctors, lawyers, business owners — but whatever they choose, they’re going to be better because they were aligned with artistry.”
That idea resonated deeply with Paul B., who framed it through a concept he called the secondary matrix — the deeper outcome beneath the surface mission. “In Dana Murray’s case, he teaches kids music, but the secondary matrix is to create critical thinkers — people who can go further in their fields because they have the discipline and mind-expanding benefits of musical training.” Viewer Pops echoed the thought 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.”
Beyond instruments, NMA students learn live sound engineering, broadcasting, live streaming, and podcasting. Murray described a broadcast lab where students interview visiting artists — not as a future aspiration, but as a present reality. “It’s not just telling them ‘you can be this someday’ — no, you can be this right now,” he said. He also emphasized the importance of connecting students to Omaha’s deep musical heritage, teaching them about figures like Victor Lewis, one of the most recorded jazz drummers in history. “If you give kids context, they connect the dots for themselves and start to see how they can be impactful.”
The conversation moved naturally to North 24th Street itself — what it was, what it should be, and the honest work required to get it there. Murray was candid. “There’s been a whole lot of stuff on North 24th Street that wasn’t sustainable, and I can’t get caught up in the emotion of redevelopment,” he said. “The X’s and O’s have to make sense.” He outlined the practical infrastructure a thriving cultural district requires — housing, eateries, parking, services — alongside the destination draws that bring people in: entertainment, restaurants, and eventually, a hotel large enough to support major music festivals and conferences.
He also challenged a tendency he sees holding the community back. “One of the things that holds us back is a false sense of security with pride as it pertains to North Omaha,” Murray said, pointing to South Omaha’s Cinco de Mayo celebration as a model worth learning from. “They champion their culture and invite everybody down to be a part of it.” His own effort at NMA has followed that same open-door philosophy — and it’s working. “People have no problem coming from wherever they are to hear jazz music or whatever we present.”
Paul B. reinforced the cultural stakes. “I’ve always called it the most important Black corner in Nebraska — and we have to be of service to it.” Viewer Pops added a personal note that underscored the corridor’s legendary 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.”
Buddy the God tied the conversation back to the show’s season-long theme of ecosystem building. “I’m thinking ecosystem in the sense of real systems, like how they circle back and how they loop back and how they regenerate — that’s what I’m hearing from what you’re talking about.” He also issued a broader call to action: “We got to do both — build our own ecosystems and continue to vote so what we build can be supported and uplifted rather than undermined by those in office.”
Murray closed his portion of the conversation with a charge that felt like a benediction. “What we have to sell in most Black communities is our culture. If we don’t monetize it, the rest of the country will. The sooner we understand that our culture is equity, that our artistic genius is equity, the better off we’re going to be.”
The morning closed on a warm personal note, as viewer Aeros 402 shared some beautiful news with the community: “On a love note, my only daughter gave birth to my second granddaughter. They are both new and good. I feel blessed.” It was exactly the kind of moment that makes Love Supreme Friday feel earned.
NMA is currently seeking music instructors who can do more than teach — they need to inspire. Interested educators can contact Dana Murray at dmurray@northomahahusic.org or assistant Andrew Bailey at abailey@northomahahusic.org.
Join Paul B., Buddy the God, and the whole 1st Sky community again Monday morning — because the conversation is just getting started.
