Some Friday mornings just feel different — and this past “Love Supreme Friday” on 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning was exactly that kind of morning. Hosts Paul B. and Buddy the God made a deliberate choice to steer away from the post-primary political noise and toward something more nourishing: a celebration of community, culture, and the people quietly doing the work that holds Omaha together.
“We have to make a decision,” Paul B. told viewers early in the show. “It’s going to be Love Supreme Friday today. And we’re going to change our mindsets over to something else.” It was a reset — and the audience felt it.
The hosts didn’t ignore civic life entirely. They touched on local primary results and the importance of engagement beyond social media, with Paul B. reading aloud a pointed observation from a community member’s Facebook post: “Posting on Facebook is not enough. Awareness without action changes nothing.” Buddy the God echoed that call to parallel action. “We got to do both,” he said. “We got to do both in the now. We have to build our own ecosystems and continue to do the things that we’re about to talk about.”
And what they were about to talk about was worth every minute.
The show’s featured guest was Dana Murray, executive director and founder of the North Omaha Music Academy (NMA), located on the North 24th Street corridor — what Paul B. has long called “the most important Black corner in Nebraska.” A South Omaha native who spent eleven years in New York City before returning home, Murray has built NMA into a youth music academy, a performance space, and a community anchor. The conversation was rich, wide-ranging, and at times quietly electric.
Murray spoke with calm conviction about why the arts aren’t a luxury — they’re a foundation. “The arts are the core of who we are as people — definitely as Black people,” he said. “A lot of my agenda has been wrapped around shining light on the things you really can’t see but are there.” He pushed back gently on the tendency to let emotion drive community building without structure. “I just want us all to look at it as an equation — 2 plus 2 equals 4. There are things we have to do to move ahead, and oftentimes we get caught up in the emotion of building a community when we need some real X’s and O’s.”
Viewer Senator KML captured the spirit of NMA’s impact simply: “Thank you, Uncle Dana. You’re changing lives in big ways. We are the students.”
When the conversation turned to what North 24th Street could and should become, Murray painted a vivid picture — and didn’t shy away from the work required to get there. He recalled old photographs of the corridor on a Saturday morning: people walking, shopping, dressed well, connected. “There was a unity, a love, and a togetherness that was there because that’s all we had,” he said. His vision for the future is just as grounded: a self-sustaining district with housing, services, and destinations — restaurants, entertainment, and yes, even a hotel. “If you can have bigger entertainment, if you can bring attractions, people will come,” Murray said. Viewer Pops added a personal note from the chat: “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 was also candid about the cultural missed opportunities Omaha has let slip by. He compared Native Omaha Days — which he loves at its core — to South Omaha’s Cinco de Mayo celebration, which he said invites all of Omaha in to experience and share in the culture. “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,” he said. “That taboo about the area’s ability to be an attraction was false. We’ve proven that.”
NMA’s programming goes well beyond instrument lessons. Murray described a full ecosystem of electives: live sound engineering, broadcast production, podcasting, and even student-led artist interviews. “We’re not only raising musicians but more importantly raising more critical thinking human beings,” he said. That philosophy extends to how NMA teaches local music history — figures like drummer Buddy Miles and jazz legend Victor Lewis. “If you give kids context, they connect the dots for themselves,” Murray explained. “Now you’ve got a critical thinking human. That’s ultimately what we’re trying to do.”
Looking ahead, Murray shared that NMA is preparing to launch a capital campaign — the first phase totaling $20 million — with the goal of building a full NMA campus on the North 24th Street corridor. “What we have to sell in most Black communities is our culture — because if we don’t monetize it, the rest of the country does,” he said. “The sooner we understand that our culture, our brilliance, our artistic genius is equity, the better off we’re going to be.”
NMA is currently seeking music instructors who bring more than technical skill. Interested educators can reach Dana Murray at dmurray@northomahamusic.org or assistant Andrew Bailey at abailey@northomahamusic.org.
The morning also made room for joy. Viewer Aeros 402 shared a love note of his own from the chat: “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 Love Supreme Friday was made for.
Paul B. summed up the show’s deeper mission in a way that felt like both a mission statement and an invitation: “Everything that we do has a secondary meaning, a deeper meaning. On the surface we’re a couple of talking heads — but what we’re really trying to do is build community, build coalition.”
That’s the heart of 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning — and if this Friday was any indication, there’s plenty more heart to come. Tune in Monday morning and be part of the conversation.
