There’s something about a Friday morning that feels like permission — permission to exhale, to look up from the noise, and to remember what actually matters. That spirit was alive and well on this week’s Love Supreme Friday edition of 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning, where hosts Paul B. and Buddy the God guided listeners through a conversation that touched on elections, education, culture, and the enduring promise of North 24th Street.
The show opened with a conscious pivot. With Nebraska’s recent primary election results fresh in everyone’s minds, Paul B. set the tone early: “We have to make a decision. 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.” It was a gentle but firm invitation — step off the treadmill of outrage, even briefly, and think about what we can build.
That didn’t mean ignoring the political realities, though. Buddy the God kept it grounded, reminding the audience that civic engagement is the foundation everything else rests on: “None of that really matters if the people don’t vote — and even down to the Supreme Court decision, those maps and those numbers are still based on who’s registered, who’s of age, and actually who comes out to vote.” Viewer Kimber Snipes echoed that sentiment from the chat, writing, “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 one of those chat moments that stopped the room — because it was true, and everybody felt it.
From there, the show moved into one of its most energizing conversations in recent memory, welcoming Dana Murray, founder and director of the North Omaha Music Academy (NMA), located right on the storied North 24th Street corridor. A South Omaha native who spent eleven years in New York City before returning home, Murray brought a blend of big-city vision and deep-rooted Omaha love to the conversation.
Murray painted a vivid picture of what North 24th Street once was — and what it can be again. “Look at old pictures — on a Saturday morning, North 24th Street is filled with people walking around, shopping, going to eat breakfast,” he said. “There was a unity, a love, and a togetherness that was there.” He envisions the corridor becoming a true cultural and arts destination — one with the infrastructure to match its history: housing, services, restaurants, entertainment, and yes, even a hotel that could draw conferences and music festivals directly into the community.
As a South Omaha native stepping into North Omaha’s cultural space, Murray has heard the questions. But he’s also seen the results. “People told me that was going to be very, very hard,” he said of drawing audiences to NMA. “And people have no problem coming from wherever they are in Omaha or Iowa to come down to 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 Mark Manner backed that up from personal experience: “When I go there it is the same people at shows at Waiting Room, Slow Down, and the Jewels. So people are coming from all around town and getting down at NMA, which I find impressive.”
But NMA isn’t just a venue — it’s a launchpad. Murray described a program that teaches youth music performance, live sound engineering, broadcasting, and podcast production, all while grounding students in the history of the artists who shaped American music. “We’re not only raising musicians but more importantly we’re raising more critical thinking human beings,” he said. “Whatever they choose to do, they’re going to be better because they were aligned with artistry.” If you give kids context, Murray explained, they connect the dots themselves — whether those dots lead to a stage, a laboratory, or a courtroom.
The future he’s imagining for NMA is nothing short of ambitious. A $20 million capital campaign, a full campus, and a role for the academy that mirrors what Omaha Performing Arts means for downtown — as both a cultural anchor and an economic engine. “Money is not our issue really in North Omaha,” Murray said plainly. “It’s transformative ideas that are going to allow us to be not only sustainable but gainfully active. Our culture is equity. Our artistic genius is equity.”
That idea — of culture as capital, of history as something to be built upon rather than mourned — threaded through the entire episode. Paul B. gave it a name: the secondary matrix. “Everything you’re doing really does kind of have a secondary matrix — a reason behind it,” he said. “That’s what this is really about: building community, building coalition, being able to speak to a family of people that we can regularly talk to and come to some conclusions about some things so we can get to some action.” Buddy the God connected it to his own path through civic engineering studies at Omaha North, noting that even though he didn’t enter the field professionally, the critical thinking it gave him never left.
In between the big ideas, there were tender moments too. Viewer Ariel 402 shared a joyful update: “On a love note, my only daughter gave birth to my second granddaughter. They are both new and good. I feel blessed.” The hosts paused to celebrate that — a new life, new love, right there in the chat on a Friday morning. That’s what this show does best.
Before signing off, the hosts gave shoutouts to community organizations doing the work on the ground, including Core Science Bio Diagnostics and the Heart Ministry Center, and looked ahead to a screening of Boots Riley’s film I Love Boosters at Film Streams — another reminder that Omaha’s creative and civic life is always in motion.
If this Friday’s show was any measure, the ecosystem Paul B. keeps talking about is already growing. Tune in next week — there’s always more to discover, more to celebrate, and more community to build, one morning at a time.
