Portrait of Charming

I met Charming at the  Big Sunday’s 5th Annual MLK Day Clothing Collection & Community Breakfast. She was originally from St. Lucia in the Southeastern part of the Caribbean, but she lived in Los Angeles, California, US for about 20 years, specifically, the mid-Wilshire area.

Charming worked for a fundraising company called Angel Bins. She helped get funds for companies like Sierra Club who sought funds for their environmental projects: to educate, engage, and empower volunteers to restore, improve, and protect waterways, water-quality and water monitoring

Charming  does all social media postings for Angel Bins: on Angel Bins | Facebook   Angel Bins (@Angel_Bins) | Twitter, @angel_bins_fundraisingInstagram.

Image Credits: Bat-Ami Gordin © 2017 all rights reserved. Credit if you use it, please.

Portrait of Murray

This is Murray, originally from Borough Park, Brooklyn, New York, USA but at the time of this posting, from Woodland Hills, California, USA. He had attended  New Utrecht High School.

January 16th, 2017  Martin Luther King Day, was Murray’s 84  birthday.

Murray takes pictures, at events, at the zoo and other places. In fact, he had a better camera than I had and showed me

Murray practiced as a realtor. He managed units and did  showings for Keller Williams Realty.

Murray considered the Big Sunday’s 5th Annual MLK Day Clothing Collection & Community Breakfast event a wonderful day.

Image Credits: Bat-Ami Gordin © 2017 all rights reserved. Credit if you use it, please.

Portrait of Claudia

This is a portrait of Claudia who ran track and attended Pepperdine University, Malibu, California, USA, as a Marketing and Spanish undergraduate. Her ambition for her future was talent management, particularly in the music field. She believed that Los Angeles, California, USA was the perfect place to get a foot in the door in that industry.

Claudia’s favorite music group was Earth Wind & Fire, which Blue Breeze Band (see previous portrait) was playing as we spoke. Earth Wind & Fire was the group that actually got her interested in talent management. Claudia noted that Charlie Wilson and other artists who influenced Rhythm and Blues (R&B) and Hip Hop today, helped her make this decision. Of course, she also appreciated contemporary R&B and Hip Hop.

Claudia defined Earth Wind & Fire‘s style as definitely R&B, but she also considered them funky. “They dabbled in disco a little, even though that wasn’t their preference. They are a feel good music. Everyone can get down to it no matter who they are,” she said.

Claudia was not from Los Angeles, but from Nashville, Tenn, USA, where she excelled at Hume-Fogg AcademiMagnet High School  Claudia came to the Martin Luther King Day Event because the team didn’t have practice and her coach asserted that each student/athlete had to volunteer somewhere. Claudia googled events for Martin Luther King Day, and the Big Sunday 5th Annual MLK Day Clothing Collection & Community Breakfast was one of the first things that came up. The event was accessible to her and a fellow teammate because Claudia had a car.

Claudia believed in the importance of helping out every single day and was hoping she could do more throughout the year as a volunteer. The two teammates were having a blast helping out on Martin Luther King Day.

It was such a pleasure to meet Claudia. At the time of the posting, I knew so many people her age who were cry babies, didn’t get things done, were chronically late, made excuses for everything, etc. Claudia knew what she wanted, was intelligent about it and expressed her views perfectly. Talking to her made me look forward to the future and to what young people could achieve.

Image Credits: Bat-Ami Gordin © 2017 all rights reserved. Credit if you use it, please.

Portrait of Harold

I was fortunate enough to see and hear Harold playing guitar at the Martin Luther King Day event with his band Blue Breeze Band‎.  They were professional, inspirational, lyrical as well as entertaining. They played blues and soul music that was phenomenal and spot on, especially, Earth Wind & Fire, which was executed flawlessly. On the other hand, they also played more contemporary pieces, such as Blackstreet’s No Diggity

When they played No Diggity, young women got in front of the band, danced and waved their fists with the “Hey yo” part. It was cool to see to see 20 year old women get excited as 50 and 60 year old men played beautiful music.

Harold was born in Texas, USA but he was raised in Los Angeles, California, USA. Harold first wanted to be a guitar player when he heard Chuck Berry play on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. He had jobs outside of music, such as, working for corporate America for 23 years. When he got laid off, he went full swing putting together a band and has been at it professionally for 15 years now.

Harold was glad to be doing what he was doing and could not see himself doing anything else.”The thing with the music business is you have to be dedicated. This is my life. I work 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. pretty much every day. I’ve been doing that for the last 14 years solid.”

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If you are in Los Angeles, Kern, Orange, San Bernadino, Riverside, Santa Barbara or any other county close to Los Angles, and have need of a band for an event, be it private or public, I highly recommend you book The Blue Breeze Band.

You can see more about Harold and his band on Instagram bluebreezeband.

Image Credits: Bat-Ami Gordin © 2017 all rights reserved. Credit if you use it, please.