Tag Archives: urban talk show 2021

Mr. Dave Pickens (Charlotte, NC) Chosen Visionary in HOT-Seat 53, Expert Mold Inspector and Creator of Chess Master's Curriculum for Kids

Interesting Facts I Bet You Never Knew About MOLD

The best way to get rid of mold is to prevent it (before it develops). But honestly, how many of us are walking around with dreams of mold in our heads? Not many, I would presume. Humidity is significant, so keeping levels optimized is a great idea – regardless of whether you believe mold is lurking or not.

Keeping the humidity levels at home under 50% is recommended. It is also advised to invest in a good dehumidifier or an AC to maintain the low humidity. Proper ventilation helps keep mold away, too, so open your windows sometimes, especially while cleaning with harsh chemicals.

Three Books To Read Now

  1. Enduring The Call; A 14 Day Journey, by Jocelyn Fagan ($14.00)
  2. The ZOLA Experience: A Journey of Recovery From Loss, by Katurah A Bryant, LMFT ($14.99)
  3. When The Heart Takes Flight, by Carla Yarbrough ($9.99)

Up Next In The HOT-Seat

Chosen Visionary in the HOT-Seat Number Fifty-Three (53) is Mr. Dave Pickens (Charlotte, NC), Expert Mold Inspection, Remediation, and Removal Specialist at I Can Fix That, LLC. Mr. Dave was called into the mold and removal industry after losing his brother to cancer caused by health risks related to mold exposure. Such a personal loss, he has grown passionate about identifying the problem and then attacking it from that source.

“It’s what you don’t see and breathe! Mold will start to overwhelm your body’s immune system, which can cause inflammation. You are breathing in airborne mycotoxins. These mycotoxins cause serious health risks and attack all areas of the body.”

Mr. Dave Pickens, CEO, I Can Fix That LLC
A brick wall with mold
A brick wall with mold

Much like the game of chess, which Mr. Dave is also an expert with a passion for every piece of the board. So much so that he wrote a curriculum (AKA DEM MICS) to teach children the game.

Facts About Mold

  • According to the Center for Disease Control stated that mold attacks your body as an allergenic, pathogenic, or toxigenic
  • Bleach DOES NOT kill mold
  • Customer input is important when looking for mold – Even if you’re experienced.
  • Mold is identified through air quality testing, laboratory analysis reports, recognition, swabs, tape lifts, and visual inspections.
  • Protocol(s) on the safest way to encapsulate and stop the mold from spreading is necessary.
  • Remember, “It’s what you don’t see and breathe that can harm you
  • There are various kinds of mold(s)
  • Vaporizing systems (an organic fungicide) are used to kill airborne spores. Then the contaminated waste is removed in an environmentally safe manner.
  • You may have MOLD throughout your property and never know.

What’s More?

When Mr. Dave is not out fighting mold, he’s helping elders restore and winterize their homes, playing chess, or working in his garden, where he and his wife Bernitta share with neighbors fresh veggies.

Are You New To Urban Academics?

Who should attend? Administrators, C.E.O.s, Child Advocates, Civil Service Members, Content Creators, Educators, Entrepreneurs, First Responders, Guidance Counselors, Journalists, Mental Health Professionals, Parents, Political Figures, Students, Upward Mobile Professionals, School Systems Interested in Change, Teachers, and People Involved in Motivating Our Students Higher (P.I.M.O.S.H.) Subsidiaries. GRAB a Seat HERE.

Do You Have Any Questions?

Please post your questions and thoughts in the comments section below; For any HOT-Seat Chosen Visionary or members of the Urban Academics family. More information is HERE! Thank you for reading, and may God bless you!

A Beautifully Refreshing Perspective On ARTS EDUCATION AND THE THEATRE

The arts in education and theater are not new to the world; each of these phenomenons is expressive models that most people desire. The ability to express oneself does come in many forms. Still, the theatre is not recorded, nor is it edited, and therefore needs skilled performers and talent for ticketed guests to experience something they’ll remember and tell others about.

When we look at black and brown folks in the theatre, it’s not widely a choice for performing artists; Black folks tend to go towards film/movies or rap/sing. This week at the Urban Academics Roundtable, Chosen Visionary Number Fifty-One (51) will share the climate in the theatre when he was a student and graduate from Howard University Drama Department, and whether that distinguished degree made the playing field easy or not?

What does the climate look like today in the theatre for black folks, and what can we do to ensure the next generation of talented young people find their way to the most fruitful opportunities?

WATCH NOW – The HOT-Seat at Urban Academics, Season One

The term “Black Theatre” combines plays and musicals directed, performed, produced, or written by African-Americans (Blacks) over the past 200 years.

The Harlem Renaissance of the late ’20s and ’30s was mostly responsible for causing the blow-up that paved the way for hidden skilled performers and talented acts. There is so much that came out of this era that remains, but what was once there that is no more? Find out at the Urban Academics Roundtable, Thursday at 9:30 pm (EDT). You are invited to join us; It’s FREE; GRAB a Seat HERE.

Three Books You Should Read NOW

  1. Enduring The Call; A 14 Day Journey, by Jocelyn Fagan ($14.00)
  2. The ZOLA Experience: A Journey of Recovery From Loss, by Katurah A Bryant, LMFT ($14.99)
  3. When The Heart Takes Flight, by Carla Yarbrough ($9.99)

This Week In The HOT-Seat

a graduate of Howard University’s Department of Drama. He Mr. Holtz is a writer, actor, director and teacher with an extensive background in theater, film/video and stand-up comedy.  He teaches theater in the Newark (NJ) Public Schools.

Gregory Holtz, Sr, is HOT-Seat Number 51 - Artistic Director, Actor, Publisher, and Writer Dines With Us At the Urban Academics Roundtable, Thursday at 9:30 PM (EDT)

Notable Accomplishments

  • Film and TV Projects: Chicken Special
  • Film and TV Projects: Field Your Way Through It,
  • Film and TV Projects: The Mission
  • Sitcoms: Beacon Place
  • Sitcoms: South Africans-Americans
  • School Project: Mind Builders-Positive Youth Troupe
  • School Project: NJPAC, Writer’s Theater of New Jersey
  • School Project: New Jersey State Council for the Arts, NJPAC
  • School Project: New York Shakespeare Festival’s Playwriting in the Schools program
  • School Project: NYU’s Creative Arts Team
  • School Project: The Children’s Art Carnival
  • School Project: Theater for the Forgotten’s Changing Scenes
  • Service: Cultural Envoy to South Africa through U.S. Department of State as a playwright
  • Writing Credits: A Christ Mass Story
  • Writing Credits: Ali…From Cassius Clay To Bomaye
  • Writing Credits: Black Codes From The Underground, (produced by Lincoln Center’s Directors Lab 1999)
  • Writing Credits: Grandma’s Hands
  • Writing Credits: Lifeline
  • Writing Credits: The Anansi X-5000
  • Writing Credits: Trip This
  • Writing Credits: Where’s Bobby?

Three Things You Should Do NOW

What’s More?

Mr. Holtz currently serves as Writer/Producer with Think Young, LLC developing docuseries on the life of Andrew Young. If you have any questions for King Holtz, please use the comments section below – We will make sure he gets your message and respond accordingly.

Are You New To Urban Academics?

Who should attend? Administrators, CEOs, Child Advocates, Civil Service Members, Content Creators, Educators, Entrepreneurs, First Responders, Guidance Counselors, Journalists, Mental Health Professionals, Parents, Political Figures, Students, Upward Mobile Professionals, School Systems Interested in Change, Teachers, and People Involved in Motivating Our Students Higher (P.I.M.O.S.H.) Subsidiaries. GRAB a Seat HERE.

Do You Have Any Questions?

Please post your comments or questions in the comments section below for any HOT-Seat Chosen Visionary, or for Members of Urban Academics Online. More information is HERE! Thank you for reading, and may God bless you!

Everything You Wanted to Know About GULLAH GEECHEE PEOPLE and Were Too Embarrassed to Ask

We celebrate BLACKNESS every day, but across the world, February is a constant reminder of how far we’ve come as a people; Look @ Us! Closing out Black History Month 2021 COVID-19 Edition is a historian caught in the “Twilight Zone.” Someone who can remember “Before Freedom!”


My mother was born and raised in a tiny little place in South Carolina, not even on the map, one of twelve siblings, yet I’ve never heard her refer to the term “Geechee Gullah, nor Gullah Geechee, but why? Learning of this cultural and wealthy legacy has changed my life, and I pray it changes yours as you travel through time with a tour guide who uses the term “After Freedom.”


Black History month may be coming to a close based on the world’s calendar, but Being black in America will always be a mixed-bag of emotionally charged questions from one generation to the next. However, today is the dawning of a new day where the truth shall make us free. Change has come. Let us not miss this moment.

Gullah

Gullah is a combination of Creolized language taking root through customs, traditions, and awful circumstances resulting from slavery in the US. This “Gullah” language was spoken by slaves settling in both South Carolina and Georgia. It’s not written language; It’s the passage and patios of the Lowcountry.


A good pot of GUMBO passed down over time might sum it up? African, English, and any adaptations, expressions, and words – Even foreign languages picked up, based on slave owner’s nationality.

The word “Gullah” might be a mixture of the African word Gora or Gola (names of tribes living in Sierra Leone). Some believe the Gala or Gallinas are the African connection for the Gullah people in the Sea Islands.

Three Books You Should Read:

  1. Enduring The Call; A 14 Day Journey, by Jocelyn Fagan ($14.00)
  2. The ZOLA Experience: A Journey of Recovery From Loss, by Katurah A Bryant, LMFT ($14.99)
  3. When The Heart Takes Flight, by Carla Yarbrough ($9.99)

Who’s In The HOT-Seat

Alphonso Brown, Author, Entrepreneur and Famous Historian of Gullah Geechee Culture in the HOR-Seat at Urban Academics Thursdays at 9:30 pm EST: https://bit.ly/UranAcademicsRoundtableSeat
Alphonso Brown, Author, Entrepreneur and Famous Historian of Gullah Geechee Culture in the HOR-Seat at Urban Academics Thursdays at 9:30 pm EST: https://bit.ly/UranAcademicsRoundtableSeat

Alphonso Brown was born and reared in Rantowles, SC, a rural area about 12 miles south of Charleston. He graduated from Baptist Hill High School. He received a BS Degree from S. C. State University in Music and a Masters’s from Southern Illinois University. Other Graduate studies in music include The University of SC, Charleston University, and The Citadel.

Notable Accomplishments

Author: A Gullah Guide To Charleston, by Alphonso Brown – BUY THE BOOK NOW

A Gullah Guide To Charleston, by Alphonso Brown ($5.01)

Professional Affiliations, and Memberships

  • Entrepreneur: Owner & Operator, Gullah Tours
  • Lecturer: The Gullah Language & Black History of Charleston
  • Licensed Tour Guide | City of Charleston, SC
  • National Educators Association
  • Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc.
  • SC Band Directors Association
  • SC Music Educators Association
  • The American Hymn Society

What’s More?

King Alonso is a member and the organist/choirmaster of Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church in Charleston. His concert choir participates in community events throughout the Southeast at colleges, churches, Fortune 500 conventions, and the Kellogg Foundation convention. And the annual Piccolo Spoleto Festival of Churches, where they do an all-Negro Spiritual Concert, looks forward. Also, every other year, the Choir performs the Dubois’ “Seven Last Words of Christ. During Christmas, they fulfill several selections from Handel’s Messiah.


Mr. Brown is a retired Band Director from The Charleston County School District, where he worked at Rivers High/Middle School for many years. He and his late wife, Laquines, are the proud parents of three sons: Howard, Terrence, and Joel, three daughters-in-law, and presently, eight grandchildren.

New To The Weekly Roundtable?

Who should attend? Administrators, Educators, Child Advocates, Entrepreneurs, Guidance Counselors, Mental Health Professionals, Parents, Political Figures, Students, Upward Mobile Professionals, School Systems Interested in Change, Teachers, and People Involved in Motivating Our Students Higher (P.I.M.O.S.H.) Subsidiaries. GRAB a Seat HERE.

Do You Have Questions?

Use the Comments Section Below to ask questions or get in touch with this HOT-Seat Chosen Visionary or the Urban Academics staff. Ask away, and she will get to your questions and quickly as possible.