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Ave Kludze Jr.

Born in Hohoe, in the Volta region of Ghana in 1966

As a young boy Ave Kludze was interested in the workings of the world around him. Throughout his childhood Ave’s father, Anselmus Kludze, was afraid to leave him home alone because he would dismantle the radio and lay out the components for inspection. Trying to keep his electronics from being taken apart Ave would be left with friends or relatives, which usually resulted in Ave taking apart their television sets. This fascination was an integral part of Ave’s pursue of science. The biggest turning point however was when Ave found himself at the airport in Accra. It was there he saw an airplane for the first time and decided he wanted to be a pilot. From then on he filtered his curiosity through textbooks and scientific literature.

As Ave continued his scientific studies he started to find himself in a predicament. Text was becoming harder to read with long hours of study and he came to conclusion that glasses were in his future. Considering his mother and brother’s own visual disadvantages Ave had hoped this would not be case, but with his new frames his dream of being a pilot was dashed. With aeronautics out of his future Ave started to focus on solar energy. He began studying engineering at Rutgers University, in New Jersey and started developing his solar energy ideas. Ave thought harnessing the free power of the sun would be the best resource for poorer countries and hoped to spread science and technology back to his african roots. With his work in solar technology, NASA contacted him to pursue a new research project.

Before NASA contacted him, Ave had witnessed the Challenger incident and had written to NASA about the complications he saw. They responded in kind by sending him schematics and photographs of the incident which after his research responses they contacted him for an opportunity. At NASA Ave worked at the Washington headquarters as a requirements manager where he was part of the strategic coordinations of research and space projects. During this time Ave also created an Infrared scanner to detect cracks in the thermal paneling in spacecrafts, to prevent heat explosions that ended the Challenger’s voyage. He is also heading up the communications research to transmit live video and audio from space, moon, and mars travel. In addition to these projects Ave is the first African to pilot a spacecraft, although since his glasses prevent him from actual piloting he has flown unmanned satellites and spacecrafts like the Calypso satellite. Currently Ave continues to explore what is possible with scientific involvement and volunteers with the Young Einstein project to help young african children pursue the arts and sciences. Ave hopes that with his involvement and passions he will get the United States back to the moon by 2020 with prospects of Mars and beyond!

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Hazel Dorothy Scott

Born: June 11th 1920 in Port of Spain, Trinidad

Hazel Scott was pulled from her birth city at the age of four and moved to New York, where she lived with her mother Alma, a pianist and music teacher, and her father Thomas, a West african scholar. Early in her youth she gravitated to the piano that her family members played before her. One fateful day her grandmother tried to sing her to sleep with a lullaby but wound up nodding off before Hazel. Hazel snuck away to the piano bench and began pressing down those ivory keys, learning those sounds for herself. After the commotion proved to loud the grandmother awoke with a start to find a four year old Hazel Scott playing, from memory, her lullaby.

I feel it only fair here to mention you can find a beautiful telling of Hazel Scott’s life on the podcast: The Memory Palace, by Nate Dimeo, which I pulled a lot of inspiration from in my retelling.

When Hazel was eight she caught to attention of Juilliard professor Frank Damrosch for her interpretation of Rachmaninoff, skewed to fit her eight year old hands. She learned the classical and found it frustrating, so she changed it so she could play it. Eager to support her gift, she garnered supported at the school and learned musical theory, musical interpretation, and pushed her gift into the churches, clubs and concert halls of New York. At the age of sixteen Hazel Scott was combining the classical with the modern, the old with the rhythm and syncopations of jazz. She sang and played alongside her mother and even landed a gig at the famous Greenwich Village Cafe Society, where stars like Langston Hughes, Eleanor Roosevelt and Billie Holiday attended. She had struck a figurative and very real chord with the musical language of New York. She also became the first African American to have her own TV show, “The Hazel Scott Show” which appeared on DuMont television network on July 3rd, 1950.

Hazel Scott pursued the civil rights of all minorities, and she married the first black congressman of Connecticut, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. She looked at the roles of blacks in Hollywood and decided at the start that she would not play to segregated audiences, she would not let her band use the colored entrance, and she would never play a maid or a fool on the silver screen. She fought hard and she fought smart to make all treat her and her fellows as equals, and this made her a target.

When the Red Scare swept through the nation, Hazel Scott found her name in Red Channels: A Report on Communist Influence in Radio and Television, citing her performance for a communist party members election gala a decade prior. Hazel Scott voluntarily appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee to argue her involvement stating that her support of this candidate was based on his influence from the current socialist founders in the current government. She argued that this man was a Socialist and that they had been fighting the Communist threat longer then anyone, and as such were allies to our cause.

A week later her show was cancelled and her slowly career spiraled down to small gigs and empty theaters. He marriage fell apart and she attempted suicide twice only to be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She died on October 2nd, 1961 at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York. She left behind an only son Adam Clayton Powell III, and only grandson Adam Clayton Powell IV, he read this at her funeral, a poem by Langston Hughes:

To Be Somebody,

Little girl

Dreaming of a baby grand piano

(Not knowing there’s a Steinway bigger, bigger)

Dreaming of a baby grand to play

That stretches paddle-tail across the floor,

Not standing upright.

Like a bad boy in the corner,

But sending music

Up and down the stairs

And out the door

To confound even Hazel Scott

Who might be passing!

Oh!

Little boy

Dreaming of the boxing gloves

Joe Louis wore,

The gloves that sent

Two dozen men to the floor.

Knockout!

Bam! Bop! Mop!

There’s always room,

They say,

At the top.

Fear is a revolting dictator, it can promise you safety if you shun the world, the beautiful reality around you, for a flicker of stability, however false it is.

Hazel Scott was a treasure we squandered. My hope is we can learn from her story and find the truth in all things, so we don't have to be afraid anymore, so we can transform like her music, classic yet new.

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1. HAKEEM ABDUL OLAJUWON “The Dream”

Done in Holbein waterproof ink,watercolor, and gouache on arches hot press block

One of the best players to ever play the game. The amount of class Olajuwon brought to the game was league’s above even some modern players. A stalwart shield against alley oops and dunks the dream made basketball look effortless.

YouTube career summary: https://youtu.be/jH-uHgdzpXQ

Career history 1984–2001 Houston Rockets 2001–2002 Toronto Raptors Career highlights and awards 2× NBA champion (1994, 1995) 2× NBA Finals MVP (1994, 1995) NBA Most Valuable Player (1994) 12× NBA All-Star (1985–1990, 1992–1997) 6× All-NBA First Team (1987–1989, 1993, 1994, 1997) 3× All-NBA Second Team (1986, 1990, 1996) 3× All-NBA Third Team (1991, 1995, 1999) 2× NBA Defensive Player of the Year (1993, 1994) 5× NBA All-Defensive First Team (1987, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1994) 4× NBA All-Defensive Second Team (1985, 1991, 1996, 1997) NBA All-Rookie First Team (1985) 2x NBA rebounding leader (1989, 1990) 3× NBA blocks leader (1990, 1991, 1993) No. 34 retired by Houston Rockets NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team Consensus first-team All-American (1984) SWC Player of the Year (1984) NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player (1983) No. 34 retired by University of Houston

Basketball Hall of Fame as player FIBA Hall of Fame as player

Men’s basketball Representing United States Olympic Games Gold medal – first place 1996 Atlanta

Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon (born January 21, 1963), formerly known as Akeem Olajuwon, is a Nigerian-American former professional basketball player. From 1984 to 2002, he played the center position in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Houston Rockets and the Toronto Raptors. He led the Rockets to back-to-back NBA championships in 1994 and 1995. In 2008, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and in 2016, he was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame. Listed at 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) (but standing closer to 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) by his own admission), Olajuwon is considered one of the greatest centers ever to play the game.He was nicknamed “The Dream” during his basketball career after he dunked so effortlessly that his college coach said it “looked like a dream.”

Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Olajuwon traveled from his home country to play for the University of Houston under head coach Guy Lewis. His college career for the Cougars included three trips to the Final Four. Olajuwon was drafted by the Houston Rockets with the first overall selection of the 1984 NBA draft, a draft that included Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and John Stockton. He combined with the 7 ft 4 in (2.24 m) Ralph Sampson to form a duo dubbed the “Twin Towers”. The two led the Rockets to the 1986 NBA Finals, where they lost in six games to the Boston Celtics. After Sampson was traded to the Warriors in 1988, Olajuwon became the Rockets’ undisputed leader. He led the league in rebounding twice (1989, 1990) and blocks three times (1990, 1991, 1993).

Despite very nearly being traded during a bitter contract dispute before the 1992–93 season, he remained in Houston where in 1993–94, he became the only player in NBA history to win the NBA MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and Finals MVP awards in the same season. His Rockets won back-to-back championships against the New York Knicks (avenging his college championship loss to Patrick Ewing), and Shaquille O'Neal’s Orlando Magic. In 1996, Olajuwon was a member of the Olympic gold-medal-winning United States national team, and was selected as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. He ended his career as the league’s all-time leader in blocks (3,830) and is one of four NBA players to record a quadruple-double.

Sourced from Wikipedia.

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Coming SOON! TODAY EVEN!

New beginnings!

Hello everyone! I’ve got some exciting news. I’m starting a new project for this year! If you’ve been following my recently you might have an idea but here it goes!

Starting tomorrow and every Tuesday thereafter I will be posting here on my personal blog at on my new page 52immigrantsproject.tumblr.com

This weekly post will be an illustration of an inspiring human being, who also happens to be an immigrant to our fine country. These portraits will be primarily watercolor and ink work but as time progresses I’m sure inspiration will strike and we will have some unique finds! My blog here will still have a smattering of all my endeavours but the other will solely be these portraits and information important to their creation and expression.

Without sounding to political I hope to show people the wonderful things we can accomplish as humans, regardless of origin; in the hopes to bring us all closer together.

Thanks!

Marcthe3rd.