Richard Dean Grove (December 18, 1927 – December 26, 1998) was an American musician, composer, arranger, and educator. He is best known as the founder of the Dick Grove School of Music. Its students include Michael Jackson, Linda Ronstadt, and Barry Manilow, and its teachers Henry Mancini, Bill Conti, and Lalo Schifrin.
Meredith Irwin Flory, known professionally as Med Flory (August 27, 1926 – March 12, 2014), was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader, and actor.
Alan Abel (December 6, 1928 – April 25, 2020) was an American percussionist, music educator, and inventor of musical instruments. He was the associate principal percussionist of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1959 until his retirement in 1997. He is widely regarded as one of the most important percussion educators of the second half of the twentieth century, having taught at Temple University beginning in 1972. Abel's inventions include several unique and ubiquitous triangles and a bass drum stand that allowed the instrument to be suspended with the use of rubber bands.
Geraldine Warrick-Crisman (May 22, 1930, Gary, Indiana – February 12, 2007, Scottsdale, Arizona) was a television executive.
She began her broadcasting career in the standards department of NBC's affiliate in Chicago. She became one of the first African-American executives at NBC Television in New York City, holding various positions over two decades. She was the first black president of American Women in Radio and Television. In 1981, she left NBC to become president and general manager of WNJR Radio in Union Township, Union County, New Jersey. New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean soon appointed her assistant state treasurer.
In the 1990s, Warrick-Crisman moved to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, where she worked in public affairs and survived the 1993 World Trade Center explosion, which killed six people.
She retired to Scottsdale with her husband, Bruce Crisman, in 1997, and became a member of Tanner African Methodist Episcopal Church in Phoenix. She also served on the board of the New School for the Arts in Tempe.
Warrick-Crisman died on February 12, 2007, aged 76, following a 10-year battle with breast cancer, survived by two sisters, a daughter, a son and a stepdaughter. Her husband died in 1998.
Antonia del Carmen Peregrino Álvarez (2 November 1912 – 19 November 1982), known by her stage name Toña la Negra (Toña the Black Woman), was a Mexican singer and actress of partial Haitian ancestry, known for her interpretation of boleros and canciones written by Agustín Lara.
Sil Lai Abrams (née Baber; born July 13, 1970) is a domestic violence awareness activist and National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) award-winning writer. Abrams is a sought after speaker on sexual assault, domestic violence, race, and depictions of women of color in the media and has spoken at over 300 organizations and universities around the United States. She regularly provides television commentary on gender violence and has been profiled in numerous magazines, including The Hollywood Reporter, EBONY, Redbook, Modern Woman, and ESSENCE. The Root praised Abrams for her use of “social media to protest the narrative that Black women’s realities can be defined by dysfunctional entertainment”, and she has served on the Board of Directors for two of the nation’s largest victim services nonprofit organizations, Safe Horizon and the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
Abrams is a survivor of sexual assault and domestic violence, which prompted her to begin volunteering in domestic violence shelters beginning in the mid-2000s. Since 2007, her work has been primarily focused on gender violence awareness and prevention in the Black community.
