Hey On The Towners, I'm Frank Licari and I'm here at the Martin Luther King Jr.

Landmark Memorial in West Palm Beach, where we're sharing more of the food, fun, and African American history here in Palm Beach County.

We'll meet the artists behind a mural shining a light on the civil rights movement.

A history making conductor takes center stage.

And we'll meet a local man who takes the cake when it comes to the sweet art of decorating.

If you've been feeling overwhelmed lately, we've got a place for you to let all that emotion out.

Woo!

Plus, I'm learning the hottest dance moves from a local TikTok sensation.

Get ready to get down as we go on the town in the Palm Beaches with me, Frank Licari.

[announcer] This program is brought to you by Discover The Palm Beaches.

Visit the ThePalmbBaches.TV for more information.

We're celebrating black voices so let's start with a woman known as the songbird of Palm Beach County.

Terrion Nelson is the first African American conductor for the Young Singers of the Palm Beaches.

A nonprofit, all about singing and diversity.

I'm at the Kravitz center, where Terrion conducts and the YSPB performs its concerts in front of thousands of fans.

[terrion] My father was a band teacher growing up at Roosevelt Middle School.

So music was in my house all the time, Wow!

And my sister and my cousin and I would get together and like, put on the albums and try to be The Emotions and we would sing.

And it's something I really love to do, but I was really, really shy.

So only at church, would I sing.

I saw the chorus, my seventh grade year in middle school, singing and dancing.

And I was like, I want to do that and I got in choir the next year and my life changed forever.

Sure, bug bit you and that was it.

That's fantastic.

Very good, I didn't hear sliding there, Tom.

[frank] You're less just conductors and help... You're inspirers, right?

So talk to me a little bit about that role that you play for these kids.

I wanted to share the experiences and the joys that I had coming up through music.

I wanted to pass it forward because it's something that gives me joy and I wanna give that experience to kids so that they can be able to pass this great thing of music, this joy that we have.

[shawn] I, even to this day, I can think of moments of extreme happiness that were all based in music.

YSPB, which is Young Singers of the Palm Beaches, we were founded in 2003.

There were a group of five of us that were some music teachers and some others in the district that just said, music was being cut so we started Young Singers at the United Methodist Church of the Palm Beaches.

We outgrew that space in five months and moved here and we've never left since.

It's grown from two choirs to seven.

What?

You have seven choirs, now?

It depends on the year, but yeah.

Wow!

[terrion] Start in second grade.

[shawn] Yeah, we start in second grade, but yeah, there's a place for everybody and the one thing about Young Singers is everyone is welcome, everyone, which we have all.

[terrion] They're eager, they're excited to be a part of something great and to say that they're gonna be singing on the stage at the Kravis Center, that is amazing.

Sure.

I mean, when you start young, just think about what you're building and there are many kids in this choir that have been here from second grade, and now they're in the 12th grade.

That's amazing.

You can take this with you for the rest of your life.

Exactly.

It's fantastic.

Street Art Revolution is a blackowned, artistled public art collective.

You can't miss these bright colorful murals all over Palm Beach County.

This is the revolution of the groove in downtown west Palm Beach.

It ties together some of the biggest names in music and black history.

Let's meet the artists and find out a little bit more.

When I walked out and saw the size of this, it's almost overwhelming.

[caron] Basically the Civil Rights Movement for African Americans started with their music all the way going back to slavery with Negro Spirituals, for example.

So basically, each one of the people that you see here on the wall are inspirations of music that caused civil rights changes in the country.

I mean, there's so many great artists.

How do you pick like the, it's almost like the Mount Rushmore, right?

Yeah.

[anthony] I love the fact that we had extensive meetings in order to argue back and forth who should have been on this wall?

You got to right?

I think we got the right combination.

You sure did.

Now how long has the Street Art Revolution been going on.

Five years.

It's just a collaboration of a bunch of local artists that we went into this task to beautify our areas and just make it a little bit more interesting.

When you walk in and this is an event this is a place to come now.

Public art is accessible to everybody.

It doesn't real, it's not something you have to go to a fancy museum for.

You can walk down the street and have that ability to enjoy it.

Now this isn't the only mural that you've got.

The Louis Armstrong mural, it's on Tamron Avenue.

Louis Armstrong played The Sunset Lounge in 1944.

The Sunset, of course was a segregated club and they had a lot the who'swho of African American masters go through there and one of them was Armstrong.

There's one on the 500 block on Klimatas, which has the Civil Rights Movement and some of the major figures and also unsung heroes of the Civil Rights Movement.

We did all the artwork in the Riviera Beach Marina, from the tank to the wall, in front of the tank, to the fence installation and even the chair.

[frank] What's amazing to me, it enhances every area that you're in.

Right, that's one of the things, when we were doing this one, I had so many people come up to us and start talking to us about it.

They were moved by the subject matter, and people of all races and colors came up to me.

It is quintessentially American music.

That's the power of street art, to basically touch on subject matters that are currently rolling in the streets and for us to put 'em on the walls.

If your upbringing was like mine, you probably heard a lot of don't touch it, you'll break it.

Especially around grandma's China cabinet.

But now there's a place where breaking stuff is not only allowed, it's a encouraged.

I am at the Outrageous Room in West Palm Beach where bashing and smashing is done in the name of stress relief and healing.

Does it take real anger?

And what's the feeling after, what is it?

'Cause you're both smiling, which is kind of interesting.

[jonah] In a world like this, there's really not a space for you to just be upset, like go through the emotions so I created that.

A good point and reason, that's a good point.

So it's almost like therapy.

It definitely is therapy.

Right?

And it definitely is a therapy because if you think about it, when you're going through emotions, there's really not a channel or anything you can do to kind of release it.

'Cause I do have a space for you to break things and just walk away.

No clean up, no stress.

Just break things and leave.

What are the weapons of choice in here?

What am I using?

Baseball bat.

Yep.

Sledge hammer.

Like it.

Golf club.

Golf club is good too.

Crowbar.

Oh crowbar!

You went old school too.

That's nice, I like that.

When did you create this, how long ago?

So we opened October 20th, 2020.

So this is in the heart of COVID.

Wow.

Few months before that I lost a friend and in losing this friend, it's the person I've known for 20 years, best friend of mine.

In losing my friend, I know she would've wanted me to be a little more creative and not do the day to day.

It was almost difficult to take the time that I needed off at my current job, in order to kind of release that stress.

I went to a rage room, it was pretty cool.

I thought, you know what?

I can do this.

Be more creative and really heal myself.

And I did just that.

That's very cool and now you're letting other people do that.

Oh yeah.

Which is awesome.

Oh yeah.

Who do you got coming through the doors?

Everybody.

Yeah.

Everybody, I get families.

I love the families that come in.

So the kids get to break things with the parents.

It's a good date night.

It's a good breakup night.

Yes!

I was just about to say I don't know about date night but definitely breakup night would be great.

Oh yeah.

I love the adrenaline.

It is.

And you look like you were having fun in there.

[jonah] I mean, I've had people go through tears.

I've gone through tears in that room.

Sure.

And just left it there Yeah.

Once you walk out, you get that sigh of relief and keep going.

Woo!

After all that smashing, I'm ready to eat, but there are so many great choices.

I've asked popular food blogger, The Hungry Black Man Star X Smith for some guidance.

Do you just say to yourself one day I'm a hungry black man.

Yeah, that's it.

With two friends, Felicia and Derek, now my business partners.

We went to dinner and unfortunately had a really horrible experience.

And so I just decided that, you know what, let's just start curating experiences for black Americans who wanna dine outside of...

I didn't want anyone else to experience that.

So six years now.

Yeah.

You're traveling around the country.

Yeah, yeah, the country.

Wow!

So we have been to over 1,150 restaurants.

Wow!

And there are like 99.9 all black owmed.

Fantastic.

So what are five places you would say that's where you gotta go.

Definitely Off The Bone.

Off The Bone is a barbecue spot, but he fringes on soul food and his soul food is, it's not low country, it's more southern so you're talking open tomatoes, stream beans, scarlet greens, cornbread.

Daniel Stan, he's the Pitmaster there.

I enjoy his barbecue ribs and chicken.

Big John's Eatery.

Southern inspired, you know, waffles, cream pancakes, eggs, their grits were very fluffy.

So is that the key to a good grit?

Fluffy grit?

You need to get a little fluff in there is that the way it is?

It depends where you're from.

Okay.

Cafes Sweets, she has an incredible bakery.

It is in downtown, Ms. Davis over at Cafe Sweets.

But it's more like Southern.

She's an incredible baker.

Purple Shrimp, they are Cajun Louisiana mash up... Yeah.

I like both of those.

Put 'em together people will like it even more.

People think that like heat is just ridiculous so, her heat is more cayenne.

And we're obviously, we're sitting in a place that you obviously you Yes Sirgaes!

Yeah man so Sirgaes is really great like Neopolitan style pizza.

Neopolitan style pizza traditionally really likes to be scorched so you wanna see that those scorch marks, but then you want that elasticity in the dough.

And I love the fact that his oven is authentic.

Anybody who can turn a career out of eating food, do you wanna fund me?

Because I can eat.

It's time for dessert, but not just any dessert, this is the icing on the cake, known for their amazing lifelike creations.

Let's head over to the Ganache Bakery in West Palm.

Not only will these delight satisfy your sweet tooth I also got Jamal to give us a little of his decorating secrets.

You don't just make cakes, right like, these are pieces of art.

[jamal] Yes.

That's one of the things I love most about cake I love the fact that you could be creative with a cake.

When did you first go, okay, this is what I'm gonna do.

I always like hanging out in the kitchen and my mom hated it she would always kick me out.

So she put you to work.

Yeah she put me to work and that's how it started.

Yeah.

so you started off as a sous chef.

Yes.

I gotcha.

Always curious when couples worked together, what came first?

The sweets or the love?

It's a bit of both because we first met working together.

And then when he decided that he wanted to pursue, having his own bakery.

I decided to join him.

Ah!

There's gotta be something cool about saying this a family business, right?

Yeah.

Yes.

There's that joy and pride about it.

Yes.

We are known for like our awesome Key Lime Tart.

we have a coconut rum cake, which is to die for, and we bring the rum straight from Saint Croix Virgin islands.

Look at this!

Oh man!

We're gonna do a little sheet cake right here.

Yes.

So to ice the cake, I just like to, Just dab a good chunk of ice.

Yeah just a dab, So that looks pretty good.

Not bad at all.

Yeah, you did pretty good job.

So you ready to help me put some decorations on the side?

Let's do it.

All right!

You're going good.

Everything that you think might be a mistake.

Never.

We turn it into a dessert I love you.

You're the Miles Davis of cake making.

Thank you.

That's the way you do it.

So now this one we're gonna make this little decoration is called Chocolate Sales.

Take a spoon full right here, and just gently give it a swoosh and a turn.

Okay, just a, Beautiful!

Like a little, That's perfect.

And you just kind of go like that.

Oh yeah!

It's kind of like a wave and then we get a little more frosting over here.

Did you eat the icing when I was gone?

No, I haven't touched anything yet, but I, give me time because that's coming.

He know how to do cakes I think you're pulling our legs.

No, I'm not pulling anything You're too good at it, Look at that.

So let's use up the last.

All right!

Well why not?

Since we have it, why not?

I kind of put one down I Hate for them to be left over so they would have to be eaten.

Yeah, maybe you could eat one.

He's going good.

Are you ready to do like a hundred of these in a Christmas time?

Absolutely not.

The main thing is if you have fun doing it, Yeah.

It doesn't feel like work.

Let's meet a woman who has followed in the footsteps of her father.

Standing up for civil rights, Edith Bush is the strong force behind the Martin Luther king Jr. Coordinating Committee working decade after decade to make the community a better place for all.

We've been around for 41 years.

Now, talk to me about what it took to get this specific site, because this is so special.

In the year 2000, this area here was not being used and at the time we organized as the Martin Luther King Coordinating Committee.

Obviously you could have just put up a statute, you could have just put up a little plaque.

This is grand.

Your family has a storied history in the Civil Rights Movement.

Yes, my father was very involved in the Civil Rights Movement.

He was the president of the NAACP in Anusha Alabama, and he was a deacon in this church and my mother was a missionary and we grew up in very, a very close knit Christian family.

That's how I got very active in that.

That is incredible!

What a history.

We were part of the Black Educators Association, and we were always celebrating black history month but then in 1983, when Ron Reagan organized the holiday of Dr. King, then we were able to organize events.

Our organization started in 1971.

Initially there were educators, but now we have doctors, lawyers, ministers, and it's very diverse.

We honor a black history month, every month really, during the month of January where we have our breakfast and we have had over a thousand people at the breakfast at the Convention center.

So this committee is starting in '71 has just grown and grown and grown and how many people are part of this organization now?

We have approximately 60 members on our board.

Amazing.

Yes.

And they are incredible.

In Palm Beach County I served on the leadership coalition for over 20 years.

There are 87 nationalities in Palm Beach County.

Wow!

That's a little nugget that I didn't know.

Yes it is.

Wow!

I gotta tell you what, I love talking to you, I could talk to you all day.

Do you know why?

Cause you exude passion.

I love talking to you too It's a pleasure.

Yes.

Real pleasure.

All right, same here.

Thank you very much.

Chef Trinnette Morris has a popular gourmet breakfast in lunch spot in West Palm Beach and she's attracted some big names to her eatery.

Trinnette has an even bigger vision of teaching the community how to cook healthier.

And she does that by kid friendly cooking and recipe classes.

[trinnette] I've always had a passion for cooking.

I've always had a gift for cooking.

However, I never thought I would own a restaurant ever.

I'm an educator by trade.

So you were smart enough to know you probably shouldn't do this, but then you did it anyway.

Yeah, very, very crazy.

Like in 2011, I just decided I wanna do something really crazy.

I had been in education, been an education consultant and decided I wanna do something with food.

Talk to me a little bit about how the Trindy Gourmet came about and the story behind.

So I always wanted to, just kind of do a fusion.

My breakfast location really is a fusion of a lot of different things and everything that we do in catering is also a fusion of a lot of different things as well.

So where we do the nice southern, grit bowls that we're known for, people can come in here and get fresh vegetables as well, so that is important to me.

Tell me how the education portion comes in and all that.

Well for me, it is about bringing the local community, bringing the local high school culinary communities into the fold, making sure that I'm educating them, making sure that I'm giving them opportunity.

That's fantastic.

You had a sort of a celebrity sighting recently tell me a little bit about that.

The most notable to me honestly, was definitely Marcus Stewart.

The Marcus Stewart visit was epic.

She begged me from my French toast recipe and would not give it to her.

Wow!

Well, that's power play.

Obviously you've grown over the years.

You've won a couple of, well you've won a big award right?

2016 I think that was small business of the year award for me is about not really what Trindy Gourtmet may have done as a restaurant what we've done socially.

I wanna be able to say that, I've licensed 10 other Culinaries.

I've allowed other people who wanted to realize the same dream as me to be able to do that in a space where they may not have had the opportunity.

So it's not about the best dish that I've cooked.

It's not about, the biggest award that I've won.

How many people that I help along the way?

And speaking of leadership, let's meet county administrator Virginia Baker.

She's the first African American and first woman in that role.

Virginia Baker is known by her peers as the calm in any storm.

Well, who can't use a little calm right now?

Let's go meet her.

There's so many firsts, right?

But imma tell you what impressed me the most.

You oversee, 6,800 positions, with a 6 million dollar budget.

[virginia] 6 Billion.

Billion!

Well, how do you keep that straight?

I have an outstanding team that helps me through the process and without that team, there is no success.

My commissioners, I've got seven of them they're my bosses.

That set policy, and we take it and we implement.

Teamwork makes the dream work.

You got it.

Yeah.

What does an administrator actually do?

And what's a day in the life of Virginia Baker like?

One day is never the same.

My main function is carrying out the policies that the board sets.

Just making sure that the quality of life in Palm Beach County, is what the residents deserve.

We work with economic development.

We work with the business community to make sure that we're growing businesses here in Palm Beach County, our existing businesses are expanding and we're bringing in new businesses to augment and diversify our economy.

You've obviously accomplished a lot what's one of the favorite sort of accomplishments?

What's your, like I think that recruiting Scripts, a portion of Scripts, to Palm Beach County and they became Scripts Florida.

That's when they moved to the Mecca site.

Yeah!

So it's a big get.

Working with Sports Commission on various activities coming in, working and being a part of building the convention center we have today as we continue to grow.

We created the Community Land Trust to help make housing affordable.

Gosh!

it seems like that's a lot, your job seems a lot of pressure.

It's a lot of pressure?

You also support something personal to me.

You also always are around for the student showcase of films every year, Absolutely.

Which is, I've been doing now for 16 years.

That is a, a major spoke in our wheel.

Film and television, that is a major element within our community when it comes to economic development.

And so we wanted to grow our own kids.

No, it's incredible what it does for tourism.

Sean Green started dancing in his backyard in high school and the rest is history.

He's now crisscrossing the globe with requests for TikTok lessons from teenagers to adults in Palm Beach, New York and London.

The time has come for me to learn some TikTok moves.

How hard can this be?

Look, I'm not gonna say I'm a dancer cause I'm not, at all.

I've been called a mover.

I'm a mover right?

I feel like I can learn a TikTok I mean how hard could it take to dance?

It's so easy.

Right?

All you need is personalities that's all.

I got personality.

I see that already.

About 20 years ago, I started Sean's Dance Factory, which is a local hiphop dance studio from kids ages five and up, I teach adults.

Yep.

I teach kids and adults with two left feet to grow.

Is that right?

So you know what that means, anybody could come.

But you did something that most old guys have a trouble doing, which is adapting to the new age.

So my school shut down for like five months and then, you know what?

I received a phone call from a celebrity.

Yep.

He's like, would you teach my kid these TikTok dances cause she's obsessed with it.

The little girl came in, I shot the video with her we did several of them, couple few of them went viral and the rest was history man now I'm teaching TikTok private lessons, TikTok birthday parties.

And you're everywhere right?

Yeah.

You're flying LA you're flying the... That's incredible!

I'm just happy to use my passion.

I don't know if I'm ready are you ready?

Are you ready for this?

So this will be one.

Okay.

This is two.

Yep.

Three, four.

Oh, nice waves there bud!

Okay!

Okay!

Okay!

It's gonna be a piece of cake.

All right!

All right!

All right!

Five, six, Five, six, Swing down, Swing down, Then throw it up.

And throw it up.

Throw it up.

Throw it up, throw it up.

But when you throw it up, make sure you look up.

Sure, sure.

You wanna know where it's going.

Exactly.

One of those.

Right?

Just like that, but not like you're juggling.

You don't wanna be like, You don't want that?

No, no.

I kinda feel like... No?

Are you creating original stuff or are you like looking at what's going on?

What's trending and then adapting.

Yeah, I do a lot of my own skills and then I also do trends that are already popular.

That's it!

You got groove.

Yeah.

Dance is a feeling.

So it's bigger than the dance.

I get to help them with not only just dance moves but I help build their confidence.

Sure.

I help kids with their selfesteem, manage their anxiety, manage their depression, get to put smiles on people's faces every day.

That was awesome bro.

Yeah!

Today we sang and danced, experiencing more of the diversity in Palm Beach County, through its history, local hotspots and fun activities.

We visited a landmark honoring the late Martin Luther King.

We met some of the faces and voices behind our local African American history.

And we got our groove on learning the latest dance moves.

We hope you'll get out and enjoy everything that Palm Beach County has to offer and join us next time when we go on the town and the Palm Beaches with me, Frank Licari.

Has anybody ever come in and just fainted?

Like just fallen over like, cause I feel like if I eat I'm just gonna, like out of just the sheer joy of eating?

Yeah.

Yes, right?

[announcer] This program was brought to you by Discover The Palm Beaches.

Visit ThePalmBeaches.tv for more information.