Beatrice Melba Smith, the singing sensation who evolved from Broadway star, Tony Award winner, rhythm and blues singer, to wife, mother, and alleged community activist, is using the title of one of her hit albums to sell a memoir she plans to promote in libraries across the East Coast.
Popularly known as Melba Moore, she could have named the reflective account in homage to any of her hit productions — “Purlie,” “You Stepped Into My Life,” “Falling,” or “I Got Love.”
But she named the milestone manuscript “This Is It: Marvelous & Getting Better,” from a configuration of her fifth album (1976) and a visionary perception for future aspirations.
The book compiles 372 pages of revealing autobiography, which she hopes will provide relevant reading and purposeful motivation to inspire perseverance.
A three-time Grammy nominee and Tony Award winner, she is renowned for her roles in theatrical musicals such as “Hair” and “Purlie Victorious.”
Moore is now starring in her own production.
She began promotions earlier this month, and with the arrival of her Oct. 29 birthday anniversary, a book tour is in its early stages.
Significant to the publication is that its release coincides with another achievement in her career, that of a published octogenarian.
She plans to celebrate by visiting the village in New York where she was born and Newark, New Jersey, where she was raised.
Her first stop on the tour is the Sharon Hill Public Library in Pennsylvania on Black Solidarity Day.
But two days later, she is slated for the Newark Public Library.
Harlem residents and villagers throughout the boroughs will be able to welcome their perceived prodigal at dates still undecided.
Understanding that early biographies claimed she aimed to be a school teacher, it is no wonder a bookmobile paves the way to nostalgia.
Moore’s dream transformed into a journey across performance stages, recording studios, and other accomplishments of celebrity.
Punctuated by periods of temporary reclusion from the spotlight, her life’s story tells it like it was.
It is no secret that her romantic relationship with actor Clifton Davis ended in the 1970s with accusations of domestic and drug abuse.
Or that she married Hush Productions founder Charles Huggins during that same decade.
Although the marriage took a nosedive, ending after 17 years amid charges of fraud and mishandling of her profits, those roadblocks did not impede success.
Instead, as gossip tabloids reveled in procuring dish about the slightest setback, she harnessed the slumps in her career or marriage to pivot to other elevations.
One of the signposts signalled a focus on the couple’s only daughter graduating from an HBCU institution.
Although her offspring’s completion of university studies did not headline breaking news segments of entertainment programming, rumors swirled about Bill Cosby rescuing the offspring from homelessness.
Like any other celebrity faced with public scrutiny, Moore realized the dogged topsy-turvy terrain to traverse.
Together, the mother and daughter recorded duets.
Through triumphs and turmoil, Moore added fashion to her portfolio and frequented high-profile events, making appearances at numerous television game shows of the era.
Chapters could have been written about her regal presence in Harlem when South Africa’s Winnie and Nelson Mandela visited a crossroad there.
Moore’s significant rendition of the national anthem and generous contribution to aiding in fundraising efforts in Brooklyn remain an indelible Caribbean notation.
This Insider recalls how she helped provide relief for Jamaica following the Category 4 Hurricane Gilbert in 1988.
On a September evening that year, Moore joined reggae supergroup Third World, rapper Dougie Fresh, R&B crooner Jocelyn Brown, musician Mtume, calypsonian Swallow, dancehall DJ Shelly Thunder, and a galaxy of recorders to highlight the plight of the devastation.
And after the storm subsided, she braved slippery slopes, climbing to the summit of the island’s popular Dunn’s River waterfalls.
Moore is ready to set the record straight.
She is committed to telling her own story.
Warts and all, paragraphs explain the peaks and falls — a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the downward spiral that resulted in Saturday morning rallies at the National Action Network.
There in Harlem, Rev. Alfred Sharpton shepherded her return to a revival of her career.
Moore plans to meet and greet fans familiar — and unfamiliar — with her musically piloted, colorful, entertainment endeavor during sessions booked in New York and New Jersey libraries and community centers.
Black Solidarity Day coincides with Panamanian Separation Day
On Nov. 3, the 56th annual Black Solidarity Day commemorates a Pan-African proposition from Panamanian Dr. Carlos Russell to withdraw from routine. Those on the isthmus and throughout the diaspora will celebrate Panamanian Separation Day.
Launched in 1969, his unifying 24-hour proposal was first executed on a Monday, the day before a national election on Tuesday in the United States.
When students on college campuses demanded recognition, the Afro-Latino educator encouraged an economic boycott.
His voice echoed throughout the activist community, resonating with senior citizens, non-students, and Blacks of all ilk.
The call to action emphasized a unified act to avoid any activity advancing a capitalist agenda.
Dr. Russell suggested ‘no school,’ ‘no shopping’ no business as usual on that Monday.
Inspired by Douglas Turner Ward’s 1965 Off-Off Broadway play “Day of Absence,” which supposes the might of a race testing the people and the powers, Dr. Russell’s concept expanded the reach to national proportions.
This year, the date coincides with Panama’s 122-year attainment of independence from Colombia.
Numerous events are planned on university campuses and other facilities to mark the viability of a 2025 Black Solidarity Day.
Simultaneously, jubilation will be the order of the day at the acclaimed ‘bridge of the world’.
Catch you on the Inside!
