Journalist Herb Boyd engaged a rapt audience on August 26, 2005 via a discussion of his early years growing up in Detroit, where he and his younger siblings heard the sounds of jazz and R&B while his mother ironed clothing. She especially adored Nat King Cole and Billy Eckstine; Boyd attributes his love for words and lyrics to his mother, who would bring home old books and magazines given to her by the white families for whom she worked as a housekeeper. Boyd, who began writing for Down Beat in 1969 as a Detroit correspondent, also discussed his roles as a political activist, an educator, a jazz critic, a husband, an editor and an author, including the as-told-to biography of musician Yusef Lateef, slated for release in September 2005.