By Linus Joseph Dewald Jr., Editor
Spring 2001 and Revised 9 Aug 2006
Update of 26 Jan 2006: "Mr. Prentiss" is Robert Swayne Prentiss who is discussed in our later, Summer 2005 article. This article is now replaced by that later article entitled Robert S. Prentiss of CT.
1. Mr. Prentiss whose date and place of birth has not yet been determined, was likely b. c. 1915-1925 based on the 1925 birth date of his wife and the 1970 birth date of his grandson, Benjamin, below.
Mr. Prentiss m. Gloria Morelli. She was b. 23 Sep 1925, perhaps in NJ where she obtained her SS# (per SSDI) and d. 21 Nov 1998 at the Hospice Center in West Palm Beach, Fl, of cancer. The SSDI gives her last residence as Jupiter, Palm Beach Co., FL. Her obit. appears in the 23 Nov 1998 Palm Beach Post. Son:
- Michael S. Prentiss was perhaps b. c. 1942-1950. . . . . . . [2]
2. Michael S. Prentiss was perhaps b. c. 1942-1950. He m. Kathleen. Sons:
- Benjamin Prentiss, b. 11 Jan 1970. Lived in Pittsburgh. By email of 24 Jan 2006, Dan Becnal
directed our attention to a Wikipedia article about him which can be found at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamal_Morelli .
It reads as follows:
- Jamal Morelli (born Benjamin Prentiss - January 11, 1970) is the writer/director of "Night, Trance and Dawn" a short sexual neo-noir film, produced by the New York Film Academy, which explores allegiances to esoteric North African healing cults as well as a corresponding monomaniacal power grabbing in the healing arts. (This film may have been based on an aborted collaboration with Essourian Gnawa musician Ma'alim Mokhtar Guinea and his sister, the shaman Zaida Guinea) Jamal Morelli currently lives in Fes, Morocco where he is shooting a feature-length version of "Night, Trance and Dawn"
The passion for Moroccan culture and language extended into bringing the first ever specifically Moroccan Arabic dialect lessons to New Orleans, Louisiana.
After fighting in Golden Gloves in 1991, Jamal Morelli made a living as an avant-garde musican in New Orleans. Becoming Creative Director of Barakbeat Studios in New Orleans in 2001, he completed multimedia projects as varied as Fellowship of Isis founder Lady Olivia Robertson's guided meditations, sufi-style bellydancer Petite Jamilla's Middle Eastern Dance; shooting, editing, and animation for Classical Hindu and Jazz performance (Ajoy Chakrabarty and Tony Dagradi in New Orleans) as well as Alternative Medicine television shows, such as LSU Doctor Henri Roca's Art of Healing. The years of political activism (1999-2002) involving the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association, the doomed Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans and the Army Corps of Engineers resulted in a strange bifurcation of Jamal Morelli's art and religious (Islamic sufi) thinking. He left Barakbeat Studios to start Shamharush Studios and Morelli Music which are currently operational in Fes, Morocco and seasonally in Manchester, United Kingdom.
- Jesse Prentiss who m. Anita. Lived in Pittsburgh. Wikipedia also provided the following
information about Jesse:
- ". . . Recently, Pittsburgh has gained a reputation for its large indie rock scene. Several
notable indie rock bands have come from Pittsburgh in recent years, including Rusted Root, Don Caballero,
and punk rock band Anti-Flag. Some of these bands have ventured into film scoring and video, such
as Jesse Prentiss and Jamal Morelli's "Ritual Space Travel Agency" and
Ben Opie's "Watershed"."
We did a SSDI search in Jan 2006 to see if any male Prentiss had d. in Jupiter, Palm Beach Co., FL where his wife d. in 1998, but none was found.
Correspondence: If you have any information about the folks mentioned in this article, please send your information to us at the Prentice Newsletter. Be sure to give the full title and date of this article in the Subject line of the email.
Caution: If you don't use the above email link, your email to us may be deleted as spam by our email filter.
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