Seven-year-old Natalie McGriff earned $16,423.69 in prize money for creating her comic book “The Adventures of Moxie Girl” at Jacksonville, FL’s One Spark, touted as the world’s largest crowdfunding festival.
McGriff’s comic book revolves around the life of a little Black girl who hated her hair texture. After using some magical shampoo, the little girl’s afro-puffs are activated with super powers that helped save the Jacksonville Public Libraries from being eaten by monsters.
McGriff’s mother, Angie Nixon, helped her daughter write her comic book “because she was having self-esteem issues regarding her hair and she hated to read.”
“She now realizes how powerful and awesome her hair is and that in order for her to write a cool book, she needs to read more books and learn different words,” she continued.
Over 530 projects competed for One Spark 2015, and 300,000 people attended the festival. McGriff was the winner of the Education category; there were 117,169 votes cast by attendees. One Spark is a five-day festival and one-day Speaker Summit. Creators from six categories (Art, Education, Health & Science, Music, Social Good and Technology) explain their projects to a crowd of over 250,000 people and are able to experience the crowdfunding for their project in person. The attendees contribute to crowdfunding campaigns and vote to distribute $150,000 of the guaranteed $350,000 in awards.
article by Lauren R.D. Fox via madamenoire.com
Posts published in “Awards/Honors”
Munira Khalif faces a tough decision: she has been accepted to all eight Ivy League schools, plus Stanford, Georgetown and the University of Minnesota.
According to Mounds Park Academy, the high school senior has stellar grades and an extremely high ACT score in addition to being a state speech champion and founder of MPA’s Social Consciousness Club. She has also campaigned for education, especially in East Africa and especially for girls there.
“Munira has thrived in MPA’s rigorous educational environment, where we challenge students to be intellectually curious and confident communicators,” said Randy Comfort, MPA’s upper school director. “She already is making a difference in communities across the globe, and I know she is ready to embrace the challenges that arise in our constantly changing world.”
RELATED: New York Student Harold Ekeh Accepted at All 8 Ivy League Schools
Khalif has not yet made a decision, and she intends to tour a few campuses before the decision deadline of May 1. Once she decides, she knows she wants to major in political science and be a force for good in the world. “I was very surprised. The best part for me was being able to call family members on the phone and to hear their excitement,” said Khalilf. “This was truly a blessing from God. To me this news is reflective of the support and encouragement of my family, my school and my community.”
article via thegrio.com
At a time when tens of thousands of American students are getting turned away from their first, second and even third college picks, Harold Ekeh, of Long Island, N.Y., has an enviable quandary: deciding which of the eight Ivy League colleges he will attend next year, according to CBS New York.
For all his hard work and accomplishments, the Elmont High School salutatorian was no less surprised when the acceptance letters arrived.
“Absolutely shocked,” Ekeh tells the television news station about the acceptances. “It was as though I was hit repeatedly. I was stunned.”
Ekeh, whose family immigrated to the city eight years ago from Nigeria, tells the station that he credits his academic success with his family’s humble beginnings, thirst for education and a strong desire to make a meaningful mark on society.
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“I am just thanking god for what he is doing for my family in the life of my son,” Harold’s mother Roseline told CBS News. She works for a human resources agency in Queens, N.Y., while his father Paul works in the traffic division of the New York Police Department.
“I am overwhelmed,” Paul tells the news outlet. “To say that I am proud is not enough, it is awesome.”
Although Ekeh spent most of his high school years focused on complicated biochemistry experiments, he volunteered on social justice campaigns, served as a mentor and participated in sports. He was also elected to Elmont’s homecoming court and honor society.
“Kids would say, ‘I want to be a firefighter or a police officer or a superhero.’ I would say I want to explore the human body, what makes us who we are,” he said, “I would like to be a neurosurgeon when I grow up.”
As for which school he’ll pick, he leaning toward Yale, but plans to visit the other schools in upcoming weeks.
“I am very humbled by this,” he said. “I see this as not an accomplishment for me, but as an accomplishment for my school, my community. Because I really see this as my mission to inspire the next generation.”
Claudia Rankine, the Henry G. Lee Professor of English at Pomona College in Claremont, California, won the National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry for her book Citizen: An American Lyric (Graywolf Press, 2014).
Rankine’s poetry recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in twenty-first-century daily life and in the media. Citizen is her fifth published poetry collection.
Earlier this year, Professor Rankine made literary history when she was the first author to have a work nominated as a finalist in two categories in the 39-year history of the National Book Critics Circle Awards.
Professor Rankine is a native of Jamaica. She is a graduate of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and holds a master of fine arts degree in poetry from Columbia University.
article via jbhe.com
Gary S. May, Ph.D., national advisor, lifetime member and former national chair of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), has been honored by President Barack Obama with the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM). Dr. May, dean of the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech, received news of the award on Friday, March 27, during his attendance at NSBE’s 41st Annual Convention, in Anaheim, Calif. He will receive the award during a White House ceremony later this year.
The Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring is given to individuals and organizations to recognize “the crucial role that mentoring plays in the academic and personal development of students studying science and engineering — particularly those who belong to groups that are underrepresented in these fields,” a White House news release stated. “By offering their expertise and encouragement, mentors help prepare the next generation of scientists and engineers while ensuring that tomorrow’s innovators represent a diverse pool of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics talent throughout the United States.”
“These educators are helping to cultivate America’s future scientists, engineers and mathematicians,” President Obama said. “They open new worlds to their students, and give them the encouragement they need to learn, discover and innovate. That’s transforming those students’ futures, and our nation’s future, too.”
The Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring is given to individuals and organizations to recognize “the crucial role that mentoring plays in the academic and personal development of students studying science and engineering — particularly those who belong to groups that are underrepresented in these fields,” a White House news release stated. “By offering their expertise and encouragement, mentors help prepare the next generation of scientists and engineers while ensuring that tomorrow’s innovators represent a diverse pool of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics talent throughout the United States.”
“These educators are helping to cultivate America’s future scientists, engineers and mathematicians,” President Obama said. “They open new worlds to their students, and give them the encouragement they need to learn, discover and innovate. That’s transforming those students’ futures, and our nation’s future, too.”
Léopoldine Doualla-Bell Smith vividly remembers her first flight at the tender age of 17.
“I was yelling and screaming and [the other flight attendant] was telling me to calm down,” she recalls, laughing at the memory of the first time she’d experienced soaring amid the clouds in an airplane. “I kept thinking, ‘what if I die?'”
Doualla-Bell Smith had no idea that first flight – as terrifying as it seemed – would mark the beginning of an illustrious aviation industry career that would ultimately span nearly five decades and earn the honorable distinction of being known as one of the world’s first black flight attendants.
In celebration of their 40th anniversary, the Black Flight Attendants of America recently honored Doualla-Bell Smith, 76, now retired in Denver, for her years of service at the Flight Path Museum at the Los Angeles International Airport.
“When I heard of Mrs. Smith’s generous humanitarian efforts and spirit of volunteerism, I knew she had to have been a woman of substance of whom we all should be proud,” explains event chairperson Diane Hunter. “Everyone should know of her ‘journey’ to become the first black flight attendant in the world: on every continent and particularly in this country where we were emerged in a historic struggle for equal civil rights under the laws of the [U.S.] Constitution.”
History buffs may know that Ruth Carol Taylor is on record as the first African-American flight attendant in the United States. Her initial flight was reportedly February 11, 1958 on a Mohawk Airlines flight from Ithaca to New York. Unfortunately her career abruptly ended six months later due to a common practice among airlines of the day of releasing flight attendants who got married or became pregnant.
As a stewardess with Union Aéromaritime de Transport (UAT) Doualla-Bell Smith, who was born in the West African nation of Cameroon, actually took flight for the first time the year before Taylor in 1957.
“When I was young there were only white men and women working on the plane,” she remembers. “I was one of the first blacks to be hired and it was a big deal; everybody in my town was talking about it. It was even in the newspaper.”
Her aviation career took off early on when Doualla-Bell Smith, a princess of the royal Douala family of Cameroon, accepted an after-school job as a ground hostess with UAT (which later merged into the Union de Transports Aériens or UTA), the airline that, along with Air France served, France’s African routes. She stayed on for two years and after graduating from high school in 1956 at the age of 17, Doualla-Bell Smith was recruited and sent to Paris for flight training by Air France.
She joined UAT a year later as an “hôtesse de l’air,” what flight attendants were called then. By 1960, she was recruited by Air Afrique, a Pan-African airline mainly owned by many West African countries created to serve 11 newly independent French-speaking nations.
In fact, her stellar credentials as an African with French aviation experience helped her stand out so much she became the airline’s first official hire (in fact, her employee identification card literally read “no. 001”). It didn’t take long for her to get promoted to Air Afrique’s first cabin chief position.
Each year, the Library of Congress selects 25 recordings to add to its archive. This year, Lauryn Hill’s record-breaking album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, will be included in the 25.
According to the Library of Congress press release, among requirements for inclusion in the archive are that the recordings be “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” and be at least 10 years old. The Library of Congress gave a lengthy explanation as to why it chose Hill’s debut album:
“Lauryn Hill’s debut solo record, following the breakup of the Fugees, is a work of honesty in which Hill explores her feelings on topics that included the deep wonder of pregnancy, the pitfalls of modern relationships and the experience of the sacred. The album effortlessly fuses soul, rhythm and blues, rap and reggae. Hill’s vocal range, smooth clear highs and vibrato are stunning. The rapping is rhythmically compelling while always retaining, and frequently exploiting, the natural cadences of conversational speech. Standout guest performances include Carlos Santana’s soulful acoustic guitar solo on ‘Zion,’ and duets with Mary J. Blige and D’Angelo on ‘I Used to Love Him’ and ‘Nothing Even Matters,’ respectively.”
Hill’s album joins an eclectic list, which includes Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me,” Sly and the Family Stone’s Stand album, and even a Sesame Street platinum-hits album.
Check out the full list of inductees below:
1. Vernacular Wax Cylinder Recordings at University of California, Santa Barbara Library (c.1890-1910)
2. The Benjamin Ives Gilman Collection, recorded at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago (1893)
3. “The Boys of the Lough”/ “The Humours of Ennistymon” (single)—Michael Coleman (1922)
In 1945, Olivia Hooker, a 30-year-old black woman from Tulsa, Oklahoma, joined the U.S. Coast Guard. The now-Dr. Olivia Hooker holds a PhD in psychology, worked until she was 87, and just turned 100 in February. But 70 years ago when she enlisted she became the Coast Guard’s first African-American woman on active duty.
Thursday, Coast Guard brass honored her by naming a dining hall on Staten Island in her honor. But the commandant of the Coast Guard announced that a training center at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C., would also bear the name of this 100-year-old pioneer.
“Oh, this is beyond my wildest dreams. I’d never even imagine,” Dr. Hooker said. “It’s still astonishing to me. I’m so grateful that the sun was shining today and we were able to get here.”
To see Fox5NY video of this story, click here.
Hooker grew up in a home that Klan members ransacked during the Tulsa race riot of 1921.
Basic training in Manhattan Beach and the duties of a yeoman first class at the Boston separation office where she worked — and from which she later wrote her own separation letter — looked and felt a lot different than Tulsa in 1921 or White Plains, N.Y., in 2005.
“I learned a lot more about people who grew up in different kinds of situations,” she said. “There are many, many more opportunities but there are still more challenges.”
Hooker’s goddaughter Diane Harris and a roomful of Coast Guard leadership traveled to Staten Island for Thursday’s ceremony.
“She doesn’t act like a 100-year-old to me,” Harris said.
“When I try to reach my toes and I can’t quite reach them, then I’m reminded,” Dr. Hooker said.
Five years ago, at age 95, Dr. Hooker joined the Coast Guard Auxiliary, the service’s civilian reserve.
article by Mac King via myfoxny.com
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, who teaches creative writing at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, has been selected as the winner of the 2015 Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History. The prize was established by Jean Kennedy Smith, the sister of Senator Edward Kennedy, and is administered by the Center for New Media Teaching and Learning at Columbia University in New York City.
Parks was honored for her play “Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3,” which was first staged at The Public Theater in New York last October. The Kennedy Prize comes with a $100,000 cash award.
Parks is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. She is a former MacArthur Foundation “Genius Award” winner. Professor Parks was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for her play “Topdog/Underdog.”
article via jbhe.com
Loyola Law School in Los Angeles honored California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris with its Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. Public Service Award during a ceremony Friday that featured a panel discussion exploring the intersection of race and community policing. The event benefitted Loyola’s African American Scholarship Fund.
The Cochran Award is presented annually to an individual who embodies the qualities of the late Loyola alumnus Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. ’62. “Nobody has had the courage to say this is wrong,” Cochran once said. This award celebrates those who have such courage – those who have demonstrated excellence in their profession, dedication to social justice and a commitment to serving their community. These trailblazers, innovators, master attorneys and mentors embody the spirit of Cochran, the legendary attorney who dedicated his career to helping underserved constituencies fight for justice.
In the wake of such high-profile instances of racial conflict with law enforcement in Ferguson, Mo. and New York City, the panel discussion “Seeking Justice in Our Community” focused on the challenges African-American and Latino communities face with regard to community policing. The panelists were Benjamin Crump, partner, Parks & Crump, L.L.C.; Jamon Hicks ’04, partner, Douglas / Hicks Law; Pamela Means, president, National Bar Association; Earl Paysinger, first assistant chief, Los Angeles Police Department; and Connie Rice, co-director, the Advancement Project.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (follow @lakinhutcherson)