Nas is partnering up with General Assembly to sponsor scholarships for African-American and Latino students, according to reports.
General Assembly, a vocational school for engineering and programming in New York City, is opening the “Opportunity Fund” to help bring diversity into technology. Microsoft, Google and Hirepurpose will also provide monies for the project. Each company will sponsor different populations. While Nas will give scholarships to African-Americans and Latinos, Microsoft and Hirepurpose will provide funding for veterans and Google will give scholarships to women.“This is the start of what hopefully will be a contribution to what will be a more diverse and accessible community worldwide,” General Assembly CEO Jake Schwartz told the Observer.
This is not the first time Nas has had his name attached to an educational opportunity – in 2013 Harvard University created the Nasir Jones Fellowship in his honor. It’s wonderful that he is continuing to foster higher education, this time in his hometown.
original article by Tanay Hudson via allhiphop.com; additions by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
Subway Hero Maurice Osbourne (photo via thefeelsnews.wordpress.com)
A subway hero recently rescued a woman being sexually assaulted and collared the suspect. “As soon as she said that he was trying to rape her, I just reacted,” Maurice Osborne told CBS2’s Matt Kozar on Friday.
Despite getting six stitches above his left eye and a swollen right hand that looked more like a water balloon, Osborne said he’d do it all again. Asked if anyone else was going to help the woman, Osborne said, “Nope. I wish someone else did. I wish the conductor stayed. The conductor didn’t even stay. The train left.”
While riding the No. 3 train Wednesday morning at the Bergen Street station in Park Slope, Osborne said he heard screams from a woman, who investigators said was being sexually assaulted by 40-year-old Alvaro Dennica.
Dennica had been allegedly fondling himself in the last subway car before chasing the victim onto the platform and jumping on top of her, Kozar reported. Osborne, a fit 6-foot-1, 200 pounds, leaped into action and grabbed Dennica by the collar, as he demonstrated on Kozar during the interview.
“He said he did didn’t do anything,” Osborne said, when asked what the alleged assailant’s reaction was.
Osborne said he continued grabbing the man by his shirt, pulling him all the way up the subway station’s steps and across Flatbush Avenue to the 78th Precinct, where he turned him in to police.
The 28-year-old victim was following close behind and told investigators what had happened, Kozar reported. The 37-year-old Osborne, who’s living in a shelter in the Bed Stuy section of Brooklyn while studying to become a medical assistant, told Kozar “I like helping people. It makes me feel useful.”
He said he hopes New Yorkers will follow his lead and help one another the next time help is needed. Dennica was charged with assault and attempted sexual abuse and was being held in lieu of $150,000 bond.
Video of the story at: CBS Local article via thefeelsnews.wordpress.com
Women from Sistahs on the Reading Edge Book Club who were escorted off Napa Valley Wine Train (Photo via media.nbcbayarea.com)
Remember that group of women whose story went viral a few days ago because they were kicked off of a Napa Valley Train wine tour for laughing? They’re now getting the apology they deserve from the train’s CEO, Anthony “Tony” Giaccio.
The full statement Giaccio wrote to the members of the Sistahs on the Reading Edge Book Club reads as follows:
The Napa Valley Wine Train was 100 percent wrong in its handling of this issue. We accept full responsibility for our failures and for the chain of events that led to this regrettable treatment of our guests. Clearly, we knew in advance when we booked your party that you would be loud, fun-loving and boisterous—because you told us during the booking process that you wanted a place where your Club could enjoy each other’s company. Somehow that vital information never made it to the appropriate channels and we failed to seat your group where you could enjoy yourself properly and alert our train’s staff that they should expect a particularly vibrant group. We were insensitive when we asked you to depart our train by marching you down the aisle past all the other passengers. While that was the safest route for disembarking, it showed a lack of sensitivity on our part that I did not fully conceive of until you explained the humiliation of the experience and how it impacted you and your fellow Book Club members. We also erred by placing an inaccurate post on our Facebook site that was not reflective of what actually occurred. In the haste to respond to criticism and news inquires, we made a bad situation worse by rushing to answer questions on social media. We quickly removed the inaccurate post, but the harm was done by our erroneous post. In summary, we were acutely insensitive to you and the members of the Book Club. Please accept my apologies for our many mistakes and failures. We pride ourselves on our hospitality and our desire to please our guests on the Napa Valley Wine Train. In this instance, we failed in every measure of the meaning of good service, respect and hospitality. I appreciate your recommendation that our staff, which I believe to be among the best, could use additional cultural diversity and sensitivity training. I pledge to make sure that occurs and I plan to participate myself. As I offered in my conversation with you today, please accept my personal apologies for your experience and the experience of the Book Club members. I would like to invite you and other members to return plus 39 other guests (you can fill an entire car of 50) as my personal guests in a reserved car where you can enjoy yourselves as loudly as you desire. I want to conclude again by offering my apologies for your terrible experience.
The story caught attention online when Lisa Johnson, a book club member that was one of the women escorted off of the train on Saturday, shared videos and social media posts documenting the incident. Johnson and her friends in the club were highly embarrassed by the incident. Not only were they escorted off by being forced to walk through six train cars, but they were also greeted by police once they got onto the platform.
Despite this apology, Lisa Johnson told MSNBC‘s Thomas Roberts that she will not patronize the Napa Valley Wine Train again.
“No, we don’t accept the apology… In the course of my conversation with Anthony, he was apologizing. And during the course of that apology he said to me, ‘You know it’s really troubling for us that we’re being painted in the media to be something that we are not. And I had to take that in a moment because I said, ‘That’s exactly what you did to us.’ was paint a picture of us in the media of something that we are not…I will never forget my first and last experience on the Napa Wine Train.”
You can watch Johnson’s full interview in the video by clicking here. original article by Monique John via hellobeautiful.com; additions by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
Red hair is usually the result of a mutation in a gene called MC1R, also known as a melanocortin 1 receptor. Normally, when activated by a certain hormone, MC1R sparks a series of signals that leads to the production of brown or black pigment. Yet, in cases when both parents are carriers of the recessive MC1R gene and said receptor is mutated or antagonized, it fails to turn hair darker, resulting instead in a beautifully fiery buildup of red pigment.
As previously estimated by BBC News, between one and two percent of the world’s population — or 70 to 140 million people — are redheads. In Scotland and Ireland, around 35 percent of the population carry the recessive gene that yields crimson locks, and the redhead count is around 10 percent. As such, the word ginger often calls to mind visions of Celtic-Germanic attributes — namely, pale, white skin.
White skin and red hair may constitute the stereotypical image of a redhead, but it’s by no means a comprehensive one. French-born, London-based photographer Michelle Marshall is documenting the stunningly diverse manifestations of the MC1R gene, particularly in people of color.
“I am currently interested in documenting the incidents of the MC1R gene variant responsible for red hair and freckles, particularly amongst black and mixed raced individuals of all ages,” Marshall wrote in an email to The Huffington Post.
“I want to stir the perception that most of us have of a ‘ginger’ as a white caucasian individual, potentially of Celtic descent … As we struggle with issues of immigration, discrimination and racial prejudice, Mother Nature, meanwhile, follows its own course, embracing society’s plurality and, in the process, shaking up our perceptions about origins, ethnicity and identity.”
Marshall originally devised the project, which she referred to as a “visual census,” to document different manifestations of freckles. Eventually, she refined the project, embarking on a mission to document as many Afro-Caribbean redheads as possible. All of Marshall’s subjects thus far have been complete strangers who she has discovered through social media, word of mouth or running into each other on the streets.
The close-up portraits document every freckle and stray hair, with every image, expanding the dominant, narrow understanding of what redheads can and should look like.
(Photo by MICHELLE MARSHALL)
The photographs and their subjects are undeniably stunning. However, the enchanting appeal of the images has its drawbacks. “A beautiful picture doesn’t always relate what it’s like to be different,” Marshall said in an interview with Vice. “There’s a flipside to being different: it’s not always accepted. Beautiful photography serves one purpose, but in the context of daily life people may not have that reaction.”
Model Natasha Culzac, who covered Marshall’s project in Vice and posed for the photograph above, shared her personal experience growing up with red hair and dark skin.
“For me, growing up tall, mixed-raced, with thick, frizzy ginger hair, in a predominantly white, working-class seaside town was not the ticket. At 13 years old I was buying skin whitening cream from Boots to pulverize the freckles and at 14, during my Slipknot phase at the turn of the millennium, was violently straightening my newly-dyed black hair. Now, though, I couldn’t care less and relish being unique.”
Categorizations fall short. Stereotypes disappoint. Difference is beautiful. There is a lot to learn from Marshall’s striking portraits, if we could only stop staring at them:
The Laval Police Department in Quebec with 17-year-old Malyk Bonnet, a restaurant cook, who rescued a woman who had been abducted by her dangerous ex-boyfriend. (photo via Laval Police Department)
A teenager has been hailed a hero after helping a kidnapped woman escape from the clutches of her ex-boyfriend. Police praised Malyk Bonnet, 17, after his quick thinking saved the woman’s life when he stayed with her until he could alert police.
Humble Bonnet initially laughed off the plaudits, but said: “Now I realize what I did and wow…it’s really awesome. I mean, I saved a life!”
On August 1, Bonnet was waiting for a bus home after finishing his shift as a cook at a restaurant in Montreal when he noticed the couple arguing, reported CBC News. The couple asked him for money to take the bus, and he agreed to get some change at a convenience store and give them some money.
Bonnet had a moment alone with the terrified woman and decided he had to help rescue her. “My plan was to keep them in a public place, where there’s a lot of people. I decided to make myself friendly with the man, so he would trust me. So I played my game,” Bonnet said.
Police were already looking for the woman and described the man as “very dangerous,” said Laval police Lt. Daniel Guérin. Guérin said the man had already been found guilty of assault and death threats against his ex-girlfriend last year, and he was under a court order to stay away from her.
Bonnet waiting for the right moment and took the couple for food in order to keep them in a public place. After his cellphone battery had died, he pretended to go to the washroom and borrowed a phone from someone in the restaurant to call police, who arrived within minutes.
Bonnet said the abducted woman was overcome with relief and added: “She was almost crying. She was so happy, so happy not to be with him.”
Police arrested the man on the spot and he appeared in court Monday on charges of kidnapping, forcible confinement and assault. Lt. Guérin said Laval police now intend to nominate Bonnet for a provincial award for bravery and added: “He managed the situation very well and took good decisions that probably saved the life of this woman.” article by Laurie Hanna via nydailynews.com
Images of Jasmine Twitty in court reciting an oath and posing behind the judge’s bench went viral in the last few days when it was noted that the 25-year-old recently became the youngest judge in the history of Easley, South Carolina.
Twitty is an alumna of the College of Charleston and is a member of the Upstate Network Young Professionals Board where she helps improve career development for the youth. Twitty is also the treasurer of the civil rights organization, the Urban League of Upstate.
Major congratulations to Ms. Twitty! article by Monique John via theyolandaadamsmorningshow.com
Civil Rights Leader Julian Bond (Source: The Washington Post / Getty)
The death of legendary civil rights leader Julian Bond on August 15th left a community bereft, yet grateful for a life well-lived and legacy that will inspire and inform generations of activists to come.
Author and poet Alice Walker posted a fitting tribute to Bond on her website, remembering the young, passionate activist he was in college and the icon he would become.
It’s definitely worth the read:
Julian Bond 1940-2015
Julian
The first time I sang We Shall Overcome Was in a circle On the lawn of Trevor Arnett Library At Atlanta University And by chance I was holding Your hand. We were all so young, Julian, And so hopeful In our solidarity. I stumbled over some of the words In the new to me Song But you sang solemnly, Correctly, Devoutly, Believing every word You sang With your whole Handsome Heart. A friend writes That you will be buried At sea And I nod Because that is how it felt Those years so long ago; That we were so young, Vulnerable, Swimming against An awesome tide of hatred And despair Definitely At sea.
Rapper Kendrick Lamar’s words are reaching more than just the kids of his hometown of Compton, California.
Just a few months ago, High Tech High School, a North Bergen, New Jersey high school, lesson plan went viral when English teacher Brian Mooney decided to use Lamar’s recent studio album as curriculum and share it on his personal blog. Students used lyrics from Lamar’s sophomore album, To Pimp A Butterfly, to draw parallels between their assigned reading material of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.
News of what was going on reached Kendrick and he ended up visiting Mr. Mooney’s class: listening to the students poetry, giving a special performance, and participating in a classroom rap cypher.
That same school prompted Philadelphia-based organization Oogee Woogee to launch the “Be Alright” Scholarship, which will award one student at High Tech High with $1500 to go towards tuition and book fees. “We always wanted to create a hip-hop-inspired scholarship,” said Wilikine Brutus, content director of Oogee Woogee told Philly.com. “”Alright” came at the right time and the visit to the high school gave us a concrete idea of what we wanted.”
Students must create a 2-3 minute video using their talents to explain the positive aspects of hip-hop. Applicants submissions will then be posted on Oogee Woogee’s Facebook page, and the submission with the most “likes” or “shares” wins. The contest started Friday (Aug. 21) and ends on Tuesday, Aug. 25 at 9 a.m.
Oogee Woogee plans to bring the scholarship to Philadelphia and nationwide. Watch the promo video for High Tech’s scholarship below:
President Barack Obama meets with Emma Didlake, 110, of Detroit, the oldest known World War II veteran, Friday, July 17, 2015, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. — A Michigan woman who was believed to be the nation’s oldest veteran at 110 has died, about a month after meeting President Barack Obama in the Oval Office. Emma Didlake died Sunday in West Bloomfield, northwest of Detroit, according to the Oakland County medical examiner’s office.
Didlake was a 38-year-old wife and mother of five when she signed up in 1943 for the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. She served about seven months stateside during the war, as a private and driver.
She spent time with the president in July during a trip to Washington that was arranged by Talons Out Honor Flight, a southwest Michigan chapter of a national nonprofit that provides free, one-day trips for veterans to visit monuments and memorials in the nation’s capital.
“Emma Didlake served her country with distinction and honor, a true trailblazer for generations of Americans who have sacrificed so much for their country,” Obama said Monday afternoon in a statement. “I was humbled and grateful to welcome Emma to the White House last month, and Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to Emma’s family, friends, and everyone she inspired over her long and quintessentially American life.”
Didlake was born in Alabama and moved with her family to Detroit in 1944. She was known to her family as “Big Mama” and recently moved to an assisted living family in suburban Detroit.
She was deemed the oldest U.S. veteran based on information gleaned by Honor Flight representatives through national outreach campaigns.
Granddaughter Marilyn Horne told The Associated Press last month that when Talons Out officials presented her grandmother with a short-sleeved shirt bearing the group’s logo to wear on the trip to Washington, Didlake took a look and said: “‘I don’t have Michelle Obama arms — I’m going to need a jacket.'”
During her visit to the White House, Didlake wore a patriotic-themed neck scarf and sat in her wheelchair in the same spot in the Oval Office where foreign leaders sit when they meet with Obama. article by Associated Press via nbcnews.com
Aretha Franklin (photo via essence.com) Aretha Franklin may be moving into real estate.
The Queen of Soul told WWJ-AM she wants to open an entertainment venue in Detroit that would include a nightclub and fine dining.
It would also include “a five-star night club for dining and dancing, the band, the whole nine yards,” as well as a museum, she added.
Franklin said in Thursday’s interview she’s “glad that Detroit came through the bankruptcy with flying colors.” She says she loves how Detroit is enjoying a renaissance and that she’s “going to be part of that renaissance.”
Downtown Detroit has been a hotbed of redevelopment since the city emerged from Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection in December.
Franklin says she’s found a potential location downtown, with details to be announced later.
She performs Saturday at Detroit’s Chene Park. article via blackamericaweb.com
Aretha Franklin may be moving into real estate.