Danae Mines is an 11-year veteran with the FDNY and is one of New York City’s few female firefighters. Next March, Mines will also be the first woman the first woman featured in the FDNY Calendar of Heroes, even though she was initially told the calendar honor was only for men.
“I was told that it was all guys,” Mines, who is assigned to Engine Co. 60 in the South Bronx, told the Daily News. “They said if I made it in the calendar, I would look like a pinup girl.”
But that didn’t stop her from attending an open call and breaking the gender barriers. “I wasn’t going to let anyone tell me I couldn’t do what I wanted to do,” she said. “I was determined.”
Mines was surrounded by 100 men at the audition, and admits to feeling intimidated. “I was a little scared,” said Mines. “I was the only female.”
Mines’ dreams of becoming a firefighter began when she was just 10 years old after one of the city’s Bravest visited her school to talk about the job. But her family told her that she should consider another career, because only men joined the FDNY. “I had absolutely no support from my family when I wanted to come on the job,” she said.
Mines became an EMT and, despite her family’s requests, accepted a promotion to become a firefighter in 2003. And she hasn’t been able to stop her relatives from gloating about her ever since. “Once I graduated (from the Fire Academy), it was the complete opposite,” she said. “They could not stop bragging.”
Despite being one of 41 women firefighters in the department, Mines said she’s faced with no more challenges than any other man on the job. Mines didn’t end up looking like a pin-up model, as you can tell from the photo. The proceeds from the calendar goes directly to the FDNY Foundation to promote fire safety education for city residents, as well as new equipment for the firehouses. But Mines said she had a bigger reason in doing the calendar.
“I wanted my picture in the calendar so that young girls and young women can see me and know that they can do this job,” she said.
article via clutchmagonline.com
Posts published in “Community”
Unlocking the Truth, a heavy metal band comprised of three 8th-graders from Brooklyn, has been signed to a two-album recording contract with Sony. The deal comes with a $60,000 up-front advance and an option for four additional LPs.
The band, made up of guitarist Malcolm Brickhouse, 13, bassist Alec Atkins, 13, and drummer Jarad Dawkins, 12, was founded in 2007 and has been riding the lightning to metal fame thanks to a steady run of heavy-beyond-their-years busking in Times Square and Washington Square Park. Now the Daily News reports that the boys have finalized a deal with Sony that could net them as much as $1.7 million over a possible six albums.
“What started out as play dates went to Times Square and now this. It’s been one great thing after another,” Dawkins’s mother, Tabatha, told the News. The boys competed in the Apollo Theater’s amateur night (under the name Tears of Blood, no less) and have unleashed their middle-school riffage at venues like Webster Hall and the Coachella music festival. Unlocking the Truth is currently touring the country as a part of the Vans Warped Tour and recently took time off from pre-algebra class to open for Gun N Roses in Las Vegas.
Having scored the deal as minors, the 8th graders’ Sony contract had to be approved and filed in Manhattan Supreme Court. The deal is remarkable on account of more than just the band’s age, band manager Alan Sacks affirmed. “Sacks says the boys have a chance of becoming the new face of rock because they are unique — black artists excelling in heavy metal, a genre typically dominated by white musicians,” the Post writes.
Watch Brickhouse, Atkins, and Dawkins shred Times Square below:
article via gothamist.com
An 83-year-old Houston woman fought off an intruder this weekend with a stick and a pot full of boiling water after giving him a piece of her mind. “I told him, I said, ‘What kind of momma you got that raised you up like this? You ought to be ashamed of yourself,’” Lillie McClendon, who celebrated her 83rd birthday two days before on Independence Day, told ABC station KTRK-TV.
McClendon had just come out of the shower and put a load of laundry in Sunday when she noticed a wide-open window and some things out of place, according KTRK in Houston. “I couldn’t see his face, just his eyes like that. All he was asking about was, ‘Where’s the money at? Where’s the money at?” McClendon said.
Related Post: 82 Year-Old Grandfather George Bradford Fights off Intruder with Hammer
The intruder proceeded to choke her while demanding to know where she kept her money, she added. That’s when McClendon says she fought back.
“Oh, shoot yeah. I got a stick and tried to hit him,” she said. “I had sausage on the stove. I put hot water on him.”
The intruder left without getting what he had come for, but not before receiving some minor injuries from McClendon, she said. McClendon’s family is relieved that the woman was able to emerge from the situation with only a few scrapes herself.
article by Sarah Figalora via abcnews.go.com
Rhonda A. Lee (pictured), the woman who was fired from her meteorologist job in Shreveport, La. after defending her natural hair on the station’s Facebook page, has just accepted a job with a national weather channel in Colorado.
Lee announced on her Twitter and Facebook pages that she has accepted a meteorology position with WeatherNation in Denver. “By all accounts, it is my dream job and I am thrilled to be a part of the WeatherNation family,” she said Thursday night on Facebook. Lee told NewsOne that she accepted the position a week ago but wanted to fine tune some particulars before making an announcement.
The offer came soon after the veteran weather woman had lost hope of ever working in television again.
“A month ago, I told my husband that I’m pretty sure I would never work in weather again,” she said. “I had completely lost faith, but in a matter of a week or so, all of a sudden, three people showed interest in me. It was an awakening is what it was. I really had given up.”
Lee had several offers in other markets, including a chief meteorologist position, but went with WeatherNation because it’s a national network that reaches millions of homes. Lee doesn’t know when she will be on-air, but says she will be on Channel 361 on DIRECTV. She, her husband, and their 10-month-old son will be moving to Denver in a few weeks.
More than a year and a half has past since Lee was fired from KTBS 3 News, an ABC affiliate in Shreveport, after she responded to users on Facebook who complained about her natural hairstyle. The station said Lee was fired for violating its social media policy. She has filed an EEOC complaint against the station and is in mediation to resolve her dismissal. Lee said she has no regrets about defending her natural hair and says her dispute with the Shreveport station hasn’t been an issue with her new employer.
This past weekend’s Essence Festival surpassed its record setting attendance of last year’s 543,000 attendees by 7,000. At the 20th anniversary of the famed festival, more than 550,000 people attended and saw various performances, activities, and speakers throughout the Fourth of July weekend in New Orleans.
“Through a unique combination of entertainment and empowerment programming, the ESSENCE Festival has become the place where we come together to revel in culture and connect to our community,” said ESSENCE Communications President Michelle Ebanks. “In recognition of our 20-year milestone, we are tremendously proud to have offered more curated content than ever before—live in New Orleans for our more than 550,000 festival-goers and available digitally on multiple screens for our ESSENCE community of 11.5 million.”
There were more than 80 performers including such dignitaries as Prince, Mary J. Blige, Lionel Richie, Robin Roberts, Alicia Keys, Steve Harvey and Rev. Al Sharpton.
article by Cedric “BIG CED” Thornton via blackenterprise.com
As a proud native of Houston, Texas, Beyoncé is leaving her mark on the city that groomed her to become an international star. The singer’s hometown pastor says the star has donated millions to his church to help the homeless and feed the poor.
In a recent interview with KHOU 11, Rev. Rudy Rasmus said St. Johns Downtown has benefited from Beyoncé’s $7 million gift to the establishment. Despite her superstar status, the pastor explained the Grammy award-winning artist still has a heart of gold.
“She has a global platform and is doing some amazing work and I’m glad she’s a friend of mine,” Rasmus said. “[…] She’s an incredible human being. Has an incredible heart and has been extremely helpful in our mission and our ministry here.”
Rasmus said Beyoncé has kept the ministry near and dear to her heart because she grew up at that very church and entertained the congregation with her musical talents.
“She used to sing right here,” he pointed out. “I don’t remember the song but I do remember she had long braids, tennis shoes and jeans on. A far cry from what she is today.”
article by Camille Travis via uptownmagazine.com
Malia Obama turns 16 today, which also is when the U.S. celebrates Independence Day. This first daughter, pictured here during a March trip to China with her mother, grandmother and sister, Sasha, has already begun taking steps toward her independence. She interned on the set of Extant and soon will begin taking driving lessons. Look out world! Here she comes!
article by Joyce Jones via bet.com
“Star Trek” actor and “Reading Rainbow” host LeVar Burton has created a supremely successful Kickstarter campaign to make a web version of his award-winning PBS show that’s on track to raise $5 million when it ends.
A little “Reading Rainbow” has gone a very long way.
The Kickstarter campaign to create a web version of the award-winning PBS show has broken a record on the crowd fund-raising site for most individual contributors, Entrepreneur magazine reports.
With just one day to go, the effort, created by the show’s executive producer and host LeVar Burton, has amassed more than 97,000 contributors and nearly $5 million.
“Bring Reading Rainbow Back for Every Child, Everywhere” was created at the end of May. In a matter of hours, the campaign surpassed its initial goal of $1 million.
Soon after, “Family Guy” creator Seth McFarlane pledged to match donations to the literary project up to $1 million, Burton announced June 28.
As the “Reading Rainbow” effort quickly became the fifth-most funded campaign on Kickstarter, in an unprecedented move the four bigger campaigns — including the “Veronica Mars” movie project — have all donated rewards to it.
article by Chiderah Monde via nydailynews.com
The embattled Los Angeles’ Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital is set to reopen in early 2015 according to hospital officials, giving residents in its surrounding community access to much needed care as well as job opportunities. The hospital originally opened in 1972 serving the African American and Latino community with various types of medical services until the year 2007. The “heaven sent” hospital as it is known to many members of the community was shut down due to high patient deaths, unqualified staff, hygiene issues, and medical scandals. The shut down resulted in the loss of hospital jobs and lack of nearby emergency rooms for the community.
According to the MLK Community hospital website, “The hospital is expected to serve 1.2 million residents from all over South Los Angeles including Compton, Inglewood, Watts-Willowbrook and Lynwood.”
Not only will the hospital create jobs for people in the community, but it will also provide more than 10 inpatient and outpatient services including but not limited to Anesthesiology, Cardiology-medical and diagnostic, Emergency medicine, Endocrinology and Gastroenterology. The new hospital will also have 131 beds, a 21-bed emergency department, a critical care unit, and labor and delivery services.
“We’re not done yet, we have a lot to do and we are going to do it,” said Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. “We are putting in the kind of services that meet the needs and the demands of that population.”
The hospital will take new measures to ensure and decrease hospital scandals, hygiene issues, and unqualified staff by hiring the highest quality staff and using modern day technology. The hospitals mission is to “provide compassionate, collaborate, quality care and improve the health of our community. Our vision is to be a leading model of innovation, collaboration and community health care.”
For more information visit: http://www.mlkcommunityhospital.org
article by Kimberlee Buck via lasentinel.net
Karyn Parsons, best known for her role as Hillary in the TV show “Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” is raising funds for a new animated short about Janet Collins, the first black prima ballerina and soloist to ever perform at NYC’s Metropolitan Opera. In Collins’ journey, she overcame many great obstacles; at the age 15, the young dancer was asked to join the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, but only if she performed in whiteface.
After refusing to dance in whiteface, Collins went on to become a renowned Prima Ballerina, winning awards for her performances on Broadway. In 1950, Collins was honored with the Best Dancer of Broadway title, making Collins a pioneer in this industry for paving the way for other black dancers and companies such as Alvin Ailey and the Dance Theater of Harlem.
The short story will be narrated by actor/comedian/producer Chris Rock and presented by Parsons’ founded award-winning organization Sweet Blackberry, whose mission is to educate kids on the achievements of African Americans with inspiring true stories.
So far, the project’s Kickstarter page shows 18 days left to go in the campaign, with over $16,000 already pledged of its $75,000 goal.
For more information on Sweet Blackberry, click here to see the Kickstarter video and contribute!
article by Vanessa Martinez via Shadow and Act