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Rihanna Becomes 1st Black Woman to Be Face of Dior

By goodblacknews on March 13, 2015
(Getty Images)

The 27-year-old superstar will star in Dior’s fourth installment of their “Secret Garden” campaign — a series featuring models posing in the palace of Versailles, clad in Dior creations — the fashion house confirmed on Friday. She will be shot by famed photographer Steven Klein, with the film and print versions of the campaign scheduled to run this spring.
But as if being an official Dior girl wasn’t amazing enough, Rihanna’s highly-anticipated campaign also marks the first time a black woman has been chosen to front the French fashion brand. Other celebrity Dior spokeswomen include Jennifer Lawrence, Charlize Theron, Natalie Portman and Marion Cotillard.
The Dior partnership particularly makes a lot of sense given that Rihanna is often a staple at the high-fashion brand’s shows, always flawlessly dressed of course.
Though perhaps Dior should be considered the lucky ones to land Rihanna. Aside from already having fronted a Balmain campaign and often being chosen to be the first to sport a new collection, it’s no secret that the “Four Five Seconds” singer is considered a huge deal in fashion. She was named last year’s Fashion Icon at the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards — where she donned an unforgettable completely sheer Adam Selman dress — and in November, designer Tom Ford gushed about the Barbadian superstar in his very own blog post.
“I was at the CFDA awards as I was receiving a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ …. and I have to say that Rihanna was for me, that night, one of the most beautiful women that I have ever beheld,” Ford gushed. “As [my husband] Richard said plainly after the evening, ‘If you are as beautiful as Rihanna, you almost owe it to the world to appear in public almost nude’ and I have to say that I wholeheartedly concur.”
article by Antoinette Bueno via aol.com

Obamas Launch "Let Girls Learn" Education Initiative

By goodblacknews on March 7, 2015

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President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama put their weight behind Let Girls Learn on Tuesday, an initiative to help girls around the world attend secondary school and complete their education.

“Let Girls Learn” began as a United States Agency for International Development effort last summer, and featured a video with celebrities like Alicia Keys and Shonda Rhimes. The goal was “to provide the public with meaningful ways to help all girls to get a quality education,” building on past work on girls’ education and empowerment around the world. Now, the Obama administration will enhance existing programs and expand efforts across the government and through partnerships with the private sector.

“A good education can lift you from the most humble circumstances into a life you never could have imagined,” the first lady said Tuesday when she and the president announced the plan. “I see myself in these girls. I see our daughters in these girls,” she said. “I want to use my time and platform as first lady and beyond to make a real impact.”

According to a FLOTUS tweet, women and girls make up 70 percent of those living in extreme poverty around the world, a fact that education can help change. Approximately 62 million girls around the world are not in school, explains a fact sheet published Tuesday by the White House, with half that number representing adolescent girls.

“These girls have diminished economic opportunities and are more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, early and forced marriage, and other forms of violence,” the fact sheet says. “Yet when a girl receives a quality education, she is more likely to earn a decent living, raise a healthy, educated family, and improve the quality of life for herself, her family and her community. In addition, girls’ attendance in secondary school is correlated with later marriage, later childbearing, lower maternal and infant mortality rates, lower birth rates, and lower rates of HIV/AIDS.”

imagesThe first lady will work with the Peace Corps to develop community-based solutions and recruit and train volunteers. During the first year of the program, the Peace Corps will implement Let Girls Learn in 11 countries—Albania, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Georgia, Ghana, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Togo, and Uganda—and will expand to additional countries the following year.

The initiative will include programs focused on education, empowerment and leadership, health and nutrition, preventing gender-based violence, and preventing child, early and forced marriage.

Partnerships with the private sector include commitments from the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution, CARE, Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., PBS Learning Media and the U.N. Foundation’s Girl Up campaign.

To join the efforts please go to letgirlslearn.peacecorps.gov
article by Stav Ziv via newsweek.com

ARCHITECTURE: The Forgotten Masterpieces of African Modernism

By goodblacknews on March 1, 2015
La Pyramide, Abidjan, Ivory Coast
La Pyramide, Abidjan, Ivory Coast. (Photograph: Iwan Baan)
A field of triangular roofs pokes up above the horizon on the outskirts of Dakar, like a forest of wigwams that have been baked to stone under the scorching sub-Saharan sun. They sit on a triangular concrete plinth, from which bigger triangular pavilions protrude, accessed by flights of triangular steps from the dusty streets, along which triangular gutters jut out. It could be Toblerone Town, a city-sized hymn to the three-sided prism.
This mysterious complex, which looks like what might have happened if the Mayans had discovered reinforced concrete, is the Foire Internationale de Dakar, or FIDAK for short. It is a sprawling exhibition centre built in the capital of Senegal in 1975 to host the country’s biennial international trade fair – and trumpet the new nationstate’s presence on the global stage. Designed by little-known French architects Jean-François Lamoureux and Jean-Louis Marin, it is a project of obsessive and extraordinary detail. There are facades decorated with coloured pebbles and tiled mosaics, psychedelic sand art murals that evoke the rocky African coastline and its azure seas. Yet outside Senegal, this building is almost entirely unknown.
It is just one of the astounding projects documented by Swiss architect Manuel Herz, who has spent the last few years researching the architecture of African independence with his team at ETH University in Zurich. A period of bold structures and strident new forms, it is strangely absent from the recorded history of modern architecture. “There was an intense flowering of experimental and futuristic architecture in the 1960s and 70s, which the young African countries used to express their national identities,” says Herz, who has curated an exhibition of more than 80 buildings from sub-Saharan Africa, showing at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany, until May. “But we simply don’t know about it. When people think of Africa, they think of poverty, misery and violence, while architects fetishise informality and focus on slum-upgrading. But we wanted to show this incredible cultural wealth that also exists.”

University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia
University of Zambia, Lusaka. (Photograph: Iwan Baan)

The buildings, a number of which have been beautifully shot by Dutch photographer Iwan Baan, portray a period of extreme confidence and political ambition. They are mostly the products of big, state-sponsored initiatives, from heroic parliament buildings and imposing central banks to daring universities and vast stadiums, many the pet projects of Africa’s “big man” leaders, built for propaganda purposes as much as anything else.

The Kenyatta International Conference Centre, whose pink cylindrical shaft towers above Nairobi, was initiated by the country’s first president, Jomo Kenyatta, as a lavish new HQ for his ruling Kanu party. At 32 stories, it was by far the tallest structure in east Africa until the 1990s, a big column for Kenya’s big-man chieftain. Yet its great size can be credited to an accident of international intervention. In the midst of its design, the World Bank decided it would host its 1973 annual meeting in Nairobi, and the building was chosen as the venue, forcing a growth spurt. The tower almost tripled in height, while a magnificent auditorium shaped like a closed lily-bud was also added, and mirrored by an open flower form at the top of the tower containing a revolving restaurant.

Reduced To Her Knees, Marathoner Hyvon Ngetich Refuses to Stop, Finishes Race In a Crawl (VIDEO)

By goodblacknews on February 17, 2015

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After showing herself to be in the elite class of female runners at the Austin Marathon, Kenyan Hyvon Ngetich hit the wall — hard. She didn’t win, despite leading for most of the day. But the way Ngetich finished the race is being celebrated, because she did it by crawling, refusing to quit.
Her fortitude paid off: Even though she crept to the finish line, Ngetich finished third, with a time of 3:04:02.68.
As the crowd realized what was happening in front of them — that the race’s former leader was refusing to be put in a wheelchair that organizers brought out onto the course, and she was insisting on finishing under her own power — they cheered her on.
“Running, always, you have to keep going, going,” Ngetich told local TV station KEYE after the race. She said that she doesn’t recall the final 2 kilometers of the marathon or crossing the finish line.

http://youtu.be/T6UG9PaABc8

Ngetich accomplished her feat Saturday. But her story is still making headlines today and being cited as an inspiration, as more and more people discuss the elite runner who finished a marathon on all fours.
“I’ve seen athletes wobble and fall; I’ve seen athletes crawl across the finish line,” Austin Marathon Race Director Jon Conley told CBS News Monday. “But that story of her going 26 miles, and then crawling the last 450 feet or so — never seen anything like it.”
The women’s winner was Cynthia Jerop, who finished in 2:54:21.78. Ngetich finished some 10 minutes later — and just three seconds shy of second place. But after her display of will, Conley and the Austin Marathon adjusted Ngetich’s prize money to equal that of the second-place finisher.
article by Bill Chappell via npr.org

"Staying Power": Photographs of Black British Experience on Exhibit in England Through May

By goodblacknews on February 9, 2015

Untitled, circa 1960s, from the portfolio Black Beauty Pageants
Untitled, circa 1960s, from the portfolio Black Beauty Pageants (Photograph: Raphael Albert/Victoria and Albert Museum)

“Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience 1950s-1990s” is the culmination of a seven-year collaboration between the Victoria & Albert Museum and Brixton’s Black Cultural Archive to increase the number of black British photographers and images of black Britain in the V&A collection. It aims to raise awareness of the contribution of black Britons to British culture and society, as well as to the art of photography.
Over the last seven years the V&A has been working with Black Cultural Archives to acquire photographs either by black photographers or which document the lives of black people in Britain. Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the Museum has been able to collect 118 works by 17 artists. To complement the photographs, Black Cultural Archives have collected oral histories from a range of subjects including the photographers themselves, their relatives, and the people depicted in the images.
Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience 1950s-1990s is at the Black Cultural Archive (bcaheritage.org.uk) until June 30th and at the Victoria & Albert Museum from February 16th to May 24th (vam.ac.uk).  Some of the images on display follow below:
HD-1469 (Pineapple), 1969
HD-1469 (Pineapple), 1969 (Photograph: The Estate of J. D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere/Victoria and Albert Museum)

Miss Black & Beautiful, circa 1970s
Miss Black & Beautiful, circa 1970s (Photograph: Raphael Albert/Victoria and Albert Museum)

She Rockers (London Rap/Dance Crew), Shepherd’s Bush Green, London, 1988
She Rockers (London Rap/Dance Crew), Shepherd’s Bush Green, London, 1988 (Photograph: Normski/Victoria and Albert Museum)

4 Aces Club, Count Shelley Sound System, Hackney, London, 1974
4 Aces Club, Count Shelley Sound System, Hackney, London, 1974 (Photograph: Dennis Morris/Victoria and Albert Museum)

article via guardian.com; additions by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (follow@lakinhutcherson)
 

Taofick Okoya's "Queens of Africa" Dolls are Taking on Barbie

By goodblacknews on January 31, 2015
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Queens of Africa, the black doll line that’s outselling Barbie in Nigeria, started as a personal mission seven years ago. Taofick Okoya was frustrated that he couldn’t find a black doll on the market for his niece. “I happen to be the kind of person that doesn’t enjoy complaining and criticizing without taking any action,” the 43-year-old businessman tells ELLE.com. So he researched making a doll that Nigerian girls could identify with: one with their skin color and traditional African fashion.

“It became a frontline project for me due to the resistance the dolls received because of their color and outfits from most children and distributors,” he explains. “I spent about two years campaigning on the importance and benefits of dolls in the African likeness. During that process, I realized greater social issues such as low self esteem, which led to the passion to make a change in the coming generation. It’s been a tough journey but one I have enjoyed.”

Okoya created two lines of dolls, Queens of Africa (which come with three outfits, four accessories, and cost 1,300 to 3,500 naira, or $6.75 to $18.18) and Naija Princesses (which come with two outfits, two accessories, and cost 500-1,000 naira, or $2.60 to $5.19). Each doll represents a different African tribe (Igbo, Yoruba, and Hausa).

Okoya sells 6,000 to 9,000 dolls a month, Reuters reports—10 to 15 percent of Nigeria’s small but growing toy market, by Okoya’s estimation. The dolls have quite a few fans. Okoya shares one’s testimony: “Usually the black dolls are so dark, I don’t buy them because they look nothing like me. I think that if they had maybe a better variety of black dolls with different colors like yours, that would be a lot better. No two black people are the same color: Some have darker and some have lighter pigments. Like many other African Americans, I have never found a doll that really fits me ’till now.”

90-Year-Old Kenyan Woman Priscilla Sitienei Goes To School, Learns To Read And Write Alongside Great-Great-Grandkids

By goodblacknews on January 27, 2015

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A 90-year-old woman is going to school to learn skills that she never had the opportunity to acquire when she was younger.
Priscilla Sitienei has been attending Leaders Vision Preparatory School in her village of Ndalat, Kenya, for the past five years according to BBC News. Sitienei didn’t have the chance to learn how to read and write, but is finally doing so now.
The 90-year-old, who goes to school with six of great-great-grandchildren, says she has some big goals.
“I’d like to be able to read the Bible,” Sitienei, whose classmates are between the ages of 11 and 14, told BBC News. “I also want to inspire children to get an education.”
Sitienei’s school day is just like any other student’s at the prep school, BBC News reported. She wears the school uniform to classes, and takes math, English, physical education, dance, drama and singing. She also lives in one of the campus dormitories, where she rooms with one of her great-great-grandchildren.
Her commitment to learning has made her a role model for the students.
“Gogo has been a blessing to this school, she has been a motivator to all the pupils,” David Kinyanjui, the school’s principal, told BBC News, using Sitinei’s nickname which means “grandmother” in the local Kalenjin language. “She is loved by every pupil, they all want to learn and play with her.”
The 90-year-old, who served as a midwife in her village for several decades, wants her story to spur others to take another chance at getting an education.

TRAVEL: Port Antonio is Jamaica’s Hidden Gem

By goodblacknews on January 25, 2015
(Image: VisitJamaica.com)
(Image: VisitJamaica.com)
Looking for an island getaway, and considering a retreat to Jamaica? Negril, Montego Bay and Ocho Rios are great, but why not try something different? Jamaica’s resort town of Port Antonio is described as picture perfect— a panorama of nature’s finest work.
On any visit, travelers to this secluded gem can explore the majestic Blue Mountains, swim in the Blue Lagoon, raft the Rio Grande, relax at Somerset Falls or discover Nonsuch Caves.  A visit to Port Antonio would be incomplete without a sampling of its world famous jerk chicken or pork in its original home.

“Visitors to Port Antonio are always in for a special treat with its diverse and laidback offerings of adventure and natural beauty,” said Paul Pennicook, Jamaica’s Director of Tourism. “With more travelers seeking authentic local lifestyles, Port Antonio, the birthplace of jerk cooking, is a great option for those wanting to experience the best of Jamaica’s cuisine, history and adventure.”

DO:

Blue Mountain Bicycle Tour: A remarkable way to see the island, this riding tour takes sightseers down the mountainside and along rolling hills. Ideal for singles, couples or families who wish to experience and photograph the world-famous Jamaican Blue Mountains and lush, tropical countryside – all while riding in the fresh Jamaican air.

Rio Grande Rafting: One of the more coveted outings in Port Antonio is a bamboo rafting tour down the gently winding Rio Grande.  Originally used as a means of transporting banana crops from the local plantations to the bustling harbor, the rafting tours are now a popular leisure activity once championed by the likes of Hollywood icon Errol Flynn. Legend has it that Flynn enjoyed gathering his well-heeled guests for midnight rafting excursions under a canopy of stars. Experienced guides who are knowledgeable about the river and its ecosystem, including a bird sanctuary (parts natural wonder and serene escape), man the bamboo rafts. Swimming in the river is perhaps the best part of the journey.

Somerset Falls: Somerset Falls is a world class setting for guests to chill out, take a swim and refresh.  Spanish settlers, who occupied the island over 400 years ago, built aqueducts and dams that are still visible today. The breathtaking waterfall is hidden in the rainforest, where the Daniels River cascades down a narrow gorge of lush ferns. Here, sun worshipers can settle in for a lovely day of sunning, relaxing and bathing in picture-perfect deep rock pools.
STAY:

Port Antonio thrives on its seclusion, intimacy and luxury, offering visitors an array of inns, beachfront cottages and villas, such as:

Great Huts, starting at US$89 per night including breakfast: www.greathuts.com.

Hotel Mocking Bird Hill, starting at US$236 per night including taxes: www.hotelmockingbirdhill.com.

Goblin Hill Villas, which ranges from US381 to $450 per night, for a 2 bedroom villa, including a housekeeper: www.goblinhill.com.

Trident Hotel, which ranges from US$540 to $990 per night including breakfast, depending on the season: www.geejamcollection.com.

EAT:

Jamaica’s diverse history has impacted its culinary offering. The cuisine features a mix of  cultural influences  – Chinese, European, Indian and African – creating an eclectic and tasty combination that is uniquely Jamaican.  Port Antonio is well known for its jerk pork and chicken, particularly in Boston Bay, but a number of the area’s inns and villas are known for their gourmet dining. There are a variety of restaurants which provide excellent Jamaican staples including fresh seafood.  Some of the popular spots include Dickie’s Best-Kept Secret and Bryan’s Bay for local fare, Restaurant Mille Fleurs, at Hotel Mocking Bird Hill for eclectic Euro-Caribbean cuisine, Woody’s Low Bridge Place and Anna Bananas for a fun family atmosphere or Bushbar at Geejam Hotel for sophisticated Asian-influenced Jamaican cuisine.
article by Kimberly Wilson via blackenterprise.com

Alia Atkinson Becomes 1st Black Woman to Win World Title in Swimming (VIDEO)

By goodblacknews on December 8, 2014
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Alia Atkinson of Jamaica poses with her gold medal after winning the women’s 100 breaststroke during the 12th FINA World Swimming Championships in Doha, Qatar, on Dec. 6, 2014. (Karim Jaafar/Getty Images) 
Alia Atkinson made swimming history on Saturday by becoming the first black woman to win a world swimming title: the women’s 100 breaststroke at the world short-course championships in Doha, Qatar.
Atkinson, who swims for Jamaica, tied the world record with a time of 1 minute, 2.36 seconds, which, according to the standards of the international swimming governing body FINA, counts as its own record. Even Atkinson was surprised at her win.
http://youtu.be/ii5MteABZ44
“I couldn’t believe it. It came down to the same thing as the 50, and on the 50 I got out-touched, so in my mind I went straight back to that,” Atkinson told Agence France-Presse after the race. “I just thought, ‘Oh, OK’ and looked up at the board, and it didn’t really click yet and then it really started to click. It took a while.”
The win was also Jamaica’s first gold in world swimming championships.
Atkinson hopes her win will inspire other women in the Caribbean to take up swimming as a sport. “Hopefully my face will come out, there will be more popularity, especially in Jamaica and the Caribbean, and we’ll see more of a rise, and hopefully in the future we will see a push,” she said, The Telegraph reported.
article by Yesha Callahan via theroot.com

Alicia Keys, Janet Jackson Design Teddy Bears to Raise Money for Operation Bobbi Bear

By goodblacknews on December 2, 2014
Alicia Keys, Janet Jackson Design Teddy Bears for Operation Bobbi Bear

Alicia Keys, Janet Jackson, and a whole list of celebrities have partnered up to participate in Operation Bobbi Bear, an organization that helps sexually abused children in South Africa. They have each designed a unique stuffed bear, courtesy of Build-A-Bear, that will be auctioned off Dec. 8 from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at Sotheby’s New York.

The Life Ball Charity has teamed up with “Arms Around the Children” for this special benefit, with funds going towards Operation Bobbi Brown. By providing aid to sexually abused children in Africa, they are hoping to minimize the risk of HIV/AIDS infections in youth.
Bruno Mars, Bill Clinton, Eva Longoria and designers like Karl Lagerfeld, Versace, Roberto Cavalli and Vivienne Westwood are also among those who’ve created their own special bear for the cause. If you can’t attend the auction, you can see and bid on the bears online at bobbibearauction.com.
article by Dorkys Ramos via bet.com