A week after protests took over Baltimore in response to the death of Freddie Gray, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake launched OneBaltimore, a nonprofit dedicated to rebuilding the city and its affected residents. While progress toward addressing systematic failures that impact not only Baltimore, but other major cities across the U.S., is no easy feat, Baltimore has since made gains in the right direction.
Since announcing the launch of OneBaltimore in May, the nonprofit, which is supported by private–public partnerships, teamed up with the city’s summer jobs program called Youth Works to create an additional 3,000 summer jobs for Baltimore youth. Usually, Youth Works offers positions to 5,000 young people between the ages of 14 and 21, but this year, with the help of OneBaltimore, the program responded to a record number of applications by offering a total of 8,000 positions.
“When businesses hire one or two youths during the summer they are providing jobs that will inspire young people by giving them a glimpse into their future as productive employees,” Donald C. Fry, the president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee said in a statement.
Currently, it costs $1,500 to fund one young person in a Youth Works program. To help offset this cost, OneBaltimore partnered with other nonprofits, private businesses, and government agencies to meet the needs of the city’s youth and in total raised $15 million for future programs.
In addition to providing employment, Mayor Rawlings-Blake is working closely with Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Operation Hope to recruit volunteers to hold financial education seminars for the participants. She has also partnered with the Maryland Transit Administration to offer free public transportation passes for students to get to and from work.
article by Courtney Connley via blackenterprise.com
Good Black News
Google is attempting to make cell phones affordable for people living in six African countries. Google announced the “Hot 2″ phone, which will cost only $88, would be sold in stores in Nigeria and offered by online retailer Jumia in five other countries: Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, and Morocco.
Although the phones being released in Africa will be ‘bare minimum’ when it comes to technology in them, the company hopes that it will be a start pointing for getting more people online.
Google, Facebook and other Internet companies are trying to get more people online in places like Africa so they can expand their audiences and eventually sell more digital advertising.
As part of that effort, Google already has built a fiber-optic network to provide faster Internet access in Kampala, the capital of Uganda.
article via clutchmagonline.com
GBN Lifestyle
Here we go again… Adidas is marketing to the cool kids. I’ve got to give it up to the team behind naming Snoop Dogg (a.k.a Calvin Broadus) Director of Football Recruiting. It’s a clever idea. In addition to the already successful collaboration of designs inspired by Snoop and the position he holds as Director of Football Development for the company, Adidas has enlisted the rapper/football aficionado to handle an additional gig in a position that makes a lot of sense.
Everyone on the sports circuit knows that Snoop has served as a sports mentor who has lead his very own youth league for years http://snoopyfl.net. He has inspired many young athletes, including his own collegiate player son, Cordell Broadus. Although Cordell may have recently made the choice not to continue his football career… he did in fact become one of the highest-recruited players in the country.
Snoop has proven he can coach and has a vast knowledge of the sport. While this new corporate appointment may not be the most expected hire, it actually is sort of a no-brainer when you really think about it. Snoop Dogg as Director of Football Recruiting fits right in line with the Adidas marketing philosophy. Snoop has certainly got that football drive and his team mentality could pay off big for the brand. It’s always nice when a passion pays off. We wish Coach Snoop all the best in his new venture.
Snoop has proven he can coach and has a vast knowledge of the sport. While this new corporate appointment may not be the most expected hire, it actually is sort of a no-brainer when you really think about it. Snoop Dogg as Director of Football Recruiting fits right in line with the Adidas marketing philosophy. Snoop has certainly got that football drive and his team mentality could pay off big for the brand. It’s always nice when a passion pays off. We wish Coach Snoop all the best in his new venture.
A Ugandan journalist with a background as an entrepreneur, radio and TV reporter and presenter has won the first BBC World News Komla Dumor Award.
Nancy Kacungira, a television anchor for Kenya’s KTN television channel, was selected from nearly 200 applicants.
She will spend three months at the BBC in London and also report from Africa for the BBC TV, radio and online.
The award was established to honour Komla Dumor, a presenter for BBC World News, who died suddenly aged 41.
Ms Kacungira said: “I am stunned, but also ecstatic upon hearing this news. I am so greatly honoured and humbled to be the winner of this award.”
“I owe it to the continent that I fiercely love and am dedicated to, to do my bit to expand the often dogmatic and skewed narratives that have beleaguered it for so long.
“To be a part of continuing Komla’s legacy is such an honour it feels almost like a dream. I will do my very best to justify the great trust that I have been awarded, and ensure that the benefit of this opportunity goes far beyond myself.”
One of the judges, BBC Africa’s current affairs editor, Vera Kwakofi, said: “Nancy is incredibly smart with a breadth and depth to her knowledge and experience that comes across instantly.”
The BBC’s Director of News and Current Affairs James Harding, said: “When Komla Dumor died, it was an enormous loss to the BBC, to Africa and to all of us personally.
“I am delighted that in Nancy we have found an extremely passionate and talented journalist, a worthy winner of the award that we established in Komla’s name.”
Nancy grew up in Uganda where she attended Makerere University in Kampala. She has more than 14 years of experience working across a range of media in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania as well as a Masters degree in communications from Leeds University.
She is currently the anchor of Prime Time Evening News on KTN where she is also the channel’s social media editor. There are two runners-up for the award: Leila Dee Dougan from South Africa and Paa Kwesi Asare from Ghana.
Komla Dumor was an exceptional Ghanaian broadcaster who in his short life made an extraordinary impact – in Ghana, in Africa and around the world. He represented a confident, savvy and entrepreneurial side of Africa.
Through his tenacious journalism and compelling storytelling, Komla worked tirelessly to bring a more nuanced African narrative to the world.
article via bbc.com
Tracy Morgan has been on the mend from last year’s accident — and will be ready to return to TV this fall.
The actor/comedian will host “Saturday Night Live” on October 17, marking his first major appearance since suffering extensive injuries in a deadly accident — involving a Walmart truck and a limousine-bus — that killed his good friend, comic James McNair.
“SNL” announced this exciting news on Monday in a tweet. In June, Morgan, a former “SNL” cast member, told NBC’s “Today” show that he hoped to return to work as soon as he could, saying, “When I’m there, you’ll know it. I’ll get back to making you laugh. I promise you.”
Looks like he’s keeping his promise.
Hopefully before or soon after his “SNL” appearance, Morgan will accept his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – an honor that was announced this June. Recipients of Walk of Fame awards have two years to schedule star ceremonies from the date of selection before they expire. Upcoming star ceremonies are normally announced ten days prior to dedication on the official website www.walkoffame.com.
article by Lauren Morass via cbsnews.com; additions by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
Common has been acting for a while (“Selma”, “Now You See Me”, “Just Wright”, “Single Ladies”, “American Gangster”) , and now he’s starting to get in the game behind the scenes too. According to reports, Showtime picked up an untitled drama from Common, who will be producing a scripted drama with Lena Waithe, who is one of the producers of Dear White People.
The show will be a coming-of-age drama that will explore the life of a young African-American male, in which simply growing up can be a matter of life and death. Waithe will write the script and executive produce the Fox 21 drama along with Common.
“The two creative forces behind the show, both hailing from Chicago’s South Side, give this pilot an unparalleled authenticity. Lena Waithe is an extremely fresh, talented young writer with a unique voice and a deeply thoughtful perspective into the world where she grew up. I immediately gravitated to her script, which is emotional, funny, tragic and relevant, all at once. And, we are so fortunate to have artist and visionary Common for his first producing project in scripted television,” said Showtime president David Nelson in a statement.
I get the feeling that this story will be loosely based on Common’s own life growing up in Chicago. It’s cool that cable networks are starting to get more on board with diversity in TV programming.
article by Starr Rhett Roque via hellobeautiful.com
Edith P. Mitchell was named recently as the 116th president of the National Medical Association (NMA). The NMA is the oldest professional society for African-American physicians and represents about 30,000 members.
Dr. Mitchell is a retired Brigadier General of the United States Air Force. She currently serves as the director of the Center to Eliminate Cancer Disparities at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
“I am deeply honored to be sworn-in as president of this prestigious organization,” Dr. Mitchell said at the association’s recent national convention in Detroit. “There is still much work to be done with regards to disparities in medical treatment. I believe that we can all work together and make great strides to address barriers in helping underserved populations get better care and lead to better health care in our nation.”
Dr. Mitchell is a graduate of Tennessee State University in Nashville and the Medical College of Virginia. She completed her residency at Meharry Medical College.
article via jbhe.com
INDIANAPOLIS – Simone Biles was so good in her pursuit of a third national title that she surprised even herself. “It’s really exciting; I keep shocking myself every year, it’s weird,” she said of her latest achievement.
Biles became the first American woman in 23 years to win three all-around national titles Saturday night at the 2015 P&G Gymnastics Championships.
The last woman to win three titles, Kim Zmeskal, did so leading into her first Olympic appearance, a feat Biles is now looking to emulate at next year’s Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
“It’s amazing just because I know she took the same path and it led her to the Olympics, so I feel pretty good knowing I’ve achieved what she’s achieved,” Biles said of the 1991 world all-around champion.
Biles won her latest U.S. crown with a two-day score of 124.100, an impressive 4.95 points higher than second-place finisher Maggie Nichols. For comparison, her last two U.S. wins were by margins of 0.2 points in 2013 and 4.25 points in 2014. Her win was highlighted by a near-perfect 9.9 execution score on vault.
Clearly, the gap between Biles and everyone else in the country – or world, for that matter – is rapidly increasing. “It’s truly (a matter of wanting) to be the best version of me and I don’t want to replicate others,” Biles said. “Because a lot of people compare me to other people a bunch, but I just want to go out there and I just want to be Simone.”
“Straight Outta Compton” may take place more than two decades ago, but its themes of racial tension, poverty and police brutality still speak to moviegoers living in a post-Ferguson world.
The biopic about rap group N.W.A. debuted to a blistering $56.1 million this weekend in 2,757 theaters, surpassing “American Pie 2” to become the biggest-ever August debut for an R-rated movie. It’s the kind of opening usually reserved for so-called tentpole movies that trade in costumed heroes and special effects, not urban violence.
“The movie tapped into something in our culture and that made it more of a must-see,” said Phil Contrino, vice president and chief analyst at BoxOffice.com.
Its debut nearly doubles “Straight Outta Compton’s” budget of $29 million in a single weekend, meaning the film could be among the most profitable releases of the summer. N.W.A members Ice Cube and Dr. Dre helped produce the film about the early days of gansta rap and were integral to its marketing campaign.
Universal, the studio behind the music biopic, has been having a year for the ages, as a steady stream of hits such as “Jurassic World,” “Fifty Shades of Grey,” “Pitch Perfect 2,” “Furious 7” and “Minions” have pushed its grosses to record heights. Legendary Pictures co-financed “Straight Outta Compton.”
“Straight Outta Compton’s” success overshadowed the weekend’s other new release, Warner Bros.’ “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” The stylish action-adventure wilted at the megaplexes, bringing in an etiolated $13.5 million from 3,638 theaters. That’s a particularly rough start considering that “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” cost a sizable $75 million to produce.
Universal domestic distribution chief Nick Carpou labeled “Straight Outta Compton” as a “labor of love” that benefited from being dramatically different from the kind of films flooding cinemas in recent months.
“The public was ready for something with a bit more substance that they could identify with,” he said.
The film’s opening weekend crowd was 52% female, 51% under the age of 30, 46% African-American, 23% Caucasian, 21% Hispanic and 4% Asian. It did not play in Imax or 3D, but did score in premium large format locations, where it grossed $5.1 million, representing 9% of the film’s weekend receipts.
In second place, Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” continued to get a lift from strong word-of-mouth, picking up $17 million in its third weekend. That brings the fifth film in the spy franchise’s North American haul to $138.1 million.
Fox’s “Fantastic Four” dropped steeply in its second weekend, falling nearly 70% from its debut and mustering a paltry $8 million. The film ranks as one of the biggest comicbook movie flops in history, having earned a meagre $42 million Stateside.
STX Entertainment’s “The Gift” rounded out the top five, earning $6.5 million this weekend and pushing its domestic total to $23.6 million.
Final numbers are still being tallied, but it looks as though “Straight Outta Compton” will bolster ticket sales over the year-ago period when “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” were drawing the biggest crowds.
article by Brett Lang via Variety.com
Julian Bond, a former chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a charismatic figure of the 1960s civil rights movement, a lightning rod of the anti-Vietnam War campaign and a lifelong champion of equal rights for minorities, died on Saturday night, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. He was 75.
Mr. Bond died in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., after a brief illness, the center said in a statement Sunday morning.
He was one of the original leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) while he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta.
He moved from the militancy of the student group to the top leadership of the establishmentarian N.A.A.C.P. Along the way, he was a writer, poet, television commentator, lecturer, college teacher, and persistent opponent of the stubborn remnants of white supremacy.
He also served for 20 years in the Georgia Legislature, mostly in conspicuous isolation from white colleagues who saw him as an interloper and a rabble-rouser.
Mr. Bond’s wit, cool personality and youthful face became familiar to millions of television viewers during the 1960s and 1970s. He attracted adjectives — dashing, handsome, urbane — the way some people attract money.
On the strength of his personality and quick intellect, he moved to the center of the civil rights action in Atlanta, the unofficial capital of the movement, at the height of the struggle for racial equality in the early 1960s.
Moving beyond demonstrations, he became a founder, with Morris Dees, of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a legal advocacy organization in Montgomery, Ala. Mr. Bond was its president from 1971 to 1979 and remained on its board for the rest of his life.
When he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1965 — along with seven other black members — furious white members of the House refused to let him take his seat, accusing him of disloyalty. He was already well known because of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s stand against the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War.
That touched off a national drama that ended in 1966, when the Supreme Court in a unanimous decision ordered the legislature to seat him, saying it had denied him freedom of speech.
He went on to serve 20 years in the two houses of the legislature. As a lawmaker, he sponsored bills to establish a sickle cell anemia testing program and to provide low-interest home loans to low-income Georgians. He also helped create a majority-black congressional district in Atlanta.
He left the State Senate in 1986 after six terms to run for that seat in the United States House. He lost a bitter contest to his old friend John Lewis, a fellow founder of S.N.C.C. and its longtime chairman. The two men, for all their earlier closeness in the rights movement, represented opposite poles of African-American life in the South: Mr. Lewis was the son of an sharecropper; Mr. Bond was the son of a college president.
In a statement Sunday, President Obama called Mr. Bond “a hero and, I’m privileged to say, a friend.”