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Good Black News

Top Good Black News Posts of 2013

By goodblacknews on December 31, 2013


As we enter into 2014, like everywhere else, GBN is reflecting on what made 2013 truly memorable. There have been historic moments (Barack Obama’s second inauguration to the Presidency of the United States, the Supreme Court striking down the Defense of Marriage Act, Obamacare withstanding severe political and technical challenges) sobering moments (the George Zimmerman trial, the Boston Marathon Bombing, the Oklahoma Tornado Disaster) and inspiring moments (Charles Ramsey rescuing Ariel Castro’s captives, Antoinette Tuff talking down a would-be elementary school shooter, Homeless Teen Drew Gooch earning a full scholarship to college).
Of all the stories we posted this year, however, the ones most popular with GBN’s readers have primarily focussed on education, super-intelligent youth, and the debunking of the “deadbeat dad” myth that unfairly haunts so many African-American fathers:

TOP 5 POSTS of 2013

 
Thessalonika5. 14 Year-Old Thessalonika Arzu-Embry To Earn Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Chicago State University
On weekdays, Bryan August-Jones wakes before sunrise in his home in Watts. He gets his three sons dressed, then takes them to the baby sitter and to school. On weekends, they go on bike rides and out to eat. (Mark Boster, Los Angeles Times / December 19, 2013)
4. Survey Finds Black Fathers are as Involved with Their Kids as Men of Other Races
Gabrielle Turnquest
 
3. 18 Year-Old Gabrielle Turnquest Becomes Youngest Ever to Pass Britain’s Bar Exams
2. “Living Single” Actress Erika Alexander Co-Writes Graphic with Black HeroineErika Alexander
and…
Adam Kirby1. Child Prodigy Adam Kirby, 2, becomes Youngest Ever to Join Genius Club Mensa
 
In 2014, GBN will strive to bring you much more of the same (as well as the surprising and unexpected), as we believe there can only be more Good Black News stories to cover. Because when you really look for it, you can find positivity everywhere.
Happy New Year!
Lori Lakin Hutcherson, Good Black News Founder & Editor-In-Chief

Charvis Brewer, an 8 Year-Old with Cerebral Palsy, Drafted by Memphis Grizzlies

By goodblacknews on December 31, 2013

Make-A-Wish recipient Charvis Brewer and his older brother, Nicholas, get a behind-the-scenes tour from Memphis Grizzlies basketball player Zach Randolph.
Make-A-Wish recipient Charvis Brewer and his older brother, Nicholas, get a behind-the-scenes tour from Memphis Grizzlies basketball player Zach Randolph on Sunday. (Brittney Williford Photography)

Charvis Brewer, an 8-year-old super-fan of the Memphis Grizzlies, has bragging rights that most children can only dream about.  On Sunday, the basketball team drafted Charvis as its newest and youngest member. The ceremony, complete with a mock press conference, team photograph and visit to the locker room, was orchestrated by Make-A-Wish, a non-profit wish-granting organization for children with life-threatening medical conditions.
David Joerger, head coach for the Memphis Grizzlies, speaks at a press conference with 8-year-old Charvis Brewer on Sunday. Charvis' mom, Colissa Brewer, laughs happily behind her son. (Brittney Willford)
David Joerger, head coach for the Memphis Grizzlies, speaks at a press conference with 8-year-old Charvis Brewer on Sunday. Charvis’ mom, Colissa Brewer, laughs happily behind her son. (Brittney Willford)

Charvis has cerebral palsy, a neurological condition that confines him to a wheelchair. His mother, Colissa Brewer, and a home health aide tend to his every need.  “It brought tears to my eyes,” Brewer said of the Grizzlies’ welcoming gesture. “I never imagined he would get a chance to do something like that.”
Despite his illness, Charvis attends school and is the kind of basketball fan who can rattle off facts about his favorite team and their opponents. About a year ago, he was referred to Make-A-Wish Mid-South, the Memphis-based chapter of the national organization.
Charvis Brewer, the newest and youngest member of the Memphis Grizzlies, beams with excitement on Sunday.
Charvis Brewer, the newest and youngest member of the Memphis Grizzlies, beams with excitement on Sunday.

When volunteers asked what Charvis would like to wish for more than anything in the world, he shared his fantasy of being drafted by the Grizzlies. Since then, his mother told TODAY.com, Charvis kept wondering: Would his dream come true?

He got his answer on Sunday when the Brewer family, including Charvis’ sister, brother and stepfather, went to brunch in Memphis, about an hour’s drive from their home in Somerville, Tenn.
At the end of the meal, Memphis Grizzlies announcer Pete Pranica charged into the dining room and called out Charvis’ name. Pranica had great news — the Grizzlies had a supplemental draft and they chose Charvis.  Mike Conley, a guard for the Grizzlies and a favorite player of Charvis’, joined the festivities with a jersey made for the team’s newest member. A limousine then ferried the Brewers to the basketball arena where the players awaited Charvis’ arrival.
The whirlwind included eating lunch with the team, watching practice, visiting the weight room and quizzing the players about basketball. Miranda Harbor, director of community outreach for Make-A-Wish Mid-South, said Charvis was thrilled and quickly took his place on the team, even offering suggestions on player positions and strategies.

Image: Charvis Brewer and Zach Randolph
Player Zach Randolph had Charvis Brewer tour the Grizzlies’ locker room and then surprised the 8-year-old with his very own locker. (Brittney Williford Photography)

The team just as quickly embraced Charvis. “He’s a great kid that comes from a great family and is so full of life,” Grizzlies CEO Jason Levien said in a statement to TODAY.com. “We are a bigger fan of his than he is of ours.”  Each year Make-A-Wish grants 14,000 requests, more than 1,000 of which are celebrity-and sports-related. While the organization has previously “drafted” children to their favorite sports teams, Harbor said Charvis is the first in the area to join the Grizzlies.
The fun will continue for Charvis on Monday night as he and his family watch the Grizzlies battle the Chicago Bulls from box seats. It will be only the second Grizzlies game that Charvis has attended. This time, though, he will give the players high-fives as they run onto court.  His mother said Charvis has been preparing all day for his new role on the team: “He said he’s ready to tell them to beat those Bulls.”
Team photo! Charvis Brewer settled into his new role as a member of the Grizzlies with ease.
Team photo! Charvis Brewer settled into his new role as a member of the Grizzlies with ease. (Joe Murphy / NBAE / Getty Images)

Though Charvis will watch from the sidelines, he is exploring the possibility of one day competing in Special Olympics basketball.  For now, Charvis and his family are enjoying the special attention. “It made me feel like somebody else cared,” Colissa Brewer said. “Somebody took out time to do something my baby really wanted to do.”

article by Rebecca Ruiz via today.com

First Lady Supports Robin Roberts Coming Out As Gay

By goodblacknews on December 31, 2013

Robin Roberts and Michelle Obama
LOS ANGELES — Michelle Obama (pictured) is leading an outpouring of support for Robin Roberts, after the “Good Morning America” news anchor gave her first public acknowledgement of her 10-year, same-sex relationship with massage therapist Amber Laign.
The First Lady wrote Monday on Twitter:

I am so happy for you and Amber! You continue to make us all proud.

In a Facebook post Sunday, Roberts thanked her “longtime girlfriend” for providing encouragement during Roberts’ battle with myelodysplastic syndrome, a rare blood and bone marrow disease.  Many celebs also took to Twitter to send Roberts messages, including Ellen DeGeneres, who tweeted, “Good morning, America! Congratulations.”
Comedian Wanda Sykes wrote, “Go on with your bad self!”
Country singer Chely Wright, who came out in 2010, also expressed support through the social media site.
article via newsone.com

Menswear Brand Ikiré Jones Mixes High Fashion with African Aesthetics

By goodblacknews on December 31, 2013

ikire jones menswear wale oyejideIkiré Jones is the brainchild of Wale Oyejide, crowned by Esquire Magazine as one of the “Best Dressed Real Men in America.” His clothing line is a sly mix of fashion forward eclectic designs with an urban sensibility. Rather than creating beautiful garments that lack the functionality to be worn every day, Ikiré Jones designs high quality attire that’s at home in the office or after work. His dapper style can best be described as “West Africa meets Brooklyn.”
We recently sat down with Wale to discuss his clothing line, his background and his road to entrepreneurship.
BlackEnterprise.com: What made you decide to launch a line of menswear?
Wale Oyejide: I’ve always seen myself as something of a creative. Before I went to law school and entered the practice of law, I spent a few years as an independent musician. I put out a few albums before deciding to attempt to do something a bit more “respectable.”  Well, fast forward a few years later, and I have realized that none of us should try to bury who we really are. I’m very proud to be an attorney, but I’m more proud to be someone who is also bold (and a little foolish) enough to follow his passions.
The Ikiré Jones line is just another avenue for me to feed that creative spark inside me, while paying homage to my Nigerian heritage and addressing the fact that so many men are in dire need of help where their wardrobes are concerned.
The world arguably has too many lawyers. Sadly, the same cannot be said of independent thinkers who want to push society forward with their talents.
Well stated. It’s refreshing to see someone wholly accept the challenge of being an entrepreneur, especially coming from a relatively secure career as law. What obstacles have you faced since becoming an entrepreneur?
WO: No one gets anywhere on their own; and it makes very little sense to attempt to reinvent the wheel.However, as a lone gunman entering a foreign (to me) industry, part of the struggle has simply been in knowing where to get information and who to speak with about reaching the next milestone. Oftentimes, the older guard look upon new faces with suspicion and can be wary of disclosing the wealth of information they’ve amassed over the years. In my experience, one just has to knock on enough doors until the right one eventually opens. It’s hard work, but if you ask enough people, someone will usher you in the right direction.

Sisters Prep to Take Over $28 Million Black Construction Business

By goodblacknews on December 28, 2013

Louis B. Lynn’s family tree is rooted in entrepreneurship. His grandfather owned a grocery store and his father ran a butcher shop.  “My father was businessman of the year back in the ’60s. Last year, we won the Ronald H. Brown Leadership Award,” says the president and chief horticulturalist of ENVIRO AgScience Inc. (No. 84 on the be industrial/service companies list with $28 million in revenues).
The 29-year-old family-owned business provides construction, construction management, architectural, and landscape services. In addition to its Columbia, South Carolina headquarters, ENVIRO has offices in Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.
Lynn launched ENVIRO in 1984 using his severance pay for 15 years of service after being downsized from a middle management position at Monsanto, one of the nation’s largest agricultural companies. As someone who follows the “each one, teach one” principle, Lynn could have become a college professor; he holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in horticulture from Clemson University and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. But it was the entrepreneurial bug and a green thumb that led him to create a commercial lawn care business that he has cultivated into a full-service construction management company servicing private sector, government, education, and military clients.
Now it is the next generation, Lynn’s children, who are spearheading plans to make ENVIRO a multinational company. His daughters Adrienne Lynn, 39, an engineer, and Krystal Conner, 36, a pharmacist, serve as vice presidents. His son, Bryan, 28, is a landscape manager.  Furthermore, a succession plan is in place for Lynn to pass the reins on to his daughters and thereby transition ENVIRO into a certified minority- and woman-owned enterprise. Lynn will stay on as chairman, while Krystal will serve as CEO and Adrienne as president.
“My father didn’t pass on a business but the desire to start a business,” the 64-year-old Lynn says. “We are the first generation in my family to have a real opportunity to pass on a substantial business.”
article by Carolyn M. Brown via blackenterprise.com

Online Museum Celebrates Pioneering Black Animation

By goodblacknews on December 28, 2013

An ad for "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" (via Museum of UnCut Funk)
An ad for “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids” (via Museum of UnCut Funk)

Think of trailblazing black TV shows, and The Cosby Show immediately comes to mind. But before the Cliff Huxtable, there was Fat Albert, Bill Cosby’s beloved animated creation that became famous for his catchphrase, “Hey, hey, hey!” Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids began airing in 1972, around the same time that other cartoons and animated shows finally began featuring black characters that weren’t all embodiments of negative stereotypes. “It wasn’t until the early 1970’s that Saturday Morning television cartoons started to feature image affirming Black characters with a modern look and positive story lines that delivered culturally relevant messages,” writes Pamela Thomas, aka SistaToFunky, on the website of her online Museum of UnCut Funk.
The museum, which I discovered thanks to a recent NPR story, is a treasure trove of African-American pop cultural artifacts and ephemera, from Blaxploitation movie posters to black comic books. Perhaps the most extensive is the black animation collection, which includes extensive explanatory texts, YouTube links, and original production cels and drawings. Thomas, who has a degree in black history from City College and is a former art dealer, focuses not just on shows with all-black casts, like Fat Albert and The Jackson 5ive cartoon, but on black characters that popped up in other shows, like Josie and the Pusscats’ Valerie Brown, whom she dubs the “first positive Black female character in a Saturday morning cartoon series”; and the “first Black male superhero character in a Saturday morning cartoon,” Schoolhouse Rock’s Verb (“I can question like: What is it? / Verb, you’re so demanding,” the song goes).
Production cel for "Schoolhouse Rock! Verb! That's What's Happening" episode
Production cel for “Schoolhouse Rock! Verb! That’s What’s Happening” episode

The Museum of UnCut Funk is an internet rabbit hole that you can (and should) easily get lost in for hours. It has no physical home yet, but I can only hope it will one day. In the meantime, Thomas has organized a physical exhibition, Funky Turns 40: Black Character Revolution, focused on black characters in Saturday morning cartoons. It opens at New York’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in February, and will travel to Chicago’s DuSable Museum of African American History and Seattle’s Northwest African American Museum afterwards.
article by Jillian Steinhauer via hyperallergic.com

A Vintage Cocktail for Kwanzaa From America's 1st African American Cocktillian

By goodblacknews on December 27, 2013

Tom-bullock-300After a big dinner, we enjoy mixing up a classic digestive cocktail known as the Stinger. Inevitably, we all end up in the library with drinks in hand. We keep a framed image of a distinguished looking gentleman among our cocktail books. This encourages guests to ask about his identity and opens up conversation to educate people on the first African American cocktail book author in known American history–Tom Bullock.
Not much is known about Mr. Bullock. He appears to have been born in Kentucky to a freed married couple in 1873.  He made bartending fame at the Pendennis Club in Louisville as well as the St. Louis Country Club.  He served quite a few powerful people, including George Herbert Walker, the grandfather of our 41st President George Herbert Walker Bush, who was such a fan he wrote the forward in Mr. Bullock’s book.
The earliest Stinger recipe we have in our cocktail book collection goes back to Tom Bullock’s The Ideal Bartender published in 1917. The Stinger is an after-dinner drink typically made with brandy, though various other liquors can be substituted. Mr. Bullock instructs to make a stinger in the following manner:
Stinger–Country Club Style
Use a large Mixing glass; fill with Lump Ice.
1 jigger Old Brandy.
1 pony white Creme de Menthe.
Shake well; strain into Cocktail glass and serve.
[jigger=1.5 ounces]
[pony=1 ounce]
I prefer a two to one ratio of even more brandy to menthe. No matter the proportions, the stinger has been seen sipped in the swankiest New York nightspots and remains a classic the world over.
article by LeNell Camacho Santa Ana 
Read More: http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/blogs/editor/2013/12/tom-bullock-first-african-american-cocktail-book-author.html#ixzz2ojOzNaUv

25 Year-Old Contest Winner Mandla Maseko To Become First Black African In Space

By goodblacknews on December 27, 2013

Mandla Maseko
According to The Guardian, Mandla Maseko (pictured) from Mabopane township near Pretoria will be blasted 62 miles into orbit in 2015 after winning space academy competition. Born and raised in a township, Maseko, who is a DJ, has spent his life at the mercy of the heavens. “Once it rains, the lights go out,” the 25-year-old said. “I do know the life of a candle.” But from this humblest of launchpads, Maseko is poised to defy the laws of physical and political gravity by becoming the first black African in space.
The DJ is among 23 young people who saw off 1 million other entrants from around the world to emerge victorious in the Lynx Apollo Space Academy competition. Their prize is to be blasted 62 miles into orbit aboard a Lynx mark II shuttle in 2015. “It’s crazy,” said Maseko, the son of a toolmaker and cleaning supervisor. “It hasn’t really sunk in yet. I’m envious of myself. “I’m not trying to make this a race thing but us blacks grew up dreaming to a certain stage. You dreamed of being a policeman or a lawyer but you knew you won’t get as far as pilot or astronaut. Then I went to space camp and I thought, I can actually be an astronaut.”
He will be the second South African in space following Mark Shuttleworth, a white entrepreneur and philanthropist who bought a seat on a Russian Soyuz capsule for £12m and spent eight days on board the international space station in 2002.  Maseko’s father, who grew up in such poverty that he got his first pair of shoes when he was 16, was determined that his children would never go hungry. Maseko and his four younger siblings were brought up in a simple brick house with access to electricity and running water. “I don’t remember going to bed without having eaten,” he said. “My dad provided for us. He is my hero, and then Nelson Mandela comes after.”

The African American Museum In Philadelphia Presents Its Annual Kwanzaa Celebration, This Weekend, December 28-29

By goodblacknews on December 27, 2013

The African American Museum in Philadelphia celebrates Kwanzaa with a full weekend of events, December 28-29. (Photo by G. Widman for Visit Philadelphia)

This Thursday, December 26 marked the first day of Kwanzaa, a week-long celebration of African culture and heritage, and The African American Museum in Philadelphia celebrates with a full weekend of events on December 28 and 29.  Over the course of the weekend, look forward to an informative discussion about the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa and the lighting of the museum’s Kwanzaa candles.  Celebrate the roots of the holiday with expressive dances, music and storytelling as well. All events are family-friendly and encourage a reconnection with African roots and the support of African American communities.
Kwanzaa Celebration activities are included in museum admission. Guests are encouraged to bring a canned food item for Philabundance.
Annual Kwanzaa Celebration at The African American Museum in Philadelphia
When: December 28-29
Where: African American Museum in Philadelphia, 701 Arch Street
Cost: Included in general admission
More info: www.aampmuseum.org
article via uwishunu.com

LeBron James is Named AP Male Athlete of the Year

By goodblacknews on December 26, 2013

LeBron JamesMIAMI (AP) — The only thing that keeps LeBron James up worrying at night is basketball, which simultaneously makes perfect sense and no sense.  On one hand, he’s the game’s best player.  On the other, he’s rarely impressed with himself.  Even after a year like 2013 — when a spectacular wedding, a second NBA championship and a fourth MVP award were among the many highlights enjoyed by the Miami Heat star — he still is, as he puts it, striving for greatness. Or, technically, more greatness, since his enormous list of accomplishments just keeps growing.
James was announced Thursday as The Associated Press’ 2013 male athlete of the year, becoming the third basketball player to capture the award that has been annually awarded since 1931. James received 31 of 96 votes cast in a poll of news organizations, beating Peyton Manning (20) and Jimmie Johnson (7).
“I’m chasing something and it’s bigger than me as a basketball player,” James told the AP. “I believe my calling is much higher than being a basketball player. I can inspire people. Youth is huge to me. If I can get kids to look at me as a role model, as a leader, a superhero … those things mean so much, and that’s what I think I was built for. I was put here for this lovely game of basketball, but I don’t think this is the biggest role that I’m going to have.”
LEBRON DUNK 1: An amazing pass from Wade
LEBRON DUNK 2: Even better catch on this one
Past winners include Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, Muhammad Ali, Carl Lewis, Joe Montana, Tiger Woods and Michael Phelps. Serena Williams was the AP Female Athlete of the Year, announced Wednesday.