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Posts tagged as “United Way”

Beyoncé Announces The Formation World Tour; Launches Initiative to Help Flint Water Crisis

By goodblacknews on February 8, 2016

Beyonce Dancers for NOW 020816
Beyoncé mid-slay with dancers at yesterday’s Super Bowl Halftime Show (photo via colorlines.com)

article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (follow @lakinhutcherson)
Something tells me we will soon have to invent a new way to say “slay,” because if the boss moves perpetrated in the last two days by Beyoncé have shown us anything, they’ve shown us she has every intention of erecting on top of the foundation she laid with 2013’s “Beyoncé” an impenetrable Fortress of Slayage where the word will soon retire itself (because really, where else has it to go?).
To recap, not only did Queen Bey the day before the Super Bowl drop her “Formation” video – which the internet is still feverishly and giddily unpacking – she performed it at halftime, paid homage to the Black Panthers in the Bay Area on their 50th anniversary during the 50th Super Bowl, paid homage to Malcolm X with her squad’s literal formation, and then claimed the commercial space right after halftime to announce her Formation World Tour, which kicks off April 27 in Miami.  Phew!  No wonder “slay” is ready for a permanent vacation.
According to usatoday.com, the Formation World Tour will be hitting cities nationwide including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia. It ends June 12 in Hershey, Penn., before a string of European dates get underway June 28. Tickets go on sale beginning Tuesday for American Express and Beyhive fan club members, and to the general public starting Feb. 16. [Tour dates listed below.]

But that’s not all new world leader Yoncé’s got going on – along with the tour, the singer also launched a new initiative to aid the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.

“True to her life’s work of always giving back, fans will be given the opportunity to participate in Beyoncé’s #BeyGOOD initiative supporting local United Way programs,” Live Nation released in a statement, announcing that the United Way of Genesee County will partner with the Community Foundation of Greater Flint to “create a fund that will address long-term developmental, education, nutrition and health needs of the children affected by the Flint Water Crisis.”

Beyoncé last toured the USA with her husband, rapper Jay Z, on the six-week On the Run Tour in summer 2014, which was filmed for a HBO special. The Formation World Tour is her first solo jaunt since the Mrs. Carter Show World Tour in 2013.

Toronto Native Tonika Morgan Goes from Homeless to Harvard Graduate School, Thanks to Crowdfunding

By goodblacknews on May 26, 2015
Tonika Morgan, pictured at the Artscape Youngplace in Toronto.
Tonika Morgan, pictured at the Artscape Youngplace in Toronto. (Photo: ISA MIGUEL RANSOME)

Tonika Morgan has not had an easy life. Now 32, the Toronto woman says she left home at 14, was homeless for four years, and slept in shelters and on park benches. She was kicked out of high school, she says, because she hardly ever showed up.

Even though she’s overcome problems that would overwhelm almost anyone, it wasn’t until this year that she faced what she calls her “biggest fear of all”: the fear that her application to attend Harvard’s Graduate School of Education next fall would be rejected.
It wasn’t. She’s in. But with her acceptance letter came another big worry: that she couldn’t pay the approximately $77,000 needed for the one-year master’s program, where tuition alone is $43,280.
So, lacking resources or workable options, she joined a growing number of needy college students and turned to crowdfunding to raise the money. She launched a “Mission for Harvard Tuition” in April on the GoFundMe site.  According to aol.com, after local media publicized the page, Morgan exceeded her goal and nearly $93,000 dollars was fundraised.
But Tonika Morgan knows that being able to go to her Harvard is not without the help of others who are helping her fulfill a dream of a lifetime.  “I have to say that this has been quite emotional for me. I have shared hugs, tears of joy and laughter with the beautiful souls who have noticed me on the street. I’ve never felt more supported and connected to anyone the way I have felt since this campaign started.”

“I was on the trolley and this woman reached her hand out and started crying,” Morgan, who goes by “Toni,” said in a phone interview from Toronto. “She said, ‘I’m so proud of you!’ I didn’t know that by telling my own truth, I’d connect with so many people.”