Detroit poet, publisher and educator Naomi Long Madgett has been chosen as the Kresge Foundation’s Eminent Artist for 2012.
Madgett is the author of 10 books of poetry, as well as a 2006 memoir, “Pilgrim Journey.”
In granting the award, the foundation cited her “decades of commitment to originating, illuminating and preserving poetry by African-Americans, and promoting the study and appreciation of African-American literature in schools and universities.”
“If Aretha is the ‘Queen of Soul,’ then Naomi is our internationally acclaimed ‘Queen of Poetry,’” said Detroit poet M.L. Liebler. “She has always been a major pillar in Detroit’s rich literary history for several decades, and she continues to be a significant source of energy for our literary arts scene today. Continue reading →
Jan. 24, 2012 – Twenty men – teachers, businessmen, writers and pastors – have been named winners of the BME Leadership Award, created to honor black men in Philadelphia and Detroit who step up to lead the community.
“The award shines a light on a truth that we need to remember: there are thousands of black men in these cities who choose to make it a stronger and better place to live for all of us,” said Trabian Shorters, one of the leaders behind the BME Challenge, which sponsors the award. “Perhaps if we tell their stories and others decide to support their efforts, you will see more and more black men and boys willing to follow their example.”
The BME Challenge is offering the winners a combined $443,000 to reward their work and inspire others to step forward in their communities.
The funding will help veterans find services, plant vegetable gardens in vacant lots, give new fathers parenting skills, provide therapy for autistic children and more. The winners’ stories, and information on their projects, are below. See and share videos of them at bmechallenge.org.
Earlier this year, BME asked local black men and boys in its two pilot cities to share the stories of what they do to make their communities stronger. More than 2,000 in Detroit and Philadelphia gave personal video and written testimonials viewable at bmechallenge.org. Those who shared their stories were then eligible to apply for funding through the BME Leadership Award.
BME is an ongoing initiative that seeks to recognize, reinforce and reward black males from all walks of life who engage others in making communities stronger.
“There is no cavalry coming to save the day in black communities in America. The answers we’re looking for reside right within the hearts, hands and heads of community residents,” said Shawn Dove, campaign manager of CBMA. “BME recognizes black men and boys as assets to the community, not as problems to be solved, and we’re thrilled to be a partner in this strategy.”
This spring, BME will be looking for local partnerships in Detroit and Philadelphia to encourage more black males to positively engage in their communities. This summer, BME will conduct another call for stories, to be followed in the fall by a call for a new round of applications to the BME Leadership Award.
The winners of the 2012 BME Leadership Award in Detroit are:
Connor survived cancer as a young teenager and has since dedicated his life to serving as a teacher and mentor, working through schools and media to help young people understand their potential.
Project: Connor will lead book clubs at schools and at off-site field trips to expose Detroit teenagers to important life skills and character traits that he has embraced during his life. ($10,000)
Dandridge is a law school graduate who helps small businesses overcome legal obstacles. As a young father, he founded New Young Fathers, a local initiative to help equip young men with the skills they need to be great dads.
Project: Dandridge will lead a series of in-depth workshops that New Young Fathers will conduct across the city, designed to make young men more equipped for fatherhood, more aware of their potential and more inclined to join a local support network. ($25,000)
Ellis was in prison when his life was transformed by reading the biography of Reginald Lewis – lawyer, investor, philanthropist and the wealthiest black man of his day.
Project: The Reginald Francis Lewis Reading Academy will strive to improve literacy, civic responsibility and academic achievement at Martin Luther King, Jr. High School. Each enrolled student will read and write a self-affirming essay on the Reginald Lewis biography and “Lonely At The Top” a new e-memoir by his daughter, Christina Lewis-Helpern, and be exposed to a literacy mentor; 30 boys will participate in a competitive college readiness program at Michigan State University. ($40,000)
Kumane is a manager in the auto industry who volunteers at local schools through Big Brothers Big Sisters Detroit.
Project: Drawing on his network in schools and in the corporate community, Kumane will lead a project to expose 100 young people to the business world. They’ll meet with 20 local businesses, learn how they work and devise a plan for an enterprise they’d like to start. ($20,000)
After coming out as a gay man and observing the potential of young people in Detroit, he began helping youth around him take action against discrimination.
Project: Lipscomb will oversee the LEAD project, which will facilitate an in-depth training of 22 young Detroiters to become more effective advocates of social issues facing the city’s LGBT community. ($20,000)
Pope is a global career development facilitator and motivational life coach who advises and volunteers for various community projects in his neighborhood and the city.
Project: Pope will launch Be Exposed, a program to inspire ambition in young people by exposing them to new cultural and social activities, including shows, restaurants and field trips to new cities. ($10,000)
Senghor started writing while he was incarcerated and later developed a career as an author and speaker who inspires young people with his voice.
Project: Senghor will launch and oversee the Live in Peace Digital and Literary Arts Project, which will coach young people on how to fully express their life stories across media. The project will result in each young person creating his or her personal “anthology” of stories. ($25,000)
Shakur is a former inmate who has became a well-known community activist focused on youth empowerment in a Detroit neighborhood known as Zone 8.
Project: Shakur will increase the impact of the cyber café he has opened in his neighborhood by providing literacy classes, digital training and school supplies to young people in the neighborhood. ($10,000)
Talbert, a former media executive, is now a pastor devoting himself to mentoring youth in Detroit’s Brightmoor neighborhood.
Project: Talbert will lead Rescue 51, an initiative of four BME Challenge participants to develop literacy skills, character and a knowledge of health and wellness issues in 51 children in Detroit’s Brightmoor neighborhood. ($20,000)
Westbrooks is an advertising executive who founded Detroit Comeback Kids, which offers young Detroiters innovative, project-based experiences across the city.
Project: Through Detroit Comeback Kids, Westbrooks will help kids plant vegetable gardens in unused lots across the city, by matching young Detroiters with local culinary arts experts and senior citizens who own vacant lots they seek to beautify. Small vegetable stands will offer extra produce to the community. ($20,000)
The winners of the 2012 BME Leadership Award in Philadelphia are:
Corbin is a teacher who integrates hip-hop, spoken word and poetry into his classroom lessons to help better reach students. He also founded the Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement.
Project: Corbin will launch The Legacy Project, which will explore the multi-layered experience of Black men through a one-man theatrical performance and community workshops. ($25,000)
Hicks owns Ebony Suns Enterprises, a consulting business that provides social media training for youth and social entrepreneurship programming to schools and nonprofits.
Project: Hicks will lead FLASH MOB, where young black men will learn how to create – and then implement – a business-branding campaign via social media. ($20,500)
Jones, who was formerly incarcerated, now works to reduce the frequency of shootings in North Philadelphia by mentoring high-risk youth and mobilizing the community.
Project: Jones will create a curriculum that helps prevent youth from going to prison, and returning citizens from going back to jail.
While serving a 15-year prison sentence, Jones fought and won custody of his son. After his release, he founded Frontline Dads to help others in similar situations deal with custody and child support issues. The group also conducts a mentoring program for at-risk youth. Jones pursued a career as a therapist and has a master of human services degree.
Project: Jones will launch the Frontline Dads Comprehensive Transformation Initiative, a mentoring/intervention program that fosters critical thinking skills, conflict resolution, creative expression and counseling. ($20,000)
Jones, who originally dropped out of college, overcame addiction and homelessness and pursued a degree and a career as an author of seven novels, an award-winning columnist and a professor at Temple University.
Project: Jones will expand Words on the Street literacy program, which aims to increase the literacy of more than 600 students through role modeling, workshops and the opportunity to write a story that will be published in The Philadelphia Inquirer. ($20,000)
Merretazon is a Vietnam veteran who shared his life story in an anthology on black veterans and has since worked to help those returning from war. The movie “Dead Presidents” was loosely based on his life.
Project: Merretazon will expand Pointman Soldiers Heart Ministry, a group of Vietnam and Desert Storm veterans, to help returning veterans from the Middle East find counseling, job services and benefits. ($25,000)
During his sophomore year in college, Peay founded the mentoring program Rising Sons. After losing interest in going to law school after graduation, he decided to bring his organization to Philadelphia and dedicate his life to help black males achieve their goals, dreams and ambitions.
Project: Peay will strengthen Rising Sons, an after school program where recent college graduates and college students 18-25 mentor boys at three Philadelphia public high schools, and also train them to mentor boys at two local elementary schools. ($4,650)
Williams is the father of three children, one of whom is autistic. When he couldn’t find services for autistic children in his neighborhood, he started his own.
Project: Williams will expand Project Elijah Empowering Autism, an after-school program for middle-spectrum autistic students ages 8-14. The group will open a new facility in Philadelphia in 2012, and will use the funding to offer speech, gross motor, recreation, music and life skills therapies. ($38,700)
White is a recording artist/producer and the project director for the University of Pennsylvania’s “Shape Up: Barbers Building Better Brothers program”, which conducts HIV/AIDS and violence prevention through barbers and their clients.
Project: White will launch Phreman Audio Studio Academy, which will teach audio recording and mixing to young people while promoting HIV/AIDS prevention and anti-violence strategies. ($19,300)
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. We believe that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.
About the Open Society Foundations
Active in more than 70 countries, the Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens. Working with local communities, the Open Society Foundations support justice and human rights, freedom of expression, and access to public health and education. For more, visit www.soros.org/cbma
Capital Prep alums, Wynton Borders and Khamarr Smith sporting Morehouse College jackets alongside NFL Hall of Famer Franco Harris, NBA veteran Jalen Rose, Dr. Bill Cosby and Principal Dr. Steve Perry
Dr. Steve Perry’s Capital Preparatory Magnet School has been featured on Soledad O’Brien’s “Black In America” series on CNN for the school’s impeccable graduation record for getting all seniors accepted into four-year colleges, no matter their economic status or background. However this year as tuition and education costs sky rocket, it appears to be virtually the only set back threatening to prevent Perry from sending 100% of its predominantly low-income and minority, first-generation graduates to four year colleges.
With the help of more than 200 individuals and organizations including four “platinum” sponsors with $10,000 donations from Travelers Insurance; United Technologies Corp.; Elizabeth and Dr. Bruce Bower of West Hartford, a retired endocrinologist; and Hybrid Insurance Group, a black-owned firm based in Hartford. Capital Preparatory Magnet School has so far raised $90,000 in college scholarships for students with an ‘Evening with Dr. Cosby.’ The event gave the Hartford community an opportunity to hear from a national champion of education alongside CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, former NBA player Jalen Rose, social activist and educator Geoffrey Canada and NFL Hall of Famer Franco Harris.
Last school year, an inaugural event with Cosby helped Capital Prep raise $70,000 in scholarships. The recipients, 2011 graduates Wynton Borders and Khamarr Smith, are now freshmen at Morehouse College. All Capital Prep scholarship recipients are required to pay back the investment made in them, either in dollars or service to younger students and also with leadership and positivity in their community as a pay it forward gift. Continue reading →
Jalen Rose can now add “educator” to his long list of social contributions. The former NBA star and current ESPN analyst has established the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy (JRLA) in his hometown of Detroit in order to help improve Michigan’s troubled education system — and ultimately give Detroit adolescents under his care the best education possible.
The thirty-eight-year-old was motivated to found JRLA due to a concern that Michigan’s stagnant economy is impeding students’ ability to succeed in high school and attend college.
“When the auto industry was around, adults weren’t necessarily going to college to get degrees,” Rose told theGrio. But that industry cannot support the region as it once did. “This domino effect has in turn affected children,” Rose continued. Continue reading →
Ginger Howard, one of golf’s most celebrated phenoms, is sharpening her skills to excel against the game’s finest women players.
The latest challenge for Howard, 17, the youngest African-American woman to turn professional, begins in March with the Symetra Tour (last year known as the Futures). If Howard finishes among the tour’s top 10 money winners, she’ll become just the fifth African-American woman to compete on the LPGA Tour.
In November, in recognition of her talent and limitless potential, IMG — which bills itself as the world’s premier sports, fashion and media company — signed Howard to a marketing and management contract. She is the first African-American woman golfer IMG has taken under its wing.
Howard doubtless surprised many in the golf world early last June, when she announced her decision to play for pay (made possible by a successful appeal for an exemption from the Ladies Professional Golf Association, which usually bars players under 18) and politely spurned two college scholarship offers, one from Duke, the other from the University of Florida. Continue reading →
Comedy Central will be launching a new sketch comedy series on January 31 at 1030 pm EST, Key and Peele, starring MAD TV alums Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. The show appears to be following in the footsteps of the classic Comedy Central hit Chappelle’s Show. Watch this earlier teaser trailer. Will you be tuning in?
The first black woman to serve on the federal bench in Louisiana was honored at a formal investiture ceremony Thursday.
The ceremony for Nannette Jolivette Brown was held at the Hale Boggs Federal Court Building. Brown was nominated by President Barack Obama in March and confirmed by the U.S. Senate last October. U.S. Mary Landrieu, D-La., recommended Brown for the federal bench.
“Today we celebrated history by officially swearing in the first African American woman to the federal bench in Louisiana,” Landrieu said. She added that Brown possessed “a wealth of knowledge and legal expertise and is well suited to serve the public interest.”
U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said he supported Brown’s nomination and that “her depth of experience and strong legal background will be a great asset to Louisiana as she serves on the federal bench.” Continue reading →
An Akron, Ohio mother who was sent to jail last year for falsifying records so her daughters could attend school in a district in which she didn’t live has now formed an advocacy group to help other parents who face similar situations.
Kelley Williams-Bolar said she is working through the Ohio Parents Union to fight for the rights of all children to have access to quality education and to have an opportunity for success. She has also joined forces with parents in other parts of the country who have similar concerns.
“We’re trying to start a movement across the nation,” Williams-Bolar told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “We have a broken system in this country. Parents must stand up together and call for these broken schools to be fixed and for funding to ensure that all of our schools have the resources needed for our children.”
Her goal is to help raise awareness when parents and their children face tough challenges regarding access to education or school conditions. She said she recently helped a mother in Illinois work through a residency issue with her children’s education.
“I don’t want another parent or another grandparent to have to go through what I went through,” she said.
Williams-Bolar was convicted by a jury last January for tampering with records to send her children to suburban schools when her family did not live in the Copley-Fairlawn School District. She spent nine days in jail and was required to complete 80 hours of community service. Continue reading →
Sanaa Lathan has been named the new face of Pantene’s Pro-V Nature Fusion Collection.
Lathan seems like the perfect pick for Pantene’s line of natural-based hair products, which boosts the tagline: “It’s in our nature to be strong and balanced.” We’ve adored the 40-year-old actress’ lovely locks for some time now, so it’s exciting to see a major beauty company, like Pantene, take notice.
And Lathan is just has pumped as we are. She raved about being a part of the campaign:
“I am so excited to be a part of a brand with such a strong history. And people just love their products; it’s such a respected brand. I love that they went for a Black woman. It just shows that they continue to support beauty in all shades and all textures.” Continue reading →
BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s biggest retailer, said Friday that
Rosalind Brewer
it has named Rosalind Brewer as CEO of Sam’s Club – the first woman and the first African-American to hold a CEO position at one of the company’s business units.
Brewer, 49, is replacing Brian Cornell, 52, who is leaving the company so he can return to the Northeast for family reasons. He had served in the role since 2009.
Brewer, who will also be president of Sam’s Club, was previously president of the retailer’s U.S. East business unit. She will report to CEO Mike Duke. The moves are effective Feb. 1.
Wal-Mart has in recent years has been battered by a combination of the slow-growing economy and its own decisions that caused U.S. customers to flee to competitors. But it has refocused on offering the lowest prices and shoppers’ favorite goods and that strategy has been paying off. In its third fiscal quarter ended Oct. 28, its net income fell 2.9 percent but it reversed a slump in U.S. namesake business. Continue reading →
