July 2019 by Black Business News Group

Publisher's Message “Meeting the Future Head-On”

eading into the second half of 2019 I'm bringing up issues that make us look forward - technology advancement and first steps toward building a worldwide community. The independence celebration that is the focal point of this month reminds us Pubisher/Editor-In-Chief to honor the past while building on and protecting the future. So with that, let's honor the efforts of the Africans and African Americans that have sacrificed to bring our people and this nation as far as we have come. Let's gird ourselves to continue the work on all of the paths laid out before us. Our consumer commnity needs to stay abreast of our business community and support Black business by purchasing products. The Black Business community needs to keep providing quality and forward thinking products for our consumer community to use. Our political, civic and spiritual leaders must continue to guide us toward the attainment of full citizenship and a peaceful and productive society. The Black Business News will continue to bring you news and information that we hope will contribute to our continuing forward movement. You may read our back issues in the Black Business News library on the Issuu platform (www.issuu.com/blackbusinessnews). And send us a message to be placed on the BBN subscription list to be certain that you have all of our news in your email-box each month.

Earl “Skip” Cooper, II

now seen as a more safe methodology for managing information (hack proof) and business processes. If your business has concerns regarding data security and ﬁnancial security it may be worth your while to conduct some research into Blockchain tools. As a tech company, it might be worth your while to explore developing tools that will be helpful to the small and very small business community. There are more of us than there are major corporations. Economies of scale may not be limited to the size of one coporation but could be realized through the number of clients. Employing Blockchain security tools will also help all of our businesses be ready for the coming growth possible with the AfCFTA. The future is now. Don't be late.

Keeping Up With Tech Trends

Knowing and Supporting Black Tech The challenge to stay abreast of technologies can be Leaders

overwhelming whether you lead a major corporation of a one-person, home-based business. The problem is that technologies are at the least a two-edged sword - large and small businesses can function more eﬃciently when making use of appropriate tech tools; large and small business can be put out of business by companies using tech tools better. So, either way, staying abreast of advancements and changes as well as implementing appropriate tools is vital to long-term business growth and survival. Blockchain concepts (page 6), while the technology has been around for over 20 years, have become more visible in recent years. The philosophy of the technology was applied to currency manipulation and was thought of only in that vain until recently. The technology is

Part of keeping up with business tech is seeking out those African Americans who are active in and leaders in the computer/communication technology arena. This issue of the Black Business News highligts two African American tech leaders - Neal Sales-Griﬃn and Freddie Figgers. The article announcing Sales-Griﬃn's role in the Techstars Chicago Startup Program can be found on page 51. The article on the 5G mobile phone from Figgers Communication that we can all purchase is on page 75. Techstars Chicago (www.techstars.com/programs/ chicago-program) is a 90-day accelerator program designed to help 10 startups get to a stage where they’re ready for outside investment, culminating

2  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

in a Demo Day presentation. Startups get $20,000 in cash and $100,000 in convertible debt in exchange for giving a 6% stake to Techstars. The next class applications will open July 22, 2019. Figgers Communication has released the newest mobile phone from the telecommunications company, the Figgers F3 (https://figgers.com/f3-buy). Changing the narrative of the smartphone as we know it, the F3 comes equipped with recordbreaking storage capacity of 1Terabytes, meaning users will never run out of storage, a 4K ultra high-definition screen, magnetic resonance capability allowing users to charge multiple Figgers Gear from the Figgers Super Base Charger. It is built to work on every mobile operator in the world, not just USA and comes with waterproof capability. Visit the website to check out other Figgers Gear and give serious consideration to supporting African American tech. Have you supported a black-owned business recently? Our hope is that your answer is Yes! BB2BB* and BB2BC* alike, let us move closer to defining ourselves as a trade area and strengthening our trade area through intra-area economic velocity.

Africa’s Ambitious Free-Trade Deal The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which has come into force creates one of the world’s largest free-trade areas by slashing tariffs across a $2.5 trillion market of 1.2 billion people. The intention is for AfCFTA to be a stepping-stone to more comprehensive PanAfrican integration, with a customs union in the pipeline. The more distant dream is to create a frictionless single market allowing a South African factory to import parts from Niger to make into a product to be sold in Egypt. AfCFTA extends beyond goods to include services, investment, intellectual property and possibly e-commerce. The United Nations forecasts that intra-African trade could grow by more than 50% in the next five years as the continent taps into latent economies of scale. Even without a trade deal, much has gone right in Africa in recent years. GDP per head south of the Sahara is up 40% since the year 2000, notes The Economist. The demographics also suggests that Africa will play an ever-greater role in global affairs: by 2050, one in four humans are projected to live in Africa as the working-age population booms. Successful implementation of the AfCFTA can only help enhance the benefits that will flow from these positive trends. This may be the time to look at the state of the African American business community. Are we ready to look at ourselves as a national trade area? Are we ready to act more collectively to our advance our collective benefit? Are we ready to present our businesses to the AfCFTA and make "real" business deals? Africa is showing us the way. It is time for African Americans to give more thought to taking part in the African Union's Sixth Region proposal. We are stronger together as a people. We are more marketable as a collective to our target base and to the world. As African Americans we must strive to build stronger business relationships in Africa for our continued growth and structure.  www.bbala.org Image credits: trailblazercapital.com, en.wikipedia.org *Black Business to Black Business, Black Business to Black Consumer

Black Business News Group P.O. Box 43159 Los Angeles, CA 90043 USA 1-323-291-7819 Fax: 1-323-298-5064

www.blackbusinessnews.net PUBLISHER/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Earl “Skip” Cooper, II

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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Bene Uche Linda Ware Ralph D. Sutton Timothy Lester, Jr. Veronica Hendrix Giavanna Foster P. Yvette Thomas Aman Williams LaSandra Stratton

GRAPHIC DESIGN Sarah Harris Tia RobinsonGRAPHIC DESIGN Sarah Harris Tia Robinson

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LAYOUT/TYPESETTING Lion Communications Copyright © 2019 by Black Business News All Rights Reserved. The posting of stories, commentaries, reports, documents and links (embedded or otherwise) on this site does not in any way, shape or form, implied or otherwise, necessarily express or suggest endorsement or support of any of such posted material or parts therein.  Cover image: ktpress.rw

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ABOUT THE BLACK BUSINESS NEWS GROUPâ&#x20AC;Ś The mission of The Black Business News (BBN) is to inspire and inform public and private sector industry representatives on the importance of smart small business growth. As a versatile source of socioeconomic development activity news, the publications of the Black Business News Group (a division of the Black Business Association) impart current local, national and international industry and social trends and news aďŹ&#x20AC;ecting small businesses across the United States of America (USA), providing guides to greater access to ďŹ nancial capital, management eďŹ&#x192;ciencies, business education, mentorship opportunities and social media networks. The goals of the Black Business News Group include: â&#x20AC;˘

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Contents

Black Business News…July 2019 2

Publisher's Message

Government 6 8 10 12 14 17

Cryptocurrencies, Digital Tax Top Agenda for G-7 Mee ng Africa’s Ambi ous Free-Trade Deal Ghana Chosen to Host African Con nental Free Trade Area Secretariat Trump Deﬁant as Lawmakers Blast his 'Racist' A acks on Four Congresswomen Prosper Africa 'The CROWN Act' Passes Senate Vote in California FBI, ICE Find State Driver’s License Photos are a Gold Mine for Facial-Recogni on Searches 37 House Democrat’s Bid to Impeach Trump Is Expected to Be Rebuﬀed

Entertainment 24

BBN Show Biz Buzz

Editorials/Perspectives 66

“Bethune, Democracy and July 4th: Courageous Ques oning and Constant Struggle” ‘Equal pay, Equal pay, Equal pay’

51 52 60 74 75

Community/Public Interest 78 79

82 83 84

87 90 90 91 92

28 30

34 36 37

38 46 49 50

Dave Bartholomew, Dies at 100 Paul Benjamin Dies, was 81 Jerry Lawson, Leader of a Cappella Persuasions, Dies at 75

International

400th Commemora on Year of Enslavement 1619-2019 Ebola Outbreak in Congo Declared a Global Health Emergency

Obituary/Memorials

Business 7 Steps to a Cohesive Brand Content Strategy Alitalia's New Adver sement Shows a 'blacked-up' Barack Obama Chicago Defender to Switch to a Digital-only Pla orm Star ng July 11th Build a Side Hustle Through Amazon Hawa Hassan: the Hot Sauce Boss Jay-Z Partners with Cannabis Company as Brand Strategist to Help Bring Equity for People of Color How to Invest in Startups: Best Prac ces Top Black Audio Podcasts & Radio in 2019 Proposing Your Own for an Emoji Just got a bit Easier Ly , Ap v and the Na onal Federa on of the Blind Partner on Self-driving for Low Vision Riders

Sales-Griﬃn to Lead Techstars Startup Program How to Get More Backlinks for Your Small Business Website This Black-Owned Soul Food Restaurant Just Expanded Into Mul ple Walmarts Why 'Now' May Well Be the Right Time to Start a Blockchain Company Black-Owned Telecommunica ons Company Debuts First 5G Smartphone Designed in the U.S.

Kwame Akoto-Bamfo: Telling the African story through his art How Important will ECO Currency be to West Africa? Africa is Tech’s Next Great Fron er Nigeria will Join Africa's Vast Free Trade Area US Congress Delega on Calls for Talks with Rebels in Cameroon Tutankhamen Head Fetches Millions at UK Auc on Despite Egypt’s Protests Sudan Power-Sharing Deal Reached by Military and Civilian Leaders Top American Universi es are Doubling Down on their Presence Across Africa

Columns 56 89 105 168 173 175

Take A Look! African Stock Exchanges Shopping Gallery Books to Consider... BBA 2019 Master Planner Resource Vault

Government - G-7 Ponders Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies, Digital Tax Top Agenda for G-7 Meeting By David McHugh and Thomas Adamson

inance officials from the Group of Seven rich democracies will weigh risks from new digital currencies and debate how to tax tech companies like Google and Amazon when they meet at a chateau north of Paris starting Wednesday, July 24th. Those issues, raised by the impact of digitalization on the world economy, are at the top of the agenda for a two-day gathering hosted by French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and including U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The finance ministers are meeting in the town of Chantilly to prepare the ground for a summit of the G-7 heads of state and government, scheduled for Aug. 2426 in the French Basque Country resort of Biarritz. Hanging over the ministers when they sit down for a working dinner: slowing global growth and the Americafirst trade policies of U.S. President Donald Trump, which have led to a tariff war with China and tensions with Europe. The G-7 countries are Europe’s Germany, France, Britain and Italy, plus Canada, Japan and the United States. Europe and the U.S. have exchanged a limited number of tariffs but Trump has threatened more damaging ones on European auto imports in an attempt to renegotiate overall trade relations. The talks have been slow as the two sides differ on whether agricultural as well as industrial products should be included. The U.S. wants to include farm products and the Europeans do not. Those disagreements could be exacerbated by a newer point of contention: host France’s decision to impose a 3% tax on the revenues of giant tech companies, which are mainly American. The tech companies do huge business across Europe but pay taxes only in the European Union nation where their local headquarters are based, often a low-tax haven like Luxembourg or the Netherlands. The result is they pay a far lower rate than traditional businesses. The U.S. has advocated a broader international

approach being developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Parisbased organization representing much of the more developed world. U.S. officials have said they’re investigating the French move as a possible unfair trade practice that could lead to retaliation. Mnuchin told journalists Monday that “this will definitely be high on the agenda.” Le Maire, in turn, said the French tax was intended to spur international action: “As soon as there will be an international solution, we will withdraw the national taxation.” “I will urge my American friends, instead of ... threatening France through sanctions to go the way of dialogue and entering into a fair negotiation to find a compromise at the level of the G-7, so that we will give a new impetus to the work that is currently done in the OECD,” he said. Where the U.S. may find more common ground with its G-7 partners will be in its mistrust of cryptocurrencies like Facebook’s r e c e n t l y announced Libra. Mnuchin said the U.S. T r e a s u r y Department has “very serious concerns that Libra could be misused by money launderers and

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terrorist financers... This is indeed a national security issue.” Le Maire has voiced similar concerns and has commissioned a report by top central bankers. Libra would be based on distributed technology similar to that which underpins Bitcoin, but with key differences. Bitcoin’s value fluctuates, limiting its use to pay for things. In contrast, Facebook hopes to keep the value of the Libra fairly steady by tying it to a basket of major currencies. The social network envisions it as a way to send money around the world without significant fees. Facebook won’t run Libra directly but instead is setting up a nonprofit with its partners to oversee the new currency. A broader issue is the state of international c o o p e r a t i o n represented by the G-7 itself. Trump has disrupted earlier summits by refusing to sign on for final statements, which traditionally summarize the group’s shared views on key issues like global warming. U.S. officials have also spiked earlier language explicitly

rejecting trade protectionism such as tariﬀs. After last year’s G-7 hosted by Canada, Trump retracted U.S. support for the meeting’s joint statement and tweeted criticism of the host, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Le Maire is hoping that unity will win out over divisions. “Since we are facing an unstable world, we are facing key challenges related to global warming, to the rise of new technologies, the new power of China, reinforcing the G-7 should be our common goal,” he said. Mnuchin said the meeting could end with a chairman’s report of the discussion rather than a ﬁnal statement signed by all, depending on how the host government wants to handle things. www.apnews.com/58430f3c4a6d4991a8774b7a003 0ecb8 Image credits: cryptonewsz.com, vestnikkavkaza.net

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Government - Continental Trade Program

Africa’s Ambitious Free-Trade Deal By Alex Rankine

he African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) came into force at the end of May 2019. The deal creates one of the world’s largest free-trade areas by slashing tariﬀs across a $2.5trn market of 1.2 billion people. Fifty-two African states are now committed to cutting duties on 90% of goods and 27 countries have signed a protocol providing for freedom of movement. Rwandan president Paul Kagame hailed the deal as a “new chapter in African unity”. The accord bucks a global trend as populism and trade wars on other continents set globalisation into reverse.

How integrated is Africa? Poor infrastructure, elaborate customs procedures and high tariffs – currently averaging 6.1% – have long hampered the development of intra-African trade. The Gambia, for example, currently exports more to South Korea and the Netherlands than it does to neighbouring Senegal. All told, trade between African states accounts for just 15% of the continent’s trade. In the EU the equivalent figure is 67%. The intention is for AfCFTA to be a stepping-stone to more comprehensive pan-African integration, with a customs union in the pipeline. The more distant dream is to create a frictionless single market allowing a South African factory to import parts from Niger to make into a product to be sold in Egypt, says Tom Rees in The Daily Telegraph. AfCFTA is certainly ambitious, says Vera Songwe for the Brookings Institution think tank. It extends beyond goods – the stuff of a traditional free-trade deal – to include services, investment, intellectual property and possibly e-commerce.

Has this been tried before? Plans for a pan-African common market date back to 1980, when the predecessor organisation of the current African Union (AU) announced the Lagos Plan of Action, which envisioned the creation of an African Economic Community (AEC) modelled on Europe’s EEC by the millennium. In 1991 African leaders signed the Abuja Treaty to achieve that goal, but implementation has been slow. Eﬀorts have instead been focused on sub-regional

groupings. One of the oldest is the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), which dates from 1910 and sees ﬁve southern African states apply a common external tariﬀ. Three other regional trade blocs joined forces in 2008 to start work on the African Free Trade Zone (AFTZ), a nominal free-trade area that runs up the entire east side of the continent from Cape Town to Cairo. In west and central Africa, 14 mainly francophone nations share common currency arrangements through the CFA franc. Integration within most of these groupings remains shallow, says Olu Fasan on the International Growth Centre blog. The best performer has been the East African Community (EAC), which includes Kenya and Tanzania. It has had a common market since 2010 and a customs union since 2005.

What are the challenges? The biggest problem is that Nigeria, the continent’s biggest economy and most populous nation, has yet to sign (Ed Update: Nigeria has signed the agreement). The country’s manufacturing interests have been lobbying hard for special protections, citing fears of “dumping” by more competitive foreign industries. With more than 190 million people, Nigeria’s large internal market means that its leaders feel a less pressing need than smaller neighbours to secure access to a wider African market. Even if Nigeria does eventually get on board, planned negotiations on competition rules, investment and intellectual property rights will provide plenty of opportunity for more ﬁreworks between the continent’s protectionist powers and more liberally inclined governments in countries such as Ethiopia, Rwanda and Ghana.

Would Nigeria make a diﬀerence? The UN forecasts that if Nigeria joins the AfCFTA

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then intra-African trade could grow by more than 50% in the next ﬁve years as the continent taps into latent economies of scale. Yet even without a trade deal, much has gone right in Africa in recent years. GDP per head south of the Sahara is up 40% since the year 2000, notes The Economist. The biggest drag comes from relatively weak performance in recent years by the “big two” of Nigeria and South Africa, but the IMF forecasts that subSaharan growth will hit 3.5% this year, with notable strength from east African states such as Ethiopia and Rwanda.

So all good news then? The “elephant in the room” is rising debt, says Yinka Adegoke for Quartz. Brookings reports that “at least” 14 African states are either in debt distress or at high risk after a decade of easy loans from China to ﬁnance infrastructure developments. Chinese trade with subSaharan Africa increased 226% between 2006 and 2018, reports The Economist, as Beijing poured money into railways, factories and ports.

More grimly, China is also now the top supplier of arms in the region. The EU remains the continent’s largest trading partner for now, with $156bn worth of trade last year, but China is not far behind on $120bn.

What about democracy? The proportion of democracies on the continent has doubled since 1999, notes Daniel Treisman of UCLA. The 2018 Ibrahim Index of African Governance, which tracks factors such as rule of law, human development and human rights, shows that roughly three-quarters of Africans live in countries where governance has improved in the past decade. That is good news for investment and trade. The demographics also suggest that the region will play an ever-greater role in global affairs: by 2050, one in four humans are projected to live in Africa as the workingage population booms. Successful implementation of the AfCFTA can only help enhance the benefits that will flow from these positive trends.  https://moneyweek.com/507574/africas-ambitiousfree-trade-deal/

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Government - Continental Trade Program

Ghana Chosen to Host African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat

he Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) has selected Ghana as the host country for the Secretariat of the African Continental (AfCFTA) Free Trade Area. The decision was announced at the 12th AU Extraordinary Summit held in Niamey, the capital of Niger, after Ghana beat off competition from Egypt, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar and Senegal. The core mandate of the Secretariat will be to implement the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement, which has since been ratified by 25 member states. In his acceptance speech, during the close session of President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo the Summit, the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Whilst applauding the member states that have Akufo-Addo, thanked the Assembly for the decision, deposited their instruments of ratification at the AU stating that "it is a privilege that, for the first time in our Commission Headquarters in Addis Ababa, the nation's history, we have the responsibility of hosting President expressed his delight at the decision taken an important pan-African institution". by Nigeria to sign up to the Agreement, stressing that President Akufo-Addo expressed his gratitude to "the adhesion of Nigeria to the Free Trade Area has President Macky Sall of Senegal for stepping down enhanced considerably its prospects of success". Senegal's candidature in favour of Ghana, and also With the AfCFTA now the world's largest free showed his appreciation to the leaders of Egypt and trade area since the formation of the World Trade Ethiopia, their Excellencies Abdel Fattah el-Sisi Organisation, it will cover a market of 1.2 billion and Abiy Ahmed respectively, for similar gestures of people, with a combined gross domestic product solidarity. (GDP) of $2.5 trillion, across the fifty-four (54) Member 10  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

12th AU Extraordinary Summit held in Niamey, the capital of Niger States of the African Union that have signed up to the Agreement. "We have, today, taken very important steps towards working with a common voice and a common purpose to exploit the abundant wealth and resources of our great continent for the benefit of all our peoples. Indeed, the 'Africa We Want' is achievable," the President said. President Akufo-Addo assured his colleague Heads of State that Ghana will put all the requisite facilities at the disposal of the Secretariat, so that it can run as a world-class organisation. In addition, and pursuant to the Statutes of the AU Commission, he indicated that the Secretariat shall enjoy the privileges and immunities stipulated in the OAU General Convention on Privileges and Immunities, the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities, and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and the Vienna Convention between States and International Organisations or between International Organisations. The President urged Assembly to direct the AU Commission to prepare and execute a host-country agreement in accordance with the Executive Council Decision EX.CL/195 (VII) Rev.1 of July 2005 on hosting AU Organs; and hold consultations with Ghana and key stakeholders to prepare the statutes of the AfCFTA Secretariat with a view toward providing a report for the

consideration of the Council of Ministers of Trade. "Ghana is ready to donate US$10 million to the African Union to support the operationalisation of the Secretariat. I have set up an inter-Ministerial Committee of my government to work with the AU Commission towards this end," he indicated. President Akufo-Addo also called on pan-African institutions such as the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the African Development Bank, the African Export-Import Bank and other key stakeholders, including friends of Africa, to provide such support as they can towards the establishment of the Secretariat. "I am determined to do whatever I can to guarantee the smooth take-off of the Secretariat, and help make sure that it turns out to be a world-class institution, which will become the pride and joy of all Africans," he said. President Akufo-Addo added, "We owe it to generations unborn to ensure that the biggest trading bloc on the globe, whose outcomes will be rewarding to all, and which will assist in attaining the "Africa We Want", does not falter."  https://allafrica.com/stories/201907080242.html Image credits: thewillnigeria.com, africaglobalvillage. com, guyaneseonline.wordpress.com

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Government - Racist Commentary

Trump Defiant as Lawmakers Blast his 'Racist' Attacks on Four Congresswomen By Jeﬀ Mason, Susan Cornwell

resident Donald Trump doubled down on his attacks against four minority U.S. congresswomen and dismissed concerns that his comments were racist, prompting outrage from Democrats, who moved to condemn him in the House of Representatives. Speaking at the White House, Trump said people he described as critical of the United States should leave the country. Those remarks followed his Twitter messages that said the four left-wing lawmakers, known in Congress as “the squad,” should go back to “the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” All four of the first-term House members are U.S. citizens and all but one were born in the United States. “If you’re not happy in the U.S., if you’re complaining all the time, very simply: You can leave,” he said, drawing scattered applause from a crowd of businesspeople. Asked if he was concerned that some viewed his remarks as racist and that white supremacists found common cause with him, Trump said he was not. “It doesn’t concern me because many people agree with me,” Trump said. The president’s remarks were widely derided and some, though not many, of his fellow Republicans spoke out against them. Trump did not identify the lawmakers by name in his tweets, but he appeared to refer to representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. All four have been critical of Trump, as well as of the current Democratic leaders of the House, straining party unity in that chamber. At a press conference on Capitol Hill, the four lawmakers said Trump was trying to sow division and distract attention from what they characterized as failed policies on immigration, healthcare and taxation. “Weak minds and leaders challenge loyalty to our

country in order to avoid challenging and debating the policy,” Ocasio-Cortez said. Tlaib and Omar repeated their calls for Trump to be impeached. H o u s e U.S. Reps Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Ilhan O S p e a k e r a news conference after Democrats in the U Nancy Pelosi, the four minority congresswomen on Capitol who has been criticized by members of “the squad,” said her party would introduce a resolution condemning Trump’s “xenophobic tweets.” A draft of the resolution, seen by Reuters, said the House “strongly condemns President Donald Trump’s racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color ...” Such a resolution could put Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress in an awkward position, forcing them either to vote against their party’s leader, who has strong support among Re conservatives, or effectively to defend his statements. Trump’s attacks elevated the profiles of the four progressive Democrats, who have helped push the party’s agenda to the left, causing concern among Senator Tim Scott

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American Republican in the House, called the attacks “racist” on CNN. Senator Tim Scott, the Senate’s only black Republican, called them “racially offensive” on Twitter. Others did not go that far. Senator Mitt Romney, the party’s 2012 presidential nominee, and Senator Marco Rubio, who ran in 2016, both condemned the remarks but declined to characterize them as racist. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said the four lawmakers belonged in the United States, but did not criticize Trump. “The president is not a racist,” he told reporters. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell did not comment on the controversy. Trump regularly used racially charged language during his campaign and continued in his presidency. His latest remarks came as some of his efforts to deal with immigration - a major issue for his conservative base - have faltered. mar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) hold Trump promised as a candidate to .S. Congress moved to formally condemn President Donald Trump's attacks on build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico Hill in Washington, U.S.. REUTERS/Erin Scott border and that Mexico would pay for it. As president, very little has happened on wall construction and Mexico has Democratic moderates who are eager to hold onto their seats in resolutely refused to pay for a wall. the 2020 election. ‘RACISM, DIVISION’

A FEW REPUBLICANS SPEAK OUT

Trump has a history of what critics consider race-baiting. He led a movement that falsely claimed former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, and he said after a deadly, white supremacistled rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that “both sides” were epresentative Will Hurd to blame for violence there. “This is the agenda of white nationalists, whether it is happening in chat rooms, or it’s happening on national TV, and now it’s reached the White House garden,” Omar said. Although most Republicans stayed silent on Trump’s divisive rhetoric, several began expressing concern. Texas Representative Will Hurd, the only African-

In his tweets, Trump said of the four congresswomen, “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came ... Then come back and show us how ... it is done.” Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley and Tlaib were born in the United States while Omar, a Somali refugee, arrived in 1992. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a sometime Trump golf partner and adviser, called the four congresswomen “communist” and “anti-Semitic” on Fox News, but he also called on Trump to stop making such personal attacks. “Aim higher ... Take on their policies. The bottom line here is this is a diverse country,” he said, adding that he had spoken to Trump.  www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-democrats/ trump-deﬁant-as-lawmakers-blast-his-racist-attackson-four-congresswomen-idUSKCN1U90H7

13  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Government - International Trade

Prosper Africa Afriica

rosper Africa is a U.S. Government Initiative that unlocks opportunities to do business in Africa — benefiting

trillion — the largest in the world. American companies not only bring significant capital, innovation, and proven solutions, but adhere to the

range of those services available to U.S. and African businesses and investors. Through Prosper Africa, the U.S. Government helps

companies, investors, and workers both in Africa and the United States. The Goal — Substantially increase two-way trade and investment between the United States and Africa. The Opportunity — With six of the ten fastest growing economies in the world and over one billion consumers, Africa is poised to play a pivotal role in the global economy. Meanwhile, producers in Africa see a U.S. consumer market of more than 300 million people that already has a purchasing power of $13

highest standards of transparency, quality, and social responsibility. A greater connection between the U.S. and African private sectors will expand markets for U.S. goods and services and contribute to more self-reliant, prosperous, and stable African countries. Our Response — For years companies have asked the U.S. Government to make it easier to access its trade and investment support services. Prosper Africa answers this call by providing a one-stop shop that makes the full

to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of Americans and the people of African nations like never before — advancing American and African prosperity and security, supporting jobs, and demonstrating the superior value of transparent markets and private enterprise for driving growth. Visit this site regularly to access new tools, resources, and updates. Sign up for our newsletter to stay informed about recent developments.  www.trade.gov/prosperafrica

14  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

USDA is Accepting Applications for a Trade Mission to West Africa October 28-31, 2019

he U.S. Department of Agriculture will lead a trade mission to Accra, Ghana, October 2831, seeking to unlock new export opportunities in several West African countries where strong economic growth is driving demand for imported food and farm products. The mission supports the Administration’s Prosper Africa initiative (www.trade.gov/prosperafrica), which seeks to strengthen the United States’ commercial ties and foster fair and reciprocal trade with countries in Africa. Local staﬀ from USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service will arrange meetings between trade mission delegates and potential customers from Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Senegal, helping lay the foundation for long-lasting business relationships. In addition, in-depth economic and policy brieﬁngs and local site visits will help participants better understand the opportunities and challenges of exporting to West African countries. Application deadline is: August 2, 2019 Please click here for more information: www.fas.usda.gov/topics/west-africa-october-2019 Bobby Hines, International Trade Specialist 1-213-894-4231 or bobby.hines@trade.gov Los Angeles DownTown | U.S.D.O.C. | International Trade Administration www.trade.gov or www.export.gov Target Country

2018 U.S. Agricultural Exports

2018 U.S. Market Share

Top Prospects for U.S. Exporters

Côte d’Ivoire

$24.3 million

Beef, condiments and sauces, distilled spirits, fresh and processed produce, soybean meal, seafood, wheat, wine

Ghana

$82.6 million

Beef, dairy products, distilled spirits, forest products, prepared food, poultry, rice, seafood, wheat

Nigeria

$308.1 million

11%

Condiments and sauces, corn, prepared foods, soybeans, wheat, wine and beer

Senegal

$11.4 million

<1%

Feeds and fodders, planting seeds, prepared foods, soybean oil, sweeteners and beverage bases

15  JJuly l 20 2019 19  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Join the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Houston District Export Council for D iscoverr Globall Markets:: Poweringg & Buildingg thee Middlee Eastt & Africa.. Seize the opportunity to network with interna onal execu ves, business development and marke ng professionals, engineers, project owners, developers, and government oﬃcials. Walk away with the knowledge it takes to compete globally and transform market poten al to market success.

Meet One-on-One with U.S. Commercial Diplomats, Foreign Buyer, and U.S. Project Owners Whether you’re looking for your next interna onal deal, ﬁnding a new partner, seeking advice in overcoming challenges, or want the latest market intelligence, this conference provides the unique opportunity to self-schedule mee ngs with representa ves from key markets including: Algeria, Angola, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and the West Bank.

Explore Opportuni es in the Middle East & Africa Learn about the importance of expanding and growing your business throughout the Middle East and Africa, how to build the right partnerships needed to win business, and hear about regional trends and market demand across various sub-sectors such as oil & gas, renewable energy, electricity infrastructure, engineering, construc on and transporta on.

Date: Sept. 30—Oct. 2, 2019

Loca on: Hya Regency Houston 1200 Louisiana Street Houston, Texas 77002

Cost: $495 through August 2 $645 a er August 2 (funding for small businesses may be available through your state)

For more informa on, please contact: ZĂĐŚŝĚ ^ĂǇŽƵƚǇ ƌĂĐŚŝĚ͘ƐĂǇŽƵƚǇ@trade.gov (ϮϭϯͿϴϵϰͲϰϬϮϮ

What to Expect x x x x x

Discuss procurement needs directly with foreign buyers and government decision makers Gain insight on geopoli cal and economic issues in the region Hear from experts on how cri cal issues including standards, project ﬁnancing, and intellectual property rights impact your business Receive guidance on trade barriers and market access issues Leverage U.S. Government trade contacts to support your global sales

In partnership with

Join the Conversa on! #DiscoverGlobalMarkets

Visit Our Website: h ps://live.even a.com/en/middleeastafrica/Home

16  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Government - Culture

'The CROWN Act' Passes Senate Vote in California

The CROWN Coalition, a national alliance comprised of the National Urban League, Western Center on Law & Poverty, Color Of Change, and Dove, is proud to announce the bill they are sponsoring, Senate Bill 188 (The CROWN Act), passed the Senate floor today in California.

ntroduced by Senator Holly J. Mitchell, SB 188 aims to "Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair" (the CROWN Act) by clarifying that traits historically associated with race, such as hair texture and hairstyle, be protected from discrimination in the work place and in our K-12 public and charter schools. "Many Black employees, including your staff, members, will tell you if given the chance that the struggle to maintain what society has deemed a 'professional image' while protecting the health and integrity of their hair remains a defining and paradoxical struggle in their work experience, not usually shared by their non-Black peers," said Senator Mitchell shortly before the Senate vote. "Members, it is 2019. Any law that sanctions a job description that immediately excludes me from a position, not because of my capabilities or experience but because of my hair, is long overdue for reform." The C.R.O.W.N. (Creating a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural hair) Act will ensure protection against discrimination in the workplace and schools based on hairstyles by prohibiting employers and schools from enforcing purportedly "race neutral" grooming policies that disproportionately impact persons of color. Additionally, while anti-discrimination laws presently protect the choice to wear an Afro, Afros are not the only natural presentation of Black hair. SB 188 will ensure protection against discrimination based on hairstyles by extending statutory protection to hair texture and protective styles in the Fair Employment

and Housing Act (FEHA) and the California Education Code. "Dove has been committed to championing real beauty for women and girls for decades, and believes the individuality of all of our hair should be celebrated," said Esi Eggleston Bracey, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of North America Beauty and Personal Care at Unilever. "As a proud member of the CROWN Coalition, we're overjoyed to see that the California Senate passed SB 188, and look forward to continuing to drive equity and fairness for all women and men, particularly around hair inclusivity." The CROWN Act corrects an inconsistency in existing anti-discrimination laws by amending the California Government and Education Codes to protect against discrimination based on traits historically associated with race such as hair texture and protective hairstyles. The Coalition, in support of The CROWN Act, aims to put an end to the significant injustices of hair discrimination that has spanned decades across the United States. The CROWN Coalition The CROWN Coalition is a national alliance comprised of the National Urban League, Western Center on Law & Poverty, Color Of Change, and Dove as sponsors of Senate Bill 188 'The Crown Act'. The CROWN Coalition members believe diversity and inclusion are key drivers of success across all industries and sectors. For more information on SB 188 'The CROWN Act' visit http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient. xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB188 to see the legislation  www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-crownact-to-end-hair-discrimination-in-the-workplace-andschools-passes-senate-vote-in-california-300836436. html

17  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Government - Investigation Documents

FBI, ICE Find State Driver’s License Photos are a Gold Mine for FacialRecognition Searches By Drew Harwell

gents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have turned state driver’s license databases into a facial-recognition gold mine, scanning through millions of Americans’ photos without their knowledge or consent, newly released documents show. Thousands of facial-recognition requests, internal documents and emails over the past five years, obtained through public-records requests by Georgetown Law researchers and provided to The Washington Post, reveal that federal investigators have turned state departments of motor vehicles databases into the bedrock of an unprecedented surveillance infrastructure. Police have long had access to fingerprints, DNA and other “biometric data” taken from criminal suspects. But the DMV records contain the photos of a vast majority

of a state’s residents, most of whom have never been charged with a crime Neither Congress nor state legislatures have authorized the development of such a system, and growing numbers of Democratic and Republican lawmakers are criticizing the technology as a dangerous, pervasive and error-prone surveillance tool. “Law enforcement’s access of state databases,” particularly DMV databases, is “often done in the shadows with no consent,” House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) said in a statement to The Post. Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio), the House Oversight Committee’s ranking Republican, seemed particularly incensed during a hearing into the technology last month at the use of driver’s license photos in federal facial-recognition searches without the approval of state legislators or individual license holders. “They’ve just given access to that to the FBI,” he said. “No individual signed off on that when they renewed their driver’s license, got their driver’s licenses. They didn’t sign any waiver saying, ‘Oh, it’s okay to turn my information, my photo, over to the FBI.’ No elected officials voted for that to happen.” Despite those doubts, federal investigators have turned facial recognition into a routine investigative tool. Since 2011, the FBI has logged more than 390,000 facial-recognition searches of federal and local databases, including state DMV databases, the Government Accountability Office said last month, and the records show

18  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

that federal investigators have forged daily working relationships with DMV officials. In Utah, FBI and ICE agents logged more than 1,000 facial-recognition searches between 2015 and 2017, the records show. Names and other details are hidden, though dozens of the searches are marked as having returned a “possible match.” San Francisco and Somerville, Mass., have banned their police and public agencies from using facial-recognition software, citing concerns about governmental overreach and a breach of public trust, and the subject is being hotly debated in Washington. On Wednesday, officials with the Transportation Security Administration, Customs and Border Protection and the Secret Service are expected to testify at a hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security about their agencies’ use of the technology. The records show the technology already is tightly woven into the fabric of modern law enforcement. They detailed the regular use of facial recognition to track down suspects in low-level crimes, including cashing a stolen check and petty theft. And searches are often executed with nothing more formal than an email from a federal agent to a local contact, the records show. “It’s really a surveillance-first, ask-permission-later system,” said Jake Laperruque, a senior counsel at the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight. “People think this is something coming way off in the future, but these [facial-recognition] searches are happening very frequently today. The FBI alone does

4,000 searches every month, and a lot of them go through state DMVs.” The records also underscore the conflicts between the laws of some states and the federal push to find and deport undocumented immigrants. Though Utah, Vermont and Washington allow undocumented immigrants to obtain full driver’s licenses or morelimited permits known as driving privilege cards, ICE agents have run facial-recognition searches on those DMV databases. More than a dozen states, including New York, as well as the District of Columbia, allow undocumented immigrants to drive legally with full licenses or driving privilege cards, as long as they submit proof of in-state residency and pass the states’ driving-proficiency tests. Lawmakers in Florida, Texas and other states have introduced bills this year that would extend driving privileges to undocumented immigrants. Some of those states already allow the FBI to scan driver’s license photos, while others, such as Florida and New York, are negotiating with the FBI over access, according to the GAO. “The state has told [undocumented immigrants], has encouraged them, to submit that information. To me, it’s an insane breach of trust to then turn around and allow ICE access to that,” said Clare Garvie, a senior

associate with Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology, who led the research. An ICE spokesman declined to answer questions about how the agency uses facial-recognition searches, saying its “investigative techniques are generally considered law-enforcement sensitive.” Asked to comment, the FBI referred The Post to the

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see page 20

Government - Investigation Documents

congressional testimony last month of Deputy Assistant Director Kimberly Del Greco, who said that facialrecognition technology was critical “to preserve our nation’s freedoms, ensure our liberties are protected, and preserve our security.” The agency has said in the past that while facial-recognition searches can provide helpful leads, agents are expected to verify the findings and secure definitive proof before pursuing arrests or criminal charges. Twenty-one states, including Texas and Pennsylvania, plus the District of Columbia, allow

than 641 million face photos, a GAO director said last month. But the agency provides little information about when the searches are used, who is targeted and how often searches return false matches. The FBI said its system is 86 percent accurate at finding the ri ght person if a search is able to generate a list of 50 possible matches, according to the GAO. But the FBI has not tested its system’s accuracy under conditions that are closer to normal, such as when a facial search returns only a few possible matches. Civil rights advocates have said the inaccuracies of facial recognition pose a heightened danger of misidentification and false arrests. The software’s

federal agencies such as the FBI to scan driver’s license photos, GAO records show. The agreements stipulate some rules for the searches, including that each must be relevant to a criminal investigation. The FBI’s facial-recognition search has access to local, state and federal databases containing more

precision is highly dependent on a number of factors, including the lighting of a subject’s face and the quality of the image, and research has shown that the technology performs less accurately on people with darker skin. “The public doesn’t have a way of controlling what

from page 19

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information the government has on them,” said Jacinta González, a senior organizer for the advocacy group Mijente who was particularly concerned about how ICE and other agencies could use the scans to track down immigrants. “And now there’s this rapidly advancing technology, with very few guidelines and protections for people, putting all of this information at their fingertips in a very scary way.” The records, which include thousands of emails and official documents from federal agencies, as well as Utah, Vermont and Washington state, show how easy it is for a federal investigator to tap into an individual state DMV’s database. While some of the driver photo searches were made on the strength of federal subpoenas or court orders, many requests for searches involved nothing more than an email to a DMV official with the target’s “probe photo” attached. The official would then search the driver’s license database and provide details of any possible matches. The search capability was offered not just to help identify criminal suspects, but also to detect possible witnesses, victims, bodies, and innocent bystanders and other people not charged with crimes. Utah’s DMV database was the subject of nearly 2,000 facial-recognition searches from outside law enforcement agencies between 2015 and 2017 — sometimes dozens of searches a day, the records show. One document from Utah’s Statewide Information & Analysis Center coached officers on how to make facial-recognition requests; offered four tips for better facial photographs

(“lighting, distance, angle, eyes”); and said the database included “over 5 million Utah driver’s license & state identification card photos,” about 2 million more than the state’s population. State officials did not respond to requests for comment. Many of the requests for searches in Utah came from local police forces across the country seeking to find suspects who may have traveled to the state, but roughly half the searches came from federal agents, according to a log of the searches. The records do not provide suspect names or say whether cases ended in arrests or convictions. Washington state’s Department of Licensing said that its “facial recognition system is designed to be an accurate, non-obtrusive fraud detection tool” and that the agency does not share use of the system with law enforcement unless compelled by a court order. Vermont officials said they stopped using facialrecognition software in 2017. That year, a local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union revealed records showing that the state DMV had been conducting the searches in violation of a state law that banned technology involving “the use of biometric identifiers.” The state’s governor and attorney general came out against the face-scanning software, citing a need to balance public safety with residents’ privacy rights. In the years before the ban, the records show, Vermont officials ran a number of face scans on driver’s license photos at the request of ICE agents. Investigators from a number of federal and local agencies emailed the state’s DMV with facial-recognition search requests as they pursued people accused of overstaying their visas, providing false information, stealing from stores or, in at least one case, being part of a “suspicious circumstance.” The officers in some emails would provide descriptions of their targets: One was dubbed a “gypsy … scamming elderly people for money,” while another was said to have “VERY LARGE PROTRUDING EARS.” In others, DMV officials talked about the face-scanning tool as if it were the kind of awe-inspiring technical marvel most often seen on prime-time cop shows. In one 2014 email, a police officer in the town of Manchester, Vt., asked a DMV official to scan for a man caught on video “brazenly” stealing. The official forwarded the email to a colleague with a made-for-TV flourish, writing, “Can we play NCIS for this officer?” www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/07/07/fbi-iceﬁnd-state-drivers-license-photos-are-gold-mine-facialrecognition-searches/?utm_term=.8da7867bd768 Image credits: cartoondealer.com, canstockphoto.com, rewire.org, republicbroadcasting.org

21  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Government - Impeachment

House Democrat’s Bid to Impeach Trump Is Expected to Be Rebuffed By Billy House and Erik Wasson

“We have six committees that are working on following the facts in terms of any abuse of power, obstruction of power, and the rest, that the president may have engaged in,” Pelosi said Wednesday. “That is the serious path we are on.” More than 70 Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, June 23, 2016. Democrats have said they support he House is preparing to act Wednesday (July impeachment, but most of those discussions have 17th) on a bid to impeach President Donald focused on potential abuses of presidential power and Trump that’s unlikely to advance amid resistance findings in former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s from Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic report. “I think this is an enough-is-enough situation,” said leaders. Green. His resolution asserts that Trump is “unfit to Democratic Representative Al Green of Texas is seeking to impeach the president over his tweets against represent the American values of decency and morality, four freshman House Democrats, all women of color, respectability and civility, honesty and propriety, and other comments denounced as racist. It is Green’s reputability and integrity.” He said the timing of such floor action, a day after third attempt to get a vote on articles of impeachment against Trump; the first two were rejected by lopsided the House voted to condemn Trump’s remarks, makes margins, with many Democrats joining Republicans in sense -- even though many Democrats are waiting for Mueller to testify to two House committees next week. opposition. “We’ll go where the facts will lead us,” said Pelosi of “We will deal with it on the floor,” Pelosi told reporters California. at a news conference Wednesday. The House voted 323 to 89 to table the bid.  The speaker has previously said that a number of Trump’s actions could be impeachable, but she has www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/house-democratsurged caution and patience while House committees bid-to-impeach-trump-is-expected-to-be-rebuﬀed/arcontinue their investigations. AAEtpLj?ocid=spartandhp

22  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Government - Marketing Support

Frankfurt Book Fair 2019

October 16-20, 2019 in Frankfurt/Main

The Frankfurt Book Fair continues to be the largest and most important trade show for books worldwide, with participants from over 100 countries. With a history dating back 500 years to the Gutenberg Press, this fair is the world’s most important venue for publishers, agents, booksellers, librarians, translators, authors and suppliers dealing with publishing rights, licenses and international property rights. Frankfurt Book Fair 2018 attracted over 7,500 exhibitors from more than 100 countries and 285,024 visitors. As in previous years, the United States enjoyed high visibility as one of the largest non-German groups in attendance. No-fee services for U.S. exhibitors at Buchmesse: Pre-show promotion on your behalf via our Europe-wide network at other U.S. Embassies and Consulates to alert international distributors with a brief company listing that you will be at the show, and invite them to visit your booth. Market research (in selected markets) and counseling before, during and after the show. 

Information on how to protect new designs you may be showing, and to take expedited action against foreign exhibitors who copy your design and trademarks. Please see important information about trademark and design protection at German trade fairs on our website: http://export.gov/ germany/TradeShowsEvents/ProtectYourIPRatGermanTradeFairs



Introduction to an International Trade Specialist at your nearest Commerce Department “Export Assistance Center” in the United States.

The deadline for our Customized services (fee-based) (e.g. appointment service at the Frankfurt Book Fair) is July 12, 2019.If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact CS Frankfurt. We look forward to seeing you at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2019! Your U.S. Commercial Service Contact: Ulrike Riegeler Commercial Specialist American Consulate General Gießener Str. 30 60435 Frankfurt am Main Phone: +49 (0)69 7535 3157 E-mail: ulrike.riegeler@trade.gov Further information: For further information please also check the Frankfurt Book Fair website.

23  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

BBN Show Biz Buzz By Linda Ware

Rickey Smiley to Replace Tom Joyner

ecently on The Tom Joyner Morning Show, Tom introduced listener favorite Rickey Smiley as the successor to the morning anchor position established by Tom over the course of 25 years. Joyner, who is retiring at the end of the year, acknowledged that Smiley has established himself as a trusted leader on-air and in the community with his current show, captivating audiences with his authentic humor but

Cori Gauff Gualifies for Wimbledon

ifteen-year-old Cori Gauff of the United States made history by becoming the youngest player to qualify for Wimbledon.

Rikey Smiley and Tom Joyner focusa2z.com

Gauff poses with the US Open's junior girls' runners-up trophyObama edition.cnn.com

African-American Gauff will also be the first 15-yearold to compete in the main draw since Britain’s Laura Robson in 2009 after defeating 19th seed Greet Minnen of Belgium 6-1, 6-1. “I can do anything I put my mind to,” said the 301 world-ranked Gauff who was playing in qualifying on a wild card. Born 13 March 2004, Gauff started playing tennis at 7. Although she grew up in Atlanta, she moved to Florida to have better opportunities to train in tennis. Her father Corey played basketball at Georgia State University and her mother Candi was a track and field athlete at Florida State University. Gauff made her ITF debut in May 2018 as a qualifier into the $25K event at Osprey, where she won her first professional match. Gauff WTA ranking is 874th.  www.africanamericanreports.com/2019/06/15-year-old-cori-gauﬀyoungest-to.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR2IFp7IoKKSW1AaBthq2G9r Mb-d1gHFwVhYLDUWGxnWEbk0hVidSRrvtWU#.XRjW7-cruRM. facebook

also his unique perspective on topics important to his audience. Smiley also announced that Eva Marcille and Gary Wit Da Tea would be among the on-air cast members joining him to broadcast out of the Dallas studios beginning January 2020. Additional details about the show will be shared in the coming months. Joyner reflected on his accomplishments and the future, “I’m happy to see the landscape of Urban AC morning radio continue to expand with Rickey, and I’m proud of the doors the Tom Joyner Morning Show opened. Twenty-five years ago, there was no template for a syndicated Urban radio show and we worked hard to prove that we could successfully produce and market a national platform that would entertain, inform and empower African-American listeners. We broke some ground, raised the bar for what audiences expected from Black radio all while partying with a purpose. Yeah, we’ve done a lot but there’s still a lot left to be done. I’m confident that Rickey’s activism along with his love for radio, the community, and HBCUs, will pick up where we left off.” Making the announcement public, Rickey Smiley shared his excitement, “It’s an honor to continue the legacy of my boss and frat brother Tom Joyner. Not only has he been a friend to my family and me over the years, but we consider him family. Tom’s mentorship has instilled in me valuable wisdom that I will carry with

24  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

me through this new morning show.” David Kantor, Reach Media and Radio One CEO, acknowledged the collaboration, “Tom changed the entire urban radio marketplace. He entertained and educated multiple generations of listeners over the last 25 years. While there is and will always be only one Tom Joyner, we are excited that Rickey will be moving to Urban AC in January. Like Tom, Rickey’s talent, community consciousness and commitment to his audience will serve his listeners well.”  www.africanamericanreports.com/2019/06/rickey-smiley-toreplace-tom-joyner.html?m=1

Movie "Black and Blue" Due in October

Women”

Charlie’s Angels, starring Kristen Stewart, Ella Balinska and Naomi Scott as the new iteration of badass female spies, centers on Scott’s character Elena when she’s just a normal civilian as she hires the Townsend Agency to help uncover a sinister plot she discovered within a large tech company. Her journey towards becoming an Angel herself is the story of the new movie, set in the same world as the original ‘70s TV series, 2000 movie and 2003 sequel. “One of the statements this movie makes is that you should probably believe women,” Banks adds. “We have as much validity in what we’re feeling and how we want to go about living in the world, being in the

rookie New Orleans cop (Naomie Harris) rounds the corner just as corrupt narc officers are murdering a drug dealer, an event captured by her body cam. When they then fail to execute her and she escapes, the narcs pin the murder on her, and she is hunted both by the narcs who are desperate to destroy the incriminating footage and the drug dealers out for revenge. S h e teams up with the one person from her community who is willing to help her (Tyrese Gibson) as she tries to escape both the criminals Naomie Harris and Tyrese Gibson out for revenge and the police who are desperate to destroy the incriminating footage. Black and Blue release date is set for Friday, October 25, 2019.  www.movieinsider.com/m17115/black-and-blue www.justjared.com/2019/06/21/naomie-harris-tyresegibson-star-in-black-and-blue-ﬁrst-look-photos/

‘Charlie’s Angels’ Reboot to Send a Message: “Believe

Naomi Scott, Kristen Stewart and Ella Balinska world, and that was really important to me, that we felt like we had characters that were being taken seriously and given a chance to live their best life.” The movie is slated for a November 1, 2019 release date.  http://collider.com/charlies-angels-reboot-interviewelizabeth-banks

Halle Berry Congratulates Halle Bailey

alle Bailey was announced as Ariel in the live-action remake of "The Little Mermaid," and her fellow Halle, Halle Berry, couldn't be prouder. "In case you needed a reminder… Halles get it DONE. Congratulations @chloexhalle on this amazing

25  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

see page 26

BBN Show Biz Buzz from BBN Show Biz Buzz on page 25

opportunity, we can't wait to see what you do!" the 52-year-old Oscar winner tweeted. 19-year-old Halle Bailey — one half of the R&B duo Chloe X Halle Donald Glover With Simba Halle Berry © TheWrap — will play the mermaid who trades in her beautiful singing voice for human legs. Bailey called getting the role "a dream come true." Halle Bailey Production on the liveaction "Little Mermaid" is expected to begin in 2020.  www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/halle-berrycongratulates-halle-bailey-on-little-mermaid-casting/arAADOSzl?ocid=spartanntp

Alfre Woodard With Sarabi

Live-Action "Lion King" Out July 19th with Album

isney’s upcoming film journeys to the African savanna where a future king is born. Simba idolizes his father, King Mufasa, and takes to heart his own royal destiny. But not everyone in the kingdom celebrates the new cub’s arrival. Scar, Mufasa’s brother—and former heir to the throne—has plans of his own. The battle for Pride Rock is ravaged with betrayal, tragedy and drama, ultimately resulting in Simba’s exile. With help from a curious pair of newfound friends, Simba will have to figure out how to grow up and take back what is rightfully his. The allstar cast includes Donald Glover as Simba, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter as Nala, James Earl Jones as Mufasa, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar, Seth Rogen as Pumbaa and Billy Eichner as Timon, and utilizes pioneering filmmaking techniques to bring treasured characters to life in a whole new way. Beyoncé will release a new album titled, "The Lion King: The Gift" which will feature an array of songs inspired by the film, performed by global artists. The first original single from the album, titled "Spirit" has been released.

Chiwetel Ejiofor With Scar

26  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Beyoncé With Nala

Shahadi Wright Joseph & JD McCrary With Young Nala and Young Simba

Spirit is written and performed by Beyoncé, and co-written by IIya Salmanzadeh and Timothy McKenzie. The singer discussed the project in a new statement, saying, "This is sonic cinema...This is a new experience of storytelling. I wanted to do more than find a collection of songs that were inspired by the film. It is a mixture of genres and collaboration that isn't one sound. It is influenced by everything from R&B, pop, hip hop and Afro Beat." She continued, "I wanted to put everyone on their own journey to link the storyline. Each song was written to reflect the film's storytelling that gives the listener a chance to imagine their own imagery, while listening to a new contemporary interpretation. It was important that the music was not only performed by the most interesting and talented artists but also produced by the best African producers. Authenticity and heart were important to me." The full album will be released in conjunction with the film's opening on July 19. The film's official soundtrack will be released by Walt Disney Records on July 11.  https://movies.disney.com/the-lion-king-2019 www.broadwayworld.com/article/LISTENBeyonce-Releases-Single-Spirit-From-THELION-KING-THE-GIFT-Album-20190710

Eric Andre, Florence Kasumba & JKeegan-Michel Key With Hyenas Azizi, Shenzi & Kamari

SnapChat Original Content Shows

napchat just announced that it’s making shows with big names like Serena Williams, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kevin Hart. Snapchat launched its original content efforts two years ago, and now it’s unveiling a new program called Creator Shows. As initially announced in the Hollywood Reporter, these will be first-person shows designed around see page 28

27  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Buiness - Marketing

7 Steps to a Cohesive Brand Content Strategy By Stan Meytin, an Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) member

o you know the biggest mistake most marketers make? It’s producing content first and then deciding how and where that content will be used. It’s almost as if content marketing has become more about constantly churning out text and pictures rather than thoughtfully crafting a brand message aimed toward a specific target audience. How can you avoid that mistake in your company? By producing content that’s tailormade and customized, but also scalable and cost-effective. To accomplish those objectives, it’s critical to establish a scalable video content strategy that is optimized for your target audience.

1. Formulate a content strategy The first phase of formulating this strategy hinges on auditing your company’s current content to identify gaps and inconsistencies. Take samples of all the content your company produces across every corporate function--communications, talent acquisition, training, sales, product marketing--and carefully observe the look and feel of each piece. Do they all point to the same brand identity? Are all designs, fonts and formats anchored to a consistent brand image? If each piece of content represents a unique look and direction, then it’s time to implement

BBN Show Biz Buzz from BBN Show Biz Buzz on page 27

individual creators.stroff.  star -- who played Brie Larson's best air force pal in the 2019 blockbuster -will become the new 007 in what is being described as a "popcorndropping moment" in the franchise's 25th installment BTW, Lashana plays an agent named Nomi in the movie. 

https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/10/ snapchat-creator-shows

New '007' is Female and Black

I6 special agent 007 is getting a new face -- and, apparently, a new gender too ... because actress Lashana Lynch is reportedly set to take on the mantle in the upcoming Bond 25. According to multiple outlets in the UK, the "Captain Marvel"

Lashana Lynch flipboard.com

28  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

www.tmz.com/2019/07/14/ daniel-craig-lashana-lynch007-james-bond-movie/

brand guidelines so that all future company communications adhere to a consistent standard.

2. Establish brand guidelines This set of rules will reflect your company’s voice, mission and core values, and should be targeted toward your ideal audience. Start by developing a deep understanding of your target audience. Establishing clarity around who your audience is and what they’re looking for is crucial. It’s ineffective to blast out ads for absolutely everybody-that's like throwing darts at an invisible target while blindfolded. Baseline rules and guidelines will ensure that your videos are engaging and specifically designed for your brand.

3. Learn your audience’s digital habits You need to know where your audience’s digital presence is, and their preferences: • Do they like long-form videos and in-depth content on a platform such as YouTube? • Do they frequent Facebook for quick sound-bites? • Are they visually attracted by a compact brand message on Instagram? Each platform requires a totally different approach. This is where marketers should begin their research, instead of making it an afterthought.

4. Identify audience types and preferred platforms We educate clients to first identify the various platforms and audience types they want to target, then use that information to pinpoint where to promote content. This is critical during creative ideation and

implementation, because we want the content we produce to be easily adjustable and transferable to the appropriate platform where the target audience will view it.

5. Create a video brand package It’s a best practice to create a video brand “package”--a concrete set of video brand guidelines which enable you to create anchor videos that capture your value proposition. Your package should contain prebuilt or pre-specified design and conceptual elements, including the cinematography style, lighting, colors and palettes to use or avoid, composition of the shoot, graphics layout, music, voice, tone and style of your brand’s messaging. This process requires upfront work but saves significant time, effort and headache in the execution stages. The end result is a playbook with actionable steps you can utilize and implement on each social media platform correctly.

6. Test your content The second phase of content strategy is testing. Now that you’ve got a detailed picture of who and where your customers are, spend time A/B testing your content to see what performs well on which platforms. Analytics are essential because you cannot improve what you cannot measure. Identifying the right metrics for your brand will enable you to measure and analyze data from your audience as they interact with your content. This is invaluable as you iterate to improve campaigns. Once you’ve analyzed the data, you can adjust your messaging and its elements, doubling down on successes and tweaking failures so that they become successes. The last phase of content strategy is execution, based on both the research you’ve put into

understanding your audience and the guidelines you’ve set for future content. This is when you’ll use your upfront work to streamline and repurpose content to different platforms.

7. Repurpose video content There are multiple opportunities to repurpose video content which has become scalable: • Explainer videos can be used by your sales team as additional touchpoints with clients. They’re also valuable during trade shows or transcribed into an infographic or “how-to” blog. • Corporate videos can be used in recruiting to show candidates your unique company culture and core values. They’re also great for investor relations. • Commercial videos can be used on FAQ pages or clipped into short trailer videos to attract your audience to learn more about your brand or a new product. Remember: The key is consistency and a sustainable, scalable plan of action. Consistency is underrated when it comes to video content and marketing in general. When your audience buys into your brand message and starts engaging with your video content, the engagement doesn’t stop there. Customers require a constant flow of content to keep your brand at the forefront of their minds, and to remain engaged and connected. This is precisely where many companies fall short. By implementing steps to maintain a consistent presence, you gain brand equity that will keep your brand relevant over time.  www.inc.com/entrepreneursorganization/7-steps-to-a-cohesivebrand-content-strategy.html?utm_ medium=40digest.7days3.20190621. carousel&utm_source=email&utm_ content=&utm_campaign=campaign Image credit: selfimagemedia.com

29  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Business - Culture Challenge

Alitalia's New Advertisement Shows a 'blacked-up' Barack Obama By Nadeesha D Uyangoda

n Italian airline was accused of racism after a non-black actor portraying former US President Barack Obama was heavily made up to appear as a black person. Alitalia announced a non-stop flight from Rome to Washington, DC, last May. The company this week created a series of marketing videos for social media to highlight the route. Each one features four actors playing four United States presidents: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Donald Trump and Barack Obama. The advertising campaign, using the hashtag #WhereIsWashington, was not creating any major response until it was Obama's turn to find the flight to Washington. In the video, an actor was covered in heavy black-and-brown makeup to appear African American. His nose was enlarged and his mouth and lips were changed to resemble a black man. Later the airline company apologised for "the offense caused by the promotional video". "Alitalia deeply apologises for the offense caused by the promotional video on our new Washington route. It has since been removed from all of our social media channels," it said in an email statement. "For our Company, respect for everyone is mandatory, it was never our intention to hurt

anyone and we will learn from what has happened."

'Humiliating' Called out for blackface, Alitalia initially dismissed the issue on Facebook. "You are exaggerating," was the reply to an Italian user who suggested the oﬀensiveness of the commercial. Leonardo De Franceschi, a media and cinema researcher at the University of Rome, confronted the company on Facebook over the marketing campaign that he called "racist". Alitalia responded by saying, "The actor we cast is not Caucasian, we used the makeup to change his facial features, not his skin colour." However, the actor is not black and his skin tone

30  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

appears darker after the application of foundation. De Franceschi said the incident reﬂected the downplaying of racist practices in Italy. "Videos - as the one produced by Alitalia - represent a common standpoint in Italian advertising and the mainstream TV industry," he told Al Jazeera. "I think of popular cinepanettoni (Italian comedy movies) and of more recent ﬁlms ... They reproduce stereotypes and practices - as blackface - that in other countries, United States and United Kingdom, for instance, wouldn't be tolerated." De Franceschi said the practice should not be tolerated in Italian society. "Films like Bamboozled by Spike Lee remind us that the blackface issue isn't in the past," he said. "Sometimes in Italy, people wear blackface in antiracist and inclusive displays, but that doesn't make it any less humiliating for people of African heritage."

'Problem with ignorance' The use of blackface on the Italian actor of Tunisian decent to play Obama outraged many in Italy, especially AfroItalians. The African American writer Louis Pisano also criticised the Italian airline on Instagram for the ad. "I found this Alitalia video to be oﬀensive because it is an instance of blackface and a mockery of President Obama," he said. "This type of humour - which positions us as the punchline to a joke - is damaging to the strides black people are making to combat racism." Pisano said in the modern era with social media and its global reach "this mindset only sets a country back in terms of intellectual advancement."

"I think that Italy has a huge problem with ignorance that perpetuates the cycle of racism and racist attitudes ... There is almost an unwillingness to educate themselves on historically racist practices that happened both here and abroad." Pisano said what makes the video even more oﬀensive is that it comes from a company as inﬂuential as Alitalia is in Italy. "It becomes ingrained in the masses that this behaviour is acceptable," he said  www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2019/07/alitalia-adshows-blacked-barack-obama-190703140428117. html Image credit: pinterest.com

31  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Business - Publishing History

Chicago Defender to Switch to a Digital-only Platform Starting July 11th By Mitchell Armentrout

he Chicago Defender will cease print operations on July 11th, ending a storied 114-year newspaper legacy that included driving the Great Migration of African Americans to Chicago from the South and bolstering the black electorate as a key constituency in national politics. ”Under the print version, we could not reach people where they live and work,” said Hiram E. Jackson, CEO of Real Times Media, the Detroit-based black newspaper chain that bought the Defender in 2003. “Being a digital-only outlet will help us reach people live on the West Side or South Side or south suburbs, giving people what they need when they want it. It makes us more nimble. ”We’re really excited to pave the way to the future in really making sure there is a spot in the future for the black press. We have more newspapers than any other black media company in the country. I see this as our responsibility to show what the future looks like,” Jackson said. Looking to the past, the Defender’s place in history is unparalleled. ”It was an essential force in American history for the whole of the 20th century,” said University of Chicago lecturer Ethan Michaeli, a former Defender staﬀer and author of the 2016 book “The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America.” Drawn to Chicago from Georgia for the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893 — where he met Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells — Robert Sengstacke Abbott founded

the Chicago Defender in 1905. His four-page weekly edition, crafted on his landlady’s dining table, focused on Chicago neighborhood news, highlighted white oppression and the lynchings of African Americans across the South. And he eventually used his editorial page

Copies of the July 3-9, 2019 edition of The Chicago Defender. Maudlyne Ihejirika/Chicago Sun-Times

32  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Plaque unveiled on Chicago D

to encourage black Americans to make the journey north. Abbott partnered with Pullman railway porters to turn the paper into “a national communications vehicle for African Americans,” Michaeli said. ”He was the ﬁrst motivator of the Great Migration. He wasn’t encouraging until he

saw it could be a weapon against Jim Crow laws, by depriving the South of a labor force and improving the relative political position of African Americans,” Michaeli said. It was during its heyday in 1929 that the paper created one of its lasting legacies: The Bud Billiken Parade. Abbott, the paper’s founder, and his managing editor, already had a “youth page,” and decided to create a club named for the mythical “Bud Billiken” — associated with an ancient C h i n e s e c h a r a c t e r believed to be the guardian angel of all children, according to the Encyclopedia Defender’s 70th birthday celebration. SunTimes files of Chicago. It became so popular that Abbott decided a parade was in order. Circulation topped 250,000 that year, though its reach was thought to be closer to 1 million thanks to porters passing copies along the north-south line of the Illinois Central Railroad. Abbott’s nephew John H. H. Sengstacke took over the paper after Abbott’s death in 1940. Sengstacke rallied for the equal treatment of African Americans in the military, eventually negotiating with President Harry Truman for full integration. Politicians grew to recognize the Defender’s editorial page as a key barometer of an important voting bloc, Michaeli said. Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till, highlighted the national reach of the paper in the Civil Rights movement when explaining her choice to hold

an open-casket funeral following her son’s infamous 1955 lynching during a visit to Mississippi. ”I knew that if they walked by that casket, if people opened the pages of Jet magazine and the Chicago Defender, if other people could see it with their own eyes, then together we might find a way to express what we had seen,” she wrote in a book she co-authored in 2003. “It was important to do that, I thought, to help people recognize the horrible problems we were facing in the South.” When it became a daily newspaper in 1956, the Defender counted literary heavyweights Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes among its ranks. In addition to its national prominence, the paper held close to its neighborhood coverage. Theresa Fambro Hooks kept tabs with her beloved “Teesee’s Town” society column, and longtime arts and culture columnist Earl Calloway went to bat for countless local entertainers overlooked by more mainstream outlets. ”When someone asks about a black newspaper in Chicago, people automatically say ‘Chicago Defender,’“ said Dorothy Leavell, publisher of the Chicago Crusader. “That’s because of its longevity and service to the community.” Glenn Reedus, the Defender’s managing editor from 2007-09, said one of his proudest moments came in 1971 when the paper chose to run his story about the former ABLA Homes public housing development on the Near West Side. Reedus recalled the common joke that could be heard in many black neighborhoods: “It didn’t happen if it wasn’t in the Chicago Defender.” Circulation dwindled to 30,000 by the mid-1990s as the newspaper industry was decimated by advertising losses. Jackson said the paper’s circulation was down to about 16,000 subscribers this year. He declined to say how many full-time staffers remain — it had 18 employees at the time of its last major staff cuts in October 2011 — but said the digital switch would not result in any layoffs. ”We’ll take the dollars we spend on printing and distribution, and invest them in people in the community delivering neighborhood reporting,” Jackson said. In a letter to advertisers, he and Defender Vice President Dyanna Lewis called the switch a “win-win” for readers, advertisers and employees. “We have to continually evolve our focus to reflect the habits of our readers and our audience,” they wrote. “We remain focused on those vehicles that genuinely serve our client base.”  https://chicago.suntimes.com/business/2019/7/5/20683442/ chicago-defender-ends-print-edition-digital-only-platform

33  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Business - E-Commerce

Build a Side Hustle Through Amazon with this Bundle By DeAnna Taylor, Travel Noir

hen you log into Amazon and fill up your shopping cart, there’s a good chance that some of your picks are from thirdparty vendors using the Fulfilled By Amazon program. FBA is an easy way to work with Amazon and earn passive income — then you can put that extra cash into your other startup ideas. The Complete Amazon FBA A-Z Bundle (www.entrepreneur.com/ article/335472) demystifies Amazon’s program so you can rake in money with minimal effort. This bundle’s 13 courses are packed with everything you need to know to create and maintain an amazing Amazon store. You’ll learn how to sell t-shirts, then follow a proven master plan for selling physical products on Amazon. If you don’t want to create your own brand and products, you can take the wholesale approach. This bundle shows you how to choose the best items from wholesale vendors, then profit from them with a bulletproof marketing plan. Discovering a profitable micro-niche can also ramp up your Amazon income,

and you’ll learn how to ﬁnd or create specialized products for select groups of customers. Amazon’s Aﬃliate program is another way to capitalize on the site’s entrepreneurial options. This bundle helps you set up your own Amazon-based e-commerce site, then do all of the digital marketing you’ll need for success. Get the Complete Amazon FBA A-Z Bundle right now for just $29 (www.entrepreneur.com/article/335472).  https://legacy.travelnoire.com/black-owned-company-trace-yourafrican-lineage/

Quote of Note “I felt defeated and disrepected by the sport that I love, one that I have dedicated my life to and that my family truly changed, not because we were welcomed, but because we wouldn't stop winning.”

Serena Williams

Champion Tennis Player, Businesswoman, Creative

34  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

400th Commemoration Year of Enslavement 1619-2019 ALL ANCESTRY TEST KITS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL Don't be fooled by other ancestry test kits pushing highly discounted prices this holiday season. Over the years, countless people have called us disappointed with the lack of specificity from other ancestry test kits. Get the results you want, the first time. Order today! Get the results you want, the first time. Order at https://shop.africanancestry.com www.facebook.com/africanancestry/videos/363773494403533/

Sincerely, Gina Paige President, African Ancestry Maternal Country of Ancestry: Nigeria Maternal Tribe of Ancestry: Fulani

www.africanancestry.com

Business - Young Entrepreneur

Hawa Hassan: the Hot Sauce Boss that Goes with Her Gut By KeVita

hile food is now her love language, that wasn’t always the case with the Somali model-turned-entrepreneur Hawa Hassan. “I always looked at cooking as a chore, but when I moved into the space of food, I started to see cooking as a joy and a safe space for other people.” Hassan was born in Somalia, and during the country’s civil war, she escaped to a refugee camp in Kenya with her mother and four siblings. At the age of 7, she moved to Seattle alone and stayed with a family friend. It would be 15 long years before she would see her family again. During her last year of high school, she went on a casting call with a friend. It was Hassan who was asked to be a model, a path that ultimately was not her core destiny. “When I was modeling, I was not in charge of the narrative,” she explains. While modeling may seem like a dream to some, Hassan wanted to harness her narrative. “Very early on, I knew it was not a sustainable career and I wanted to be in control of my story.” In 2014, she started Basbaas, a line of hot sauces and chutneys. “The last time I modeled was in April of 2015 and that’s right when we launched—I haven’t looked back.” Hassan’s line of all-natural, locally sourced, gluten-free, and vegan products are inspired by a central theme: early life in Somalia, and speciﬁcally being raised on the Indian Ocean. “Warm spices like

cardamom, coriander, g i n g e r , cinnamon, and cloves do it for me.” All ﬂavors that pair well with her goto: Pineapple Peach KeVita Master Brew Kombucha. Basbaas comes from the Somali term for chili but is built upon a richer history. Inspired by heirloom recipes of the region, the products, smoky tamarind date sauce, and a spicy coconut cilantro chutney, are the only kind of Somali hot sauces and chutneys available in the United States. “I knew it was something that no one else was doing and I could start the conversation from an authentic space. I didn’t want to take over the people’s tables; I wanted to be at the table.” She imagines that her product will one day be like some of the once-unknown sauces that are now as common as ketchup. She references growing up in the 90s when the now-popular chili sauce would only be available at Asian

restaurants. “I want a corner of the table and then move into the center and then on to the plate.”

36  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Jay-Z Partners with Cannabis Company as Brand Strategist to Help Bring Equity for People of Color By Sentinel News Wire

ay-Z is heading into the legal marijuana industry as a chief brand strategist in partnership with a California cannabis product company. The rapper said in a statement that he entered a multiyear deal with San Jose, California-based Caliva. His role will consist of driving creative direction, outreach eﬀorts and strategy for the brand. Jay-Z says he also wants to increase the economic participation of people returning from incarceration

Hassan calls herself the ShEO of her company. Being a female in the New York City food industry has given the woman-led business an incredible sense of community. She says that the chefs, book writers, and restaurant owners in this space have each other’s interests at heart and empower one another, noting: “I call them my food sisters.” Her advice to those who need the motivation to try something new, in the food industry or otherwise? Ask, “What do you know for sure?” Hassan says that when she was modeling, she was depleted and confused. She questioned, “Do I want to be 40 years old and not in charge, not know how much money was coming in, and still at the

through job training and workforce development. The rapper called Caliva “the best partners for this endeavor.” Caliva operates a farm and two stores in Northern California. It also distributes its branded products in roughly two dozen other retail outlets in the state. NFL legend Joe Montana’s venture capital ﬁrm took part in a $75 million investment in Caliva earlier this year.  https://lasentinel.net/jay-z-partners-with-cannabiscompany-as-brand-strategist-to-help-bring-equity-forpeople-of-color.html

mercy of someone else?” She says that if you wholeheartedly believe in what you do, you won’t entertain the pursuit of unfulﬁlling things. “If someone needs motivating, ask them ‘what do you know for sure’ and if their answer doesn’t align with their goals or ideals, then they should run.” Right now, it seems that Hassan is running towards her destiny as she sips her Pineapple Peach KeVita Master Brew Kombucha and reﬂects fondly on a memory from 2014. She spent a month at her mother’s home in Oslo, and every evening that June her mom would invite people from work, neighbors, and family over for dinner. “My sisters and I would be cooking for

Image credit: theshadowleague.com

three or four hours and then we’d all sit in a circle eating together.” Perhaps it was this moment that motivated her to ﬁnd success in the world of food. As a true authority on the condiments of Africa, Basbaas has four new products in the works, and Hassan is soon releasing a cookbook. For this ShEO, the possibilities are endless—and it all starts with trying something new, exploring the unknown, and a little bit of spice.  www.bonappetit.com/story/hawa-hassanthe-hot-sauce-boss-that-goes-with-hergut?intcid=polar&utm_source=polar&utm_ medium=nativetile&mvt=i&mvn=4c9845 a917f74aea801a066173c1123e&mvp= NA-APPE-11238833&mvl=Key-recipe_ detail+%5BRecipe+Tip+Unit%5D

37  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Business - Investing

How to Invest in Startups: Best Practices by Jack Meyer

hat exactly a startup is can be a surprisingly difficult question, one whose answer has changed over time. While the parameters of a startup's age, revenue and scale have fluctuated with the culture, a general consensus holds, that it must be a relatively new company (less than 10 years old), offer a service that seeks to innovate on a market problem rather than imitate prior solutions, and most importantly, hold significant potential for growth. The last of these factors has done the most to capture the minds and money of investors. The stocks of companies like Facebook (FB - Get Report) , Netflix (NFLX - Get Report) and Amazon (AMZN - Get Report) , whose values have multiplied many times over since their IPOs, currently stand as gold mines for those who got on board early. They are also a stinging rebuke for those who passed on the opportunity. For a while, SEC regulations restricted investment opportunities in these fledgeling companies to a select circle of owners, relatives and venture capitalists. But in 2012, as startup frenzy found its foothold in America, the Obama administration passed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) act (www.crowdfundinsider. com/what-is-the-jobs-act), opening the prospect of investing in startups for average Americans through crowdfunding. This term, crowdfunding, also

has multiple uses, but pertaining to the JOBS act, this meant that startups could sell a small number of securities to a large number of investors via a broker-dealer or SEC-and-FINRA-registered funding portal. How to Invest in a Startup: Best Practices The most important rule for investing in startups is don't get lost in the hype. While some startups have been a source of tremendous returns for those who got in on the ground floor, the vast majority either never take off or suffer a long, lingering death before fading into obscurity. You have to know what separates these, and while you can never be totally sure, you can at least know a few traits that startup successes have in common.

A Well-Researched Market It may seem obvious, but knowing the demand for a product plays a key role -- one that's often hazardously ignored -- in a startup's success. This means extensive research of the target market base until an accurate picture of demand forms. It also means understanding what income-bracket you appeal to, what revenue-model is appropriate for your service to that audience, and how to price competitively within the market you're entering or perhaps, disrupting.

Disruptive Presence A major indicator of a successful startup is its disruptive potential.

Services like AirBnb, Netflix, and Uber all created new markets that either disrupted or outright abolished the markets that existed prior to it. For a company to do this, it'll have to be willing to take some risks, to offer something that breaks off from what's worked in the past and establish the new normal. This comes with the risk of aggravating competitors in existing market, but competitors will always become aggressive if a real threat to the existing market is out there, and any real threat holds good chances at becoming a real success.

Defined Company Culture If you want to see a company scale, you better hope it's got its act together before it all goes out under a microscope. This extends from minutiae like benefits, promotions, sick leave, and vacation policy to the broad strokes of company culture. Expanding is tiring work, and if you want motivated workers and an attractive message for consumers, you'll need a clear notion of what your business does, what beliefs and values inform its

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No company can go its entire lifespan without making any mistakes. Communicating what's happening and listening to the feedback that comes with this offers the most reliable method for a startup to deal with or bypass its growing pains.

ow that you know a few traits to look for, here are some practices to remember when investing.

Make Sure You (and others) Understand the Company

operations, and how its workers can live those out in their day-today work. Twitter (TWTR - Get Report) is an example of a company culture success. It had a strict idea of creating a platform for short, shareable status-updates and ruthlessly improved on that simple goal while refusing to be distracted by the other possibilities that came with massive growth. By clearly defining what it's company was about it became the undisputed leader in the micro-blogging service it offers.

Highly Engaged One last key component all successful startups share is there capacity to engage with and learn from people at all levels of their business. This means responding to data from test-markets early on (see Facebook's launch in Harvard), this means taking the advice from investors, advisors, mentors, and customers seriously, this means transparency and accountability for what's going on within the company as it grows.

If you're going to invest in a startup, it's best to go for one that's been pre-vetted. Thankfully, most of the services that allow regular people to get in on startup investing (some of which are listed below) do that vetting for you. The scrutiny changes with each platform so make sure you look into the nature of that process and find something you feel comfortable with. That doesn't take you off the hook though. Just because a startup is vetted doesn't mean you should throw money at it. While a company consists of myriad factors for the savvy investor to inspect, a good base would be the four factors listed above. Start out by examining the company on those merits and seeing whether you still feel confident about its potential for growth.

Diversify (Carefully) Diversification is always a good way to mitigate risk, but in a sector as volatile as startups, a blind "spray-and-pray" method probably won't serve you well. Finding that billion-dollar unicorn out of the startup bunch will easily offset any losses you take, but only if you invest in it deeply enough. Rather than spreading yourself to thin, try diversifying within a carefully curated group that spans multiple industries. That way you'll be able to both provide serious capital for

these companies and dodge the worst effects of any sector-specific volatile.

Invest What You Can Afford Again, it can't be emphasized enough that investing in startups is a risky game. As a rule of thumb, you should only invest what you can afford to lose. A good way of figuring out this number is looking between 1% to 5% of your net worth and determining what you could lose within this range given your current financial status.

ow here are some places you can invest with.

CircleUp Companies on CircleUp (https:// circleup.com) tend to have at least $1 million in revenue already secured and exist in the technology, fitness, or food and beverage markets. The platform's machine learning engine evaluates millions of companies to

determine the most promising of the bunch. Once you've registered with the platform, you can invest in its startups either through direct company investment, in which you buy up shares through the site, or circles, index-funds typically made up of shares from dozens of companies chosen by a qualified CircleUp member.

SeedInvest SeedInvest (www.seedinvest. com) bills itself as a highly-selective equity crowdfunding platform, claiming to accept only 1% of all companies that apply for listing. The site provides a streamlined

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Business - Investing from page 39

approach to crowdfunding, allowing users to invest directly in the

companies listed. It formerly only allowed accredited investors to use its services, but now (with the exception of offerings listed as Reg D), non-accredited users can now invest in startups with minimums as low as $500.

Wefunder Wefunder (https://wefunder.com) played an instrumental role in the creation of the JOBS act in 2013, opening the way for the equity crowdfunding that the previously listed platforms and many others facilitate. The site stands out for its exceptionally low minimum

investment thresholds, sometimes going all the way down to $100. The site provides a fairly comprehensive summary of the companies they've included in their listings and include

a large segment of companies in the biotech, green energy, insurance, logistics, retail, and packaged food sectors.

Can Anyone Invest in a Startup? Yes! A major provision of the 2013 JOBS act was that anyone, not just accredited investors, could take part in funding a company during its early stages. However, due to the risk involved, the SEC has regulations in place limiting the amount that any individual from the general public can invest in a company over a 12-month period. This investment limit varies with income and networth, ranging anywhere between $2,200 to $107,000.

Pros of Investing in a Startup • The chance to make massive returns if/when the company scales up • Supporting something with the capacity to create serious change in markets and the way people live • Building a reputation as an investor with a sense for what

will be trending in the future

Cons of Investing in a Startup • High chances of failure (only one

in a hundred startups that receive venture capital funding grow to become billion-dollar companies) • Potential for the company to have unexpected, negative impacts • Investments aren't tradable like stocks, usually must be held onto till company goes public or gets acquired  www.thestreet.com/how-to/how-toinvest-in-startups-15007782 Get Reports: https://secure2.thestreet.com/cap/ prm.do?OID=039042&ticker=FB https://secure2.thestreet.com/cap/ prm.do?OID=039042&ticker=NFLX https://secure2. thestreet.com/cap/prm. do?OID=039042&ticker=AMZN https://secure2. thestreet.com/cap/prm. do?OID=039042&ticker=TWTR Image Credits: forbes.com, talkroute.com seedinvest.com

40  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

re you a Small Business interested in selling your product or services to Metro or to Prime Contractors that do business with Metro? Would you like to learn how to win contracts as a Prime Contractor through SB Prime, Metro's exciting set-aside initiative? If so, we invite you to come grow with us and learn about Metro Connect. Start now and register for a How to Do Business with Metro Workshop. Metro staff will show you how to take advantage of the vast array of products, services and transportation related opportunities projected over the coming weeks, months and year. As an added bonus, Metro's procurement staff will host informal interviews with firms before the workshop, starting at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday, August 13, 2019 8:30 a.m.: Registration 9:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. One-on-One with Contract Administrators and Continental Breakfast 9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.: Program

Metro Headquarters 3rd Floor, Board Room, One Gateway Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Topics: Highway Project Update, Procurement Update, Certiﬁcation Update, Small Business Prime Update, LA SAFE/511 Next Generation Update To learn more about how Metro Connect's Small and Disadvantaged Business Certiﬁcations can help open the door to contracting opportunities with Metro visit Metro Vendor Portal. For further questions, please contact Marisela Villar at VillarM@metro.net or via phone at 213.922.2235.

(323) 868-2621

Business - Success

Need a Competitive Advantage? Here Are 4 Things That Every Consumer Craves By Jennifer Spencer

re you struggling to find your competitive advantage and win your market? Well, you're hardly alone. Many startup entrepreneurs are battling to find their own place among the top-tier companies. But what determines which businesses succeed, and which ones never see the light of day? Lots of things, to be sure. The top strategy, though, is a constant focus on fulfilling customers' needs and desires. As Jeff Bezos said in regards to his company Amazon in September at the Economic Club of Washington, “The number one thing that has made us successful by far is an obsessivecompulsive focus on the customer, as opposed to obsession over the competitor.” The best way to gain a competitive advantage, then, is to focus on your customer rather than your competitor. And, to get you started, here are four things that every consumer craves.

1. Exceptional customer service as the result of great hiring It’s no secret that high-quality support is powerful to keep customers committed. It’s also not surprising that poor customer service is a sure-fire way to increase churn. According to research by American Express, 33% of Americans surveyed claimed that they will consider switching providers after just one instance of poor customer service. Similarly, Vonage reported on research results by NewVoiceMedia that said 51% of customers surveyed said they would never do business with a company again following a negative experience. Here’s the kicker, though: Great customer service doesn’t just keep existing customers committed, it can also attract new customers who are willing to pay more. According to the American Express research mentioned above, 70% of consumers surveyed said they’ve spent more money to work with a company that has exceptional customer service. Further, Americans tell an average of 11 people about a good customer service experience. Hiring the right people and retaining them via

exceptional HR, however, can be tricky. Lars Jankowfsky, founder of .NFQ Asia, has a two-pronged proven approach that has won his company accolades. .NFQ Asia was recently voted the best IT company to work for in Vietnam. To attract the right people, you need a two-fold approach, Jankowfsky said. “First, offer a competitive salary (you would think this is a no-brainer because you get what you pay for, but sadly it isn’t always that apparent). Second, create an attractive workplace for your employees. This means building a workplace equipped with exciting technology, big missions and allowing sessions with managers and industry experts so that employees can learn from the best; not just decorating the office space with ping pong tables and beer fridges.” As a business, .NFQ works with a wide range of diverse clients across a number of disciplines it has developed via exceptional HR and hiring strategies. The result has been highly vested employee interest.

2. Remarkable customer experience Ever shopped online and had a clunky experience? Maybe the checkout buttons didn't work, or the navigation was nearly impossible to … well, navigate. Maybe the load time was painfully slow. Whatever the case, it was frustrating. And that’s just one scenario. From brick-and-mortar stores to services online, there are plenty of opportunities for the customer experience

44  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

to go sour, or for the customer experience to flatter and delight. For a competitive advantage, there’s certainly something powerful about creating a smooth, seamless, enjoyable shopping experience for your customers. In fact, 64% of people surveyed claimed that customer experience was even more important than price, according to a study by Gartner. That's a stat on which the auto company, Mercedes-Benz USA placed its chips. As Stephen Cannon, the president and CEO, told Forrester: “Being the best customer experience brand in the auto industry was setting the bar too low. We had to go beyond that -- we had to go beyond the ‘customer satisfaction’ paradigm. In order to reach hearts and minds, we had to leave satisfaction in the dust and strive to delight our customers by delivering the most extraordinary customer experience, bar none. And that has been the driving force behind everything we’ve done ever since... it is our No. 1 strategic priority.” As Mercedes-Benz found, when you strive to flatter and delight your customers, they come back to buy more, they tell their friends and they spread your brand message. By ensuring remarkable customer experience, you can beat your competition without even looking their way.

3. Inspiring stories Sometimes, telling your company’s story can work wonders to make your business stand apart. Every story has a meaning, a “why” below the surface. It's that “why” which can compel people to take action. In the case of your business, a powerful story can compel them to buy from you instead of from your competitors. Hither Mann is a top female trader, educator and international speaker and the CEO of Fortune Academy, an organization dedicated to improving clients' business acumen. Its program focuses on helping clients get very clear with their “why.” Mann became a self-made multi-millionaire entrepreneur before 30 and achieved financial freedom in only three years after getting intentional with her own “why.” Through her own story, and experience, she has been able to mentor others to such success. Mentoring students as young as 15, Mann has provided financial and business advice to individuals who want to be better with their money and tap their creative business potential. Consider, for instance, how business author Magdalena Pawlowska was able to earn her highest lifetime revenue after working with

Mann. Others have also experienced an increase in wealth and the ability to trade and conduct business intelligently and proficiently. "Stories" are what help Mann's clients’ businesses directly and provide compelling results for her own. This lesson in storytelling doesn’t mean your business needs to become a non-profit organization and give away valuable knowledge for free; it simply means that you need to give your customers the chance to be a part of something bigger than themselves. When I asked Francesco Amodeo, president of Don Ciccio & Figli a liquor company about the story his liquor company has on its website, which dates back to 1883, he said, “We use that story because it illustrates to our website visitors that we are more than just another liquor company. We produce to share, and our website guides our customers to share in our family craft. "Our customers really connect with the long history of our company and it seems to lend respect for the tradition of what we are doing in carrying forward the vision of our founders.” He may be on to something:. As Simon Sinek famously said in a TED Talk, “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” And nothing communicates your business’ “why” as powerfully as a story.

4. Product simplicity With business, often less is more: Simple internal processes produce better efficiency and agility than complex and overly detailed processes. Simplecustomer service scripts create a smoother experience, allowing well-trained reps to think for themselves when they need to. Similarly, a product that is easy to use and effective is undeniably more pleasing and attractive to your customers (or potential ones). Said Jankowfsky: “One of the things we often have to do when helping a tech company to get success in their market is to figure out the base features which their target market wants or needs, and then help them to create an app or tech product with those features that are as simple and easy-to-use as possible. We’ve found that the simpler and easier-to-use the product, the more appealing it is to consumers.” So, don’t over-complicate your product. Keep it simple, and you might just get ahead for the single reason that your product is easier to use than the competition's.  www.entrepreneur.com/article/336106?utm_ medium=40digest.7days3.20190702. carousel&utm_source=email&utm_content=&utm_ campaign=campaign Image credit: blackenterprise.com

45  July 2019  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Business - Communication

Some of the Top Black Audio Podcasts & Radio in 2019 By Anuj Agarwal Black Podcasts List. The Best Black Podcasts from thousands of Black Podcasts on the web using search and social metrics. Subscribe to these audio podcasts because they are actively working to educate, inspire, and empower their readers with frequent updates and high-quality episodes. 1. Black Talk Radio Network™ | New Black Media for the New Millennium, Mount Holly, NC About: The world's largest independent black digital radio and podcasting platform producing content of relevance to African-Americans and the African Diaspora. Frequency: about 15 posts per week. P o d c a s t : blacktalkradionetwork.com Facebook fans 25,298. Twitter followers 6,926. 2. The Nod, Brooklyn, NY About: Stories of Black life that don't get told anywhere else, from an explanation of how purple drink became associated with Black culture to the story of how an interracial drag troupe traveled the nation in the 1940s. We celebrate the genius, the innovation, and the resilience that is so particular to being Black -- in America, and around the world. Frequency: about 4 posts per month. Podcast: gimletmedia.com/the-nod Facebook fans 1,157. Twitter followers 6,167. 3. The New Black Panther Party About: The oﬃcial blog talk radio show for the new Black Panther Party. All Power to the people! Frequency: about 4 posts per month. Podcast: blogtalkradio.com/ thenewblac.. Facebook fans 36,266. Twitter followers n/a. 4. The Right Time with Bomani Jones About: Bomani Jones weighs in on sports, pop

culture, social topics and much more from NYC. Frequency: about 2 posts per week. Podcast: espn.com/espnradio/ podcast/a.. Facebook fans 36,508. Twitter followers 452,103. 5. 2 Dope Queens Podcast, Brooklyn, NY About: Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams are funny. They're black. They're BFFs. And they host a live comedy show in Brooklyn. Join them, along with their favorite comedians, for stories about sex, romance, race, hair journeys, living in New York, and Billy Joel. Plus a whole bunch of other s**t. Frequency: about 1 post per month. Podcast: wnycstudios.org/shows/dopequ.. Facebook fans 103,721. Twitter followers 64,413. 6. The Gifted Connection Podcast w/ Nathan McClinton About: Helping you shatter your untapped potential and live out your dreams! The Gifted Connection is your safe place to live, learn, grow, and BECOME your best self! The question is... are you ready? Frequency: about 1 post per week. Podcast: anchor.fm/nathan-mcclinton 7. Snap Judgment, Oakland, CA About: Mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, and dramatic radio. Hosted by Glynn Washington. Frequency: about 2 posts per month. Podcast: wnycstudios.org/ shows/snapju.. Facebook fans 126,774. Twitter followers 24,657. 8. KUT » In Black America, Austin, Texas

46  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

About: A long-running, nationally syndicated program dedicated to all facets of the African American experience. Profiling a diverse selection of current and historically significant figures whose stories help illuminate life in Black America and whose experiences, achievements and work chronicle and advance the quality of African American life. Frequency: about 2 posts per month. Podcast: kut.org/term/black-america Facebook fans 43,984. Twitter followers 92,011. 9. Reveal About: The award-winning radio program 'Reveal', produced by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX. Hidden stories, uncovered - that's what this show is about. It takes you deep inside stories that impact your world, revealing injustice and holding the powerful accountable. The first-of-its-kind investigative program on public radio, 'Reveal' is hosted by Al Letson and updated regularly. Frequency: about 1 post per week. Podcast: revealnews.org/episodes 10. Black Girl Nerds Podcast About: Black Girl Nerds is an online community devoted to promoting nerdiness among Black women and people of color Frequency: about 2 posts per month. Podcast: blackgirlnerds.com/ category/.. Facebook fans 41,427. Twitter followers 154,050. 11. Therapy for Black Girls, Atlanta, GA About: A chat about all things mental health, personal development, and all the small decisions we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves. Your host, Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a licensed Psychologist, offers practical tips and strategies to improve your mental health, pulls back the curtain on what happens in therapy sessions, and answers your listener questions. Frequency: about 2 posts per month. Podcast: therapyforblackgirls.com/pod.. Facebook fans 109,752. Twitter followers 8,530. 12. The Black Guy Who Tips | A Free Comedy

Talk Show With the MottoNothing's Wrong If It's Funny, Ratchetville, USA About: A podcast / blog from the minds of Rod and Karen, a married couple who enjoy ratchetness. The show has been mentioned in the Huﬃngton Post written about on Ebony.com and spotlighted on Spreecast. Frequency: about 7 posts per week. Podcast: theblackguywhotips.com Facebook fans 6,499. Twitter followers 5,542. 13. Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air About: Larry Wilmore weighs in on the issues of the week and interviews guests in the worlds of politics, entertainment, culture, sports, and beyond. Frequency: about 2 posts per month. Podcast: art19.com/shows/larry-wilmore Facebook fans 3,048. Twitter followers 224,987. 14. The Read, NYC About: Join Kid Fury and Crissle for their weekly 'read' of hip-hop and pop culture's most trying stars. Frequency: about 4 posts per month. Podcast: thisistheread.com/ current-shows Facebook fans 41,491. Twitter followers 94,425. 15. Revision Path, Atlanta, GA About: A showcase of the world's Black graphic designers, web designers, and digital creatives. Maurice Cherry interviews these designers and developers about their work, their inspirations, and more. Frequency: about 1 post per week. Podcast: revisionpath.com Facebook fans 1,208. Twitter followers 2,581. 16. Innovation Crush Los Angeles About: IC smashes convention to bits by proﬁling some of the world's most daring projects and the people behind them. From marketing ideas to technology innovations, disruptive business models, personal development, and

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Business - Communication from page 47

everything between, IC is a one stop shop for all the 'who-to-know' and 'what-to-know' you'll ever need to know. Frequency: about 2 posts per month. Podcast: thecrush.co/ innovation-crush.. Facebook fans 1,863. Twitter followers 9,131. 17. 3blackgeeks Podcast About: 3 Black guys reppin all black geeks everywhere!!!! We review the best Black movies, Action, Martial Arts, Anime/Manga, Comics, and everything that white people think black people aren't into. Frequency: about 3 posts per week. Podcast: 3blackgeeks.com Facebook fans 778. Twitter followers 3,381. 18. Blacker than BlackTimes Infinity, The Bay Area, CA About: A podcast hosted by geeks talking about the games we are currently playing and our take on upcoming games we are looking forward to. We cover comics from all different publishers, Anime in-depth, review movies and TV shows and give our thoughts. Podcast are updated every Wednesday Nights. Frequency: about 1 post per week. Podcast: soundcloud.com/ bthanbti Facebook fans 395. Twitter followers 6,972. 19. The Shoot From The Hip Show, Houston, TX About: Exploring current events with humor and common sense. Frequency: about 3 posts per month. Podcast: shootfromthehip.xyz Facebook fans 231. Twitter followers 252. 20. Friends Like Us, New York, NY About: A podcast featuring women of color with very different views on Hot Topics. Frequency: about 4 posts per month. Podcast: friendslikeus.libsyn.com Facebook fans 1,112. Twitter followers 1,295. 21. BlackComicsChat's Podcast, Worldwide About: A podcast at the intersection of Comics and

Blackness. Join us as we chat with comic creators and promote diverse comix! Hosted by Anthony Otero, Marcus Kwame, Leonardo Faierman, Grace Gipson, and Thelonious Legend. Frequency: about 1 post per month. Podcast: blackcomicschat. podomatic.com Facebook fans 85. Twitter followers 9,350. 22. Gett Em Gurl Crew About: Ronda, Millah & Whit will instantly connect with the raw & uncut opinions from this trio. They discuss topics most people think but don't talk about from sex to politics to real life issues to what's trending. Live, Laugh, Learn and Vibe with the GEGCrew. Frequency: about 1 post per week. Podcast: anchor.fm/gett-em-gurl-crew Facebook fans 1,348. Twitter followers 16. 23. 30 Something, Black, and Gay, Los Angeles, CA About: A weekly podcast cohosted by 4 friends living in LA. Witty, sometimes petty, insightful and always opinionated, they take no prisoners when it comes to commentating on current events, celebrity gossip, the entertainment industry, love and relationships. Frequency: about 2 posts per month. Podcast: 30smthingblkngay. libsyn.com Facebook fans 200. Twitter followers 95. 24. Flavor in the Mix About: Shines a brighter light on Wichita, KS. From singers, actors, comedians, designers, business owners, athletes, and more. Also, You will get a good mix of controversial topics, guest interviews, and local news. Frequency: about 1 post per week. Podcast: listennotes.com/ podcasts/ﬂa.. Facebook fans n/a. Twitter followers n/a. 25. Day One Fans, New York, NY About: Celebrating music, ﬁlm, art and culture and

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exploring the complexities of being a creative of color. Frequency: about 3 posts per month. Podcast: unpopcultr.co/dayonefans Facebook fans 500. Twitter followers 558. 26. Black FreeThinkers, Epistemology Quest About: We are here to challenge you to think and live for yourself, not convert you. Frequency: about 1 post per month. Podcast: blogtalkradio.com/ blackfreet.. Facebook fans 2,036. Twitter followers 7,633. 27. Famous Enough Podcast About: Alex and Lyric are spoken word artists seeking to highlight both independent and local Atlanta talent while bringing us all together through music, poetry, and #BlackGirlJoy. Frequency: about 1 post per month. Podcast: soundcloud.com/ famousenoughp..

Facebook fans 205. Twitter followers n/a. 28. Joblogues Podcast About: Joblogues highlights candid, career conversations with young professionals around the globe. Our podcast has a highly engaged audience of multicultural women who tune in monthly for career advice, inspiration and lots of laughs. Frequency: about 2 posts per month. Podcast: joblogues.com Facebook fans 1,082. Twitter followers 1,992. 29. Ask A Black Woman, Los Angeles, CA About: This is where you Ask A Black Woman anything but... You betta be ready for a real answer! Frequency: about 1 post per week. Podcast: anchor.fm/shanara Facebook fans 739. Twitter followers 961.  https://blog.feedspot.com/black_podcasts/

Proposing Your Own for an Emoji Just got a bit Easier By Anne Quito

n time for World Emoji Day (July 17), the Unicode Consortium, which decides on new emojis, is eager to shed its reputation as a community only for computer geeks. The Silicon Valley-based nonproﬁt has redesigned its website (https://home.unicode.org) to be more universally appealing. “The new website is the ﬁrst step in providing greater access to the process for non-technical users,” board member Greg Welch tells Quartz. “The rise of mobile devices and public enthusiasm for emoji, we knew it was time to redesign the site to make information more easily accessible, and increase participation.” (The old site is still up for users who are fond of the maroon and taupe theme.) Before the update, Unicode Consortium’s site was woefully stuck in the vernacular of early 2000s-era interfaces. Creating a friendlier website hadn’t been a priority because it was used as a repository for technical

information for programmers and linguists. A design team from Adobe was asked to make improvements. They replaced tech jargon with simple language, modernized the look and created more intuitive navigation. The revamped site also spotlights the consortium’s “Adopt an Emoji” (home. fundraising program unicode.org/adopt-a-character)

and presents the process for proposing new emoji in a more transparent way. https://qz.com/1668113/the-unicode-consortiummakes-emojis-easier/?utm_source=email&utm_ medium=daily-brief

49  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Business - Consumer Transoirtatuib

Lyft, Aptiv and the National Federation of the Blind Partner on Self-driving for Low Vision Riders By Darrell Etherington

yft and Aptiv are already running autonomous driving trials in Las Vegas, and now they’re expanding that limited pilot to include low vision and blind riders in a new partnership with the National Federation of the Blind. In a blog post dealing the news, Lyft notes that this is a key part of their overall strategy of provision mobility for all, via their other offerings including shared rides, electric bikes and scooters and more. The company has already been working with the National Federation of the Blind to ensure that its core ride-hailing product is accessible to riders who might be blind or have low vision, and this extension of that work now means its pilot fully autonomous ridehailing network is available as an option to this group

of passengers with more accessible features, including Braille guides for riders of the self-driving vehicles, which provide detailed info about the route the autonomous test cars run in Las Vegas, and information about the Aptiv self-driving vehicles themselves. These detail sensors and technology positioned across the car, so riders can be fully informed as they participate. One of autonomous driving’s biggest potential benefits is providing access to driving to people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to use that mode of transportation, including people with low vision, people with epilepsy, or older drivers who’ve lost the ability to legally maintain a license and operate a vehicle, among many others. Aside from the still-immense challenge of getting

50  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Business - Technology

Sales-Griffin to Lead Techstars Startup Program By John Pletz

eal Sales-Griﬃn is returning to his roots. He's taking over Techstars Chicago

(www.techstars.com/programs/chicagoprogram), one of the best-known startup

accelerators. The 31-year-old entrepreneur co-founded Starter League, then called Code Academy, a nontraditional coding school that was one of the first tenants at 1871 (https://1871. com), the startup incubator headquartered at the Chicago Merchandise Mart (http://themart. com). Techstars Chicago, which got its start as Excelerate Labs, also calls 1871 home. Sales-Griffin, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Chicago, takes over Techstars Chicago from Logan LaHive, who left the job earlier this year. LaHive took over for co-founder Troy Henikoff. The 90-day accelerator program is designed to help 10 startups get to a stage where they’re ready for outside investment, culminating in a Demo Day presentation. Startups get $20,000 in cash and $100,000 in convertible debt in exchange for giving a 6% stake to Techstars. The most recent class was in fall 2018. The next class will be in January. Applications will open July 22, 2019. Sales-Griffin grew up in Kenwood and Hyde Park. After graduating from Northwestern University, he worked briefly at venture-capital funds. He taught himself to code and launched Code Academy, a 12week school to teach the basics of writing software, with Northwestern classmate Mike McGee. In 2016 they sold the company to Fullstack Academy, a competitor based in New York.

the autonomous driving technology to a place where it’s ready for broad deployment and consumer use, there are challenges around how the user interface will work for both hailing and accessing the vehicles, and ensuring that people making use of the service are properly informed about what’s going on. Lyft’s plan to work on all these aspects of their service with

Sales-Griﬃn says he doesn’t plan major changes. “I want to build on what Troy and Logan have set up. I want to make sure we’re focused on blocking and tackling.” He does plan to look for opportunities “to be more inclusive when it comes to founders we invest in.”  www.chicagobusiness.com/john-pletztechnology/sales-griﬃn-lead-techstars-startupprogram?utm_medium=40digest.7days3.20190709. carousel&utm_source=email&utm_content=&utm_ campaign=campaign

advocacy and empowerment groups who take this as their central mission seems like a smart one.  https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/08/lyft-aptiv-andthe-national-federation-of-the-blind-partner-on-selfdriving-for-low-vision-riders/?utm_medium=techboard. mon.20190708&utm_source=email&utm_ content=&utm_campaign=campaign

51  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Business - Marketing Tools

How to Get More Backlinks for Your Small Business Website By Syed Balkhi, Guest Writer Entrepreneur.com

s the owner of a small business website, you may find it hard getting your site noticed online when it's up against the big guys, especially if you’re not an SEO master. While you may know that you need more backlinks pointing back to your website, actually figuring out how to get those links is another story. Of course, creating great content like useful blog posts is a solid way to grow organic search traffic. But guest-posting content on other websites is just the tip of the iceberg of strategies to boost your rankings. In fact there are other ways to get more backlinks for your small business website you may not have considered. Plus, with many of these tactics, there’s no need to bother with complicated SEO if that’s not your forte. Here are some of those ways to get more backlinks for your small business website.

can increase web traﬃc by up to 12%. You can create an infographic on pretty much any topic. Choose one related to your business that’s also interesting and entertaining to your target audience. No design skills? Don’t worry, there are a number of free online tools that make it easy to create an eye-catching infographic.

their websites and include a link back to your website. Aside from sharing your company news, you can also do a little “newsjacking.” Newsjacking is when you seize breaking news opportunities to inject your own business story. For example, if there’s a record-setting snowstorm about to roll in, a local snow removal company might provide expert advice on the subject in a news article. So, start building relationships with the local media to get your business splashed all around the web.

Oﬀer a Free Online Tool. Another way to get a lot of

Create Infographics. Infographics are one of the most widely shared forms of content online. Not familiar with infographics? Infographics, Wikipedia says, are “graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly." Because infographics are so easy to consume and so fun to look at, they get shared a lot on social media. Plus, other companies and bloggers in your niche/industry will add your infographic to their own content, linking back to your website. In fact, according to Hubspot, infographics

Get Media Coverage. Local media coverage is not only great for promotion and getting new customers through your doors, but it can help you get more quality backlinks for your small business website as well. For instance, if your business is participating in a local event or holding a giveaway, let local news outlets know about it. They might pick up the story for

backlinks and traffic to your website is by offering a free online tool. For instance, CoSchedule offers a free headline analyzer targeted towards marketers and content creators. This tool is linked to in many articles about how to write better headlines. So, if you can create a free online tool on your own website, it could potentially get linked to in

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November 7 - 10, 2019 Oakland, California AfroTech: https://experience.afrotech.com Register: https://e.sparxo.com/Afrotech19 Partner: https://experience.afrotech.com/partner Tracks: Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Engineering & Design The groundbreaking, revolutionary experience for Black techies, startups and entrepreneurs returns! Come join 6000+ of your fellow founders, entrepreneurs and engineers for a 360-degree look at how culture, innovation and tech run the world. Collectively, we can scale our collective power in culture, innovation and tech. Buy your tickets today! Together we have the power to drive innovation, redefine how we do business, and create our own future. many related articles online as well. Importantly, your online tool doesn’t have to be this complicated. If you own an accounting business, for example, you could offer a simple income tax calculator or a fitness center could offer an online calorie counter. Tools like these will be extremely helpful to your target audience and get a lot of shares online.

Create Content with Customer Data. Data and statistics boost the credibility of blog posts, and many writers use them to strengthen their arguments. What if those many writers could use data provided by your business? That would get you a ton of potential backlinks. Don’t have any customer data? Create some! You can easily create your own original research

by surveying the people on your email marketing list. Choose a survey topic that is not only useful information for your audience, but relevant to your industry as well. You can present this original data in an infographic or a blog post or report that includes some easy-tounderstand graphs and charts. Over to You The topic of SEO can overwhelm many small business owners. But, with these easy and actionable tips for how to get more backlinks to your website, business owners can enjoy a boost in search engine rankings. The more users online that discover your business through these types of content, the more potential leads you’ll have.  www.entrepreneur.com/article/335415

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Business - Technology / Take A Look! Technology:

Take A Look! Detroit Design Core

esign Core Detroit champions design-driven businesses and their role in strengthening Detroit’s economy. It oﬀers services to strengthen, grow and attract design businesses, increases market demand for design services, and tells Detroit’s design story locally and globally. Design Core is a department within College for Creative Studies.

Design Core serves design-driven industries that specialize in design or utilize design as a central discipline of their business strategy. As the steward of Detroit’s UNESCO City of Design designation, Design Core serves as the convener and backbone organization for the Detroit City of Design initiative Since forming in 2010, Design Core has assisted in the eﬀorts that have led to over 3,000 new jobs in Detroit. The organization has become the central hub for Detroit’s design community through its events that attract more than 30,000 people annually. And, in 2015, it successfully applied for Detroit’s UNESCO City of Design designation, becoming the ﬁrst U.S. city to receive it.  https://designcore.org

Daymond on Demand

aymond John is the deﬁnition of the word entrepreneur. Between scaling FUBU from $800 to $350 million, to investing in hundreds of companies as a Shark on ABC’s Shark Tank, Daymond has a proven track record of actually turning businesses into successes. Now it’s time for Daymond to help you start, grow, and scale your business! After many years

of mistakes and triumphs, Daymond has identiﬁed 15 “musts knows” for every business to succeed. In order to best teach these secrets, Daymond has created this interactive training system. Through Daymond on Demand’s (www.daymondondemand.com) you too can tap into Daymond’s secret formulas for success and bring your business and income to the next level! Through interactive, data-driven lessons, Daymond on Demand oﬀers entrepreneurs and larger corporations an innovation training program that their employees and executive teams will actually want to take and learn from. From custom courses to white labeled content, you can now team up with “The People’s Shark” Daymond John and grow your company from within.  www.daymondondemand.com/ Image credit: store.grantcardone.com

Pinterest Introduces New Video Tools

he network’s nearly 300 million monthly active users (MAU) are 54% more likely to say videos on Pinterest inspire them compared with content on other media platforms. Presumably, that’s why Pinterest recently introduced new features for creators and brands to make reaching

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viewers easier. Among the highlights are an improved uploading tool, a refreshed gallery tab, a lifetime analytics metric, and Pin scheduling functionality. The new video uploader enables users to post videos directly to Pinterest, while the new video tab on proﬁle pages allows businesses to feature their clips in a single place. As for the analytics tool, it lets brand managers view lifetime video views and track performance over time — a valuable service, Pinterest notes, because clips on the platform don’t disappear with a feed and they resurface over time. Lastly, Pinterest says improved personalization and recommendation algorithms are beginning to drive video discovery on the platform. For instance, a video for chicken noodle soup recipes or makeup for a speciﬁc skin tone will surface related videos and products.  https://venturebeat.com/2019/07/10/pinterest-introducesnew-video-tools-for-brands-and-creators

SiriusXM Updates

iriusXM (https://9to5mac.com/guides/sirius-xm-radio) has upgraded its streaming services for users with new personalized stations powered by Pandora, access to new music channels, and more exclusive video content. The company is also expanding subscriber access to SiriusXM content on devices like iPhone, Apple TV, the web, and more at no cost. SiriusXM's 30 million subscribers now have access to the world’s best audio entertainment in more places than ever before. SiriusXM Select subscribers now join

SiriusXM All Access, SiriusXM Essential Streaming and SiriusXM Premier Streaming subscribers with unlimited streaming access to the hundreds of SiriusXM music, sports, talk, news and entertainment channels, at no additional cost, outside the car on a phone, at home, and online. SiriusXM Select subscribers will also now get access to the over 100 ‘Xtra Music Channels.’ Meanwhile,

All Access and SiriusXM Premier Streaming plans now have the ability to create personalized ad-free radio stations powered by Pandora. SiriusXM listeners can get a truly unique combination of rich music curation and industryleading personalization not found in any other audio entertainment service. These Personalized Stations Powered by Pandora will employ Pandora’s unrivaled listener personalization technology, driven by its pioneering Music Genome Project. The Stations will draw from SiriusXM’s vast music library and be served through SiriusXM’s delivery infrastructure. As for video, the company touts even more exclusive content in its app and web player. SiriusXM Video Preview video content is now available to SiriusXM subscribers on the SiriusXM app and web player, featuring memorable performances and interviews from the archive, including artists and newsmakers such as Kevin Hart, Cardi B, Jonas Brothers, Khalid, George Clooney, Tracy Morgan, and Bruno Mars. Plus, new videos are being added regularly. This marks the next step in SiriusXM’s video oﬀering, following the debut of video from The Howard Stern Show last year, with more to come from other SiriusXM personalities this fall. https://9to5mac.com/2019/07/10/siriusxmupdate-pandora/?utm_medium=techboard. wed.20190710&utm_source=email&utm_ content=&utm_campaign=campaign Curatted by LaSandra Stratton, Chief Content Administrator of the Black Business News.

blackeconomicdevelopment.com

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Jane e Reese-Wilkins s & Associates s e Black k Business s Association n Memberr off the Will assist you with your FREE Covered California Enrollment for No Cost! We assist with the quote, plan selection and enrollment. Depending on your situation, you may receive Premium Assistance. Dental and vision coverage is available at the time of enrollment. We represent the following plans:

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Business - Soul Food Franchise Opportunity

This Black-Owned Soul Food Restaurant Just Expanded Into Multiple Walmarts By DeAnna Taylor

s a little girl, Adenah Bayoh always had an entrepreneurial spirit. She knew what it meant to be a business owner early on. She was born in Liberia and was mostly raised by her grandmother who owned multiple businesses. As early as 8th grade she was starting small businesses, including babysitting children for money. In 1991, she fled from Liberia during the civil war and landed in Newark, New Jersey. She grew up in public housing but knew that she would one day own her own companies. After college, she worked in banking but also dabbled in real estate on the side. Once that hustle increased, she left banking to devote her time to real estate fully. Adenah knew that she wanted to be able to give back and pour into communities that were always underserved and overlooked. She wanted to bring up the community that she was raised in. In 2017, she opened her first IHOP franchise in Irvington, New Jersey. This was her official segway into the restaurant industry. That particular area of Jersey was a food desert, and it seemed no one else was interested in bringing larger chains to the city. So, she did it herself. “My store was in a predominately Black neighborhood,” Adenah told Travel Noire. “I really wanted to push serving more soul food there, but I was limited under the IHOP brand.” She eventually opened a second IHOP store but she was still interested in bringing soul food to the area. Adenah teamed up with Zadie B. Smith, and the two women opened Cornbread (www.cornbreadsoul.com) in 2017. “We wanted to change soul food as being a player in the larger markets. We wanted people to see it from a different perspective and bring it into the mainstream.” Cornbread, located in Maplewood, NJ, is a brand

that brings together soul food with farm-to-table ingredients. The women ensured that the restaurant had all of the essentials to set it apart from the everyday mom and pop place. They created an app, installed kiosks for ordering, as well as placed their food on food delivery apps. This allowed them to stand out and eventually Walmart took notice. “We wanted Cornbread to be accessible to everyday people. Partnering with Walmart was an easy partnership,” Adenah said.

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The restaurant is slated to open in 3 Walmart stores across Pennsylvania. The first opened July 5th in the West Mifflin Walmart located at 2351 Century Drive, West Mifflin, PA. “Opening our restaurant in Walmart is bigger than me. It’s about those that came before me but weren’t afforded the same opportunity. It’s a way for me to say thank you and hopefully open the doors for others.”

Looking to Franchise? Cornbread – Farm to Soul franchise opportunities are coming soon! If you are interested in franchising, please ﬁll out the form found at this address (https:// cornbreadsoul.com/franchise-opportunity) and stay tuned for more information and future updates. To learn more about Cornbread you can visit their website at www.cornbreadsoul.com.  Adenah Bayoh and Zadie B. Smith with staﬀ members

https://legacy.travelnoire.com/soul-food-restaurant-walmart/ Image Credits: Cornbread

8 Unconventional Ways to Grow Your Instagram Following By Tomas Laurinavicius, Guest Writer

nstagram is predicted to add 26.9 million users in the U.S. by 2020. That’s far more than Facebook, Twitter or any other social platform tracked. The social network is also enjoying a higher adoption among young adults as well as growing mobile ad revenues. The platform is living its golden age. If you are looking for ideas to grow your Instagram account and leverage the platform, don’t waste your time following in the footsteps of those who succeeded. Hack your own way with these eight little-known ways how to pump life into an Instagram (www.entrepreneur. com/article/272806) account. 1. Don’t use banned hashtags - Yes, Instagram

is actively censoring and blocking a huge list of hashtags (www.huﬀpost.com/entry/banned-instagram-hashtags_n_5 7347d6ae4b077d4d6f23122). The list of banned hashtags

is dynamic, so new “unsavory” search terms get added all the time. What is most interesting, however, is that even the most innocent-looking hashtags, like #petite or #singlelife, can be banned. That’s because quite a few pornographic or otherwise unacceptable images have seeped into hashtag streams and the

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see page 62

Business - Using Instagram for Business Growth from page 61

team behind Instagram is working hard to clean the platform. How can you be sure your engagement rates aren’t dropping as a result of banned hashtags? The easiest way to spot a banned hashtag is to search for it on Instagram and check whether it’s shown in both the “Top” and “Recent” categories. If the hashtag is temporarily suspended or blocked, Instagram will only display a few top posts and remove all recent posts. 2. Always use a location sticker for your stories to gain local exposure - This new feature gives Instagram users an opportunity to quickly check what’s going on in the chosen location. It is particularly handy for gaining exposure and capturing the imagination of users who are looking for ideas or inspiration. It has become second nature now to browse Instagram images of travel destinations, hotels, restaurants and events as part of the research phase. If you want your Story to be seen by anyone who’s searching for your location or is in the area, be sure to add location tags (www.cnet.com/howto/how-to-use-instagram-new-location-and-hashtag-stories)

to your Stories. 3. Use less popular hashtags for a chance to make into the “Top” section - It can be very tempting to pepper your image descriptions with the most popular hashtags that are, in fact, just simple words, such as #summer, #love, #dog and so on. It’s true that these hashtags have millions of posts, but they won’t do much for your account’s growth in the long run. What you need are community-oriented, speciﬁc hashtags that will drive more engagement and help you build a brand. Simply search for a term and choose a hashtag to see the search volume. If your account is small, don’t target hashtags bigger than 50,000 in search volume. 4. Test and play with your bio - You have 160 characters to charm your potential new followers. Yeah, no pressure. The importance of this element cannot be overstated; if you succeed and manage to tell people what you do, who you are and what drives you in a compelling and personal way, you’ll be picking up new followers every day. Play around with your bio copy to ﬁnd what clicks with your audience. 5. Choose your Instagram name (not username)

wisely - Don’t use your name (unless you’re famous), but rather pick a keyword or keywords that people will be searching for. That’s why my name on my account is Travel Lifestyle Entrepreneur, which is easy to change and test while my username @ tomaslaurinavicius stays the same.

www.instagram.com/SerenaWilliams/ 1,419 posts 11.3m followers 49 following Serena Williams I’m Olympia’s mom. @serena ships WORLDWIDE. www.serenawilliams.com 6. Consider joining or creating a pod - Instagram pods (https://later.com/blog/instagram-pods) are the pro Instagrammer’s answer to the removal of chronological posts. To beat the algorithm, bloggers, businesses and passionate Instagrammers that have similar audiences are creating private groups of 10-15 people (otherwise known as pods). The goal of Instagram pods is to increase engagement and get new followers by getting exposure to the right audience. Once someone in the pod publishes a new post, he or she shares it with the group via a direct message and asks all the other members to like it and comment on it. The genuine comments give the post more weight and generate more engagement. In the end, everyone wins. 7. Use tags that will get you featured on collective accounts - Research the right tags or use branded hashtags, such as #SonyRXmoments, to get featured on curated accounts like @sonyrxmoments. The key is to find smaller, active and relevant communities to feature your photos. Always submit your work only! 8. Organize an exciting giveaway - A giveaway is an excellent way to grow your mailing list, get new followers, increase community engagement, raise brand awareness or connect with local businesses and like-minded people. Before you start working on a giveaway idea, though, make sure you pick one goal and stick to it! Like with every promotional campaign, the success of a giveaway depends on how thorough your plan is (https://thrivehive.com/how-to-do-aninstagram-giveaway). For a contest to run smoothly, you need to consider things like finding the right theme and hashtags, deciding on an attractive prize, monitoring participant entries, promoting the contest and finally, picking out the winner. Giving away great stuff for free has never let anyone down.  www.entrepreneur.com/article/297353 Image credits: seeklogo.net, techcrunch.com, @serenawilliams

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Fight for Freedom

n the Fourth of July, the nation commemorates the day when people yearning for freedom banded together to declare their independence. As we mark this day, we must reflect on the Black and brown people who built this land of the free, while still fighting for their own freedom. We must remember their descendants who are still fighting to this day to make our democracy inclusive for all. Supporters like you have been defenders of justice because many of the communities we care about still don’t know true freedom or equality. We celebrate the many victories achieved and all of the courageous people who have fought to make our country live up to its highest ideals of liberty and justice. Let us pledge to do all we can in our time to keep moving forward, together. In solidarity, Derrick Johnson @DerrickNAACP President & CEO NAACP

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Commentary

“Bethune, Democracy and July 4th: Courageous Questioning and Constant Struggle” By Dr. Maulana Karenga

sually when we want to confront and discount America’s founding myth of creating a democracy of free and equal persons, its hypocritical and high-hype claims of justice for all and its self-congratulatory celebration of this myth on the 4th of July, we call Frederick Douglass to the dais. Or we hear Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer and others knocking at the door, coming to insist on a courageous questioning of the self-deluding lies this society routinely tells itself. For such willful historical amnesia cultivates a problematic and immoral forgetfulness about genocide against Native Americans, the Holocaust of African enslavement and later oppression of other peoples of color in the establishment and building of this country. And it lays the basis for an unrepentant continuation of oppression in other forms, such as severe and sustained inequities and injustice in health care, housing, education, employment, ownership, political power and representation, immigration and ongoing brutal and deadly police violence. Indeed, even in our former President’s 4th of July message in 2014, he mythologizes, telling us that “On July 4th, 1776, a small band of patriots declared that we were a people created equal, free to think and worship and live as we please; that our destiny would not be determined for us; it would be determined by us. And it was bold. And it was unprecedented; it was unthinkable”. And in his next year’s statement, he repeated these core myths, and talked about the U.S. soccer team, famous for winning while losing, but gave most time and space to praising the military in which “we” trust. But we must not be satisﬁed with the patriotic propaganda about striving to make a more perfect union which was never perfect and thus, cannot be made more of what it is not. Instead, we must engage in courageous questioning and constant struggle, not to make America “more perfect,” but more humane, moral, equal, just, free, and beneﬁcial for everyone. It is in this spirit and space for discourse and action that the life and teachings of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune

(July 10, 1875— May 18, 1955) on the quest for a real and lived democracy are so valuable. Dr. Bethune believed deeply in democracy and struggled to make it real on the national and international level. It was part of her credo, her fundamental statement of faith. Thus, she says, “I believe in mankind (i.e., humankind). I believe in the spirit of God which lifts and inspires men (and women) to be and do their best. I believe in democracy which is the essence of man’s (and woman’s) longing to know harmony and peace in an atmosphere of good will and understanding.” But she says that in her “rendezvous with democracy,” she found it “vibrating with challenges that stimulate me and keep me ﬁghting for the pursuit of happiness, the increase in justice and widespread acceptance of brotherhood for all mankind.” Thus, she is clearly aware of American democracy’s false, fragile and inﬂated claims. And she challenges America to set aside its self-aggrandizing illusions and practices and bring forth a real democracy. In an essay on “Americans All: Which Way, America?” Dr. Bethune states that “We are approaching a critical juncture in the history of the world and the destiny of our nation” and there are two roads before us. “One can take us from the suspicion of other nations,” she says, “to disagreement, SDr. Maulana Karenga

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conflict and war of unimagined fervors that would blast civilization, as we know it, from the face of the Earth.” And of course, “that road is easy and all downhill.” However, “the other road is uphill, tortuous and rocky and only for strong men (and women) to tread. It is a road of national and international understanding, resolving of differences, compromise, agreement and peace” which can lead to unlimited possibilities for human good and human flourishing. She calls for a sustained spirit of mutual respect, justice, fellowship, peace and rightful treatment and inclusion of the masses of people in remaking the country and the world. And so she asks America, with its vaunted power and ever-expanding war machine, “Is it to be the way of the spirit, or the way of the sword?” Moreover, “Are we to show our strength in guns and tanks—in atom bombs? Or in food for the hungry, plows to till the field and in bringing peace to men (and women) of good will?” And “Are we to win our way by virtue of persuasion and peace or are we to shove it down unwilling throats with money and bayonets and war?” No doubt, if she were here in this turbulent time, she would add to her moral critique the empire-building use of bigger bombs, missiles, drones, torture, official assassinations, collective punishment, state terrorism and amoral support for dictators and occupiers in the U.S. arsenal of weaponry and warmongering. But still her original messages remain timeless. Dr. Bethune is also concerned about, not only the international aspect of this struggle, but also about the particular and domestic aspect of achieving a lived and real democracy. Therefore, she questions the continuing oppression, deprivation and degradation of Africans and other peoples of color. And she asks is American democracy in its savagely segregated reality “to be a democracy of the lynching mob and flouted law? Of intimidation and threat and fear? Or, is it to be the democracy of law and order, of the 14th Amendment really enforced, of the sanctity of the individual, and of the protection of person and home against brute strength and fear?” Continuing she asks, “Will we take the up-hill road that leads to democracy of equality for all men (and women),” regardless of station, status or color of skin and national origin? “Or is to be the downhill road where there is a way of life for only him that hath, for the chosen few, for those of high birth, for the select, for those of the ‘right’ religion or the ‘right’ race?”

The central struggle then, she says, is to take this democracy and create within it “the way of security, of equality and opportunity, of equal chance of job and home, for health and education and recreation well within the reach of all.” And she tells us that our position in this country and our long history of suﬀering, oppression and resistance makes us know that we must take a vanguard role in transforming this country so that it is a lived and real democracy. Concluding she says, “we do this not only for Blacks and other (peoples of color); we do this not only for the good of our city, state and our nation”, but also because “it is our obligation now to do it for the world.” For, “we must remake the world. The task is nothing less than this.”  www.us-organization.org/position/documents/ Bethune-Democracyandthe4th--07-04-19.pdf Image credits: goodreads.com

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Commentary - Equal Pay

‘Equal pay, Equal pay, Equal pay’

s the exhausted and thrilled U.S. women’s soccer team celebrated its victory in the ﬁnals of the 2019 Women’s World Cup, the cheers of the crowd in the

Stade of Lyon soon turned into a chant: “Equal Pay, Equal Pay, Equal Pay.” Even as they fought their way to the fourth U.S. Women World Cup

championship, the U.S. team was waging a battle — in the court of public opinion and the courts of law — for equal treatment in wages, working conditions and investment

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in the women’s game. And if there is any justice or common sense in the team’s employer, U.S. Soccer, they will be as victorious in the quest for equal pay as they were in their quest for the World Cup. These are truly American champions. It took immense

courage — and no small amount of moxie — to ﬁle a class-action lawsuit — joined by all 28 members of the team — alleging gender discrimination by their employer

only 93 days before their opening match in the World Cup. This only added immensely to the pressure on them to succeed on the field. They would be playing for their country, for themselves, but also for all those who will come after them. One of their leaders — Megan Rapinoe — won the “golden boot” as the top scorer in the World Cup, as well as the Most Valuable Player Award. She accomplished this even while expressing her own values. Trump criticized her for deciding not to sing the national anthem. She announced that she wasn’t interested in going to the White House. Her lavender hair symbolized her celebration of LGBTQ rights. She naturally became a target of some on the right. She dismissed charges that she was unAmerican: “I’m particularly uniquely and very deeply American. If we want to talk about the ideals we stand for, the song and the anthem, and what we were founded on, I think I’m extremely American.” She surely got that right. She also had the unified support of her teammates, who praised her as a “warrior” on and off the field, calling it a privilege to be her teammate. As Christen Press put it, “It’s been beautiful to see her fearlessness as we get to the highest level and the highest stages, that she doesn’t back away, she doesn’t shy, but the opposite: She gets even bigger.” As did the entire U.S. women’s team. Inspired by the example set by Billie Jean King and Venus Williams in women’s tennis, they took on their employers, criticized FIFA for its unequal treatment of the women’s game, and stood up

for equal rights, waging a fight that would benefit their successors if not them. As Alex Morgan, one of the team’s biggest stars stated, “My hope is that we have equality within football in my career, but I think ultimately it would be good in my lifetime. Even if I don’t reap the benefits, my hope is that the next generation’s sole focus is what it’s meant to be: And that is to play football.” On Wednesday, the champions will be celebrated with a classic Manhattan tickertape parade through the “canyon of heroes” on Broadway. The cheers will be deafening; confetti will fill the air. Lavender hairdos will be seen throughout the crowd. And once more the chant will begin: “equal pay, equal pay, equal pay.” Let us all pay tribute to the skill, the courage and the grit of these remarkable young women. They won the cup, even as they waged the fight for justice. They have inspired an entire generation of youngsters who watched their epic play on the field. They have earned the respect of their peers across the world. Remarkably, the Dutch team posted its own tribute video to the American women before the final game, stating, “You showed us where dedication and ambition can bring you.” Inspired by the Americans, the level of play is rising across Europe and across the world. And now we must all support them to ensure that they gain justice at home even as they have gained victory abroad.  www.rainbowpush.org Image credits: flipboard.com. uproxx.com

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Business - Start-up Concept - Blockchain Tech

Why 'Now' May Well Be the Right Time to Start a Blockchain Company By Alex Gold

s now the time to invest in or start a blockchain-focused company? What are the factors that entrepreneurs and investors should be looking for in this space? To quote the words of Wired founding Editor Kevin Kelly, now (yes, right now) is the best time to start something. This mindset, in my opintion, is extraordinarily applicable to the blockchain which, as it matures, presents more and more opportunities to create new solutions. To take advantage of this trend, entrepreneurs and investors should seek opportunities that present an immediate real-world application as well as customer traction. And these investors should be ones whose value-add is more than just capital; the colleagues they bring in, meanwhile, should be the type interested in the long-term impact of the technology.

Salesforce’s famed CRM. Rather than publish a white paper, the founders built a product and tested it, to positive feedback, with early customers like Benefit Cosmetics. Because of this, Cerebellum’s founders were able to secure significant early investment from the likes of Arrington XRP Capital and others. Are you starting or investing in a blockchain company? If so, the first question to ask yourself is: What real-world problem are you solving for consumers? While the entirety of the database, billing and identity components of the product will be built on the blockchain, that’s not what the founder is excited about. Rather, he’s psyched about bringing to market a product that people have expressed a desire for. In this instance, blockchain technology is just acting as the enabler.

Real-world traction matters.

Seek investors who add more than just capital.

At Binance’s demo day, nearly all presenting companies had some early customer buy-in and traction. Whether it was a brand signing up for a test run on a new decentralized loyalty platform or a marketplace touting the growth of its supplyside volume, customer-use cases won the day. Many entrepreneurs commented that with blockchain solutions slowly gaining acceptance among everyday consumers, it was only appropriate to demonstrate real-world adoption A case in point: Cerebellum Network; a decentralized version of

The most important point: Advice and help from investors is often more important than money in early-stage companies. Early-stage investors offer so much more than just capital. They offer connections to talent, firstmover customers and additional investors. Some, like Match.com co-Founder Will Bunker use help as a form of due diligence. Even if he does not invest in a prospective company, Bunker goes out of the way to offer help and guidance because he knows that that’s what

matters to early-stage companies. So, if you're launching a business, seek investors who oﬀer resources help, and guidance, even if this route costs you a bit more than other fund-raising channels do. Even if you're paying a little more now, you will be sable to maximize your valuation down the road.

Seek out long-term colleagues who “get it.” Of course I understand that any new field will generate a lot of buzz, excitement and FOMO or fear of missing out. Like moths to a flame, people often flock to what’s “hot” rather than what’s sustainable. Yet this instinct misses the foundational point of cryptocurrencies and blockchain: their long-term revolution and transformation. The potential of cryptocurrencies to fundamentally alter our global economy, trade pathways, financial system and supply networks cannot be understated. But know that this revolution will be a long time in the making. Naturally, founders should seek out colleagues, partners and even investors that understand the longterm nature of the space and are willing to invest the time, capital and yes, the patience needed in order to make something happen.

Right now is the best time to start something. With the market opening up to new entrants and applications, now may be the best time to start a blockchain powered company. While the technology oﬀers unlimited opportunities, when starting a new business, founders should not ignore the key points. Namely: -Build a product that people want; -Seek out investors who are true advisors and partners; and -Hire colleagues who are in it for long-term gain  www.entrepreneur.com/article/336771 Image credit: ibm.com

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Business - Black-owned Communication System

Black-Owned Telecommunications Company Debuts First 5G Smartphone Designed in the U.S.

Figgers F3

lack inventor, and selftaught software engineer, Freddie Figgers, has released the newest phone from his telecommunications company, the Figgers F3 (https://ﬁggers.com/ f3-buy). Changing the narrative of the smartphone as we know it, the F3 comes equipped with recordbreaking storage capacity of 1TB, meaning users will never run out of storage, and a 4K ultra highdeﬁnition screen. Paired with a sleek design, the F3 will also come with magnetic resonance capability, allowing users to charge multiple Figgers Gear from the Figgers Super Base Charger. It is built to work on every mobile operator in the world, not just USA and comes with waterproof capability. Figgers comments, “The Figgers

F3 is the most technically advanced device for the most affordable price.” The only Black owned telecommunications company in the country, Figgers Wireless (https:// figgers.com) was founded in 2008, providing services to individuals all over the world. The Florida-based company which offers smartphone calling and data plans, includes 4G phones, the Figgers F1 and F2, along with wireless accessories. It’s newest device, the F3, also includes a Guest profile that would allow consumers to share their phone without worrying about their privacy being breached, making it convenient for business and personal use. The Figgers F3 has been highly anticipated, with young entrepreneur Freddie Figgers introducing a smartphone that is affordable and can stand up against its competition. Keeping up with the advancement in technology, the F3 also features biometric and facial

recognition for security, along with an 18-megapixel camera with 8-megapixel optical zoom. Consumers will also be able to track their health goals and progress through Figgers created health applications on the device. The device also has the capability to translate over 100 languages, making it an asset to business and personal communications on an international level. The Figgers F3 is currently available for order. About Figgers Communication Figgers Communication is an American telecommunications company and cellular phone manufacturer founded in Florida in 2009. It provides cellular, mobile broadband, home phone and international calling services. The company was founded by Freddie Figgers, who currently serves as the CEO of the company. .  www.blackbusiness.com/2019/07/ ﬁggers-black-owned-telecommunicationscompany-ﬁrst-5g-smartphone-made-inusa.html?fbclid=IwAR2jux-0QmGYHfegK DZdouDoVp2p7ieU6SXXircDhKBX-xRx_ cmh_tqa5xs

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Community/Public Interest

Ebola Outbreak in Congo Declared a Global Health Emergency By Maria Cheng and Jamey Keaten

he deadly Ebola outbreak in Congo is now an international health emergency, the World Health Organization announced recently after a case was confirmed in Goma, a city of 2 million people. More than 1,600 people have died since August in the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, which is unfolding in a region described as a war zone. A declaration of a global health emergency often brings greater international attention and aid, along with concerns that nervous governments might overreact with border closures. While the risk of regional spread remains high, the risk outside the region remains low, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said after the announcement in Geneva. The international emergency "should not be used to stigmatize or penalize the very people who are most in need of our help," he said. Tedros insisted that the declaration was not made to raise more money — even though WHO estimated "hundreds of millions" of dollars would be needed to stop the epidemic. Dr. Joanne Liu, president of Doctors Without Borders, said she hoped the emergency designation would prompt a radical reset of Ebola response efforts. "The reality check is that a year into the epidemic, it's still not under control, and we are not where we should be," she said. "We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect different results." Liu said vaccination strategies should be broadened and that more efforts should be made to build trust within communities. The U.S. Agency for International Development applauded the WHO decision and said USAID officials would "continue to scale up life-saving support" to end the outbreak. WHO defines a global emergency as an "extraordinary event" that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response. Last month, the outbreak spilled across the border for the first time when a family brought the virus into Uganda after attending the burial in Congo of an infected

relative. T h e announcement prompted fear in eastern Congo, where many do business across borders and travel overseas. The current outbreak is spreading in a turbulent Congo border region where dozens of rebel groups are active and where Ebola had not been experienced before. Efforts to contain the virus have been hurt by mistrust among wary locals that has prompted deadly attacks on health workers. Some infected people have deliberately evaded health authorities. The pastor who brought Ebola to Goma used several fake names to conceal his identity on his way to the city, Congolese officials said. WHO on Tuesday said the man had died and health workers were scrambling to trace dozens of his contacts, including those who had traveled on the same bus. Congo's minister of health resisted the characterization of the outbreak as a health emergency. "We accept the decision of the committee of experts but one hopes that it's a decision that wasn't made under pressure of certain groups that want to use this as a way to raise funds for certain humanitarian actors," said Dr. Oly Ilunga. Those working in the field say the outbreak is clearly taking a turn for the worse despite advances that include the widespread use of an experimental but effective Ebola vaccine. Dr. Maurice Kakule was one of the first people to survive the current outbreak after he fell ill while treating a woman last July, before the outbreak had even been declared. "What is clear is that Ebola is an emergency because the epidemic persists despite every possible effort to educate people," he told the Geneva meeting..  https://news.yahoo.com/ebola-outbreak-congo-declaredglobal-175202499.html

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Community/Public Interest - Obituary/Memorial

Dave Bartholomew, New Orleans Music Legend and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Dies at 100 By Hillel Italie and Rebecca Santana, Associated Press

Dave Bartholomew performs at the 2011 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival presented by Shell at the Fair Grounds Race Course on May 1, 2011 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo: Douglas Mason, Getty Images

ave Bartholomew, a giant of New Orleans music and a rock n’ roll pioneer who with Fats Domino co-wrote and produced such classics as “Ain’t That a Shame,” ″I’m Walkin’” and “Let the Four Winds Blow,” has died. He was 100 years old. Bartholomew, a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, died Sunday in a hospital in a New Orleans suburb, his eldest son Dave Bartholomew Jr. told The Associated Press. “His body simply broke down. Daddy was 100 years and six months old. It was just that time,” his son said. Funeral arrangements have not yet been made. A trumpet player since childhood and a bandleader and arranger before World War II, Bartholomew befriended Domino in the late 1940s and collaborated with the singer-piano player on dozens of hits that captured Domino’s good-natured appeal, making him one of rock’s ﬁrst stars and New Orleans a center for

popular music. Throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, virtually anyone recording in New Orleans ended up performing Bartholomew songs or working with him in the studio. “Ain’t That A Shame” (originally titled “Ain’t It a Shame”) and “I’m Walkin’” were among Domino’s many top 10 hits, with worldwide sales for Domino eventually topping 60 million records. Domino’s boogie-woogie ﬂare and ringing triplets on piano and Bartholomew’s funky, “Big Beat” arrangements, with their second line drum rhythms and chorus of saxophone players, were so distinctive that covers of such pre-rock standards as “Blueberry Hill” and “My Blue Heaven” sounded no less original than the songs by Domino and Bartholomew..  www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2019/06/23/ dave-bartholomew-new-orleans-music-legenddies-100/1541854001/

82  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Community/Public Interest - Obituary/Memorial

Paul Benjamin Dies: ‘Do The Right Thing’ Actor was 81 By Denise Petski

aul Benjamin, who appeared in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, has died. Lee announced on Instagram that the veteran actor died June 28. The cause of death was not immediately known. Benjamin was 81. Benjamin, who played one of the three wise Brooklyn “cornermen” in Lee’s 1989 film Do the Right Thing, began his career in 1969 as a bartender in Midnight Cowboy. He went to play small roles in Sidney Lumet’s The Anderson Tapes and Born to Win, then segued into more extensive TV work later in the 1970s. He appeared as a death row inmate in a 1988 episode of In The Heat of the Night and also in the 1994 pilot episode of ER, which led to his recurring role of homeless man Al Ervin during the next few seasons. Benjamin also worked on the American Masters documentary of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ralph Ellison, which aired on PBS, as well as guest-starring roles in Law & Order and The Shield. Benjamin’s other film credits include Escape From Alcatraz (1979) Some Kind of Hero (1982) opposite Richard Pryor, Martin Ritt’s drama film Nuts (1987) starring Barbra Streisand, Pink Cadillac (1989) with Clint Eastwood, Robert Townsend’s The Five Heartbeats (1991), Bill Duke’s Hoodlum (1997), and John Singleton’s Rosewood (1997). His most recent work in the 2000s was in independent films such as Stanley’s Gig, The Station Agent,

Deacons For Defense, and James Hunter’s 2005 drama Back in the Day.  www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/paulbenjamin-dies-do-the-right-thing-actor-was-81/arAADUjvO?ocid=spartandhp Image Credits: ﬁlmstreaming-hd.com

83  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Community/Public Interest - Obituary/Memorial

Jerry Lawson, Leader of a Cappella Persuasions, Dies at 75 By Andrew Dalton

erry Lawson, who for four decades was the lead singer of the eclectic cult-favorite a cappella group the Persuasions, has died. He was 75. Lawson died at a Phoenix hospice after a long illness, longtime friend and sometime Persuasions producer Rip Rense said. Lawson's smooth baritone led the group of ﬁve and later six singers, who were revered as the "The Kings of a Cappella" by their small but devoted fan base. Through 25 albums the Persuasions recorded rock, blues, gospel and pop songs, all with no sound other than their own voices, long after the doo-wop era and long before the "Pitch Perfect" movies, when a cappella was rare." "Thirty-eight years and we still ain't got no band, man!" Lawson told The Associated Press in 2000. "That's the story right there." They had many famous fans including Rod Stewart, the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia, the members of Boyz II Men and Frank Zappa, who gave their career a boost when he discovered them in the late 1960s. "After working together at the Hurricane Katrina Beneﬁt Concert, I admired the undeniable depth in Jerry's big voice," Stewart said in a statement. "A true soul singer." They began as a casual and nameless collection of singers on

the basketball courts and front stoops of Brooklyn in 1962, with Lawson bringing the warm, friendly voice he developed singing gospel songs during his © The Associated Press FILE (Stacie Huckeba via AP) youth in Apopka, Florida. "It was just five guys who used to American a cappella group. In stand on the corner or go down to another country like Japan they'd the subway station every night and be declared a living treasure." Lawson left the group in 2002. A just do this," Persuasions member few years later he joined a much Jimmy Hayes told the AP in 2000. Joseph Russell, Herbert Rhoad younger group of San Francisco and Jayotis Washington rounded acapella singers that had based themselves on the Persuasions to out the original quintet. They got their break when Zappa form "Jerry Lawson and the Talk signed them to his independent of the Town." The group released an album, colabel for their first album in 1969. The Persuasions performed with produced by Lawson and his wife, everyone from Liza Minnelli to Joni in 2007, and in 2011 they appeared Mitchell to the Seattle Symphony on NBC's music competition show, Orchestra and covered the songs "The Sing-Off." In 2015, he released his only solo of Motown, Sam Cooke and Paul album, "Just a Mortal Man." Simon. A documentary on Lawson is in The eclecticism that made them so beloved also kept them from the works and is expected to be reaching pop stardom. Music released later this year. He is survived by wife Julie executives never knew how to market them and commercial radio Lawson and daughters Yvette and had no clue what niche to stick Wanda Dawson.  them in. www.msn.com/en-us/music/ "They've never gotten their due," news/jerry-lawson-leader-of-aRense told the AP in 2000. "They're cappella-persuasions-dies-at-75/arAAEcnB7?ocid=spartandhp the greatest, most enduring

84  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

85  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

International - Culture

Meet Kwame AkotoBamfo: The sculptor who is telling the African story through his art By Ntianu Obiora

wame Akoto-Bamfo, a Ghanaian sculptor of amazing reputation, has come in for praise from BBC Africa after the international broadcaster celebrated his works via their digital platforms. Akoto-Bamfo has been in the craft and business of sculpting for about a decade and his work has in the past been cited by the Guardian of the UK. His outdoor sculpture dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Transatlantic slave trade is on display at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice (https:// museumandmemorial.eji.org/memorial) that opened in 2018 in Montgomery, Alabama. His other sculpture include an installation of 1,200 concrete heads representing Ghana’s enslaved ancestors in Accra, called Faux(https:// Reedom theculturetrip.com/ africa/ghana/articles/10of-ghanas-bestcontemporary-artists). It

was unveiled in 2017. In his works that the BBC noted, AkotoBamfo used the ancient Akan tradition of creating portraits of the dead. The intention was to show people how great their community was before slavery.  https://yen.com.gh/129636-meet-kwameakoto-bamfo-the-sculptor-telling-africanstory-art-video.html#129636 Image credits: noﬁ.fr, nytimes.com, digitaljournal.com, theartstack.com

African Global Chamber of Commerce (AGCC) Illinois Chamber of Commerce (International Business Council) Turkish Airlines Objective of the Trade Mission: Meet with South African Public Agencies and Private entrepreneurs for investment opportunities through Business-to-Business (B2B) meetings, workshops, field visits, and cultural tours.

Trade Mission Highlights: • Meetings with the Government High-level officials; • Secured appointments with potential distributors, customers and partners targeted specifically to meet your business objectives; • Networking receptions with US and South African Government Officials, companies and independent investors; • Consulting on how to successfully operate in the region • Culture tours and excursions

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Registration End Date: July 31, 2019 For more Information: Chassidy Keys: 1-312-498-6455, ckeys@africangcc.org Amber Johns: 1-510-507-2130, Ajohns@jacksoncorporatelaw.com Laura Ortega: lortega@ilchamber.org Sal Tauhidi: 1-571-424-6603, stauhidi@africangcc.org

International

African Stock Exchanges • Bolsa de Valores of Cape Verde - www.bvc.cv (in Portuguese) • Bolsa Valores de Mocambique - www. bolsadevalores.co.mz • Bond Exchange of South Africa - www. bondexchange.co.za • Botswana Stock Exchange - www.bse.co.bw • Bourse Regionale des Valeurs Mobilieres UEMOA (Abidjan, Ivory Coast) - www.brvm.org • Casablanca Stock Exchange (Morocco) - www. casablanca-bourse.com/bourseweb/index.aspx • Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (Tanzania) - www. dse.co.tz • Douala Stock Exchange (Cameroon) - www. douala-stock-exchange.com/index_us.php • The Egyptian Exchange - www.egx.com.eg/ English/homepage.aspx • Ethiopia Commodity Exchange - www.ecx.com.et • Ghana Stock Exchange - www.gse.com.gh • Johannesburg Stock Exchange (South Africa) www.jse.co.za/Home.aspx • Khartoum Stock Exchange (Sudan, in Arabic) -

• • • • • • • • • • •

www.kse.com.sd Libyan Stock Market - www.lsm.ly/_layouts/ membership/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fEnglish%2fP ages%2fdefault.aspx Lusaka Stock Exchange (Zambia) - www.luse. co.zm Nairobi Stock Exchange (Kenya) - www.luse. co.zm Malawi Stock Exchange - www.mse.co.mw Namibian Stock Exchange - www.nsx.com.na Nigerian Stock Exchange - www.nse.com.ng/ Pages/default.aspx Rwanda Stock Exchange - www.rse.rw/ Stock Exchange of Mauritius - www. stockexchangeofmauritius.com Swaziland Stock Exchange - www.ssx.org.sz Tunisia Stock Exchange - www.bvmt.com.tn Uganda Securities Exchange - www.use.or.ug

Read the lastest issue of The Exchange Magazine www.nse.co.ke/media-center/e-communique/exchangemagazine/category/50-free-version.html

89  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

International - New Currenc;y

How Important will ECO Currency be to West Africa? By Vincent Olago

est Africa nations announced they will be launching a new “common currency” known as ECO to facilitate more frictionless trade in the region. Similar to the euro in the EU, ECO currency will be shared by all the 15 member states nations of ECOWAS – Economic Community of West Africa States. it is expected to debut in January 2020. Remarkably, ECO is not a digital currency, and it is not built on the blockchain. But being shared by 15 countries and without having an underlying technology complicates its management. Already, there are eight nations in the ECOWAS that use a common currency— CFA—which is pegged to the euro through the French treasury. These nations include Benin, GuineaBissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Niger, and Togo. Cutting out that French connection is the main reason why West Africa nations are seeking to implement their own currency. Having an independent currency gives

them authority and control to manage their monetary and ﬁscal policies without any interference from foreign governments. Indeed, countries, particularly, the smaller ones are set to beneﬁt massively in terms of boosted economy. That’s because the ECO currency allows smaller economies in the region to enjoy lower interest rates which in turn leads to more foreign investment.  www.ledgerafrica.com/how-important-eco-currencywest-africa-2/

Africa is Tech’s Next Great Frontier, Github A.I. Expert Says By Jeremy Kahn

he bleeding edge of technology innovation is increasingly shifting from Silicon Valley to places that are also at the frontiers of economic development, including sub-Saharan Africa, says Omoju Miller, who works on machine learning at software development platform Github (https://github. com). Miller, who grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, told the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference (http:// fortuneconferences.com/fortune-brainstorm-tech-2019) that

both demographics and geography will drive technology vendors to focus on frontier markets. Africa will soon host most of the world's fastest-growing economies. Sub-Saharan Africa will be home to more than 90 cities with populations in excess of 1 million people. More than 60% of the population in the region is under the age of 25 and the continent is already home to half of

90  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

bank

International - Trade Agreement

Nigeria Will Join Africa's Vast Free Trade Area By Aisha Salaudeen, CNN Business

frica's biggest economy has belatedly agreed to join a huge free trade agreement aimed at boosting manufacturing across the continent. Nigeria will sign the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) at a summit of the African Union that starts in Niger on July 7, the Nigerian presidency announced on its official Twitter account late on Tuesday. "Let me state unequivocally that trade is important for us as a nation and to all nations. Economic progress is what makes the world go around. Our position is very simple, we support free trade as long as it is fair and conducted on an equitable basis," President Muhammadu Buhari said in the statement posted on Twitter. The AfCFTA came into force in May after clearing a key procedural hurdle and being ratified by the parliaments of 24 countries. It aims to bring all 54 members of the African Union (AU) together in a single market of 1.2 billion people by removing trade barriers such as tariffs across Africa. The deal is expected to boost regional trade and allow companies to expand and enter new markets. Manufacturing industry currently accounts for only about 10% of the African Union's combined GDP of $3.4 trillion and the trade deal could make the sector more competitive and productive.

the world's users of mobile payment solutions, she said. Those figures will increasingly drive the world's largest technology firms to invest in Africa (https:// fortune.com/2015/02/16/nigeria-internet-startups). And it will mean that more and more innovations will be born in the region, she said. "We are the at edge of another kind of technology frontier, and this time around, it is not happening in San Francisco, it is taking place in Africa," she said. Miller used examples from two recent trips to Africa to illustrate her point. She said that she recently visited Nigeria with Nat Friedman, Github's chief knxt.com executive officer, because the software repository's data told it the country's coders were adopting open source software at a faster clip than anywhere else. In another trip to Kenya, Miller detailed how

South Africa and Cameroon are among 52 countries that have already signed up to AfCFTA. But Nigeria had refused to commit, saying it needed to consult with domestic stakeholders before making a decision. Nigeria was initially worried that by exposing its manufacturers to greater competition, the deal could force some of them out of business and drive up unemployment. But after reviewing an impact assessment of the trade agreement in June, President Buhari agreed to come on board.  www.cnn.com/2019/07/03/business/nigeria-signsafcfta-intl/index.html

seamlessly she was able to access all the same kinds of mobile apps and services she did when back home in San Francisco, including booking taxi rides on Uber and booking food delivery with Jumia, the company that bills itself as Africa's answer to Amazon, and which was originally incubated by German startup factory Rocket Internet. Then, when traveling to the Maasai Mara nature reserve, she recalled passing through numerous rural villages. "We are talking about very small villages and yet in these small villages you can still use mobile payments," she said. "This is going to radically change what the technology environment is going to look like."  https://fortune.com/2019/07/17/africa-is-techs-next-greatfrontier-github-ai/?utm_medium=techboard.fri.20190719&utm_ source=email&utm_content=&utm_campaign=campaign

91  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

International - Call For Talks

US Congress Delegation Calls for Talks with Rebels in Cameroon By Moki Edwin Kindzeka

United States Congressional delegation visiting Cameroon has called for unconditional talks between the government and rebels on the country’s separatist conflict. The two-year struggle, in which Cameroon's English-speaking western regions have fought to separate from the French-speaking government, has killed close to 2,000 people and displaced hundreds of California Congresswoman Karen Bass after meeting with refugees, thousands. But the government says it will not July 1, 2019. (Moki Kindzeka) engage in any talks with the rebels that includes remains a rule of law," he said. the issue of separation from Cameroon. International observers and rights groups say California Congresswoman Karen Bass told journalists in Cameroon late Monday that the Cameroon’s separatist conflict is getting worse by the government and rebels should respect human rights, day. The United Nations says at least 1,800 people end all violence, and begin talks on the separatist have been killed and more than half a million displaced in the two years since fighting began. conflict. Cameroon’s aid workers in June said they feared "We especially want to see a peaceful dialogue, a travel to the region after suspected rebels attacked and peaceful resolution without conditions. We want to see all sides come to the table. We recently passed burned several truckloads of aid. Congresswoman Bass says humanitarian needs a resolution in Congress saying this and we wanted are increasing in both the English-speaking western to come and see first-hand what is happening in the regions and in Cameroon’s north, due to the Islamist country," she said. Bass made the comments after meeting with militant group Boko Haram. "We are concerned about humanitarian aid in the far refugees and displaced people from the conflict in Cameroon’s English-speaking western regions as north as well as in the northwest and southwest, making well as government ministers. She is leading a seven- sure that there is access to aid, that the people that member Congressional delegation to Cameroon with a provide humanitarian assistance are able to provide that freely and fully to the population," she said. focus on health and human rights issues. The U.S. Congress in a May resolution condemned On Tuesday, the U.S. delegation is scheduled to abuses by Cameroon’s security forces and armed meet with Cameroonian activists and rights groups. The United States, United Nations, and rights groups. The abuses included extrajudicial killings groups have been calling for sincere dialogue between and detentions, the use of force against civilians and authorities and the rebels to try to resolve the deadly protestors, and violations of the freedoms of press, conflict. Government spokesperson Rene Emmanuel expression, and assembly. The Congressional resolution called on Cameroon’s Sadi says they are not against talks in principle. But, he stresses that President Paul Biya has made it clear military and rebels to cease the abuse, use of child soldiers, torture and kidnapping, and attacks on that splitting the country is off the table. "At a time when Cameroon is resolutely moving schools and teachers..  towards its emergence, everything must and will be www.voanews.com/africa/us-congress-delegationdone to preserve peace and stability. Cameroon is and calls-talks-rebels-cameroon 92  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

International - Technology

Tutankhamen Head Fetches Millions at UK Auction Despite Egypt’s Protests By CyprusMail

he more than 3,000-year-old sculpture, displayed at Christie’s London auction house, shows the boy king taking the form of the ancient Egyptian god Amen. An unnamed buyer bought the head for 4,746,250 pounds ($5.97 million), including commission and in line with the estimated price before the sale, Christie’s said. Outside, around 20 protesters stood silently and held placards that said “Egyptian history is not for sale”. Egypt has long demanded the return of artefacts taken by archaeologists and imperial adventurers, including the Rosetta Stone kept in the British Museum – campaigns paralleled by Greece’s demands for the Parthenon sculptures, Nigeria’s for the Benin Bronzes and Ethiopia’s for the Magdala treasures. “We are against our heritage and valuable items (being) sold like vegetables and fruit,” said Ibrahim Radi, a 69-year-old Egyptian graphic designer protesting outside Christie’s. The 28.5 centimetres (11.22 inches) high piece, with damage only to the ears and nose, was sold from the private Resandro collection of Egyptian art. Christie’s said it was acquired from Munich dealer Heinz Herzer in 1985. Before that, Austrian dealer Joseph Messina bought it in 1973-1974, and Germany’s Prinz Wilhelm Von Thurn und Taxis “reputedly” had it in his collection by the 1960s. Hailing the piece as a “rare” and “beautiful” work, a Christie’s statement acknowledged controversy over its home.

“We recognise that historic objects can raise complex discussions about the past, yet our role today is to work to continue to provide a transparent, legitimate marketplace upholding the highest standards for the transfer of objects.” Before the auction, Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, said he was disappointed the sale was going ahead, despite requests for information and protests from government oﬃcials and Egypt’s embassy. “I believe that it was taken out of Egypt illegally … They have not presented any documents to prove otherwise,” he told Reuters, saying that Egypt would continue to press the buyer and others for the work to be returned. Staﬀ at Christie’s said they had taken the necessary steps to prove its provenance and the sale was legitimate. “It’s a very well known piece … and it has never been the subject of a claim,” antiquities department head Laetitia Delaloye told Reuters. Christie’s had been in touch with Egyptian authorities in Cairo and the London embassy, she added.  https://theworldnews.net/cy-news/tutankhamen-headfetches-millions-at-uk-auction-despite-egypt-s-protests

93  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

International - Power-Sharing

Sudan Power-Sharing Deal Reached by Military and Civilian Leaders By Declan Walsh

It was agreed tha Fattah al-

Protesters celebrated in Khartoum on Friday after ruling generals and protest leaders announced a governing agreement. Credit Ashraf Shazly/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

udan’s military and civilian leaders announced recently that they had reached an agreement to share power until elections, promising an end to the standoff that has paralyzed the African country since the ouster of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. The two sides, which resumed talks this week after a monthlong hiatus that included a bloody crackdown by the military, have agreed to form a joint military-civilian authority to run Sudan during an interim period of just over three years, a senior protest leader said. Power will rotate between military and civilian leaders during the transitional period, a mediator from the African Union, Mohamed Hassan Lebatt, told a news conference in Khartoum. Then, elections are to be held and the military is to return to its barracks, ushering in democratic rule. “We hope that this is the beginning of a new era,” said Omar al-Degair, a leader of the coalition negotiating

with the military. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, deputy head of the Transitional Military Council, said, “This agreement is comprehensive and does not exclude anyone.” A military general will lead the joint council for the first 21 months, then a civilian leader will lead for 18 months, said Amjad Farid, a leader of the Sudanese Professionals Association. The streets of Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city across the Nile River, erupted in celebration when the news broke, according to Reuters. Thousands of people of all ages took to the streets, chanting “Civilian! Civilian! Civilian!” Young men banged drums, people honked their car horns, and women carrying Sudanese flags chanted in jubilation. The deal appeared to be the culmination of a popular uprising that started in December with a demonstration

94  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

around them. Some soldiers deserted their posts to defend the protesters from armed al-Bashir loyalists, who opened fire on them. Gun battles erupted at the protest site, and several people were killed. After Mr. al-Bashir’s ouster, many protesters were dismayed to see power pass into the hands of his top lieutenants, including officials accused of war crimes in Darfur. They promised to continue their sitin until a civilian administration took office. During negotiations led by the Sudanese Professionals Association, military leaders had presented themselves as supporters of democracy and had taken steps to meet demands for change. The generals moved Mr. al-Bashir into the notorious Kober prison in Khartoum, seized millions of dollars in foreign currency from his home and arrested several of his most at the ﬁrst leader under the power sharing agreement would be Lt. Gen. Abdel senior aides. Burhan, front center. Credit Ashraf Shazly/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images But the military refused to hand over power immediately to the protesters. Mr. al-Burhan moved into Mr. al-Bashir’s old against the soaring price of bread, then morphed into a movement that led to the removal of Mr. al-Bashir presidential office, and his officers sought to exploit apparent divisions in the ranks of the inexperienced after 30 years of turbulent and often brutal rule. The two sides also agreed to open what they said protest leaders, a coalition of professional groups, was an independent investigation into the violence that leftists and small political parties that were marginalized began on June 3 when military forces cracked down during Mr. al-Bashir’s rule. Thousands of protesters remained camped out at on protesters, which has led to at least 128 deaths, according to the protesters. General Hamdan, known the gates of the military headquarters in Khartoum, as Hemeti, has been widely seen as the most powerful refusing to budge until the military acceded to their figure in Sudan since his Rapid Support Forces led demand for a swift transition to civilian rule. On June 3, soldiers with the paramilitary Rapid that bloody crackdown. Under the new agreement, both sides will nominate Support Forces swept through the protest site, raping five members to the council. The 11th member is to be women, shooting protesters and throwing bodies in the Nile. At least 128 people were killed over several days jointly nominated, according to Mr. Farid. It was agreed that the first leader would be Lt. Gen. of violence, doctors said, and hundreds were wounded. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the leader of the transitional The government admitted 61 deaths. Ethiopia and the African Union, fearing the vast military council, Mr. Farid said. Mr. al-Bashir — who was wanted by the International country could slide into chaos, deployed mediators to Criminal Court, which accused him of playing “an Khartoum in an effort to bring the sides together.  essential role” in a genocidal purge in the Darfur www.nytimes.com/2019/07/04/world/africa/sudanregion — was toppled after peaceful protesters power-sharing-deal.html massed for days at the gates of the sprawling military headquarters in Khartoum. They refused to leave even as rival factions of the security forces fought gun battles 95  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

International - Education

Top American Universities are Doubling Down on their Presence Across Africa By Abdi Latif Dahir

mid the rolling hills on the outskirts of Rwanda’s capital Kigali, the Carnegie Mellon University Africa’s new campus is a prominent feature on the lush landscape. The 6,000 square meters property is located within the Kigali Innovation City, a public-private partnership aimed at positioning Rwanda as a globally competitive and knowledge-based economy. Since it’s establishment in 2011, CMU Africa has grown from a small graduate program attracting local applicants to becoming the only American research university with a full-time faculty and operations in Africa. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the private university created an outpost in Rwanda with the aim of training high-quality engineers and producing Africa’s next tech leaders. The new $12-million campus doubles down on that vision, seeking to introduce locally-tailored but globallycompetitive packages to solve distinct challenges. But it’s also indicative of the growing presence of American universities in the continent: whether it’s by establishing satellite branches, research centers, or specialized offshoot programs. These universities are deepening their reach in the continent as more global companies set shop and seek top talent for hire. The move also dovetails with calls from African nations to champion new skills in knowledge as an engine for economic growth, even as higher education continues to face qualitative, quantitative, and funding challenges. With a rapidly-growing, working-age population, governments are also gradually looking to strong educational institutions as a precious resource to create jobs, drive growth, and propel entrepreneurs and scientists onto the world stage. African universities lag their global rivals when it comes to generating research, with limited funding hindering the ability of academics. The continent’s best universities are also led by research institutions mostly in South Africa including the University of

Cape Town and the University of Witwatersrand. In this context, what American universities are able to offer is the ability to not only provide much-needed funding but also provide space and capacity to do high-end examination on issues ranging from big data and cybersecurity to artificial intelligence. “We know what a good university and a good educational institution can do to local economies,” CMU Africa director Vijayakumar Bhagavatula says, alluding to the estimated $2.7 billion in annual economic impact the university creates in the Pittsburgh area. With 196 students graduating from their African campus so far, Bhagavatula adds, “Our vision is to be here, educate African students in Africa, for African applications.” Some programs are also expanding while apprised of the potential for business to solve Africa’s biggest challenges. Since its launch in Ghana in 2013, Stanford’s Seed initiative has grown from a six-month course to a year-long syllabus that trains not just chief executives and founders but also their teams in eastern and southern Africa.

96  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

New Campus

In 2016, Harvard also introduced an executive program targeting business leaders in Africa. Stanford’s program takes on local companies already earning between $150,000 and $15 million annually and helps them figure out how to grow and scale. The training for business owners—628 of them so far—involves modules in product innovation, management, accounting, and developing winning strategies. Establishing the program in Africa was part of a strategy to help entrepreneurs who wanted to build businesses that have an impact beyond just quarterly revenues and profits, says the executive director of Seed, Darius F. Teter. “The business school, in general, understands that the next wave of innovation should and will come from outside Silicon Valley and that Stanford should be a part of that.”  https://qz.com/africa/1658920/ stanford-carnegie-mellon-columbiagrow-their-presence-in-africa/?utm_ source=email&utm_medium=daily-brief Image credits: Carnegie Mellon University Africa

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98  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

99  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

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ur Deluxe Boxed-Set Edition is a great gift! We’ve gone the extra mile to provide an embossed UV package with a magnetic hinged lid and a black satin puller ribbon. Inside you will find a Hardback version of “Hey A.J. It’s Bedtime” with a midnight blue glitter cloth and glossy blue foil blocking with debossing. With everything perfectly sealed in a dust jacket that has gloss lamination and aqueous varnishing, this is the perfect gift for any occasion – whether it’s bedtime or party time!  www.theimaginationagency.com/ shop-categories/books/hey-aj-itsbedtime/#

his is a gorgeous, lyrical ode to loving who you are, respecting others, and being kind to one another—from Empire actor and activist Grace Byers and talented newcomer artist Keturah A. Bobo. This is the perfect gift for mothers and daughters, baby showers, and graduation. We are all here for a purpose. We are more than enough. We just need to believe it.  www.amazon.com/I-Am-Enough-Grace-Byers/ dp/0062667122  www.amazon.com/I-Am-Enough-Grace-Byers/ dp/0062667122

eaturing forty trailblazing black women in American history, Little Leaders educates and inspires as it relates true stories of breaking boundaries and achieving beyond expectations. Illuminating text paired with irresistible illustrations bring to life both iconic and lesser-known female figures of Black history such as abolitionist Sojourner Truth, pilot Bessie Coleman, chemist Alice Ball, politician Shirley Chisholm, mathematician Katherine Johnson, poet Maya Angelou, and filmmaker Julie Dash. Among these biographies, readers will find heroes, role models, and everyday women who did extraordinary things - bold women whose actions and beliefs contributed to making the world better for generations of girls and women to come. Whether they were putting pen to paper, soaring through the air or speaking up for the rights of others, the women profiled in these pages were all taking a stand against a world that didn't always accept them. The leaders in this book may be little, but they all did something big and amazing, inspiring generations to come. www.amazon.com/dp/B072V4QDCF/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_ encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

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So much of hip hop is about who we are and where we come from. We decided that had to be in this game. As part of the game’s design, we came up with close to 500 “life events” that could happen to an artist going through their career. We have cards like, “Winning a talent show,” “Selling 35 CDs out of your trunk,” or “West coast tour.” When the game ends you can see exactly how you went from nothing to something. That to us is what hip hop is all about. All the games we are working on are clearly related to hip hop culture and black culture.

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The First "Barneys In Conversation" Is Out To Make Black History By Marjon Carlos

itting around a marble corner table, myself (Marjon Carlos), Beauty editor and influencer Kahlana Barfield Brown, Essence Fashion and Beauty Director Julee Wilson, Yahoo! Beauty Director Dana Oliver, writer and independent curator Kimberly Drew, and noted celebrity stylist Nikki Nelms go deep, quick. There is no time for diplomacy or to mince words—we needed to tackle the most urgent matters of the day: diverse product development in the post–Fenty Beauty era, cultural appropriation versus cultural appreciation, how to engage the black beauty customer who happens to make up 85% of the U.S. beauty market, and the discrimination faced while working on set as a hair pro. Although we all come from different realms of the industry, the shared experience of mitigating black beauty, either in our personal or professional lives, created a unifying spirit that had us nodding, murmuring, and gasping in unison all morning. “It’s this universal experience of being a black woman: We see each other in ways that other people don’t,” Wilson explains passionately. The beauty expert was the moderator for the morning and affectionately dubbed the talk #BrownBeautiesAtBarneys. “You don’t know a black woman’s story by just looking at her, but there are shared things that she probably understands. Like getting a press, getting burned by the curling iron or hot comb, sitting in a chair for hours upon hours under the dryer, whatever it is. Whether it’s celebratory things or messed up, we all know we have universal truths that bring us together.” And certainly the recent offenses that have rocked the fashion and beauty spheres this past month have made it very clear that black creatives within the luxury space must remain vocal about the changes we wish to see. As Brown explains to me after our talk and photo shoot dispersed yesterday, “I feel like this conversation can’t stop. I feel like this conversation needs to keep happening in order to see results—we have to keep pushing.” Already an in-demand speaker on the symposium circuit, Brown was so happy to see

the beauty space taking on the topic of inclusivity just as passionately as fashion has. Drew agreed, adding, “The round table was a powerful opportunity to see what can happen when underserved groups in the beauty space get a chance to be heard.” Distinct in its coverage, the conversation also felt like a telltale sign that Barneys was invested in bringing on more diverse beauty options for its consumers, especially after the wildly successful in-store and online launch of natural haircare line Brown Butter Beauty this past fall (www.barneys.com/designer/brownbutter-beauty/beauty/N-1voqbzwZtdt7px). Ending the conversation by asking us all to oﬀer solutions, Wilson wanted to promote a feeling of progress and strategy. “I’m not about ‘canceling’ [brands], I’m about change,” she explains. “I think you can call people out and it be more for change than shame. So I think we need to keep places accountable for their actions. If you need to be dragged, then you need to be dragged. If you don’t, you don’t. But I think it’s on us to keep saying, ‘You didn’t get this right and this is how you should do it,’ and oﬀer a solution.”  Read the Full Story and View the Video at: https://thewindow.barneys.com/barneys-inconversation-black-history-month-inclusive-beauty #BrownBeautiesAtBarneys

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at McGrath Labs, the makeup line created by legendary makeup artist Pat McGrath, is now being valued at $1 billion. As Women's Wear Daily reports, the brand received a $60 million minority investment from Eurazeo Brands. Pat McGrath Labs was launched three years ago and is growing quickly, with retail sales expected to reach more than $60 million for 2018. The line debuted in 2015 with a $40 product called Gold 001. The multipurpose gold pigment came in a bag full of sequins, and it sold out all 1,000 units in just six minutes. Other products included Skin Fetish 003, a three-piece highlighting kit, and Lust 004, a sparkly lip kit. A broader, permanent collection debuted in 2017 with lipsticks, lip liners, eyeliners, mascara, and an eyeshadow palette in three color-ways. Most recently, the brand released Lip Fetish Astrals, a sparkly update of the Lip Fetish Lip Balm from earlier in the year. The products from Pat McGrath Labs, which are available on her website and at Sephora and Sephora.com, are often inspired by

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10 Women of Color-Owned Skincare Brands to Add to Your Routine

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6 Beija Flor Naturals This organic California-made skincare line was founded by Stevonne Ratliﬀ, who created it out of a need to address her own hyper pigmentation and skin frustrations. Her botanical products include scrubs, lotions, and bar soaps all inspired by Brazil. http://beijaﬂornaturals.com

n a beauty industry that too often fails to cater to women of color, many of those women have taken matters into their own hands by starting their own companies. There are so many great rising makeup brands to pay attention to — and now we're looking at skincare. The recent Project Beauty Expo in New York proved to be the perfect spot to get hip to several black-owned indie brands that create skincare with women of color in mind. Refresh your routine with some new some standouts, ahead. 1 Aba Love New York-based skincare brand Aba Love creates handcrafted, botanical products. It's perfect for the green beauty lover because the aromatic goods are free of synthetic fragrances and parabens — and instead boosted with seed, plant, and ﬂoral oils. www.abaloveapothecary.com 2 Kaike Kaike, pronounced "cake," has a whole collection of dessert-inspired skincare solutions. With product names like Lip Frosting lip balm, Chocolate Mask + Scrub, and Marshmallow Mask + Scrub, the plant-based, Chicago-made

multipurpose menus is irresistible. www.shopkaike.com 3 Anne's Apothecary Anne's Apothecary's philosophy is "what you put on your skin should be safe enough to eat" — so you better believe the ingredients are pure. The products, created in North Carolina, are handcrafted in small batches with a focus on herbs and essential oils. You can shop everything from body scrubs, to

cleansers, to deodorant. https://annesapothecary.com 4 Elle Johnson Elle Johnson is all about no-fuss, easy to follow botanical skincare starting with the "Clear 3," a skincare system of 1) cleansing lotion (yes, lotion), 2) toner, and 3) moisturizer. It doesn't hurt that Johnson, who used to work in branding, has gorgeous Instaready packaging. www.ellejohnson.co 5 Base Butter All-natural skincare line Base Butter is on a mission to challenge the depiction of black women in media. Partly inspired

7 Blade + Bloom Blade + Bloom's eco-conscious goods are handmade in Chicago with a focus on creating 100 percent plant-based skincare and candles with delicious scents (for example the "Charming I'm Sure" soap apparently smells like "the secret ingredient in your boyfriend's cologne"). The nononsense packaging is also recyclable. https://bladeandbloom.com 8 Elements of Aliel Elements of Aliel is all about minimalism and non-toxic skincare. The vegan face and body products range from serums to clay masks to balms. www.elementsofaliel.com 9 Jacqs This organic line promises to help you "slay, naturally." Cleansers, mists, masks, toners, and even "beauty boosters" contain tiny, concentrated doses of antioxidants and other good-for-skin ingredients. www.jacqsorganics.com 10 True Moringa True Moringa started as a project to explore alternatives to chemical hair relaxers and cosmetics, and has since expanded to skincare. The facial oils, scrubs, and balms contain moringa, a green plant rich in fatty acids, antioxidants, and other skin quenching ingredients. https://truemoringa.com 

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Beyoncé's New Adidas Collection

f you're in need of cool workout gear or comfy athleisure to lounge around in, who better to design it for you than the Queen B herself? Beyoncé and Adidas have announced that they're teaming up on a signature collection that includes footwear and apparel. The best news? Beyoncé will also be relaunching her athleisure line, Ivy Park, with the brand. According to a press release from Adidas, she will be a creative partner for the brand and work with them to design performance and lifestyle products. "This is the partnership of a lifetime for me," Beyoncé said in the press release. "Adidas has had tremendous success in pushing creative boundaries. We share a philosophy that puts creativity, growth and social responsibility at the forefront of business. I look forward to relaunching and expanding Ivy Park on a truly global scale with a proven, dynamic leader." Ivy Park was ﬁrst introduced in 2016 and was previously sold at Topshop, but after allegations of sexual harassment and bullying surfaced against Topshop chairman Sir Philip Green, Beyoncé ended her partnership with the businessman and bought back her athleisure line from the brand. It's unclear if she did so because of the allegations, but either way, we're about to see Ivy Park in stores again soon. "Beyoncé is an iconic creator but also a proven business leader, and together, we have the ability to inspire change and empower the next generation of creators," Eric Liedtke, executive board member at Adidas, said in a statement. No word yet on when the collection is due to drop, but we'll be anxiously awaiting the arrival of Beyoncé x Adidas.  www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/heres-whatwe-know-about-beyoncés-new-adidas-collection/arBVCQFl?ocid=spartandhp

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Black-Owned Watch Brands You Should Make Your Brands MG Media, TBTNEWS

hile timepieces or watches are usually a luxury for most, there are several Blackowned brands that create and market high-quality watches that won't break the bank... and they are deﬁnitely worth taking time to look at! Here are seven Black-owned watch brands that you should support:

Youngblood Timepieces: Launched in 2006, this brand of high-end signature watches continues to be one of the most sought-after Black-owned watch brands. Its co-founders Paul Youngblood and Patrick Martin created the brand to oﬀer both accessory and apparel products for savvy shoppers who sought to maximize their value without compromising on quality. https://youngbloodworldwide.com/collections/menswristwatches

Talley & Twine: Started with just a few sketches and no previous knowledge of the watch industry, Robert Williams designed his ﬁrst watch that eventually became a successful luxury watch brand. Since then, they aimed to create quality, detailed, attention-grabbing timepieces that are reasonably priced and resist the status quo.

Seventeenth Watches: Owned and operated by an army veteran, Chris Johnson, who is also Black, this brand creates watches that are a perfect union between simplicity and class. Their styles are usually unisex and minimalist that makes it a timeless piece that would seem to still be in trend even in the next decades. www.seventeenth-watches.com/ Benson Watch: Established on the principle that "time should be spent doing what you love," its founder, Marcel Benson, wanted to encourage people to take charge of their time and live life on their terms. Additionally, this brand produces exclusive collection watches that are available for limited time only and will not be replicated anymore. https://www.bensonwatch.com/ SPGBK Watches: Founded by two African-American fraternity brothers from Fayetteville, North Carolina, this brand aims to create original culturally-inspired watches that are inspired by diversity and inclusion. The name is an abbreviation of "Springbreak" as the two founders, who were both HBCU graduates, wanted the company to be collegethemed. www.springbreakwatches.com/

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Enbois by Maxim: Named after the French word which means "wooden," this brand's watches are designed with the ﬁnest sustainable materials. Also, an acronym for Each New Bead Oﬀers Its Support, its founder Maxim Thuriere sought a way to give back to his country of heritage, Haiti, where a portion of each transaction is donated to help improve educational opportunities as well as reforest Haiti. http://enbois-originals.com/

Vitae London: Based in London, England, this brand features watches that are made of either a high-quality genuine leather band or a stainless steel mesh band with scratch-resistant sapphire crystal glass that are stylish, elegant, and built to last. What's more, for every watch sold, the company supports an underprivileged child in South Africa through education. https://vitaelondon.com/

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CHEF MARCUS SAMUELSSOM'S Black Panther Breakfast Recipe Makes 2-3 servings. Ingredients Gnocchi ( buy from your local grocery store) Hominy (canned ) Béchamel ¼ cup of unsalted butter ¼ cup of flour 1 qt of milk 1 tsp of salt Cheddar Cheese (shredded) Parmesan Cheese (shredded) Diced pork belly Minced habanero peppers Eggs Directions Cheese Sauce • Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat, once butter is melted stir in flour until it is smooth; continuing stirring until flour is light brown then lower the heat and continue to cook for five minutes. • In a separate pot bring milk to a simmer then add the hot milk to the roux while continuously stirring. • Allow to cook on low heat for about 15 mins or until you no longer taste flour • Then add your shredded cheese and stir until well blended Making the breakfast • In boiling salted water blanch off your gnocchi, for 30 secs or until they float • In a medium sauté pan, make sure your pan is hot, add a tsp of olive oil then render down your pork belly. Drain excess fat but leave some in the pan for flavor. • Next add in the diced habanero and the blanched gnocchi. Cook until the gnocchi is golden brown on each side. • Then add in your cheese sauce; add in veg stock if the consistency is too thick . • In a separate small frying pan, cook your eggs sunny side up • Assemble https://marcussamuelsson. n. com/recipe/black-panther-breakfast-recipe https://marcussamuelsson. n. com/

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Any Night Roast Salmon Method: 1. Remove the muscle on the side of each scallop and discard. Then lay your scallops on a plate lined with a paper towel. 2. In a large bowl, mix the mango, avocado, red pepper, red onion and chutney. 3. Heat a large skillet (big enough not to crowd the scallops) and season the scallops on both sides with sea salt. 4. Add enough Canola oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Just before it starts to smoke, add the scallops and cook until you get a beautiful brown sear – about 2 minutes per side (no more than that as they can overcook very quickly). Remove to clean paper towels. 5. Divide the relish among 4 plates, spooning into the center of each plate to create height. To ﬁnish, top each plate with 3 scallops. Serve while the scallops are still warm Image credits: Many Kitchens

Serves: 4 Ingredients: 1 pound salmon filet, cut into 4 portions Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 1/4 cup Basbaas Tamarind Date Sauce 1 lemon, cut into wedges Method: Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the salmon filets, skin side down, on the sheet. Season each piece generously with salt and pepper and then evenly divide the Basbaas Tamarind Date Sauce between them and spread to cover. Roast the salmon until the pieces are firm to the touch and begin to flake when pierced with a paring knife, about 15 minutes. Transfer the salmon to a serving platter and serve immediately with the lemon wedges for squeezing over.

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ince people from all walks of life really enjoy Down South cooking, NFL Pro Reggie Kelly thought, why not bring a piece of the South to their homes. Reggie and his wife founded KYVAN® FOODS. KYVAN® Foods is a supplier to great customers like Kroger, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Firehouse Subs, Performance Foodservice, Hot Shots Distributing and more. As stated by Reggie, “It’s my goal to pass down to my kids (Kyla & Kavan) and to everyone the gift passed down to me… An Appreciation Of Good Food.” Thanks and God Bless! Website: http://kyvan82.com Shop Online: http://kyvan82.com/store Store Locator: http://kyvan82.com/storelocator

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50 in 50: Best Black-Owned Soul Food Spots in Each State By DeAnna Taylor

oul food has been a staple among Black families for decades. The delicious cuisine has now made its way around the country, and even the world. Check out this list that we’ve curated of the best Black-owned soul food restaurants in each state, including D.C. Alabama Yo’ Mama’s: This Black-owned soul food restaurant can be found in downtown Birmingham. It recently won the award for “Best Lunch” in Birmingham. Must try dish: The shrimp plate.

Alaska Roscoe’s Catﬁsh and Barbecue: It’s pretty hard to ﬁnd soul food restaurants in Alaska, let alone a Black-owned one. Roscoe’s have been serving the Anchorage area since 1988. Must try dish: Alaska seafood gumbo.

Delaware Evelyn’s Soul Food: No matter the time of day, this Wilmington soul food restaurant will hit the spot. Must try dish: smothered pork chops. Florida Nikki’s Place: You can ﬁnd this spot in the Orlando area. Owner Nick Aiken has been in the restaurant biz since the 50s. Must try dish: smothered rib tips. Georgia Busy Bee Cafe: You can’t mention soul food in the ‘A’ without listing Busy Bee. Must try dish: cornbread. Hawaii Hughley’s Southern Cuisine: When you talk about Hawaii, you don’t automatically think about getting soul food, but the option is there. In addition to being Black-owned, it is also run by a military vet. Must try dish: fried chicken wings.

Arizona Stacy’s Off Da Hook BBQ and Soul Food: Chef Stacy Phipps is serious about BBQ. This soul food and BBQ joint has even been recognized by the Food Network. Must try dish: beef ribs. Arkansas Ceci’s Chicken and Waffles: Chef Cicely McDowell is the face behind this Little Rock restaurant. People travel near and far to try some of her amazing food. Must try dish: chicken and waffles. California Comfort LA: This Los Angeles eatery started as a late night pop-up and evolved to a storefront. Jeremy McBryde and Mark E. Walker are the names behind this business. Must try dish: “Cousin Kina’s Mac & Cheese.” Yo’ Mama’s| Facebook Colorado Welton Street Cafe: This Denver-based eatery provides awesome food and service. Must try dish: the cornbread. Connecticut Craig’s Kitchen: Chef Craig Wright serves up some of the best authentic homestyle cooking in the area. Must try dish: chicken and waffles.

Idaho Vivian’s Soul Food: You can ﬁnd this establishment in Cedar Rapids. The meats are wood or charcoal smoked every day in this family-owned restaurant. Must try dish: rib tips and hot links. Illinois Soule Chicago: This North Chicago soul food & creole spot is owned by Bridgette Harris. You can ﬁnd a variety of soul food classics on the menu

including fried ﬁsh and Mac and cheese. Must try dish: blackened catfish.

this cafe brings soul food and cajun food together. Must try dish: cornbread.

Indiana Kountry Kitchen Soul Food Place: Our forever president gave this spot the stamp of approval, as well as several other celebs. It is located in Indianapolis. Must try dish: pork chops.

Massachusetts Daryl’s Corner Bar and Kitchen: This Black-owned restaurant in Boston hosts a Sunday jazz brunch as well. Must try dish: catfish.

Iowa Sugapeach Chicken and Fish Fry: Chef Carol Cater-Simmons is the face behind this north Liberty restaurant. Must try dish: fried chicken. Kansas K.C.’s Authentic Soul Food: Located in Junction City, this is one of the only Black-owned restaurants in the area. Must try dish: chicken wings. Kentucky Shirley Mae’s Cafe: This spot is located in Louisville. You can still ﬁnd Ms. Shirley in the kitchen whipping up her famous dishes. Must try dish: southern fried chicken wings. Louisiana Lil Dizzy’s Cafe: Queen Bey has given this New Orleans spot the stamp of approval several times. If it’s good enough for Bey, then it must be

Michigan Kuzzo’s Chicken and Waﬄes: This Blackowned restaurant in Detroit brings some interesting and unique names to its menu. Must try dish: Big Mama’s. Minnesota Breaking Bread: If you support this Minneapolis establishment, you’ll also be supporting the local community. Now that’s worth the visit. Must try dish: Salisbury steak. Mississippi Johnny T’s Bistro and Blues: Chef Bryan Myrick is said to have a unique approach to southern cuisine. You can ﬁnd the establishment in Jackson. Must try dish: Shrimp and grits. Missouri Niecie’s Restaurant: Denise Ward has been serving the Kansas City area since 1985. Must try dish: homestyle meatloaf. Montana The Sassy Biscuit: This is the only listing for Black-owned restaurants in Montana. The Sassy Biscuit is located in Billings. Must try dish: mac and cheese. Nebraska Quick Bites Soul Food: This Bellevue restaurant opened its doors in 2016. They are open every day except Sunday. Must try dish: cajun shrimp dinner. Nevada Ella Em’s Soul Food: This familyowned restaurant can be found in Vegas. Must try dish: chicken fried steak. New Hampshire We have only found a Blackowned Jamaican spot in New Hampshire. If you know of any Black-owned soul food restaurants, let us know. New Jersey Delta’s Restaurant: Located in New Brunswick, this Black-owned soul food spot is open every day except Monday. With an extensive menu, there is something on there for every taste. Must try dish: Collard Green Dip.

Hughley’s Southern Cuisine| Facebook GREAT. They’ve been around since the 1940’s. Must try dish: fried chicken. Maine We are still searching for Black-owned soul food in Maine. There are a few Ethiopian restaurants instead. Maryland Next Phase Cafe: Located in Baltimore,

New Mexico Mr. Powdrell’s BBQ House: Located in Albuquerque. The focus here is BBQ but there are soul food dishes as well. Must try dish: black-eyed peas.

New York Jacob Restaurant: This Harlem-based soul food spot has been in operation since 2009. They now have two locations. In addition to the soul food, they oﬀer an extensive salad bar too. Must try dish: Fried chicken. see page 164

from page 163

North Carolina Cuzzo’s Cuisine: This Charlottebased restaurant garners rave reviews. What started as a food truck has now grown to a restaurant. Must try dish: lobster mac and cheese. North Dakota Daran’s Southern Soul Food and West Indian Cuisine: Surprise! There are Black people in North Dakota. However, this restaurant has now closed. Ohio Madison Soul Food Kitchen: You can ﬁnd this Black-owned spot in Columbus. It is said to be almost as good as your grandma’s cooking. Must try dish: collard greens. Oklahoma Evelyn’s Soul Food: Owner Wanda J. named the restaurant after her mother. You can ﬁnd this spot in the Tulsa area. Must try dish: peach cobbler. Oregon A Heavenly Taste Cafe: This Portland-based cafe is located on MLK Blvd. The menu includes true soul food staples like neck bones. Must try dish: fried fish. Pennsylvania South: This Philly restaurant won the award for ‘Best Southern Food’ in the area in 2016. Must try dish: Cajun shrimp deviled eggs.

Utah We are still on the hunt for Black soul food in this state. Check back soon. Vermont Jamaican Jewelz isn’t exactly “soul food” but its Black owned and its technically a food truck. If we hear of an actual soul food restaurant popping up, we’ll let you know. Virginia Southern Kitchen: Located in Richmond, this Black owned soul food spot brings people all the way from Northern Virginia just to get a plate on the weekends Must try dish: Catfish dinner. Washington June Baby: This Seattle-based restaurant is a must visit. Must try dish: smothered fried pork chop. West Virginia Sumthin’ Good Soul Food: You can find this restaurant in the city of South Charleston. Must try dish: Smothered Oxtails. Wisconsin Anointed One Soul Food: You can find this restaurant in the Madison area. The chicken and fish are said to be fried to perfection. Must try dish: fried catfish. Wyoming The one Black-owned spot, Simply Soul, has permanently closed. No word on when it will reopen. Kuzzo’s Chicken and Waffles| Facebook

Rhode Island Food For The Soul: Located in Providence, Rhode Island. South Carolina Big Mike’s Soul Food: This family-owned restaurant is in the Myrtle Beach area. Owner Michael ‘Big Mike’ Chestnut opened up shop in 2012. Must try dish: Big Mike’s Special. South Dakota O So Good LLC: Executive chef and co-owner Omar Thornton grew up learning how to make meals from whatever you had. He has now carried that philosophy into this Garretson restaurant. This is one of the only Black-owned spots in the state. Must try dish: BBQ ribs. Tennessee H&T’s Home Cooking: Thomas and Hattie Palin started this restaurant in 2005. The Nashville eatery guarantees that you will always enjoy your meal because “mama is always in the kitchen.” Must try dish: Baked chicken in mushroom sauce dinner on Monday. (Menu changes daily) Texas Mikki’s Soulfood Cafe: This Houston cafe was created by Jeannette Williams and has been serving the area since 2000. They will soon open a second location in Pearland. Must try dish: Smothered pork chops dinner.

Washington, D.C. Oohs and Aahhs: This awardwinning D.C. soul food spot brings folks from near and far, even celebs. They have consistently won awards for the ‘Best Mac and Cheese’ in the area. Must try dish: The mac and cheese.  https://legacy.travelnoire.com/50-in-50-best-black-ownedsoul-food-spots-in-each-state/

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Books to Consider

Books to Consider... The Nickel Boys: A Novel By Colson Whitehead This novel is a bravura follow-up to the Colson Whiteheads's Pulitzer Prize, and National Book Award-winning #1 New York Times bestseller The Underground Railroad.

s the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is "as good as anyone." Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South of the early 1960s, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future. Elwood is sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, whose mission statement says it provides "physical, intellectual and moral training" so the delinquent boys in their charge can become "honorable and honest men." In reality, the Nickel Academy is a grotesque chamber of horrors where the sadistic staff beats and sexually abuses the students, corrupt officials and locals steal food and supplies, and any boy who resists is likely to disappear "out back." Stunned to find himself in such a vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold

onto Dr. King's ringing assertion "Throw us in jail and we will still love you." His friend Turner thinks Elwood is worse than naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. The tension between Elwood's ideals and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades. Formed in the crucible of the evils Jim Crow wrought, the boys' fates will be determined by what they endured at the Nickel Academy. Based on the real story of a reform school in Florida that operated for one hundred and eleven years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers.  www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385537077/ref=dbs_a_def_ rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem: A Memoir

By Daniel R. Day

ith his now-legendary store on 125th Street in Harlem, Dapper Dan pioneered high-end streetwear in the 1980s, remixing classic luxury-brand logos into his own innovative, glamorous designs. But before he reinvented haute couture, he was a hungry boy with holes in his shoes, a teen who daringly gambled drug dealers out of their money, and a young man in a prison cell who found nourishment in books. In this remarkable memoir, he tells his full story for the first time. Decade after decade, Dapper Dan discovered creative ways to flourish in a country designed to privilege certain Americans over others. He witnessed, profited from, and despised the rise of two drug epidemics. He invented stunningly bold credit card frauds that took him around the world. He paid neighborhood kids to jog with him in an effort to keep them out of the drug game. And when he turned his attention to fashion, he did so with the energy and curiosity with which he approaches all things: learning how to treat fur himself when no one would sell finished fur coats to a Black man; finding the best dressed hustler in the neighborhood and converting him into a customer; staying open twentyfour hours a day for nine years straight to meet demand; and, finally, emerging as a world-famous designer

168  July 2019  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

whose looks went on to define an era, dressing cultural icons including Eric B. and Rakim, Salt-N-Pepa, Big Daddy Kane, Mike Tyson, Alpo Martinez, LL Cool J, Jam Master Jay, Diddy, Naomi Campbell, and Jay-Z. By turns playful, poignant, thrilling, and inspiring, Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem is a high-stakes comingof-age story spanning more than seventy years and set against the backdrop of an America where, as in the life of its narrator, the only constant is change. 

to the next. Determined to break out of the defeatist mindset, negative behavior, and bad habits that were holding her back from success, she resolved to change her life. Today, she leads the life of her dreams. In Abundance Now, this icon in the field of personal transformation shares her secrets to creating a life that is rich in every way possible. Focusing on the four areas of life that must be refined to bring true abundance, or the 4 E’s—Enrichment, Enchantment, Engagement, Endowment—Nichols identifies the framework upon which a fulfilled existence is built. Abundance Now offers provocative lessons, actionable plans and reallife case-studies, and makes clear what we must do every day to attract abundance, how to act as if we are already leading abundant lives, and how to open the door to a life of richness in our work, our relationships, our finances, and in our view of ourselves. 

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Beneath the Tamarind Tree: A

Abundance Now:

Story of Courage, Family, and the Lost Schoolgirls of Boko Haram

Amplify Your Life & Achieve Prosperity Today by Lisa Nichols, Janet Switzer

ew York Times bestselling author, Personal Transformation guru, and life coach for the Steve Harvey Show and Today, Lisa Nichols shares her journey from scarcity to abundance, outlining steps everyone can take to create abundance in career, relationships, self, and finances—while creating a legacy for others to follow. Twenty years ago, Lisa Nichols was a single mother dependent on public assistance and jumping from one dead end job

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by Isha Sesay

n the early morning of April 14, 2014, the militant Islamic group Boko Haram violently burst into the small town of Chibok, Nigeria, and abducted 276 girls from their school dorm rooms. From poor families, these girls were determined to make better lives for themselves, but pursuing an education made them targets, resulting in one of the most high-profile abductions in modern history. While the Chibok kidnapping made international t d the th #BringBackOurGirls #B i B kO Gi l headlines, and prompted movement, many unanswered questions surrounding

169  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Books to Consider that fateful night remain about the girls’ experiences in captivity, and where many of them are today. In Beneath the Tamarind Tree, Isha Sesay tells this story as no one else can. Originally from Sierra Leone, Sesay led CNN’s Africa reporting for more than a decade, and she was on the front lines when this story broke. With unprecedented access to a group of girls who made it home, she follows the journeys of Priscilla, Saa, and Dorcas in an uplifting tale of sisterhood and survival. Sesay delves into the Nigerian government’s inadequate response to the kidnapping, exposes the hierarchy of how the news Isha Sesay zimbio.com gets covered, and synthesizes crucial lessons about global national security. She also reminds us of the personal sacrifice required of journalists to bring us the truth at a time of growing mistrust of the media. Beneath the Tamarind Tree is a gripping read and a story of resilience with a soaring message of hope at its core, reminding us of the ever-present truth that progress for all of us hinges on unleashing the potential of women  www.amazon.com/Beneath-Tamarind-Tree-CourageSchoolgirls/dp/0062686674

Eloquent Rage:

A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower

been caricatured into an ugly and destructive force that threatens the civility and social fabric of American democracy. But Cooper shows us that there is more to the story than that. Black women’s eloquent rage is what makes Serena Williams such a powerful tennis player. It’s what makes Beyoncé’s girl power anthems resonate so hard. It’s what makes Michelle Obama an icon. Eloquent rage keeps us all honest and accountable. It reminds women that they don’t have to settle for less. When Cooper learned of her grandmother's eloquent rage about love, sex, and marriage in an epic and hilarious front-porch confrontation, her life was changed. And it took another intervention, this time staged by one of her homegirls, to turn Brittney into the fierce feminist she is today. In Brittney Cooper’s world, neither mean girls nor fuckboys ever win. But homegirls emerge as heroes. This book argues that ultimately feminism, friendship, and faith in one's own superpowers are all we really need to turn things right side up again. www.amazon.com/Eloquent-Rage-FeministDiscovers-Superpower/dp/1250112575

by Brittney Cooper

o what if it’s true that Black women are mad as hell? They have the right to be. In the Black feminist tradition of Audre Lorde, Brittney Cooper reminds us that anger is a powerful source of energy that can give us the strength to keep on fighting. Far too often, Black women’s anger has

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170  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Books to Consider

171  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

BBA 2019 Master Planner

Resource Vault Information

Africa is a Country -- www.africasacountry.com\ Africa World Press Books -www.africaworldpressbooks.com Because Of Them We Can -- www.becauseofthem wecan.com Black Children's Books and Authors -http://blackchildrensbooksandauthors.tumblr. com BlackPast.org -- www.blackpost.org Black Then -- https://blackthen.com Digital Assets Repository -http://dar.bibalex.org/webpages/dar.jsf Elders (The) -- https://theelders.org GhanaWeb -- www.ghanaweb.com iAfrica -- www.iafrica.com Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) -www.youtube.com/user/marquesbrownlee WikiHow -- www.wikihow.com World Library -- www.worldlibrary.org

Media

APO (Africa Wire®/MENA Wire®) -www.apo-opa.com Africa Business Communities -https://africabusinesscommunities.com Africa Interactive Multimedia Press/Content \ Agency in Africa -www.africa-interactive.com Africa News & Stories -- http://africatodaytv.com Africa Newsroom -- www.africa-newsroom.com Africa World Now Project -www.africaworldnowproject.org Africanews. -- www.africanews.com The Africapitalist -www.tonyelumelufoundation.org/africapitalisminstitute/africapitalist-magazine AfricaFocus -- www.africafocus.org The African World -- www.theafricanworld.tv African American Reports -www.africanamericanreports.com Afritorial -- www.afritorial.com www.facebook.com/Afritorial AllAfrica (news) -- http://allafrica.com Bibi-Writes -- https://bibiwrites.com Black Business Directory & Blog -www.blackbusiness.org BlackNews.com -- www.blacknews.com Black Press USA -- www.blackpressusa.com Blavity Inc. -- www.blavity.com The Chocolate Voice -www.thechocolatevoice.com Cybrary -- www.cybrary.it

Dogon Village -- www.dogonvillage.com Face2Face Africa -- https://face2faceafrica.com Informaza - www.infomaza.com Macauhub -- www.facebook.com/Macauhub Red Media Africa -www.facebook.com/RedMedi aAfrica Rock Me Africa -- //rockmeafrica.com Roland Martin Unﬁltered -#RolandMartinUnﬁltered Second Opinion Publications Ltd (The) -- www. facebook.com/thesecondopinion TONL -- https://tonl.co/ United Nations -- http://webtv.un.org

Media/Podcasts, Streams

2 Dope Queens -- www.wnycstudios.org/shows/ dopequeens Africast TV -- www.africast.tv Cape Up with Jonathan Capehart -- https://itunes. apple.com/us/podcast/cape-up-with-jonathancapehart/id1143265842?mt=2 Demand Africa -- www.demandafrica.com DiasporaVoice -www.blogtalkradio.com/diasporavoice Focus On Africa -- https://theafricachannel.com/ shows/bbc-focus-on-africa KweliTV -- www.facebook.com/kwelitv Point Noir -- www.instagram.com/pointnoirshow UN Video -- https://videos.un.org/en YouTube Educational Channels -- http://teacherswithapps.com/197-educational-youtube-channels-know

Media/Publications

African Trade Magazine -www.africantrademagazine.com African Vibes Magazine -- www.africanvibes.com Black Business News Group -www.issuu.com/blackbusinessnews Black Wall Street Times -- http://bwstimes.com BridesNoir -- www.bridesnoir.com CuisineNoir -- www.cuisinenoirmag.com MahoganyBooks -http://blog.mahoganybooks.com/ New Black Magazine (The) -www.thenewblackmagazine.com Publish Africa -- http://wow. gm/publishafrica

Culture/Arts Asako Afrikan Combat Capoeira -www.abibifahodie.com Africa Center (The) -- www.

174  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

theafricacenter.org African Networks -http://afn.bibalex.org/MainPart/About_.aspx African Origins -- www.african-origins.org Almasi Arts -- www.almasiarts.org Because of Them We Can -www.becauseofthemwecan.com Cultural Events/Content -- www.okayafrica.com Fashion For All -- www.fashionforallnyc.org Freedom Park -- www.freedompark.co.za Hungry Black Man -https://thehungryblackman.com Infocus247 -- https://infocus247.com Information for Africa -http://bibalex.org/baifa/en/home/index Library of Alexandria -www.bibalex.org/en/default NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art -www.nkajournal.org Pan African Film Festival -- www.paﬀ.org Paradigm Grey -- www.paradigmgrey.com Shadow & Act -- //shadowandact.com/about-us Travel Noire -- https://travelnoire.com W.E.B. DuBois in Accra -https://webduboiscentreaccra.ghana-net.com

Commerce/Entrepreneurship

#IAMWANDA -- www.facebook.com/IamWANDAorg African Success Stories -- www.risingafrica.org African Technology Foundation -www.thea25n.com BBurb -- https://bburb.com Black CEO Tribe -- www.blackceotribe.com Black Female Founders -www.blackfemalefounders.org Black Wall Street -- www.blackwallstreet.org iBuyBlack.org -- www.ibuyblack.org Jumia -- https://group.jumia.com www.jumia.com.ng Nigeria (Africa) ﬁnancial news -- //nairametrics.com She Leads Africa -- http://sheleadsafrica.org Shoppe Black -- https://shoppeblack.us

Organizations Africa's Brain Bank -- www.facebook.com/ AFRICASBRAINBANK / African Leadership Forum -http://afrialeadership.org African Union -- www.au.int/en Africans in Boston (AiB) -- //africansinboston.org Black Business Association -- www.bbala.org Black Emergency Managers Association International -www.blackemergmanagersassociation.org

CauseCast -www.causecast.com www. causecastfornonproﬁts.com Color of Change -- www.colorofchange.org Colorintech -- www.colorintech.org Community Healing Network -www.communityhealingnet.org Love Our Girls -- http://logpledge.org/ StayWoke -- www.staywoke.org TimesUp -- www.timesupnow.com United African Organization -http://uniteafricans.org Zambia-USA Chamber of Commerce -www.zambiausachamber.org

Investment/Development Africa Reports -- www.africareports.com African Development Bank -- www.afdb.org African Export-Import Bank -//afreximbank.com/afrexim/en AfrigadgetTV -- www.afrigadget.com Breaux Capital -- www.breauxcapital.com Disrupt Africa -- http://disrupt-africa.com/ Exchange Magazine (The) -- www.nse.co.ke Harlem Capital -- http://harlem.capital Silicon Harlem -- http://event.siliconharlem.net Ventures -- www.ventures-africa.com

General Explore ideas -- https://ideas.ted.com Quora -- www.quora.com The Undefeated -- https://theundefeated.com

U.S. Government Commerce Department -- www.doc.gov International Trade Administration -http://trade.gov Minority Business Development Agency -www.mbda.gov Power Africa -- www.usaid.gov/powerafrica Small Business Administration -- www.sba.gov State Department -- www.dos.gov Trade Africa -- www.usaid.gov/tradeafrica White House -- www.whitehouse.gov

175  July 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

176  July 2018  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819