June 2019

YOUR LINK TO AFRICAN AMERICAN BUSINESS OWNERS A MULTIPLE AWARD WINNING PUBLICATION

$2.50 JUNE 2019

Launch of WorkSmart Program Hip Hop Winery

FINAL EDITION

Sephora Diversity Training Aretha Franklin Makes History

Publisher's Message “Still Somethings to Celebrate”

W Earl “Skip” Cooper, II Pubisher/Editor-In-Chief

e have reached the mid-point of the year and while there has been a plethora of negative news and incidents there are still circumstances and achievements to celebrate and raise to the forefront.

Black Music Month

The Black Business Association (BBA) celebrates African American Music Appreciation Month each year with its Awards Dinner because this genre is key to our people as a major component of our culture and history and must be honored. But, from the BBA perspective, Black Music is an economic force for us as a people and for the national and worldwide economy.

The BBA will honor Vicki Mack Lataillade, Byron J. Smith and Lisa Collins this year in "celebration of Gospel Music, the business behind the music".

Please show your support by attending the annual event on June 18th at the California African American Museum in Los Angeles.

Now, more than ever before, these talented people are able to expand their reach and earn "money" outside of the music business. Musical icons such as Aretha Franklin, Prince, and Michael Jackson did so much during their lifetimes; they changed the industry for current and future stars.

Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, Diddy, Will Smith, Beyoncé, and others have expanded their talents into business investments, TV and film performances, and production and publications. The BBA will also recognize the significance of Hip Hop music.

We, as African American consumers, have also grown in our acceptance of our stars being multitalented. We are very willing to support our stars of music where ever they present themselves.

The BBA celebrates this special genre not only because it is so important to all of our cultural lives that it has a designation of a month of recognition but because the economic value is so great.

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ontinuing the celebration theme for June, I am encouraging us to embrace

celebrations of Juneteenth* (June 19th). There are events all across the USA to remind us of this key a milestone in our African American heritage and USA history. The 2019 celebrations are especially important because this is also the year in which we are officially recognizing that it has been 400 years since the first African slaves were delivered to the shores of Virginia (H.R. 1242 www.congress.gov/bill/115thcongress/house-bill/1242).

The official acknowledgment of the 400 years of progress continues through 2020. There is time to create and produce your own commemorative celebration and surely time to support those events that will be taking place in your neighborhood.

What is there to celebrate about slavery? Nothing about slavery itself but we celebrate what those in slavery have accomplished in that time period - including ending slavery. The 20 Africans that had been captured in Angola and delivered to Virginia have grown into a multi-million-member population, have established a trillion-dollar economic base, have established schools and colleges, have defined the culture of the nation and possibly the world, have demolished slavery in the USA, continue to campaign for equal treatment of all communities in America, have even elected a president of the USA, and so much more.

Yes. We have much to celebrate and give ourselves credit for, however, we also know that after we celebrate we have to continue the struggle for human rights and democracy in the USA and around the world.

O

ne other celebration honored around the world is the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. And whatever each person may think of war and any particular war, we honor and respect the sacrifice that our military men and women made on our behalf. Our special concern is that the African American and African military are not ignored when these celebrations and remembrances are held.

"They were there, landing under brutal fire early on June 6, 1944. The men of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion were packed tight with infantry troops aboard small metal boats that motored toward the Normandy coast obscured by smoke and fire. It was a harrowing ride, and even worse when they landed as early as 9 a.m.

They were charged with raising a curtain of hydrogenfilled balloons over the beaches anchored to steel cables. Tucked under the 125-pound gasbags were small bombs the size of a soda can. A dive-bombing German plane that hit the cable risked being blown to bits. But until the beaches were cleared of small arms fire, the balloon flyers were infantry troops. They dug trenches, rounded up German prisoners and prayed

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

they would survive the worst day of their lives.”

It is important that we remember that over 2.5 million African Americans men registered for the draft in WWII, and Black women also volunteered in large numbers.

They experienced discrimination and segregation but met the challenge and George Davison scrawled the names of his buddies from the persevered.

It was 320th on this snapshot taken in Octeville, France in July 1944. that experience that Davison noted his place in the back row. Bill Davidson / Linda convinced many of these Hervieux veterans to continue their struggle for equality when they returned home to the U.S. They became the foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement – a movement that changed the face of our nation and inspired millions of repressed people around the globe.

African Americans and Africans served in these military services even though their direct benefit was not evident. Our men and women have struggled toward freedom in every facet of the national life of the USA. We give honor and recognition to those that have served and who are in the modern-day military service.

O

ne of the trends that we need to give attention to and express appreciation of is a Free Press - one of the pillars of a democratic society. The celebration of World Free Press Day is a low-key event celebrated in May even though it is a very important recognition process instituted by the United Nations.

We can't forget what the concept of a Free Press has come to mean over the history of sharing information through print, broadcast and now digital tools. There has not always been "Free Press" in all parts of the world or in the USA. And the concept of "Fake News" reflects the deterioration of our great democracy.

A Free Press was critical to the success that was experienced during the Civil Rights Movement.

Currently, the president of the United States is openly attacking the Free Press when the information shared is contrary to his point of view and the message he is touting to influence his base. The Republican Senators and Congressional Representatives in Washington, D.C. allow him to undermine the foundation of our Democracy and not represent their sworn oath of office.

“I do solemnly swear (or confirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter; so help me God.” www.bbala.org *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth **www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/remembering-d-day-s-african-american-soldiers-veteransday-n682016

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

ASSOCIATE EDITORS Sarah Harris Dean L. Jones Phyllis Dixon

ENTREPRENEUR EDITOR Kim Anthony

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Linda Ware

PRODUCTION MANAGER Narishima Osei

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

STORY EDITORS Wanda Flagg Jennifer Marie Hamilton

PHOTOGRAPHY Ian Foxx Sabir Narishima Osei

CONTENT ADMINISTRATOR La Sandra Stratton

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: holidaysofyear.com

3  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

About

ABOUT THE BLACK BUSINESS NEWS GROUP‌ 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 aecting small businesses across the United States of America (USA), providing guides to greater access to ďŹ nancial capital, management eďŹƒciencies, business education, mentorship opportunities and social media networks. The goals of the Black Business News Group include: •

promoting USA-based black-owned business enterprises to a world wide audience.

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oering business growth enhancing information on education, exhibitioning, international trading, technology, industry trends, and more.

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exploring major public and private sector contracting methods to educate s. black-owned and operated enterprises.

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or providing an aďŹƒrmative inuence for nemerging entrepreneurs by sharing inal novative design and creative cultural content that exposes them to the his-tory of black enterprises and urgess them to participate in the USA’s fu-ture.

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advocating and promoting on behalf of black-owned businesses by promoting the need for expanding an economic foundation that supports an unfettered and self-sustained urban society with USA job creation and economic opportunity, where blacks work, live and operate viable business enterprises.

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Contents

Black Business News…June 2019 2

Publisher's Message

Government 8

14 15 16 17 18

19 21

House Passes Sweeping Antidiscrimination Bill to Expand Protections of LGBT People What's Keeping Harriet Tubman off the $20?

Student Loan Fairness Act This Black Woman Wants to Become the Mayor Of Florence, Italy The Mueller Report - Now Available NASA Opens the International Space Station to Commercial Ventures New Restrictions on U.S. Travel to Cuba 50 Africa Sidesteps Tariffs, Starts Free-Trade Pact

Entertainment 10 12 22 28 30

Proclamation on African-American Music Appreciation Month, 2019 African American Musicians Who Died in 2018 BBN Show Biz Buzz Aretha Franklin Makes History with Posthumous Pulitzer Win Michael Jackson’s Influence on Culture Proves Immortal 10 Years After His Death

Editorials/Perspectives 50

Mobilizing the Poor People’s Campaign

Business 36 38 39 40 42

This Black-Owned Company Can Help You Trace Your African Lineage Blavity Co-Owner Morgan DeBaun Launches the WorkSmart Program Sonita Alleyne to be First Black Leader of an Oxbridge College Facebook 2020: Trump Concentrates Campaign There?

How Email Marketing Can Boost Startup

43 54 55 68

Companies?

The US is to Blame for Global Erosion of Human Rights, says Top UN Official The Black Man Behind the Northwest’s Only Hip Hop Winery Sephora to Shut U.S. Stores for Diversity Training After SZA Racial Profiling Claim 4 Strategies for Dynamic Storytelling That Will Catapult Your Brand

Community/Public Interest 74 78 79 80 82

First Black-Owned Urgent Care Center Opens on Chicago's Southside 200 African Americans to Get Ghanaian Citizenship Ghana, Jamaica Waive Entry Visa Requirements for Citizens Billionaire Philanthropist Vows To Pay Off Morehouse College Grads’ Student Debt Meet Yale's First Black Student Body President

Obituary/Memorials 86 90

Patricia Bath, Pioneering UCLA Ophthalmologist and Inventor, Dies at 76 Lawrence Leathers, Grammy-Winning Jazz Drummer, Victim of Suspected Murder

International 94 97

Trade Mission to South Africa Ghana Cocoa Products are Hot Cakes in China 99 Kenya's President asks Muslims to Help Fight Extremism 100 Barbados Drops Visa Requirements for these 8 African Nations

Columns 60 95

109 169 174 176

Take A Look!

African Stock Exchanges Shopping Gallery Books to Consider...

BBA 2019 Master Planner Resource Vault

5  June 2019  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

16

Government - Finance

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awmakers play a vital role in helping Americans save for retirement. The laws that members of Congress help put in place create incentives for certain behavior while discouraging other actions, and in the retirement context, the trend over the past several decades has moved toward greater personal responsibility. In particular, the shift from employerprovided pensions to workplace 401(k) plans and IRAs has put the responsibility to save enough for retirement in workers' hands.

One benefit of the retirement accounts that lawmakers have put in place is that they can also allow those who are fortunate enough not to use up all their retirement savings to pass the money down to their loved ones in a tax-friendly way. However, recent legislation would take away a substantial portion of the benefits that those inheriting IRAs and 401(k)s have enjoyed up to this point. With a bill already having passed the House and headed to the Senate, fears are mounting that a significant aspect of many people's retirement and estate planning is about to get taken away forever.

What lawmakers are thinking The threat to retirement savers comes from a bill that's intended to protect them. The

Setting Every Community Up For Retirement Enhancement Act -- better known by its acronym, the SECURE Act -- includes a host of provisions that would be favorable to retirement savers. IRA contributions would be allowed past the current limit of age 70 1/2, and retirees wouldn't have to start taking required minimum distributions from traditional IRAs and 401(k) s until their 72nd birthday. Other provisions would give employers greater latitude in crafting retirement plans, including making it easier to offer annuity products and allowing employers to increase the amount that workers contribute automatically if those workers don't choose to opt out.

Yet as with everything in Washington, these benefits would come at a cost. The version of the SECURE Act that the House passed includes provisions that would no longer allow those inheriting IRAs and 401(k) accounts to use what are known as stretch IRA strategies to extend the use of retirement accounts over the course of their own lifetimes.

Losing the stretch The way the stretch IRA strategy works is to allow heirs to take withdrawals from inherited retirement accounts using their own life expectancies. Without the

6  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Washington Threatens to Change Retirement Planning Forever

By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

benefit of stretch IRA rules, current guidelines typically require heirs who aren't the spouse of the deceased retirement account owner to withdraw all of the money from the account within five years of death. The problem with that treatment is that heirs then find themselves in a situation in which they're required to take withdrawals even if they're in the middle of their careers and have no use for the money. Moreover, with traditional IRAs and 401(k)s, the withdrawals are subject to tax, which can push heirs into higher tax brackets and create tax planning problems.

The SECURE Act as passed by the House would give heirs a bit more time to stretch out their distributions.

The new rule would provide a 10-year time limit for assets to remain in the inherited retirement account.

Moreover, some experts dispute the idea that eliminating the stretch IRA would actually raise revenue for the federal government. Although it would require heirs to pay taxes more quickly on the money they inherited within retirement accounts, it would also dissuade some older retirees from making moves like Roth conversions in an attempt to take advantage of the stretch IRA provisions.

For those who oppose the changes to the stretch IRA provisions, things look fairly bleak. Although Washington gridlock has stymied many attempts to pass legislation, the SECURE Act passed the House with broad bipartisan support and a vote of 417-3.

Moreover, although the Senate has a slightly different version of the bill that it's considering independently, that version would limit stretch IRA distributions to 5 years rather than 10 years. That makes any hope for a reconciled version of the legislation that would eliminate the changes to stretch IRAs much less likely.

The SECURE Act isn't quite a done deal at this point, but the odds of its passage are high, and that's bad news for those hoping to use retirement accounts as estate planning tools. If stretch IRAs get eliminated, then it'll mean a huge shift in the way people plan for retirement -- and it'll come at a moment at which most people won't have any time to make an effective response in their financial planning.  https://finance.yahoo.com/news/washingtonthreatens-change-retirement-planning-120400216. html?.tsrc=daily_mail&uh_test=1_02

Counting on gridlock 7  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Government - Equality Act

House Passes Sweeping Anti-discriminatio to Expand Protections of LGBT People

By Emily Tillett and Rebecca Kaplan

trapdoorblogdotcom.wordpress.com

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emocrats in the House have approved a sweeping anti-discrimination bill that would extend civil rights protections to LGBT people by prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The measure passed a vote of 236 yeas to 173 nays with eight Republicans joining Democrats in support of the bill.

Called the Equality Act, the legislation updates existing federal nondiscrimination laws, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act, to confirm that discrimination based on sexual orientation

or gender identity is unlawful discrimination based on sex. It would extend protections to employment, housing, loan applications, education, public accommodations and other areas.

The bill is a top priority of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said it will bring the nation "closer to equal liberty and justice for all." Co-sponsor of the bill, Rep. David N. Cicilline, D-Rhode Island, said the "LGBT community has waited nearly 250 years" for such legislation to pass.

"Equal treatment under the law and a commitment

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on Bill

to fairness and equality are founding values of our country. Discrimination of any kind is wrong and no one should ever be treated as less than equal because of who they are or who they love," said Cicilline, who called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring the bill to the floor as soon as possible.

Many of the 2020 Democratic contenders also came out in support of the legislation including Sens.

Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris as well as Julian Castro, Beto O'Rourke and Pete Buttigieg. The candidates all implored their Republican colleagues to seriously consider the legislation.

The measure has the support of a variety of LGBT advocacy groups, including The Trevor Project, the world's largest suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ youth, who called the move a "monumental step" for equal rights protections, as well as of one the country's largest labor unions, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW).

"Today's passage of the Equality Act by the House is a powerful step toward a future where millions of LGBTQ Americans and their families no longer have to worry about facing discrimination at work or in their communities. Too many Americans live in states with outdated laws that leave our LGBTQ neighbors, friends, and family vulnerable to discrimination," UFCW OUTreach Chair Michele Kessler said in a statement.

"We are proud to stand with Americans across the country in support of the Equality Act and urge the Senate to do the right thing and pass this bill immediately."

But most Republicans voted against the bill on Friday, calling it another example of government overreach.

Many spoke out during the debate.

Republican Congressman Ross Spano of Florida went so far as to quote Coretta Scott King, the wife of Civil Rights champion Martin Luther King Jr., in his floor speech opposing the bill.

"Coretta Scott King wisely said, 'Freedom is never really won. We earn it and win it in every new generation,'" Spano said Friday. "H.R. 5 is bad for freedom. You see, it would immediately expose churches, religious schools and universities and faithbased organizations to legal liability for simply following their earnest beliefs."

A similar bill in the Senate faces long odds in the Republican-controlled chamber, something Lamda Legal, a legal advocacy group that works to protect the rights of the LGBT community, knows fully well.

"We know the Equality Act faces an uphill battle in the U.S. Senate. It shouldn't. LGBT Americans continue to face appalling, unjust discrimination in many aspects of their everyday lives. We know this from the thousands of calls Lambda Legal's Help Desk gets each year from all corners of our country. Specifically, we know that workplace discrimination is one of the most frequent problems that LGBT people face. Workplace equality has been a top priority for Lambda Legal since our founding nearly 50 years ago, and remains one today," said Lambda Legal Interim CEO Richard Burns.

"We call on the Senate to give the Equality Act the full, fair and comprehensive consideration it deserves," Burns added.

President Donald Trump, who reportedly opposes the bill, is widely expected to veto the legislation if it ever reaches his desk  www.cbsnews.com/news/house-passes-sweepinganti-discrimination-bill-to-expand-protections-of-lgbtpeople/

9  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Black Music Month - Proclamation



Proclamation on African-American Music Appreciation Month, 2019

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hroughout American history, AfricanAmerican music has reflected our Nation’s challenges and triumphs and has always enriched our Nation’s culture. During AfricanAmerican Music Appreciation Month, we pay tribute to the talented and inspiring AfricanAmerican artists who have given sound and voice to the full range of human emotions through the blues, jazz, gospel, rock and roll, rap, hip hop, and other genres.

Last year, we lost one of our Nation’s most beloved African-American musicians, songwriters, and singers, Aretha Franklin, the “Queen of Soul.” She was an 18-time Grammy Award winner and the first female artist inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. During her extraordinary career, Franklin infused her talent and unmistakable style into gospel, rhythm and Aretha Franklin ew.com blues, rock and roll, jazz, and even opera. Her songs are treasures of the American music canon.

A recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Arts, Franklin’s imprint on America’s soundscape is timeless. She will forever reign as a luminary of African-American music.

This month, we celebrate the countless contributions of African-American singers, composers, and musicians, who have influenced and shaped every genre and style of music. They have turned universally shared emotions and experiences of suffering, joy, passion, pain, faith, injustice, and love into art that speaks to the heart and spirit of any American. African-American music has the power to encourage, inspire, and affect social change.

It transcends time, compelling generation after generation to sing, dance, think, and feel, and it endures in our culture, our history, our spirit, and our collective national soul.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2019 as AfricanAmerican Music Appreciation Month. I call upon public officials, educators, and all the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate activities and programs that raise awareness and appreciation of African-American music.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand nineteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-third.  www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-african-american-music-appreciation-month-2019/

10  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Black Music Month - In Remembrance

African American Musicians Who Died in 2018

By Kesha Vontreese

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oy Hargrove, a virtuoso trumpeter who became a symbol of jazz’s youthful renewal in the early 1990s, and then established himself as one of the most respected musicians of his generation, died on Friday, November 2, 2018 in Manhattan. He was 49. Image credit: jazzpolice.com. 

his youth, inspiring anti-apartheid activist Father Trevor Huddleston to give him his first trumpet. Maskelea threw himself into music, and began playing with various groups and honing his distinctive "Afro-Jazz" style.

The musician reached international prominence in the 1960s, and began writing songs with more of a political bent in the following decades – most notably, "Bring Him Back Home," the 1986 anthem championing Nelson Mandela. Masekela continued to tour and perform solo and with other notable acts, including Paul Simon and Fela Kuti. In 2010, he was awarded South Africa's highest honor: the Order of Ikhamanga in gold. Image credit: theguardian.com. 

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S

onny Fortune, who died on October 25, 2018, was known for his stalwart command not just of the alto saxophone, his primary instrument, but also of the flute, clarinet, and soprano, tenor and baritone saxophones. Image credit: Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times. Image credit: bachddsoc.org. 

ew Orleans rapper Young Greatness was fatally shot on the morning of October 29, 2018 outside a local Waffle House.

The rapper, whose real name is Theodore Jones, was signed to Cash Money Records and was most well known for his 2015 single, "Moolah." Image credit: jazzpolice.com. 

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J

azz musician Hugh Masekela died on January 23, 2018 at the age of 78. He had been battling prostate cancer. Masekela was born in South Africa in 1939.

He began getting into "trouble with the authorities" in

n June 18, 2018, 21-year-old rapper Jimmy Wopo – born Travon Smart – was killed in a drive-by shooting in Pittsburgh, PA. He made his first high-profile appearance with his 2016 breakout single, "Elm Street", which Complex included in the "'Bout to Blow: 10 Dope New Songs You Should Be Hearing Everywhere Soon" list. Image credit: urbanislandz.com. 

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apper XXTentacion, born Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy, was shot and killed on June 18, 2018.

The 20-year-old rapper's last album dropped in March 2018 and debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 chart.

Image credit: vibe.com. 

C

raig Mack the rapper died on March 13, 2018. Mack had a relatively successful career in the rap world in the late '90s and early 2000s.

Mack, who was 46, passed away from heart failure. Image credit: 102jamz. radio.com. 

O

n August 16, 2018, Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, died after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 76 years old.

Franklin passed away in her Detroit home surrounded by close friends and family. A few days prior to her death, media outlets reported Franklin was in hospice care. See page 26 for an in depth story. Image credit: matthewjordansmith.blogspot.com. 

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ennis Edwards, the lead singer of The Temptations, died on February 2, just days before his 75th birthday. According to his wife Brenda, he had suffered complications from meningitis.

Edwards joined The Temptations in 1968; he replaced original lead singer David Ruffin. He was with the group through their heyday, and sang on hits including "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" and "Just My Imagination."

Edwards was fired from the group in 1977, and though he returned to them a few times, mostly focused on his

solo career after that.

Edwards was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with The Temptations in 1989, and received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy with the group in 2013 as well. Image credit: detroitnews.com. 

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vonne Staples, part of the singing trio the Staple Singers, passed away at 81 in April 2018.

The Staples Singers were popular in the gospel, R&B, and soul scene throughout the 1970s and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.

Image credit: tributes.com. 

N

ancy Wilson released albums from the early ’50s into this decade recording more than 70 albums and winning three Grammy Awards: Best Rhythm & Blues Recording for “How Glad I Am” (1965), Best Jazz Vocal Album for R.S.V.P. (Rare Songs, Very Personal) (2005), and Best Jazz Vocal Album for Turned to Blue (2007). Image credit: fox40.com. 

A

hmed Janka Nabay, 54, Bubu music pioneer, died 4/2/18 of a stomach ailment. A musician from Sierra Leone, he was the “King of Bubu,” an ancient folk style of music from his country that features musicians blowing into bamboo pipes of various sizes. Nabay was not only a star as a musician in his native country, he became a political force, which necessitated his fleeing to the US and ending up in New York City a decade later and formed The Bubu Gang, eventually inking a deal with David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label, on which he released En Yay Sah (2012) and Build Music (2017). He died in his native Sierra Leone, when visiting for the first time in 15 years.

Image credit: segbwema.blogspot.com. 

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

Government - Currency Challenge

What's Keeping Harriet Tubman off the $20?

By Mike Bebernes

fortune.comn

W

hat's Happening: Harriet Tubman, the famed abolitionist who freed slaves using the Underground Railroad, was scheduled to replace Andrew Jackson as the face of the $20 bill in 2020. However, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said during a congressional hearing last week that the redesign had been delayed until at least 2028.

The decision to make Tubman the first African-American to appear on U.S. paper currency came out of a 10-month public comment process by Barack Obama's Treasury Secretary Jack Lew in 2016. The 2020 date was chosen to mark the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote in America.

Mnuchin explained the delay by saying the treasury was focused preventing counterfeiting, rather than changing the imagery on its bills.

Why There's Debate: The decision to replace the image of a slaveowning former president with that of black woman who freed slaves received strong praise from many when it was initially announced.

Trump called the choice "pure political correctness" and suggested she should be on the $2 bill instead.

Mnuchin's limited responses to inquiries from Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., about the delay during last week’s hearing have led some to question whether there are other motives behind the decision.

One of Tubman's living

descendents said the delay "smacks of racism."

Pressley argued that it was part of a longstanding trend of overlooking the role of women and people of color in American history.

"People other than white men built this county," she said. Others have suggested it is consistent with of a revisionist history among some conservatives who downplay the horrors of slavery.

Others see less malicious reasons for the delay, such as Trump's known fondness for Jackson as a leader or Trump’s pattern of undoing decisions made by Obama.

What's Next: A bill that would force the Treasury to put Tubman on the $20 bill by the end of 2020 was introduced in both houses of Congress earlier this year. If it isn't passed, it will be up to Mnuchin, or whoever comes after him, to decide if and when the change will be made.

In the meantime, some activists are taking the matter into their own hands by stamping Tubman's face over current versions of the bill.  https://news.yahoo.com/whats-keeping-harriettubman-off-the-20-201952646.html?.tsrc=daily_ mail&uh_test=1_02

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

Government - Financial Services

Student Loan Fairness Act

In April, my office hosted a forum on the rising amount of crippling student loan debt future generations are taking on. During this event, members of my staff sat down to hear your stories and discuss ideas you had for student loan debt reform.

I wanted to let you know that I've introduced the Student Loan Fairness Act of 2019, which incorporates ideas from this event into a plan for reform.

I believe that it is shameful that in this day and age, students are deprived access to their dreams because of their debt. At this very moment, more than 43 million U.S. student borrowers collectively owe $1.4 trillion and counting in student loans. That’s millions unable to buy their first car; millions more unable to buy their first home – millions of dreams on hold until their debt is repaid.

The Student Loan Fairness Act of 2019 addresses this crisis head-on in three major ways: 1. A New “10-10” Standard: Makes it so that if you are still paying off your debt after making ten years-worth of payments at 10% of your discretionary income, your remaining federal student loan debt would be forgiven.

2. Capping The Interest Rate: Caps federal interest rates at 3.4% and allow existing borrowers whose educational loan debt exceeds their income to convert their private loan debt into federal Direct Loans and then enroll their new federal loans into the 10/10 program.

3. Accounting For Cost Of Living: Requires the Department of Education to incorporate regional variation in the cost of living into monthly student loan payment amounts.

BECOME A CITIZEN COSPONSOR Your support for this effort is vital to its success, which is why we are launching a citizenship cosponsorship program so that you can voice your support for this piece of legislation. To learn more about the bill and submit your support visit: https://bass. house.gov/student-loan-fairness-act-2019.

Sincerely,

Karen Bass Member of Congress 37th Congressional District of California

15  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Government - International

This Black Woman Wants to Become the Mayor Of Florence, Italy

By DeAnna Taylor

F

lorence, Italy is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Sadly, there are some ugly truths unfolding there as well. The city has seen an increase in discrimination and violence against immigrants and minorities since they elected Matteo Salvini, in 2018. Sound familiar?

Antonella Bundu, a Black woman with French and Senegalese roots, wants to change this. She entered the mayoral race in hopes of turning things around for the voiceless. If successful, she will be the first Black woman to hold the office.

“Until a few months ago I never imagined I could take on such a role,” Bundu told the Guardian. “Then a movement tied to the left invited me to speak at the Alfieri Theatre in Florence. I was given one word on which to improvise a seven-minute speech.

The word was ‘black’. Without hesitation I poured out about what was happening in Italy. I spoke about myself, my story. They must have liked my monologue, because they immediately asked me if I’d be interested in running for mayor’s office.”

Bandu was the lead candidate amongst several other radical-left party candidates throughout the campaign, and was said to be the only one who could drive the current leader out.

The former DJ and activist has a long history with

politics and social justice. She has been in the trenches since the early 80s. When she initially announced her candidacy, many were skeptical that a Black woman was the answer for Florence’s current climate. However, others felt that this was exactly what the city needed.

“Politics is riding a wave of hatred that gets more threatening and unruly every day,” she said. “I too have been a victim of Italian racial hatred.”

“While taking a stroll with my daughter, a woman once called me a ‘dirty nigger’. I sued her, and she was found guilty of racial hatred. What’s worse is that people who insult blacks or beat Africans do so without fear of reprisal, legitimised by the pronouncements of political leaders and a subsequent perception of impunity.”

View her video on Bing at www.bing.com/videos/search ?q=mayor+of+florence+italy&view=detail&mid=645BE6E51 98B66699270645BE6E5198B66699270&FORM=VIRE.  https://legacy.travelnoire.com/black-woman-wants-tobecome-the-mayor-of-florence-italy Image Credits: staging.blavity.com, nrc.nl

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

Government - Investigation Documents

The Mueller Report Now Available to All

T

he full Mueller Report— including both Volumes 1 and 2 issued April 18, 2019— on Donald Trump, collusion, and Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election is now available in several versions offered by several organizations.

The report format publishing is different from organization to organization depending on whether the publisher included commentary, explanations, spin or documents that are not formally part of the report.

There are a sufficient number of published options that, as an interested citizen, you may select the version that meets your needs for understanding whether or the extent of Russian interference and intrusion into the US communication systems as related to information regarding the election process.

A few of the offerings are listed here but by entering "Muller Report" in your Internet browser search field you will be shown a long list of sites where you may order the version

of the report that may best st meet your needs.

One organization that hass published the report stated their reasons for publishing the report in the manner they selected. CharityChannel, the twenty-five-year-old community of nonprofitsector professionals, published hed the Mueller Report for two reasons. easons.

First, it is important to disseminate this report as widely as possible because democracy thrives in the light. We believe that this report casts light that an informed American electorate should consider when electing its leaders, particularly its president—though we acknowledge that the redactions

by the U.S. Attorney General are the subject of much discussion and, in some circles, concern. Second, many will appreciate the availability of this report in a book format. We had the means to rapidly produce the report in an 8 1/2" x 11" book and believe doing so performs a valuable public service. 

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

Government - Technology

NASA Opens the International Space Station to Commercial Ventures

By Christine Fisher

T

he International Space Station (ISS) (is open for business.

NASA announced today (June 7th) that it plans to commercialize the ISS, so that "U.S. industry innovation and ingenuity can accelerate a thriving commercial economy in low-Earth orbit." According to a press release (www. nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-opens-international-spacestation-to-new-commercial-opportunities-private), NASA

The 5 part NASA

plan to commercia

lize the @Space_Stati on: 1) Enable manufa cturing, productio n, and activities 2) 30 day private astronaut mission s 3) Space station p ort for commercia l modules 4) Soliciting busin ess proposals 5) Quantify long te rm demand

will open the space station to private astronauts, as well as commercial product development, testing and manufacturing.

"Providing expanded opportunities at the International Space Station to manufacture, market and promote commercial products and services will help catalyze and expand space exploration markets for many businesses," the agency said. Private astronauts will be granted missions of up to 30 days to work on commercial projects, and we might see products manufactured in space for sale on Earth. NASA is now soliciting proposals for commercial concepts, and at the Nasdaq stock exchange today, it released preliminary pricing.

According to CNBC, NASA has long considered offsetting its operating costs by commercializing the ISS. Perhaps the incentive to finally do so is the fact that private companies like SpaceX (www.engadget. com/2019/03/03/spacex-crew-dragon-docks-with-iss) and Boeing have made advances towards commercial spaceflight (www.engadget.com/2014/08/18/commercialspace-flight-explainer), and Jeff Bezos has revealed his ambitious plans to put manufacturing on the moon

purchasing services from independent, commercial and free-flying habitable destinations in low-Earth orbit." 

(www.engadget.com/2019/05/09/blue-origin-blue-moonlunar-lander). As NASA said in a press release, its

www.engadget.com/2019/06/07/nasa-commercializes-international-spacestation/?utm_medium=techboard.fri.20190607&utm_source=email&utm_ content=&utm_campaign=campaign&guccounter=1

long-term goal is "to become one of many customers

https://www.cnbc.co m/2019/06/07/nasa -opening-iss-tobusiness-includingprivate-astronauts-b y-2020.html

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

Image credits: NASA

Government - New Travel Ban

Trump Administration Puts New Restrictions on U.S. Travel to Cuba

By Sarah Buder The strict measures will ban many forms of recreational travel to the Caribbean island nation.

T

he Trump administration just took major new steps to tighten already tough restrictions on U.S. travel to Cuba.

On Tuesday, June 4th, the Treasury Department announced new Cuba sanctions that include a ban on the educational and cultural group trips known as “people-to-people” travel. According to Treasury Department officials, private and corporate aircraft and boats will also be denied licenses to visit the island nation. The sanctions take effect on Wednesday, June 5 (after they are published in the Federal Register).

The new measures follow a series of sanctions imposed in April 2019 on the Caribbean nation as a response to what U.S. government officials call Cuba’s “destabilizing role” in the Western Hemisphere.

“This administration has made a strategic decision to reverse the loosening of sanctions and other restrictions on the Cuban regime,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a statement. “These actions will help to keep U.S. dollars out of the hands of Cuban military, intelligence, and security services.”

What the ban on “people-to-people” travel means “People-to-people” travel was previously one of 12 categories authorized by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) permitting travel to Cuba for citizens of the United States. According to Collin Laverty, president of Cuba Educational Travel, which organizes curated cultural group trips to Cuba, the “people-to-people” category—designed to encourage meaningful interactions between Cubans and foreign travelers—was the most common category under which U.S. citizens planned visits to Cuba.

While “people-to-people” travel is no longer a permitted license for U.S.-Cuba travel, Laverty says there remain numerous ways to legally visit the country: “The changes do not affect 11 other categories of legal travel to Cuba, including ‘Academic Programs,’ ‘Professional Meetings,’ and ‘Support

for the Cuban People,’ which will allow many U.S. travelers to continue visiting the island.” (For U.S. citizens who’ve already booked trips to Cuba under the “people-to-people” category, Laverty asserts that it’s safe to expect travel plans to move forward as long as reservations were arranged and paid for before the June 4 announcement.)

Still, the Trump administration’s new rules will more than likely “hurt U.S. tour operators and the private restaurants, art galleries, and other small businesses that benefited from people-to-people travel,” says Robert Muse, a lawyer in Washington, D.C., who specializes in travel to Cuba. “[It’s] a pity,” he continues.

“Many genuinely educational [people-to-people] programs are now prohibited.”

The future of U.S. flights and cruises to Cuba The Trump administration’s new Cuba sanctions won’t directly affect commercial airline flights. However, the rules will have a huge impact on cruises from the United States to Cuba. According to Cuba Travel Network founder and CEO Eddie Lubbers, the restrictions mean that U.S.-Cuba cruises will “effectively be shut down, since they will no longer be able to offer travel to Cuba for tourism and educational activities.”

“U.S. cruise ship travel to Cuba is dead, effectively immediately,” adds Muse. “Cruise lines can throw away their 2019, 2020, and 2021 Cuban itineraries. It seems refunds are in order for booked travel.”

How the new restrictions will impact the demand for U.S. travel to Cuba is yet to be seen. Plus, the latest Cuba sanctions might not be the last we’ll see from the Trump administration: The federal government is still reviewing all “non-family travel” to Cuba as part of the heightened sanctions announced earlier this year.  www.afar.com/magazine/trump-administration-puts-newrestrictions-on-us-travel-to-cuba?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_ medium=email&utm_campaign=060419_Trump%20 Cuba_summer%20train%20rides&utm_content=Final&utm_ term=Daily%20Wander%20Newsletter The Associated Press contributed reporting.

19  June 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.

20  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Government - Trade

Africa Sidesteps Tariffs, Starts Free-Trade Pact

By Prinesha Naidoo, Jeremy Diamond

A

frica, largely ignored in a U.S.-China trade war that could roil economies worldwide, is quietly piecing together the world’s largest free-trade

zone.

The African Continental Free Trade Area comes into force on paper on Thursday (June 6, 2019) after the required 22 countries ratified the deal a month ago.

Once it’s passed by all 55 nations recognized as part of the African Union, it would cover a market of 1.2 billion people, with a combined gross domestic product of $2.5 trillion.

The potential benefits are obvious, if the usual hurdles of nationalism and protectionism don’t yet stand in the way.

The deal would help the continent move away from mainly exporting commodities to build manufacturing capacity and industrialize, said Jakkie Cilliers, head of African Futures and Innovation at the Pretoriabased Institute for Security Studies. Boosting intraregional trade would spur the construction of roads and railways, reducing the infrastructure gap in Africa, he said.

Trade between African countries is at 15%, compared with 20% in Latin America and 58% in Asia, according to the African Export-Import Bank. This could increase by 52% by 2022 and can more than double within the first decade after implementing the deal, the Cairo-based lender said in a report last year.

After four years of talks, the mechanics of the agreement will be negotiated in phases and it should be fully in operation by 2030. Non-trade barriers, such as delays at ports, and politics, would have to be navigated before the plan to remove tariffs on 90% of goods can be realized. Negotiators will also have to convince economies reliant on these levies for revenue to let them go.

“This is a technocratic agreement,” said Ronak Gopaldas, a London-based director at Signal Risk, which advises companies in Africa. “It’s aspirational in nature and while the direction is positive, translating what has been agreed by the technocrats and the policy makers into stuff that has a material impact on the ease and the cost of doing business and fosters more integrated markets” will remain challenging, he said.

One hurdle to integration is Nigeria. The country that

vies with South Africa for the title of Africa’s biggest economy, hasn’t signed up yet. Now re-elected, President Muhammadu Buhari is reviewing an impact-assessment report.

Analysts including Tshepidi Moremong, the head of Africa coverage at FirstRand Group Ltd.’s Rand Merchant Bank, say the deal could still face opposition from oligopolies making “super profits” in the West African nation. Nigeria is one of three countries, including Benin and Eritrea, that hasn’t signed the deal. Twenty-two nations, including South Africa, have ratified the text, the next step after signing.

The trade pact’s implementation could also be scuppered if leaders seeking re-election put sovereign interests ahead of the continent, Moremong said.

“In each of our countries, there are proper issues that one needs to deal with and where people need to see that the government is focused on their day-to-day issues,” she said. “Opening up a market for the people from other parts of the continent to freely come and do commerce and trade in your country is going to take a lot.” www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-30/as-trump-and-xibattle-over-trade-africa-moves-to-ban-tariffs Image credit: African Union

World’s Largest Free-Trade Zone Countries joining the African Continental Free Trade Area Unsigned Signed Ratified

Eritrea

Benin Nigeria

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

BBN Show Biz Buzz

By Linda Ware

S

Song For Our People Documentary

ong For Our People, a film from Mustapha Khan, tells the inspiring story of a group of socially-committed professional musical artists who come together one day to create a powerful new anthem to honor their African American ancestors, and to inspire the on-going fight for social justice in America. Featuring renowned New York studio musicians, singers, a rapper and a tap dancer, the film is a celebration and testament to the power of collective action to create both art and social change.

Song For Our People… because the revolution will need a soundtrack.

Central to all of Mustapha’s work is the heart and soul he brings to his films. As he puts it: “My work is about embracing humanity.

Mutapha KhanObama Whether I’m shooting a movie or a commercial, kids or adults, muppets or manatees, celebrities or everyday people — my job is to illuminate what’s beautiful inside of us all.”

In addition to directing, Mustapha Khan is also an acclaimed songwriter and music producer. He is a graduate of Harvard University where he was elected Marshal of his graduating class. He was also the recipient of a Rotary Graduate Fellowship, with which he worked as an anthropologist in Kenya prior to becoming a filmmaker. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and is a film professor at Brooklyn College where he teaches directing. 

ple%e2%80%9d&view=detail&mid=8B601316A201B4140D008B6 01316A201B4140D00&FORM=VIRE

Ethiopian Music to get its Own Phone App

A

mobile phone app that gives users access to an archive of Ethiopian music is being launched in the capital, Addis Ababa.

The app - known by the Amharic word Awter - has taken five years to develop by a team that included well-known composer Elias Melka.

The developers say that a huge range of Ethiopian music will be available covering all genres and languages.

Users will pay 4.50 birr ($0.16, £0.12) to download a single song and 15 birr ($0.52, £0.41) to download an album.

The people behind Awter say the main idea is to raise revenue for all those involved in creating the music. Piracy has meant that the artists and producers rarely get money for their work.

Any tracks downloaded on Awter, which will be available to Android phone users, will not be shareable in order to maximise revenue.

State telecoms company Ethio-Telecom backed the project and will also take a share of the profits.  www.bbc.com/news/live/world-africa-48419494?ns_mchannel=social&ns_ source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=5cee5555556bf60662 71df9b%26Muhammadu%20Buhari%20sworn%20in%20as%20Nigerian%20 president%262019-05-29T09%3A52%3A54.330Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_ locator=urn:asset:2c4334d0-a015-406d-9de1-d4704193b9da&pinned_post_ asset_id=5cee5555556bf6066271df9b&pinned_post_type=share

Hulu's LITTLE FIRES

http://sfbff.org/wordpress/song-for-our-people www.bing.com/videos/search?q=%e2%80%9csong+for+our+peo 22  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Kerry Washington

shadowandact.com

EVERYWHERE Limited Series

L

ittle Fires Everywhere is making its way to television with a limited Hulu series starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington.

Washington and Witherspoon are both listed as executive producers for the show. Their production companies Simpson Street (Washington) and Hello Sunshine (Witherspoon) are responsible for producing the series, alongside ABC Studios.

Washington revealed that the cast has started doing table reads. Though there is no release date for the series as yet, it's likely to come out in 2020.  www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a27542281/little-fireseverywhere-spoilers-rumors-news-date-cast

Jada Pinkett Smith Earns Award and a Starring Role

M

TV has revealed that Jada Pinkett Smith will be honored with the “Trailblazer” Award during the 2019 “MTV Movie & TV Awards.”

The prize, which recognizes game-changing creators in entertainment, will be presented by Pinkett Smith’s “Girls Trip” co-star Tiffany Haddish.

P r e v i o u s recipients of the award include Lena Waithe in 2018, Shailene W o o d l e y , Channing Tatum, Emma Watson and Emma Stone.

“Jada has been a powerhouse since the beginning of her career and has Jada Pinkett Smith achieved multi© Courtesy of Jada Pinkett Smith hyphenate status throughout,” said Amy Doyle, general manager of MTV, VH1, CMT and Logo. “She is the epitome of someone who is not afraid to challenge the status quo and we are thrilled to present her with this year’s Trailblazer Award.”

Pinkett Smith’s most recent work is on the Facebook Watch web series “Red Table Talk,” which she cohosts with her mother and daughter. Film-wise, she is

set to star as an FBI agent in the upcoming “Angel Has Fallen,” the third film in the “Olympus Has Fallen” series which is slated for an August release.

The 2019 “MTV Movie & TV Awards” will air Monday, June 17 at 9:00 PM ET/PT  www.msn.com/en-us/tv/awards/jada-pinkett-smith-toreceive-trailblazer-honor-at-2019-mtv-movie-and-tvawards-exclusive/ar-AACJzRB?ocid=spartandhp

T

2019 BET Awards

he 2019 BET Awards will be held on June 23rd.

The 19th annual event will be hosted by Regina Hall. Presenters that will take the stage include Taraji P. Henson, Lena Waithe, Morris Chestnut, Yara Shahidi and Marsai Martin.

Cardi B leads this year’s nominations with a total of seven, including Best Female Hip-Hop Artist, two separate nods in both the Best Collaboration and Video of the Year categories, Album of the Year and the CocaCola Viewers’ Choice Award.

Drake follows with five nods for Best Male Hip-Hop Artist, Video of the Year, Best Collaboration and the CocaCola Viewers’ Choice Award. Other leading nominees include Beyoncé, Travis Scott and J. Cole, who received four nominations each, with Bruno Mars, 21 Savage, Childish Gambino, H.E.R. and Ella Mai each scoring three nominations.  www.blackculturalevents.com/event/2019-bet-awards/?mc_ cid=26eb1e800d&mc_eid=7406580e64

'Will Smith’s Bucket List' on Facebook Watch

W

ill Smith recently announced his new travel show in collaboration with Facebook Watch, Will Smith’s Bucket List. The significance of shows like Will’s shouldn’t be lost on those who watch, especially black travelers. Black travel shows are few, and those that showcase black families are even fewer (if they exist at all). Having one of the world’s most famous men showing people of color embarking on adventures around the world is a huge deal and it shouldn’t be taken lightly.

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

see page 24

BBN Show Biz Buzz from BBN Show Biz Buzz on page 23

Outside of the obvious and necessary representation that the show provides, Will Smith’s approach to travel “television,” much like his overall brand, incorporates inspiration. It’s not just about seeing these beautiful places; it’s about “overcoming obstacles and punching fear in the mouth.” And don’t we all need a little bit of that in our lives?  https://legacy.travelnoire.com/will-smiths-bucket-list-is-thetravel-show-we-all-deserve/

Will Smith 1031kcda.iheart.com

Higher Ground Partners with Spotify to Produce Podcasts

P

resident Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground, recently announced a partnership with Spotify to produce podcasts exclusive to the platform. The Obamas formed Higher Ground to produce powerful

President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama Associated Press

stories to entertain, inform and inspire, and to lift up new, diverse voices in the entertainment industry.

Spotify, which recently surpassed 100 million Premium subscribers and has more than 217 million monthly active users, will distribute the podcasts to audiences across the globe.

The multi-year agreement will be with Higher Ground Audio, an expansion of the Higher Ground production company that will oversee the move into podcasts.

“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to amplify voices that are too often ignored or silenced altogether, and through Spotify, we can share those stories with the world,” Michelle Obama said. “Our hope is that through compelling, inspirational storytelling, Higher Ground Audio will not only produce engaging podcasts, but help people connect emotionally and open up their minds—and their hearts.”

“President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are two of the world’s most important voices and it is a privilege to be working with them to identify and share stories that will inspire our global audience, which looks to Spotify for unique, breakthrough content,” said Spotify Chief Content Officer, Dawn Ostroff.  https://newsroom.spotify.com/2019-06-06/higher-groundannounces-partnership-with-spotify-to-produce-podcasts

OVO Fest Returns to Toronto

S

peaking in Nathan Phillips Square at the 2019 NBA Championship victory parade for the Toronto Raptors, Drake announced that after taking a year off, OVO Fest will return to Toronto in 2019.

“I hope that all these guys will join me this year, ’cause we’re bringing OVO Fest back so I hope we can go crazy,” he said.

Drake founded OVO Fest in 2010. The annual weekend-long concert is hosted by Drake in his hometown of Toronto and features performances from some of his favorite acts, celebrity friends, and the rapper himself. It often coincides with Caribana in Toronto, which is the first week of August each year.

However, Drake has not held the festival since 2017.

RBC Bank announced that they would be teaming up with October’s Very Own (OVO) to debut the inaugural OVO Summit on Friday, August 2, 2019. OVO Summit will be a conference geared towards Canadian

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

c r e a t i v e s and lifestyle entrepreneurs who are looking to hone their skills, grow their careers, and make a lasting impact on the creative economy in Canada.

“By convening C a n a d i a n s with different backgrounds, skill sets, talents, and aspirations, OVO Summit celebrates the potential of the next generation,” said Matt McGlynn, Vice-President, Brand Marketing of RBC. “Whether you’re an athlete, student, artist, or a globally-recognized institution like OVO or RBC, one thing we all have in common is we’re always chasing new ideas and information to help us on our path to success,” said Oliver El-Khatib, Co-Founder, OVO. “OVO Summit is our chance to curate a relevant educational experience for all the like-minded, driven young Canadians who are passionate about careers in music, sports, arts, and entertainment.”

It’s likely that OVO Summit will serve as a kick-off for OVO Fest. Tickets for the summit go on sale June 24th.  https://legacy.travelnoire.com/drake-confirms-ovo-festtoronto-2019

Netflix Celebrates Clarence Avant in ‘The Black Godfather’ Documentary

N

etflix will pay homage the contributions of entertainment and political mentor Clarence Avant in a new documentary, The Black Godfather. Known as the “original influencer,” Avant was born into the Jim Crow South and fought to combat racism.

Led by Academy Award-nominated director Reginald Hudlin, The Black Godfather features interviews from Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, Bill Withers, Snoop Dogg, Quincy Jones, Diddy, Cicely Tyson, Jamie Foxx and a slew of others.

The documentary’s synopsis reads: “Driven by a

Clarence Avant hipsterzombiejoint.com sense of equality, loyalty, and justice, Avant left the Jim Crow south behind to emerge as a powerhouse negotiator at a time when deep-seated racism penetrated every corner of America. Avant defied notions of what a black executive could do, redefining the industry for entertainers and executives of color and leaving a legacy of altruism for others to emulate.”

In June 2018, the Black Business Association celebrated Mr. Avant with a Lifetime Achievement Award in acknowledgement of his role in and contribution to the continued success of the Black Music business.

The Black Godfather will be available on Netflix and in select theaters on June 7.  www.ebony.com/news/netflix-celebrates-clarence-avant-inthe-black-godfather-documentary/

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

Architecture

2017 Salute to Black Music Awards Dinner

Tuesday, June 20

EXPLORE

ART

0, 2017 Millennium Biltmore Hotel

Downtown Los Angeles, CA

Culture - HIstoric Honor

Aretha Franklin Makes History with Posthumous Pulitzer Win

By Mesfin Fekadu

A

retha Franklin is still getting R-E-S-P-E-C-T after death: The Queen of Soul received the Pulitzer Prize Special Citation honor in April 2019, becoming the first individual woman to earn a special citation prize since the honor was first awarded in 1930.

The Pulitzer board said the award was given to Franklin for “her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades.”

Franklin died on Aug. 16 at her home in Detroit from pancreatic cancer at age 76.

The superstar musician was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when she entered the prestigious organization in 1987.

The Pulitzer board most recently awarded a special citation prize in 2010 to Hank Williams, the country music legend who died in 1953. From the arts world, other recipients include Duke Ellington, Bob Dylan, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, George Gershwin, Ray Bradbury, William Schuman, Milton Babbitt, Scott Joplin, Roger Sessions, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Before the April award, only 41 special citation prizes had been awarded since 1930, and winners have ranged from individual people to organizations and groups, including the New York Times, writers E.B. White, Alex Haley and Kenneth Roberts, and Columbia University and its Graduate School of Journalism. Franklin and the Capital Gazette newspaper received special citation honors this year.

“Aretha is blessed and highly favored even in death.

She’s continued to receive multiple awards — she’s received almost every award imaginable and now to get the Pulitzer Prize, it’s just amazing,” Sabrina Owens, Franklin’s niece and the executor of her estate, said in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday.

“Aretha continues to bless us with her music and just paving the way for women going forward. It’s thrilling.

She would be so happy right now.”

When Owens heard the news that Franklin won a Pulitzer, she and the family were “surprised but in another way we were not because that’s just the kind of person Aretha was.”

“She was just very gifted and talented, and the world is still recognizing that,” she said.

Franklin’s inclusion into the exclusive club reconfirms the impact her music — and voice — had and continues to have on the world. She became a cultural icon and genius of American song, considered by many to be the greatest popular vocalist of her time.

Her voice transcended age, category and her own life.

Franklin was professional singer and accomplished pianist by her late teens and a superstar by her mid20s. Raised in Detroit, she recorded hundreds of tracks and had dozens of hits over the span of a half century, including 20 that reached No. 1 on the R&B charts.

But her reputation was defined by an extraordinary run of Top 10 smashes in the late 1960s, from the morning-after bliss of ”(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” to the wised-up “Chain of Fools” to her unstoppable call for “Respect,” transforming Otis Redding’s song into a classic worldwide anthem — especially for the feminist and civil rights movements — making it one of the most recognizable and heard songs of all-time.

She sold millions of albums and won countless awards, including 18 Grammys, the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

She performed at the inaugurations of Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, and even sang at the funeral for civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks and at the dedication of Martin Luther King Jr’s memorial.

Rolling Stone ranked Franklin No.1 on its list of the Top 100 singers and she was also named one of the 20 most important entertainers of the 20th century by Time magazine, which celebrated her “mezzo-soprano, the gospel growls, the throaty howls, the girlish vocal tickles, the swoops, the dives, the blue-sky high notes, the blue-sea low notes. Female vocalists don’t get the credit as innovators that male instrumentalists do. They should. Franklin has mastered her instrument as surely as John Coltrane mastered his sax.”

Franklin was born in Memphis, Tennessee, though her family moved to Buffalo, New York, and then settled in Detroit. She grew up singing in the church alongside her father Rev. C.L. Franklin, a prominent Baptist minister who recorded dozens of albums of

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

(Ph

hoto by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

sermons and music. She joined him on tour and she released a gospel album in 1956. Four years later, she signed with Columbia Records and when her contract ran out in 1966, she joined Atlantic Records.

That’s when she blazed the pop and R&B charts with a string of hits, including “Respect,” ″I Say a Little Prayer,” ″Think,” ″Chain of Fools,” ″Day Dreaming,” ″(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You’ve Been Gone,” ″Rock Steady” and “Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do).”

Her Grammy-winning album, “Amazing Grace,” is one of the seminal albums in not only Franklin’s discography, but the canon of American pop music. It is the basis for the recently released concert film “Amazing Grace,” filmed over two sessions in January 1972 at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in the Watts section of Los Angeles.  https://apnews.com/fcd43c4d25504d6a803bb35a60c900b7 29  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Culture - HIstoric Perspective

Michael Jackson’s Influence on Culture Proves Immortal 10 Years After His Death

T

en years ago today, the world watched as an emotional Jermaine Jackson announced the shocking news that his brother Michael Jackson, one of the world’s first African-American global icons and a cultural phenomenon by all definitions, had died in Los Angeles at 2:26 p.m.

As dusk fell on June 25, 2009, the Internet became overwhelmed with people desperately searching out news, while hoping it was a hoax or a very bad dream. People wept openly on the street. Impromptu tributes and memorials popped up around the globe.

And Michael Jackson’s name appeared in lights at New York’s famed Apollo Theater one last time as people gathered outside to hold spontaneous moonwalk contests in the King of Pop’s honor.

When dusk became nightfall on that summer evening, his music could be heard blasting from open car windows, restaurants, television sets, computers, and CD players. Groups of people danced together in the street to “Thriller,” to replicate that famous choreographed scene from the video that broke color barriers and sealed Jackson’s place as an iconic crossover artist when it appeared on MTV. People of all ages, races, and ethnicities sang, spun, and danced to the soundtrack of their lives provided by the creative genius that was Michael Jackson.

What he left behind are the indelible and irreplaceable gifts that his work, dedication, and passion produced.

Michael’s unparalleled cultural influence today continues to loom large over music, dance, entertainment, fashion, activism, race, history, and philanthropy.

Across genres and generations, the name Michael Jackson remains unboxed – he was not just the King of Pop, he was more like the King of Lifestyle and Culture. His work set standards; standards even he

devoted time to surpass, as he was admittedly his own most formidable competitor.

Michael’s brilliance, edginess, and courage to explore uncharted territory became part of his brand and influenced a new generation of artists. In 1983, it became clear to the world that Michael was built for super stardom, as his uniqueness could never be considered trend – far from it. He was the first artist to push and define a new concept for music videos; why just tell the story through lyrics when you can give the audience a short film?

The production of “Thriller,” a 13:42 film, was the first of its kind but soon spawned the documentary format in the music industry we know today. Even though MTV played the video in regular rotation, fans wanted on-demand viewing access, which led to the sale of millions of VHS copies of the film, ultimately, driving the increase of album sales as well.

Still making history with his artistry posthumously, on August 13, 2014, Michael’s song "A Place With No Name" marked the first time a music video ever debuted exclusively on Twitter. Other artists quickly followed suit.

His portfolio of legendary collaborations does not fall short of timeless musical greats. Michael worked relentlessly to produce content worthwhile. This called for strategic collaborations and meticulous production.

No song was just a song. No feature was just a feature.

Michael worked alongside the greats -- Diana Ross, Minnie Ripperton, Paul McCartney, Quincy Jones, and Stevie Wonder, just to name a very few.

Each of the collaborations would go on to leave impressionable marks on the industry, topping charts and influencing the music genre, as a whole.

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

see page 32

from page 30

Fast-forward to 2018, Michael’s crossover influence was still evident. Rapper Drake sampled the King of Pop’s vocals on his Scorpion album. The song titled, “Don’t Matter To Me,” went on to earn Michael his 30th Billboard Hot 100 placement, ranking at number nine, nine years after his death. NeYo, Bruno Mars, Janelle Monáe, Chance the Rapper, and Usher all have credited his influence on their work as artists.

Timeless and ubiquitous – two words that could only begin to define his effect on culture. He was so far ahead of his time but ever so present. (l-r) Qunicy Jones, Dionne Warwick , Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie (ge This was evident in the work he produced and the philanthropy he championed. He was never concerned about being the first or the only one; in fact, he embraced his unique, standout appeal and used it to his advantage. That advantage reached far beyond music: he used his platform as a source -- a source for hope, a source for peace, a source for love.

Michael Jackson is gone but the music and his seminal influence on culture will remain into perpetuity.

Perhaps the Rev. Al Sharpton said it best during an interview with CNN three days after Michael’s death, “Michael Jackson made culture accept a person of color way before Tiger Woods, way before Oprah Winfrey, way before Barack Obama. Michael did with music what they later did in sports and in politics and in television. And no controversy will erase his historic impact.”

Supporters of Michael Jackson’s Legacy Michael Jackson broke records and broke barriers.

He was a pioneer in music, art, and entertainment.

He blazed trails and created pathways. He brought people together through his unique gifts to the world: extraordinary music and unparalleled generosity. He achieved more in his brief life than many. He gave more to people in his 50 years than most. What remains is his legacy—immortal, indelible, infinite. These press releases are a dedicated destination to read, learn,

(l-r) Minnie Riperton, LaToya Jackson, and Michael Jackson (gettyimages)

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

President Barack Obama with Michael Jackson (pinterest.com) The Jackson 5 (youtube.com)

ettyimages)

˅ Michael Jackson/Oprah Winfrey

mjworld.net

and reflect on all things Michael Jackson. Archives of all articles can be found on our column in www.EURweb. com under Michael Jackson’s Legacy column.  www.instagram.com/celebratingmj/ www.facebook.com/celebratingmj/ https://twitter.com/celebrating_mj Media Contact: For Interviews Edna Sims, Owner, ESP Public Relations Tel: 310.770.8117 ~ esppr@mac.com Image Credits: www.thefreshmusicpage. com/2010_06_25_archive.html, mjjphotogallery. blogspot.com

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

Business - Trail Blazer Company artist 40 years his junior: “Jay is teaching in a lot bigger classroom than I’ll ever teach in. For a young person growing up, he’s the guy to learn from.” This moment, which was originally captured in our 2010 Forbes 400 package, made it clear that Jay-Z already had a blueprint for his own ten-figure fortune. “Hiphop from the beginning has always been aspirational,” he said.

Less than a decade later, it’s clear that Jay-Z has accumulated a fortune that conservatively totals $1 billion, making him one of only a handful of entertainers to become a billionaire— and the first hip-hop artist to do so.

Jay-Z's steadily growing kingdom is expansive, encompassing liquor, art, real estate (homes in Los Angeles, the Hamptons, Tribeca) and stakes in companies like Uber.

His journey is all the more impressive given its start: Brooklyn’s notorious Marcy housing projects. He was a drug dealer before becoming a musician, starting his own label, Roc-A-Fella Records, to release his 1996 debut, Reasonable Doubt. Since then he’s amassed 14 No. 1 albums, 22 Grammy awards and over $500 million in pretax earnings in a decade.

Crucially, he realized that he should build his own brands rather than promote someone else’s: the clothing line Rocawear, started in 1999 (sold for $204 million to Iconix in 2007); D’Ussé, a cognac he co-owns with Bacardi; and Tidal, a music-streaming service.

Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean, the superproducer behind some of JayZ’s biggest hits (“On To The Next One,” Beyoncé’s “Upgrade U”), looks at Jay-Z as something others can model: “It’s bigger than hip-hop … it’s the blueprint for our culture. A guy that looks like us, sounds like us, loves us, made it to something that we always felt that was above us.”

“If he’s a billionaire now, imagine what he’s about to be,” Swizz Beatz says. “Because he’s only just starting.”

Artist, Icon, Billionaire: How Jay-Z Created His $1 Billion Fortune

By Zack O'Malley Greenburg

N

ine years ago, two unlikely lunch partners sat down at the Hollywood Diner in Omaha, Nebraska. One, Warren Buffett, was a regular there. The other, Jay-Z, was not. The billionaire and the rapper ordered strawberry malts and chatted amiably, continuing the conversation back at Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway offices.

Buffett, then 80, walked away impressed with the

What’s Jay-Z Worth?

To calculate his net worth, we looked at the artist’s stakes in companies like Armand de Brignac

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

champagne, applying our customary discount to private firms. (He owns 100% of Armand de Brignac and has partial ownership of the other companies.)

Then added up his income, subtracting a healthy amount to account for a superstar lifestyle. We checked our numbers with a roster of outside experts to ensure these estimates were fair and conservative. Turns out, Jay-Z really is a business, man.

Armand de Brignac $310 million Jay-Z has used his music to shill the $300 gold bottles of the "Ace of Spades" champagne since launching the brand with the 2006 video “Show Me What You Got." More recently, his verse on Meek Mill’s “What’s Free" put a halfbillion-dollar value on the wine, which seems like a bit too bubbly a number.

Cash & investments $220 million A vast investing portfolio includes a stake in Uber worth an estimated $70 million. He reportedly purchased his piece for $2 million back in 2013—and then wired founder Travis Kalanick another $5 million in an attempt to increase his holdings, but was rebuffed.

D’Ussé $100 million Jay-Z’s cognac, a joint venture with beverage giant Bacardi, moves almost 200,000 cases and has grown nearly 80% annually.

“Jay-Z resonates with consumers who are attracted to the ultrapremium lifestyle," says Eric Schmidt, Beverage Marketing Corp.’s Director of Alcohol Research.

Tidal $100 million In 2015, Jay-Z submitted a bid to purchase the Scandinavian streaming service’s parent company for just shy of $60 million.

He relaunched Tidal later that year with a roster of celebrity investors including his wife, Beyoncé, and other music

luminaries, from Kanye West to Calvin Harris.

Roc Nation $75 million This wide-ranging entertainment company started over a decade ago as part of a joint venture with concert giant Live Nation. Roc Nation represents some of the top stars in the entertainment through its sports agency (Kevin Durant, Todd Gurley) as well as its record label and artist-management arms (Rihanna, J. Cole).

Music catalog $75 million Before the beginning of his stint as Def Jam’s chief in 2004, Jay-Z negotiated the eventual return of his master recordings from the aforementioned label that helped launch his career; in a separate deal with EMI, he clawed back his publishing rights. Wise move: his hits now clock close to 1 billion streams annually.

Art collection $70 million In the song "Picasso Baby," Jay-Z boasted about a “Basquiat in my kitchen corner." He probably wasn't kidding. For over a decade, he’s been scooping up masterpieces like Basquiat's “Mecca,” purchased in 2013 for a reported $4.5 million.

"He's rapped about it all in detail," says Fab 5 Freddy, a contemporary and friend of the late painter. "Jay-Z helped educate millions of hip-hop fans mentioning Jean-Michel."

Real estate $50 million After welcoming twins in 2017, Jay-Z and Beyoncé bought a pair of homes to match: a $26 million East Hampton mansion and a $88 million Bel Air estate.

Jay-Z also owns a Tribeca penthouse, snagged for $6.85 million in 2004. 

www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2019/06/03/ jay-z-billionaire-worth/#614bbd443a5f Image credits: bottlebutler.co.uk, nydailynews.com, artmarketmonitor.com. okmagazine.com, sandrarose.com

35  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Business - Trail Blazer Company

This Black-Owned Company Can Help You Trace Your African Lineage

By DeAnna Taylor, Travel Noir

A

s one of the only Black geneticists, Dr. Rick Kittles wanted to create a way for Black Americans to trace their roots back to Africa.

In 2003 Kittles and his business partner, Dr. Gina Paige, started their company African Ancestry. “Like many African Americans, I wanted to trace my ancestry,” Kittles told Black Enterprise.

“But like so many of us, I hit a brick wall.”

While there are several of these kits on the market, this one was created by Black people for Black people. It goes as far as telling you which country you originated from, rather than just the continent.

Kittles created a comprehensive genetic African Lineage Database, which is a repository of molecular blueprints of African peoples. It is made up of 11,747 paternal lineages and 13,690 maternal lineages from more than 389 distinct locations in Africa.

You can choose to trace the lineage of your mother or father.

“It is the most comprehensive resource available on African Dr. Rick Kittles youtube.com lineages in the world,” Kittles adds. “I was doing my Ph.D. dissertation on the Finnish population [while] at George Washington University and knew I could use the same techniques and apply them to the African population. I want to reverse what I see as a sad trend that allows too many African American children to believe their family history begins with slavery.”

The company has been able to trace the roots of notable African Americans like Oprah Winfrey, John Legend, Spike Lee, Condoleezza Rice and The family of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. You simply take a sample of DNA from your cheek and mail it to the company’s lab. Your sample is even sent directly to Kittles for him to cross-check for best accuracy. In about 4-6 weeks, your results are returned detailing your country of origin and also going as far as naming the tribes.

Many people take the Dr. Gina Paige rediscoveringafricaheritage.wordpress.com results and use them to plan travel to their country of origin. It serves as a way to reconnect with their ancestors and learn more about the place that they originated from.

The African Ancestry kits are $349 and can be purchased via the company’s website (www.africanancestry.com/ home).  https://legacy.travelnoire.com/black-owned-company-trace-yourafrican-lineage/ 36  June 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 Tips

Blavity Co-Owner Morgan DeBaun Launches the WorkSmart Program

By Sergie Willoughby Photos courtesy of Mikey Likes It Ice Cream| Facebook

A

new entrepreneur mentorship program, the WorkSmart Program, is underway from Blavity (https://blavity.com) coowner Morgan DeBaun who was in the news last year when Blavity raised $6.5 million to expand its operations.

According to DeBaun, “This program works best for selfemployed entrepreneurs who have already launched their companies and are currently making thousands in revenue, but are looking for a way to take things to the next level.”

She continues, “On the other hand, the WorkSmart Program is NOT for people who are just launching their business, trying to raise venture funding, or aren’t working full time on their company.

There are a variety of programs and accelerators for those of you focused on getting your startup up and running. I recommend checking out Founder Gym, Y Combinator and Afro Tech.”

A 9-week, private, advising course, WorkSmart is designed to achieve the following: • Clarify and set business goals that are both aggressive and achievable • Create step-by-step roadmaps for making goals manageable and easy to achieve • Learn the framework every entrepreneur needs to know in order to hone in on the exact goals that will quickly streamline and grow your business at scale • Restructure your mindset so you’re constantly reframing business decisions into opportunities for growth and success • Optimize your productivity — maximize your time and effort on the important stuff, and delegate or get rid of the rest (plus, my foolproof system for figuring which things are actually worthy of your time) • Fine-tune your business

instincts so your decision-making is smarter, faster, and more consistent • Create a plan to double your revenue that’s scalable and repeatable “I designed WorkSmart to be a serious advisory program that gets results for entrepreneurs serious about building revenue and profitable companies,” she shares.

“If you have a desire to scale your business and learn how to establish both personal and business discipline in your life, WorkSmart was designed for you.”

The program is no longer accepting applications for the inaugural class, but interested potential applicants can head to the WorkSmart website (www. worksmartprogram.com/waitlist) to be added to the waitlist and receive the WorkSmart Entrepreneurs Newsletter.  https://tnj.com/blavity-co-owner-morgandebaun-launches-the-worksmart-program/

38  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Profile - Entrepreneur to Mastor

Sonita Alleyne to be First Black Leader of an Oxbridge College

by Caroline Davies

A

businesswoman and media executive is to become the first black person to lead an Oxbridge college after being elected Master of Jesus College, Cambridge.

Sonita Alleyne, 51, also becomes the first female head in the history of the college, which was founded in 1496 and is one of Cambridge’s oldest.

The entrepreneur, who is chairwoman of the British Board of Film Classification’s management council, will take up her new role in October.

Alleyne, who read philosophy at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, has previously served as a BBC trustee.

Born in Bridgetown, Barbados, and brought up in Leytonstone, east London, she was a cofounder of the production company Somethin’ Else, which she led as chief executive from 1991 to 2009.

She will become the college’s 42nd Master on the 40th anniversary of co-education, taking over from Prof. Ian White, who was appointed vice-chancellor of the University of Bath earlier this year.

Alleyne’s appointment is something of a coup for Cambridge as it aims to increase diversity among its students. Last year, it admitted a record number of black students – 58 out of 2,612.

In a statement, she said: “I left Cambridge 30 years ago, but it never left me. I am delighted to be returning.

“It is an honour to be elected to lead Jesus College and I’m looking forward to becoming part of such an energetic and innovative community.”

Alleyne, a keen fly-fisher, once described herself as a “passionate early reader” who liked telling stories, which inspired her to follow a career in the media. “Stories are about creativity and such a primal instinct for people, and whether you’re doing a documentary or music, media is all about stories.

That’s what I find exciting,” she said in one 2008 interview.

The hunt for Jesus College’s new master included advertising the role on the business networking site LinkedIn for the first time. The college’s fellows then whittled down the candidates.

Alleyne began her media career in the publicity department at Jazz FM before moving into production.

On being made redundant in 1991, she and two colleagues set up Somethin’ Else, a cross-platform media company that made content for the BBC and commercial radio stations. It rapidly expanded and, by 2008, was being described as the biggest syndicator of radio programmes in the UK, outside the BBC, distributing shows to more than 200 radio stations in 65 countries.

Alleyne’s numerous board roles have included the National Employment Panel and the

London Skills and Employment Board, chair of the Radio Sector Skills Council and non-executive director of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and membership of the Court of Governors at the University of the Arts.

She has been a judge for the Precious Awards, which celebrate the entrepreneurial achievements of black women, and for the Sony Awards. She is also founder of the Yes Programme, an online service helping school pupils make career decisions. She has served as an ambassador for Street Kids International.

In 2000, she received the Award of Excellence from the European Federation of Black Women Business Owners, and was made an OBE for services to broadcasting in 2003.

She joined the BBC Trust, the governing body of the corporation, in 2012, and was appointed chair of the BBFC earlier this year. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and the Radio Academy.

Prof Mary Laven, who led Jesus College’s search committee, said: “We’re thrilled by the election of Sonita Alleyne, who will be an inspirational master. She brings to the college a wealth of experience and an enduring commitment to helping young people fulfil their potential.”  www.theguardian.com/ education/2019/may/26/sonitaalleyne-to-become-first-blackleader-of-an-oxbridge-collegejesus-cambridge

39  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Politics - Campaign Marketing

Facebook 2020: Trump Concentrates Campaign There?

By Heather Fletcher

M

arketing moves to where consumers convert (www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/facebookads-top-marketers-holiday-wish-lists), so political

ads are moving in droves to Facebook.

When I wrote “How Trump Won”

(www.

in January 2017, the Trump campaign’s digital director credited Facebook as the fundraising powerhouse.

Recently, The New York Times’ headline was “How Trump Is Outspending Every 2020 Democrat on Facebook” (www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/05/21/us/ politics/trump-2020-facebook-ads.html).

targetmarketingmag.com/article/how-trump-won/all)

Why the Move to Facebook?

The move to Facebook and also Google Ads — the strength is in the data.

For Trump in 2016, his digital campaign advisors could target individuals and message them based on their interests. It’s how Trump gained votes in strategic states to win, based on the Electoral College strategy.

Target Marketing writes: “Facebook proved to be a powerful way for Trump’s team to hone the campaign’s message with the kind of enormous sample sizes you can’t get with traditional polling,” reads the article that goes on to quote Gary Coby, director of advertising at the Republican National Committee, who worked on Trump’s campaign.

“They have an advantage of a platform that has users that are conditioned to click and engage and give you feedback,” Coby tells Wired. “Their platform’s built to inform you about what people like and dislike.”

A Different Use for Google Ads Campaigns placed ads based on keywords related to the opponents in the Democratic primary.

Trump and Facebook, 2020

campaign Facebook ads so far in 2019, the Times writes: “Much of Mr. Trump’s spending on Facebook advertising in recent weeks has gone toward ads that have been seen by older Americans, particularly women 55 and older, according to an analysis by Bully Pulpit.

“Older voters are an important constituency for Mr. Trump, having favored him over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, according to exit polls. Mr. Trump also has reason to want to shore up his standing with women, as white women shifted leftward in the midterm elections.”

Facebook Birthday Wishes Melania Trump’s birthday was in April and President Donald Trump’s birthday is coming up in June, so the May 21 article in the Times reports many of the campaign efforts are ads aimed at getting Facebook users to sign digital cards for the president and First Lady.

These opt-ins are the beginning of the way for the digital team to collect data and use it across platforms for other direct contact, such as emails or phone calls. The aim is to get such data for up to 60 million Americans, according to Trump’s campaign.

The Times continues: “Digital list-building efforts like birthday cards are a great way to re-engage supporters, to refresh your email list and to grow a more personal relationship with your existing donor base,” said Michael Duncan, a Republican digital strategist who is a founding partner at Cavalry, a public affairs firm.  www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/facebook-2020trump-other-politicians-concentrate-campaigns-there/

Of the $5 million Trump’s spent on reelection 40  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Image Credit: tubefilter.com

2019 TOUR SCHEDULE www. billpickettrodeo. com/index.php/ schedule

Wise Words African Proverb: "A cow is caught by its horns; a person by his words." from a Sotho proverb Image Credits: billpickettrodeo.com merdeka.com kgw.com washingtonpost.com

41  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Buiness - Marketing

How Email Marketing Can Boost Startup Companies?

consecutively pick out the one that is most appropriate for one’s business. A company should pick out services that various ESPs offer in accord to their email marketing design and then, purchase an ESP. The abundant services that ESPs offer today are:

1. Free Plan In order to understand the company’s requirements, an entrepreneur should test ESPs that are accessible at no cost for at least a limited period. Otherwise, a company can opt for free trails. By using different ESPs, it becomes easy to ascertain what kind of email marketing strategy a company actually wants.

2. The Count of Subscribers

S

urviving the initial seven to ten years testifies a startup’s potential. In this crucial period, startups follow a twofold approach, that is, search for investors and at the same time, keep their profits high.

For achieving these objectives, most startups employ various business tactics, strategies and also carry campaigns offline as well as online. Besides these business tactics, there is another modified way of boosting revenue and building connections—email marketing.

Email marketing has always been a subset of the online marketing strategy but its significance is not realised by marketers to a great extent. Essentially, it is a marketing tool which requires a little to nothing in terms of investment and in return gives tremendous

results—generates leads, connects with investors and improves user experience.

If a startup owner uses email marketing in an early stage, then there is a likelihood that the business would flourish and a wide customer base would be built. To infuse this plan into the business, the entrepreneur needs to recruit digital marketers and learn the nittygritties of email marketing so as to take better decisions.

Email Service Provider (ESP) For initiating an email marketing plan, first of all, a company requires an email service provider. ESP primarily acts as a means to reach a large number of consumers and deliver the company’s products as well as other services. While deciding on the email marketing strategy, it is of prime importance to assess different ESPs and

Subscribers are the individuals who are targeted via email marketing plan. So, before designing an email marketing strategy, the company should ascertain the number of subscribers it wants. Further, it should know whether the email marketing plan would be targeted on a wide audience or a small segment.

By gauging subscribers, the company can hence decide which ESP is the right fit for their plan.

3. Design of Templates Since email marketing is done by delivering content under a specific template, thus, the template is one of the significant things to focus on. Usually, ESPs have abundant ready-made templates, so a company can choose a template from the lot or else, create one’s own template if a particular ESP permits to do so.

Apart from the aforementioned elements, there are a few other things that should be taken into consideration while purchasing an ESP. The entrepreneur will know those strands when he begins comparing ESPs.

Form an Email Marketing Plan

42  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Editorial - Worldwide Loss of Human Rights Increasing

The US is to Blame for Global Erosion of Human Rights, says Top UN Official

By Annabelle Timsit

F

or decades, America has thought of itself as a “shining city on a hill” , a beacon of democracy and liberalism for the rest of the world to follow. But globally, that reputation has been

tarnished in the eyes of many, partially as a result of the Trump administration’s rollbacks of environmental protections, human rights, and, most recently, abortion rights. Now a top UN official has accused the US of catching a bug of illiberalism— and of passing it on to the rest of the world.

“When the United States starts to sneeze under the force of the Once an ESP is selected, the next step involves forming an email marketing plan. In essence, planning an email marketing strategy is easy as one has to create a writing format only. However, it is noteworthy to form a well-planned format and execute it rigorously.

Audience Once the company creates an email marketing plan, template and writing format, then it has to begin

pneumonia of afactual, illegal, and ascientific policy, everybody starts to catch the same cold,” said Kate Gilmore, United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, today (June 3) at the Women D e l i v e r conference in Vancouver, Canada.

G i l m o r e spoke at length about the Trump administration’s decision to reinstate a “global gag rule,” which denies US government aid to individuals and organizations who perform abortions or give information about the procedure. The Trump administration has also championed abortion rights rollbacks domestically, culminating in a wave of state legislatures from Louisiana to Ohio passing restrictive abortion laws.

Activists have said these policies

will strip vulnerable women both in the US and abroad of badlyneeded family planning services and lead to an increase in unsafe abortions. They say these policies are based on junk science; like president Trump’s false assertion at a rally in April that, after babies are born, doctors and mothers can “determine whether or not they will execute the baby.”

“This disregard for truth is so deeply troubling,” said Gilmore.

In challenging women’s rights to reproductive health, Gilmore said the US was contributing to rolling back “the underpinnings of a whole global order” based on a global commitment to lowering maternal mortality and promoting women’s health. Says Gilmore: “Whatever the administration believes it is entitled to do, it is not entitled to its own facts.”

targeting its audience. Basically, it is vital to understand the audience and categorise it in different groups such as customers, prospective customers, investors and prospective investors.

After categorizing the audience in small groups, different email marketing campaigns should be rolled out.

Startup companies should adhere to the above-mentioned methods to

create successful email marketing campaigns.

Find a beginning list of ESPs here (http://smartbusinesstrends. com/email-service-provider-pricecomparison). 

https://qz.com/1634319/the-usis-to-blame-for-global-erosion-ofhuman-rights-says-top-un-official Image credits: hazaraunitedmovement.org

www.entrepreneur.com/ article/334318?utm_ medium=40digest.7days3.20190531. carousel&utm_source=email&utm_ content=&utm_campaign=campaign Image credit: bangdigital.com.au

43  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

(323) 868-2621

Business - Technology

Google: Updates to Works with Nest

R

ecently we announced that we would stop supporting the Works with Nest (WWN https:// nest.com/works-with-nest) program on August 31, 2019 and transition to the Works with Google Assistant platform (WWGA https://developers.google. com/actions/smarthome/). The decision to retire WWN was made to unify our efforts around third-party connected home devices under a single platform for developers to build features for a more helpful home.

The goal is to simplify the experience for developers and to give you more control over how your data is shared. Since the announcement, we’ve received a lot of questions about this transition. Today we wanted to share our updated plan and clarify our approach.

First, we’re committed to supporting the integrations you value and minimizing disruptions during this transition, so here’s our updated plan for retiring WWN: Your existing devices and integrations will continue working with your Nest Account, however you won’t have access to new features that will be available with a Google Account. If we make changes to the existing WWN connections available to you with your Nest Account, we will make sure to keep you informed.

We’ll stop accepting new WWN connections on August 31, 2019. Once your WWN functionality is available on the WWGA platform you can migrate with minimal disruption from a Nest Account to a Google Account.

Second, we want to clarify how this transition will work for you. Moving forward, we’ll deliver a single consumer and developer experience through the Google Assistant. WWGA already works with over 3,500 partners and 30,000 devices, and integrates seamlessly with Assistant Routines. Routines allow anyone to quickly customize how their smart devices work together based on simple triggers—whether you’re leaving home or going to bed.

One of the most popular WWN features is to automatically trigger routines based on Home/Away status. Later this year, we'll bring that same functionality to the Google Assistant and provide more device options for you to choose from. For example, you’ll be able to have your smart light bulbs automatically turn off when you leave your home. Routines can be created from the Google Home or Assistant apps, and can be created using the hardware you already own.

Plus we’re making lots of improvements to setup and managing Routines to make them even easier to use.

We recognize you may want your Nest devices to work with other connected ecosystems. We’re working with Amazon to migrate the Nest skill that lets you control your Nest thermostat and view your Nest camera livestream via Amazon Alexa. Additionally, we’re working with other partners to offer connected experiences that deliver more custom integrations.

For these custom integrations, partners will undergo security audits and we’ll control what data is shared and how it can be used. You’ll also have more control over which devices these partners will see by choosing the specific devices you want to share. For example, you’ll be able to share your outdoor cameras, but not the camera in your nursery, with a security partner.

We know we can't build a one-size-fits-all solution, so we're moving quickly to work with our most popular developers to create and support helpful interactions that give you the best of Google Nest. Our goal remains to give you the tools you need to make your home, and those of other Nest users, helpful in the ways that matter most to you.  Michele Turner, Director of Product and Smart Home Ecosystem for Google Nest https://blog.google/products/google-nest/updatesworks-with-nest/

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

Sponsoed Statement

California’s Clean Energy Future-Imagine the Possibilities

I

magine cooking your meals using renewable energy made from the waste on the farm where the food was produced. Imagine taking the power of the sun during a hot summer day and being able to store it to heat your home in the winter. Sound futuristic? The fact is, these technologies – Renewable Natural Gas and Power-to-Gas — are available today and are increasingly being used around the world in the fight against climate change. They are also an important part of SoCalGas’s vision to be the cleanest natural gas utility in North America.

Renewable Natural Gas, or RNG, is made in a process that takes food and green waste, as well as the waste from farms and sewers and converts it into natural gas. It can be used like traditional natural gas to cook food and heat homes. It is not a fossil fuel and, in fact, helps cut down on greenhouse gas emissions that would otherwise escape into the air. It is used today as a transportation fuel to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and clean the air. If a city bus has a CNG sticker on it, chances are that renewable gas is fueling that bus.

To help California meet its ambitious climate goals, our company has committed to replacing 20% of our natural gas supply with renewable natural gas by 2030.

So why 20% and not 100%?

Research shows us that replacing just one-fifth of California’s traditional natural gas with RNG would lower carbon emissions equal to converting all of our buildings to run on more expensive electric only energy. We know that for most of our customers, affordability is a top concern. You deserve affordable clean energy options. Using RNG in buildings can be 2-3 times less expensive than any all-electric solution and there is no need for homeowners or renters to buy

new appliances appliances.

Power-to-Gas is another technology we’re helping develop to store renewable wind and solar energy for days or even months.

This technology takes surplus solar and converts it into hydrogen.

This converted solar and wind power can be stored in existing natural gas pipelines and used when the energy is needed – even months after the solar and wind power was first produced.

Today, when we produce too much solar and wind, we either have to turn off the power or pay other states to take it. This problem will only get worse as California moves to 100% clean electricity. While batteries are part of the solution, they don’t address long-term storage needs.

Without long-term storage California is expected by 2025 to waste enough renewable energy each year to power Los Angeles County for more than a month.

At SoCalGas, we are working to advance these technologies, so they are readily available to help California achieve its ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goals. It’s not going to be easy. In fact, there is no clear path on how to get to carbon neutrality by 2045. And no one solution is going to do it.

It will take all of us working together to re-imagine how California’s energy infrastructure can operate as one, integrated system that maximizes emissions reduction and minimizes waste. It will require an inclusive approach – one that is technology neutral, welcomes all ideas, considers all forms of energy and encourages and allows for continued innovation.

You can support this affordable and balanced approach to meeting California’s climate goals by joining organizations like Californians for Balanced Energy Solutions, or submitting a letter to the CPUC telling them you support balanced, affordable energy and not a one-track solution. Make sure you reference proceeding R1901011.  www.socalgas.com

47  May 2019  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Business - Success Profile was a concept with neither collection nor site. Earlier, he held Smithsonian positions at the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of American History, where he was associate director of curatorial affairs from 1994 to 2000.

In the 1980s, Bunch was a curator and program manager at the California African American Museum in Los Angeles. From 2001 to 2005, he was president of the Chicago Historical Society.

In a story about Bunch that appeared in The Georgetowner in October of 2017, Shelia Moses wrote: “The Chicago History Museum had become a perfect fit, and Chicago was perfect for him, his wife and two daughters. He had no plans to leave when the Smithsonian asked him to return. (He (L) Secretary Lonnie Bunch with admits that he said no to the Congressman John Lewis flipboard.com Smithsonian three times, until he couldn’t refuse anymore.) He knew the call was too great, so he came back to a world stage and to an effort — creating the new museum — that would take 10 years, with many more

By Richard Selden years of work to come.”

Born in Newark, New Jersey, onnie G. Bunch III, founding director of the Bunch earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Smithsonian’s National Museum of African African American and American history from American American History and Culture — the hugely University. He has taught at a number of universities, popular, three-year-old museum near the Washington including American and George Washington, and Monument, strikingly designed by David Adjaye — has served on the advisory boards of several museum been named the 14th secretary of the Smithsonian associations.

Institution, succeeding David Skorton. He will begin Appointed by President George W. Bush to the as Smithsonian secretary on June 16.

Committee for the Preservation of the White House The first African American secretary, Bunch, 66, is in 2002, Bunch was reappointed by President Barack also the first former director of a Smithsonian museum Obama in 2010. to occupy the top spot since Alexander Wetmore, an Founded in 1846 with a bequest by James Smithson, ornithologist who served as the sixth secretary from the Smithsonian is the world’s largest museum, 1945 to 1952. The 11-member search committee was education and research complex, comprising 19 led by Board of Regents chair David Rubenstein and museums and the National Zoo.  vice chair Steve Case. https://georgetowner.com/articles/2019/05/28/bunchHistorian, educator and author, Bunch became named-14th-smithsonian-secretary director of NMAAHC in 2005, when the museum

Lonnie Bunch Named 14th Smithsonian Secretary

L

48  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

A

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, July 9, 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.

Business - Marketing

Mobilizing the Poor People’s Campaign

By Jesse Jackson

D

uring June 2019 in Washington, DC the powers that be are hearing from a vital new democratic force in this country.

For three days, the Poor People’s Campaign will bring poor and low-wage Americans to the nation’s capital to call for a moral renewal in this nation. They will question many of those who are seeking the Democratic nomination for president. Congressional hearings will showcase their Poor People’s Moral Budget (https://ips-dc.org/report-moral-budget-2).

Their actions should be above the fold of every newspaper in America; they should lead the news shows and fill the talk shows. A movement for common sense and social justice is building, putting every politician on notice: lead or get out of the way, a new moral majority is building and demanding change.

As the co-chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign, the Rev. Dr. William Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, write in their forward, this movement is not partisan.

It calls not for liberal or conservative reforms, but for a moral renewal. It is not a deep-pocket lobby. It is mobilizing the 144 million Americans who are poor or one crisis away from poverty into a “new and unsettling force” to “revive the heart of democracy in America.”

This movement launched on Mother’s Day in May 2018. In 40 days, it triggered 200 actions across many states with 5,000 nonviolent demonstrators committing civil disobedience, and millions following the protests online. Forty states now have coordinating committees building a coalition of poor people and people of faith and conscience across lines of race, religion, region and other lines of division.

They are morally outraged that the richest nation in the world would in a “willful act of policy violence” condemn 140 million — more than 40% of the population — to live in poverty or near poverty. This includes 39 million children, 60% — 26 million — of African Americans, 64% — 38 million — of Latinos, more than one-third — 66 million — of white Americans.

These realities — and the extreme inequality that scars this society — pre-date the Trump administration,

but now Trump is fanning increasing policy violence against the poor. In response, the Poor People’s Campaign is doing deep organizing and power building among the poor, turning them from victims to subject actors in history.

The campaign also releases their Poor People’s Moral Budget in June. It details authoritatively that the cost of our current inequality, the cost of mass poverty is far greater than what it would cost to invest in people, put them to work at a living wage and guarantee

The 1968 Poor People`s Campaign: A Visual Memory bsuarchives.blogspot.com

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

basic economic and political rights. It costs society big time to not provide health care or quality education or clean water and air, to suppress voting rights and to keep wages low.

The moral budget is detailed and authoritatively sourced. The numbers are clear, as is the conclusion.

As the document concludes, “We have been investing in killing people; we most now invest in life. We have been investing in systemic racism and voter suppression; we must now invest in expanding democracy. We have been investing in punishing the poor; we must now invest in the welfare of all. We have been investing in the wealthy and corporations; we must now invest in the people who build this country.”

This is not a time for incremental change, but for fundamental transformation of our priorities and our direction. The budget details large reforms — from automatic voter registration, a living wage, health care for all, quality education from pre-k through college, investment in clean energy and modern infrastructure.

It details how these and other reforms can be easily afforded by fair taxes on the wealthy and corporations and by ending our effort to police the world.

The Poor People’s Campaign picks up the unfinished work of Dr. Martin Luther King. It realizes that ending the policy of violence on the poor at home cannot be achieved without challenging the costly endless wars and constant arms buildup that only make us less secure. It understands that change will come not from the top down, not from our corrupted big money politics, but from the poor, the worker, people of conscience coming together to revive our democracy and to change our course.

In these troubled times, the promise of this new force is powerful. Across the country, working and poor people are beginning to move. If this movement can continue to grow, it will transform our politics. And it is the only force that can. 

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

www.rainbowpush.org

Business - Wine Business

The Black Man Behind the Northwest’s Only Hip Hop Winery

By DeAnna Taylor

B

ertony Faustin isn’t your traditional winemaker.

Prior to even opening his business, he didn’t drink. He likes to think of himself as an accidental winemaker.

“Hip Hop, wine, and chill” is the motto at Abbey Creek Vineyard. The North Plains, Oregon winery is the only hip hop winery in the Northwest, but there’s more.

It is also owned by Oregon’s first Black winemaker.

The former Brooklyn resident moved across several states, with the intention to land in California. However, life planted him in Oregon. Bertony met his wife, started a family, and decided to make things work right where he was.

“My father passed away in 2007,” Bertony told Travel Noire. “I have Haitian roots and just always felt like I wasn’t living up to the legacy. I wasn’t happy in my job as an anesthesiologist, and wanted to do something to make my father proud.”

Bertony’s in-laws owned about 5-acres of grapes.

They simply planted them for the tax break, but Bertony had bigger plans. He was going to make wine, and if that didn’t work he would opt for making raisins.

“I started the winery in 2007. I never really accepted my title as a trailblazer or being the first Black winemaker in this area. I was never one to follow trends or the status quo. I just went out and did things the way I wanted.”

In 2015, Oregon was celebrating 50 years of wine.

Photo courtesy of Diego Diaz When Bertony looked around, he realized he was the only Black face among a mostly white-male crowd.

“It finally set in then. After that, I wanted to focus more on representation by highlighting my story as well as several other “firsts” in this industry. I created my documentary ‘Red, White, and Black’ (www. abbeycreekvineyard.com/red-white-and-black.html) to do just that.”

Bertony prides himself on being nontraditional in an otherwise regimented industry. “F*ck the traditional.

For me, it’s all about the experience, not the wine. You can get good wine anywhere, including a gas station.

So that’s not my focus when you visit.”

When guests visit Abbey Creek they are met with hip hop playing throughout the tasting room. There isn’t some fancy tour or overly informative “spill.” It’s simply about coming in and having a good time, getting to know the people in the room, and vibing out while tasting great wines.

“I couldn’t fit into the industry. I’m just going to do me.

To me, music sets the tone and perception of things.

Our music sets the tone for what will happen. We break bread around here. I’m not gonna sit and talk to you about sh*t that I can google,” Bertony said.

“I’m changing the world, by changing the game. I’m giving my truth, and people love that.”

Abbey Creek Vineyard, only 30-minutes outside of Portland, is open on Saturday and Sunday from 12 pm until 5 pm. It is a drop-in format unless you are bringing a large group.

The tastings are only $10 with several upgrade options including a chipotle sauce pairing for an additional fee.

54  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Sephora to Shut U.S. Stores for Diversity Training After SZA Racial Profiling Claim

By REUTERS

T

he Sephora beauty chain will close all its US stores, distribution centers and corporate offices on June 5th to conduct diversity training for employees, after a racial incident involving a Grammynominated singer.

R&B singer SZA, who is black, said in April she was racially profiled at a Sephora store in Calabasas, California.

“We have been informed of an incident at our Calabasas store and in addition to reaching out to SZA directly, we are gathering more information about the incident in order to take the proper next steps,” Emily Shapiro, a spokeswoman for Sephora, told Reuters in an email. “We take complaints like this very seriously, profiling on the basis of race is not tolerated at Sephora.“ SZA said a Sephora employee she identified as “Sandy” called security to make sure the singer was not stealing from the store. “We had a long talk. U have a blessed day Sandy,” SZA said in a Twitter post.

Shapiro said the Sephora closures were not “a response to any one event,” saying that planning for the “inclusivity workshops” had been in progress for several months and that a broader campaign called “We Belong to Something Beautiful” had been in the works for at least a year.

Sephora owner LVMH is based in Paris.

SZA was quoted in an interview with US digital publisher Refinery29 last year as saying she previously

w o r k e d in the skin-care SZA Photograph: Victoria Will/Invision/AP department at a Sephora store.

“You are a part of the Sephora family, and we are committed to ensuring every member of our community feels welcome and included at our stores,” Sephora said at the time in a response to the singer’s post.

SZA is a Grammy nominee who also collaborated with Kendrick Lamar on the song "All the Stars" for the blockbuster movie Black Panther.

After SZA’s tweet following the incident, Google reviews for the Calabasas store spiked, with many users criticizing Sephora over the incident.

Barbadian singer Rihanna unveiled her new fashion brand with LVMH in May, a rare move by the French group to set up a label from scratch as it taps into soaring demand for celebrity collaborations in the luxury world.

Sephora’s workshops come about a year after Starbucks closed 8,000 stores across the United States for anti-bias training after a Philadelphia cafe manager’s call to police resulted in the arrests of two black men who were waiting for a friend. 

“People don’t realize how good Chipotle sauce actually goes with wine. You’ll be amazed.”

Once a month they host special events such as art night, a brunch, or their supper club. They will soon open a 2nd tasting room in downtown Portland, this October.

If you aren’t able to visit in person, you can purchase wines via the website. They are able to ship across 30 states.

Finally, to the other Black business owners who may

feel defeated, Bertony had this advice: “Don’t be afraid to truly do you. You live every day but only die once.

Be transparent, people connect with that. The more you connect with people, the more things will fall into place.”

You can find more about this amazing business at www.abbeycreekvineyard.com or on Instagram: @ abbeycreekwine. 

www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/03/sephora-toshut-us-stores-for-diversity-training-after-sza-racialprofiling-claim

https://legacy.travelnoire.com/black-man-northwestonly-hip-hop-winery/

55  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

North Carolina Department of Public Safety Central Engineering 4216 MSC Raleigh, NC 27699-4216 The North Carolina Department of Public Safety has the following contract in Rockingham County out for bid: ROCKINGHAM YOUTH DEVELOPMENT CENTER. The bid opening is scheduled for: Thursday, 08/08/2019.

To obtain the Notice to Bidders, any Pre-Bid Requirements, and any Addenda visit: www.ips.state.nc.us/lPS/AGENCY/PDF/13208300.pdf First date of publication: 6/30/2019 Last date of publication: 7/11/2019

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.

57  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Business - Technology / Take A Look!

Technology:

Take A Look!

Klaviyo - Email Service Provider

K

laviyo is a technology company that combines customer data and marketing software. We help businesses of every size — from entrepreneurs to iconic brands — deliver amazing experiences across email and other owned channels.

Businesses should be in control Despite the amount of information consumers and businesses share with each other, most of the emails and experiences businesses deliver do not use that data.

Customer-centric businesses know the experiences they want to create, but earlier technologies haven’t been able to deal with the scale or real-time nature of information. As a result, businesses have to depend on advertising and other growth channels outside of their control.

Making it possible to store all of a business’ customer data in the same system that delivers experiences to customers, allows new experiments and businesses to get off the ground and existing companies to grow faster in ways they control.

We store all of your customer data, then allow you to build experiences across email and owned channels and measure the results in revenue — not just opens or clicks.

With the most ambitious and fastest growing brands depending on us — we give businesses the tools, technology, and guidance they need to grow faster.

Our integrations library and API make it simple to build emails and experiences that are truly personal at scale.

Learning for marketers who want to grow Our growth workshops create forums around the world to collaborate on ideas and help businesses own their growth.

Through our commitment to data science and

machine-based learning, we’re reducing the burden of finding insights.

We integrate natively with customer data sources and build the technology to house data at scale, create experiences across channels, and measure the results.

You shouldn’t need to stitch technology together or pay more than once.  www.klaviyo.com Image credit: ecommercefastlane.com

Earnin - New Way to Get Paid

T

he Earnin app (www.earnin.com) gives you access to the money you've earned today. You don’t have to wait two weeks for your paycheck. You worked today? Get paid today.

Connect your bank, enter employment info, and get access to your earnings! Choose what portion of your paycheck you want to deposit in your bank account and Cash Out. When your paycheck arrives via direct deposit, we’ll debit back the amount you cashed out, and voila! Payday, your way.

There are no fees and no interest.

Earnin runs entirely on the tips given by the community. Tip what you think is fair to help keep the app going. We’re a group of people coming together to change the way people get their paychecks.

Do you receive a regular paycheck? Do you get your paycheck via direct deposit? Do you work at a fixed location and/or on a timekeeping system? If you answered yes to all three, YOU qualify to use Earnin.

In order to use the app, you'll need to have: 1. direct deposits from your employer into a checking account 2. a regular pay schedule (weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, monthly)

60  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

3. a fixed work location OR an online timekeeping system at work.

The Earnin system does not charge fees or interest.

We're community-supported, so we don't charge interest or fees. We believe money should work better for everyone.

Instead of charging fees or interest, we depend on our community to support us by tipping what they think is fair when they use the app.

Giving tips isn't required. Sometimes things are going your way and you can afford to tip, sometimes you’re the one going through a rough patch. Help when you can, accept help when you can’t. We’ve got each other’s back.

If you like what we’re doing, join the community, cash out, and help support the payday revolution!  www.earnin.com

YouTube is Remastering Classic Music Videos

company is committed to painstakingly upgrading over 1,000 videos from rock, rap, country, pop, and genredefying artists across the decades.

As you can see in the header image above, the difference is clear between the top part of the image from the original Beastie Boys’ video for “Sabotage” as compared to the bottom, remastered half. See the remastered video in full below: To view all the remastered music videos available now, click here (www.youtube.com/results?search_query= %23Remastered+%22REMASTERED+IN+HD%22).

There will be new YouTube music videos uploaded in remastered quality each week going forward. By the end of 2020, the company will have updated its list of over 1,000 videos. It will be interesting to see which ones make the cut.

Unfortunately, YouTube only has a partnership with UMG to do this, so there are a lot of iconic videos that won’t get remastered. Non-UMG artists include Michael Jackson, Prince, Oasis, Eurythmics, Foo Fighters, and more, all of which have iconic music videos that won’t be remastered — unless YouTube also partners with other labels.  https://www.androidauthority.com/youtube-musicvideos-remastering-1000353/?utm_medium=techboard. wed.20190619&utm_source=email&utm_content=&utm_ campaign=campaign

"foodQ" Healthy Living in a Bag

F

R

ecently, YouTube announced — in partnership with Universal Music Group — that it is remastering classic music videos. So far, there are only a few posted, but they look amazing.

Watching YouTube music videos can be a fun way to not only experience terrific music but also to explore a medium that defined a generation. In the 80s, 90s, and even early 2000s, a great music video was the equivalent of the latest internet meme today: everyone would be talking about it.

Unfortunately, many of the most iconic music videos in history were shot on low-quality video and then uploaded to YouTube in a shoddy state. With this new YouTube music video remastering campaign, the

oodQ delivers healthy, mouthwatering meals to your doorstep using a delivery model designed to overcome the common barriers off access and cost. Subscribe at www.. foodqhub.com and choose from a menu that changes each week. foodQ delivers ready-to-heatt meals, which means no food d preparation is required. All mealss can be placed in a microwave of an n oven o en to to heat heatt prior priior to eating. Each meal provides heating instructions on the label and it is the customer's responsibility to review and follow the instructions carefully. All foodQ meals allow one to achieve the USDA recommendations for a 2,000 calorie diet and remain consistent with the USDA Healthy Eating Index (2015) Standards. https://foodqhub.com Curatted by LaSandra Stratton, Chief Content Administrator of the Black Business News.

61  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

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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62  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

63  February 2019  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Sign This Petition to Demand Transparency

R

ecently, Attorney General William Barr released a four-page letter to Congress that raises more questions than answers.

Congress and the American people deserve to see the full report and findings from the investigation, not just a summary from Trump’s hand-picked Attorney General. It is absolutely imperative that we have full access to the Mueller Report and all the underlying evidence to learn the facts surrounding Donald Trump’s actions and potential attacks on the integrity of our democracy.

We are entitled to know everything about Russia’s brazen attacks on our political system.

This includes how Russia manipulated voters in the United States, fomented racial division among voters through social media and other means, and targeted the AfricanAmerican community in extraordinary fashion to suppress voter turnout.

The NAACP calls on Congress to exercise its power under the Constitution to rigorously and exhaustively investigate these harmful attacks on our democracy.

Unlike Special Counsel’s Mueller’s charge,

this investigation will not be limited in scope. We implore the House and the Senate to do the job we entrusted to our elected representatives to protect the rule of law. Guarding our democracy is not partisan. It is a Congressional duty.

Congress must take all available action to ensure a vital and fully functioning democracy.

The American people deserve no less.

Use this link to sign this petition to demand transparency: https://support.naacp.org/ onlineactions/jguvUmxoYkCcunXUhFOEHA2.

Join us today in calling on Congress to release the Mueller report in its entirety. Anything short of complete transparency is unacceptable.

Fighting forward, Derrick Johnson @DerrickNAACP President & CEO NAACP

66  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Business - Marketing

4 Strategies for Dynamic Storytelling That Will Catapult Your Brand

By Rhett Power

T

he connection between stories and true customer engagement has been clear for ages, but science is only now beginning to explain why. While our unconscious brain processes most of what we think and do, it's not particularly great at statistical reasoning.

In other words, using numbers to tell prospects what your brand brings to the table isn't nearly as effective as using a good narrative.

Storytelling improves receptivity in customers and makes them more trusting, while also increasing levels of comprehension and retention. Need some

cold, hard numbers to back that up? According to research compiled by OneSpot, delivering content in a narrative fashion makes it up to 22 times more memorable than facts.

A study attempting to quantify the value of storytelling found that a painting with the artist's personal story included sold an average of 11% more than an identical one with just the artist's name and the year. In the same vein, a product page with wine and tasting notes was less popular than one with the winemaker's story -- the latter was 5% more likely to be chosen, and the wines commanded a 6% higher value.

The benefits of storytelling are undeniable, and implementing them doesn't have to be difficult.

To start taking advantage of your audience's appreciation of narrative, try these four strategies to build a message that will resonate with consumers.

1. Include dynamic (and unexpected) visuals.

The brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text, and OneSpot reports that when instructions have illustrations, readers perform tasks 323% better than with written instructions alone. With 65% of people identifying as visual learners, images become a captivating and efficient shorthand for connecting with your audience.

Of course, authentic storytelling requires you to set yourself apart from your competitors in order to get noticed. "With no shortage of options for stunning visuals, savvy marketers are turning 68  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

to captivating media for driving their brands' stories forward," says Carl Reed, chief creative officer of Lion Forge Labs.

His team recommends utilizing an art form designed explicitly for storytelling in order to get your message across. "Comics are an excellent choice for visuals," Reed notes. "They are great for explaining abstract principles and are limited only by the imagination of the artists. Moreover, they convey a sense of approachability because they seem more fun and rough-hewn, less slick and corporate."

2. Bring stories to life with experiences.

Storytelling is an incredibly powerful way to connect with customers, but even it can't hold a candle to experiencing the story firsthand. That's part of the reason experiential marketing is so effective and may also be why the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicted the event industry will expand a whopping 44 percent from 2010 to 2020.

To stand out in this growing industry, you'll need to bring greater authenticity to your events to inspire connection. "Create moments that might not be covered in logos or colors, but represent genuinely honest, unique execution," says Darren Wilson, president of bluemedia. He points out that great experiences start from the heart: "Think of it as creative directing a whole experience centered on what a brand actually does.

And the best way to get there is through story-living, which takes storytelling to the next level by bringing a brand experience to life."

3. Ignite emotions in your audience.

Emotion creates a much deeper and more lasting connection with your customers than a dry recitation

of features and statistics. Consider the fact that using a cellphone while driving leads to more than 1.6 million crashes per year. That's a huge figure, but it's unlikely to faze drivers who are browsing through their Spotify playlists in traffic.

Now imagine telling those individuals a story about one single accident and how it resulted in a pedestrian death and drastically altered the life of the driver. It's not hard to determine which method will be more effective in getting them to put down their phones. Emotions trigger involuntary biological responses, including the release of chemicals in the brain that heightens senses and produces more permanent memories.

4. Speak your customers' language.

Tone is everything, and your customers want your messaging to sound like it comes from a close friend.

Your narrative is meant to spark a relationship, which means customers need to be able to relate to it. It's important to meet the members of your target market where they spend their time, but you need to engage them in the same way they engage each other. In other words, you need to speak their language.

One way to do this is to perform a psychographic audit of your target audience to get a better sense of how its members prefer to communicate. While 86% of consumers are looking for honesty from their brands, your specific audience may respond better to a funny or snarky tone, or it may prefer that you stay reserved and politically neutral. By auditing the common vernacular of your consumers, you can learn to encapsulate a voice that will resonate with them.

Customers are clamoring for a good story. Give the people what they want and inject a narrative note into your brand messaging. With a captivating and inspiring tale, you can bring in a new host of brand advocates and become an integral part of the stories they tell others.  www.inc.com/rhett-power/4-strategies-for-dynamic-storytellingthat-will-catapult-your-brand.html Image credits: listeningbooksblog.com, storyboat.co.uk

69  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Commentary - Health Care

We can Free a Generation from the Burden of College Loan Debt

T

he reaction — shock, joy, disbelief, euphoria — revealed the importance of Robert F. Smith’s stunning gift, when he announced, unexpectedly, that he would pay off all the college debts of Morehouse College students graduating this year.

His gift literally changed the prospects and the lives of the vast majority of those 396 graduates.

Morehouse is a proud, historically black college, the alma mater of extraordinary leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Julian Bond, Howard Thurman, Maynard Jackson, former head of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, former head of the black caucus Cedric Richmond, Hollywood legends Samuel L. Jackson and Spike Lee, Olympic champion Edwin Moses and many more.

Full-time tuition costs $25,368, with room and board and other expenses, a year at Morehouse can cost nearly $50,000. Ninety percent of Morehouse students get some kind of financial aid, cobbling together Pell grants, federal and

private loans, family loans and more.

Morehouse seniors who borrow to pay for college carry an average of $26,000 in federal student loans.

Private loans, federal Parent Plus loans, credit card and other debts are on top of that. The federal student loans alone would result in a monthly payment of $276.

Robert F Smith’s generosity has literally transformed the lives of those students. Now instead of putting off graduate school or being forced to live at home, and later postponing marriage and children, they are free to benefit from the hard work they have done to graduate from college. They can seek jobs that they want, without being forced to take one or more that can help them pay down their loans. They are free to dream.

Many of those benefiting from Smith’s remarkable generosity expressed what one student, Myles Washington, called a “level of survivor’s guilt.” All had friends who could not afford to go to college, or who were forced to withdraw early

in the face of growing debts.

Robert F. Smith is a billionaire, the brilliant founder of Vista Equity Partners, who has made a fortune largely in purchasing and selling software firms. Raised in Denver, the child of two parents with Ph.D.s, he graduated from Cornell and later got his MBA at Columbia. His gift to the Morehouse students is only a small part of his philanthropy, which has included major support for Cornell, his alma mater, and for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, as well as his service as chair to The Board of Carnegie Hall and much more.

With this gift, he has set a standard for others of great wealth. He has, as he put it at the Morehouse

72  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

commencement, “paid it forward,” by freeing the potential of young graduates.

His gift should also rouse Congress to redress the folly of shackling the best of the young generation with often unpayable debt simply to get the education this country says they need.

Student loan debt now totals over $1.5 trillion. After home mortgages, it is the largest source of debt, exceeding car loans and credit card debts. Almost two-thirds of all students are forced to borrow to pay for college; they end with an average debt of nearly $29,000. The debt of African-American students is, on average, $7,400 more than that of white students, reflecting the wealth gap that has built up over years of

slavery, segregation and housing and employment discrimination.

Democratic presidential candidates like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont are calling for making public colleges tuition-free.

Warren has put forth a detailed plan to pay off a substantial portion of existing student loans. Some like Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) say we can’t afford to do that. But we are a wealthier country than Germany, yet college there is free.

This is a question of priorities not resources. The number of corporations that pay nothing in taxes has doubled under Donald Trump’s tax cut. The cost of that tax cut, most of which went to the already wealthy, is estimated at

$1.7 trillion over 10 years. That alone would have been able to pay off all current student debts.

Robert Smith’s generous promise should goad all of us into action. It is a personal tragedy and a national folly to burden an entire generation with often unpayable loans simply to get an education. We all benefit from a well-educated, active population. We all suffer when an entire generation is locked into debt from the day they get out of college.

Smith has freed nearly 400 Morehouse graduates from that burden. We should demand that Congress act to offer every student that relief.  www.rainbowpush.org Image credits: flipboard.com. uproxx.com

73  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Business - Healthcare

A Group Of Black Doctors Have Opened the First BlackOwned Urgent Care Center on Chicago's Southside

By Jon Greig

A

group of Black doctors are teaming up to open the first Black-owned Urgent Care Center (https://premierucchicago. com) in Chicago's Hyde Park.

Premier Health Urgent Care, will be the Southside's first Urgent Care facility and hopes to provide affordable healthcare to a population in desperate need of it.

“We are happy to open an urgent care in Hyde Park because the community needs it. I see so many urban professionals who either delay or go without care because of time constraints," said Dr. Reuben C. Rutland.

"No one has 8 hours to wait in the primary care doctor is booked solid.

We are here to help fill that gap.”

The Urgent Care's founders include Dr. Airron Richardson, Dr. Michael A. McGee, and United States Navy veteran Dr. Reuben C. Rutland. They opened the facility in a partnership with former Chicago Bears wide receiver Dr. Gregory Primus.

After his football career ended, Primus became the first Black person trained in orthopedic surgery at the University of Chicago.

Rutland made it clear that the

Urgent Care was not trying to replace any other form of healthcare but sought to fill the gap in the middle.

“We are not in competition with the doctors offices or the emergency department," Dr. Rutland said.

"We are a supplement to them both, to help relieve the stress on those two facilities.”

Urgent care centers have become wildly popular in cities across the country for providing quick, sameday treatment without the lengthy waits.

"Once a patient is seen, they are typically treated in less than an hour, making Premier’s walk-in clinic an ideal provider of the immediate care when it’s needed the most," the founders said in a press release.

"Premier accepts many major types of insurance and offers services at a fraction of the cost of hospital-affiliated urgent care or emergency rooms."

In a press release, the center's founders said they will be able to treat a variety of illnesses and ailments.

They also plan to donate a cut of the profits to the Project Outreach and Prevention (POP http://chipop. org) organization, which they said,

"aims to prevent youth violence in surrounding neighborhoods by providing resources, services and education to assist teens in making better life-long choices."

Dr. McGee told Chicago's Fox 32 that it was difficult and distressing to deal with injuries from shootings, which are common in some parts of the Southside.

"When you have a kid come in who is 11 or 10 and they've been shot, and you can't do anything about it, and you have to tell their parents and look them in the eye and say hey, I'm sorry, your child is dead. Their parents grab me and tell me to bring them back," he said in an interview with the news station.

Over the last year, dozens of black-owned businesses have sprung up across the Southside, including Peach’s Currency Exchange Cafe (https://peachsexchange.com), Justice of the Pies (www.justiceofthepies.com) and Brown Sugar Bakery (www. brownsugarbakerychicago.com).  https://blavity.com/a-group-of-blackdoctors-have-opened-the-first-blackowned-urgent-care-center-in-chicagossouthside

74  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

FOR

Father's Day

OR ANY SPECIAL OCCASION

Community/Public Interest

400th Commemoration Year of Enslavement 1619-2019

200 African Americans to Get Ghanaian Citizenship

By Salomey Appiah-Adjei

T

he President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa AkufoAddo, will grant Ghanaian citizenship to more than 200 members of the African-AmericanCaribbean Diaspora community residing in the country.

The conferment of citizenship will take place next month.

The Director of Diasporan Affairs at the Office of the President, Mr. Akwesi Awua-Ababio, who is also the Chairman of the Year of Return Steering Committee, made this known in an interview with the Daily Graphic.

A similar conferment took place in 2016 when 34 Diasporans were given Ghanaian citizenship under the then President John Dramani Mahama.

Mr. Awua-Ababio explained that it was the prerogative of the President to confer citizenship on persons who were not citizens by birth, as enshrined in the Constitution.

According to him, the decision to grant citizenship to the AfricanAmerican-Caribbean community formed part of the celebration of the Year of Return.

He said the celebration was very dear to the President because it had the potential to place Ghana high on the international map.

President Nana Akufo-Addo, in September 2018, declared 2019 ‘The Year of Return’, a celebration of African resilience and to commemorate 400 years since the first Black slave reached the shores of the new world, United States of America.

The celebration is also to reach out to the descendants of those Africans who were forcibly removed from their homeland and taken into slavery.

Low publicity The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Mr. Akwasi Agyeman, indicated that the celebration had been well publicised on the international front, attracting a number of Diasporans.

However, he said, the same could not be said about the publicity of the celebration in the country, as there had been little publicity to educate the local populace to be abreast of the celebration.

While the celebration would attract more foreigners into the country, he said, more publicity on it would convince the business community to align itself with the activities planned for the celebration.

Mr. Agyeman further indicated that as part of the celebration a number of activities, including PANAFEST, had been outlined to take place from next month until the end of the year to climax the celebration.

To promote the activities and position Ghana well on the international front, he said, the GTA needed to collaborate with the media to broadcast the event to the public.

He, therefore, called on the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) to support the GTA to make the celebration of the

Year of Return a success, as well as promote the tourism industry in general.

The Director of Marketing of the GCGL, Mr Franklin Sowa, recalled how the company was already working to promote tourism in the country.

He said its platforms had the potential to draw the audiences needed to participate in the various activities, saying both Graphic Showbiz and The Mirror were already promoting the sector in their publications.

He said domestic tourism had a lot of potential that could be promoted to generate high returns for the government and added that the GCGL was using its Junior Graphic platform to introduce vacation tours for students to visit the various tourist sites.  www.graphic.com.gh/news/generalnews/ghana-news-200-africanamericans-to-get-ghanaian-citizenship. html?fbclid=IwAR3e74haIeMtwQ_6dFNP1dBCAW_ S1XwhDosRs2gjTwKn7cE9ncLOurc9ug

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Community/Public Interest

400th Commemoration Year of Enslavement 1619-2019

Ghana, Jamaica Waive Entry Visa Requirements for Citizens By graphic.com.gh

G

hana and Jamaica have both waived entry visa requirements for citizens wanting to travel to and from these two countries, with effect from 1st July, 2019.

This was disclosed at a press conference addressed by the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness, after the two held bilateral discussions in Kingston, Jamaica, on Saturday, 15th June, 2019, as part of President AkufoAddo’s two-day official visit to Jamaica.

Stressing the importance of Ghana-Jamaica relations, the President indicated that the two nations have an excellent opportunity to building on their strong ties, imposed by culture and history, so as to derive maximum economic value for their respective populations.

“We cannot have visas standing in the way of those relations, so the decision has been taken by my government that, as Ghanaians benefit from visa free arrangements here in Jamaica, we are also going to provide visa free arrangements for Jamaicans in Ghana, to facilitate and also make it easier for you to come and join us for the ‘Year of Return’”, President Akufo-Addo added.

With the two leaders pledging to reactivate the Ghana-Jamaica Permanent Joint Commission for

Co-operation, which has been dormant for some time, the President explained that, when properly structured, the Commission will serve as a legal President Akufo-Addo interacting with Prime Minister Andrew Holness.jpg framework for the doing of business between the the symbolism of this year to two countries. take concrete steps to solidify the “Now, it has come to the time relations of our kith and kin in the to give teeth to those relations by Americas and the Caribbean. The making sure the various areas of relationship that we are forming engagement in education, tourism here in Jamaica will form part and cultural activity are specifically of the process of solidifying the tied down. That is really my purpose relations between those of us on of coming here, apart from a mission the continent of Africa and those of to sensitize you in Jamaica about an you in the diaspora, outside Africa.” event that we are commemorating His visit to the Caribbean, this year,” he added.

President Akufo-Addo said, has been to “strengthen the relations Year of Return across the water, and build the Describing Trans-Atlantic Slave bridge that we have to build over Trade as a “horrendous episode of the Atlantic so that we could find human history”, President Akufoa way of strengthening each other Addo explained that Ghana is keen in growing and empowering our on commemorating this event, economies, to play a more and largely because a large number of more critical role in the new global slaves came through slave forts architecture that is being drawn up located in Ghana. now. We are going to have relations “We want to commemorate it, to that are intimate.”  be able to say together that never www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/ again will Africa and her people ghana-news-ghana-jamaica-waivepermit themselves to be subjugated entry-visa-requirements-for-citizens. to these types of dehumanizing and html?fbclid=IwAR0CRpJ8RCUVoxocB4zfgwY1VOn48R3XFoa2EZ0Apzinhumane events. Never again!” he RXflaSsqz-NrV8g added The President continued, “At the same time, we want to use

79  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Community/Public Interest

Billionaire Philanthropist Vows To Pay Off Morehouse College Grads’ Student Debt

By Amy Russo Robert Smith Morehouse College

T

ry as they might, it’s doubtful most commencement speakers make a lasting impression on their listeners. But billionaire Robert F. Smith made sure he’ll be remembered, making a generous pledge as the featured speaker at Morehouse College’s graduation ceremony.

Smith committed himself to paying off the college loans amassed by members of the 2019 graduating class at the Atlanta school.

“On behalf of the eight generations of my family who have been in this country, we’re going to put a little fuel in your bus,” he said. “My family is making a grant to eliminate” the student loans.

Smith’s news stunned the crowd of nearly 400 graduates, who leapt from their chairs, responding with shouts and applause.

Calling the 2019 graduates “my class, he said, “I know my class will make sure they pay this forward.”

He challenged the students at the historically black allmale school to “make sure every class has the same opportunity going forward, because we are enough to take care of our own community.”

He added, “We are enough to ensure we have all the opportunities of the American dream, and we will show it to each other through our actions and through our words and through our deeds.”

According to The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Smith’s family will donate an estimated $40 million to

cover the cost of the student loans.

In January, Smith gave the school $1.5 million for an endowed scholarship and a new park in which students will be able to study.

Smith, 56, was raised in Denver, went to Cornell University as an undergraduate and then to Columbia Business School. Trained as an engineer, he founded Vista Equity Partners, a firm that invests in software companies. Forbes magazine has estimated the company’s assets exceed $46 billion and that Smith’s “real-time net worth” is $5 billion.

During Sunday’s ceremony, Smith was presented with an honorary doctorate degree, along with actress Angela Bassett and psychologist Edmund Gordon.

Morehouse thanked the philanthropist with a Facebook post shortly after the event.

He is the biggest private donor to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington and has partnered with Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett’s “Giving Pledge” initiative to contribute more than 50% of his wealth to humanitarian causes such as disaster relief and poverty.  www.huffpost.com/entry/robert-smith-morehouse-college-de bt_n_5ce188a3e4b00e035b923908?guccounter=1 www.morehouse.edu/newscenter/ morehousecollegepreparesfor135thannualcommencementceremony.html

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Community/Public Interest

81  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Community/Public Interest

Meet Yale's First Black Student Body President

By John N. Mitchell

E

very time someone mentions to 19-yearold Kahlil Greene that he’s the first African American to be elected student body president at prestigious Yale University, he deflects.

Greene points to the “super-cool” philanthropy of Robert F. Smith, the billionaire tech mogul who two weeks ago promised to pay off the loans of every student in Morehouse College’s class of 2019.

He points to other African-Americans “who blazed a trail and were elected to offices at HBCUs who aren’t getting the same level of attention. There are people in the Black community who are doing great things.”

But when he finally does begin to address his accomplishment — an African American had not been elected Yale College Council (YCC) president, or student body president, since it was established in 1972 — it’s clear that the significance is not lost on the Maryland native.

Yale College Council is the official undergraduate student government body of Yale University.

“As the first Black president,” Greene said in a recent phone interview, “it is important that I’m a symbol of the progress that this university has made over the years, and the journey we still have ahead of us. Yale should continue working to become a more diverse and representative place. I’m grateful for the role that I will have in making that happen.”

A little more than three years ago, when Greene was still a high school student in Germantown, Maryland, racial tensions bubbled to the surface at Yale. Names and symbols that seemed to reference slavery cropped up around the campus. It got worse later when it came to light that Jonathan Holloway, the first Black Dean of Yale College, had not communicated with the college community about allegations that a university fraternity chapter had turned away Black women from a party.

And last spring, Yale again drew unwanted attention when a white student called campus police on Black graduate student Lolade Siyonbola when she fell asleep on campus in a common area.

Add to that the demographics of Yale’s undergraduates — 47% white, 17% Asian, 11%

Hispanic, 11% international and 7% Black — and the eventual election of a Black student union president seemed unlikely.

Greene, an economics major who expects to graduate in 2021, ran unopposed in the April election, winning 1,100 votes, or 89.72% of the total votes to secure the election.

The turnout was low, with just 1,226 students (22% of Yale’s undergraduate population) casting votes. Last year, 43% of Yale undergraduates voted.

Greene’s campaign focused on four points: fostering a safer, healthier and more equitable campus culture; facilitating meaningful interactions between Yale and the surrounding community of New Haven, Connecticut; enhancing the quality of the university’s academics and facilities; and improving the Yale College Council.

However, Greene also has an agenda for the AfricanAmerican student body at Yale. This includes working to make sure the the faculty “is as diverse as possible” and students of color “have complete access to the university’s abundant resources.”

His election also follows the university’s historical decision earlier this year to select Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the renowned author of critically acclaimed novels like “Americanah” and “We Should All Be Feminists,” as the first African to deliver the university’s Class Day speech.

“We are going to work to continue to make it better at Yale,” Greene said. “We are looking forward. A lot of students have been in the role where they brought attention to incidents. I’m in an important position because it is my job and duty to bring a voice to issues and implement solutions.”  www.phillytrib.com/news/across_america/meet-yale-s-firstblack-student-body-president/article_d7f94f67-e57f-58b5-aadbfea9852b8a5a.html https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/446210-yaleuniversity-students-elect-their-first-black-student-body

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LOCATIONS 6321 West Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90043

323-295-8223

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323-758-2733

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

Community/Public Interest - Obituary/Memorial

Patricia Bath, Pioneering UCLA Ophthalmologist and Inventor, Dies at 76

By Associated Press

D

r. Patricia Bath, a pioneering UCLA ophthalmologist who became the first African American female doctor to receive a medical patent after she invented a more precise treatment of cataracts, has died. She was 76.

Bath died on May 30 from complications of cancer at a UC San Francisco Medical Center, her daughter, Dr. Eraka Bath, said Monday.

Bath was born in Harlem in New York City. Her mother was a domestic worker and her father worked on the city subway system. Bath won a National Science Foundation scholarship while a teenager.

She graduated from Howard University's Medical School and interned in New York.

Bath moved to California where she became the first African American surgeon at UCLA Medical Center and the first woman ophthalmologist on the faculty of UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute. She also co-founded an ophthalmology residency program and in 1983, Bath was appointed chair of the KingDrew-UCLA Ophthalmology Residency Program, becoming the first woman in the United States to head such a residency program.

"I had a few obstacles, but I had to shake it off," Bath told "Good Morning America" last year. "Hater-ation, segregation, racism, that's the noise you have to ignore that and keep your eyes focused on the prize, it's just like Dr. Martin Luther King said, so that's what I did."

Bath was concerned by epidemic levels of blindness from preventable causes among underserved, often minority communities in the U.S. and in poor countries overseas. In the 1970s she co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, a nonprofit

Dr. Patricia Bath in about 1980. A doctor, researcher and educator, she took a special interest in combating preventable blindness in underserved populations. Credit via Eraka Bath organization that declares "eyesight is a basic human right."

Bath also pioneered a new medical discipline, community ophthalmology, to deal with such preventable blindness through education, public health outreach and local provision of medical services.

Her daughter remembered being taken along on her mother's missions to Nigeria and Pakistan.

"I remember taking time off of fifth grade to do so," she said.

In the 1980s, Bath joined in researching the use of lasers in ophthalmology. In 1988 she patented the Laserphaco Probe, short for "laser photoablative cataract surgery." It uses a laser to dissolve cataracts.

The device offered less painful cataract treatment and restored the sight of patients who had been blind for decades.

86  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Dr. Patricia Bath attends the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards during the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival at the NYU Paulson Auditorium in New York City. (Jemal Countess / Getty Images) Bath held five U.S. patents. She also authored more than 100 papers.

But her daughter remembered her as unassuming.

"She wore sneakers and jeans ... she was casual and not pretentious," Eraka Bath said. "She came from humble roots."

Even so, she stood out in a field where there still are relatively few African Americans or women.

"So even if you're not seeking to be a role model, you are one," her daughter said.

In 1993, Bath retired from UCLA but continued to lecture and travel worldwide. She also had plans to

mentor medical students and get younger people interested in science and technology.

"She almost had a second career as a humanitarian," her daughter said. "She just was very vigorous and tireless."

In addition to her daughter, Bath is survived by a granddaughter, Noa Raphaelle Bath Fortuit of Los Angeles, and a brother, Rupert Bath of New York.  www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-ln-cataracttreatment-patricia-bath-20190605-story.html

87  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

Community/Public Interest - Obituary/Memorial

Famed New Orleans Chef Leah Chase Dies

By Cynthia Littleton

© The Associated Press FILE

L

egendary New Orleans chef Leah Chase always had problems when customers asked if she served "soul food."

Well, that would depend on where your soul was, she'd say. If it was in China, she couldn't really help you.

But if your soul was in New Orleans, well that was different.

"If your soul is in New Orleans, I know what to give you," Chase said during an interview. "I'm going to give you some jambalaya. I can

give you some stewed chicken. I can give you some shrimp Creole."

Chase, who fed generations of New Orleanians and tourists alike at Dooky Chase's restaurant, died Saturday. She was 96.

Chase's family released a statement to news outlets Saturday night, sharing that the woman they called a "believer in the Spirit of New Orleans" died surrounded by family.

"Her daily joy was not simply

cooking, but preparing meals to bring people together," the family's statement read. "One of her most prized contributions was advocating for the Civil Rights Movement through feeding those on the front lines of the struggle for human dignity."

Leah Chase transformed the restaurant bearing — like her husband — her father-in-law's name from a sandwich shop where black patrons could buy lottery tickets

88  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

garment i n d u s t r y, C h a s e worked as a waitress in the French Quarter, w h i c h exposed her to the segregated city's pricey restaurants frequented by white people.

Leah Chase with Barack Obama firstwefeast.com W h e n she married to a refined Dooky Chase in 1946, his family restaurant where restaurant had been open for five tourists, athletes, years — largely under the guidance musicians — and of his mother. But Leah Chase even presidents wanted to make it a fine dining — of all races experience for black patrons, along the lines of what she had seen in the dined.

C h a s e ' s Quarter. Gradually, she introduced d e t e r m i n a t i o n silverware on the table, tablecloths propelled her from and Creole dishes.

"I said well why we can't have that a girl with a smallfor our people? Why we can't have town Louisiana a nice space? So I started trying to upbringing to a celebrated chef do different things," she said.

Dooky Chase's became known who authored as a place where white and black cookbooks, appeared on civil rights activists could meet and cooking shows strategize about voter registration and fed civil rights drives or legal cases. Although greats such as Thurgood Marshall Chase and her husband were and Martin Luther King Jr. Well breaking the law by allowing whites into her 90s, Chase could be found and blacks to eat together, police every day at the restaurant, using never raided the restaurant.

She would also send food to jailed a walker while greeting customers civil rights leaders, sniffing her nose and supervising the kitchen.

"I love people and I love serving at the notion of them eating prison people. It's fun for me to serve food.

Sybil Morial, a longtime friend of people.

Because sometimes Chase's, said she's eaten hundreds people will come in and they're tired. And just a little plate of food of meals at Dooky Chase's where will make people happy," she said she was courted by her late during a 2015 interview with The husband and the city's first black mayor, Ernest "Dutch" Morial. On Associated Press.

At a time when other black Creole visits to New Orleans, Thurgood women were working in the city's Marshall and other lawyers would

work with Morial's husband and NAACP lawyer, A.P. Tureaud, and then head to Dooky's for lunch or dinner.

"It was a haven for them to refresh themselves with wonderful gumbo and it was a place where they could strategize after a hard day's work," Morial said.

Chase never boasted about her works, saying simply that she did what she thought she had to do.

Hurricane Katrina in 2005 devastated her restaurant, where 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water lingered in the dining room for weeks. When the waters eventually receded, mold was everywhere.

Chase was already into her 80s, but there was little question regarding the restaurant's fate.

Having evacuated to Birmingham, she and her husband returned to live in a FEMA trailer next to the restaurant for months, while they rebuilt Dooky Chase's.

She and her husband had been married for seven decades when he died in 2016 .

Her food always reflected her city, a Creole mixture of Spanish, French, African and other cultures that have influenced New Orleans.

She also enjoyed new culinary influences in the city, like the growing number of Vietnamese and Jamaican restaurants.

With the exception of two photographs of former President Barack Obama, the restaurant has little evidence of the celebrities and dignitaries who came to eat. Instead of surrounding herself with the past, Chase tended to look forward.

"I want to do better," she said. "I want to have the finest restaurant with the finest food. That's all I want."  www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/ restaurantsandnews/famednew-orleans-chef-who-fedcivil-rights-leaders-dies/arAAChg0s?ocid=spartanntp

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

Community/Public Interest - Obituary/Memorial

Lawrence Leathers, Grammy-Winning Jazz Drummer, Victim of Suspected Murder

By Nate Chinen

A

wave of shock and sadness moved through the jazz community recently, with news of the death of Lawrence Lo Leathers, a drummer with a steadfast presence in the modern jazz mainstream.

Leathers was 37. He was killed on Sunday, June 2nd in the hallway of an apartment building on East 141st Street in the Bronx neighborhood of Mott Haven, according to Detective Martin Brown of the

NYPD. The police have arrested a suspect in connection to the incident.

According to police sources, Leathers was involved in a dispute with his girlfriend when he was assaulted by another individual, who put him in a chokehold. He lost consciousness and was later pronounced dead.

E.J. Strickland, a drummer who served as a big brother of sorts to Leathers, remembered

him on Instagram as "one of the most musical, swingingest, honest drummers out here. Whenever I saw him play, I learned a great deal more about accompaniment, feel, & touch."

Leathers is best known to the global jazz audience for his affiliations with pianist Aaron Diehl and singer Cécile McLorin Salvant. He won two Grammy awards backing Salvant, as a member of the Aaron Diehl Trio; the

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

most recent was in 2017 for Dreams and Daggers (Mack Avenue), much of which was recorded live at The Village Vanguard in New York. You can hear him take a characteristically crisp drum solo on Bob Dorough's "Devil May Care," beginning at 4:25.

Leathers, was a pillar of the informal but musically vital scene in New York, presiding over latenight sessions at Smalls Jazz Club and Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola.

The SmallsLIVE website lists 277 archived shows that include Leathers, most recently with the JC Stylles Organ Quartet in late April.

(Leathers was scheduled to play there again, in an after-hours jam session.)

"He had an acute social awareness," Diehl tells NPR Music. "He knew how to observe situations and people, and because of that he knew exactly how to engage. This directly translated into his musicianship. He was always aware of everyone and everything

around him, with the objective to be supportive, to groove, and to simply lift the bandstand with euphoria.

Every time I played with Lawrence Leathers, there was some kind of levitation going on."

Singer and WBGO announcer Lezlie Harrison worked with Leathers on multiple occasions, and considered him a dear friend.

"He always greeted me with a stately bow, a beautiful smile and that mischievous twinkle in his eye," she says. "Lawrence was fiercely passionate about the music and the tradition. His swing was full of so much soul and fire. He was one of the best cats to hang with on and off the bandstand."

Lawrence Lo Leathers was born on Nov. 23, 1981 in Lansing, Mich., where he began banging on the drums as a toddler. He encountered his first musical mentor in the gospel church: Joe Lane, who was playing in services, and soon became his first drum teacher.

"I've never seen anyone in my life

pick up any instrument he wanted to and play it almost instantly," says Lane, who remained close with Leathers. "And not just music. He did that with everything. Anything that he wanted to. The hardest thing about this whole thing is, he was a guy who was very difficult not to love."

Leathers was playing professionally by 15. He moved to New York to attend the Juilliard School, where he met Diehl and bassist Paul Sikivie, along with other future collaborators. (Juilliard also brought him into the orbit of trumpeter Wynton Marsalis; (view amateur footage of Marsalis jamming on "Cherokee" at Smalls in 2011, with the Aaron Diehl Trio including Leathers as a rhythm section - www.youtube.com/watch?v =pNmHKOETsdg&feature=youtu.be).

In a 2012 interview with the variety web series Capsulocity, Leathers gave a brief rundown of his journey, as well as a précis of his style. "I don't play a whole lot of flashy stuff," he reflects.

"Listening, that's one of my biggest assets."

He also reflects on the total commitment required of a jazz artist: "You have to have this feeling — you know what I mean? — that it's your life."  www.npr. org/2019/06/03/729263193/ lawrence-leathers-grammywinning-jazz-drummer-victimof-suspected-murder Image Credits: Lawrence Leathers, performing during the Monterey Jazz Festival in 2014. The percussionist was found dead on June 2, 2019 in New York.

Craig Lovell/Corbis via Getty Images Photo by Paul Chambit/ Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

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

International - Health

Algeria Declared Malaria-free, Third African Country to Achieve Feat

By Ntianu Obiora

A

lgeria – the nation where malaria was discovered – is officially free of malaria, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday, making it the third African country to eliminate one of the world’s leading killer diseases.

With no recorded cases of malaria in three consecutive years, Argentina was also declared malaria-free – the second country in the Americas after Paraguay in 45 years to wipe out the disease, which kills more than

400,000 people a year.

“Algeria is where the malaria parasite was first discovered in humans almost a century and a half ago, and that was a significant milestone in responding to the disease,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO’s regional director for Africa.

Although WHO has declared 38 countries malaria-free since 1955, the fight against malaria has stalled as malaria-carrying mosquitoes have become resistant to drugs and insecticides in bednets that protect people from being bitten while sleeping.

Algeria is the third African nation to become malaria free, after Mauritius in 1973 and Morocco in 2010, which brings economic benefits, said Abdourahmane Diallo, head of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership to End Malaria.

“Malaria-free status provides external economic benefits … enabling them to free up resources to address other health and development priorities and improve worker productivity and school attendance,” he said.

Crisis-hit Venezuela is one of the countries that has seen a sharp rise in malaria cases as its health system collapses amid hyperinflation and recession.  www.africanews.com/2019/05/23/the-world-healthorganization-declares-algeria-free-of-deadly-malariadisease/

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Image credit: flipboard.com

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

95  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

International - Trade

Ghana Cocoa Products are Hot Cakes in China

By Peacefmonline.com

G

hana participated in the 2019 Tea Expo held at Hangzhou, China. Ghana was invited by the Chinese Government as Special Guest Country.

Food and Agriculture Minister, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, led a 20-member delegation to promote Ghana's chocolate and other cocoa products to Chinese consumers.

The delegation included a strong contingent from Cocoa Processing Company, Ghana Cocobod, Private cocoa processor Plotte Limited from Takoradi, MOFA, Ministry of Trade and others.

Ghana's stand became the toast of the Expo with hundreds of Chinese visitors streaming through to taste our cocoa products. On the day set aside to honour Ghana, the Chinese Minister for Agriculture and Rural Affairs Mr. Han Changfu and his deputy Dr Qu Dongyu visited the nation's stand.

The huge crowds were entertained by a Ghanaian dancing troupe accompanied by traditional music,

much to the appreciation and amusement of the Ministers and the teeming visitors.

The organisers of the the Expo confirmed Ghana's stand was by far, the most popular.  www.peacefmonline.com/pages/business/ industry/201905/382707.php?utm_source=dlvr. it&utm_medium=facebook

97  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

International - Technology

All-girls Robotics Team from Ghana Wins World Robofest Championship in the U.S.

By Ismail Akwei

Team Acrobot – Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation Dr. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu Methodist Girls’ High School in the Eastern Region of Ghana dominated the 10 broad and challenging categories of the championship held from May 16 to 18 at the Lawrence Technological University (LTU), Southfield, Michigan.

The categories include the Game (Complete robotic missions), Exhibition (Show off projects), Vision Centric Challenge (Develop robots Team Cosmic Intellect – Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation to solve problems using hana presented an all-girls robotics team for cameras), Unknown Mission Challenge (Surprise the senior division of the World Robofest missions), RoboArts (Robotics music, dance and Championship in the United States and they arts competition), BottleSumo (Pushing bottle or won the topmost position by beating teams from the opponents off a table), RoboParade (Parade of United States, Mexico, Egypt, South Korea and robots), Camps, Carnival and WISER, a conference dozens of others. on STEM education through robotics.

Named Team Acrobot, the nine girls from the The team from Ghana was able to build a robot

G

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

International - Challeging Extremism

Kenya's President asks Muslims to Help Fight Extremism

K

enya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has used an historic visit to a mosque to call on Muslims to help in the fight against extremism, his office

says.

Mr. Kenyatta went to the Jamia Mosque in the capital, Nairobi, to break the fast on Thursday night.

His office says it was the first time a sitting Kenyan president visited and prayed at a mosque.

Mr. Kenyatta called for unity in the country and said that the Muslim community "should work closely with the government in fighting crime and extremism", according to a statement from his office.

“When we see violence occasioned, this violence is not occasioned by Muslims or Christians but by criminals.

"It is this criminal that we fight because they are enemies of Muslims and Christians and all other religious groups,” Mr Kenyatta is quoted as saying.

There have been several attacks carried out in Kenya by the Somali-based militant group al-Shabab in recent years.

th t arranged that d boxes b according di to t a binary bi number b they were given during the competition. They also completed their missions successfully.

Team Acrobot was not the only team from Ghana.

The West African country also presented a team for the junior division called Team Cosmic Intellect. The team of five boys from the Mikrobot Academy in Ghana came 6th out of the overall 52 teams in the division.

The two teams qualified from the national championship level called the Robotics Inspired Science Education (RISE) competition organised by the Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation in January. They beat several teams before qualifying for the World Robofest Championship.

The Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation was founded by Dr. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, the Ghanaian robotics engineer at NASA and the Chief Engineer and Technical Group Leader for the Mobility and Manipulation Group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is one of the lead engineers behind NASA’s Mars Rover and InSight projects.

Among the most deadly was an attack on a university campus in Garissa in2015 in which nearly 150 people died. In January this year, at least 21 people died in an attack on a hotel and office complex in Nairobi..  www.bbc.com/news/live/world-africa-48419494?

Image Credit: State House Kenya

Robofest has b been organised 1999 to R b f t h i d since i t off ffer students the opportunity to master principles of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) as well as Computer Science (CS), communication, critical thinking, teamwork, and problem solving skills while designing, constructing, and programming robots.

Since Robofest started, over 25,000 students have competed from 14 U.S. States, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, England, France, Ghana, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Lebanon, Macau, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, and South Korea. The teams compete in the junior, senior and college divisions.

All registered participants received medals and personalized certificates while winners of qualifying and championship rounds received trophies.  https://face2faceafrica.com/article/all-girls-robotics-teamfrom-ghana-wins-world-robofest-championship-in-the-us?fbclid=IwAR0kL-PUdwHZZcxOliN8USHuaZKl4P6dFbka8 3MQ0NNzcdklyATiynH_Qtc

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

International - Travel Facilitation

Barbados Drops Visa Requirements for these 8 African Nations

By Elizabeth Ofosuah Johnson

W

ith its eyes set on making the country the number one business and travel destination in the Caribbean, Barbados is making it easier for citizens of various African countries to visit with ease.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator, Dr. Jerome Walcott, announced that the government has supported the cancellation of visa for citizens of several African countries which will be implemented with immediate effect.

The new implementation affects countries including Cameroon, Ethiopia, Liberia, Morocco, Senegal, Rwanda, Burkina Faso and Ghana from which Barbados receives a lot of visitors and has several ties.

Citizens from these countries will therefore not need a visa when travelling to Barbados.

“We recognise that Africa, a continent of 54 countries, many of them showing growth rates of five, six, and seven percent, in terms of Rwanda, it is time for us to look more closely at that continent. We have made a pledge, and we are moving towards establishing a mission in Accra, Ghana before the end of this year,”

he said.

Dr. Jerome Walcott stated that the move was also to bring Africa and the Caribbean a step closer as the two share similarities through a common history and could work together to project the black community.

“We recognize in terms of travel that the stipulations for visas are sometimes a deterrent for tourists and those seeking to establish business with the country, they find it fairly complicated. In this regard, the Cabinet of Barbados agreed to remove the visa requirements for several countries in different parts of the world,” he said at a press conference last week.

The visa exemption has also been extended to other countries across the world including the Gulf States of Bahrain, Jordan, Oman and Qatar as well as the Asian countries of Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and India.  https://face2faceafrica.com/article/barbadosdrops-visa-requirements-for-these-8-african-cou ntries?fbclid=IwAR30a0IaNeMVy9tupwauEBWUoiXZuJTlxWomC14MocfiITD9K5wE-Onqzs

100  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

International - CIVIL RIGHTS LEGABIBO legal policy director Caine Youngman told The Associated Press the state might appeal “to appease the homophobes” and has 30 working days to do so.

Amnesty International called on other African nations to follow Botswana’s example in “an exciting new era of acceptance.”

Botswana’s High Court said in its ruling that penalizing people for who they are is disrespectful and discriminatory, and that the law should not deal with private acts between consenting adults.

Sexual orientation is innate and not a “fashion statement,” the judges said.

“Any criminalization of love or finding fulfillment in love dilutes compassion and tolerance.”

The ruling cited the recent decriminalization in India and elsewhere.

It also pointed out that all three arms of Botswana’s government have expressed the need to protect the rights of the gay community.

Before the ruling, LEGABIBO shared a comment attributed to President Mokgweetsi Masisi: “There are also many people of same-sx relationships in this country who have been violated and have also suffered in silence for fear of being discriminated. Just like other citizens, they deserve to have their rights protected.” The judges cited the president’s comment in their ruling.

Botswana in recent years has taken other steps toward protecting LGBT rights. The High Court in 2017 ruled that the government should issue a transgender man documentation reflecting his identity. And in 2016 an appeals court ruled that LEGABIBO could register as a nonprofit.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres joins U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet and the acting executive director of UNAIDS, Gunilla Carlsson, “in warmly welcoming the landmark decision by Botswana’s High Court to decriminalize consensual same sex relations,” U.N. spokesman Dujarric said.

“It is a day to celebrate pride, compassion and love,” Carlsson said in a statement after Tuesday’s ruling.

Prohibitive legal environments increase the vulnerability of gay men, transgender women and others to HIV, the statement said. 

Botswana Decriminalizes Gay Sex in Landmark Africa Case

By CARA ANNA

B

otswana became the latest country to decriminalize gay sex In a landmark case for Africa, as the High Court rejected laws punishing it with up to seven years in prison.

Jubilant activists in the packed courtroom cheered the unanimous decision in the southern African nation that is seen as one of the continent’s most stable and democratic. The ruling came less than a month after Kenya’s High Court had upheld similar sections of its own penal code in another closely watched case.

“Botswana is the ninth country in the past five years to have decriminalized consensual same-sex relationships,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

More than two dozen countries in sub-Saharan Africa have laws criminalizing gay sex, often holdovers from colonial times. Earlier this year, the southern African nation of Angola decriminalized same-sex activity and banned discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Those arguing against the laws say they leave people in the LGBT community vulnerable to discrimination and abuse while making it difficult to access basic health and other services.

The Botswana-based non-governmental group LEGABIBO, which supported the anonymous petitioner in the case, has said such laws “infringe on basic human dignity.”

www.apnews.com/3872487731374ea18b5b27e5fe16105a?utm_ medium=week.in.review.2.20190615.421.2&utm_source=email&utm_ content=article&utm_campaign=10-for-today---4.0-styling

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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/#

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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

F

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

psypost.org

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It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten.

Hearing the call of her ancestors, tenyear-old Ahmyah embarks on a voyage of self-discovery as she reconnects with her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and a host of cousins and other family and friends from halfway around the world, in Ghana, West Africa.

As Ahmyah travels and explores, she learns about her heritage and is ďŹ lled with love from her family while ďŹ nding joy in this new adventure. www.thesankofajourney.com/book/

Board Game Brothas www.boardgamebrothas.com www.facebook.com/BGBrothas/

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.

SUPER SOAKER Toys R Us Amazon Wal-Mart Target and more...

Zumo Learning System with Tablet The Zumo Learning System provides an accessible learning environment for children of all abilities. Zumo helps children fall in love with STEM. • Includes a 7 Tablet, Math Games and a Wireless Smart Toy, named Zumo • Unique technology maps physical movements to touch screen gestures • A suite of apps are included that are specially designed to enable tactile-based learning • Designed for K-3rd graders for learning in the home or classroom • Apps are customizable to the special needs of each child • Zumo offers many different play experiences through apps already available on iTunes www.zyrobotics.com info@zyrobotics.com

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Rihanna Shows Hidden History of Barbados in New Fenty Fashion Campaign

By Stephanie Ogbogu

M

ove over Paris and Milan, Rihanna has subtly made Barbados the new home of high fashion.

Earlier this month, LVMH — owners of Louis Vuitton, Fendi, and Dior — announced that they are partnering with Rihanna to launch her very own high fashion label, FENTY. Not only is this the first label launched by LVMH in over 30 years, but Rihanna is also the first Black woman to lead a fashion house under its name. This major move is not only historic but highly anticipated.

Rihanna started off by releasing a campaign video (https://youtu.be/pod3RjrnA5A) for her new label.

The visual includes models posing in various styles from Rihanna’s upcoming line as the pop singer works as the creative director. What fans may miss upon the first watch, however, is how Barbados and its rich history serves as the backdrop.

The video begins with models posing in front

of straw huts, similar to the slave houses found in St. Michael. Rihanna then takes us to Broad Street in Bridgetown, Barbados where we see busy shoppers heading to and from local markets.

Other landmarks you may recognize are the Cave Shepherd shopping mall on Broad Street and Rihanna’s childhood home in Bridgetown which is located on a street that has since been named after the singer.

While many don’t immediately think of Barbados as a high fashion market, Rihanna is set to change that. You can keep an eye out on Rihanna’s upcoming label by visiting FENTY.com.  https://legacy.travelnoire.com/rihanna-historybarbados-fenty-fashion-campaign/

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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

McGrath's work as a makeup artist for runway shows, including Ve r s a c e , Balenciaga, and Gucci.

In an interview with InStyle, M c G r a t h explained how she created her line. "My intention when I created Labs was that the people that used our products would be empowered to explore a fearless, daring attitude towards makeupâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that's why we always write 'Use Without Caution' on everything we make," she said. "I've always believed that the most extraordinary results occur only when one feels unbound by any notion of constraint or limitation." ď &#x192; www.harpersbazaar.com/beauty/makeup/a22499334/patmcgrath-labs-worth-one-billion/

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

by founder She’Neil Johnson's own struggles with acne, the line includes a moisturizing facial "jelly" and body cream. www.basebutter.com

From www.shondaland.com/live/beauty/g22793939/ women-of-color-owned-skincare-brands/

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

I

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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Introducing Serena, my ďŹ rst independent clothing line for all the ladies out there being awesome.

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Beyoncé's New Adidas Collection

I

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

IVY PARK WWW.IVYPARK.COM

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

W

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/

https://store.talleyandtwine.com/

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/

SUED Watches Nairobi, Kenya @suedwatched h ps://sued.co.ke www.facebook.com/suedwatches

BRAVISSIMO! SHOP IN STORES AND ONLINE...

We are excited to announce that you can now shop select Nubian Skin lingerie in store for the first time ever in the UK, and online at Bravissimo! The Fuller Bust Bras and Briefs can now be found in Oxford Circus, Manchester, Leeds, and Glasgow. So pop into a store and show some love!

Shop Now at our our USA site: www.bravissimo.com/us/products/naked-bra-cinnamonnu102cin/?goal=0_a8f0a62688-bc6913bd83-225252453&mc_ cid=bc6913bd83&mc_eid=a8a3b81440

The Economic Turn Around in the USA is in Our Hands •Buy Products Made or Assembled in the USA •Hire One New Employee •Eat an Extra Meal Out Each Week •Start/Grow a Business to Generate Wealth & Jobs

Buy Black  Save Black  Invest Black 141  June 2019  Black Business News  www.bbala.org  1-323-291-7819

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This magniďŹ cent handcrafted concert grand is a "Best of" in terms of sound, new technology, beauty, and construction.

Massively well-built to withstand the rigors of intense concert performances without compromise, the SHADD Concert Grand is a coveted treasure for pianists and collectors.

With a rich voluminous sound that performs true to all genres of music, this phenomenal instrument has a rare diversiďŹ ed ability to play from the softest whisper with pure clear sound to a major roar with a bass section exuding an abundance of power and resounding singing sensations.

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Baron's Painting & Decorating Service Baron Williams 30 Years of Experience in the Greater Los Angeles Area Specializing in Exterior and Interior Painting, Tiling, Linoleum Flooring,

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Experience our exciting array of products from Cards to Cupcakes, African Masks, Asian Teacups, Healthy Herbal Teas, Gourd Purses, Candles, to Furniture Hope to see you soon!!!

In the meantime visit us on Facebook www.facebook.com/pages/CulturalInteriors-West/140688362658236

VIRTUE RESTAURANT 1462 E 53rd St., Chicago, IL 60615 1-773-947-8831

www.virtuerestaurant.com Hospitality is a virtue!

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310-202-5453 Open Sunday-Thursday 11am-10pm Friday-Saturday 11am-11pm www.honeyskettle.com

Black Business. Black Culture. Black Thought. Black Love https://shoppeblack.us

Shaquille O’Neal Has a Big Comfort Food Restaurant in l.A. Live Los Angeles

S

haquille’s is an upscale casual restaurant specializing in Southern cuisine and service with personality.

The menu focuses on farm fresh produce and features his signature fried chicken.

Shaquille’s c u r a t e d b e v e r a g e p r o g r a m includes a wine vault, local draft beers, and hand-crafted cocktails with an emphasis on bourbons and whiskeys. Situated in the heart of L.A. LIVE, the space features an enclosed private patio surrounding the main entrance with a modern, upbeat vibe that transforms guests’ experiences from day to night. The restaurant is open daily for lunch and dinner with extended lounge hours.

Southern hospitality with modern flair Genuine warmth and hospitality, modern décor, great music, as well as amazing food and drink think fried green tomatoes, shrimp and grits, corn pudding, mac and cheese and banana pudding.

Guests will always be welcomed by

a friendly and courteous staff whose goal is to create unique familystyle dining experiences in a contemporary setting.

Ambience No detail has been overlooked. Shaquille’s is proud to offer exclusive al fresco dining on our patio as well as swanky interior seating. Dynamic music and subdued lighting, paired with an open layout welcome all to be a part of the Shaquille’s experience.

Shaquille’s namesake Like the man himself, Shaquille’s is larger-than-life. Our goal is to offer the best in food, drink, and service to everyone who enters our Shaq-sized doors, while never forgetting to have fun!  www.shaquilles.com/

L.A. Live, 800 W. Olympic Boulevard, Suite A150, Los Angeles, CA www.shaquilles.com ï&#x201A;³ 213-746-7427(SHAQ)

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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Parker House Sausage

(www.parkerhousesausage.com) was started by Chicago entrepreneur, Judge H. Parker who came to Chicago from Montgomery County, Tennessee with little more than the conviction that there was a potential market for homemade sausage products prepared according to his mother’s recipes. By 1919 Judge Parker began selling his unique blend of herbs and spices mixed with flavorful, savory sausage from a horse drawn cart on a retail basis.

Recognized as one of the oldest family owned businesses in the U.S. In 2014 Parker House expanded its product line to include chicken products including breakfast sausage, hot links, and smoked sausage.

LOOK FOR US IN THE FROZEN FOODS SECTION!

SHOP ONLINE! //shop.parkerhousesausage. com

We invite you to browse through our store and shop with confidence.

Need a dinner idea. Go to the Recipe Page on our website. Thanks for visiting!

S

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

Delicious Southern Flavors At Home!

Whether you’re north or south of the Mason-Dixon line, east or west of the Mississippi, Grandma Maud’s gives you a taste of the South in your own kitchen.

Try our Recipes: //grandmamauds. com/recipes

You’ll find our Bean Meals, Southern Seasonings and Pie Fixin’s in supermarkets throughout the U.S.A. (Jewel-Osco, Mariano’s, Safeway and Kroger Stores) – and online at: (h ps://eyelevellink.com/collec ons/ vendors?q=Grandma%20Mauds) or call us at: 1-773-493-5353!

Not Just Cookies NJC is a cookie company providing, natural desserts superior in quality and taste. Our cookies and pies are made with the finest ingredients. We offer select gluten free and vegan desserts that are rich in taste. Not Just Cookies is a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) founded by Johnathon Bush.

W

e can cater for any event or party. We offer custom packaging for all of our cookies and pies to suit any need. Cookie platters also available. Corporate gifts, company parties, restaurants looking to outsource pastries, we're here for you.

The menu: Turtle Cookies, Chocolate Chip Oatmeal, Butter Cookies, Oatmeal Raisin, Brownies, Snickerdoodle, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut, Ginger Cookies, Vegan Brownies, Gluten Free Chocolate Chip, Sweet Potato Pie, and Fruit Pies (apple, cherry, blueberry or peach).

Visit www.notjustcookies.com for online shopping, store locations, shipping and catering details. Talk to us by calling: 1-800-833-4541 or send NJC an inquiry at: info@ notjustcookies.net.

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Now available at Whole Foods!

Ma's Best is a bakery specializing in the production of home-style yeast rolls and baked products. www.facebook.com/masbestrolls/#!/masbestrolls/?tab=page_info#!/masbestrolls/info

Try all 3 flavors!

In your local grocery store or shop online for syrups, recipes, and books. Learn about our special projects and join the recipe contest.

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

S

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 165

from page 164

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 Truths We Hold: An American Journey

S

By Kamala D. Harris

enator Kamala Harris's commitment to speaking truth is informed by her upbringing.

The daughter of immigrants, she was raised in an Oakland, California community that cared deeply about social justice; her parents--an esteemed economist from Jamaica and an admired cancer researcher from India-met as activists in the civil rights movement when they were graduate students at Berkeley. Growing up, Harris herself never hid her passion for justice, and when she became a prosecutor out of law school, a deputy district attorney, she quickly established herself as one of the most innovative change agents in American law enforcement. She progressed rapidly to become the elected District Attorney for San Francisco, and then the chief law enforcement officer of the state of California as a whole. Known for bringing a voice to the voiceless, she took on the big banks during the foreclosure crisis, winning a historic settlement for California's working families. Her hallmarks were applying a holistic, data-driven approach to many of California's thorniest issues, always eschewing stale "tough on crime" rhetoric as presenting a series of false choices. Neither "tough" nor "soft" but smart on crime became her mantra. Being smart means learning the truths that can make us better as a community, and supporting those truths with all our might. That has been the pole star that guided Harris to a transformational career as the top law enforcement official in California, and it is guiding her now as a transformational United States Senator, grappling with an array of complex issues that affect her state, our country, and the world,

from health care and the new economy to immigration, national security, the opioid crisis, and accelerating inequality.

By reckoning with the big challenges we face together, drawing on the hard-won wisdom and insight from her own career and the work of those who have most inspired her, Kamala Harris offers in THE TRUTHS WE HOLD a master class in problem solving, in crisis management, and leadership in challenging times. Through the arc of her own life, on into the great work of our day, she communicates a vision of shared struggle, shared purpose, and shared values.

In a book rich in many home truths, not least is that a relatively small number of people work very hard to convince a great many of us that we have less in common than we actually do, but it falls to us to look past them and get on with the good work of living our common truth. When we do, our shared effort will continue to sustain us and this great nation, now and in the years to come.  www.amazon.com/gp/product/ B07FC47R8D?ref=em_1p_1_ ti&ref_=pe_1249960_410354980

Darkness to Light: A Memoir

T

By Lamar Odom

he world knows Lamar Odom as a two-time NBA world champion who rocketed to uncharted heights of fame thanks to being a member of both the storied Los Angeles Lakers and the ubiquitous Kardashian empire.

But who is Lamar, really?

Fans have long praised his accessibility and genuine e v e r y m a n quality—he is a blinding talent who has suffered a series of heartaches, setback, and loss.

But until now, his most candid

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Books to Consider moments have remained behind closed doors . . . sometimes face-down on the floor.

In Darkness to Light, Lamar gives readers an intimate look into his life like never before. His exclusive and revealing memoir recounts the highs and lows of fame and his struggle with his demons along the way to self-discovery and redemption. From the pain of his unraveled marriage to Khloé Kardashian to the harmful vices he used to cope—and the near-death experience that made him rethink everything about his life—this is Lamar as you have never before seen him.

Lamar brings basketball fans directly into the action of a game during the Lakers championship years. He shares his personal account of the lifelong passion that started as one shining light in a childhood marked by loss and led to his international fame as one of the most extraordinary athletes of all time. In this profoundly honest book, Lamar invites you to walk with him through the good times and bad, while looking ahead to a brighter future.  www.amazon.com/Darkness-Light-Memoir-Lamar-Odomebook/dp/B07GL277JN?creativeASIN=B07GL277JN&linkC ode=w50&tag=thedailybeast-autotag-20&imprToken=6nRil. reCuTsVhwG.wbDiQ&slotNum=0

Everyday Millionaires: How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth―and How You Can Too

by Chris Hogan

E

verywhere we turn, we hear negative financial news— that the American Dream is dead or that the little man can’t get ahead.

Our culture feeds us the lie that it’s impossible to become a millionaire in America today, but it’s time you heard the truth.

In his newest

book, Everyday Millionaires: How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth—and How You Can Too, Chris Hogan destroys millionaire myths that are keeping everyday people from achieving financial independence. Chris and the Ramsey research team surveyed over 10,000 US millionaires, discovering how these high-net-worth people reached their financial status. And the formula might surprise you.

Millionaire status doesn’t require inheriting a bunch of money or having a high-paying job. No. The path to becoming a millionaire is paved with more-ordinary tools—tools that you either already have or that you can learn. If you thought you could never become a millionaire, think again. Listen and learn from over 10,000 everyday millionaires who have done it and believe it’s possible for you too.  www.amazon.com/Everyday-Millionaires-OrdinaryExtraordinary-Wealth_and/dp/0977489523

Retire Inspired: It's Not an Age, It's a Financial Number

W

by Chris Hogan

hen you hear the word retirement, you probably don't imagine yourself scrambling to pay your bills in your golden years. But for too many Americans, that's the fate that awaits unless they take steps now to plan for the future.

Whether you're twenty five and starting your first job or fifty five and watching the career clock start to wind down, today is the day to get serious about your retirement.

In Retire Inspired, Chris Hogan teaches that retirement isn't an age; it's a financial number an amount you need to live the life in retirement that you've always dreamed of.

With clear investing es Chris will educate and concepts and strategies, empower you to make your own investing decisions, set reasonable expectations for your spouse and family, and build a dream team of experts to get you there.

You don't have to retire broke, stressed, and working long after you want to. You can retire inspired! 

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www.amazon.com/Retire-Inspired-Its-FinancialNumber/dp/1937077810/ref=pd_sim_14_1/1306381350-7250248

Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds

F

by David Goggins

or David Goggins, childhood was a nightmare — poverty, prejudice, and physical abuse colored his days and haunted his nights. But through selfdiscipline, mental toughness, and hard work, Goggins transformed himself from a depressed, overweight young man with no future into a U.S. Armed F o r c e s icon and one of the world's top endurance athletes.

The only man in history to complete elite training as a Navy S E A L , A r m y Ranger, and Air Force Tactical Air Controller Controller, h he went on to set records in numerous endurance events, inspiring Outside magazine to name him “The Fittest (Real) Man in America.”

In Can't Hurt Me, he shares his astonishing life story and reveals that most of us tap into only 40% of our capabilities. Goggins calls this The 40% Rule, and his story illuminates a path that anyone can follow to push past pain, demolish fear, and reach their full potential.  www.amazon.com/Cant-Hurt-Me-Master-Your-ebook/ dp/B07H453KGH

Afropean: Notes from Black Europe

A

by Johnny Pitts

fropean is an on-the-ground documentary of areas where Europeans of African descent are juggling their multiple allegiances and forging new identities. Here is an alternative map of the c continent, taking the reader to p places like Cova Da Moura, t Cape Verdean shantytown the o the outskirts of Lisbon with on i own underground economy, its a and Rinkeby, the area of S Stockholm that is 80% Muslim.

Johny Pitts visits the former Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, where West African students are still making the most of Cold War ties with the USSR, and Clichy Sous Bois in Paris, which gave birth to the 2005 riots, all the while presenting Afropeans as lead Johny Pitts Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The Observer actors in their own story.  www.amazon.com/Afropean-Documenting-Europe-JohnyPitts/dp/0141984724

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Books to Consider

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BBA 2019 Master Planner

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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 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 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.theafricacenter.org African Networks -http://afn.bibalex.

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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

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

Commerce/Entrepreneurship

Investment/Development

#IAMWANDA -- www.facebook.com/IamWANDAorg African Success Stories -- www.risingafrica.org African Technology Foundation -www.thea25n.com BBurb -- https://bburb.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

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

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

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

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NYSE trader/broker Lauren Simmons © CNBC Make It