Karine Jean-Pierre Is Set To Become The First Black And Openly LGBTQ White House Press Secretary
Karine Jean-Pierre is set to become the new White House press secretary next week when current press secretary Jen Psaki departs the position.
CNN reports Jean-Pierre is currently serving in the role of White House principal deputy press secretary and will formally start in the role following Psaki’s last day on May 13. Psaki is leaving the Biden administration to take a role with MSNBC.
“Karine not only brings the experience, talent and integrity needed for this difficult job, but she will continue to lead the way in communicating about the work of the Biden-Harris Administration on behalf of the American people,” President Joe Biden said in a statement, adding that “Jen Psaki has set the standard for returning decency, respect and decorum to the White House Briefing Room.”
Last May, Jean-Pierre became the second Black woman to hold the White House daily press briefing. She has also served on the White House communications team after Biden took office. Before that, she was an advisor for Biden during his campaign and was chief of staff for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Jean-Pierre is accustomed to the role as she Is often in the room during press briefings and has filled in for Psaki several times since Biden became president. She also replaced Psaki on Biden’s four-day trip to Europe after Psaki tested positive for COVID-19.
Jean-Pierre was one of several names being rumored to replace Psaki including Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby, who has become a well-known face in press briefings and on cable television discussing the war in Ukraine.
Psaki thanked the president Biden and First Lady Jill Biden in a message on Twitter and also congratulated Jean-Pierre on the new role adding “I can’t wait to see her shine as she brings her own style, brilliance and grace to the podium.”
In her new role as press secretary, Jean-Pierre will brief the country on the war in Ukraine, the COVID-19. pandemic, the economy and the battle over abortion rights in the Supreme Court.
Wells Fargo Invests In GardHouse, A Charlotte Non-Profit Helping Minority Students Land Jobs
Wells Fargo Bank has made a $75,000 investment in GardHouse, a Charlotte-based nonprofit that connects minority college students with paid internships at small businesses and nonprofits to build job experience.
BizJournals reports Wells Fargo is investing in GardHouse for the third straight year. The bank has increased its investment in GardHouse yearly since 2020, when it started with $10,000.
The internships at GardHouse typically last four months and run concurrent to a student’s academic semester. GardHouse was founded in 2019 by Jonathan Gardner to address the fact that students of color graduating college are twice as likely to be unemployed as White students. Gardner wanted to help college students in Charlotte begin building their professional networks while gaining work experience.
“The job market is hot for people who have experience,” Gardner told BizJournals. “You don’t have that coming out of college. For a lot of employers, yes, there’s onboarding and training, but there’s additional care that’s needed.”
GardHouse currently has more than 200 interns in its network and is working with more than 120 small businesses and nonprofits in Charlotte. The funding from Wells Fargo and others will help GardHouse pay its working interns $20.83 an hour for 15 hours per week during a semester. GardHouse hopes to add 40 more interns this year.
Small businesses must have revenue under $500,000 to have the intern paid by GardHouse and gain the student’s services for free. Businesses with revenues over $500,000 pay the interns themselves, freeing funding to other small businesses who need it.
Many minority college students leave college without a job, leaving them scrambling to find one before they can begin their professional careers. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has kept people out of offices for most of the last two years, meaning recent college graduates have had limited opportunities to gain work experience before graduating.
However, the pandemic also led to more open positions than ever, a rise in salaries not seen in years, and better pay and benefits for employees in multiple industries.
GardHouse also provides one-on-one coaching throughout the internships, focusing on eight behaviors that every graduating senior should have: critical thinking, teamwork, communication, technology, equity and inclusion, professionalism, and career and self-development.
Smithsonian’s New ‘Ethical Returns Policy’ Will Have Looted and Unethically Obtained Artwork Returned to Rightful Owners
On Tuesday, The Smithsonian Institution announced a new policy that will have artwork that was looted or unethically procured returned to its rightful owners.
The museum’s new “ethical returns policy” will allow the Smithsonian to repatriate items acquired through means considered unethical by modern standards, The Art Newspaperreports. The policy will allow each of the institution’s 21 locations to decide how to handle artwork obtained through unethical acquisitions.
“Circumstances demonstrating unethical acquisition may include items that were stolen, taken under duress or removed without consent of the owner,” Smithsonian said in a statement.
The new policy seemingly combats the age-old practice many museums have held on to that allows them to claim rightful ownership of items in their holding.
“My goal was very simple: Smithsonian will be the place people point to, to say ‘This is how we should share our collections and think about ethical returns,’” Lonnie G. Bunch III, the Smithsonian’s secretary, told the New York Times.
“The Smithsonian is this amazing wonder—this gift not just to the country but to the world. It’s really important that we provide leadership.”
The decision comes after the Smithsonian agreed to return its collection of Benin Bronzes to Nigeria in March, NPR reports. Some pieces under review to return include pottery in the National Museum of Natural History that was sourced from a dig site in Turkey and dates back to the ancient city of Troy. Another piece includes a photo of a Black jazz musician in the National Museum of American History that many researchers “do not like the history of the photo,” a spokesperson said.
“When we talk about the shared stewardship of collections, what we are really talking about is a change of both scholarly practice and philosophy,” Kevin Gover, the Smithsonian’s Under Secretary for Museums and Culture, said.
“We seek to share what we know of our collections and to learn from the communities of origin in a collaborative exchange of knowledge.”
Kevin Hart Launches New Cristalino Tequila Company ‘Gran Coramino’
The self-proclaimed “hardest-working man in Hollywood” is about to be working even harder after launching his new tequila company.
Actor/comedian Kevin Hart is tossing his hat into the crowded tequila category with the inception of his new Gran Coramino. Launched on Monday, Hart’s tequila differentiates itself as a cristalino, a form of clarified aged tequila.
“I want people to understand cristalino,” Hart told Rolling Stone.
“It’s been around, but to my culture, to my fan base, this is a product I feel like I’m introducing. It’s not new, but it’s new to us.”
While Hart has been offered several beverage partnerships in the past, the Fatherhood star says the brands didn’t resonate with him.
“They were money grabs,” Hart said. “‘Hey, we want a face.’ If it’s not true or authentic to me, then it can’t work.”
In entering the spirits industry, it makes sense why Hart would choose tequila. According to the Distilled Spirits Council of America, it’s the most popular among the spirits categories that raked in $5.2 billion in revenue in 2021, up 30% from the previous year.
Despite being a niche brand, cristalino grew sales by 33.6% in 2020, an 18% increase from 2019. Drinks analysis research firm IWSR predicts cristalinos will sell half a million 9-liter cases in the U.S. by 2025.
Hart’s tequila comes in partnership with Global Brand Equities and Juan Domingo Beckmann, CEO of Becle, the parent company behind Proximo Spirits, which makes Jose Cuervo, Maestro Dobel, Bushmills Irish Whiskey.
“I was willing to put our distillery, and our family name, to partner with Kevin to something new and high quality,” Beckmann said. “It gives credibility to the proposal. I’m very happy with what we created.”
Beckmann says it was a no-brainer when it came to partnering with Hart.
“You need to get someone that really loves tequila and understands it,” Beckmann said. “When I met Kevin, he seemed like a person who was willing to work and take time from his schedule to build a brand.”
Black Public Media Awards $225,000 to Creatives of Black film and Immersive Technology Projects
NEW YORK — Black Public Media (BPM) has awarded a total of $225,000 in funding to three creative teams who competed at its PitchBLACK Forum.
The annual forum, which is the largest pitching competition for Black independent filmmakers and creative technologists in the United States, is designed to advance Black content and draws a “who’s who” of public television and commercial distributors and funders. Winners were announced Thursday night at the PitchBLACK Awards ceremony, which also honored celebrated documentarian Orlando Bagwell with the BPM Trailblazer Award. The three-day event was hosted by CJ Hunt, film director, comedian and former producer for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Acclaimed filmmaker Dawn Porter (John Lewis: Good Trouble and The Way I See It) served as keynote speaker for the awards ceremony.
Marlene McCurtis and Joy Silverman’s documentary Wednesdays in Mississippiwas awarded $150,000. The filmexamines the challenges and triumphs that women faced during the 20th century civil rights era as they worked across the chasms of race, religion and region to fight against racial discrimination and for women’s rights in Mississippi. McCurtis, a Los Angeles-based creative writer, filmmaker, artist and director, has worked with Discovery Channel, A&E, Lifetime, NatGEO and PBS. Her short film, Here I’ll Stay, about a coalition of civil rights and Latino activists fighting for immigrant rights in Mississippi, is featured on the acclaimed web platform “Field of Vision.” Silverman, an Altadena, California-based producer, artist and social justice activist, has produced and presented cultural programs for more than 35 years. She serves as a producer on Wednesdays in Mississippi and has held executive positions at several nonprofit art institutions.
Two PitchBLACK Forum: Immersive competitors won a total of $75,000 in funding. 40 Acres by Tamara Shogaolu, a multiplatform exploration of Black American farmers and their relationship with the land, received $50,000. The project comprises a documentary television series and an augmented reality sculpture that uses electronic textiles. The immersive competition jurors applauded the project’s “journalistic aspects, as well as its use of tactile elements. We feel like they were coordinated beautifully.”
Shogaolu is a Los Angeles and Amsterdam-based director, technologist and founder of Ado Ato Pictures. Her work has been featured at film festivals, galleries and museums worldwide, including Tribeca Film Festival, the New York Museum of Modern Art and the National Gallery of Indonesia. Shogaolu received a BPMplus Fellowship from Black Public Media in 2021 to research and develop 40 Acres.
Rabiola Open Skies by Leonardo Souza, a location-based experience that invites pedestrians to fly virtual kites on nearby buildings using their cell phones, received $25,000. The projection-mapped installation will be customized to fit specific walls and buildings, allowing players to control a single kite using their cell phone. The immersive competition jury said, “We’d love to see this joyful piece pop up in public spaces around the globe.”
The project is a spinoff of Souza’s virtual reality experience, Rabiola Tales, which is still in development. Souza, a Rio de Janeiro resident, is the founder of film and immersive production company Okoto Studio and was the recipient of a BPMplus Fellowship in 2020 to research and develop Rabiola Tales.
“Black Public Media is proud to award these talented independent filmmakers and creative technologists with well-deserved funding so they can bring their timely projects to life. As in prior years, these winners have succeeded in connecting, informing and illuminating through engaging content designed to really move the needle,” said BPM Director of Programs Denise A. Greene.
This year’s BPM Trailblazer Award recipient, Orlando Bagwell, is acknowledged for his moving, award-winning documentaries about Black people in America from slavery to present-day, navigating racism and violence and organizing for change. The Baltimore native and current Brooklyn resident’s work has been showcased on television, in theaters, at museums and major festivals around the world, garnering Oscar, Emmy and Peabody recognition. Sponsored by GBH, the BPM TrailblazerAward recognizes documentary filmmakers with more than two decades of experience working primarily in public media as a producer, director, writer or editor who have a strong track record of mentoring other Black media makers.
This year’s PitchBLACK event included a week-long, virtual retrospective of Bagwell’s films, with registrants receiving special access to view Africans in America: The Terrible Transformation, Malcolm X: Make it Plain, Citizen King and four episodes of Matters of Race from April 25 through May 1. Two episodes of Eyes on the Prize that he directed are available to the general public (people who did not register for PitchBLACK). For more information, visit:https://blackpublicmedia.org/events/bagwell-retrospective/
The Nonso Christian Ugbode Fellowship, sponsored this year by Gimlet Media, was awarded to Spelman College senior and Milwaukee native Blanca Burch,who is majoring in international studies. She will use her NCU fellowship to develop AR components for her new, interactive coloring book The ABCs of Who I Can Be, which is meant to show children the multitude of career opportunities available to them. The NCU Emerging Fellowship, founded in 2016, supports creative technologists under age 30.
PitchBLACK 2022 film jurorsincluded Karen McMullen, features programmer at Tribeca and DOC NYC Film Festivals; Jason Fitzroy Jeffers, award-winning filmmaker and Jamila Farwell, creative executive at Netflix. Immersive jurors included Kimberli Gant, curator, Brooklyn Museum of Art; LaToya Peterson, Co-founder & CXO, Glow Up Games and Loren Hammonds, co-head of documentary at TIME Studios.
Created and presented by BPM, PitchBLACK serves as a platform where television and film executives and funders gather to identify rising Black talent and compelling stories. PitchBLACK 2022 is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Netflix, Gimlet Media, GBH WORLD, PBS, ITVS and New York Women in Film and TV.
For more information on BPM or PitchBLACK, visitblackpublicmedia.org, and follow the organization on social media at @blackpublicmedia on Instagram and Facebook and @BLKPublicMedia on Twitter.
The decision comes after U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson, who is overseeing the federal civil rights cases of the four Minneapolis police officers involved in Floyd’s death, officially accepted the plea deal Chauvin was offered, according to NPR.
On Dec. 15, Chauvin pleaded guilty to violating Floyd’s civil rights. He admitted that he kept his knee on Floyd’s neck, even after he stopped moving, which resulted in the Black man’s death on May 25, 2020. He admitted to willfully depriving Floyd of his right to be free from unreasonable seizure, including unreasonable force by a police officer.
Chauvin also pleaded guilty to another civil rights violation stemming from an unrelated 2017 case involving a then-14-year-old boy. Chauvin held the teenager by the throat and hit him in the head with a flashlight, the Associated Press reported. In that case, Chauvin also placed his knee on the boy’s neck and upper back while the teen was handcuffed and not resisting.
Originally, Chauvin had pleaded not guilty back in September. Last April, Chauvin was found guilty of murdering Floyd with a deadly knee to the neck while Floyd lay handcuffed on the ground. In June, Chauvin was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison.
Last month, Chauvin appealed his conviction and sentence for the murder of Floyd, arguing that the judge in his case abused his discretion and made multiple errors during the trial.
In the appeal filed in the Minnesota Court of Appeals, his attorneys brought up 14 separate issues, including Judge Peter Cahill‘s decision to deny Chauvin’s request to move the trial out of Hennepin County because of the intense pretrial publicity.
“The overwhelming media coverage exposed the jurors—literally every day—to news demonizing Chauvin and glorifying Floyd which was more than sufficient to presume prejudice,” the appeal said.
Better Days: How Morris Brown Restored Accreditation, Overcame Bankruptcy
Morris Brown President Dr. Kevin James lifted a heavy load to overcome a 20-year financial scandal that cost the HBCU $35 million in bankruptcy. James is making plans for the future as he repairs the school’s accreditation and reputation.
Five students are set to graduate this semester from the liberal arts college in Atlanta. The class will be the first accredited graduating class since 2003. Walter Jordan, a 51-year-old business management student, shared,
“I will be one of the first graduating class from the new accredited Morris Brown College.”
“I was very worried and very concerned because I know no school that had ever lost its accreditation, especially after a 20-year hiatus and was able to regain it.”
Morris Brown students who graduated within the 20-year gap were not so lucky. Their degrees remain unaccredited, which means employers may view their degrees as illegitimate. Other institutions might also refuse to accept college credits. Worst of all, students are not eligible to receive federal aid to pay for college expenses.
James announced the college is accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. According to Atlanta Black Star, the college president said, “We lost our accreditation due to some financial mismanagement, but it’s a new day, and we’re not looking to the past; we’re looking to the future.”
The president plans for better days after the long hiatus for the Atlanta-based HBCU. Enrollment dropped from an average of 2,000 students to currently 70. College leadership numbers also suffered.
Present day, the college has four full-time faculty and 15 staff members. This results in a student-to-faculty ratio of about 17 to one. James lamented, “I must admit it was a very heavy lift, $35 million dollar bankruptcy, we lost our land, we lost a lot of our students, but with the help of God, we’ve been able to restore this institution under this administration and we’re very excited to have done it.”
Morris Brown lost accreditation after former college President Delores Cross and former Financial Aid Director Parvesh Singh pleaded guilty to financial fraud. Both leaders were sentenced to probation for five years for partaking in blanket enrollment. Beginning in the fall of 1999, Cross and Singh forged the number of total students enrolled at Morris Brown. The two counted “registered” students as “enrolled” students. However, not all students classified as “enrolled” attended classes.
All enrolled students must attend classes for a college or university to receive federal financial aid funds. The Department of Education disclosed that Morris Brown received between $15 million and $25 million each year. Before the college came under fire for fraud, 90% of its students received federal aid.
James, Morris Brown’s 19th president, has served for three years. He plans for better days for the HBCU, saying, “If not for HBCUs, many of us would not be here today.”
Cheslie Kryst’s Mother Recalls Her Daughter’s ‘High-Functioning’ Depression Prior to Her Suicide
On Wednesday, CheslieKryst’s mother appeared on the Red Table Talk to speak openly about the former Miss USA winner’s suicide and her struggle with depression.
Kryst had accomplished so much before her suicide on Jan. 30. But her mother, April Simpkins, admits that her daughter was battling “high-functioning” depression that she managed to hide from the public.
“I never thought I would be here,” Simpkins said. “I don’t know that I’m going to get over the grief. I’m trying to accept that grief and I are going to do life together.”
Simpkins says at the time of Kryst’s death, she was dealing with “high-functioning depression which she hid from everyone—including me, her closest confidant—until very shortly before her death.”
Simpkins recalled the early signs of depression Kryst started to show in her 20s and a past suicide attempt that brought them closer together, USA Todayreports.
“She began taking all the right steps,” Simpkins recalled. “She began seeing a counselor. She was getting good sleep at night. She knew all the things to do.”
But still, the mother had no idea about “the severity” of Kryst’s depression. Simpkins credited her daughter for being good at deflecting conversations away from herself and back to whoever she was speaking to.
“Cheslie had the ability to deflect,” Simpkins said.
“If you said to Cheslie, ‘Cheslie, how are you doing?’ she would say, ‘I’m fine, how are you doing?’…and I think for so many, that’s why they feel like they were best friends with Cheslie because she was so intent on talking about them, not her.”
Cheslie was crowned Miss USA in 2019 at 28 years old. At the time, she was praised for being one of the oldest women to win the title, Todayreports. She competed in the Miss Universe pageant later that year.
Her title came two years after she graduated from Wake Forest University with a law degree and an M.B.A. Kryst used her law degree to do pro bono work for low-level drug offenders where she would work to get their sentences reduced.
Cheslie also worked as a correspondent on Extra, garnering two Emmy nominations. Kryst would’ve turned 31 on April 28.
If you or someone you know may be struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) any time of day or night or chat online.
Crisis Text Line provides free, 24/7, confidential support via text message to people in crisis when they dial 741741.
Pepsi Announces Programming Around Mary J. Blige’s Strength of a Woman Festival and Summit
This Friday, Pepsi Stronger Together — the brand’s series of grassroots initiatives bringing tailored programming support to communities across the country — is supporting the city of Atlanta once again.
As part of its footprint in the Mary J. Blige and Pepsi “Strength of a Woman Festival and Summit,” Pepsi Stronger Together is empowering women in the community starting with City of Refuge, an organization that provides services to families and individuals in crisis including housing for women and single mothers, youth development and job training. Along with a clothing donation to restock the City of Refuge’s closet for new residents, Pepsi Stronger Together is also providing a $20,000 donation to further support the important work the organization does in helping women in need.
“The closet provides more than just clothing to these women, it’s one of their first touchpoints when they arrive and a source of confidence and self-respect. We find that when women love the clothes they are wearing they respect themselves more and therefore demand respect from the people in their lives,” said Kelsi Franco, director of Women’s Housing at City of Refuge.
“This generous support from Pepsi Stronger Together allows us to continue assisting the women who reside here with new clothes as well as resources to empower them, which in turn helps them in building confidence and preparedness for the workforce and beyond.”
As part of the Pepsi Stronger Together donation to City of Refuge, the brand will be providing:
– A selection of brand new clothes to help reinstate the donation-based women’s closet that provides free clothes monthly to over 100 women in need. Providing a range of harder to source inclusive sizing, the brand’s donation covers business professional attire, athletic wear and more to assist women that come to City of Refuge with only the clothes on their backs.
– A $20,000 grant to support the organization’s ongoing work in the Atlanta community.
– Products from local Black female-owned businesses like The Village Market and CURLBOX, who will speaking at the Pepsi Stronger Together panel on female empowerment during the “Strength of a Woman Festival and Summit.”
“For Pepsi Stronger Together, our goal has always been to uplift the Atlanta community and our role in the ‘Strength of a Woman Festival and Summit’ is no different. We are honored to be working with the City of Refuge, an organization that echoes what the festival represents, to kick-start the return of this donation-based closet and provide these deserving women the tools they need to succeed,” said Elisa Baker, senior director, Brand Communications and Community Engagement, PepsiCo Multicultural Business and Equity Development (MBED).
The on-site donation by Pepsi Stronger Together will kick-off the brand’s arrival in Atlanta ahead of this weekend’s “Strength of a Woman Festival & Summit.” Pepsi is co-presenting the weekend’s programming along with Mary J. Blige and her team, with events and activations aimed at elevating, entertaining and educating women in the Atlanta area and beyond.
The donation to City of Refuge is the latest in Pepsi Stronger Together’s continued support of the Atlanta community following its work last year which included renovations of youth crisis and domestic violence shelters A Friend’s House and Haven House, funding de-escalation training with Henry County and Fulton County Sheriff’s Offices, and more.
Guy Who Tackled Dave Chappelle Has A Song About Comedian
It looks like the guy who tackled Dave Chappelle during a live standup set might’ve been plotting out his attack for some years.
Isaiah Lee, 23, was arrested and charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon after storming on stage at The Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday night and knocking Chappelle to the ground, The New York Postreported. Chappelle was wrapping up his set when Lee took charge and attacked the 48-year-old comedian.
As more details surface about who Lee is and what his motive, a social media search finds that he is an aspiring rapper by the name of “NoName_Trapper.” Lee boasts over 6,000 subscribers to his verified Spotify account and previously dedicated a rap song to Chappelle.
A song off his 2020 album, Born & die in the trap, is called “Dave Chappell,” and eerily references the Hollywood Bowl where the attack took place.
“Walkin’ straight into da Bowl,” Lee raps in the 2-minute song.
The line seemingly referenced what the rapper would do two years later once he encountered the famed comedian at the popular amphitheater. At the time the song was recorded, Chappelle had a show scheduled at the Hollywood Bowl that was canceled due to the pandemic.
Lee charged at Chappelle during the comedian’s set at the “Netflix Is A Joke” event. Chappelle had just finished sharing how he beefed up his security after all the backlash he faced over his jokes about the trans community.
Reporters contacted Lee’s family to determine his motive behind the attack. But a woman who identified as his sister declined to comment.
“At this point, we’re trying to find a lawyer for my brother,” she said.
Lee posted a photo prior to the attack that showed him wearing the same shirt that was seen in photos being carried out in a stretcher after attacking Chappelle.
Following the attack, Lee was badly roughed up by security and taken into custody. Chris Rock made a joke in reference to him being slapped by Will Smith at the Academy Awards last month.
