Rakim Mayers, 33, also known as A$AP Rocky, has been released on bail after having been arrested at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) last Wednesday in connection to a November 2021 shooting. He was out free in only a couple of hours.

Per NBC News, the rapper was arrested after touching down in a private plane from Barbados, with pregnant girlfriend Rihanna. The pair were flying back from vacationing in Rihanna’s hometown island.

Booked at L.A. County jail, the Fashion Killa rapper was released less than three hours after his arrest after posting his bond amount of $550,000, according to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department booking report. He has a court date set for Aug. 17.

The LAPD worked with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations to locate the rapper. Following fake cheating rumors about Rocky, photos flooded social media of the couple’s Carribean getaway, making it easier for authorities to find him.

The assault with a deadly weapon charge stems from a Nov. 6, 2021 incident where a victim claims the rapper and two additional males confronted him with a handgun near Vista Del Mar and Selma Avenues in the Hollywood area around 10:20 p.m. The unidentified victim accuses Rocky of shooting at him three to four times and grazing his left hand with one of the bullets before fleeing the scene. The shooting had not yet been made public by police.

The case will be examined by the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office for filing consideration, said the LAPD in a statement. 

The news comes on the heels of his recent launch of Mercer + Prince, a new blended Canadian whiskey that he established in partnership with Global Brand Equities and E. & J. Gallo, as previously reported.

The rapper has not commented or been active on his social media since the debut of his whiskey.

Teenagers today are truly more enterprising than ever before since the availability of the internet and platforms such as eBay, Amazon, Etsy, Mercari, and Depop. 

Scanning Axaila‘s Instagram page is simple to glean that she is an exuberant young girl with a colorful, youthful personality and generates pictures and images that promote that fun-loving aesthetic.

Axaila is only 17-years old and operates a resell online clothing business. She intends to use her revenue to fund her college education, Hypebae reports.

The Trinidadian-Mexican teenager’s decision to start an online business was to reduce her mother’s financial stress of footing the bill for her college education. 

“Coming from a single-parent household, I feel like this is my way of giving back to my mother and thanking her for all that she’s done for me,” she explains, according to Hypebae. 

Axaila’s keen eye for selling fashionable pieces has grossed her $30,000 from her online sales and she has accumulated 139,000 followers on  Instagram page and 122,700 followers on  TikTok. As a budding entrepreneur, it is safe to say that she is a pretty big deal that even The Grammys recognized her by gifting her a beauty box filled with Fenty Beauty products.

 

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A post shared by *ೃ༄⋆｡˚Azaila *ೃ༄⋆｡˚ (@axaila)

In addition to managing a successful resell online retail store, she also keeps up with three AP classes, Hypebae reports.

Axaila uses two platforms to sell her wares, Depop and Galaxy. According to their website, Depop, now a subsidiary of Etsy, is a marketplace where consumers go to purchase unique and creative items. Galaxy is a commerce site that encourages resellers to utilize live streams to connect with their customers, Forbes reports. 

Future online resellers can also consider places like Facebook Marketplace, The Instagram Checkout option, Poshmark, and ThredUp, to name a few, according to The Trend Spotter.

Axaila understands the importance of having BIPOC represented in the vintage and sustainable fashion spaces. However, she did notice that the same skeptics that initially belittled thrifting are now jumping on the vintage fashion movement. 

 

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A post shared by *ೃ༄⋆｡˚Azaila *ೃ༄⋆｡˚ (@axaila)

“Diversity is very important in making thrifting an accessible way of being sustainable, as well empowering each other to be comfortable in their own skin and not being embarrassed to wear what you want, which can be hard in a time where everyone is competing with one another to have the latest luxury item.”

If interested in her collections, shop Axaila’s Galaxy closet online.

• Uncategorized

by Derek Major

April 24, 2022

Black Mormons Use Tik Tok To Hold Majority-White BYU Accountable On Race

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A group of Black Mormons at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Utah, known as the Black Menaces are using Tik Tok to put students on the spot with questions about race, identity and politics.

NBC News reports the Black Menaces are a group of four Black students at BYU, Sebastian Stewart-Johnson, Nate Byrd, Kylee Shepherd, Kenneth Dorsey and Rachel Weaver. The Black Menaces make up the majority of the Black population at BYU, which is less than 1 percent and felt constant pressure to educate their white peers about their experiences and lives.

The group saw the school’s Black student union try to make changes on campus but little changed,m so they took matters into their own hands, posting videos questions BYU students on the Civil War, how much Black history they learned in high school, if BYU is an inclusive school and if sexism, reverse racism and White privilage exists.

“The Black Menaces aren’t affiliated with BYU, so they can’t hold our voice back,” Stewart-Johnson, a sophomore told NBC News. “We wanted to highlight everything that we go through in a way that millions could see it.”

The group’s videos have become wildly popular on the campus pushing debate about the school’s honor code and across the country as the account has more than 670,000 and 23 million likes on their videos.

BYU is directly affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, otherwise known as Mormons and their population is overwhelmingly White, As of 2018, just 6 percent of the 16 million Mormons worldwide are Black.

Byrd, who is the president of the Black student union said the group has met with a variety of school officials and administrators about the experiences and challenges Black students on campus face. BYU’s Committee on Race, Equity & Belonging was formed during the height of the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement.

The committee released a report in February 2021 recommending a litany of reforms and changes, but according to Byrd the University hasn’t followed through on any of the recommendations.

“These are significant steps requiring dedication and commitment by the university,” BYU told NBC in a statement.

The Black Menaces have no plans to stop making videos, hoping that one day the opinions and testimonies of BYU students will bring about change.

• News

by Wendy Medina

April 24, 2022

Black Student Slaps White Student After Calling Him the N-Word at a Georgia High School

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In a viral video that has spread on social media, a white female student is recorded calling a Black male student the N-word at a Henry County, Georgia, high school. The boy then proceeds to slap the girl. 

“Racism in any shape or form isn’t okay,” Komisha Davis told local news, parent to a 15-year-old daughter that attends Locust Grove High School, where the incident occurred. 

“For you to hear that your child is not safe at a place you send her to every day, that’s devastating,” Davis said. 

The school was made aware of the slap, prompting the male student to be punished while the white female who called him the racial slur did not initially face any repercussions. 

A senior at Locust Grove, Layla Moreau, and her friend organized a protest Thursday morning to bring awareness to the multitude of racist incidents Black students experience at the predominantly white high school. 

“I’ve been called an N-word myself,” Moreau said. “We decided to take action against it because this is not the first time this has happened at that school or a school in Henry County.

“It shouldn’t be two different treatments,” continued the high school senior. “Give the same treatment for everybody and not based on their skin color.”

She is additionally organizing a program for Black students to share their concerns in a safe space at the school. 

A spokesperson for Henry County Schools said in a statement: “We were made aware of a matter involving a student using highly inappropriate/offensive and unacceptable language toward another student, which then resulted in an altercation… School administrators were able to meet with students on Thursday in a very productive and positive way for students to express their feelings… Administrators and staff remain available to listen to and support anyone who needs it.”

Davis shared that she’s considering transferring her daughter to a different school after the many racist occurrences that have come to light from Locust Grove. 

“Make the kids know that it’s okay to come to school and learn and not have to be called the N-word,” Davis said. 

• Lifestyle

by Black Enterprise Shop

April 24, 2022

Keep Your Mind Sharp And Intact With Neuronation Brain Training

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Nothing is better than a sharp and keen mind. The older we get, the more mental faculties we lose, making it a bit more difficult to retain information or remember our tasks. While the aforementioned is a sad reality, there are ways to keep the mind sharp and intact as we age.

NeuroNation Brain Training is a great tool to use to stay mentally sharp. For a limited time, it’s available for just $39.99. That’s a savings of 52% from its MSPR ($84).

With NeuroNation Brain Training, you’ll improve your memory, attention, and logical thinking skills through dedicated cognitive exercises that can be accessed daily through the NeuroNation app. It can enhance your professional and academic life.

Watch this video.

Upon opening the NeuroNation app for the first time, you’ll be given a series of guided tests that determine your strengths and weaknesses in four different areas. When finished, your results are saved and used as a starting point for your training exercises. With just 15 minutes of training each day, you can begin to see the difference.

Training is personalized through more than 30 exercises. It’s also progressive to develop towards a higher complexity after a series of correct results. There are NeuroBoosters, which are little exercises to engage both your brain and body in the middle of a stressful workday.

This app currently has a rating of 4.6 stars with more than 700 reviews on the Apple App Store. It’s rated 4.6 stars on Google’s Play Store, with more than 333,000 reviews.

“NeuroNation gives personalized training for every member after they do their initial test. Training only takes about 15 minutes daily. Been using it for almost a week now so it’s still too soon to recognize any positive effects. But I’ve read many good things about this and will continue to use,” writes verified 5-star reviewer Damion H.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Keep yours sharp with NeuroNation Brain Training. Purchase it today.

Prices subject to change.

Memphis Black Lives Matters activist Pamela Moses who was facing six years in prison for registering to vote after a felony conviction, can now celebrate because the prosecutor dropped all criminal charges against her, The Guardian reports.

In an official statement, Shelby County district attorney Amy Weirich said, “In the interest of judicial economy, we are dismissing her illegal registration case and her violation of probation,” meaning Moses would not go through a second trial according to The Guardian.

Full statement from Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich announcing dismissal of all charges against Pamela Moses pic.twitter.com/UJV2r7dLOD

— Sam Levine (@srl) April 22, 2022

I just called P. Moses to say thank you. This prosecution was always about retaliation and voter suppression. She risked – and lost – so much to fight back because she believed that justice would prevail. Her victory is wind in the sails of 450,000 disenfranchised Tennesseans. https://t.co/RZtZXCMbAr

— Blair Bowie (@BlairBowie) April 22, 2022

Weirich also acknowledged that Moses had already spent 82 days in jail, and the prosecutor said, “which is sufficient,” reports The Guardian.

Moses’ record holds past felonies, and she pleaded guilty in 2015 to evidence tampering, which is a crime that comes with a lifetime ban from voting in Tennessee, according to The Guardian.

The 44-year-old also has three misdemeanors and served seven-year probation. Moses believed her voting rights were restored after the end of her probation and when she received a certificate of completion from the Tennessee Department of Correction, which the department later rescinded, according to NPR.

Prosecutors overturned Moses’ sentence citing that the Tennessee Department of Correction failed to deliver “a necessary document” in the case, The Guardian reports.

Judge Ward said he considered the error “an inadvertent failure,” according to NPR.

On Friday, Just City Executive Director Josh Spickler said to The Commercial Appeal that Moses’ case was not about upholding justice.

“Prosecuting Ms. Moses was a thinly-veiled attempt to send a message to Black voters in this community. The decision to dismiss her charges came late on a Friday and only after a national media outcry in an election year,” Spickler said.

“The decision whether to wield the immense power of the State of Tennessee against one of its citizens should be made in the interest of justice alone, not electoral politics and public relations.”

• News

by Wendy Medina

April 23, 2022

Atlanta Rapper Archie Eversole Died Before He Could Name His Killer, But His Brother Charged With His Murder

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Atlanta rapper Archie Evans, whose real name was Arthur “Archie” Eversole, died at 37 years old on Apr. 3 from a gunshot wound to his jaw. DeKalb County Police found the injured artist at a Chevron gas station on the 4400 block of Snapfinger Woods Drive, just east of Atlanta on March 25, after being shot in the face at his home while he slept, reports the Daily Mail. 

It remains unclear how the rapper got to the gas station after being wounded. He died from blood loss at a nearby hospital nine days later.

Most known for his 2002 single We Ready, Eversole informed police that his bedroom door had been knocked down and he woke up to a gunshot to his face, but couldn’t see who the shooter was. 

In the police report, when asked if he knew if the shooter remained in the home, Eversole nodded his head yes. When asked if he knew who the perpetrator was, the rapper wouldn’t answer and faded out of consciousness. 

According to police Lt. Shane Smith, Eversole’s brother, 41-year-old Alexander Kraus, was arrested at a home near the Chevron on assault and then murder charges after Eversole succumbed to his injuries. At the time of his arrest, police found Kraus’ socks bloodied, connecting him to the blood-covered front door, stairs, and bedroom they found at Eversole’s home. Per police, Kraus was responsible for his brother’s murder.

Kraus was additionally charged with over an ounce possession of marijuana, currently in custody without bail at Dekalb County jail.  

According to Fox 5 Atlanta, Eversole’s mother and management do not believe Kraus is to blame. 

“They had no arguments. They had no feuds. OK, no. And I know that. Yesterday I talked to the neighbor next door. I asked her and I say: Did you hear any arguments? Did you hear any fights? She said no. She didn’t hear nothing. Not that day. Not any other day,” their mother shared.

Instead, the family points fingers at police and emergency personnel for not exerting sufficient effort to save Eversole’s life.

“Archie was a great friend, business partner, and a positive light for many. Personally, he was a brother to me,” said business partner Micheal Smith said in a statement to USA Today. “Archie was a very spiritual person that always put GOD first.”

Eversole was only 17 when he recorded his hit song We Ready, which became Atlanta United Major League Soccer team’s sports anthem. 

Club statement on the passing of Atlanta hip-hop artist Archie Eversole. pic.twitter.com/PuT8xQUuUg

— Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) April 14, 2022

Actor Harry Lennix partnered with local developer Keith Giles and investor Mike Wordlaw to revitalize a Bronzeville building into the Lillian Marcie Center for the Performing Arts found at 4343 S. Cottage Grove Ave. on Chicago’s South Side. Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Tuesday that the State of Illinois would issue the construction project $26 million of capital funding, the Block Club Chicago reports. 

The cost for the construction of the building comes with a hefty price tag of $25 million, and the state is providing a grant towards the property through its Build Illinois Bond Fund. 

With the exciting news that came out yesterday, here’s a short clip if you want to learn more about the Lillian Marcie Center. I can’t wait for the doors to open one day soon. #LillianMarcieCenter pic.twitter.com/ZYdbSbgbL9

— Harry J. Lennix (@HarryJLennix) April 20, 2022

The center will house a rehearsal space, dressing rooms, offices, a 350-seat, multi-level auditorium, and a 100-seat capacity area for personal performances.

In addition, there are plans for an outdoor meeting place for neighbors to socialize, the Block Club Chicago reports. 

 Lennix’s vision for the prime piece of real estate is for it to become the Chicago version of the “Black Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts,” located in New York City. 

He wants the 22,500-square-foot, two-story space to transform into the epicenter for a Black performing arts museum, studio space, a restaurant, and jazz club, according to the Block Club Chicago.

“This was a quixotic venture and it felt like an impossible dream,” said the Chicago-born actor in a telephone interview with the Chicago Tribune. “The best word I can use is that I feel vindicated.”

Public officials such as Rep. Kam Buckner and Ald. Sophia King (4th) were both huge supporters of the project. 

“Where government has fallen short, and where the church has failed, that’s where culture can come in. I believe it’s an excellent third way, but we need both the church and the state in order to support the culture. I’m especially grateful to all of those who agreed with that sentiment,” said The Blacklist actor.  

He named the building after two significant women in his life, his mother, Lillian, and his high school principal and mentor, Marcella “Marcie” Gillie, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. 

The first day of the construction ceremony is slated for September, the Block Club Chicago reports. 

• Education

by Wendy Medina

April 23, 2022

Ready for Takeoff: Compton Program Inspires Black, Brown Youths To Dream of Aviation Careers

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Demetrius Harris of Compton, California, says he still remembers the moment two Black pilots welcomed him onto a commercial flight when he was young, leaving him with a lasting impression of the heights he too would someday be able to reach. 

“There was something powerful about seeing two people that looked like me doing extraordinary things,” he shared, per USA Today.  

Now, he’s a contract pilot for a private owner, flying luxurious multimillion private jets like the Gulfstream GIV and Hawker 800XP. His childhood dream became a reality and with the help of fellow Black aviation professionals and aircraft mechanics, he aims to help Black and Brown children make their aspirations reality, through the formation of Fly Compton Aeronautical Education Foundation Inc. (FCAEF).

“People of color make up less than 3% of all aircraft pilots and flight engineers in the aviation industry,” Harris says.

The nonprofit program, formed in 2020, allows Black and Brown youths aged 8 to 18 the opportunity to get a head start and train to become a pilot.

“I wanted to do for minority youth in South Los Angeles what those two African American pilots did for me,” Harris says.

A nine-month flight training program, the curriculum includes FAA-approved instruction used in flight schools and university aviation departments, as well as real-life scenarios pilots may face, so as to truly understand aeronautical theory, not just what’s needed to pass a test, says the flight school founder.

“Our mission is to introduce Black and Brown youth in and around the Compton, California, community to the aviation industry and the many opportunities that it can afford them while also contributing to the diversification of an industry that has long been exclusive to individuals of a higher economic status,” Harris says. 

Because COVID-19 is still running rampant in the greater Los Angeles area, the weekend program alternates between Zoom classes and on-site training. Students fly either a Cessna 172N called “Kim” or a Piper Cherokee nicknamed “Billie Jean,” conventional flight-training aircrafts. 

Those aged 15 or older are able to graduate to an advanced program that grants students additional ground and flying time as well as the chance to train with a certified flight instructor in their start towards their aviation career.

“We are proud to be a resource and a guide to the youth in our community and to ensure that we are doing our part in helping to improve the statistics of minorities in the pilot workforce,” said co-founder Ronnel Norman, a 20-year aviation veteran and Alaska Airlines first officer.

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The notorious Oscars slap continues to mess with Will Smith’s money. 

In spite of the acclaim Smith has garnered for previous Disney projects, such as Welcome to Earth, the media giant is taking a more cautious approach with his new Pole to Pole series, opting to put its production on the back burner until the fall while the Oscars dust settles, Bloomberg reports. 

Smith has become a pariah in the film industry, projects of his being axed left and right.

Pole to Pole was slated to have Smith as its host, a nature docuseries where the Oscar-winning actor was to travel to the North and South Poles. Production for the Disney+ series was set to start in three weeks, however, has now been delayed for the fall. Smith’s Westbrook Studios currently has a five-year first look deal with National Geographic, which may account for the project not being completely abandoned.

Netflix came out the gates swinging with one of its first original titles, Bright, in 2017, which accumulated 11 million streams “opening weekend,” despite abysmal reviews from critics. The sizable disparity between critics and viewers landed the Netflix original talks of a sequel that same year. Now, the highly-anticipated Bright 2 has been canceled, with claims the decision was “unrelated” to the Oscars incident.

Additionally, a new Netflix action movie that starred Smith titled Fast and Loose has halted production following Smith’s resignation from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, reports Variety.

Netflix however, has landed itself in hot water due to their raise of subscription fee, cracking down of shared passwords, and cranking out flop after flop, sending their stock market loss to $54 billion, the biggest one-day stock drop ever. So this may be just the distraction the stream giant needs.

Sony Corp. has also reportedly paused production of the Bad Boys series sequel.

Looks like quite uneventful summer blockbusters to look forward to.