This New Streaming Platform Aims To Bring Inclusive Content For A Multicultural Audience
Streaming platforms have become the new dominant form of entertainment for millions around the world with networks like Netflix and Hulu. In addition to thousands of theatrically released films to network television shows, both platforms also feature original content for viewers.
Now a new streaming platform hopes to bring more inclusive content to a more multicultural audience.
VumaTV is set to launch today, on Friday, May 22, with a lineup of on-demand cultural content ranging from original series, feature films, shorts, and more from creative talent located all around the world. The name derives from the Zulu word vuma, meaning “all together.”
Founder and CEO Alberto Marzan’s goal for the entertainment platform is to speak directly to and for a truly diverse audience.
“Intellect is a universal language—and with VumaTV, we’ve created a streaming experience that is both elevated and inclusive,” says Marzan in a press statement.
“Viewers are demanding a more representative media reality and are increasingly interested in streaming content curated from cultures across the globe. Although audiences are more diverse than ever before, traditional media has not kept pace—and for most of the world, it’s not reflective of who they are and how they live in their daily lives. Our goal to change that.”
“VumaTV is committed to adding real diversity in content: Shattering the onscreen stereotypes and re-scripting the old narratives, so that younger generations across nations and all walks of life can see themselves in the content they consume.”
The platform will be available via multiple avenues including mobile (iOS & Android), Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV Stick, and Google.
Sen. Kamala Harris Introduces Resolution Saying The Term ‘Wuhan Virus’ Is Anti-Asian
Sen. Kamala Harris, (D-Calif.) introduced a resolution condemning the term “Wuhan Virus” as an anti-Asian term for the coronavirus.
According to Fox News, the former Democratic presidential candidate introduced the bill Wednesday to condemn “all manifestations or expressions of racism, xenophobia, discrimination, anti-Asian sentiment, scapegoating, and ethnic or religious intolerance” and “to expeditiously investigate and document all credible reports of hate crimes, incidents, and threats against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community in the United States.”
The Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council launched AAPI Stop Hate, an online incident reporting site that logged more than 650 incidents of discrimination against Asian Pacific American residents between March 18 and March 26.
The resolution also condemns other terms, such as “Chinese virus” and “Kung Flu” for promoting anti-Asian sentiment. Harris drafted the resolution along with Sens. Tammy Duckworth, (D-Ill.) and Mazie Hirono, (D-Hawaii).
Duckworth accused Trump of “inappropriate and racist efforts” to “rebrand” the disease.
In March, President Trump doubled down on the term “Chinese Virus,” during his coronavirus press briefings and in his tweets. After widespread criticism, Trump said in late March he’d stop using the term if China continued to protest against it.
Republicans have tried to hold on to the term during the coronavirus pandemic. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark) told Fox & Friends Thursday morning that he objects to Harris’ resolution arguing it shows the Democrats’ overall lack of a strategy to deal with China as a threat to the United States.
“Wuhan is just a city, it’s not even a people,” Cotton said.” I guess she’s going to have to call out Lyme disease for being anti-Connecticut or even maybe Legionnaires’ disease for being anti-veteran or Zika since Zika is a forest in Africa.”
Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus said Monday, Trump’s words are having a trickle-down effect.
“We’ve seen officials double down on racist rhetoric when referring to COVID-19 including the president and not only have some members of his party aided and abetted him,” Takano said, “but they’ve actively participated in the kind of stereotypical characterizations of Asian Americans and have connected them to the type of mass blame and mass guilt to others in America being emboldened to verbally and physically threaten others in America.”
Tracee Ellis Ross Adds Hair Accessories to Her Product Line, PATTERN
Tracee Ellis Ross has been busy lately with her releasing her debut single, prepping for her new movie, and adding hair accessories to her product line, PATTERN, which she launched last fall, according to Hello Beautiful.
The multitalented actress and businesswoman made the announcement through her Instagram account last week:
“Say hello to your new favorite accessories to top off all of your joyful hairstyles ~ link in bio to shop on patternbeauty.com #RockYourPattern“
PATTERN Hair Pins Variety Pack ($17): When your hair needs extra stability. Extra-sturdy pins to pull any look together. Includes 30 XL hairpins, 30 regular hairpins, 30 textured bobby pins and a reusable storage box.
PATTERN Hair Ties ($6 for 5): When your hair needs heavy-duty hold. Super-stretchy, extra durable and snag-free, the must-have accessory for tight ponies, snatchbacks, buns and puffs.
PATTERN Jumbo Scrunchies ($10 for 3): When your hair needs a gentle drip. Choose from satin or velvet finishes to hold hair in place without leaving a dent. Jumbo-sized to hold big, beautiful hair in luxury.
Ross just released a song and video from her upcoming movie, The High Note (which comes out May 29).” The single is titled “Love Myself.”
Toyota / Lexus Minority Owners Dealership Association to Sponsor National ‘COVID-19 Day of Service’
BOWIE, MD – The Toyota/Lexus Minority Owners Dealership Association (TLMODA) is working with The Salvation Army to fill the pantries of families in need during the coronavirus pandemic. On May 22, 2020, TLMODA Dealers and The Salvation Army will distribute more than 4,800 packages in 24 communities throughout the country.
“The coronavirus pandemic has left many families vulnerable and in a state of economic instability,” says TLMODA Board President Ed Fitzpatrick. “The COVID-19 Day of Service represents the TLMODA member’s collective compassion and responsibility to give back to the community.”
During TLMODA’s National COVID-19 Day of Service, Toyota and Lexus dealership staff will distribute grocery boxes of non-perishable items like boxes of cereal and canned goods to help feed a family of four, for a week. Items for the grocery boxes will be packed and assembled by local Salvation Army teams in accordance with safety guidelines from local, state and federal health officials.
The Salvation Army is helping identify families in need of food and instructing them to visit one of the participating Toyota or Lexus dealerships to pick up their grocery box. In order to maintain proper social distance protocols, boxes will be placed in the trunk of each family’s vehicle on a first-come, first-served basis until supplies are exhausted. All families must contact their local Salvation Army to qualify for a grocery box.
“Across the country, the economic impact of this pandemic continues to impact families, both those who were already experiencing the challenges of poverty, and some who are experiencing them for the first time,” said David Hudson, National Commander of The Salvation Army. “We are extremely grateful for the support of organizations like TLMODA so we can continue to meet the evolving needs of the most vulnerable.”
TLMODA COVID-19 Day of Service dealerships locations include:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Warehouse employees last month staged a walkout in Michigan to demand safer working conditions at their facility. So did workers in New York, Illinois and Minnesota.
These and other Amazon.com Inc employees across the country are seizing on the coronavirus to demand the world’s largest online retailer offer more paid sick time and temporarily shut warehouses with infections for deep cleaning.
Employees in at least 11 states this year have voiced their concerns and staged actions to highlight a variety of purported workplace deficiencies, allegations the company has denied.
Supporting these Amazon workers are labor groups and unions eager to penetrate the Seattle-based behemoth after years of failed attempts to unionize its operations.
Reuters spoke with 16 unions and labor groups targeting Amazon. They included established organizations such as the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), as well as newer worker advocacy groups like Warehouse Workers for Justice and Athena, a coalition of labor and social justice groups that have criticized Amazon’s business practices.
A demonstrator holds a sign during a protest outside of an Amazon warehouse as the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in the Staten Island borough of New York U.S., May 1, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
Most unions acknowledged their long odds at organizing Amazon using traditional tactics such as holding meetings and gauging interest. Legal hurdles to unionizing the company’s workplaces and mounting elections are steep. For now, many groups said, they are showing workers how to harness public opinion to shame Amazon into granting concessions.
The strategy proved effective in the national “Fight for $15” campaign to raise the minimum wage. Labor organizations in recent years helped retail and fast-food workers stage highly publicized protests and social media campaigns to draw attention to their modest pay at a time when the economy was booming.
Cities and states including Seattle, San Francisco, California, Arkansas and Missouri raised their minimum wages as did some large U.S. employers, including Amazon, which attributed its pay hikes to a tight labor market as well as pressure from lawmakers and labor groups.
In labor’s latest efforts targeting Amazon, organizations are helping workers create online petitions, connect with elected officials, contact media and file labor complaints with the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The initiative puts public pressure on Amazon to respond, several groups said, while laying the groundwork for unions to recruit card-carrying members in the future.
“We expect that there will be more push for unionization when we get to the other side of this,” said Stuart Applebaum, president of RWDSU.
Amazon spokeswoman Rachael Lighty said Amazon already offers what these groups are requesting: $15 per hour or more to start, health benefits and opportunities for career growth.
“We encourage anyone interested in the facts to compare our overall pay and benefits, as well as our speed in managing this crisis, to other retailers and major employers across the country,” she said.
Central to the organizing effort, union officials said, is fear among some frontline Amazon workers over the spread of coronavirus in the company’s warehouses.
At least 800 workers in Amazon’s 519 U.S. distribution facilities have tested positive for COVID-19, based on internal company figures compiled by Jana Jumpp, an Amazon warehouse employee in Indiana, who shared the numbers with Reuters. Amazon sends text messages and automated calls to employees alerting them to positive cases in their facilities. Jumpp aggregates cases mentioned in messages sent to her by Amazon workers around the country.
Jumpp said the informal process she has developed likely misses cases. She and other employees said Amazon does not share a running tally of cases at each facility or provide a nationwide count.
“We have no idea how many people are actually sick, not tested or out on quarantine,” Jumpp said on a recent media call organized by Athena, the labor coalition.
At least six Amazon workers have died of COVID-19, which the company confirmed publicly after each incident.
Amazon’s Lighty would not disclose to Reuters the total number of Amazon employees who have tested positive for coronavirus in the United States. She said the company’s efforts to quarantine infected workers are helping to slow the spread, and rates of infection “are at or below the communities we’re operating in at almost all of our facilities.” Lighty did not provide data to support that claim.
A majority of Amazon employees are showing up at work and the company “objects to the irresponsible actions of labor groups and others in spreading misinformation and making false claims about Amazon,” she said.
Lighty said employee health and safety is the company’s top priority. Amazon will spend more than $800 million in the first half of the year on COVID-19 safety measures, she said.
Amazon over the past decade has eviscerated brick-and-mortar retail competitors, some of them unionized, while successfully fending off several attempts by its own employees to organize. With shutdowns now battering Main Street, Amazon is poised to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis stronger than ever.
The company reported record first-quarter sales of $75.5 billion, up 26% from the same period a year ago, as customers sheltering in place have relied on its services and its stock price has risen 35% since the start of the year.
Amazon had nearly 600,000 U.S. employees in 2019, according to its latest annual report, making it one of the largest employers in the country.
In 2019, 10.3% of U.S. workers were union members, down from 20.1% in 1983, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Over 33 million U.S. workers have filed for unemployment benefits in recent weeks, strengthening the hand of employers at a time of mass unemployment. Still, some labor experts said coronavirus presents unions with their best shot in decades to make inroads at Amazon.
“Justice issues and safety at work tend to be the most powerful arguments in organizing,” said Alex Colvin, a labor relations professor at Cornell University. “They’re the strongest reason for workers to want representation.”
He said unions have resorted to public relations as a tool to pressure companies as worker protections such as “collective bargaining and employment rights enforcement have weakened.”
FIGHTING UNIONS
Amazon has resisted unionization within its workforce since its founding in 1994. It defeated unionizing efforts in Seattle in 2000 and in Delaware in 2014 by a wide margin.
In recent weeks it has fired at least four workers in three states who had publicly criticized the company and were involved in organizing.
Lighty said Amazon has “zero tolerance” for retaliation. These workers were not terminated for talking publicly about working conditions or safety, but for violating policies such as physical distancing, she said.
Among those sacked was Emily Cunningham, a Seattle-based activist with Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, who gained prominence for pushing the company to do more to fight global warming. She had recently circulated a petition calling for measures such as improved sick leave and urged all employees to agree on a day in April to call in sick to protest warehouse working conditions.
“There is a lot of frustration on how Amazon is handling the issue of workplace safety,” Cunningham said. She said she has been in touch with the AFL-CIO about the sickout, and a local affiliate of the union called MLK Labor has offered support to continue the fight on working conditions. MLK Labor confirmed it is working with employees that Amazon fired in Seattle.
The AFL-CIO’s secretary treasurer, Elizabeth Shuler, said the union is using the pandemic to galvanize Amazon workers at company headquarters and enlist support from elected officials. Amazon had over 53,000 employees in Seattle in 2019.
“Amazon’s backyard is Seattle, and that’s a major focus for us in terms of how to take the energy, the courage, the activism that we are already seeing there and build that into a real movement,” she said.
Amazon’s Lighty said the company has listened to complaints and implemented over 150 measures to keep workers safe.
The company is also running television advertisements thanking warehouse workers. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in April showed up at a Texas distribution center and met workers to show his support.
NEW APPROACH
But a steady rise in the number of infections at warehouses has spurred more protests.
Amazon worker Mario Crippen led an April 1 walkout at a Michigan warehouse to protest what he said was a lack of transparency from the company about the number of infections. He said about 40 workers participated in that action at the facility in Romulus, about 24 miles southwest of Detroit.
Amazon disputed that figure, saying fewer than 15 people participated.
Helping Crippen was labor nonprofit United for Respect, which coached him on how to gain media attention without getting fired and use social media to gather more supporters. The group also offered legal help from attorneys if he was terminated.
Crippen, 26, whose job is to stow products at the warehouse, told Reuters he felt as if “somebody had my back.” He said at least 25 workers at the Romulus warehouse have tested positive, according to figures compiled by employees at the site. Crippen said some workers want the facility shut down for cleaning, and plan to continue protesting working conditions while exploring the idea of working closely with labor groups and unions in the future.
Amazon spokeswoman Lighty did not comment about the Romulus protest, the number of cases at the site or the company’s decision to not shut down the facility. She said Amazon’s decision to handle the closure of a building for deep cleaning depends on several factors, including consulting with health authorities and medical experts.
Adria Rosenberg holds a sign as she joins her mother during a protest outside an Amazon warehouse, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in the Staten Island borough of New York City, U.S., May 1, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
A spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Labor said the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA), received employee complaints about the Romulus site and sent a letter to Amazon listing steps the company “could take to correct the hazards.” She and MIOSHA would not provide more information.
Lighty did not comment on the details in the letter.
Some labor organizers are instructing workers on how to file such safety complaints. They are also using Facebook Live, Instagram posts, Telegram chats and WhatsApp messages to share other tactics with Amazon employees.
At Whole Foods, an upscale supermarket chain owned by Amazon, several current and former employees have been using Telegram to rally coworkers across the country to agitate for expanded paid sick leave and temporary shutdown of stores with confirmed COVID-19 cases.
“First step is to ask what will you do if our store is tested positive? Then form a committee. Plan actions. Document. Call the government,” wrote one of the workers, who confirmed sending the message and discussed the strategy with Reuters on condition of anonymity. The employee said the group has doubled to 400 members since the pandemic began. Reuters could not independently confirm the growth in membership.
This worker and fellow organizers are collaborating with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, and are working under the name “Whole Worker’s National Organizing Committee.”
UFCW President Marc Perrone said the union is currently not focusing on the traditional playbook of getting employees to sign cards and become members.
“Right now …it is about showing workers value and what we can do for them,” he said.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington and Krystal Hu in New York, Additional reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco; Editing by Vanessa O’Connell and Marla Dickerson)
New Orleans Has Gone Three Days Without a Coronavirus Death
The city of New Orleans once had the highest per capita coronavirus death rate of any city in the country. Now, the city has gone three days without a single coronavirus death.
New Orleans, a city built on tourism and hedonism, once had more coronavirus deaths than New York City, which is considered the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S. According to Forbes, health experts attributed the fast spread of coronavirus in the area to the city’s Mardi Gras celebration in February. The annual celebration typically brings more than 1 million visitors to a city that has 400,000 residents.
The significant drop in the coronavirus death rate can be attributed to the city’s social distancing orders, which were largely followed by residents. Within a month of being enacted, the city had the fastest decrease of new cases among metro areas in the U.S., according to TheNew York Times.
Now, the city is planning to move to its first phase of reopening Saturday. Restaurants are required to use a reservation system and to log and keep the contact information of customers for 21 days in case contact tracing is needed. Restaurants will be able to operate at 25% of their normal capacity.
Casinos, tattoo parlors, massage parlors, spas, live entertainment venues, children’s museums, and bars without food permits will stay closed. The reopening plan comes one day after Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards announced similar reopening guidelines across the state with areas outside of New Orleans set to enter Phase 1 on Friday.
The city’s situation seemed grim at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. On a morning news show on March 29, Bel Edwards said the state was set to run out of ventilators by April 4. The city’s massive convention center was repurposed into a 1,000-bed hospital, with plans originally calling to expand its capacity to 2,000 beds.
However, the number of cases dropped considerably in the next few weeks. New Orleans never ran out of ventilators and needed only a fraction of the beds at the convention center.
Many residents took the advice of medical experts and stayed indoors, even as the city’s tourism and restaurant business suffered significant losses. The city was even forced to cancel its historic jazz funerals due to the pandemic.
Doll Creator Dr. Lisa Williams Has Laid Down Her Burdens and Is Living Her Dream
Featuring a broad cross-section of women who have distinguished themselves across a rich variety of careers, our Portraits of Power series is a celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Black Enterprise, and of black women. It’s a place for today’s businesswomen to share their own favorite images and their own stories, in their own words. Today’s portrait is entrepreneur and former professor Dr. Lisa Williams.
Dr. Lisa Williams
Nickname: Dr. Lisa
CEO, World of EPI L.L.C.
My first job was working as an analyst at the University of Toledo in the Upward Bound Program.
My big break came when when my mother told me I could be anything I wanted, including becoming a doctor—and I finally heard her.
I have had to work hardest at not selling myself short and truly believing I could achieve my desires.
I never imagined I would achieve my dreams. I’m still that little girl with big eyes and pigtails from Toledo, Ohio. Yet, somehow she grew up to become the first African American female to graduate with a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. I never imagined I would be the first African American female to earn tenure at Penn State University or receive two multimillion-dollar endowed chairs. So when I became the highest ranking professor in my field, I had to pinch myself.
I never imagined I would create a toy company. After all, I had no experience, no connections, no funding, and no education in toys. But it happened and I’m living my dream.
I wish I’d learned sooner the power of surrendering to a Higher Power. For so long I thought I had to do everything myself. And while I understand hard work is a requirement, I underestimated the power of prayer, meditation, and surrender. What needless and unnecessary burdens I carried.
The risk I regret not taking is to go for my dreams earlier. I remember being in 5th grade and wanting to try out for the talent show, but not having enough courage to do so. I wish I could turn back the hands of time and take the chances I left unfulfilled.
If I could design my fantasy self-care day it would be spent gently swinging in a hammock overlooking the crystal blue ocean. On my lap is a book and in my hand is a fruit rimmed tropical drink adorned with an umbrella, with the sweet smell of jasmine and other florals in the air. The blissful melodies of birds singing is intermixed with the relaxing sounds of the ocean. I take a deep breath and exhale slowly … ahhhhh.
Developing the strategy that both grows the company and maintains its integrity keeps me up at night. I want to leave toys for little girls and boys today and for future generations that will reflect their beauty and brilliance back to them during play.
When I am struggling, I say to myself, “Relax. Breath. Surrender. All is well.”
I am unapologetically a protector of my children. That includes my two sons, and all children in our community. Every day I rise to protect them from the false image that they are not enough.
Portraits of Power is a yearlong series of candid insights from exceptional women leaders. It is brought to you by ADP.
President Trump’s Wish To Paint His Border Wall Black Will Cost $1.2 Million Per Mile
President Donald Trump has pushed for his border wall to be painted black to make the barrier scarier and hotter to the touch. Now, the president will get his wish—and the cost is stunning.
According to Mic, the Army Corps of Engineers has awarded the Fisher Sand and Gravel construction company a $1.28 billion contract to build just over 40 miles of the black-painted fence through southern Arizona. The contract was finalized on May 6.
The contract includes a $1.2 million price increase per mile in order to fulfill Trump’s demand for the wall to be painted black.
Last year the Army Corps of Engineers awarded Fisher with a $400 million contract. That agreement is still under audit by the Department of Defense’s Inspector General Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee and raised concerns that the contract had been awarded as a result of “inappropriate influence.”
Thompson criticized this contract, saying the Trump administration should pause construction until the audit concludes.
“It speaks volumes to the administration’s lack of transparency that they didn’t announce this award—the largest ever—and we continue to learn about contracts to companies without a proven track record from the media,” Thompson said in a released statement.
“Given the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing investigation into Fisher, the administration should pause construction and contracting decisions until the investigation has concluded favorably and it is safe to resume nonessential construction projects.”
According to the Customs and Border Protection website, less than 200 miles of the border has been constructed so far.
Trump is fighting battles on several fronts as he deals with the coronavirus pandemic. The coronavirus death toll is likely to hit 100,000 in the next few days. At the same time, a death clock in Times Square shows how many deaths in the U.S. could’ve been prevented if Trump’s administration acted faster. Additionally, Trump is down in national polls to Democratic candidate Joe Biden and is trying to push a Barack Obama conspiracy theory.
PepsiCo, Inc., The PepsiCo Foundation Launch $7 Million Initiative to Help Communities of Color Amid COVID-19
Black and Latinx communities have been hit hard during the COVID-19 pandemic. With record-breaking reports of job loss and health disparities being reported nationally, the preexisting conditions many people faced prior to the pandemic have been brought to the attention to millions.
In response, PepsiCo, Inc. and The PepsiCo Foundation have pledged $7 million to help communities of color devastated by the crisis, partnering with the National Urban League and UnidosUS to help fund their relief efforts. PepsiCo, Inc and the foundation have donated $1 million to each organization to help them provide technology for remote education and work, feed families and seniors, and increase medical care and testing. A portion of the funds will also be used for relief efforts after the pandemic.
In addition to the $2 million being donated to the National Urban League and UnidosUS, PepsiCo will distribute $5 million among local nonprofit organizations that serve black and brown communities and provide social services, housing, job preparedness programs, and health services. $100,000 will also be allocated to the Farmworkers Pandemic Relief Fund.
PepsiCo Gives Back
“COVID-19 has once again put a spotlight on the deep-rooted health and economic disparities that have long faced communities of color,” Steven Williams, CEO of PepsiCo Foods North America, said in a statement. “In response to this, we’re helping to provide immediate relief and support long-term recovery for Black and Latino communities. But just as these inequities existed well before coronavirus, we will continue to do our part and be a partner to these communities in the months and years ahead.
“In efforts to have a lasting impact, PepsiCo has identified metropolitan areas in the nation where their company has strong ties to and black and brown people have been disproportionately impacted. Those areas include Baltimore, the Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami-Dade, Milwaukee, New Orleans, New York City, St. Louis and Washington D.C.”
“Across the nation, the burden of COVID-19 is being disproportionately shouldered by Black and Latino communities that are facing higher rates of hospitalization, death and economic hardships,” said Kirk Tanner, CEO, PepsiCo Beverages North America. “That’s why PepsiCo, our brands and our people have mobilized to offer our support. And we know a crisis of this scale requires a collective effort. We’re calling on our partners and network to support the communities of color that we are proud to serve and where our teams live and work.”
Pouring into the Community
As a continued partner of the National Urban League and UnidosUS, PepsiCo has donated millions of dollars to support their initiatives over the years.
“Our long-valued partnership with PepsiCo has grown even more vital during this time of unprecedented need,” said Marc H. Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League. “PepsiCo’s commitment to empowering communities of color allows the Urban League Movement to continue paving a path forward, and to expand and intensify our service as America’s economic first responders.”
Janet Murguía, president and CEO of UnidosUS added, “At a time when Latinos and other communities of color are being so hard hit, we need immediate action for emergency resources from all sectors. This commitment from PepsiCo will directly support the UnidosUS Esperanza/Hope Fund benefitting our network of affiliated community-based organizations who are on the frontlines helping combat the health and economic impact of COVID-19 on the Latino community, from creating food delivery programs to offering mental health services via telemedicine portals.”
Since the pandemic, PepsiCo has donated over $50 million to communities globally to fight hunger, provide front line workers with PPE materials, and other relief efforts.
Janelle Monae on Coping With the Pandemic, Little Richard’s Legacy, and Her New Amazon Thriller Series (Video)
Like many of us, 2020 started out with a bang for Janelle Monae.
The 34-year-old singer, songwriter, and actress delivered an electrifying opening performance at the Academy Awards and was gearing up for the premiere of Antebellum, her first lead role in a major motion film. However, Monae is no different than the millions of people who are feeling the effects and setbacks of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has turned the world upside down.
“I don’t know what time it is [or] what day it is. Is time even real? What universe are we on right now? This feels like one big bad science fiction movie and I’m ready for it to end,” Monae told BLACK ENTERPRISE. “My music and even my film career and artist career is tied to reality and I don’t think I have a good sense of reality right now. I’m still trying to grasp and uncover the mystery here.”
Despite the grim circumstances, there couldn’t be a better time for her to debut her new Amazon Prime series, Homecoming, since much of the nation is locked down and quarantined at home. Season two of Homecoming, which will be released May 22, marks her first leading role in a streaming series. Monae says it is an honor to follow in the footsteps of Julia Roberts, who starred in season one and earned a Golden Globe nomination.
“I am super thankful that Julia Roberts passed the baton to me. It’s such a high honor and it’s been a beautiful experience getting to work with this cast and my director Kyle Patrick Alvarez,” she told BE. “I think one of the great things about this show is that is has a lot to say.”
Much like the uncertain times we’re living in, Monae’s character takes viewers on a journey to find truth and understanding.
“The plot twists are super-fun but also nerve-wracking,” she says. “All of the things that I loved about the first season–from the cinematography [to] the way they zoom in on the nuances and the details, to how binge-worthy the episodes are because they’re so short (I kind of wish they were longer), and how it’s such a psychological thriller—all of those things are there [in season two].”
Stephan James plays Walter Cruz in “Homecoming” (Photo courtesy of Amazon)
Her co-star Stephan James, who starred in Barry Jenkins‘ acclaimed drama film If Beale Street Could Talk, reprises his role in Homecoming as military veteran Walter Cruz. After working alongside Roberts, he says the new season has a different feel but that Monae picked up the mantle seamlessly. “Janelle was probably top five Homecoming fans, so she was well-versed. She was already familiar with the show,” he said.
Homecoming is co-produced by Amazon Studios and UCP, a division of NBCUniversal Content Studios, and executive produced in part by Roberts through her production company Red Om Films.
Watch an exclusive interview with Janelle Monae and Stephan James about Homecoming, coping with the pandemic, and the loss of rock n’ roll pioneer Little Richard.
