CHEF Academy, cooking school, Atlanta
by Nahlah Abdur-Rahman

September 10, 2024

2 Black Women Make History, Opens CHEF Culinary Academy In Atlanta

CHEF Academy hopes to build careers for diverse chefs and hospitality professionals.

Culinary and Hospitality Enthusiast of the Future Academy (CHEF) has officially opened in metro Atlanta. It makes history as the first culinary academy founded by Black women in the city.

Its owners, chef Simone Byron and business owner Adeola Skunbi held a grand opening on Sept. 5. The duo transformed what was once a summer program into a comprehensive training facility, sharing their story with the Atlanta Voice.

“We have people who are training and doing classes on certain skills. We’re doing pasta-making classes. We’re doing pairing classes. There are classes for young people interested in baking a pastry from an after-school standpoint, where they can come in and do classes and earn certifications,” Byron said. 

“Working with the ACF [American Culinary Foundation] to provide a space for those certification programs to happen is really important for us.”

CHEF Academy is part of Byron’s nonprofit organization, Navigate Foundation. Founded in 2017, the program helps individuals from underrepresented communities find career pathways in hospitality and chef training. With 200 students successfully completing the program, the academy hopes to expand these efforts to an even bigger cohort. The space allows for a variety of passionate individuals to take part in its growing community.

Of course, CHEF will provide traditional culinary training for its students while including competitions and a teen camp to spark more fun into the learning environment. Its teachings also aim to address a gap in the industry, where only 12.5% of all chefs and head cooks identified as Black in 2022, per Data USA.

For the co-owners, developing this space also pays homage to the legacy of Black women and men in the kitchen. Both come from a lineage of esteemed cooks and hope to lead a new generation of diverse chefs in the area.

“For me, this is a family legacy,” expressed Byron. “My great-grandfather was the executive chef for the Black Star Line, Marcus Garvey’s ship. Our whole family is geared and based in hospitality, so, for me to be in the industry since I was 17, moved through several large organizations, and do this as an individual means a lot to me holistically.”

Sokunbi also recognized that for many, the passion for cooking comes from those who made meals for them.

She added, “To have that thought of the first Black woman-owned in the Southeast, I just think about all the strong women in my family. My grandmother was a cook. I think the biggest thing within the hospitality space is that if you ask anyone you know who taught you how to cook, they often say it’s their mother, their grandmother. But often they’re not the ones that are necessarily making waves when it comes from an industry standpoint, and so to be that example is important.”

While the “for us, by us” venture finds its lane, it hopes to make a fruitful mark in the culinary world.

RELATED CONTENT: Black-Owned Restaurant Brings Chinese Takeout To West Philly

Businesses, Entrepreneurs
by Nahlah Abdur-Rahman

September 10, 2024

Read How These Entrepreneurs Came Together To Save A Black Woman-Owned Business

David Shands and Nehemiah Davis spoke to BE about their flash mob event to save The Sistah Shop In Atlanta.

Black women account for 42% of all new businesses. However, this number grossly overshadows the amount that raised equity funding, a mere 4%, according to LinkedIn. To bridge the gap, these two entrepreneurs tasked themselves with uplifting and educating a Black woman business owner in Atlanta.

Nehemiah “Neo” Davis initially sparked the idea to help. The multifaceted entrepreneur connected with his fellow business expert, David Shands, to provide the platform and outreach to make an impact. Over the weekend, they brought hundreds of new customers to The Sistah Shop, owned by Aisha Taylor Issah. Rightfully, the “flash mob” event went viral.

While Issah earned a record-breaking sales day, the work has just begun to scale her business. Building off this success, Davis and Shands hope to spark a movement where Black businesses feel the support of their community while emphasizing our collective power.

Both Davis and Shands spoke exclusively to BLACK ENTERPRISE about bringing this mission to life, and how we can take it further.

“So we always had this vision of, ‘I want to flash mob businesses, and we want to go buy all everything off the shelves.’ So I said, Hey, we got to bring this to Atlanta. So I posted on Instagram and called Shands to mobilize people to come out,” explained Davis. “[We] came up with a story around it to really put it out and make it even greater. And really, the rest was history. She did like $14,000 in sales, so this is her best day she’s ever had in business.”

He added, “Now, David and others, we’re going to offer business coaching to really get her help. We’re going to show her how to fish, too. It’s not just giving money; now she’s also going to get live coaching on what she needs to be doing. [We’re] focused on making sure this thing is a feasible business model that continues to work.”

For Shands, who identifies as an Entrepreneurial Coach, building this momentum is the other half of this mission. He intends to bring Issah to his Hot Seat podcast, where he will dissect her business model and offer suggestions for its sustainability and growth.

He shared, “I think the crucial piece is education and training. So I’m on a mission of educating entrepreneurs. That’s my thing. So when we come together, Neo is on philanthropy and I’m on education. Because we can’t come back next month, right? So we have this platform where we can give some people a leg up. They just need a little assistance. But because they got it figured out, you can help them thrive. But without education, mentorship and experience, entrepreneurs that are going through it will continue to need handouts.”

However, Shands also wants to emphasize the importance of community and collaboration. No corporate sponsorship wrote a check to this woman, but patrons buying items ranging from a few dollars to a few hundred. Beyond him and Davis, the lasting message is the people using their collective power to foster change.

“I want to continue to do this because the response. It wasn’t the likes and the views that really got me excited,” explained Shands. “It was the people that said, ‘Yo, I’m about to do this in my city,’ or ‘I think we should do it next month,’ or ‘I know another business owner, let’s do this. ‘So yes, our objective is to further the mission…We are trying to create a narrative of collaboration. Forget the money that we’re giving to the person, but a narrative of collaboration and education.”

As they seek to find another business to sell out next month, Davis intends to go bigger with this movement.

“What we’re going to do next month is going to be crazy, and we’re probably going to 5x what we just done. With this free networking event called The Room, we bring out anywhere between 500 to 800 people. So next month, mark my words, there will not be nothing left in the store. That’s my goal,” shared Davis.

As they flash mob more stores, they also want participants to feel like their money is going to a long-term business. For them, combining the giving with education is key to bringing more patrons in, while feeling good about where their dollar is headed.

“We want to couple the giving with coaching,” expressed Shands. “We want to pair that with information, while coaching and teaching them how to be good stewards. So I think even the people that come out and support the businesses, they feel more comfortable saying, ‘Oh, well, I know it’s going to a good place’… I think it’s important that we build successful, sustainable businesses. Because what’s more important than you supporting a business is them going through the fire, building something special, and being able to teach. So what makes what we’re doing so complete.”

Deion Sanders, Atlanta Falcons, BLK,
by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

September 10, 2024

University Of Colorado Denies Nepo Baby Claims Of Playing Deion Sanders’ Son’s Song After Scoring Touchdown

'Nobody ever asked the band to refrain from playing the fight song. After a touchdown, the band plays ‘Glory, Glory, Colorado’ and after a point after touchdown, the band plays ‘Fight CU,’ as has been standard practice for years.'

Reports started to emerge that the University of Colorado Boulder’s head football coach, Deion Sanders, allegedly told the school’s band to play a song by his son, Shedeur, whenever he scored a touchdown instead of the customary fight song they typically play. But the school has put out a statement denying that an order like that was put in place by “Coach Prime.”

The school has disputed the reported news that had been circulating about the band playing Shedeur’s music.

“Nobody ever asked the band to refrain from playing the fight song. After a touchdown, the band plays ‘Glory, Glory, Colorado,’ and after a point after the touchdown, the band plays ‘Fight CU,’ which has been standard practice for years. When Shadeur Sanders scores, the band will wait a moment for a small snippet of Shadeur’s song to play before immediately kicking into ‘Glory, Glory Colorado.’ This is exactly what happened in the game against North Dakota State. This practice is not unique to Shadeur, as the band will wait a moment following a successful field goal to play Alejandro Mata’s song before playing ‘Fight CU.’”

The Coloradoan reported that the team’s quarterback released a song in May, which is the song being played at the Buffaloes‘ recent games.

The team did lose the contest against No. 23 Nebraska Cornhuskers in their last game by the score of 28-10. That loss evens their record at 1-1 after the Buffaloes opened the season with a win over the North Dakota Bison, 31-26. The Buffaloes will travel to Colorado State to face the Rams on Sept. 14. The team may be without Shedeur’s brother, Shilo, who plays the safety position for the Buffaloes, as he suffered an injury to his forearm and had to leave the game early during the team’s loss to Nebraska.

Trump Campaign, Hacked, Election, trump, Foo Fighters, Foo Fighters
by Jeroslyn JoVonn

September 10, 2024

Donald Trump Back In Court Over Use Of ‘Electric Avenue’ Song In 2020 Campaign Video

Eddy Grant is battling it out with Donald Trump for including "Electric Avenue" in a 2020 campaign video.

Another day, another music artist coming after Donald Trump for unauthorized use of their song during his campaign.

This time around, Trump is locked in a court battle with singer Eddy Grant for including his 1983 hit “Electric Avenue” in an animated clip posted on Twitter in 2020 mocking his opponent, Joe Biden. Lawyers for Trump and Grant appeared for the 90-minute hearing where New York federal judge John G. Koeltl probed each side on what a jury would be allowed to decide if the four-year-old copyright case ever goes to trial, Deadline reported.

Trump argues that Grant never had the grounds to sue since he didn’t hold a proper copyright to the song at the time of filing suit. Grant registered “Electric Avenue” with the U.S. Copyright Office just last month.

The singer first filed the suit in response to Trump’s campaign video showing a Trump-branded freight train rumbling over Biden, who was riding in a slow-moving handcar. Grant accused Trump of using his song to spew “derogatory political rhetoric” that was “wicked” and caused him “considerable emotional distress.”

The singer initially sued Trump for $100 million for copyright infringement but has since lowered the amount to just $300,000 in damages. Trump’s lawyers argue that the use of “Electric Avenue” was considered fair use under U.S. copyright law, which allows for an “expressive” and “transformative” non-commercial form of political commentary to receive First Amendment protection.

Grant’s lawyers argue that he didn’t need to file a copyright on the 1983 release because he owns the copyright for a 2002 greatest-hits album that includes “Electric Avenue.”

“The defendants could have used any song, or no song at all, to convey their political message,” Grant’s lawyer said.

However, Trump’s lawyers claim Grant was improperly “bootstrapping” a copyright claim for the greatest-hits album. But Judge Koeltl didn’t agree.

“I don’t see the cases out there that say you can’t do this,” Koeltl said.

The hearing came three days after a federal judge in Atlanta removed Isaac Hayes’ classic R&B song “Hold On, I’m Coming” from Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign playlist. Other artists who have come at Trump for using their music in his presidential campaign include the Foo Fighters, ABBA, Celine Dion, Jack White, Johnny Marr of The Smiths, and the estate of Sinead O’Connor.

RELATED CONTENT: Isaac Hayes Estate Shuts Down Trump’s Usage of Song At Campaign Rallies, Cites ‘Character Issue’

US Vice President Kamala Harris, Alex Jones, Molly
by Sharelle B. McNair

September 10, 2024

Alex Jones Under Fire For Cheap Shot At VP Kamala Harris: ‘She’ll Be On Molly’ During Presidential Debate

The conspiracy theorist made the outrageous claim during a broadcast of his far-right "Infowars" podcast.

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is under fire once again for his latest controversial claim, alleging that Vice President Kamala Harris will be on drugs during the presidential debate, reports TMZ.

During a broadcast of his “Infowars” show, Jones claimed that Harris would take hallucinogenic drugs before taking the stage on Sept. 10 during the debate against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. He specifically said Harris would be “bombed out of her gourd.”

“That’s the question, she gonna be all hopped out on some weird ecstasy…she might be on a hit of ecstasy,” Jones said. 

“She looked like that at the DNC. Big ol’ pupils…’ah feeling good.’ They’re gonna give her a molly. I’m dead serious.”  

The National Institute on Drug Abuse defines “molly” as a synthetic psychedelic drug that can mildly alter visual and time perception. It also can produce the feeling of being more energetic and alert while increasing well-being, warmth, and openness among other people. 

Jones predicted that Harris would fall “flat on her face” after falsely diagnosing her with having “serious performance anxiety” while referring to her “hiding” during an appearance on CNN in early September 2024. During that same appearance, the Trump ally projected the vice president was  “drunk and on Xanax.” “This is going to be insane,” he said, according to Raw Story. 

Jones is the mouthpiece behind similar false claims that the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting — that claimed the lives of 20 innocent children — never happened. As a result of his lies, the host was hit with a massive $1.5 billion civil judgment and is facing bankruptcy. Following the ruling, Jones’ legal representatives asked a judge to convert his Chapter 11 bankruptcy into a Chapter 7 liquidation, claiming the conspiracy theorist “believes there’s no reasonable prospect of a successful reorganization.”

As the clip made its way around social media, users started to push more legal troubles for Jones, hoping that he would be hit with defamation over the claims about drugs. “That’s defamation, but I understand he’s in desperate need of money to bail himself out,” @jaconincambodia wrote on X. 

@robhardyjr laughed at the performance anxiety claims as Harris spends her time talking to people for long periods of time. “Performance anxiety? From a former District Attorney, Attorney General, U.S. Senator, and current VP?” he asked. 

“Like Trump, these idiots seemingly blurt out factless and baseless nonsense to the masses because they know their supporters thrive off of factless and baseless nonsense. Go figure!”

RELATED CONTENT: Alex Jones’ Mouth Wrote a Check His A** Can’t Cash After Jury Awards Nearly $1B to Sandy Hook Families

Diddy, college days, howard
by Mitti Hicks

September 10, 2024

Diddy Selling Beverly Hills Mansion Raided By Homeland Security

It can be yours for $61 million.

Diddy is selling his Beverly Hills mansion that Homeland Security raided as a part of a sex trafficking investigation in March. The asking price: $61 million.

According to Page Six, the 13,000 square foot home hit the market on Sunday in the Platinum Triangle in Los Angeles. This area includes some of the most expensive neighborhoods in L.A., including Holmby Hills, Beverly Hills, and Bel Air.

The home is on “Billionaire’s Row,” home to Kylie Jenner, fashion icon Alexandra Von Furstenberg, and many others.

Diddy reportedly purchased the two-story mansion in 2014 for an estimated $39.5 million. It sits on 1.3 acres.

According to Realtor.com, the property is described in its listing as one of the area’s “most spectacular and beautiful estates.” The home has 10 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, and such amenities as a bar, a wine cellar, and an indoor sauna.

Even more impressive is the state-of-the-art theatre, which can accommodate 35 people. The property also includes a two-story guest house, a spa building with a beauty salon.

While there’s no word why the music mogul is selling the home, it could be a signal of some trouble for Diddy, who, in addition to the investigation, has had a mountain of legal woes after several civil lawsuits were filed against the rapper, per NBC News. At least four women and one accused him of rape and unwanted sexual contact.

In March, federal agents executed searches of Diddy’s properties, where they reportedly seized guns and electronics.  

While Diddy denied the allegations and has not been charged by federal authorities, he settled with his former romantic partner Cassie (real name Casandra Ventura) for $30 million. In a lawsuit filed against her ex-lover, she accused Diddy of rape and sexual and physical abuse. 

Then, in May, security video obtained by CNN appeared to show Diddy assaulting Cassie at a hotel in 2016. Following the allegations against him, Diddy lost several deals, including a Hulu reality show. Peloton stopped using his music and he had to return his key to New York City.

Voting, Alabama, redrawn map, congressional district
by Daniel Johnson

September 10, 2024

Alabama’s Redrawn 2nd Congressional District Sparks Spirited Contest

Congressional candidates Democrat Shomari Figures and Republican Caroleene Dobson are battling for the district's seat.

After the Supreme Court ruled that Alabama’s Second Congressional District had to be redrawn due to concerns that the state’s Republican Party had diluted the voting power of Black residents there, a spirited contest is now taking shape in the district that includes Tuskegee, the home of venerable HBCU Tuskegee College. 

According to the Associated Press, Democrat Shomari Figures, a former top aide to Attorney General Merrick Garland and a member of the Obama White House staff, and Republican Caroleene Dobson, a real estate attorney and newcomer to the political scene, are battling for the congressional district’s seat. 

Although the district leans Democratic, Republicans familiar with the contest say that the race is actually going to be a battle. According to the non-partisan Cook Report, the district is listed as one that is likely Democratic.

Figures and Dobson are both lawyers under the age of 40 with young children and Alabama natives who spent some time away from the state before returning. That’s where the similarities end for the candidates.

Figures is running a largely progressive platform and has recently called for Alabama to expand Medicaid, for the state to adequately support public education, for investment in a flagging infrastructure system, and has cited a need for an effort to keep Alabama’s hospitals from closing. 

Dobson, who has identified herself as a Trump Republican, has positions that closely align with the former president. She has a flair for tying immigration and crime together, just as Trump does at every opportunity. 

According to the Alabama Reflector, Figures has focused his race squarely on issues inside Alabama’s borders.

“This race has always been about the people and places that call our community home,” Figures said in a statement released to the outlet shortly after he won the runoff election in April. “It’s about our teachers, public service workers, people in uniform, our seniors, and the children of our district. To all of those who have placed their trust and confidence in me, thank you. Now, we move forward with a unified party and mission to win in November.”

Figures also said in April that he wanted to help teachers in Alabama, “We have teachers here that devote their lives, their time, their energy, their hearts and their careers, to educating the future workers of this state, and we have not been there for our teachers in the way that we need to be.”

In the statement, he turned his attention toward rural areas and poverty.

“To many of our communities in this district, they just don’t have that luxury and so those communities need the federal government to be there for them and so that’s what I want to focus on,” Figures said. “The poverty conditions faced by a kid in Castleberry, Alabama, is different than what it looks like for a kid in Montgomery, Alabama, or Mobile, Alabama. We can’t just suck the resources, the beneficial resources out of our rural communities without reinvesting in those communities to make them more economically viable and addressing their unique challenges as a whole.”

RELATED CONTENT: New Candidates Selected For Alabama’s New Congressional District 

Houston White, Camdentown Flats Project, North Minneapolis. Aspirational Housing
by Shanique Yates

September 10, 2024

Entrepreneur Transforming North Minneapolis Through Aspirational Housing And Community Building

Houston White discusses desire to uplift his North Minneapolis community through his Camdentown Flats housing development.

Houston White was first bitten by the entrepreneur bug at age seven when he noticed his cousin making money from tasks like cutting the grass and washing cars. Today, as a successful businessman, the Midwest native is on a mission to pour back into the community through his Camdentown Flats housing development property.

During his childhood, White’s home city of Minneapolis was once considered the murder capital of the U.S., with some even nicknaming it Murderapolis during the mid-1990s. While many young people his age were getting swept up in the lure of quick, illegal money, White, even as a young boy, had big dreams and no intention of risking his life for financial gain. Instead, he chose a different path, starting to cut hair in his basement at the age of 14.

Not only did this provide him with a legal way to make good money, but it was during these years that White understood the power of culture.

“Before social status or social media, the social status of the day was a fly, fresh fade,” White, 40, tells BLACK ENTERPRISE. “So I think it’s been many iterations, but I would say when my 7-year-old self and my 14-year-old self had access to these levels of being your own boss, I realized I wanted to take the entrepreneurial route.”

White’s broader vision for North Minneapolis is coming true through Camdentown Flats. He realizes that this concept of affordable housing, centered around community, has been in him and not on him since he moved to the city from Mississippi in 1985 around the age of seven.

He recalled discovering that Prince attended his high school and how, when he cut hair as a kid, he learned that Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis used to make their hits, including songs for acts like Janet Jackson and New Edition, in the suburbs of Minneapolis, a predominantly white neighborhood.

“So think about this,” he says. “What if Prince or Jimmy Jam had brought a block in the neighborhood where they came from and built their studio? One of the reasons why I’m happy I didn’t peak early is because my 25- or 30-year-old self wouldn’t have been thinking like this.”

The community is at the center of everything White puts his hands on, including his latest Camdentown Flats venture, which is funded by U.S. Bank

“In every city in America, the suburbs is where we go to the movies, to the mall, to do all the good sh*t, and then we just have to live in the neighborhoods with our people if we can’t afford better and so I’m like man, this is BS, so let’s build something to prove that people want to be together,” says White. “That we can be together, that we can build aspirational housing.

“I didn’t know how important proximity was until I was without the proximity of different things,” Chief Financial Officer of Houston White Enterprises Ron R. Richard adds. “With Camdentown Flats, it’s all about that social connectivity. People always talk about Black people needing therapy to deal with their traumas, and honestly, therapy is an expensive thing, a health requirement that not all of us can afford. Where we do find therapy is in the communities that we’re surrounded by, and when we have an issue, or we have things that we’re dealing with, we can always come to the community and then tap in and see that ‘Oh, OK, this person’s kind of dealing with that and this is how they handle it.’ And I could talk to this person and be around that. For me, being a 40-year-old man, how do we help create that fertile ground for the 25 or 30-year-old trying to find that community and that connection?”

Merging modern living with cultural connection, local art and history, and innovative features, thanks to White’s ongoing business relationship with brands like Target, Blue Dot, 3M, and Best Buy, Camdentowntown Flats is reshaping the future of North Minneapolis.

Still, White admits the work isn’t done.

“We’re working on a phase three project, which is a 3-story commercial building that’ll have a restaurant, new concept pizzeria, Bruce Leroy’s Pizzeria on the first floor, and then corporate tenants on the second floor, and we’ll bring the headquarters, Houston White Enterprises, on the third floor,” Richard explains.

Adds White, “It’s important for us to build an enterprise and business and create community impact. East Lake in Atlanta is one of our North Stars, right? How they’ve taken a sport like golf, this stodgy white man’s game. We play golf all the time, so we get it’s all about that country club situation, but we want to take that and bring it to Camdentown so as Houston White Enterprises grows, whether it’s with Target or US Bank or Best Buy or Four Seasons or any other corporation, they’re like, ‘Oh, I directly see that relationship impacting a community for the better.’”

Ultimately, the goal is to build a billion-dollar enterprise from the block and pour it back into the community. Houston White and company are leading the charge in North Minneapolis, one housing development project at a time.

RELATED CONTENT: Washington State Program To Combat Historical Housing Discrimination

Black history, classrooms, Florida
by Daniel Johnson

September 10, 2024

New Jersey Boarding School Honors Legacy Of First Black Students: ‘This Is A Big Moment In The History Of The School’

Lyals Battle and Darrell Fitzgerald integrated The Lawrenceville School in 1964.

The Lawrenceville School, a boarding school in New Jersey, has named a new atrium in honor of its first Black students, Lyals Battle and Darrell Fitzgerald.

The duo, who integrated the school in 1964, are now commemorated with the Battle-Fitzgerald Atrium. The space will showcase a plaque and memorabilia from alumni, highlighting the school’s commitment to honoring its history and progress in diversity. According to CBS News, the plaque features a recounting of the school’s work to engender diversity following the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling desegregating schools in Brown v Board of Education.

Boarding schools in general were once racially stratified, including Lawrenceville, which did not admit Black people until 10 years post-Brown. Boarding schools often did not want to integrate, repeatedly justifying their desire not to integrate by citing that as independent institutions they were not subjected to federal education requirements or mandates.

“As I’ve thought a lot about it—the resistance on the part of the school—I think it’s important that we take some collective responsibility,” Steve Murray, Lawrenceville’s head of school, told CBS News. “But I think it in part reflects societal attitudes. I think that there was the country’s acceptance of Brown v. Board of Education and actually acting on it.”

The school’s atrium was previously named after Edwin Lavino, the president of Lawrenceville’s school board from 1947 to 1963, who was an opponent of the desegregation of the school. Although the school did eventually desegregate, Khalil Johnson, assistant professor of African American studies at Wesleyan University, said that the institutions that integrated, including Lawrenceville, did not have any structures in place to support Black students. 

“For the students, their very presence on these campuses changed what these campuses were like,” Johnson told CBS News. “The schools didn’t have in place any of the kinds of cohort building or ways of assimilating and accommodating students who were not from the traditional background that they were used to serving. They thought that we could just have these students come, and they would adapt and everything would be fine.” 

According to Fitzgerald, although he and Battle were the only two Black students on campus, their teachers expected the same of them as they expected of the other students.

“They understood we were alone by ourselves, but this was still the school, and you’re going to be held to the same standards as every student in that school,” Fitzgerald said. “Lawrenceville changed us and we changed that school forever. I had prayed to God, let me let me live long enough to see the dedication, because this is a big moment in the history of the school to have our names on that entry to the Tsai Field House and that atrium.”

RELATED CONTENT: Survey: 70 Years Brown V. Board, Segregation Haunts American Education System

Joseline Hernandez, Joseline cabaret, Zeus network, playboy
by Ida Harris

September 9, 2024

Joseline Hernandez Celebrated For Her Big Wins And The Reality Of Being Herself

Joseline Hernandez continues to make moves in the reality TV space.

Joseline Hernandez continues to make moves in reality and in the reality TV space. The self-proclaimed Princess of Puerto Rico just wrapped the fifth season of her signature series Joseline’s Cabaret on the Zeus Network and graced the cover of Playboy Mexico.

La puertorriqueña told BLACK ENTERPRISE that “Mexico was ready for a real Latin woman with some color in her” and “that’s what I am.”

Lemuel Plummer, Zeus Network president and CEO, was in Houston Sept. 8 to celebrate the premiere of the upcoming season of Joseline’s reality show on the streaming network. While on the red carpet, Plummer spoke to the huge opportunity it was for Joseline to land the Playmate feature and gave the entertainer her flowers in real time. 

“Listen, Playboy is an incredible magazine,” Plummer told BE. “They’ve been around forever and the fact that they reached out and they wanted to feature her is a huge deal.”

The CEO continued: “So, shout out to her and that’s why it’s important…We don’t get these opportunities and the fact that she got that amazing opportunity to be, to be not only a hit maker for Zeus and somebody who’s been around for five seasons and who’s brought so much, she’s also doing a big one internationally with Playboy and all sorts of brands. It’s very hard to get those opportunities and she’s been able to do it.

“She’s an icon,” Plummer said. “She’s a legend.” 

As Plummer sang Joseline’s praises and showered her with love, she regarded him as her “favorite person in the world,” to which Plummer responded, “So, are you. You know that.”

Joseline and multiple cast members from a range of Cabaret seasons descended onto Houston for the premiere. Reality star Durrell Smylie of Zeus network’s Bad Boys Los Angeles was present, as well as Houston natives Sunni Tha Rapper and Erica Banks, who came out in full support of Joseline.

“Well, first of all, I love Joseline,” Banks told BE. “That’s been my girl before I saw her come on TV.”

The premiere episode for season 5 Joseline’s Cabaret: Texas is now available and streaming on Zeus network. 

RELATED CONTENT: Joseline Hernandez Knows The Importance of Intellectual Property After Making VH1 ‘Billions of Dollars’

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