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Controversy over a missing Stellar Awards tribute for gospel music icon Richard Smallwood exposed a flaw in how the gospel music industry remembers and honors its own. September is Gospel Music Heritage Month, an opportune time to celebrate all influential creators of gospel music and reflect on ways to magnify the legacies and remember the departed artists, musicians and contributors who helped shape the genre. This message comes at an important time to reflect on the music and musicians who are alive an to explore ways to recognize those who have passed away. Following the 41st Stellar Awards, fans resoundingly conveyed that remembrance is a form of respect when they shared their discontent about Smallwood, a beloved composer, singer and choir director being overlooked on the "biggest night in gospel music." Producers of the show faced severe backlash over the absence of the Smallwood* tribute, one of the genre's most influential composers and musicians. Stellar Awards ...

 Frank McGee III’s Detroit roots run through Kept Through It All: Live in Detroit , a project grounded in the testimony and perseverance of Young Men 4 Christ. Recorded live in the Motor City, the album channels the immediacy of a communal worship service — soaring praise, lived-in conviction and the kind of call-and-response energy that cannot be recreated in a studio. For McGee and the group, the title speaks to a faith forged under pressure.  He spoke of needing to lean on his faith more when moving to Sacramento with no resources.  As a young adjusting to personal responsibility and living independently he admits that life was lifing" in the Motor City, beckoning a change in scenary.  The "just Jesus"  leap of faith he took was huge -- no job, no residence, no friends awaited him when he arrived on the West Coast.  Yet he trusts God and secured a job working with children and his family later joined him.  The songs on the album  reflect the be...

  By Mona Austin BET has been in the news for losing articles by changing its format to videos but they are not only ones making costly changes. This is a heads up for all journalists, reporters and writers whose work is published online. Save your published work. I am stating the obvious to bring your attention to a serious matter. When randomly searching for an old article, I discovered years of my work was missing from a web site that I contributed to for over a decade. The site has been redesigned and apparently older files went missing. This can happen if the old site is not archived or if a server is not backed up. In a separate search, AI decided that I was not affiliated with an entity in any way because my name, work, nor phote was findable in a typical web search. Although AI came to an incorrect conclusion, the lack of visibility underscores the importance of having a web presence. Thus cane nkt only be inconveient, but also it can be problematic if you are searchi...

  He announced the decision in a news release, describing it as one made “with very mixed emotions and heartfelt gratitude.” The move follows a contentious period in which the Trump administration sought to reshape how Smithsonian museums and other cultural institutions present U.S. history. The departure comes two months after a White House report labeled Smithsonian leaders—particularly those at the National Museum of American History—as radical activists who could not be trusted. That report, from the White House Domestic Policy Council, criticized the museum’s leadership for failing to present history “in a way that is inspiring, unifying, and worthy of our great republic.” Anthea M. Hartig, the museum’s first female director, came under particular scrutiny from Trump and other Republicans over the summer as a result. The Administration's push to rewrite history particularly targeted minority groups such as African Americans, Hispanics and women. Bunch became the secretary o...

The women of  Richmond, VA understood something fundamental about affordability more than 160 years ago -- a living wage is essential to survival.   Labor Day is often associated with the modern American workplace—paychecks, unions, working conditions, the eight-hour workday and workers' rights. But the struggle for economic dignity has a much longer history.   Before women had the right to vote, before modern labor laws and before the language of equal pay became part of the national conversation, working women in Richmond, Virginia, took to the streets because their labor was no longer enough to feed their families.  It was April 1863, during the Civil War. Richmond was the Confederate capital, and the war had transformed the city into a major center of military manufacturing. Women were working in Confederate government offices, factories and the Confederate ordnance laboratory, making ammunition and other supplies needed for the war. Many had entered the wor...

  SUMMARY: There has been proof for a long time that the continent of  Africa is larger than it has been presented on global maps. “Africa Was Never Small. The Map Made It Look That Way.”  The U.N. voted last week to make the change and every country in the world votes for it except the United States. We didn't need a photograph from space to discover Africa was bigger but the modern proof from above exists. Scientists have known the continent's geographic dimensions for centuries. What changed is the way those dimensions are projected onto a flat map. The sizes of Latin America, Oceana and South Asia are also accurately depicted on the new world map. U.N. General Assembly endorsed a resolution encouraging the use of equal-area map projections, particularly Equal Earth, because they represent the relative size of land masses more accurately. It passed 164–1, with six abstentions, and it is nonbinding.

 President Donald Trump’s latest clemency action came this week and covers 30 people , according to Alice Marie Johnson, the White House’s “pardon czar,” who announced the grants Friday, September 4.  The most notable recipient: Emory Jones One of the 30 is Emory Jones , a longtime associate of rapper Jay-Z. Jones served nearly 16 years in federal prison on drug charges. He was released in 2010 after Jay-Z wrote a letter to a judge seeking a reduction in his sentence. Jones later became an executive at Roc Nation and co-founded the clothing company Paper Planes . His inclusion makes this clemency announcement particularly notable in the entertainment and Black media space.  The group also includes a former Philadelphia union leader convicted of bribery and a former Navy sailor imprisoned on firearms charges , according to reporting on the announcement.  Why this is significant This is part of a much larger pattern under Trump's second administration. Trump has now...