Year: 2017

Social action organization Global Citizen somehow just made Adele’s hit song “Hello” even better. 

In a new video published Thursday morning, Global Citizen re-imagines Adele’s “Hello” as a call to Congress to protest President Trump’s executive orders. The video features an Adele look-a-like wearing a fur coat belting out tunes with the wind in her hair, singing into a phone… the lyrics are just a bit different. 

“Hello, it’s me. I was wondering if you had some time to support refugees,” the woman sings into a flip phone. “We can go over everything. Like how they aren’t terrorists, they’re only frightened folks in need.”

The chorus is possibly the best part: “Hello from the other side! If I have to, I’ll call a thousand times! Til you listen to us, we’ll never leave you alone. But when I call Paul Ryan, he never seems to be home.”

Simply put: It’s perfect.

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

It took more than six decades for the lie that led to Emmett Till’s lynching to be exposed. Now, Till’s family is calling for his case to be reopened.

Till, 14, was abducted by two white men in 1955 after 21-year-old Carolyn Donham accused him of making sexual advances at her. Donham’s first husband, J.W. Milam, and his half-brother, Roy Bryant, beat, shot and mutilated Till’s body. He was later found weighted down with a cotton gin fan in the Tallahatchie River. 

Milam and and Bryant stood trial for Till’s murder. During the trial, Donham claimed that Till made sexual advances and grabbed her hand. The suspects were acquitted by an all-white, all-male jury. Just months later, the duo admitted to killing Till in a paid interview for Look magazine.

In January, The Blood of Emmett Till was published and revealed that Donham committed perjury. 

In a 2008 interview for that book, by Timothy B. Tyson,  Donham admitted that she lied about Till making advances and grabbing her.

“Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him,” she told Tyson.

Till was with his cousin, Wheeeler Parker, in 1955 when they encountered Donham. Parker told the AP that Till did “for sure” whistle at 21-year-old Donham, but he never grabbed or threatened her.

Deborah Watts, also Till’s cousin, said she believes new information could be found if the case is reopened. “We know that she has admitted that she lied, and we know that is part of the reason Emmett is no longer with us,” Watts told the AP. “If there is any chance to reopen the case, I hope they will take this opportunity to do it now.”

During the trial, Till’s great-uncle, Moses Wright, said that he saw two men hold the 14-year-old at gunpoint and take him to a third person inside a parked car. Milam and Bryant, now dead, were the only two charged for the murder. Watts said that reopening the investigation could identify the third person.

“However that information is acquired, it’s necessary,” she said.

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A Michigan retiree expressed his support of a local LGBTQ non-discrimination ordinance by performing a whimsical rap in front of his city’s council. 

As seen in the video above, Donald Tassie, 81, received thunderous applause from Jackson residents after taking the mic to back a citywide ordinance that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing and public accommodations Tuesday. The former superintendent at Jackson’s da Vinci High School, Tassie deemed himself “Mr. T” and wore a sweatshirt emblazoned with “Be More Kind” before showing off some surprising MC chops.  

“Kindness, caring, compassion, too/is what we all need to do,” Tassie rapped. “Don’t be afraid, don’t be shy/C’mon now, let’s give it a try.” 

Tassie told Michigan Live that he’d planned to discuss the ordinance in a speech, but opted for a more creative approach in an effort to liven up the crowd. “I had a whole speech prepared. We got started and people said things I was going to say,” he said. “There was a part of me that thought it was time for something different, I said, ‘Let’s try another thing.’”

Tassie said he began getting involved with the local LGBTQ community as an ally after the death of his wife, Tuey, in 2001. Out of all of his friends and family, a lesbian couple, Iris and Dianne, offered him the most support after Tuey’s passing, he said. 

“They are my dearest best friends after that,” he told Michigan Live. “How could I deny them, my friends, the same rights that I have?”

No word on whether or not Tassie’s rap swayed their views, but Jackson city council members voted 5-2 in favor of the non-discrimination ordinance.

For more creative ways to combat bigotry, don’t miss the Queer Voices newsletter. 

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In 1997, a man attempted to snatch a woman’s purse in Elkhart, Indiana. Keith Cooper wasn’t far from the scene of the incident. The 29-year-old had just picked up some groceries for his family and was walking home to make his children breakfast and watch “X-Men” with them.

Instead, he found himself in a police station awaiting charges for the purse-snatching. Then things got worse: A detective with the Elkhart Police Department connected Cooper to an armed robbery at an apartment complex where a shooting took place.

“This is crap,” Cooper told the detective at the time, The Indianapolis Star reported. “I didn’t do the crime I’m going to trial for, let alone this one.”

Cooper was found innocent of the purse snatching, but convicted of armed robbery. He spent the next 10 years of his life behind bars for a crime he never committed. In 2006, he was finally released from prison after DNA evidence and witness statements proved his innocence. 

The Indiana Court of Appeals overturned his conviction, but there was a catch: Cooper could be released immediately with a felony still on his record, or he could face a new trial. Cooper wanted to see his family, so chose to get out as soon as possible.

Hoping to be pardoned, Cooper wrote a letter in 2013 to then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R), who is now the U.S. vice president. The Indiana Parole Board recommended in 2014 that Pence grant the pardon. Last September, Pence finally wrote back to Cooper to say he wasn’t going to pardon him.

“It crushed me a little bit,” Cooper, a 49-year-old forklift operator, told the Chicago Tribune. “I haven’t give up hope. My hope is what keeps me strong, but I’m human and it hurts.”

Pence said he wouldn’t pardon Cooper until he had exhausted all of his options in court. On Thursday, Gov. Eric Holcomb (R) came to a different conclusion. He gave Cooper his pardon.

“After careful and thoughtful consideration and review, something I’ve thought about every day over the last month, just earlier today I issued a pardon to Mr. Keith Cooper for his past and I believe wrongful armed robbery felony [conviction],” Holcomb said, according to the South Bend Tribune.

“Since that conviction in 1997 many pieces of the information that were out and about … have changed,” Holcomb added, noting that “a victim, an informant, even the deputy prosecutor who convicted Mr. Cooper on that first crime all have stated support or no objection to a pardon.”

Now, Cooper can focus on his family again.

“I was watching my children grow up through pictures,” Cooper told the Indianapolis Star of his time in prison. “And that’s the hardest thing I couldn’t swallow.”

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Noëlle Santos wants the the Bronx to get lit, with literature. 

The afro-boricua launched a crowdfunding campaign via Indiegogo last month in hopes of opening The Lit. Bar in her borough. The Bronx was left with no bookstores after the Barnes & Nobles at the Bay Plaza Shopping Center recently closed.

Santos envisions her business as both a bookstore and a wine bar, “a social hub for people to come together and talk about social issues,” she told PIX11 News. “That’s something amazon cannot provide.”

The way Santos sees it, The Lit. Bar is an opportunity to change perceptions about her community.   

“Lit like literature, Lit like drunk. Lit with passion to kill stigmas… and prove, once again, that the Bronx keeps creating it,” Santos says in one part of her campaign video, above. “And we are worthy, that we are more than just sneaker stores and we support the arts, so I stand here today and ask you to open your hearts and help us show the world what many fail to see: that the Bronx is no longer burning, except with a desire to read.”

And the 30-year-old Human Resources professional and blogger says her bookstore will reflect the diversity of her neighborhood. 

“When you come into a neighborhood like the South Bronx, where most of our population is Hispanic and African-American, you need your stores, your community centers and your organizations to reflect the people that actually live there,” she told The New York Times.

Santos won second place in the New York Public LIbrary’s New York StartUP! Business Plan Competition last year, which came with a prize of $7,500.

The boricua bookworm has already raised over $39,000 via Indiegogo, and she’s hoping to meet her $100,000 goal in the month that’s left of the campaign. The entrepreneur got a big boost after filmmaker Michael Moore tweeted about The Lit. Bar on Feb. 3. Santos told DNAinfo.com he gave her campaign $5,000. 

The Lit. Bar will be a lot more than bookstore as far as Santos is concerned, she feels the space will serve a higher purpose. 

 “When you think about the South Bronx you don’t usually think about wine and intellectuals reading,” Santos told PIX11 News. “It’s really a movement to break those Bronx stereotypes.”

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Let’s get this out of the way: Beyoncé is flawless. We all know this. However, it seems that some of her stunning awards-show dresses didn’t get the memo.

Though the superstar singer always looks like perfection at awards shows, she told “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in 2005 that in several of those looks, she had been hiding near-calamitous wardrobe malfunctions. Two of her more memorable mishaps actually occurred on the same night: the 77th Academy Awards.

“Oh, my god, shoe, please stay in my dress.” 

Beyoncé was scheduled to perform three songs that Oscar night, one of which was “Learn to Be Lonely” from The Phantom of the Opera. As if her nerves weren’t enough to handle, Beyoncé had to manage the added stress of changing her entire look with super-human speed. “I had to get new hair, new makeup and a new dress in, like, three minutes,” she said.

In the rush to get on stage for her performance, Beyoncé’s shoe was never strapped. As she glided down the stairs in front of the packed theater and countless TV cameras, she tried to hide her struggle.   

“I’m trying to remember the words and my ear monitor’s turned off ― and my shoe is off of my foot, actually, inside of the dress,” Beyoncé said. “So, I’m on one toe and I’m in one heel, walking down the stairs and I’m like, ‘Oh, my god, shoe, please stay in my dress!’”

“They’re going to say that I’m pregnant…”

This beautiful baby-blue Roberto Cavalli dress was one of Beyoncé’s many looks that night. She wore it to an after-party, but realized soon enough that the gown’s structure would create a problem when she was to make her unavoidably high-profile exit.

“I was at a party and I sat down, and the boning curved because I was sitting down,” Beyoncé explained. “On my way out, all the paparazzi was still outside and I said, ‘Oh, my god. They’re going to say that I’m pregnant.’”

At the time, 23-year-old Beyoncé certainly wasn’t pregnant, much less pregnant with twins, so she plastered on a smile and clutched the back of her dress to pull the fabric taut. “I’m holding it the whole time!” she said, laughing.

“That’s grace under pressure,” Oprah responded.

For Beyoncé, it was par for the course.

“It’s always these crazy moments,” she said, “but I always try to not let anyone else know.”

Original airdate: Nov. 11, 2005

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The 59th annual Grammy Awards are only a few days away, and as we gear up for music’s biggest night, we’re taking a look back at the past ― 1987, to be exact. 

It was the year Paul Simon took home the coveted Album of the Year award for “Graceland,” and Steve Winwood (and producer Russ Titelman) won Record of the Year for the oh-so-catchy “Higher Love.” Meanwhile, Song of the Year went to Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager for the tune “That’s What Friends Are For,” performed by music icons Dionne Warwick, Elton John, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder, and Bruce Hornsby and the Range was the year’s Best New Artist. 

For more from the 1987 ceremony, join us on a trip down memory lane, won’t you? 

To find out who wins big this year, watch the Grammys ― hosted by James Corden ― on Feb. 12 on CBS. 

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With Valentine’s Day around the corner, YouTube dad La Guardia Cross decided to offer his 2-year-old Amalah some dating tips, and it kind of went horribly wrong.

In his new video, Cross took his toddler on a father-daughter date (with a menu that included spaghetti, naturally) to share his advice on what Amalah should do to get to know someone. Cross suggested that the 2-year-old should show her date how smart she is and try to find some common ground, but Amalah made it very clear she was more into doing her own thing.

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Therapists are proving to be 2017’s real MVPs given the current political climate. But how do they take care of themselves?

1. Focus on what you can do.

“I discuss the issues with friends or trusted colleagues. I decide if there is any action I can take that meshes with other life and professional demands, and then ‘let go of it’ and move on to other activities or thoughts that might be productive or give joy.” ―Marcia Valenstein, professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan

2. Stay informed.

“My personal approach is to stay immersed in the news cycle, hoping for some shred of encouragement or at least consolation from hearing my views shared by others.” ―Susan Krauss Whitbourne, professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst

3. Watch something funny.

“Laughter works too, so staying tuned into ‘The Daily Show’ and ‘Saturday Night Live,’ provides great stress relief.” ―Susan Krauss Whitbourne

4. Work out your body and mind.

“I make it a point to exercise daily. I particularly like swimming after a stressful day, but do more physically strenuous spinning earlier in the day. I am also practicing mindfulness meditation which I love.” ―Sheila Marcus, professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan

“When I’m personally feeling stressed out by negative news or if there is anything stressful happening in my life, I exercise or go for a walk.  Physical activity has been shown to lower stress and improve mental health, and it contributes to an overall sense of well-being.” ―Olivia Remes, Ph.D. Researcher at the University of Cambridge

5. Try a new hobby.

“Advocacy and volunteering, as well as some creative outlets like cooking and being with my family, are also great!” ―Sheila Marcus

6. Act, but take breaks.

“I try to maintain a balance among action, humor and respite, [which includes] more music, less constant news.” ―David Spiegel, director of the Center on Stress and Health at Stanford Health Care

7. Practice a simple breathing exercise.

“I put my feet flat on the floor, relax my shoulders, close my eyes, smile and take a long, slow deep breath. You can do this just about anywhere, and it always feels good.” ―Keith Humphreys, psychiatrist at Stanford Health Care and a professor of psychiatry and behavioral Sciences

8. Disconnect from your devices.

“I find that when I unplug from everything (radio, TV, computer, phone, iPad) I feel much better. Sometimes it takes a day or two to detox (read: jittery, nervous, headaches), but after that I am generally calmer, less worried and feel an overall sense of decreased anxiety.” ―Stephanie Smith, licensed clinical psychologist

9. Cook a good meal.

“When I feel stressed or distressed by the negative, unhappy news and/or politics I go to the grocery store, buy food that I enjoy and I head home and make dinner.  I can make what I want, what I like and how I like it to taste and that helps me feel better. It resolves the stress from the external world that can feel out of control and give it back to me in a way that I can control and enjoy.” ―Dan Reidenberg, executive director of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education

10. Hang with your pets.

“Finally, all of this is made even better at reducing my stress by spending time with my dogs.  Pets can be incredibly calming and with their forever unconditional love, the rest of my stress melts away.” ―Dan Reidenberg

Sounds pretty good to us. 

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Harriet Tubman’s upcoming biopic has found its leading star.

Deadline reports the Tony Award-winning actress Cynthia Erivo has been cast to portray the late civil rights activist in the forthcoming film, “Harriet.”

Produced by Charles King’s media-holding company, MACRO, and directed by Seith Man, the motion picture will chronicle the life of the abolitionist who escaped from slavery in 1849 and eventually led hundreds of slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad. Later during the Civil War, Tubman went on to serve as a nurse, a cook, and a spy for the Union army.

Despite her London-bred roots, in 2015 Erivo told The New York Times that she shares a lot of the same experiences as the American characters she plays.  

“I don’t think it’s different to be a black girl in England than it is to be a black girl from America,” she said. “We all collectively share in a pain of displacement, and not feeling like we quite belong in places.”

Erivo’s forthcoming role follows her 2016 Tony win for Best Lead Actress in a Musical for Broadway’s revival of “The Color Purple.” Next year she will star opposite of Viola Davis in Steve McQueen’s developing big screen thriller, “Widow.”

Production for “Harriet” is set to begin later this year.

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