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Essence •

'It’s Not Over Yet': Rae Lewis-Thornton And The Ongoing Fight Against HIV 30 Years Later | Essence

Rae Lewis-Thornton was diagnosed with HIV when she was 24. The year was 1987, a time when the epidemic was accelerating at an alarming rate. Two years prior, the Centers for Disease ­Control and Prevention (CDC) had found that 51 percent of adults and 59 percent of children whose HIV had progressed to AIDS were dying of the illness, often within 15 months after learning that they had the disease.
Rolling Out •

Kayla Quimbley-Young uses her story to transform lives

Kayla Quimbley-Young is a poet with a powerful perspective—she was born with HIV. At 26 years old, this Albany, Georgia native has transformed her personal journey into a fierce advocacy platform for people who acquired HIV through vertical transmission (passed from mother to child). Her commitment to liberation for all stems from her lived experiences combating HIV stigma, working to decriminalize HIV, and raising awareness of the disproportionate impact of HIV on youth of color.
MadameNoire •

Thriving Through Service: How HIV Gave Kennedi Lowman Her Purpose [Exclusive]

Kennedi Lowman was 29 and thriving in her career as a medical lab scientist at a hospital in Atlanta when her life took an unexpected turn. The call came after she donated blood—a voicemail from the American Red Cross urging her to return the message right away. “In my mind, I’m like, what is wrong with me?” she remembered. As someone who worked in healthcare, she knew exactly what that kind of urgency meant. What she didn’t expect was that the call would reveal she was HIV-positive.Looking back...
Black Enterprise •

The Hip Hop Museum and Wahida Clark To Host Historic 'Street Lit House Party' Livestream

It’s going down on the live stream this Friday as The Hip Hop Museum and “Queen of Street Literature,” Wahida Clark, host the DJ Wall of Fame and Street Lit House Party to celebrate Black Music Month.

The June 20 Twitch-based event will honor the legacy of hip-hop through music, literature, and bold vision.

“The Street Lit House Party honors the culture that raised us–one set, one story at a time,” said Clark in a press release. “Spinning the music helps us to archive the legacy of hip-hop.”...
Black Enterprise •

Morehouse's Retail Business Program Still Struggles To Find Funding As It Hopes To Expand

Morehouse College’s retail business program was established to empower Black entrepreneurs, but those dreams may be deferred if funding cannot support next year’s class.

The program’s latest cohort of graduates included 20 businesses. During their year-and-a-half matriculation, the entrepreneurs learned essential business tactics, including scaling up and generating profits.

“You need to be here for one main reason, along with information,” new graduate Demond Crump told WABE. “You need to com...
WABE •

Morehouse’s small business program graduates cohort, but faces funding challenges

Morehouse College aims to expand a retail business program launched to help Black entrepreneurs reach the next level, but funding challenges may stand in its way.


Inside Morehouse’s African American Hall of Fame, Demond Crump sits behind a table of his products. He is the founder of REIGN Premium Sanitary Napkins.


“Over 1.5 million women have utilized our product,” said Crump. He is part of a cohort of 20 retail businesses that spent the last year and a half learning about scaling, profita...
WABE •

‘Workplace fixer’ sees recent unemployment spike for Black women as redirection opportunity

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports Black women lost over 106,000 jobs in April, causing their unemployment rate to jump a percentage point to 6.1%. 


Black workers also make up a larger share of the federal workforce, leading to greater impacts from cuts under the Trump administration.


HR Plug and Greatness Lab founder LaShawn Davis joins “Closer Look” to share insight on how to navigate the current job market and her advice for standing out as an employee.

The U.S. Bureau of Labo...
Capital B News - Atlanta •

Proposed Medicaid Cuts Endanger Black LGBTQ+ Lives - Capital B News - Atlanta

As lawmakers push for sweeping cuts to Medicaid, fear weighs heavily on Tori Cooper. 

Cooper, a trans woman who serves as the director of strategic outreach and training for the Human Rights Campaign, told Capital B Atlanta that for her and other Black trans residents, these cuts will have a detrimental impact on their lives.

“The Black LGBTQ community will be greatly impacted, and Black trans folks even more so,” said Cooper. “For years, we’ve acknowledged how systematic racism impacts the li...
Atlanta Daily World •

The Morehouse Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center at Morehouse College Fuels Growth for Local Atlanta Retailers

Six-month cohort equips 20 local small businesses for scaling profitability and retail growth
The Morehouse Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center (MIEC) at Morehouse College will host a completion ceremony for 20 retail business owners who participated in a six-month cohort at 6 p.m., Wednesday, June 4, 2025. The free public event will be held in the African American Hall of Fame at Morehouse College, 830 Westview Dr. SW, Atlanta, GA 30314.
MIEC, a global model in fostering innovation and entrepr...
Essence •

Op-Ed: Why HIV Prevention Efforts Must Better Prioritize Black Women | Essence

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2022 HIV surveillance report indicates that among cisgender women, Black women accounted for 50% of HIV diagnoses. Among transgender women, Black women accounted for 41% of HIV diagnoses.


HIV has been at the forefront of my life since the ’80s. Back then, many Black people suffered and died in silence because of the increasingly high stigma in our communities. I would hear others say, “He had a bad case of pneumonia” or “She was with the wrong...
Business News This Week •

OneUnited Bank Teams Up with Esusu to Empower Renters, Unlock Better Credit and Open Doors to Homeownership

In recognition of Financial Literacy Month,  OneUnited Bank, a leading Community Development Financial Institution and the nation’s largest Black-owned bank, is joining forces with the innovative credit-building platform Esusu to revolutionize the path to homeownership for renters. By reporting on-time rental payments, this alliance simplifies credit building, paving the way to homeo...
Black Enterprise •

Let’s Talk About Sex: Dr. Maisha Standifer And Masonia Traylor Address The Critical Need For A Change In Narrative Around HIV And Black Women

March 10 is National Women & Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, and we’ve been seriously misled into underestimating the impact of the disease on our communities. The statistics are staggering — Black women are 12 times more likely to be diagnosed with HIV than white women. Black women make up nearly 60% of new HIV diagnoses among women in the U.S. But when was the last time you had a conversation with your friend, your sister, your niece, your cousin, or your daughter about HIV? It seems like the la...
Apple Podcasts •

Intentional Conversations with Dr. Adriane Johnson-Williams

Welcome to Intentional Conversations, where we intersect diversity, equity, and inclusion with leadership and business. This week we welcomed Dr. Adriane Johnson-Williams to Intentional Conversations! So, grab your headphones 🎧, press play, and let the conversation begin!** Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel because we're all about keeping the great conversations flowing. **KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM DR. ADRIANE:CONNECT WITH DR. ADRIANE:On LinkedIn Visit her website Listen to her Podcast Get her book...
Black Health Matters •

Serving Communities on National Black HIV Awareness Day

Public and private partners are continuing to fight HIV in the Black community by stressing the continued importance of National Black HIV Awareness Day. HIV continues to disproportionately impact the Black community, stealing away mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sisters, and brothers. First observed in 1999, this awareness day acknowledges that predicament.According to the Journal of Healthcare, Science and the Humanities, “When comparing Black and White US populations, respectively, across...
Rough Draft Atlanta •

Morehouse School of Medicine distributing test kits on Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

The Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine in collaboration with Fort Valley State University, will distribute test kits on Feb. 7, which is Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.According to a press release, the “care packages” will be distributed to local students at the historically Black university in Fort Valley, GA, according to a press release.On Thursday, Feb. 6, volunteers will pack 200 free care packages that include at-home HIV test kits and other essential items o...
Kitchen & Bath Business •

Building a Better Bottom Line | Kitchen & Bath Business

In today’s competitive business world, leaders often ask, “How can we improve our processes without losing productivity?” Ultimately, the desired result is a high-quality product or service that drives customer purchasing, satisfaction and retention. For many of us, the “work smarter, not harder” mindset has been ingrained and passed down from generation to generation. As business leaders, we encourage the adoption of this same work ethic with our teams in hopes of producing a solid bottom line...
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