Community Voices

State budget inadvertently funding school-to-prison pipeline

HEAVYN LESTER - August 24, 2023

In the biennial budget, the state has appropriated $800 million more in cash for revised upward estimates for the Westville Correctional Facility rebuild. This...

Opinion

Don’t call it a comeback, I been here for [50] years…

HEAVYN LESTER - September 22, 2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOv4h1UC1g8 Hip Hop turned 50 this week, and like LL Cool J said, don't call it a comeback. It has been here for years. As...

Opinion

UNDERRATED

LARRY SMITH - September 22, 2023

The abbreviation BPM has several meanings. There’s “Beats Per Minute”. That usually refers to one’s heartbeat, but it can also refer to musical beats....

Community Voices

Why we need diversity programs

ANDRE CARSON - August 17, 2023

Attempts to erase Black identity and history predate colonization and slavery, but recently, some ideologues and elected officials have doubled down on attempts to...

Opinion

Book bans & public libraries

HEAVYN LESTER - September 22, 2023

"They be our national treasure / they be / our priceless charge" (A Dark and Splendid Mass 47-48) are the lingering words of Mari...

Community Voices

Banks addressing Black business debt aversion is good business and good for city

MARSHAWN WOLLEY - August 10, 2023

Addressing debt aversion due to poor relationships between banks and the Black community is good for banks and the city. The Biennial Black Business...

Community Voices

In a small town

LARRY SMITH - August 10, 2023

Around the time of Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia (1676-1677), the word “white” appears in a legal document for the first time in our history...

Opinion

Effective today

HEAVYN LESTER - September 25, 2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP0FISeD-8M What have you walked away from? Author Zora Neale Hurston once said, "I have the nerve to walk my own way, however hard, in...

Opinion