Category: Black Excellence

  — Matt Donnelly, Variety Amber Rasberry has joined Amazon Studios as a senior film executive, Variety has learned exclusively. Rasberry’s oversight will include day-to-day production, development and acquisitions for Amazon’s original movies slate. She will report to film co-heads Julie Rapaport and Matt Newman.   Read Full Article @ Variety

  — Joshua Eferighe, OZY Dajae Williams was in seventh-grade math and the topic of the day was the quadratic formula. The concept had been notoriously difficult, so her teacher assigned a remix to the accompanying jingle to be presented in class the next day.  Williams, who tells me Soulja Boy was “literally popping at […]

  — Jeffrey McKinney, Black Enterprise The dire blow of COVID-19 — causing over 40% of Black-owned businesses to close this year — has not blocked Omar McGee from expanding his luxury car dealership in Los Angeles. In fact, McGee is proceeding with fresh bold strategic moves that include building up clientele, expanding into new business via […]

Goff will help lead efforts to help propel Biden’s legislative efforts through Congress, which includes policies promising to lengthen, ensure, and enrich the lives of Black people in America.   — Charise Frazier, NewsOne Capitol Hill veteran Shuwanza Goff was named as Joe Biden‘s new Deputy Director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs as the president-elect’s […]

  — Kenya Vaughn, The St. Louis American Virtual learning is challenging enough with general course studies. But what about the performing arts electives that motivate so many young people to stay engaged with their educational experience? This time of year is typically marked by final rehearsals and addressing last-minute logistical details ahead of the […]

Stitch Fix’s Mike Smith is leaving the online apparel retailer.   — Jason Del Rey, Vox Mike Smith is a versatile and well-respected executive in the e-commerce industry. He also happens to one of the few Black C-level leaders in tech. Now he wants to play a bigger role in changing that. Smith has served […]

Why ‘work-life balance’ is a myth, and other insights from Shellye Archambeau’s new book, Unapologetically Ambitious. — SHELLYE ARCHAMBEAU, INC. Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. Building a company is stressful, scary, and risky, and the odds of succeeding are not in your favor. But after 30 years in the tech industry–14 of those as […]

Ben, who lost his parents in a murder-suicide in 2017, had also worked at his father’s barbecue restaurant selling homemade cookies and brownies. — DERRICK BRYSON TAYLOR, THE NEW YORK TIMES Ben Watkins, a rising young culinary star who appeared in the sixth season of “MasterChef Junior,” died on Monday from a rare form of […]