Aurora mayor Richard C. Irvin is pleased to announce the appointment of Anthony Stanford, a prominent columnist associated with Tribune Media, as the communication director for his campaign committee. This strategic addition to the team aims to enhance communication efforts and foster closer connections with the Aurora community. He has...
June, Men’s Health Month, is an opportunity for men to focus on their physical and mental health and consider the steps needed to prevent and detect health problems. In addition, it’s a time to raise awareness relative to men’s health issues and encourage men to prioritize their health and well-being....
When black people talk amongst themselves about the rampant and indiscriminate crime that plagues their communities, there’s no soft-pedaling, or denying the gut-wrenching truth. As we reckon, decade after decade, the devastation of black-on-black violence that decimates our communities seems only to worsen, yet for those who understand the genesis...
Just in time for the holiest period on the Christian calendar, as millions worldwide celebrate the most sacred day of the year, Easter, and to recognize Christ’s resurrection, president Donald Trump proves that nothing is off limits. Because, after all, Trump’s riding shotgun and hanging with the King of Kings...
When a black man, a son, father, brother, nephew, and a friend loses his life at the hands of five black now ex-cops, mere miles from where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. laid down his life, it’s hard to talk about racial progress and to celebrate Black History Month. April...
Long-awaited, the backstory regarding the killing of 14-year-old Emmett Louis Till is being told nearly 70 years after his death. The movie, Till, recounts the kidnapping and killing of the black boy who, while visiting his cousins in the deep South during Summer 1955, was brutally murdered by racists, Roy...
It’s hard to believe that 59 years have passed since the shocking assassination of the 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy. Yet, for the Nation, the November 22, 1963, murder of Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, was a watershed event. As a nine-year-old, I saw my mother’s and...
Whether Mayor Richard Irvin’s run for the statehouse put Aurora on the map, a question asked by some, seems irrelevant on the heels of his third-place finish in the Illinois GOP primary. Admittedly, it was a tough loss for Irvin, the city’s first African American mayor. And it’s fair to...
Columnist and author Anthony Stanford contributes to a film honoring the extraordinary life and talent of musical genius, Billy Preston. Two-time Emmy winner and six-time nominee, Paris Barclay directs the film that masterfully examines the life and times of Preston, sometimes called the fifth Beatle, because Preston is the only...
Welcoming new businesses and entrepreneurs to Aurora is essential and, frankly, something that should happen routinely. To that end, there’s a bit of soul emerging in the Aurora downtown business district, and it’s brought to us by an inspiring, innovative, black female whose veteran-owned company, The Cotton Seed Creative, is...
A growing segment of the population views primarily everything the Nation’s founders said with a healthy dose of skepticism. For various reasons, the distrust associated with the establishing principles of American democracy has legitimacy. As the 2022 campaign season turns toward the general election, it’s hard watching as the plight...
As the world watches the atrocities and heartbreak play out, there appears no end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Yet, sadly, at home, we are duty-bound to look back and pay tribute to the Americans who lost their lives in the domestic terrorist attack in Oklahoma City, Okla., 27 years...
It’s hard to know what direction to go for guidance on COVID-19 protocols. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) says to do this, the World Health Organization (WHO) says to do that, and individual states, counties, and municipalities, create their own rules. It’s far and away from the start of...
Carter G. Woodson, an American historian, author, journalist, and founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History couldn’t have known how significantly opinions about Black History Month would change when he came up with the concept of Negro History Week nearly a century ago in...
When my best friend of nearly 60 years called, I thought it was our annual New Year’s greeting. We’ve had fun with it sharing incredible, even impossible, expectations and resolutions for the new year for many years. Last year, he proclaimed that at 67 years, he’d try out for a...
When news broke that two Chicago police officers were involved in a shooting in the Englewood community, it jolted the City. The shooting that took the life of Ella French, a 29-year-old Chicago Police Department (CPD) veteran officer, and the severe wounding of her partner by brothers, Emonte and Eric...
It’s been more than a year since armed white, plain-clothed, Louisville police officers ripped Breonna Taylor’s apartment door from its hinges and began firing. The botched no-knock warrant is reminiscent of the 1969 predawn police raid that killed Chicago Black Panther chairman, Fred Hampton, and defense minister, Mark Clark. Odds...
After the police-involved killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks, bipartisan legislative efforts to work on much needed policing reforms, have hit a snag. Despite nationwide momentum, voting 55-45, US. Senate Democrats blocked a Republican bill that would address some policing practices, including the use of force and...
VIII. By Fermina Ponce The blacks of my land hurt from oblivion, my ancestors reel under their ebony headstones. The elders and the children seem to vanish in a needless death, wide hips are said to have tired of birthing smiles and there is no respite in pearl grins. The...
Just as writers sometimes do, I tend to wax nostalgically about my favorite season. For me, that season is Autumn. When Autumn approaches, memories of my youth are abundant. We reached Autumn this year early Monday morning. I yearn to hear the haunting melodies of songwriters and the melancholy interpretation...
