Black ExcelList

26/01/2024

🔥Volume 1 avail on Amazon now. 50 Biographies, 100+ pages, 250 Illustrations

31/12/2023

The tradition of Watch Night services in the United States dates back to Dec. 31, 1862, when many Black Americans gathered in churches and other venues, waiting for President Abraham Lincoln to sign the Emancipation Proclamation into law, and thus free those still enslaved in the Confederacy.

As the Civil War raged on, Lincoln issued an executive order on Sept. 22, 1862, declaring that enslaved people in the rebellious Confederate states were legally free. However, this decree — the Emancipation Proclamation — would not take effect until the stroke of midnight heralding the new year.

Those gathering on the first Watch Night included many African Americans who were still legally enslaved as they assembled, sometimes in secrecy.

Over its 160-year history, Watch Night has evolved into an annual New Year’s Eve tradition — it not only commemorates freedom from slavery, but also celebrates the importance of faith, community and perseverance.

Watch Night worship services were traditionally followed by a fortuitous meal on New Year’s Day, often featuring a dish called Hoppin’ John. Hoppin’ John consists of black-eyed peas, rice, red peppers, and salt pork, and it is believed to bring good fortune. Some other common dishes include: candied yams, cornbread, potato salad, and macaroni and cheese.

28/12/2023

Mandy Price is a Co-Founder and the Chief Executive Officer of Kanarys.

Mandy’s innovative approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion is reshaping how businesses understand and implement these crucial aspects in their workplace culture.

Mandy Price, a Harvard Law alumna and a former corporate lawyer, recognized a significant gap in how companies approached DEI. This observation led to the birth of Kanarys.com, a platform dedicated to helping organizations create more inclusive and equitable cultures through data and analytics.

Kanarys.com is aptly named after the ‘canary in the coal mine’ metaphor, symbolizing an early warning system for organizations. The platform combines assessments with managed services, offering comprehensive solutions rather than just analytics.

The platform’s approach is holistic, tackling issues across the entire employee lifecycle. From talent acquisition to performance management and mental health, Kanarys.com guides organisations in implementing targeted DEI initiatives based on specific needs and gaps identified through their data.

28/12/2023

“The Color Purple” added $7.1 million on Tuesday, bringing its domestic box office tally to an impressive $25 million after two days of release.

The Warner Bros. film, an adaptation of the book-turned-beloved-movie-turned-hit-Broadway-musical, opened in theaters on Monday. It nearly set a holiday record with $18 million, marking the largest Christmas Day opening for a movie since 2009 and the second-biggest Christmas Day opening of all time.

Blitz Bazawule directed “The Color Purple,” which is off to an encouraging start for a musical. “The Color Purple” cost $100 million to make and is likely to remain the de facto choice for Black families through the new year in order to turn a profit. Positive reviews and encouraging word-of-mouth should help the movie — led by “American Idol” winner Fantasia Barrino and co-starring Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks and Colman Domingo — stick around on the big screen.

27/12/2023

As Black families constantly move in search of safety, their emotional health is continuously deregulated, a Black mental health educator says.

For Black and Caribbean Americans, so much of the meaning of home has been ruptured because of slavery and what happens when people are forcibly uprooted from their homes. 

Descendants from enslaved Africans most often lost that connection to their geographical lineage. It’s contributed to the inability of Black people to find cocoons in the U.S., some historians argue.

Black movement has been a constant for generations, and when loss defines your life, emotional health suffers, according to Brandon Jones, a Black mental health educator who is the director of the Minnesota Association for Children’s Mental Health. 

CapitalBNews.org
By Adam Mahoney
December 26, 2023

27/12/2023

Kwanzaa is based on African harvest festival traditions from various parts of West and Southeast Africa.

Kwanzaa celebrates what its founder, Dr. Maulana Karenga , called Nguzo Saba, the Seven Principles:

*Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
Kujichagulia (Self-determination): To define and name ourselves, as well as to create and speak for ourselves.

*Ujima (Collective work and responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems and to solve them together.

*Ujamaa (Cooperative economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.

*Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

*Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

*Imani (Faith): To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

Each day during the celebration marks a principle.

The principles were created in 1965, a year before Kwanzaa and are Swahili words. Together they comprise the Kawaida or “common” philosophy, a synthesis of nationalist, pan-Africanist, and socialist values.

24/02/2023

Lewis H. Latimer was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts on September 4, 1848. Along with Granville T. Woods, Latimer was one of the first major African American inventors. He first worked as an assistant to Alexander Graham Bell, drawing the blueprints for Bell’s patent for the telephone in 1876.

Latimer joined the U.S. Electric Lighting Company in 1880 under Hiram Maxim. This year saw Thomas Edison patent his light bulb which used a carbonized bamboo filament that burnt out rather quickly.

Around this time, Latimer created a way to make the carbon filament more durable by encasing it in cardboard and went on to patent the process for efficiently manufacturing the carbon filament in 1882. His invention made incandescent lighting practical and affordable and was also longer lasting than earlier filaments.

22/02/2023

💫 Black Excellist. Sarah Elisabeth Goode (1855-1905) was an American entrepreneur and inventor. She was the second known African-American woman to receive a United States patent, which she received in 1885.

After receiving her freedom at the end of the Civil War, Goode moved to Chicago and eventually became an entrepreneur. Along with her husband Archibald, a carpenter, she owned a furniture store. Many of her customers, who were mostly working-class, lived in small apartments and didn't have much space for furniture, including beds.

As a solution to the problem, Goode invented a cabinet bed, which she described as a "folding bed," similar to what nowadays would be called a Murphy bed. When the bed was not being used, it could also serve as a roll-top desk, complete with compartments for stationery and other writing supplies.

Goode received a patent for her invention on July 14, 1885. She died in 1905 at the age of 50.

21/02/2023

💫 Black Excellist. Marjorie Stewart Joyner (1896-1994) invented the Permanent Wave Machine and was a leading figure in the beauty industry as a beautician, salon owner, instructor and executive for the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Co.

The traditional method of styling Black women’s hair was a laborious, curl-by-curl procedure, but Joyner imagined a more efficient way.

While cooking a pot roast, Joyner observed the long thin rods holding the roast together, heating it from the inside. She realized these rods might be adapted for use as rollers to ”cook” permanent curls into hair. She received the patent for her invention in 1928.

Joyner learned to use hair oil and a hot comb to straighten hair, and in turn, Joyner taught Walker to set hair into fashionable Marcel waves.

Marjorie Stewart Joyner supervised the training of thousands of black beauticians as a vice president of the Madam C. J. Walker Company. She remained affiliated with the company for more than 50 years.

20/02/2023

💫 Black Excellist. Carter Godwin Woodson (1875-1950) - Father of Black History- Woodson was an American historian, author, and journalist. He was one of the first scholars to study the history of the African diaspora, including African-American history.

In February 1926, he launched the celebration of "Negro History Week," the precursor of Black History Month. Woodson was an important figure to the movement of Afrocentrism, due to his perspective of placing people of African descent at the center of the study of history and the human experience.

16/02/2023

Marie Van Brittan Brown (1922-1999) was an American nurse and innovator. In 1966, she invented a video home security system along with her husband Albert Brown, an electronics technician. In the same year, they applied for a patent for their innovative security system, which was granted in 1969. Her innovation has had a huge impact on the entire security system. Her idea has expanded beyond just security for those at home, and her ideas can be seen with security systems in businesses around the world. Brown was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York. She died there at the age of 76 in 1999.

09/02/2023

💫 Black Excellist. Congrats LeBron! You deserve it!

06/01/2023

HAPPY FOUNDERS’ DAY to the members of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.

03/10/2022

💫 Happy 30th Anniversary to Barack and Michelle Obama.❤️
Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord. Proverbs 18:22

16/09/2022

💫 Congratulations to Megan Piphus Peace. Meagan is the First Black Woman To Be A Puppeteer On Sesame Street!

16/09/2022

💫Lebron & Daughter Zhuri James! You’ve probably heard that having a strong male influence is important in a young boy’s life, but it’s equally important for daughters to have one as well.

Having a positive father-daughter relationship can have a huge impact on a young girl's life and even determine whether or not she develops into a strong, confident woman.

A father's influence in his daughter's life shapes her self-esteem, self-image, confidence and opinions of men.

13/09/2022

The James

12/09/2022

Francis Tiafoe advanced to the semifinal, becoming the first Black American in the U.S. Open semifinal since Arthur Ashe in 1972. Tiafoe’s run ended in the semifinal at the hands of Carlos Alcaraz in a five-set thriller on Friday night.

Following the loss, Tiafoe stood on the hard court and told the crowd and viewers at home he felt like he “let you guys down.”

08/09/2022

Sojourner Truth (c. 1797-1883)
Abolitionist and women's rights activist.

Truth was an African American abolitionist and women's rights activist best-known for her speech on racial inequalities, "Ain't I a Woman?", delivered extemporaneously in 1851 at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention.

Truth was born into slavery but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. She devoted her life to the abolitionist cause and helped to recruit Black troops for the Union Army. Although Truth began her career as an abolitionist, the reform causes she sponsored were broad and varied, including prison reform, property rights and universal suffrage.

01/09/2022

🎥 Watch Now: Ryan Coogler (b. May 23, 1986) is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. His first feature film, Fruitvale Station (2013), won the top audience and grand jury awards in the U.S. dramatic competition at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. He has since co-written and directed the seventh film in the Rocky series, Creed (2015), and the Marvel film Black Panther (2018), the latter of which broke numerous box office records and became the highest-grossing film of all time by an African American director, and his upcoming sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022). ✊🏾

31/08/2022

🎥. Watch Now: Ida B Wells 👉🏽 Power of the Pen

27/02/2022

📺 Watch Now on YouTube! 💫
10 Hottest Cities to Buy a Home in 2022 | Black Families & Investors | Real Estate

17/02/2022

20 Black Celebrity Homes & Mansions | Black Excellisthttp://www.blackexcellist.com▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬Business Inquiries, Partnerships, & Suggestionsblac...

08/02/2022

Support Black Art and Black Business by adding beautiful artwork to your home or office.

MEMWA COLLECTION: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MemwaArtCollection

Make any room look more sophisticated by displaying this framed poster with a smooth, white mat board. It’s printed on a quality matte paper and framed with a semi-hardwood alder frame. In addition to providing awesome, authentic artwork by local artists, our mission is to also educate the buyer

08/02/2022

THE 6 BLACK WIVES OF BILLIONAIRES

Since there are only a handful, the black wives of billionaires are an elite group of Black Women that are worthy of respect all on their own. These are ambitious, intelligent, and awe-inspiring women who have either helped their husbands build or helped provide support of the thriving multi-billion dollar empires that they enjoy today.

https://youtu.be/oonJmrvTiSA

Black Excellist: Black Wives of Billionaireshttp://www.blackexcellist.comThumbnail Photo Credit: EMPRESSAKPhoto: Island Boi PhotographyVisit her website @ ...

21/01/2022

💫Happy National DJ Day !

Each year National Disc Jockey Day recognizes the DJs playing the music and spinning the records. The observance takes place annually on January 20th.

Derrick Jones (born June 19, 1970), better known by his stage name D-Nice, is an American disc jockey, beatboxer, rapper, producer, and photographer who began his career in the mid-1980s with the hip hop group Boogie Down Productions.[1] He discovered Kid Rock in 1988, landing him a deal with Jive Records.

In March 2020, D-Nice began hosting Homeschool at Club Quarantine on Instagram Live from his home as a way for people to come together and help others cope with the COVID-19 global health crisis. The 3/21 Saturday night dance party ran 9 hours and D-Nice urged people to "take care of one another and wash their hands and it drew over 100,000 viewers.

21/01/2022

📺 Here is the recommended Watch List for this weekend. Enjoy! 💫

20/01/2022

📺 Watch Now on YouTube: 💫20 Black Owned Restaurants ep 11 | Weekly Spotlight | |

19/01/2022

📺 Watch Now on YouTube:
💫LEAVING AMERICA: 20 African Countries Black Americans Are Moving To.

18/01/2022

📺 Watch Now on YouTube: 💫20 High Paying Jobs with 2 Year College Degrees.