The number startled Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle when she first came across it a couple of years back: 64,000 black women missing. At the time, she’d been reading up on men like Lonnie Franklin Jr., a serial killer in South Central Los Angeles who had killed a still-uncertain number of black women and left their bodies in alleyways. She’d been researching human trafficking hubs, including the Bay Area, where black women would simply disappear. But still that number gutted her. There were 64,000 missing black daughters, mothers, sisters, cousins, nieces. “It just became this wound that spread through my archives,” Hinkle says. “It’s just such an immense loss.” She wanted to paint these women, wanted to create space for them. Find them, even if in the smallest of ways. But there were some things to consider. “How do I talk about this intense, persistent erasure, but not focus on keeping people shrouded in victimhood?” And also, how would she paint people she’d never known? How could … [Read more...]

Hillary Clinton recalled on Friday that her black friends have “tried to expand my musical tastes” while speaking before the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Clinton was asked what her “most meaningful conversation” she had with an African-American friend to which she replied, “Oh my gosh. Well, could I tell you that I am blessed to have a crew of great friends.” (RELATED: Hillary Clinton Tells Black Radio Host She Carries Hot Sauce In Her Purse) [dcquiz] “And I’ve had two chiefs of staff who were my African American women friends, Maggie Williams and Cheryl Mills,” Clinton recalled. “I have been blessed to have people by my side in politics like Minyon Moore who’s one of the leaders of my campaign.” “I’ve had a great group of young people who I have been really motivated by and frankly learned from. So I really have had a lifetime of friendship going back to my college years with one of my best friends was an … [Read more...]

New York (CNN Business) Kentucky Fried Chicken is testing a new dipping sauce in three US cities. Beginning Monday, customers in Washington, Atlanta and Dallas can add "Sweet Hot Capital City" mambo sauce to their orders for a limited time. The chain describes the flavor as "sweet, spicy and tangy," and one that "perfectly compliments" its fried chicken. This sauce will be sold at some locations in Dallas, DC and Atlanta. DC residents will likely recognize the mambo sauce , made by family-owned local business Capital City, because it's "found at nearly every carryout restaurant" in the city, KFC said in a press release. The sauce has been around since the 1950s and is "synonymous with Black DC food culture," the chain added. Capital City is owned by Arsha Jones, who is Black. She developed the sauce recipe and founded the company in 2011 with her late husband Charles, after the couple moved to the DC suburbs in Maryland and discovered … [Read more...]

(BPT) - Good health is more important than ever when a woman is expecting, yet many struggle to get the proper nutrients and supplements for a healthy pregnancy. More than 120,000 babies in the United States are born with birth defects each year, but sometimes the simplest solutions can make a big difference. For example, taking a daily prenatal vitamin with 400 micrograms of folic acid before pregnancy and in the early stages of pregnancy can prevent neural tube defects, a birth defect of the spine and brain. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cites that up to 7 in 10 of the 3,000 annual neural tube defects could be prevented entirely by taking a daily prenatal vitamin containing folic acid. Reducing infant mortality with prenatal interventions that result in a normal birth can also save $59,700 in medical expenses in the first year of an infant’s life. Yet 25 percent of pregnant women in the United States lack sufficient access to prenatal vitamins and … [Read more...]

8 On a recent Wednesday, at about 8 p.m., New Village Cafe on Polk Street opened its doors to customers. Only now, and for the next few hours, it was called Compton’s Cafeteria. The menus said so — and so did the man behind the counter, dressed in all white, and the waitresses in their bright-yellow dresses, starched aprons and rolled socks. A big lighting rig was suspended over the tables as customers got settled and started salting their potatoes. “Love your dress,” a waitress said to one woman in a blue number with black polka dots as she showed her to a table. “Off the rack!” The atmosphere all this was meant to evoke was that of a popular late-night spot in the Tenderloin some 50 years ago, a place called Gene Compton’s Cafeteria, located at Taylor and Turk streets. The cafe sold coffee for 5 cents a cup. It was also one of the few places in the city where transgender women, hustlers, sex workers and drag queens … [Read more...]

There is a space at the heart of “The Third Muslim” reserved for Numair Abbasi, a Pakistani artist whose art frequently includes nude male bodies. His work, however, does not hang there. Instead, there exists only a thin gold frame surrounding a note against a background of bright teal. The note informs viewers that Abbasi’s work, which was to be part of a group exhibition by queer, transgender and gender-nonconforming Muslim artists at SOMArts Cultural Center, was confiscated by Pakistani authorities just days before the show was set to open. “Attempts at state control and repression, whether overt or latent, speak directly to the mandate of artists and curators to amplify acts of created resistance within the US and within diaspora.” The blank space, then, serves as a sober reminder for why the show is so necessary — and so overdue. As the curators put it, queer Muslims “continue to occupy margins within the margins.” 7 … [Read more...]