Brittney M Walker

Brittney M. Walker  |   OW Staff Writer
Sep 29 2011

Number of grandmother parents grows

She’s a praying woman who faithfully attends Sunday school and morning service every week, along with Tuesday night prayer and Bible study. She wakes up every morning and prays for the family and prepares breakfast for her household full of grandbabies. She struggles to make ends meet on her measly Social Security check and government funds. Not to mention her health isn’t the best.

She’s that grandmother who has paid her dues, raised her own children and is now raising her children’s children.

Brittney M. Walker  |   OW Staff Writer
Sep 8 2011

From kindergarten to fourth grade

LANCASTER, Calif.—Hundreds of eager little children filed through the newly Windexed doors of Life Source International Charter School on Wednesday morning. Just the day before, the school founder, Deberae Culpepper-Ofori, along with her pleasantly diverse staff, conducted a ribbon-cutting, along with an evening open house.

Brittney M. Walker  |   OW Staff Writer
Sep 1 2011

His Clear Essence line had its beginning in Africa

Women of color know their skin is a little different and many mainstream products don’t seem to address the issues they typically have. For 20 years, one man has been catering to the skin needs of women, men and even babies.

Iheatu Obioha started Bluefield, a skin-care manufacturing company, in 1989. But his business was primarily in Africa. After winning a large customer base on the continent, he decided to expand his line of products in the States, establishing the Clear Essence skin care and cosmetics line. 

Brittney M. Walker  |   OW Staff Writer
Sep 1 2011

Affirming the humanity of African Americans

The Pan African community is rich with a history of freedom-fighting and change-making, from Nat Turner’s insurrection to Marcus Garvey’s international Back to Africa Movement to the Civil Rights Movement. What many of these moments have in common is that they all encompassed a religious aspect that allowed their participants to connect spiritually to the struggle afoot.

Brittney M. Walker  |   OW Staff Writer
Aug 25 2011

Children forced to learn LGBT history

Some sectors of the religious community have been in an uproar since Gov. Jerry Brown approved SB 48, otherwise known as the California Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act.

The new law, which was passed on July 14 this year, amends “the Education Code to include social sciences instruction on the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.”

The bill was originally proposed by Mark Leno of San Francisco, an openly gay Democratic senator.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.

California
San Diego college students and volunteers will carry out their sixth home restoration project on Wednesday, July 10 through Sunday, July 14. as part of the “Healing our Heroes’ Homes” (H3) program created by the nonprofit Embrace. The five-day effort will take place at the home of medically retired Marine Corps Capt. Sarah Bettencourt. Bettencourt served with many different units across the country during the Global War on Terrorism and developed a rare neurological disorder in 2008. With a focus to restore the homes of disabled veteran homeowners, H3 falls in line with Embrace’s mission to mobilize college-student volunteers and community members to serve less fortunate members of civilian and veteran communities. The project for the Bettencourts’ home includes kitchen and bathroom remodeling, building ADA-compliant disability ramps, widening their driveway to ADA standards, widening doorways and landscaping.
 
District of Columbia
The 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival will showcase its five-year community research project on African American identity with the program “The Will to Adorn: African American Diversity, Style, and Identity.” This multicity collaboration examines the history and culture of the aesthetics of African Americans. The festival will be held June 26-30 and July 3-7, outdoors on the National Mall between Seventh and 14th streets. “Whether we realize it or not, we are all dress artists. The way we compose our look is a creative expression of our ideas about who we are and who we aspire to be,” said Diana N’Diaye, program curator. “This program explores the diversity of African American traditions of style, but also teaches young people the importance of documenting their own culture and saving that information for themselves and future generations.”