When we launched The Truth Seekers Journal (TSJ), our mission was simple: to restore trust in local journalism by focusing on verified facts, transparency, and the stories that truly shape our community.
Today, I am proud to share that the “pulse” of this journal is stronger than ever. This past week, we reached a significant turning point in our growth. Our page views have tripled, and most importantly, our Returning Visits have grown by over 1,000%. This tells me that TSJ isn’t just a site you stumble upon. It is becoming a trusted resource you rely on.
National Recognition
I am also honored to announce that The Truth Seekers Journal has been awarded a prestigious rural reporting grant from Grist, following a highly competitive national selection process. Grist is a national leader in environmental and justice journalism.
Furthermore, to ensure we maintain the highest ethical standards, we have been formally accepted as members of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), the Online News Association (ONA), the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), and the Atlanta Press Club. These affiliations are our “gold standard” promise to you that our reporting is independent, ethical, and professional.
Expanding Our Expertise
Growth isn’t just about numbers; it’s about the depth of the stories we can tell. I am thrilled to highlight two key pillars of our expanded editorial team:
Dr. Florita Bell Griffin has joined us as a Contributing Writer and Systems Analyst. Dr. Griffin will lead our coverage in the AI, Science, and Technology sectors. Her expertise allows us to move beyond the headlines, providing our readers with deep-dive analysis on how emerging technologies and infrastructure projects impact our local economy and daily lives..
Ted Knorr, our resident historian, continues to bridge the gap between our past and present through his twice-monthly column, “Shadow Ball: Learning More About Negro League History.” Many of you have already engaged with Ted by submitting questions and sharing family stories, making “Shadow Ball” a true cornerstone of our community dialogue.
The Road Ahead
We are no longer just a news site; we are a growing civic institution. Whether we are investigating DeKalb data centers or documenting the rich history of the South, our goal remains the same: to give you the information you need to understand your community and shape your future.
Thank you for being the most important part of this journey. We are just getting started.
With 99 days until Election Day, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms urged Georgia voters, especially Black men, to deliver record turnout during a town hall at Atlanta’s Gathering Spot.
At Atlanta’s “Mandate” town hall, the Democratic nominee made a direct appeal to Georgia voters, particularly Black men, arguing that grassroots organizing, not campaign spending, will determine who becomes the state’s next governor.
By Milton Kirby | Atlanta, GA | July 28, 2026
With just 99 days remaining before Georgians choose their next governor, Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms walked onto the stage at The Gathering Spot Monday evening carrying a message that has become the foundation of her general election campaign.
She isn’t asking voters to be impressed by campaign spending.
She isn’t asking them to be persuaded by carefully choreographed social media moments.
Instead, she is asking them to participate.
Speaking before a packed audience at “The Mandate,” a town hall organized by The Gathering Spot and moderated by co-founder Ryan Wilson, Bottoms repeatedly returned to one central theme: Georgia’s next governor will not be chosen by the candidate with the biggest advertising budget or the most viral campaign photographs. The election, she argued, will ultimately be decided by ordinary Georgians willing to organize their communities, encourage their neighbors and show up to vote in record numbers.
“Turnout is key. Turnout is key. Turnout is key,” Bottoms told the audience, emphasizing that participation—not complacency—will determine whether Democrats can reclaim Georgia’s highest office for the first time in more than a quarter century.
The message came at a pivotal moment in one of the nation’s most closely watched gubernatorial races.
Earlier Monday, Republican nominee Rick Jackson’s campaign announced an $87 million statewide advertising buy, underscoring the enormous financial resources fueling his campaign. Jackson, a billionaire healthcare executive who has already poured more than $100 million into the race, has paired that media strategy with a series of highly publicized visits to Black-owned businesses, churches and community gathering places throughout metro Atlanta.
Bottoms acknowledged the financial disparity but dismissed the notion that money alone will determine the outcome.
“We’re going to do what we need to do with what we have,” she told reporters after the event. “Whatever that amount is, we are still going to take our case directly to the people of this state.”
A Race That Could Reshape Georgia Politics
The stakes extend well beyond the two candidates.
No Democrat has won Georgia’s governor’s race since Roy Barnes was elected in 1998. Yet the state’s political landscape has shifted dramatically over the past decade. Georgia has twice elected Democratic U.S. senators, and razor-thin statewide contests have transformed the state into one of America’s premier political battlegrounds.
Those changes have elevated turnout from a campaign tactic to a governing strategy.
Political analysts from both parties agree that victory in November will depend less on persuading large numbers of undecided voters than on motivating reliable supporters to cast ballots. That reality has placed Black voters and particularly Black men at the center of both campaigns, although the candidates are pursuing markedly different approaches.
Monday night’s town hall reflected Bottoms’ strategy.
Rather than delivering a traditional stump speech, she spent nearly two hours answering questions about affordability, education, healthcare, economic opportunity and voting rights while repeatedly encouraging attendees to become ambassadors for civic participation within their own families and neighborhoods.
Answering a Personal Call to Serve
Bottoms told the audience that seeking the governor’s office was never part of a carefully crafted political roadmap.
After completing her four-year term as mayor of Atlanta, she said life had become comfortable. Returning to elected office was not part of her immediate plans.
That changed after the 2024 presidential election.
“The day after the presidential election, I cursed and then I prayed,” she recalled, explaining that she spent considerable time reflecting on whether she was being called back into public service. The decision, she said, required conversations with her husband and children because campaigns demand sacrifices from entire families, not just the candidates themselves.
“It was really about what am I called to do?” Bottoms said. “What can I offer? And is it worth me getting out of my comfort zone? Because life was comfortable. And the answer was yes.”
That sense of purpose shaped much of the evening’s discussion.
Rather than focusing primarily on partisan attacks, Bottoms framed her candidacy as an effort to build on opportunities created by previous generations while creating new ones for the next.
“I want to be able to look at my kids in their faces and say in this moment I did everything that I could do on behalf of us,” she said.
The Issues She Says Georgians Raise Everywhere
As Bottoms has campaigned from metropolitan Atlanta to rural South Georgia, she said the conversations have remained remarkably consistent.
Whether speaking in barbershops, churches, community centers or small-town gathering places, Georgians repeatedly raise the same concerns.
Unidentified Black men listen with intensity – Photo Milton Kirby
The rising cost of groceries.
Housing affordability.
Gas prices.
Healthcare expenses.
Mental health services.
Support for small businesses.
Educational opportunity.
“These are some of the issues that have been generations long,” Bottoms said. “And they are coming up everywhere I go.”
Healthcare emerged as one of the evening’s most frequently discussed topics.
Bottoms argued that many Georgians are facing increasing insurance costs while others have lost coverage altogether. She connected those concerns to broader questions about affordability, describing healthcare as inseparable from the financial pressures confronting working families across the state.
Education also occupied a prominent place in the discussion.
Bottoms criticized Georgia’s long-running struggles to fully fund public education, she stated that the last time the state consistently met its funding commitments she was still a member of the marching band at Frederick Douglass High School.
Her point drew laughter.
It also underscored her broader argument that many of Georgia’s biggest challenges did not emerge overnight but have persisted across generations.
A Direct Conversation With Black Men
Although “The Mandate” welcomed a broad audience, organizers intentionally focused much of the evening on Black men, a voting bloc both political parties increasingly recognize as critical to statewide success.
Wilson challenged the narrative that Black men have become disengaged from politics, noting that conversations inside barbershops and neighborhoods often center on the same economic and quality-of-life concerns shared by other Georgians.
Bottoms agreed.
Drawing from conversations with her own sons and young men she has met while traveling the state, she said Black men are asking practical questions about employment, housing, public safety and whether higher education still guarantees economic opportunity.
“They’re concerned there won’t be jobs,” she said. “They’re concerned whether they’ll be able to afford a home. They’re concerned about interactions with public safety. They’re concerned with mental health.”
At the same time, she rejected suggestions that Black men alone bear responsibility for civic participation.
“I think it’s an unfair burden for Black men to have to carry,” Bottoms said. “This democracy is about all of us.”
Instead of singling out one demographic, she encouraged every eligible voter to recognize that participation extends beyond casting a ballot. It also includes helping neighbors verify voter registration, reminding family members about Election Day and serving as trusted voices within their communities.
That appeal to transform supporters into organizers became the thread connecting nearly every answer she gave throughout the evening.
Policy Versus Political Theater
One of the evening’s sharpest exchanges centered not on taxes, healthcare or education, but on a series of campaign photographs that have fueled debate across social media in recent days.
Republican nominee Rick Jackson has made highly publicized visits to several minority-owned businesses throughout metro Atlanta, including Toast on Lenox, Big Daddy’s Dish on Old National Highway and a Mexican-owned restaurant in Doraville. The visits generated widespread online discussion, with some business owners finding themselves unexpectedly drawn into Georgia’s increasingly heated gubernatorial campaign.
Bottoms said she takes no issue with candidates supporting local businesses. What she questioned was whether highly publicized campaign stops accurately reflect a candidate’s policies.
“I support small businesses. It’s what I do,” she said in a video posted before Monday’s town hall. “What I take exception with is when we let ‘a thing become the thing.’ The theatrics are nice, but what is the real worth? What are you actually doing?”
For Bottoms, the issue is also personal.
She traced her family’s entrepreneurial roots back more than a century, recalling that her great-grandmother operated a business on Atlanta’s west side during the 1920s. Her grandfather and aunt later owned businesses in Vine City and English Avenue, while her mother spent more than three decades operating a beauty salon that served neighborhoods across southwest Atlanta.
Those experiences, she said, shaped her understanding of what neighborhood businesses mean to families and communities.
“I live in southwest Atlanta, and I am surrounded by Black businesses,” Bottoms said during the town hall. “I don’t have to have a camera crew with me every time I walk into one.”
She also questioned what she described as contradictions between Jackson’s outreach and his policy positions, pointing to his criticism of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and his support for stricter immigration policies while simultaneously visiting minority-owned businesses.
Her closing line in the Instagram video became one of the week’s most widely shared political remarks.
“Don’t allow people to piss on us and then tell us that it’s raining.”
Defending Her Record as Mayor
Keisha Lance Bottoms – Photo by Milton Kirby
Jackson has frequently criticized Bottoms’ four-year tenure leading Atlanta, particularly on crime and public safety.
Monday night, she answered those criticisms directly.
Bottoms reminded the audience that she served the full four-year term voters elected her to complete despite receiving multiple invitations to join the Biden administration before leaving office.
“I served every single day,” she said. “I was asked three times to join the Biden-Harris Administration, and I said no because I wanted to complete my time.”
She then walked through what she considers some of her administration’s defining accomplishments.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Atlanta maintained balanced budgets without laying off employees or furloughing city workers. The city increased financial support for police officers and other frontline employees while continuing major economic development initiatives, including the redevelopment of the Gulch and expanding opportunities for minority-owned businesses to compete for city contracts.
Rather than arguing she governed during easy circumstances, Bottoms suggested her administration demonstrated stability during one of the most difficult periods in the city’s history.
“If you want to say something about me, fine,” she said. “But don’t lie on my name.”
Competing Against a Billionaire
Bottoms acknowledged that this campaign presents challenges unlike any she has previously faced.
Jackson, a wealthy healthcare executive making his first bid for elected office, has already invested more than $100 million of his own money into the race. His campaign’s announcement Monday of an additional $87 million statewide advertising buy underscored the financial gulf separating the two candidates.
Bottoms said she is less concerned about Jackson’s wealth than about how it is being used.
“I’m not mad about him being a billionaire,” she told the audience. “What I am mad about is the way that he is manipulating the narrative with money.”
She added that one friend’s advice continues to resonate throughout the campaign.
“If you can be bought,” she said, “you can be sold.”
Her response reflected a broader strategy that has become increasingly central to her campaign—meeting voters directly rather than attempting to match Jackson’s advertising dollar for dollar.
Looking Beyond Metro Atlanta
Although much of the discussion focused on metropolitan Atlanta, Bottoms repeatedly returned to the importance of rural Georgia.
She described communities where factories have disappeared, broadband access remains limited and young people often leave after graduating from high school because economic opportunities are scarce.
“Some communities look like time has forgotten them,” she said.
Bottoms noted that while residents across Georgia want many of the same things, good schools, quality healthcare, stable jobs and safe neighborhoods. The path toward achieving those goals differs dramatically between urban and rural communities.
Bottoms also addressed the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence data centers across Georgia, calling for a deliberate review of their long-term impact on utility costs, environmental resources and economic development before embracing additional growth.
Rather than opposing the projects outright, she said state leaders should ensure communities receive tangible benefits while avoiding unintended burdens on residents.
Building a Campaign One Conversation at a Time
Perhaps the evening’s most consistent message had little to do with campaign advertising or partisan politics.
Bottoms repeatedly encouraged supporters to become what she called “trusted voices.”
She acknowledged that some people may have time only to cast a ballot on Election Day.
Others, she said, can do more.
Call ten friends.
Help a neighbor verify voter registration.
Knock on doors.
Volunteer.
Encourage family members to vote.
“Put your oxygen mask on first,” she said. “For some people, the most you can do is show up and vote. For others, it’s calling ten people in your phone. Whatever you can do—do it.”
She also warned that misinformation and confusion surrounding elections have become significant obstacles to civic participation, particularly among younger voters trying to distinguish fact from political rhetoric.
Her challenge to supporters was simple: become reliable sources of information inside their own communities.
The Road to November
As the formal program concluded, the campaign did not end.
Bottoms remained inside The Gathering Spot well after the town hall was over, moving deliberately through the room as supporters waited for photographs and reporters gathered for follow-up interviews. She answered questions from members of the media one by one before turning her attention to attendees, posing for photographs and greeting everyone who wanted a moment with her.
There was no rush toward the exit.
No effort to shorten conversations.
The evening closed much the way it had begun; with Bottoms engaging voters one person at a time.
Only after every reporter’s questions had been answered and every attendee seeking a photograph had the opportunity to take one did she leave the venue.
The scene reflected the strategy she had described throughout the evening.
Rather than measuring success by advertising dollars or viral campaign moments, Bottoms repeatedly argued that elections are won through personal relationships, neighborhood organizing and direct conversations with voters.
Before stepping away from the stage earlier that evening, she had summarized her confidence in a single sentence.
“I don’t have to introduce myself to people,” she said. “I just have to earn their vote.”
Whether that strategy can overcome a billionaire opponent’s unprecedented advertising campaign will be answered in November.
The outcome will determine more than who occupies the Governor’s Mansion. It will also test two competing theories of modern campaigning.
One relies on extraordinary financial resources, saturation advertising and carefully orchestrated public appearances. The other is built on conversations, community relationships and the belief that ordinary Georgians, especially if they turn out in record numbers, still possess the greatest power to shape the state’s political future
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By Florita Bell Griffin | Houston, TX | July 28, 2026
Artificial intelligence is often discussed as a technical breakthrough, a business race, or a symbol of the future. Those descriptions are part of the picture, but they are too small to explain what is now unfolding. AI has become a public matter because it is entering the ordinary structures of life at scale. It is shaping how people find information, receive recommendations, apply for jobs, interact with institutions, complete schoolwork, manage finances, and move through digital systems that increasingly organize modern existence. For that reason, the most important question is no longer whether AI is impressive. The question is what this technology means for human beings living inside the environments it is beginning to shape.
That is where the human stakes come into view. AI matters because it affects the conditions under which people think, decide, trust, work, learn, and relate to one another. It changes how reality is filtered and presented. It influences what gets attention and what gets buried. It alters the pace of work, the structure of communication, and the meaning of judgment in settings where people once expected human discretion to remain central. These are deep social changes, even when they arrive quietly through ordinary tools and familiar platforms.
Public attention is needed because AI is moving from assistance into influence. In its earlier public image, digital technology was often described as a tool people used when they wanted something. Search for an answer. Send a message. Buy a product. Look up directions. The user acted, and the system responded. AI changes that relationship. Increasingly, systems now anticipate, rank, summarize, recommend, classify, and predict. They do more than wait for human instruction. They help shape what appears to matter before the user even begins deciding.
That shift has major consequences. A recommendation can influence a purchase. A ranking can influence a belief. A generated summary can influence understanding. A predictive score can influence whether someone receives attention, scrutiny, or opportunity. In each case, the machine may appear to be only assisting. In reality, it may already be helping structure the field inside which human judgment occurs. That is why the public should pay attention. The influence of AI often begins long before a final decision is visible.
One of the deepest human stakes involves trust. People live by trust every day. They trust institutions to handle information responsibly, systems to function fairly, professionals to exercise judgment, and public-facing platforms to give usable access to what they need. As AI becomes more integrated into the systems people depend on, that trust is increasingly being placed in tools that are more dynamic, more opaque, and more interpretive than earlier digital systems. A machine does simply retrieve information. It may frame it. It may prioritize one path over another. It may decide what is relevant, what is normal, and what deserves attention.
That changes the texture of daily life. Much of what people now experience as convenience is also a form of invisible mediation. The system helps sort the world before the individual sees it. In some cases that is helpful. It reduces overload and makes complex environments easier to navigate. But it also means that human beings are relying more heavily on systems whose internal assumptions they do understand. Public attention is necessary because trust becomes fragile when influence grows faster than understanding.
The workplace offers one of the clearest examples of these human stakes. AI can improve productivity, support communication, automate routine tasks, and help people move through information faster. Many workers are already benefiting from those capabilities. At the same time, the introduction of AI into work changes expectations. It can accelerate pace, intensify monitoring, shift evaluation standards, and redefine what counts as acceptable output. Workers may gain assistance while also entering environments where the pressure to produce more, faster, becomes harder to resist. That is a human stake, not just a technical one, because it affects dignity, autonomy, and the lived experience of labor.
Education raises similar concerns. AI tools can explain material, support students, and widen access to help. Those are important advantages. Yet education is also about forming habits of thought, concentration, authorship, and independent reasoning. When AI enters the learning process too casually, it can blur the line between support and substitution. Students may gain immediate answers while losing some of the struggle through which understanding deepens. Teachers and families must now think carefully about how to preserve intellectual formation in an environment where generated assistance is increasingly easy to access. That is why AI deserves public attention from parents, educators, and communities, not only from technical experts.
The human stakes also extend into emotional and social life. AI is entering communication systems, recommendation engines, entertainment platforms, and digital spaces where people form impressions, sustain relationships, and interpret the world around them. As systems become better at tailoring content, predicting preferences, and shaping what individuals encounter, they begin to influence mood, attention, and perception. That influence may feel subtle because it is woven into ordinary routines. Yet what people repeatedly see, hear, and respond to affects how they feel, what they believe, and how they understand others. A society should pay close attention whenever technologies begin shaping emotional environments at scale.
Another major stake is the preservation of meaningful choice. Many people assume choice exists as long as options appear on the screen. But meaningful choice depends on the conditions under which those options are presented. If recommendations are highly personalized, rankings are behaviorally tuned, prices are dynamically adjusted, and some pathways are elevated while others are quietly hidden, then choice begins to operate inside an engineered environment. People still choose, but the setting in which they choose is being actively structured. Public attention is necessary because freedom can narrow gradually while still appearing intact on the surface.
This is especially serious when AI enters high-impact settings such as healthcare, finance, employment, insurance, public services, and legal or administrative systems. In those environments, machine-guided processes can influence who gets approved, delayed, escalated, reviewed, or denied. Even where humans remain involved, AI may shape what those humans see first, what risks appear significant, or what cases deserve priority. The human stake is obvious: when systems influence access to opportunity, care, safety, and recognition, the public has every reason to ask how those systems work and where accountability remains.
Public attention is also needed because AI can create the appearance of authority very easily. A fluent answer, a calm tone, a polished explanation, and an efficient interface can all make a system seem more trustworthy than it actually is. Human beings are naturally responsive to confidence and coherence. Yet an output can sound persuasive while being incomplete, biased, or contextually wrong. The danger grows when people begin to rely on style as a substitute for reliability. A technology with that level of persuasive power should be a matter of broad public concern.
None of this means AI is only a threat. That framing would be too simple and too careless. AI can support medicine, research, education, accessibility, logistics, communication, and public administration in important ways. It can reduce burdens, widen assistance, and help institutions function more effectively where overload is real. The point is that usefulness does remove seriousness. A technology can be beneficial and still require strong public scrutiny. In fact, the more deeply a system is woven into everyday life, the more necessary that scrutiny becomes.
What public attention should produce is a better quality of civic response. Citizens do need to master the mathematics of machine learning in order to understand what is at stake. They do need clear language, institutional transparency, and the confidence to ask strong questions. Where is AI being used? What role does it play in shaping outcomes? What forms of review and appeal exist? What assumptions are built into the system? Whose interests are being optimized? How is trust being earned? These are public questions because the consequences of AI are public consequences.
The human stakes of AI are therefore larger than the technology itself. They concern what kind of society people want to build around systems that can predict, classify, recommend, and influence behavior at enormous scale. They concern whether convenience will quietly outrun autonomy, whether speed will outrun judgment, and whether fluency will outrun truth. They concern whether human beings will remain meaningfully present in the decisions and environments that shape their lives.
That is why this technology deserves public attention. AI is helping organize modern life in ways that touch work, learning, trust, family, institutions, and individual choice. Its influence is growing through systems people use every day, often without fully seeing how much mediation is already taking place. Public attention is not a sign of fear. It is a sign of seriousness. Whenever a technology begins to shape the terms on which human beings understand, decide, and live, the public has every reason to look closely.
This column exists for only one purpose: that is to answer your questions on Negro League baseball history. To that end, we need your help … if you are reading this column, enjoy it, want it to continue, and do not already know everything about Negro League history … then please submit a question on any aspect of Negro League history. Your questions are the lifeblood of Shadow Ball—they shape where we go next … players, teams, events, and more – and, in so doing, you will direct where this column goes moving forward. Your participation is important and appreciated. The very existence of this column depends on you. Submit your questions to shadowball@truthseekersjournal.com.
Given the level of talent in the Negro Leagues and so few slots opened in the major leagues, why and when did the Negro League collapse? Elston Hoskins, Saint Charles, Missouri
Before getting to the “why and when” I want to recognize the astute preamble to your query which correctly notes that the available, unfettered by recognized contracts, talent of Negro League represented the greatest source of talent in the history of the game. Simultaneously, with 15 franchises in opposition to the thought of integration in this moment of time due to racism, ignorance, poor judgement or whatever rationale one wants to invent the process of bringing talent of color to the Majors was painfully slow despite a demonstrated high reward as the below illustration shows:
One would think such slow movement from the Negro Leagues would postpone, as Mr. Hoskins’ question implies, the inevitable collapse, sic, of the Negro Leagues. The reality was that Negro League baseball fans for several reasons – racial pride, quality of play, media attention (and lack thereof) – almost immediately began an exodus from a viable entertainment source and major African American business to the American and National Leagues
I think the “Why” has been covered. For me, the “When” is simultaneous with Jackie Robinson’s final exit from the Kansas City Monarch locker room in August 1945. However, with no players of color on Major League rosters in 1946 I count that year as the last where the Negro Leagues should be considered major.’. Major League itself is a little more forgiving in its definition, by edict on December 16, 2020, of Major Leagues includes the Negro National and Negro American League through 1948. The Society for American Baseball Research extends its Major league imprimatur through the 1950 season. All three of us (MLB, SABR and myself) recognize that the Negro Leagues specifically the Negro American League sputter on, descending in quality and quantity until 1960 or ’61.
Last Week’s Shadow Ball Significa Question of the Week
Which former Memphis Red Sox player worked in various roles at the Peabody Hotel after his baseball career ended? Nat Rogers, himself a veteran of over twenty years at the highest level of baseball permitted, hit .305 with an OPS+ of 111 and better than average fielding percentage and range factor in all three outfield positions, who must be considered a solid Major League outfielder. After his playing days were over, he worked in various capacities at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis and was as much a favorite with that clientele as with baseball fans. No reader submitted a guess so this week’s question, hopefully, will be a bit more inviting.
This Week’s Shadow Ball Significa Question of the Week
Ted Knorr
Which pitcher won the last “Major League” Negro League World Series game? Send your answer, along with your comments/questions about the Negro Leagues, to
The stage in Atlanta will introduce only one new regional champion, but the story of Soul Country Music Star stretches far beyond a single performance or a single city.
Across the country, artists are stepping onto stages with different voices, different life experiences, and different reasons for making music. Some are seasoned performers. Others are chasing opportunities they have spent years praying for. All share a belief that country music has room for stories that have too often gone unheard.
Three artists have already secured their places in the Soul Country Music Star Finals, scheduled for October 31 in Los Angeles. Brenda Guy earned her victory in the Fort Worth-Dallas Regional. Silas Reed captured the Memphis Regional title. Glenn Stanton advanced by winning the Los Angeles Regional. Their journeys through the competition are complete, at least for now, as they wait for the remaining regional champions to join them on the national stage.
The spotlight now turns to Atlanta.
On August 1, at the Georgia International Horse Park in Conyers, five artists will compete for the chance to become the next regional champion and earn a coveted spot in the Los Angeles finals and Festival. The competition is part of the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo’s Soul Country Rodeo Experience.
OG NARD, Angela Roundtree, Da’Rell Sims Jr., Reggie Stacy, and Jacqueline Merrill each bring distinct musical styles, backgrounds, and aspirations. Yet, after speaking with each of them, one thing became remarkably clear.
This competition is about far more than selecting the next winner.
It is about discovering artists who are redefining what Soul country music can be.
Some draw from gospel traditions that first shaped their voices in church pews. Others blend country with Southern soul, hip-hop, Americana, or contemporary storytelling. Some speak openly about grief, redemption, and perseverance. Others see music as a bridge connecting generations, cultures, and communities.
Together, they represent a movement that is steadily expanding both the sound and the story of country music.
As the road to Los Angeles continues, The Truth Seekers Journal spoke with three regional winners from Memphis, Dallas–Fort Worth, and Los Angeles who have already secured their places in the finals, as well as the five Atlanta regional contestants preparing for their opportunity. Their conversations reveal not only why they sing, but also what they hope their music will leave behind long after the final note fades.
More than a competition, Soul Country Music Star has become a window into the next generation of Black Soul Country artists, each carrying a unique story to the stage.
More Than a Singing Competition
For more than four decades, the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo (BPIR) has celebrated the often overlooked history and legacy of Black cowboys and cowgirls, preserving a chapter of the American West that many people never learned in school. Alongside the excitement of rodeo competition, the organization has steadily expanded its cultural programming to showcase the music, traditions, and creative voices that have long been part of that heritage.
One of its newest and fastest growing programs is Soul Country Music Star.
Far more than a traditional talent competition, Soul Country Music Star provides emerging performers with a national platform to showcase their artistry before live audiences while introducing new voices to one of America’s oldest musical traditions. Regional competitions are held across the country, with each winner advancing to the national finals and festival, where one artist will ultimately earn the title of Soul Country Music Star, a $10,000 cash prize and a chance to tour with the BPIR in 2027.
This year’s journey has already produced regional winners in Memphis, Dallas–Fort Worth, and Los Angeles. Atlanta will select its finalist on August 1, followed by the final regional competition on September 19 at The Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. The four out of state regional winners will then travel to Los Angeles for the Soul Country Music Festival & National Finals, taking place October 31 and November 1 at the Autry Museum of the American West in Griffith Park.
The competition is also helping reshape public perceptions of country music.
For generations, Black artists have played a foundational role in the evolution of country music, from its earliest influences rooted in gospel, blues, and folk traditions to today’s expanding blend of Southern Soul, Americana, and contemporary country. Yet many of those contributions have remained underrecognized.
The artists participating in Soul Country Music Star are helping change that narrative.
Some arrive with decades of performing experience. Others are taking their first major step onto a national stage. Their musical styles differ widely, but each brings an authentic perspective shaped by family, faith, hardship, perseverance, and community.
After speaking individually with the three regional winners, and the five Atlanta Regional contestants, one theme surfaced again and again.
None of them spoke first about winning.
Instead, they spoke about purpose.
For some, music became a way to preserve family traditions. For others, it offered healing after personal loss, redemption after difficult seasons, or the freedom to express themselves without being confined by expectations. Nearly every conversation returned to faith, perseverance, and the belief that music could touch lives beyond the stage.
That may be the competition’s greatest achievement.
Before judges score a single performance, audiences are introduced to artists whose stories are every bit as compelling as the songs they perform.
The Road Already Traveled
Long before the Atlanta Regional contestants step onto the stage, three artists have already secured their places in the Soul Country Music Star Finals. Their victories came hundreds of miles apart, in different cities and before different audiences, yet their stories reveal that there is no single path to success.
Brenda Guy earned top honors in the Fort Worth-Dallas Regional by doing what she has always believed music should do: bring people together.
Her performances are rooted in connection. Whether singing before longtime country music fans or audiences experiencing Soul Country for the first time, Guy believes every performance should create a relationship between the artist and the listener. That ability to connect has become one of her greatest strengths and helped carry her to a regional championship.
In Memphis, Silas Reed took a different road.
A musician, educator, and student of Black musical history, Reed views every performance as an opportunity to preserve a legacy that stretches across generations. His appreciation for country music is grounded in research, faith, and a deep understanding of the Black artists whose influence helped shape the genre long before many of them received recognition. Rather than simply entertaining audiences, Reed hopes every performance encourages listeners to better understand the music’s history while inspiring the next generation of artists to carry that tradition forward.
Thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, Glenn Stanton emerged from a very talented pool of Soul Country artists at the California Regional with yet another perspective.
An actor, Americana artist, and storyteller, Stanton speaks openly about music as a source of healing. His songs often reflect life’s difficult seasons, reconciliation, and hope. Rather than separating country music from personal experience, Stanton embraces both, believing that authentic storytelling has the power to comfort people who may be carrying struggles of their own.
Although their musical styles differ, Guy, Reed, and Stanton share something larger than a regional title.
“Promotional Artwork Courtesy of Soul Country Music Star”
Each views music as a calling rather than simply a career.
Each spoke about faith, purpose, and service before discussing trophies or recognition.
And each now waits for October 31, when regional champions from across the country will gather in California to compete for the Soul Country Music Star national title.
Their journeys have reached the next chapter.
Atlanta’s is just beginning.
A New Stage. Five New Dreams.
When the Soul Country Music Star competition arrives in Atlanta on August 1, five artists will step onto the stage carrying very different stories, but sharing one common goal: to become the next regional champion and earn a place alongside Brenda Guy, Silas Reed, Glenn Stanton, and the other regional winners awaiting the national finals in California.
For some, the competition represents the culmination of decades spent performing before live audiences. For others, it is an opportunity to introduce audiences to a new sound or to share deeply personal stories through music. Together, they represent a cross-section of today’s Black country music landscape, where gospel harmonies, Southern Soul, Americana, traditional country, and contemporary influences exist side by side.
Their names are Bernard Stephens aka OG NARD, Angela Roundtree, Da’Rell Sims Jr., Reggie Stacy, and Jacqueline Merrill.
Over the course of several conversations with The Truth Seekers Journal, each answered the same basic questions about music, inspiration, and purpose.
None gave the same answers.
And that may be what makes this year’s Atlanta Regional one of the most compelling stops on the Road to Los Angeles.
Five Artists. Five Different Dreams.
By the time the Soul Country Music Star competition reaches Atlanta on August 1, the judges will already know what a regional champion looks like.
What they will not know is whose story will emerge next.
The five artists preparing to compete in Atlanta come from different backgrounds, different musical traditions, and different walks of life. Some have spent years performing before live audiences. Others have built loyal followings while waiting for an opportunity to introduce themselves to a larger stage.
What unites them is not a common sound.
It is a common belief that country music still has room for voices that reflect their own experiences.
OG Nard (Bernard Stephens): A Story of Redemption
For OG Nard (Bernard Stephens), music represents something larger than entertainment.
It represents another chance.
The Atlanta artist openly acknowledges that life has included difficult chapters, but he refuses to allow those experiences to define his future. Instead, they have become the foundation of his music and his desire to encourage others facing similar struggles.
OG describes his music as “Trapp Kountry,” a style that blends country storytelling with the sounds and experiences of contemporary urban life. Rather than trying to fit into someone else’s definition of country music, he has created a style that reflects where he comes from, what he has lived through, and people he hopes to reach.
His music carries a message of perseverance.
During our conversation, OG spoke repeatedly about giving back to young people, helping others avoid mistakes he has already made, and using music to demonstrate that redemption remains possible regardless of a person’s past.
For him, the Atlanta Regional is more than another performance.
It is another opportunity to prove that second chances can become new beginnings.
Angela Roundtree: Singing from the Heart
If OG’s music speaks through redemption, Angela Roundtree’s begins with authenticity.
Raised in a family where gospel music was part of everyday life, Roundtree says she has been singing for as long as she can remember. Yet despite her remarkable voice and growing audience, she remains remarkably humble, often describing herself as someone who simply wants listeners to feel what she feels.
Her songwriting rarely begins with commercial trends or radio formats.
Instead, it begins with life.
Sometimes the inspiration arrives while driving alone.
Sometimes it grows from personal experiences that eventually become songs capable of touching complete strangers.
Roundtree admits she has battled self-doubt and even describes herself as someone who occasionally gets in her own way. That honesty may be one of her greatest strengths. Rather than presenting herself as a polished celebrity, she allows audiences to see both her confidence and her vulnerability.
When she steps onto the stage in Atlanta, she is not trying to become someone else.
She is simply trying to be herself.
And for many artists, that may be the hardest performance of all.
Da’Rell Sims Jr.: Building an Atlanta Sound
While some artists spend years trying to fit comfortably inside an established genre, Da’Rell Sims Jr. is focused on creating space for something new.
He calls it Atlanta Country.
Growing up in Atlanta with family roots that stretch into rural Georgia, Sims believes country music should reflect the places and experiences that shaped him. Rather than choosing between country, hip-hop, Southern Soul, or gospel influences, he embraces all of them, creating a sound that reflects the city he calls home.
“I’m the bridge,” he said during our conversation, explaining that his music connects traditions that many people mistakenly view as separate.
For Sims, authenticity matters more than stereotypes.
He has little interest in performing a version of country music that doesn’t feel genuine. His songs are built on real experiences, real people, and real emotions. Whether writing about relationships, everyday life, or personal growth, he believes audiences recognize honesty long before they recognize polish.
That same philosophy extends beyond the stage.
An entrepreneur as well as a musician, Sims thinks about music as part of a larger vision that includes education, branding, film, television, and community impact. He has even developed music designed to help children learn reading, mathematics, history, and life skills, demonstrating that entertainment and education can exist together.
His long-term vision reaches well beyond recording songs.
He wants to build something lasting.
If Atlanta Country becomes part of the national conversation, Sims hopes it will not simply introduce audiences to another musical style. He hopes it will encourage listeners to recognize that country music continues to grow because artists are willing to bring their own communities, cultures, and experiences into the genre.
For Da’Rell Sims Jr., the Atlanta Regional represents more than a competition.
It is an opportunity to introduce audiences to a new way of thinking about country music.
Reggie Stacy: Prepared for the Moment
If Da’Rell Sims Jr. is introducing something new, Reggie Stacy is building upon a foundation that has taken decades to establish.
Long before arriving at the Soul Country Music Star competition, Stacy had already built a reputation as a polished performer. He has appeared in singing competitions across the country, performed the National Anthem at sporting events, entertained audiences in restaurants and live music venues, and earned recognition as both Country Vocalist of the Year and Country Entertainer of the Year at a major competition in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
Yet despite those accomplishments, he speaks less about success than preparation.
Every performance begins with prayer.
Every rehearsal is approached with purpose.
Every appearance is treated as an opportunity to represent himself, his band, and his faith with professionalism.
“It’s not on my timing,” he explained while discussing his career. “It’s on God’s time.”
That quiet confidence runs throughout his story.
Rather than measuring progress by trophies alone, Star believes every performance is another step toward the larger stage he has envisioned since childhood. He speaks openly about trusting the process, remaining patient, and continuing to improve while waiting for the next opportunity.
His musical influences reflect that same respect for tradition.
Inspired by artists including Charlie Pride and Chris Stapleton, Stacy embraces the soulful storytelling that has long defined country music while adding his own warmth and vocal style. His original song, Livin Life, celebrates the balance between hard work and enjoying the moments that make life meaningful.
As he prepares for the Atlanta Regional, Stacy is not trying to reinvent country music.
He simply wants to honor it through excellence.
For him, the greatest performance is not measured by applause alone.
It is measured by leaving the stage knowing he gave audiences everything he had.
Jacqueline Merrill: Music Without Boundaries
If there is one artist in the Atlanta Regional who refuses to be confined by labels, it is Jacqueline Merrill.
Singer.
Songwriter.
Rapper.
Performer.
Those titles describe what she does.
They do not fully explain who she is.
Merrill describes herself as an artist who refuses to be placed in a box. During our conversation, she spoke passionately about studying vocal techniques, listening carefully to the phrasing and breathing of legendary performers, and challenging herself to master different musical styles. That curiosity has made her one of the competition’s most versatile performers, comfortable moving between gospel, soul, country, and contemporary music without losing her own identity.
Her introduction to music began in church.
At just five years old, she led her first song in the Church of God in Christ, discovering both her voice and her confidence before a congregation that recognized her gift almost immediately. That early foundation continues to shape every performance today.
Faith remains at the center of everything she does.
Throughout our conversation, Merrill repeatedly described moments in her life that she believes were guided by God, from opportunities that appeared unexpectedly to doors that opened at precisely the right time. She views the Soul Country Music Star competition not as coincidence, but as confirmation that she is walking the path prepared for her.
For Merrill, Soul Country represents freedom.
Freedom to sing.
Freedom to rap.
Freedom to tell stories.
Freedom to express herself without allowing traditional genre boundaries to define her artistry.
She believes audiences should leave every performance feeling something.
Sometimes that feeling is joy.
Sometimes it is laughter.
Sometimes it is reflection.
The emotion matters less than the connection.
“If I made you feel something,” she said, “then I’ve done my job.”
That perspective has been shaped by life’s deepest challenges.
Merrill spoke openly about personal loss, health struggles, and the responsibilities of motherhood. Rather than allowing those experiences to silence her, she has transformed them into purpose. Her children remain her greatest motivation, inspiring her to keep moving forward and demonstrating through her own life that perseverance can outlast disappointment.
As she prepares for the Atlanta Regional, Merrill carries more than songs to the stage.
She carries a testimony.
One built on faith, resilience, and the belief that music has the power to change lives.
More Than Eight Voices
After conversations with three regional winners and five Atlanta Regional contestants, one conclusion became impossible to ignore.
No two artists described country music in exactly the same way.
Brenda Guy spoke about creating connections.
Silas Reed viewed every performance as an opportunity to preserve history.
Glenn Stanton found healing through storytelling.
OG embraced redemption through what he proudly calls Trapp Kountry.
Angela Roundtree sang with disarming honesty and vulnerability.
Da’Rell Sims Jr. envisioned a future shaped by Atlanta Country.
Reggie Stacy built his career on preparation, professionalism, and faith.
Jacqueline Merrill celebrated artistic freedom without boundaries.
Their musical styles differ.
Their life experiences differ.
Even their reasons for standing on stage differ.
Yet every conversation returned to the same foundation.
Family.
Faith.
Perseverance.
Purpose.
None of the artists spoke first about trophies, prize money, or recognition.
Instead, they spoke about making meaningful music, encouraging others, honoring those who came before them, and leaving audiences better than they found them.
Perhaps that is what makes Soul Country Music Star different.
The competition may crown one regional winner in Atlanta.
But before the judges make their decision, audiences will have the opportunity to hear five artists who represent five distinct visions of where Soul country music is headed.
And beyond Atlanta, three regional champions already await them in California, each carrying a different story but sharing the same dream of becoming the next Soul Country Music Star.
The Road Continues
When the lights come up in Atlanta on August 1, one performer will move one step closer to the national title.
But regardless of who advances, the competition is accomplishing something that reaches far beyond a single evening of music.
It is introducing audiences to artists whose stories challenge long-held assumptions about country music while celebrating the Black traditions that helped shape the genre from its earliest beginnings.
The Road to Los Angeles is about more than selecting a champion.
It is about discovering voices that deserve to be heard.
On October 31, another chapter in that journey will be written when regional winners from across the country gather in California for the Soul Country Music Star Finals.
By then, Atlanta will have added another name to that growing list.
Until then, the music continues.
The Road to Los Angeles
Regional Winners
Already qualified for the Soul Country Music Star Finals
Fort Worth-Dallas Regional Brenda Guy
Memphis Regional Silas Reed
Los Angeles Glenn Stanton
Upcoming Regional Competitions
Atlanta, Georgia August 1, 2026
Washington, DC/Maryland September 19, 2026 The Show Place Arena Upper Marlboro, Maryland
Soul Country Music Festival & National Finals
Saturday, October 31, 2026 Los Angeles, California
Sunday, November 1, 2026 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Autry Museum of the American West Griffith Park
National Finals & Soul Country Music Festival October 31-Novemebr 1 California
Eight Conversations. One Discovery.
After speaking individually with each artist, one thing became increasingly clear. Although every conversation began with music, none remained there for long. Discussions quickly turned toward faith, family, perseverance, loss, healing, service, and purpose. The artists differed in style, personality, and performance, but they shared a common belief that music should leave people better than it found them.
That may ultimately become the lasting impression of this year’s Soul Country Music Star competition. While audiences will remember the performances, they may remember the stories behind those performances even more.
The Road to Los Angeles Continues
On August 1, one more artist will earn the right to continue the Road to Los Angeles. But regardless of who advances, every performer who steps onto the Atlanta stage will bring something that cannot be measured by judges’ scores alone: a story shaped by faith, family, perseverance, and a belief that music still has the power to connect people. In the end, that may be Soul Country Music Star’s greatest accomplishment.
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The Obama Presidential Center’s new “Ask the Archivist” program gives visitors direct access to National Archives experts, expanding public engagement with the Obama Administration’s digital presidential records.
By Milton Kirby | Chicago, IL | July 26, 2026
For many visitors, a trip to the Obama Presidential Center is an opportunity to experience the story of the nation’s first Black president through exhibits, artifacts, and interactive displays. Beginning this summer, it also offers something far less common: the chance to sit down face-to-face with the people responsible for preserving that history.
The Obama Foundation and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) have launched “Ask the Archivist,” a new public program that gives visitors direct access to professional presidential archivists inside the Obama Presidential Center.
The initiative reflects the continuing partnership between the Obama Foundation and NARA to make the records of the Obama Administration more accessible to researchers, students, historians, and the general public.
Bringing History Within Reach
Under the new program, a NARA archivist will be available every Thursday from July 23 through October 8, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Central Time, at the Obama Presidential Center Branch of the Chicago Public Library.
Visitors can ask questions about presidential records, learn how to conduct research using the Barack Obama Presidential Library’s digital collections, and better understand how presidential archives are preserved and made available to the public.
Rather than simply viewing history behind glass, guests will have an opportunity to learn directly from the professionals who manage one of the nation’s largest presidential archives.
A Different Kind of Presidential Library
Unlike earlier presidential libraries built primarily around paper documents, the Obama Presidential Library represents a new chapter in presidential recordkeeping.
Approximately **95 percent of the Obama Administration’s records were created digitally**, making it one of the first presidential libraries designed around a predominantly digital archive.
That distinction has required an unprecedented effort to preserve millions of electronic records while also digitizing the remaining physical documents.
The Obama Foundation has committed more than $4.5 million to support NARA’s work digitizing those remaining materials, allowing more of the collection to become accessible online.
The result is a library model that extends far beyond a single building, enabling researchers across the country to explore presidential records through digital collections while still preserving original historical materials.
Continuing a Historic Partnership
Foundation leaders say the new program builds naturally on an already successful collaboration between the two organizations.
“The National Archives have been a tremendous partner to us as we work to illuminate the work of the Obama Administration at the Obama Presidential Center, particularly in the artifact lending program and digitization of records,” said Valerie Jarrett, Chief Executive Officer of the Obama Foundation.
Jarrett said “Ask the Archivist” represents another step toward making President Barack Obama’s administration accessible and transparent for the public.
Dr. Kenvi Phillips, Director of the Barack Obama Presidential Library, said the partnership gives visitors a richer understanding of the presidential collection.
“We are excited to partner with the Obama Foundation to provide another avenue for public awareness and access to the records of the Obama Administration,” Phillips said.
He noted that visitors can now experience both museum artifacts and personal conversations with archivists who can explain how the Library’s digital holdings are organized and accessed.
Beyond Museum Exhibits
The new program expands the educational mission of the Obama Presidential Center beyond traditional museum experiences.
Numerous artifacts and historical records owned by NARA are already on loan and displayed throughout the Center’s museum, allowing visitors to encounter original presidential materials while learning about the policies, decisions, and events that shaped the Obama presidency.
The addition of on-site archivists transforms that experience into an interactive one, helping visitors understand not only what they are seeing but also how presidential history is documented, preserved, and researched.
For students beginning research projects, educators seeking classroom resources, genealogists, journalists, and historians, the opportunity to speak directly with a presidential archivist offers practical guidance that is rarely available outside the National Archives.
Preserving a Digital Presidency
As government increasingly conducts its work electronically, preserving digital records has become one of the greatest challenges facing modern archivists.
Emails, digital photographs, electronic memoranda, social media content, and other born-digital records require preservation methods very different from traditional paper archives.
The Obama Presidential Library has become one of the nation’s leading examples of how those records can be organized, protected, and eventually made available to the public while meeting legal requirements governing presidential records.
Programs such as “Ask the Archivist” help explain that work to visitors while encouraging greater public engagement with one of the country’s most significant historical collections.
A Living Institution
The program also reflects the broader vision behind the Obama Presidential Center itself.
Rather than functioning solely as a traditional presidential museum, the Center was designed to be an active civic institution that encourages public participation, lifelong learning, and community engagement.
Adding direct access to presidential archivists reinforces that mission by inviting visitors not only to reflect on history but also to explore it firsthand.
For anyone curious about how presidential history is preserved, or how to begin researching one of the most consequential administrations of the 21st century, the answer may now be as simple as asking the archivist.
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By Milton Kirby | Washington, D.C. | July 24, 2026
A bipartisan effort to make insulin more affordable for millions of Americans moved one step closer to becoming law this week as legislation led by U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock of Georgia cleared the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.
The Improving Needed Safeguards for Users of Lifesaving Insulin Now (INSULIN) Act of 2026 would cap out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35 per month for Americans with private health insurance while helping uninsured patients obtain insulin for $35 or less..
The committee approved the measure with bipartisan support, sending it to the full Senate for consideration.
For Georgia, where more than 12 percent of residents have diabetes and thousands more remain undiagnosed, the legislation could provide significant financial relief for families struggling with the rising cost of one of the nation’s most essential medications.
Expanding Affordable Insulin Beyond Medicare
The legislation builds on a major healthcare victory achieved in 2022, when Congress capped monthly insulin costs at $35 for Medicare beneficiaries through the Inflation Reduction Act.
Warnock has since worked to extend those protections to every American who depends on insulin, regardless of age or insurance status.
“After years of effort, my bill to cap insulin at $35 a month for everyone is one step closer to becoming law,” Warnock said after the committee vote.
“No one should be forced to put their health or life in danger because they can’t afford insulin or don’t know where to get it.”
If enacted, the INSULIN Act would apply the same $35 monthly out-of-pocket limit to Americans covered by private insurance, closing one of the largest remaining gaps in insulin affordability.
New Resources for Uninsured Patients
The legislation also addresses the needs of Americans without health insurance.
A provision negotiated by Warnock would establish a 10-state pilot grant program that provides funding to community health centers to supply affordable insulin while connecting uninsured patients with ongoing medical care.
The bill would also create a nationalinsulin resource center and hotline to help uninsured individuals locate affordable insulin programs, financial assistance, and healthcare providers.
Supporters say the additional resources recognize that affordability alone is not enough. Many patients also need help finding available programs and navigating the healthcare system.
Rising Costs Continue to Burden Families
The legislation comes as insulin prices remain a significant financial challenge for many Americans.
According to the Health Care Cost Institute, the average price of a 30-day insulin supply nearly doubled between 2012 and 2021, increasing from $271 to $499.
The American Diabetes Association estimates that diabetes-related medical expenses and lost productivity total$412.9 billion each year, with diabetes accounting for one out of every four healthcare dollars spent in the United States.
For patients with Type 1 diabetes and many living with Type 2 diabetes, insulin is not optional. Without consistent access, missed doses can quickly lead to serious and potentially life-threatening complications.
Years of Legislative Effort
Making insulin more affordable has been one of Warnock’s signature healthcare priorities since joining the Senate.
In 2023, Warnock partnered with Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana to introduce legislation extending the $35 monthly cap to all Americans. The two senators also released a report identifying what they called “Insulin Deserts,” counties where high diabetes rates overlap with large uninsured populations, making affordable insulin especially difficult to obtain.
The current legislation represents the latest step in that continuing effort.
Bipartisan Support Gives Bill Momentum
The INSULIN Act is co-led by Senators Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, John Kennedy of Louisiana, and Susan Collins of Maine and has attracted support from more than two dozen Democratic, Republican, and Independent senators.
At a time when healthcare legislation often divides Congress, supporters say the broad bipartisan coalition reflects growing agreement that access to lifesaving insulin should not depend on a family’s financial circumstances.
What Comes Next
The INSULIN Act now advances to the full Senate, where lawmakers will decide whether to send the measure to the House of Representatives.
If ultimately approved by Congress and signed into law, the legislation would represent the most significant expansion of federal insulin affordability protections since the Medicare cap took effect in 2022.
For millions of Americans living with diabetes, supporters say the bill is about more than lowering prescription costs.
It is about ensuring that no one is forced to choose between paying their bills and obtaining the medication they need to stay alive.
Black Writers Weekend concludes its national tour in Atlanta with three days of storytelling, film, publishing, networking, and opportunities that extend far beyond books.
By Milton Kirby | Atlanta, GA | July 23, 2026
Every generation has places where movements take shape.
Some begin in churches. Others start in classrooms, neighborhood barbershops, or around kitchen tables where stories are shared long before they are ever written down.
For thousands of Black writers, readers, filmmakers, publishers, and creative entrepreneurs across the country, one of those places has become Black Writers Weekend.
What started nearly two decades ago as a gathering for Black authors has grown into a national movement that celebrates storytelling while helping creatives build careers, expand their audiences, and take greater ownership of their work. After stops this year in Dallas, Newark, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., the 2026 tour concludes in Atlanta from July 31 through August 2 with three days of conversations, workshops, film screenings, networking, and celebration.
For anyone still wondering whether the event is worth attending, organizers believe the answer lies in understanding that Black Writers Weekend is no longer simply about books.
It is about building the future of Black storytelling.
More Than a Festival
The publishing industry has changed dramatically over the past decade.
Writers today are no longer limited to traditional publishing houses. Independent publishing, digital platforms, podcasts, streaming services, audiobooks, newsletters, and social media have opened new pathways for creative voices to reach audiences directly.
Those opportunities, however, come with new challenges.
Authors must learn marketing, branding, distribution, intellectual property, audience development, and business strategy in addition to mastering the craft of writing.
Black Writers Weekend was designed to help bridge those gaps.
Produced by AAMBC Inc., the nonprofit organization behind the festival, the event has spent 18 seasons creating opportunities for Black creatives to learn from experienced professionals while building relationships that often continue long after the weekend ends.
“BWW is about making sure Black storytelling isn’t treated as a moment, it’s a movement,” said Delphine of Legacy Media.
“After 18 seasons and over 30,000 readers and creatives touched, I see BWW as infrastructure. We’re building the pipeline. The future of Black storytelling depends on us controlling more of our own distribution, our own narratives, and our own platforms.”
Her words capture what many attendees say separates Black Writers Weekend from a traditional literary festival.
It is not simply a place to showcase completed work.
It is a place where careers begin.
Where Stories Meet Opportunity
This year’s Atlanta finale reflects how much the festival has evolved.
The weekend opens Friday at the historic Auburn Avenue Research Library with the Black Writers Weekend Film Festival, featuring more than 20 independent films created by Black filmmakers. The evening concludes with a screening of Dear Black Writers, a documentary exploring the artists and storytellers fueling today’s Black literary movement. Later that evening, poets and spoken-word artists will gather for Open Mic in the Garden at The Darwin Hotel, one of the festival’s most anticipated community traditions.
The focus shifts Saturday and Sunday to the Loudermilk Conference Center, where more than 80 speakers will lead discussions ranging from publishing and digital marketing to filmmaking, branding, entertainment, and entrepreneurship.
Among the featured sessions are the BookFunnel Workshop, designed to help authors expand their readership through digital distribution, the “I Am Creative” conversation with bestselling author Zane and filmmaker Trey Haley, and the Access to Hollywood panel featuring Jonathan Curtiss, Lamont Pete, Imani Nia Robinson, and Lynette Blackwell. Other sessions will explore how attorneys, publicists, talent managers, and financial advisors help creatives protect and grow their brands.
For aspiring writers and filmmakers, the weekend offers something that cannot be downloaded from the internet.
Access.
Beyond Amazon
Delphine believes one of the biggest mistakes new authors make is assuming success begins and ends with publishing a book online.
“The biggest mistake I see debut authors make is thinking distribution is just about getting a listing on Amazon and calling it a day,” she said.
Instead, she encourages writers to build relationships with bookstores, festivals, community organizations, and media outlets that already serve Black readers.
“Distribution isn’t just logistics,” she said. “It’s visibility. You have to be seen and remembered before someone picks up your book in a market where nobody knows your name yet.”
That philosophy explains why Black Writers Weekend has expanded into multiple cities across the country.
Each stop introduces writers to new readers, new collaborators, and new opportunities.
“My advice to new authors is don’t treat a festival stop like a one-off event,” Delphine said. “Treat it like the first domino.”
The Power of Honest Stories
While publishing strategies and marketing workshops are important, organizers never lose sight of why people write in the first place.
Stories change lives.
Asked about memoirs rooted in trauma and resilience, such as Little Miracles of Katrina by M. V. Despenza, Delphine said authenticity remains a writer’s greatest strength.
“Your story doesn’t need to be polished to be powerful,” she said.
She believes readers recognize honesty immediately, especially when writers refuse to sanitize painful experiences.
“Don’t rush the healing to finish the book,” she said. “Let the book carry the healing as it happens.”
For many aspiring writers attending Black Writers Weekend, those words may prove just as valuable as any publishing contract.
Why Community Media Matters
Another recurring theme throughout Black Writers Weekend is the importance of community-centered journalism.
While major media organizations often determine which stories receive national attention, Delphine believes local and independent outlets frequently discover important voices long before they become household names.
“They’re everything,” she said of community media.
“Community-centered outlets don’t wait for permission. They cover us because we matter to them, not because we’re trending.”
That relationship between independent journalism and emerging writers has become an important part of the festival’s identity, helping connect authors with readers who may never encounter their work through traditional publishing channels.
Atlanta’s Growing Literary Legacy
Anyone who attended Black Writers Weekend in Atlanta last year already understands why so many people return.
The 2025 festival brought together bestselling authors, filmmakers, podcasters, publishing professionals, and emerging writers for conversations on everything from world-building and memoir writing to Hollywood opportunities, banned books, and the future of Black storytelling. Those sessions sparked collaborations, mentorships, and professional relationships that extended well beyond the closing ceremony.
This year’s finale aims to build on that momentum.
Saturday evening’s Book Swap Party at Buckhead Art & Gallery will once again invite attendees to exchange books while meeting fellow readers in a relaxed, art-filled setting. Throughout the weekend, informal conversations in hallways, networking events, and community gatherings may prove just as meaningful as the scheduled programming.
Often, the most important story begins after the panel discussion ends.
More Than a Weekend
Black Writers Weekend is not asking people to attend another conference.
It is inviting them into a community built on stories.
Some attendees will leave with signed books.
Others will leave with publishing contacts, business partnerships, or the confidence to finally finish the manuscript sitting on their computer.
Some may discover a new favorite author.
Others may discover their own voice.
That is why Black Writers Weekend has grown from a literary gathering into one of the nation’s most important celebrations of Black creativity.
And for one weekend this summer, that movement comes home to Atlanta.
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By Florita Bell Griffin, Ph.D | Houston, TX | July 21, 2026
Speed is often treated as a universal good. Faster systems are praised as smarter. Quicker decisions are framed as better decisions. Acceleration becomes synonymous with progress, efficiency, and relevance. In many technological environments, speed is positioned as the primary signal of advancement.
Yet for people who have lived long enough to observe patterns repeat, speed begins to register differently. It does not simply feel fast. It feels loud.
This sensation is not about age in a biological sense. It is about exposure. People who have moved through multiple eras of change have learned that speed amplifies whatever already exists inside a system. When structure is sound, speed can feel exhilarating. When structure is thin, speed becomes destabilizing. Experience sharpens the ability to sense the difference.
Earlier in life, speed often feels forgiving. Consequences are lighter. Recovery is easier. Decisions can be reversed with minimal cost. The environment absorbs error. Over time, people experience situations where rapid movement produces lasting effects. They witness reorganizations that move too quickly to integrate learning. They see technologies deployed at scale before their implications are understood. Speed stops feeling neutral and starts feeling consequential.
Consider an organization that prioritizes rapid iteration above all else. Decisions are made quickly. Features ship continuously. Feedback loops shorten. On the surface, the system appears agile. Yet employees who have lived through previous cycles of acceleration notice familiar signals. Documentation lags behind implementation. Context disappears between iterations. Rationales change without record. The organization moves faster, but understanding struggles to keep pace. Speed becomes noise.
The same pattern appears in communication systems. Messages arrive instantly. Channels multiply. Expectations compress. Response time becomes a proxy for competence. Those with experience recognize how this alters judgment. Faster communication encourages premature conclusions. It rewards reaction over reflection. It fills available attention without increasing clarity. Over time, people begin to experience speed not as efficiency, but as constant interruption.
Speed also changes how systems handle error. Rapid environments often assume mistakes can be corrected quickly. What this overlooks is how errors propagate when systems are tightly coupled. A fast decision made without sufficient context can ripple outward before it is detected. Those who have lived through system failures understand that speed without buffers magnifies impact. What feels agile in the moment can become fragile over time.
This sensitivity grows after people have witnessed consequences unfold slowly. A policy change whose effects appear years later. A technology adoption that reshapes incentives long after rollout. A restructuring that improves metrics while hollowing culture. Memory teaches that not all outcomes reveal themselves at the pace of implementation. Speed feels loud because it drowns out signals that only emerge over time.
Consider a public institution that adopts an automated decision system to increase efficiency. Processing time drops dramatically. Backlogs clear. The improvement is immediate and measurable. Yet experienced observers notice what the system does not capture. Edge cases disappear into averages. Appeals become harder to navigate. Accountability blurs as decisions move faster than explanation. The institution appears more efficient, while trust quietly erodes. Speed has outpaced understanding.
Human lives do not operate at constant velocity. Learning unfolds unevenly. Insight often arrives after delay. Judgment benefits from pause. People with experience recognize that certain forms of knowledge require time to surface. When systems eliminate pause entirely, they eliminate the conditions under which deeper understanding forms.
This does not mean speed is inherently harmful. It means speed requires structure. Without continuity, acceleration becomes overwhelming. Signals blur together. Prior lessons are bypassed. People lose the ability to locate themselves within the system’s movement. The result is not resistance, but withdrawal. Individuals continue to function while disengaging from meaning.
Speed also alters how authority is perceived. In fast systems, authority tends to reside with those who respond quickest rather than those who understand most deeply. Decision-making shifts toward immediacy. Reflection is reframed as delay. Over time, this devalues experience not because it lacks relevance, but because it operates on a different timescale.
People who have lived long enough to feel this shift are not rejecting speed. They are responding to its volume. Speed feels loud when it leaves no room for context to settle. It overwhelms the internal processes that integrate new information with prior understanding. What once felt energizing begins to feel abrasive.
Continuity offers a way to recalibrate. Systems designed with continuity acknowledge that not all intelligence arrives instantly. They create space for sequence, explanation, and integration. They allow speed where it strengthens coherence and slow where it preserves understanding. They recognize that pace is not a single setting, but a variable that must align with consequence.
Consider a system that introduces deliberate checkpoints during rapid change. Decisions move quickly, but rationales are recorded. Transitions are documented. Feedback is contextualized rather than immediately acted upon. In such systems, speed remains present, but it is no longer overwhelming. People stay oriented because the system remembers itself as it moves.
Over time, this distinction becomes critical. Systems that prioritize speed alone tend to burn through trust. Systems that balance speed with continuity gain durability. They move quickly without becoming disorienting. They remain responsive without becoming chaotic.
Why speed feels loud after a certain age is not a mystery. It is a signal. It reflects accumulated awareness of consequence, propagation, and delayed impact. It indicates that the observer has learned how systems behave beyond the moment of action.
As technology continues to accelerate, this perspective becomes increasingly valuable. Systems that dismiss it will continue to optimize for immediacy while destabilizing those inside them. Systems that listen to it gain access to a deeper form of intelligence, one that understands how movement unfolds across time.
Speed will always matter. The question is whether it is governed by structure or allowed to dominate it. The answer determines whether progress remains inhabitable, or whether it becomes something people endure rather than inhabit.
Last week, I discussed the recent 25th annual Jerry Malloy Negro League Research Conference that I attended last month. This week I want to introduce readers to the ten Negro League players/managers identified by conference attendees at the conference as the worthiest of induction in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. . It is my strongly held opinion that all ten and more need immediate induction in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown if that organization is to truly fulfill its mission as a 501 c 3 educational non-profit . Here are the top ten candidates according to attendees at this year’s Negro League Research Conference:
10th Candy Jim Taylor, Manager … Connie Mack (each candidate will feature an existing Hall of Fame comparable): Taylor is number one in Negro League history with 27 years. 2169 games, and 1042 wins (the only Negro League manager with more than 1000 Major League victories); only Vic Harris & Rube Foster won more pennants, and no Negro League manager won more World Series. He also was an all-star caliber player: hitting .295 with 11 HRs and 14 SBs for every 162 games played while achieving batter than average fielding percentage and range as a third baseman. He is listed in the Courier poll as the 7th best third baseman in Negro League history. “(each candidate will feature a quote from James A. Riley’s Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues) He was with sixteen different teams during a forty-five-year career as player and manager that spanned virtually the entire existence of the Negro Leagues as a Major League.”
8th tie John Beckwith, 3B …Dick Allen … named to the 1952 Courier 2nd team as a utility player who played all positions during his career – including catcher and shortstop, while being a top ten masher with the bat … no Negro Leaguer, batting as often as he did. achieved a higher batting average, slugging. OPS, or OPS+ … “The right-handed pull hitter was a powerful and consistent batter whose slugging prowess was extraordinary.” In my opinion, he is the most deserving Negro League player outside of Cooperstown’ plaque room.
8th tie George Scales, 2B … Rogers Hornsby … Scales slashed .322/.427/.522 with a 149 OPS+ while exhibiting better than average metrics in both fielding percentage and range factor as a second baseman over a 20-year Major League career. “Scales was a versatile fielder who could play third base, first base, shortstop or the outfield, but was at his best at second base.”
7th Grant Johnson, SS … Luke Appling … “(In 1894) he is credited with 60 home runs and earned his nickname of “Home Rin” at that time.” He was the best “Negro League” shortstop prior to John Henry Lloyd … Baseball historian Gary Ashwill argues, “(Grant Johnson) was the best everyday player in Black baseball from 1895 to 1909.” This opinion is backed up by Seamheads database which shows Johnson’s career WAR (Seamheads.com) at the time of his retirement was exceeded among Negro Leaguers only by Hall of Famer Pete Hill.
5th tie John Donaldson, Pioneer/P … Rube Foster … (John Donaldson) won his greatest fame in the ‘10s as a star for J.L. Wilkinson’s multiracial All Nations ball club with whom he averaged almost 20 strikeouts per game.” Personally, I consider his overall career when I consider him as a Hall of Famer – entrepreneur, owner, manager, outfielder, pitcher, and Major League scout over a forty year plus career.
5th tie Newt Allen, 2b … Nellie Fox… “Considered the best second baseman during the 1920s and early 1930s, the wide-ranging, slick-fielding middle infielder had quick hands and was superb on the pivot in turning a double play.” Currently, there is no second baseman from the Negro Leagues in the Hall of Fame … Newt Allen is one of the strongest candidates to represent that position. His playing in two Negro League World Series 18 years apart is one of his more remarkable feats. Although he hit .285 over his twenty-year big-league career, it is his glove that is most worthy of the Hall. Among second baseman only Bingo DeMoss saved more runs with his glove than Allen and no one – not even DeMoss – had better a better range factor than Allen among secondbaseman playing as many games as Allen did.
4th Dick Lundy, ss … Arky Vaughan, Derek Jeter… “The best shortstop during the 1920s, Lundy bridged the time gap between John Henry Lloyd and Willie Wells.” Lundy’s WAR/162 of 5.85 is the highest among all Negro Leaguers yet to be inducted that played as many games as he did.
3rd Vic Harris, mgr … Joe McCarthy, Miller Huggins, John McGraw … quite simply there is no Major League manager, appearing in more than 500 games, with a higher winning percentage than 7-time pennant winner Vic Harris.
2nd Rap Dixon, rf … Roberto Clemente … both Dixon & Clemente wore “21” and had the best arms in their respective era … “A five-point ballplayer who did everything with style, the power-hitting outfielder was one of the better hitters during the 1920s and 1930s.” Dixon cracked 14 consecutive hits in July 1929, stroke four triple in one game in August 1930 – the only Major Leaguer to do so in the 20th century.
1st Dick Redding, p … Smokey Joe Williams … Dick Redding is in the top 5 amongst all Negro League pitchers in games, innings (#1), wins, complete games (#2 behind Joe Williams), shutouts, strikeouts, and years pitched. “One of the great pitchers of Black baseball, Dick Redding’s overpowering speed earned the big, tall right hander the nickname “Cannonball Dick …Redding was credited with 30 no-hitters against all levels of opposition.”
One note regarding John Donaldson (tied for 5th) and the top two finishers – Donaldson & Redding as pitchers and Dixon as an outfielder are the only players named to the Negro League Centennial team at the Negro League Baseball Museum in December 2018 that are not inducted in Cooperstown.
Last Week’s Shadow Ball Significa Question of the Week
When was the last year that any Negro League players were inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame? Please identify at least one player inducted that year. No one submitted the correct answer which follows: In 2006, 17 Negro League personages were inducted … of them 12 were players, including Frank Grant who currently is listed by the Hall as an executive. Other players inducted that year were Ray Brown, Willard Brown, Andy Cooper, Pete Hill, Biz Mackey, Jose Mendez, Louis Santop, Mule Suttles, Ben Taylor Cristobal Torriente, and Jud Wison.
This Week’s Shadow Ball Significa Question of the Week
Which former Memphis Red Sox player worked in various roles at the Peabody Hotel after his baseball career ended.?
Shadow Ball 3904 N. Druid Hills Road, Suite 179 Decatur, GA 30033
About the Author
Ted Knorr
Ted Knorr is a respected Negro League baseball historian, a longtime member of SABR’s Negro Leagues Committee, and the founder of the Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference. He has also organized numerous Negro League Commemorative Nights throughout central Pennsylvania.
Beyond his research and organizational work, Ted is a sought-after speaker at sporting events, community programs, family gatherings, and educational forums, where he brings Negro League history to life. His deep knowledge of the players, teams, and the cultural significance of Black baseball has made him a trusted voice for audiences seeking to better understand the enduring legacy of the Negro Leagues.
By Florita Bell Griffin | Houston, TX | July 14, 2026
rtificial intelligence is now entering public life at a depth that makes broad civic understanding necessary. For several years, AI was discussed mainly as a technical field, a business opportunity, or a future-oriented innovation story. Today it is something larger. It is increasingly part of the systems through which people receive information, apply for services, encounter recommendations, complete financial transactions, communicate with institutions, and move through everyday routines. That shift means AI is no longer only a topic for engineers, executives, or policymakers. It is a public issue, and citizens need a clear understanding of what is changing around them.
The phrase public good matters here because AI is affecting the shared conditions of social life. It influences how information circulates, how resources are prioritized, how institutions make decisions, and how individuals are seen by the systems they depend on. Once a technology begins to shape those underlying conditions, public understanding becomes essential. A society cannot responsibly govern what large numbers of people do understand. It cannot protect fairness, accountability, or human dignity if major systems are changing faster than the public’s ability to interpret them.
One reason clear understanding is so important is that AI often arrives under the language of convenience. It is introduced as something that will save time, reduce complexity, personalize services, improve efficiency, and remove friction from daily tasks. In many cases, those promises are genuine. AI can help summarize information, detect patterns, support administrative work, improve customer service, assist with logistics, flag anomalies, and make certain systems more responsive. People and institutions do benefit from tools that help them manage complexity in a demanding world.
At the same time, convenience can hide significance. A system that seems to help a user find something faster may also be shaping what is considered relevant. A system that appears to offer support may also be narrowing the range of options a person sees. A system that feels neutral may be carrying assumptions, priorities, and optimization goals that remain invisible to the public. This is why citizens need more than excitement or fear. They need clarity. They need to understand that AI is altering decision environments, not merely adding digital assistance.
That distinction is central to the public good. In democratic life, people need sufficient visibility into the systems that affect them. They need to know when information is being filtered, when recommendations are being personalized, when rankings are being influenced by behavioral data, and when machine-generated outputs are helping shape institutional decisions. Without that visibility, people begin to live inside systems they rely on but do understand. That is a dangerous condition for any society, because trust without understanding can be easily exploited.
Trust is one of the key issues in the AI era. Modern life already depends heavily on digital systems. People trust platforms to display information, banks to detect suspicious activity, schools to manage learning tools, healthcare networks to process records, transportation systems to guide movement, and government-facing systems to handle applications and communication. As AI becomes more integrated into these structures, that trust is being extended toward systems that do more than transmit information. They interpret it. They sort it. They rank it. They frame what appears first and what fades into the background.
This matters because interpretation is a form of power. A system that decides what is most relevant, what counts as risk, what deserves escalation, or what should be recommended is influencing the shape of human decision-making. The public still sees a screen, a portal, a service, or a result. Underneath, however, the environment is being organized by predictive logic. If citizens do understand that shift, then public discussion remains too shallow. People may debate whether AI is useful while missing the more serious fact that it is helping structure the conditions under which they think and choose.
A clear understanding is also necessary because AI often appears more reliable than it truly is. Many systems speak in polished language, respond instantly, and produce outputs that feel coherent and assured. This creates a natural tendency to trust them. Human beings often associate fluency with competence and speed with authority. Yet a confident answer can still be incomplete, biased, poorly sourced, or contextually wrong. Citizens therefore need a stronger public literacy that allows them to distinguish between persuasive presentation and justified reliability. Without that distinction, AI can accumulate influence simply because it sounds sure of itself.
The public good requires more than personal caution. It requires shared standards. Citizens need to be able to ask common questions about systems that increasingly affect everyone. How are these tools being used in schools, hospitals, banks, workplaces, courts, agencies, and public-facing services? What rights do people have when automated systems influence outcomes? Where does human review remain essential? What kinds of explanation should be required? How should recourse work when AI-assisted processes create confusion or harm? These are civic questions, and they belong in public discourse.
Education is one place where this need becomes especially clear. If young people are growing up with AI-assisted learning tools, generated explanations, predictive recommendations, and algorithmically shaped information streams, then they need more than technical familiarity. They need civic understanding. They need to know how systems influence what they see, how outputs are produced, how errors can occur, and why independent judgment still matters. A society that teaches students how to use AI without teaching them how to think about AI is leaving them underprepared for the world they are entering.
The same is true for adults. Many citizens now interact with AI in subtle ways through work platforms, search systems, online retail, digital entertainment, financial tools, and institutional portals. Often they are using the system before they have developed language to describe what it is doing. That gap between experience and understanding is exactly why public education around AI matters. Citizens do need to know every technical detail of machine learning in order to participate meaningfully in the discussion. They do need to understand how influence works, how opacity can hide power, and why convenience should never replace accountability.
The public good is also at stake because AI can widen inequalities if it is deployed carelessly. Systems trained on narrow histories or tuned toward blunt performance goals can reproduce distorted patterns across hiring, lending, policing, healthcare access, education, and public services. Even where intent is good, poor design or weak oversight can create uneven consequences. Citizens need to understand that technology does stand outside existing social conditions. It enters them. It can reinforce them, challenge them, or reorganize them, depending on how it is governed.
This is why the conversation about AI must remain larger than market enthusiasm. Innovation is important. Technical progress is real. Economic opportunity is part of the picture. But the public good requires a broader lens. It asks whether AI is strengthening human judgment or quietly displacing it. It asks whether institutions are using these systems responsibly. It asks whether people still have meaningful ways to question, appeal, or understand decisions that affect their lives. It asks whether public life is becoming more legible or more opaque as machine systems gain influence.
A healthy society does reject advanced tools. It develops the civic capacity to govern them wisely. That means citizens need plain language explanations, stronger digital literacy, institutional transparency, and a public culture that treats AI as a matter of shared responsibility rather than passive consumer adaptation. The future of AI will be shaped by designers, companies, regulators, and institutions, but it will also be shaped by whether the public understands enough to ask serious questions and demand serious answers.
AI is already becoming part of the infrastructure of modern life. That alone makes clear understanding a public necessity. Citizens need it because trust is being reorganized, decisions are being mediated in new ways, and power is moving into systems that often operate quietly. The public good depends on whether people can see that change clearly enough to respond with intelligence, caution, and civic seriousness. That is why AI must be understood beyond hype, beyond fear, and beyond novelty. It must be understood as a force shaping the common world citizens share.
A walk through Philadelphia’s Mt. Airy neighborhood reveals personal stories of lung disease, caregiving and fear, showing why community conversations about screening matter.
A walk through Philadelphia’s Mt. Airy neighborhood revealed stories of resilience, fear and hope before a community lung cancer screening event even begins.
By Milton Kirby | Philadelphia, PA | July 12, 2026
Six blocks.
That was all it took to remind me why community journalism still matters.
On a warm Friday afternoon, I walked the neighborhood surrounding Mt. Airy Church of God in Christ, where residents will gather on Saturday, July 25th 10:00am – 12:30pm, for the Lung Cancer Screening to Treatment 2.0: A Community Conversation.
I wasn’t conducting a formal survey. I wasn’t knocking on doors.
I simply walked.
Two blocks along Ogontz Avenue. A turn onto 18th Street. Two more blocks through a neighborhood where families relaxed on front porches, neighbors washed garbage bins after a delayed pickup, and others returned home from work or afternoon errands.
Nothing about the neighborhood immediately suggested that conversations about lung health would soon unfold.
Yet before I completed my walk, I had heard stories about a punctured lung, years of asthma, fear of cancer screening, and the quiet burden carried by caregivers who often neglect their own health while caring for others.
Those conversations reminded me that every neighborhood has stories waiting to be heard. Sometimes all it takes is slowing down long enough to listen.
Looking Beyond Statistics
Public health reports can tell us how many people develop lung cancer each year. Researchers can identify risk factors and explain who qualifies for screening.
But statistics rarely introduce you to the people behind those numbers.
That afternoon, the people of Mt. Airy did.
Each conversation revealed a different path to lung disease and a different reason why community education matters.
No two stories were alike.
RB’s Journey Through Trauma and Recovery
One of the first residents I met was RB.
His lung problems did not begin with smoking.
Years ago, he survived a gunshot wound that pierced one of his lungs. Later, exposure to mold triggered asthma complications and recurring respiratory infections that led to repeated hospitalizations.
“There were times I was in the hospital every month,” he told me as he reflected on years of treatment and recovery.
Today, he continues receiving regular medical care and says he is doing much better than he once was. His story serves as a reminder that lung disease can develop for many reasons. Trauma, environmental exposure, chronic illness and other health conditions can all leave lasting effects on the lungs.
His experience challenged a common assumption that every conversation about lung health begins and ends with smoking.
It doesn’t.
A Conversation About Caregivers
As our conversation continued, another topic emerged.
Sitting next to RB was his companion, who has accepted responsibility for managing RB’s care.
Watching the two of them together reminded me of another caregiver who has shaped my own life.
I shared the story of my cousin, who devoted years to caring for my mother until she passed away on June 19 at the age of 95.
I gently encouraged the caregiver not to make the mistake of neglecting her own health while ensuring that RB gets all of his health needs cared for.
People who care for loved ones often remind others to see a doctor.
Sometimes they need someone to remind them to do the same.
Fear Can Become Another Risk Factor
A few houses down the block, I met Andre.
He told me he has smoked for about 20 years.
He also shared something healthcare professionals hear every day.
He has never been screened for lung cancer.
As we talked, the reason slowly emerged.
It wasn’t because he didn’t know screening existed.
It wasn’t because he couldn’t find a hospital.
Like many people, he was afraid of what screening might reveal.
Fear has a way of postponing difficult conversations.
Sometimes it postpones doctor visits as well.
Rather than criticize his hesitation, I invited him to attend the July 25 community conversation.
“Just come and listen,” I told him. “Nobody is going to make you do anything.”
Community health events give people an opportunity to ask questions without the pressure that sometimes comes with a medical appointment. Physicians, survivors and healthcare advocates can explain who qualifies for screening, how the process works and why finding lung cancer early often provides more treatment options.
Whether Andre attends remains his decision.
But our conversation reflected something many healthcare providers understand.
People cannot benefit from screening if fear prevents them from taking the first step.
Every Porch Has a Story
By the end of my walk, I realized I hadn’t interviewed dozens of residents.
I had only spoken with the people who happened to be outside enjoying the afternoon.
Their stories cannot represent an entire neighborhood.
Nor should they.
But together they painted a picture that statistics alone cannot provide.
One resident was living with the lasting effects of trauma and respiratory illness.
Another admitted avoiding screening because of fear.
A caregiver quietly balanced another person’s health while risking her own.
Three conversations.
Three different experiences.
Three reminders that every family encounters health challenges differently.
Why July 25 Matters
Those conversations help explain why HEAL Collaborative, in partnership with Amgen, is bringing Lung Cancer Screening to Treatment 2.0 directly into the Mt. Airy community. Together, the organizations are working to remove barriers to information by connecting residents with physicians, survivors, patient advocates and healthcare professionals in a welcoming community setting.
The free event will take place on Saturday, July 25, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Mt. Airy Church of God in Christ, 6401 Ogontz Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19126.
Participants will learn about lung cancer risk factors, who qualifies for screening, the importance of early detection, available treatment options and local resources that can help people navigate their healthcare journey.
Shenika Bond, Regional Director of Community Outreach and Advocacy Engagement for HEAL Collaborative, said the goal is for participants to leave with more than information.
“We want people to leave with the confidence to talk with their personal physicians, request screening if they qualify, and become strong advocates for their own healthcare,” Bond said.
That confidence begins with asking questions.
It grows through understanding personal risk factors, learning when screening is appropriate, and having informed conversations with family members and healthcare providers.
The message shared throughout the initiative is straightforward: Anyone with lungs can develop lung cancer.
While smoking remains the leading risk factor, environmental exposures, occupational hazards, family history and certain medical conditions can also increase a person’s risk. Understanding those risks and knowing when to seek screening can lead to earlier detection, more treatment options and better outcomes.
More Than an Event
As journalists, we often measure success by stories published, photographs taken or events covered.
Walking through Mt. Airy reminded me to measure something else.
Not how many interviews I completed.
But how many conversations had begun.
Through partnerships like the one between HEAL Collaborative and Amgen, organizers hope those conversations that begin on neighborhood sidewalks will continue inside churches, doctors’ offices and family living rooms, where informed decisions about lung health can ultimately save lives.
If even one resident decides to ask a physician about lung cancer screening because of a conversation that started on a neighborhood sidewalk or outside a local church, then that walk accomplished far more than filling seats on July 25.
It demonstrated what community journalism is meant to do.
Connect people with information that can improve lives.
The WNBA will become the first professional sports league to host events at the Obama Presidential Center during 2026 All-Star Weekend, highlighting youth leadership, civic engagement, and community impact.
By Milton Kirby | Chicago, IL | July 9, 2026
The Women’s National Basketball Association will make history later this month as the first professional sports league to host official events at the newly opened Obama Presidential Center, bringing one of basketball’s biggest weekends to one of America’s newest civic institutions.
The announcement, made jointly by the WNBA and The Obama Foundation, places several marquee events from AT&T WNBA All-Star 2026 at the Center’s Home Court athletic facility on Chicago’s South Side. Beyond basketball, the partnership reflects a shared commitment to leadership, education, and community engagement.
For the Obama Presidential Center, it marks another milestone less than a month after opening its doors to the public. For the WNBA, it reinforces a growing emphasis on using the league’s national platform to inspire young people and strengthen communities beyond the game.
A Historic Partnership
“Hosting AT&T WNBA All-Star events at the Obama Presidential Center is a true honor and reflects our commitment to creating connection through basketball and engaging communities in meaningful ways,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said.
“We’re excited to bring together the WNBA family and the greater Chicago community to create memorable experiences at this historic new venue.”
Valerie Jarrett, Chief Executive Officer of The Obama Foundation, said the partnership reflects the mission behind the Center.
“We are thrilled to welcome the WNBA as our first professional sports league hosted at the Obama Presidential Center,” Jarrett said. “At the Center, we believe sports have the power to bring people together and create meaningful opportunities to build the next generation of leaders.”
Their comments underscore a common goal shared by both organizations: using sports as a catalyst for leadership, learning, and civic participation.
More Than a Presidential Library
Located on 19.3 acres in historic Jackson Park, the Obama Presidential Center was envisioned by former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as more than a place to preserve history.
Instead of functioning solely as a traditional presidential library, the campus was designed as a living institution where visitors are encouraged to explore public service, civic engagement, leadership, and community action.
Since opening earlier this summer, the Center has hosted educational programs, cultural events, and community gatherings that encourage people of all ages to become active participants in improving their neighborhoods and communities.
The arrival of the WNBA continues that vision by demonstrating how athletics can serve as another pathway to leadership, teamwork, and civic responsibility.
Home Court Becomes Center Stage
Most of the July 24 activities will take place inside Home Court, the Center’s 60,000-square-foot athletic facility.
Designed as a year-round community resource, Home Court includes a WNBA-regulation basketball court along with flexible spaces dedicated to youth programming, wellness initiatives, leadership development, and neighborhood events.
Its design makes it an ideal setting for the league’s expanding focus on community impact beyond competition.
A Full Day of All-Star Activities
The Obama Presidential Center will host several signature events on Friday, July 24.
The day begins with AT&T WNBA All-Star Media Day and Practice, marking the first time an official WNBA All-Star practice will be held at a venue dedicated to civic engagement and youth leadership.
The Center will also host the third annual WNBA Changemaker Day, bringing together the league’s Changemaker partners, including Ally, AT&T, AWS, CarMax, Deloitte, Google, and Nike. The initiative will be presented in collaboration with the Chicago Sky, Chicago Public Schools, and the Girls Opportunity Alliance, an initiative of The Obama Foundation.
Young athletes will also participate in Jr. WNBA Day, a full day of basketball instruction, leadership workshops, STEM activities, vision board creation, and other programming designed to inspire girls through sports, education, and personal development.
Additional details regarding Changemaker Day and other community activations are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
Chicago Takes Center Stage
The Obama Presidential Center represents one stop during a weekend that will place Chicago at the center of the basketball world.
The State Farm WNBA 3-Point Contest and Kia WNBA Shooting Stars competition will be held Friday evening at Wintrust Arena, home of the Chicago Sky.
The 2026 AT&T WNBA All-Star Game follows on Saturday, July 25, at the United Center.
Together, the events will showcase several of Chicago’s most recognizable venues while bringing thousands of visitors to neighborhoods throughout the city.
Continuing the Obamas’ Vision
The announcement builds upon the Obama Presidential Center’s mission of becoming an active gathering place rather than simply a destination for historical exhibits.
Throughout planning and construction, Barack and Michelle Obama emphasized that the Center would be a place where ordinary people could find inspiration to lead, organize, and strengthen their communities. That philosophy remains evident in the Center’s educational programming, public events, and partnerships.
Welcoming the WNBA as the first professional sports league to host official events on the campus represents another step toward fulfilling that vision.
For the league, the partnership reflects its continued commitment to expanding opportunities for young women while using basketball as a vehicle for education, leadership, and social impact.
For the Obama Presidential Center, it signals that the campus is already emerging as a national destination where sports, culture, education, and civic engagement intersect.
As thousands of fans gather in Chicago for All-Star Weekend, the Center’s first major partnership with a professional sports league may ultimately be remembered not only for the basketball played there, but for the next generation of leaders it seeks to inspire.
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This week’s Shadow Ball focuses on my June 18-20 trip to Memphis for the 26th Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference. Since its founding in 1998, this conference has remained the highlight of my baseball year. This year was no exception. In fact, it was one of the very best.
My Memphis experience began moments after stepping off the Amtrak train on June 18. I chose to walk the mile and a quarter to the conference hotel rather than call a cab or Uber. As anyone who has traveled to Memphis by train knows, one of the first historic landmarks encountered is the National Civil Rights Museum, housed at the former Lorraine Motel, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968.
Lorraine Motel Room 306 Where Dr Martin Luther King was assassinated – Photo by Milton Kirby
Dr. King had traveled to Memphis to support 1,300 Black sanitation workers who were striking after years of dangerous working conditions, poverty-level wages, and the city’s refusal to recognize their union. It was for such a noble cause that he met his death on April 4, 1968, while standing on the Lorraine Motel balcony.
As the familiar façade emerged through the Memphis morning mist, I stopped my walk and sat quietly in prayer for several minutes, reflecting on the events of that tragic day. It was a powerful reminder that history often feels much closer when standing where it happened.
By the time I arrived at the hotel, the conference’s opening session was already underway. The Educational Forum traditionally begins each Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference by bringing together visiting researchers and local educators to discuss ways of integrating the study of the Negro Leagues into K-12 and higher education history curricula. Anyone who teaches or lectures on Negro League history, regardless of the audience, can always find valuable ideas and techniques during these sessions.
After lunch, attendees boarded an inspiring bus tour of several civil rights and baseball sites that echoed the emotions of my morning walk through downtown Memphis. Stops included the Lorraine Motel, Mason Temple, where Dr. King delivered his final speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” Martin Stadium, business locations associated with Memphis baseball entrepreneurs, and finally Clayborn Temple, headquarters of the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike and the birthplace of the “I AM A MAN” movement.
The greatest surprise came at Clayborn Temple, where attendees learned that the church’s damaged condition was not simply the result of age. Much of the destruction was caused by a devastating arson fire in March 2025. It served as a sobering reminder that preserving history remains an ongoing responsibility. As Robert Frost wrote, “Miles to go before we sleep.”
Later that afternoon, we watched the outstanding 1996 documentary Black Diamonds Blues City, which beautifully captured the intersection of community, race relations, politics, music, and Negro League baseball in Memphis. Following dinner, conference attendees gathered for a meet-and-greet at the Ernest Withers Photography Museum in the heart of Beale Street. My morning walk, the documentary, and the evening stroll through Beale Street together created a fitting foundation for the next two days of the conference.
Friday featured the centerpiece of every Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference. Nine Negro League researchers presented their latest work during a series of thirty-minute presentations covering subjects that ranged from player biographies and race relations to home run research, ballpark histories, and even poetry.
One of the highlights was a moving panel discussion featuring family members of Negro League greats Frank Duncan Jr., Frank Duncan III, Johnny Wright, and Larry Brown. Their personal stories reminded us that Negro League history is more than statistics and championships. It is also about families preserving the memories of remarkable men whose contributions deserve continued recognition.
After a full day of intellectual stimulation, attendees enjoyed an evening picnic before heading to AutoZone Park to watch the Memphis Redbirds, providing the perfect close to another memorable conference day.
My own contribution this year was a presentation examining Rap Dixon’s season in Japan, along with announcing the results of our annual attendee poll identifying the next ten Negro League players, managers, and pioneers who deserve induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
The top ten vote-getters, all of whom have deserved induction for many years, were Cannonball Dick Redding, Rap Dixon, Vic Harris, Dick Lundy, Newt Allen, John Donaldson, Grant Johnson, George Scales, John Beckwith, and Candy Jim Taylor. An additional 36 candidates also received votes.
Inspired by everything we experienced in Memphis, SABR’s Negro League Committee should continue advocating for justice in Cooperstown. Why not begin by inducting these ten deserving players, managers, and pioneers when Negro League candidates become eligible again in December 2027?
The conference concluded Saturday with nine additional research presentations, the always-entertaining baseball Significa contest, and the annual awards banquet.
As I reflect on this year’s conference, I keep returning to the lessons Memphis teaches.
From slavery to the Civil Rights Movement, America’s racial history is on full display throughout the city. Yet Memphis also reminds visitors that the work of preserving history is never complete.
The same can be said of Cooperstown.
Throughout the National Baseball Hall of Fame, visitors find Negro League history woven into exhibits on nearly every floor, in countless displays, and throughout the museum. Yet the Hall of Fame plaque gallery tells a different story. There, 137 players whose Major League careers began during baseball’s segregation era have plaques, while only 28 Negro League players and executives have been inducted over the past two decades.
Just as there remains important work to be done in our society, there is also important work to be done in Cooperstown.
The Hall of Fame has an opportunity to continue correcting baseball’s historical record. It should begin by seriously considering the recommendation that emerged from this year’s conference and electing Redding, Dixon, Harris, Lundy, Allen, Donaldson, Johnson, Scales, Beckwith, and Taylor when Negro League candidates are next considered in December 2027.
Last Week’s Shadow Ball Significa Question of the Week
What Negro League pennant-winning team played its home games at Dick Kent’s Ballyard?
The answer is the St. Louis Stars, who won the Negro National League pennants in 1928, 1930, and 1931 while playing their home games at Stars Park, also known as Dick Kent’s Ballyard.
No one submitted the correct answer.
This Week’s Shadow Ball Significa Question of the Week
When was the last year that any Negro League players were inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame? Please identify at least one player inducted that year.
Shadow Ball 3904 N. Druid Hills Road, Suite 179 Decatur, GA 30033
About the Author
Ted Knorr
Ted Knorr is a respected Negro League baseball historian, a longtime member of SABR’s Negro Leagues Committee, and the founder of the Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference. He has also organized numerous Negro League Commemorative Nights throughout central Pennsylvania.
Beyond his research and organizational work, Ted is a sought-after speaker at sporting events, community programs, family gatherings, and educational forums, where he brings Negro League history to life. His deep knowledge of the players, teams, and the cultural significance of Black baseball has made him a trusted voice for audiences seeking to better understand the enduring legacy of the Negro Leagues.
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Atlanta’s most influential Black women in television, radio, print, and digital media reflected on leadership, legacy, and mentorship during the “Unapologetally Influential” panel discussion.
The Women Who Built Atlanta’s Black Media Legacy
By Milton Kirby | Atlanta, GA | July 7, 2026
Atlanta’s rise as the nation’s capital of Black culture did not happen by chance. While the city’s influence is often measured through politics, business, music, film, and professional sports, another force quietly helped shape its identity for generations: Black women in media.
Long before podcasts, livestreams, and social media influencers, pioneering women walked into television stations, radio studios, and newspaper offices where few people looked like them and even fewer expected them to succeed. They earned the public’s trust one broadcast, one headline, and one interview at a time. In doing so, they helped transform not only Atlanta’s media landscape but also the way an entire city saw itself.
That extraordinary legacy came into focus during the Atlanta Cultural Exchange’s “Unapologetically Influential” panel discussion, a gathering that celebrated the women whose careers helped define Atlanta’s media culture while inspiring those who will carry it into the future.
The panel brought together legendary broadcaster Monica Kaufman Pearson, veteran radio personality Joyce Littel, multimedia journalist Rashan Ali, Atlanta Voice Publisher Janis L. Ware, media strategist and journalist Dawn Montgomery, and award-winning broadcaster Liz Smith, who served as moderator.
Although each woman followed a different professional path, together they represented more than two centuries of journalism, broadcasting, publishing, entrepreneurship, and community leadership.
The conversation quickly became about something much larger than careers.
It became a conversation about legacy.
Building Atlanta’s Media Legacy
Throughout the afternoon, panelists reflected on how dramatically Atlanta has changed during their careers.
Today’s Atlanta is home to nationally recognized news organizations, influential Black-owned media companies, syndicated radio personalities, digital content creators, filmmakers, and cultural commentators whose work reaches audiences across the country.
But those opportunities were built by pioneers who entered an industry where few opportunities existed for women, particularly Black women.
Rather than focusing on personal accomplishments, the discussion repeatedly returned to a common theme: every generation has a responsibility to leave the profession stronger than it found it.
Atlanta’s Media Trailblazers
Monica Kaufman Pearson – Broke barriers in 1975 as the first woman and first African American to anchor the evening news at WSB-TV, becoming one of Georgia’s most trusted journalists over a 37-year career.
Jocelyn Dorsey – One of Atlanta television’s pioneering Black journalists whose work helped open newsroom doors for future generations while setting a standard for public affairs reporting and community engagement.
Joyce Littel – A respected Atlanta radio personality whose decades behind the microphone have informed, entertained, and mentored aspiring broadcasters.
Janis L. Ware – Publisher of The Atlanta Voice, preserving one of the nation’s historic Black-owned newspapers while leading its transformation into the digital age and championing community development throughout Atlanta.
Rashan Ali – A multimedia journalist whose career spans sports broadcasting, television, radio, acting, and digital media, reflecting the versatility of today’s media professionals.
Dawn Montgomery – A journalist, strategist, and cultural commentator whose work demonstrates the expanding role of storytelling across journalism, marketing, podcasting, and social commentary.
Liz Smith – An award-winning multimedia journalist and executive producer representing Atlanta’s next generation of influential media leadership across radio, television, streaming, and live events.
Jovita Moore – Remembered as one of Atlanta’s most beloved television anchors, whose professionalism, compassion, and community commitment inspired viewers and young journalists alike.
Remembering Those Who Opened the Door
One of the afternoon’s most meaningful moments came when Monica Kaufman Pearson reminded the audience that history is never created by one person alone.
She acknowledged veteran journalist Jocelyn Dorsey as the first Black news anchor in the Atlanta television market, recognizing one of the women whose groundbreaking work helped expand opportunities for those who followed.
It was a fitting reminder that Atlanta’s media story has always been one of shared progress rather than individual achievement.
The recognition also underscored an important truth often overlooked in conversations about success: every trailblazer once followed another pioneer.
“When I Started, I Didn’t See Black Anchors”
Following the panel discussion, The Truth Seekers Journal spoke with Pearson about the remarkable gathering of women whose careers collectively span nearly every chapter of modern Black media in Atlanta.
Reflecting on the beginning of her own career, Pearson recalled entering an industry where representation was almost nonexistent.
“When I started, I didn’t see Black anchors,” she said.
Rather than accepting those limitations, she chose to become the example she never had.
In 1975, Pearson made history when she became the first woman and the first African American to anchor the evening news at WSB-TV, beginning a remarkable 37-year career that would earn the trust of viewers throughout Georgia.
Her success demonstrated that excellence has the power to change institutions.
Knowing When to Go
Pearson also shared one of the most profound lessons she learned during her decades behind the anchor desk.
“Know when to go.”
The audience grew quiet.
Her advice was not about retirement.
It was about leadership.
Pearson explained that truly effective leaders understand that their responsibility extends beyond personal success. They must also create opportunities for those who follow.
By recognizing when it was time to leave the anchor desk, Pearson helped create space for another respected journalist to become a familiar face in Atlanta homes.
That opportunity allowed viewers to embrace the late Emmy Award-winning anchor Jovita Moore, whose warmth, professionalism, and deep commitment to community made her one of Atlanta’s most beloved broadcasters before her passing in 2021.
Pearson’s lesson extended far beyond journalism.
Leadership is measured not only by the barriers we break, but by the doors we leave open for others.
Every Platform, One Purpose
Although their careers developed in different decades and across different media, each panelist illustrated how journalism continues evolving while remaining grounded in the same core values.
Joyce Littel built one of Atlanta’s most respected careers in radio, using her voice to entertain audiences while encouraging and mentoring young broadcasters.
Janis L. Ware demonstrated that community journalism remains one of democracy’s most important institutions. Under her leadership, The Atlanta Voice has successfully evolved from a traditional newspaper into a modern multimedia news organization while remaining deeply rooted in serving Atlanta’s Black community. Her work in affordable housing, economic development, healthcare, and civic leadership reflects the belief that publishers should help strengthen the communities they cover.
Rashan Ali showed how modern journalists successfully move between television, sports broadcasting, acting, podcasting, and digital media without sacrificing credibility. Her career reflects the versatility demanded of today’s media professionals.
Dawn Montgomery offered another example of journalism’s evolution. Her career has crossed modeling, sports journalism, marketing, strategic communications, podcasting, and cultural commentary. Throughout those transitions, she has remained committed to authentic storytelling and using media as a vehicle for meaningful conversation.
Moderating the discussion was Liz Smith, whose own career represents the next chapter of Atlanta media. As an executive producer, radio personality, television host, and multimedia journalist, Smith embodies an industry where storytellers increasingly move seamlessly across radio, television, streaming platforms, podcasts, and live events.
Together, the women demonstrated that while technology changes, the mission of journalism remains remarkably consistent.
Serve the audience.
Tell the truth.
Earn trust.
More Than Media Personalities
One of the strongest themes to emerge from the discussion was that influence is not measured solely by ratings, readership, or followers.
Each woman described careers deeply connected to community service, mentorship, nonprofit leadership, civic engagement, and advocacy.
Their influence extends well beyond the newsroom.
Collectively, they have served on nonprofit boards, supported educational initiatives, championed healthcare awareness, mentored aspiring journalists, promoted economic development, strengthened neighborhoods, and used their platforms to elevate voices often overlooked by mainstream media.
For these women, journalism has never been simply a profession.
It has been public service.
The Legacy Reached Beyond the Stage
The conversation resonated just as strongly among those seated in the audience.
As attendees gathered following the discussion, many reflected on lessons that reached beyond media careers.
Taylor Dunn summed up the afternoon simply.
“It was an amazing panel, and I really enjoyed it.”
For Atlanta licensed esthetician Tasha, one lesson stood above all the others.
“Know when it’s time to go. Know when it’s your time to leave.”
Moments earlier, Pearson had offered nearly identical advice while describing her own career.
For Tasha, the message applied as much to business and life as it did to broadcasting.
Great leaders do not simply achieve success.
They prepare others to succeed after them.
A Legacy Still Being Written
Looking across the stage, it became clear that this was far more than another panel discussion.
These were not simply accomplished broadcasters, publishers, radio personalities, journalists, and media strategists.
They were women who helped shape how Atlanta tells its own story.
Individually, each forged a unique path through television, newspapers, radio, and digital media.
Collectively, they built something much larger than themselves.
They helped establish Atlanta as one of America’s most influential centers of Black journalism and media excellence.
The applause that filled the room at the close of “Unapologetically Influential” was not merely recognition of distinguished careers.
It was gratitude for doors opened.
Barriers broken.
Communities served.
And generations inspired.
As Atlanta’s media landscape continues to evolve, the technology will change. New platforms will emerge. Different voices will capture public attention.
But the standard established by these pioneering women remains unchanged.
Tell the truth.
Serve the community.
And never forget to leave the door open for the woman coming behind you.
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AI is no longer a distant technology. It’s quietly reshaping daily life—guiding choices, filtering information, influencing work, learning, shopping, and trust. The real revolution is happening in ordinary routines, not futuristic labs.
By Florita Bell Griffin | Houston, TX | July 7, 2026
The real AI revolution is unfolding in a far more intimate way than many people first expected. Early public imagination placed artificial intelligence in laboratories, robotic machines, futuristic factories, and distant corporate research centers. Today its reach is far closer, quieter, and more powerful. AI is entering the spaces where ordinary life happens every day. It is shaping how people search for information, buy products, receive recommendations, complete paperwork, communicate with institutions, manage schedules, learn new things, and move through the digital systems that now surround almost every part of modern life.
That is why the real revolution is larger than a story about technical progress. It is a story about daily life being rewritten in real time. AI changes the way people encounter choices, the way they receive guidance, the way they spend attention, and the way they experience convenience. Its influence is spreading through routines that seem familiar, which makes the change easy to underestimate. Yet the most powerful shifts in society often arrive through ordinary habits rather than dramatic announcements.
One of the clearest signs of this rewrite appears in the way people now receive information. In an earlier digital world, users often had to search, compare, read, and sort through large volumes of material on their own. That process could be tedious, yet it kept people closer to the raw act of evaluating what they found. AI increasingly changes that relationship. It summarizes, ranks, recommends, predicts, and frames. Instead of simply opening a door to information, it begins arranging the room. It decides what rises to the top, what appears relevant, what seems urgent, and what fades into the background.
That shift matters because daily decisions grow out of the environments people see. When the environment is increasingly curated by predictive systems, the character of human judgment begins to change. A person still chooses, yet the shape of that choice is influenced by an intelligence layer working quietly in the background. This is one of the deepest ways AI is rewriting life. It changes the conditions under which thought takes place.
Work offers another powerful example. Across offices, schools, logistics systems, creative industries, customer service channels, financial operations, and research environments, AI is accelerating tasks that once required more time and labor. It drafts messages, organizes notes, summarizes meetings, analyzes documents, answers routine questions, and supports decision workflows. For many workers, this feels like a gain in speed and relief. Yet every gain in speed also changes expectations. Once a task can be completed faster, institutions begin recalibrating what counts as normal productivity. The result is that AI shapes work by changing pace, pressure, and standards as much as output itself.
That transformation reaches beyond professional settings. Family life is also being rewritten. AI now influences what children watch, what parents are shown online, what products families are encouraged to buy, and what kinds of answers emerge from search tools and digital assistants. Recommendation systems shape household routines with remarkable subtlety. Entertainment choices, educational prompts, shopping patterns, and even emotional tone can all be influenced by algorithmic systems tuned to predict what will hold attention. A household may feel as though it is simply enjoying convenience, while a far more complex process of behavioral shaping is taking place underneath.
Education is changing in similar ways. Students now live in a world where AI can explain concepts, generate practice material, summarize readings, offer writing assistance, and serve as a constant academic companion. This brings real benefits, especially for learners who need quick support or another pathway into a difficult idea. At the same time, education is about more than receiving answers. It is about building concentration, reasoning, memory, authorship, patience, and confidence. When AI enters learning environments, it changes the relationship between effort and outcome. That means the revolution touches the formation of the mind itself.
Consumer life may be the area where the rewrite is most visible. AI helps determine which products appear first, which prices are shown, which ads are served, which promotions feel personal, and which paths lead most smoothly toward a purchase. Shopping becomes more tailored, more responsive, and more predictive. A person may feel seen by the system because the system seems to understand preferences so quickly. Yet the deeper reality is that the marketplace is evolving from a place of display into a place of dynamic behavioral influence. AI is helping transform commerce into a living environment that learns, adjusts, and persuades continuously.
Healthcare, banking, transportation, and public services are also experiencing this shift. AI supports scheduling, triage, fraud detection, record management, route suggestions, screening systems, and prioritization tools. Many of these applications improve responsiveness and efficiency. Yet they also show how deeply the rewrite reaches. AI is entering the back-end structures that shape how people are processed, flagged, assisted, routed, or delayed. A person may never see the full system, yet the system may already be shaping the pace and quality of their experience.
Trust sits at the center of all of this. As AI becomes more fluent, polished, and responsive, it becomes easier for people to accept its outputs as authoritative. A system that speaks clearly and smoothly can feel competent even when its reasoning is partial or its perspective is narrow. That dynamic matters because everyday life depends on trust. People trust information systems, financial systems, educational systems, medical systems, and communication systems every single day. As AI becomes more embedded within them, the question of what deserves trust grows more urgent.
The real revolution, then, is about more than automation. It is about mediation. AI sits between people and information, between consumers and markets, between workers and institutions, between students and knowledge, between citizens and systems. It increasingly helps shape what is visible, what is recommended, what is rewarded, and what is treated as meaningful. Once a technology reaches that level of influence, it becomes part of the architecture of social life.
This is why public understanding matters so deeply. Many people still speak about AI as though it were mainly a future issue. In truth, it is already part of the lived present. It is reorganizing routines through search, media, shopping, learning, work, and administration. Its effects often feel incremental because they arrive through convenience rather than disruption. Yet accumulation has power. Hundreds of small changes across ordinary life can produce a profound social transformation.
The word revolution usually suggests spectacle. In the case of AI, the more accurate image is restructuring. Daily life is being reorganized by systems that predict, guide, rank, personalize, and respond at scale. Human beings still make choices, yet those choices increasingly arise inside environments shaped by machine intelligence. That is a major civilizational development because it changes how people encounter reality itself.
The real AI revolution deserves serious attention for that reason. It is rewriting daily life through tools that feel useful, familiar, and ordinary. It is changing how people work, learn, buy, trust, communicate, and decide. It is shifting influence into the hidden layers of modern systems, where guidance can shape behavior long before people realize how much has changed. That is the true scale of this moment. AI is rewriting daily life from the inside, and the future will be shaped by how clearly society understands the depth of that rewrite.
Kaiser Permanente’s “Building for Impact” initiative is reshaping Georgia’s construction market, signaling major healthcare expansion and new opportunities. Industry leaders stress that strategic preparation, strong relationships, and operational excellence will determine which contractors are ready to compete as demand and investment accelerate across the region. themselves for long term success.
By Milton Kirby | Atlanta, GA | July 6, 2026
Earlier this spring, at The Gathering Spot in Atlanta, Kaiser Permanente convened contractors, developers, business leaders, and community partners to discuss what it will take to compete for more than $70 million in current and projected investments across Georgia. Although the meeting has ended, the message remains timely as healthcare construction and supplier opportunities continue to expand across the state.
As Kaiser Permanente grows its footprint in Georgia, its Building for Impact initiative is preparing businesses for more than the next construction project. It is challenging contractors to think strategically, strengthen their operations and position themselves for long-term success in one of the state’s fastest-growing sectors.
The central question echoed throughout the program was straightforward: Who will be ready when opportunity arrives?
According to speakers, the answer depends less on access and more on preparation.
A Growing Market with Real Stakes
Marc A. Love, Vice President of National Contracting Strategy for Kaiser Permanente, outlined more than $70 million in active and projected investments tied to construction, supplier development and facility expansion throughout the Atlanta region.
With more than 466,000 members in Georgia and continued growth expected, Kaiser Permanente signaled a steady pipeline of work tied to healthcare infrastructure and modernization. The organization is now serving the largest membership base in its Georgia history, driven by continued demand for its integrated model of care.
But speakers emphasized that access to those opportunities is not automatic.
“People buy from people,” consultant Reggie Williams told attendees. “They buy from those who bring value and meet performance expectations.”
Strategy, Not Just Survival
Earnest Ellis – Todd Gray – Jamila Veasley
Keynote speaker Earnest Ellis, president of the National Association of Minority Contractors (NAMC) and CEO of FS360, challenged attendees to rethink how they approach the construction business.
Ellis grounded his message in personal experience -growing up in an entrepreneurial family shaped by resilience and work ethic. His father, who lost his right arm in a farming accident and could not read or write, still outworked everyone around him. That example, Ellis said, removed any excuse to avoid hard challenges.
After careers at IBM, Verizon, and MCI, Ellis founded FS360 in 2008, his sixth entrepreneurial venture. Today, the firm operates in Atlanta, GA and Dallas, TX, generating $35 million in net revenue in 2025 and delivering more than $270 million in completed work.
“Too many small businesses think tactically, just chasing the next contract,” Ellis said. “You have to think strategically. Pick your markets. Build expertise. Develop relationships that last.”
He underscored the urgency with industry realities:
50% of businesses fail within five years
65% fail within ten years
Underrepresented firms account for just 21% of construction companies despite representing 42% of the population
Still, Ellis framed the moment as one of opportunity.
“This is a $1.3 trillion industry,” he said. “And right now, it’s short more than 500,000 workers. There is more work than people to do it.”
He also emphasized purpose over pay, sharing that his Yale-educated son turned down a high-paying corporate career in favor of work he found meaningful.
“Excellence is what keeps us in business,” Ellis said.
Healthcare Construction Requires Precision
Elise Webster, Preconstruction Manager, WEBMyers Construction emphasized that healthcare construction carries a higher level of complexity than traditional projects.
“You’re building while people are being treated,” she explained. “That changes everything your schedule, your safety protocols, your coordination.”
Firms that can manage phased construction, infection control standards, and off-hour work schedules are better positioned for long-term opportunities in the healthcare sector.
Relationships Still Drive Opportunity
Despite formal initiatives like Building for Impact, speakers repeatedly stressed that relationships remain the foundation of the industry.
“It takes seven interactions to make an impression,” Ellis said. “One meeting won’t do it.”
Contractors were encouraged to stay engaged, complete Kaiser’s prequalification process, and remain visible even when contracts are not immediately awarded.
Persistence, not proximity, often determines success.
Community Impact Beyond Contracts
Kaiser leaders emphasized that the initiative extends beyond construction projects to broader community outcomes.
Jamila Veasley, Senior Director of Program Management and Strategy Execution, reinforced that vision.
“Who we build with and who we work with matters,” Veasley said. “What we do with Building for Impact supports more than individual projects – it supports economic empowerment, workforce development, and stronger communities.”
One example highlighted a project where a construction team used a local church as its operations base, renovating the space and paying above-market rent, leaving lasting value behind.
“This is what building for impact means,” Todd Gray said. “Not just projects, but community investment.”
Be Ready or Be Left Behind
The closing message was consistent across speakers: opportunity is expanding, but readiness will determine who benefits.
Contractors were urged to:
Strengthen internal systems and financial controls
Focus on specific market segments
Build relationships intentionally
Deliver consistent, high-quality work
Kaiser’s long-standing partnership with NAMC—spanning more than 15 years reflects a continued commitment to building capacity among minority contractors through training, networking, and strategic development.
As Georgia’s healthcare sector continues to grow, speakers agreed that success will belong to contractors who invest in relationships, build strong internal systems, and prepare long before opportunities arrive. For minority-owned businesses, the message was clear: the next major project may already be on the horizon, but readiness begins today.
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