50 Influential Africans – The Diaspora

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Infrastructure market sails into 2024

The coming year may bring robust, even record-setting, growth in the infrastructure market as cities and states enjoy strong federal support while challenges like high material costs may be fading, experts said.

Next year marks the third year of implementation of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that launched what the Biden administration has dubbed the “infrastructure decade” and provided $1.2 trillion of advance appropriations through 2026. Coupled with the federal support, states are also expected to invest significant dollars into transportation projects next year, according to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association.

On the legislative front, state transportation officials will continue to press for priorities like smoother allocation of highway funds, better administration of the IIJA’s discretionary grants, and relief from some of the strict “Buy America Build America” requirements that are part of the IIJA.

Alison Premo Black, ARTBA's senior vice president and chief economist.

The highway and bridges sector is expected to see a 16% increase in activity in 2024, Alison Premo Black, ARTBA’s senior vice president and chief economist.

ARTBA

Pockets of the market like highways and bridges and public works are expected to see double-digit increases in project starts. At least 38 states are expected to keep steady or increase transportation construction activity, said Alison Premo Black, ARTBA’s senior vice president and chief economist.

“We’re expecting growth of 16% in highway and bridge construction, which is very robust, and that’s on top of record growth in 2023,” Black said. “With the combination of state departments of transportation investments and as the IIJA work continues, we should see a very strong market over the next five years.”

Many of the governments that have won IIJA grants could see formal grant agreements signed next year. Some megaprojects, like the Gateway Hudson Tunnel project, the high-speed Brightline West train, and the Brent Spence Bridge are expected to put shovels in the ground.

In addition to the 16% growth that ARTBA expects to see in the highway and bridges market, the public transit and rail construction sector is expected to climb 6% to $26.9 billion, according to ARTBA. Bridge and tunnel work will climb 17% to $26.4 billion. Airport terminal and runway work will increase 14% and port and waterway construction will rise 9% to $5.7 billion, according to ARTBA.

Headwinds from a potential economic slowdown, inflation and workforce shortages will continue to act as a drag, but heading into 2024 inflation has cooled and many predict that interest rates will stabilize if not fall.

Expectations for strong project activity next year dovetail with what the majority of municipal bond firms are expecting, with an uptick in issuance driven partly by pent-up demand from issuers who have spent much of the last two years waiting for rates to come down.

Investors are hoping for more yield-friendly deals like public-private partnerships, said David Hammer, who leads municipal bond portfolio management at PIMCO.

“I’d expect to see a pickup next year due to public-private partnerships and deferred debt issuances this year,” Hammer said. “Very little of the infrastructure money has been spent, and we look over the next years we think a lot of those infrastructure dollars will be put to work with some combination of public and private debt in the debt market.”

Kurt Krummenacker of Moody's Investors Service

Moody’s Investors Service has stable outlooks on all its infrastructure sectors heading into the year, said the rating agency’s Kurt Krummenacker.

Moody’s Investors Service has stable outlooks on all its infrastructure sectors heading into the year, said Kurt Krummenacker with the agency’s Americas Project and Infrastructure Finance group.

“All the sectors, in line with the U.S. consumer, are set to leave behind the easy sugar-high years of COVID recovery and move back to a more normalized place, where macroeconomic conditions drive the outlooks for these sectors,” Krummenacker said.

Sectors like toll roads, airports and cruises have spent the last few years enjoying a strong recovery from the pandemic-induced revenue declines, he said. “The path to growth has been very consistent and unabated,” he said. “But now they’re faced with an uncertain economic environment that’s going to be the driver of their credit conditions.”

Moody’s expects to see continued investment in the airport sector, projecting that the largest airports will invest $60 billion through 2029. That is up from Moody’s previous projection of $50 billion, Krummenacker said.

Fitch Ratings has a neutral outlook on North American Transportation infrastructure in 2024, expecting “overall stable credit conditions and a limited range of volatility in volume activities,” according to a Dec. 5 report.

Dodge Construction Network, which publishes an annual outlook, expects to see “robust growth” next year, with a project 7% increase in total construction starts, totaling $1.2 trillion. Highway and bridge projects lead all sectors, with Dodge predicting a 23% increase next year.

Dodge said it expects double-digit increases in many sectors, including multi-family housing, hotels and motels, manufacturing, driven by the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS Act, both of which invest in domestic manufacturing and onshoring. 

“The only potential negative for the sector lies with Congress where recent chaos has prevented action on appropriations bills, delaying annual spending increases for infrastructure that were expected in October with the new fiscal year,” Dodge said. “Planned infrastructure construction dollars and projects will not disappear, but long delays could mean start dates might be pushed further out into 2024 or beyond.”

Staying on the Congressional front, state DOTs’ lobbying priorities include a solution to the rising problem of distributing federal highway funds late in the fiscal year and smoother implementation of the IIJA’s discretionary grant programs, said Joung Lee, deputy director and chief policy officer of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

The current highway funding process requires the Federal Highway Administration to wait until August to ask state DOTs to obligate a significant share in just one month, Lee said. That figure totaled $7.9 billion or 15% of the $54 billion total in fiscal 2023.

“This ‘wait-and-hurry up’ approach deprives state DOTs of the full fiscal year to strategically plan, deploy investments and deliver on the promise” of the IIJA, Lee said. AASHTO is lobbying Congress to “maximize highway formula dollars provided to state DOTs at the beginning of each year by reducing the large amounts withheld for 11 months in slow-spending allocated accounts like TIFIA and INFRA,” he said.

AASHTO is also pushing for a series of fixes to ease challenges faced by states and cities eager to win a piece of the IIJA’s competitive grants.

On the infrastructure investment side, the new year could see a pickup after the relatively slow fundraising and deal flow in 2023.

“We believe that infrastructure continues to be relatively well placed due to its defensiveness, ability to protect against surges in inflation, relatively high yield and robust policy support globally,” said Macquarie in a 2024 outlook report, adding that the trends of decarbonization and digitalization “underpin the long-term growth of the asset class.”

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Headliners set to play TBBHF Music Fest

TAMPA — This year’s Tampa Bay Black Heritage Festival will run Jan. 5-14, and will features speakers, musicians, artists, poets and craftspeople locally and nationally.

This 10-day, family friendly, cultural experience focuses on health, education, economic, social empowerment and the arts. The purpose of the Tampa Bay Black Heritage Festival, Inc. is to offer the community of Tampa Bay a unique blend of African and African American art, culture and history, therefore serving as a conduit for promoting and perpetuating the art, culture and history of African Americans and African people for the benefit of all Tampa Bay residents and tourists to the Tampa Bay area. It exists to support the culturally rich and diverse Tampa Bay community by ensuring all events are inclusive of the entire community.

The centerpiece of the festival is a two-day Music Fest, which takes place the weekend of the MLK holiday. This year’s Music Fest will take place on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 13-14, at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park, 600 N. Ashley Drive, Tampa. General admission, preferred seating, and VIP Tickets are available now. Visit tampablackheritage.org/musicfest/.

Music Fest headliners include Keke Wyatt and Slave on Saturday; and Leela James and Adam Hawley on Sunday.

Keke Wyatt got her start performing in girl bands in her teenage years. The singer-songwriter attracted national attention following a collaboration with R&B artist Avant. Her rendition of “Nothing in This World” earned her a nomination for the Best New R&B/Soul/Rap Artist award at the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards in 2001. Wyatt has released five albums, including “Soul Sista” (2001), “Who Knew?” (2010), “Unbelievable” (2011), “Rated Love” (2016), and “Keke Covers” (2017).

Ohio-based funk outfit Slave hit the scene in 1977 with the single “Slide” from their self-titled debut album. That R&B chart-topper and Top 40 crossover smash featured the melodic basslines of Mark Adams. Another crucial component was the spirited and energizing force of drummer-turned-frontman Steve Arrington, voice of the similarly everlasting Top Ten R&B hits “Just a Touch of Love,” “Watching You,” and “Snap Shot.” The band continued to release new music through the mid 1990s.

R&B and soul singer-songwriter Leela James burst onto the scene in 2005 with her debut album “A Change Is Gonna Come.” She received a Soul Train Award nomination for Best R&B Soul Artist in 2008 and a NAACP Award nomination for Outstanding New Artist in 2005. James has gone on to record and release eight albums, including “Thought U Knew,” released in October.

Smooth jazz guitarist Adam Hawley debuted on Maurice White’s Kalimba Music label with the album “Just the Beginning” in 2016. Hawley’s four albums and work as a producer have generated 14 Billboard No. 1 hits.

In addition to the two-day Music Fest, the Tampa Bay Black Heritage Festival also will sponsor several events. Following is a list of some TBBHF activities:

• Business Seminar: Empowering Black Entrepreneurs — Friday, Jan. 5, 9 to 11 a.m., at the Collaborative Entrepreneur Center, 2101 E. Palm Ave., Tampa. Registration cost is $10. To reserve a seat, visit www.tampablackheritage.org/seminars.

• Run for Us 5K — Saturday, Jan. 6, 8 a.m., at Gadsden Park, 6901 S. MacDill Ave, Tampa. To register, visit raceroster.com/events/2024/79407/run-for-us-5k.

• Heritage Gala: Western Glam — Sunday, Jan. 7, 6 to 10 p.m., at TPepin Hospitality Centre, 4121 N. 50th St., Tampa. Chapel Hart will perform. Tickets are $75. Visit tampablackheritage.ticketspice.com/heritage-gala.

• Leadership Luncheon with Willie Pearl Mackey King — Wednesday, Jan. 10, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at University Area Community Development Center, 14013 N. 22nd St., Tampa. Individual tickets are $25. Visit tampablackheritage.org/events

• The Stompdown Experience: National Step Tour — Saturday, Jan. 13, 7:30 p.m., in Ferguson Hall at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts, 1010 N. Macinnes Place, Tampa. Tickets start at $19.75. Visit strazcenter.org.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Racism 100 Years Ago: Republican vs. Democrat

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How a Philanthropist Is Boosting Pittsburgh’s Black Artists

Sankofaweb

SANKOFA VILLAGE FOR THE ARTS IN NORTH POINT BREEZE IS RECEIVING $50,000 TO SUPPORT CULTURALLY RELEVANT YOUTH PROGRAMMING. | COURTESY SANKOFA VILLAGE

The generosity of billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott continues to spread throughout the Pittsburgh community, including bringing special support to Black artists and collectives.

The Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh program, managed by the Pittsburgh Foundation, announced that it has awarded 38 grants totaling $1.6 million to support the work of individual artists and groups. Most of the grants are for two years, and this marks the first time that individuals are getting two years of support.

The funding comes from $2 million that Scott — who received $59 billion in shares in a divorce settlement with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — donated in 2021 to Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh. It was part of $2.7 billion she distributed that year across the country to “high-impact” underfunded organizations

“Black artists and arts organizations in our community produce amazing work, but the financial challenges they face are significant,” Pittsburgh Foundation President and CEO Lisa Schroeder said in a release. “We expect that extending the grant time frame to two years for most awardees will relieve some of the financial stress and allow artists and arts organizations more time to develop projects.” 

She added that the extension of grant support is based on a strategic plan to help create a vibrant, equitable and just Pittsburgh region. “To realize that, we need a robust and diverse arts-and-culture ecosystem,” Schroeder said.

Here are the grants and recipient individuals or collectives

  • Emmai Alaquiva ($50,000) to support “OPTICVOICES: Mama’s Boys,” a visual arts and augmented reality project and exhibit.
  • Lorraine Avila ($50,000) to support the completion, editorial aid and marketing of two manuscripts: “DIEASERRA,” a fiction novel, and “THAT GIRL,” a poetry collection.
  • Balafon West African Dance Ensemble ($50,000) to support the development of the core dance ensemble.
  • Sean Baker ($50,000) to support the launch of SOUL EXPEDITION BOOTCAMP, a youth music program exploring the fundamentals of music instrumentation.
Sbhs1

SEAN BAKER IS RECEIVING $50,000 TO SUPPORT THE LAUNCH OF SOUL EXPEDITION BOOTCAMP, A YOUTH MUSIC PROGRAM. | PHOTO BY KELLY HUGHES

  • Sean Beauford ($50,000) to support the writing, archiving and artistic production project, “Home of Tomorrow,” which explores the historic relationship between Pittsburgh and Mansfield, Ohio, and the impact of Rust Belt deindustrialization on Black communities.
  • BOOM Concepts ($50,000) to support BOOM Concepts’ temporary public art program (AP3) and provide local and national public art engagements.  
  • LoRen ($50,000) to support “NO COVERS,” a songwriter-focused live music experience featuring Pittsburgh-based artists from various genres performing original music.
  • Rueben Brock ($50,000) to support post-production of a documentary.
  • Jorge Olivera Castillo ($14,000) to support the translation and publication of a collection of sonnets, “On the Edge of the Horizon,” and a book of suspense short stories as well as the production of two original songs: “A New Dawn” and “Alphabet City.”
  • Nathan Cephas ($50,000) to support the development of a self-produced debut music album and a limited-pressed photography book/magazine and short film showcasing Pittsburgh nature.
  • Dominique Chestand ($50,000) to support the development of “Broke Babe Supper Club,” a multimedia project that aims to increase knowledge and agency around food for Black, Global Majority and lower-income people.
Dominiquechestand 3

DOMINIQUE CHESTAND IS RECEIVING $50,000 TO SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF BROKE BABE SUPPER CLUB, A MULTIMEDIA PROJECT TO INCREASE KNOWLEDGE AROUND FOOD FOR BLACK, GLOBAL MAJORITY AND LOWER-INCOME PEOPLE. | PHOTO BY RAYNI SHIRING

  • Diarra Imani ($50,000) to complete, launch and tour the “Time Will Tell” album and publish two poetry books: “Quicksand” and “The Hourglass Effect.”
  • Tara Fay Coleman ($15,000) to support a self-directed residency for research, study of the printmaking process and the development of a new body of work.
  • Indira Cunningham ($50,000) to support professional and artistic development and training opportunities in the performing arts.
  • Guardians of Sound ($50,000) to support an artist residency for Idasa Tariq with Guardians of Sound and Hip-Hop Orchestra.
  • Damola aka Da Great Deity Dah ($50,000) to support artist storytelling and STEAM programming using hip-hop culture and the art assets used in game design.
  • Zuly Inirio ($50,000) to support the first season of the Afro-Latinx Song and Opera Project.
  • Erika Denae J ($25,000) to produce, record and release a multi-genre music project: “In the Mood For;” a songbook diary-journal: “In the Mood for Songbook;” and a live recording release.
  • Evangeline Mensah-Agyekum ($50,000) to support “No Age to Beauty,” a documentary film and photography project.
  • Kontara Morphis ($20,000) to support the development of a contemporary ballet, “The Wonders of Alice.”
  • Victor Muthama ($50,000) to support “DiasporUS,” a visual album highlighting the differences between three generations within a Kenyan family spanning two continents over a century of time.
  • Andrews Owusu aka KHAN | KUMA (Khan Kuma) ($29,250) to support the promotion and preservation of Black electronic music through events and education.
  • a.k. payne ($50,000) to support a self-curated playwright residency, the development of new works, and the curation of Black Story Circles, a gathering practice of Black literary artists.
  • Staycee Pearl ($10,000) to support a creative wellness residency.
  • Bonita Lee Penn ($30,000) to support the development of a play highlighting African American Pentecostal practices and their connection to their West African origins.
  • Rainbow Serpent ($50,000) to support an artist residency for multimedia artist Marquita Sams to complete “Uli Awakened.”
  • Sankofa Village ($50,000) to support culturally relevant youth art programming.
  • Dameta Skinner ($15,000) to support the development of a program utilizing art as a therapeutic tool to create individual and collaborative works with youth artists.
  • Jordan C Taylor ($13,330) to support “All Style,” a travelogue show featuring award-winning Pittsburgh dancer Christian Brown and a pilot episode with various Pittsburgh dance communities.
  • Marvin Touré ($50,000) to support the production of work and programming for an exhibition, the development of a large-scale performance, and studio space.
  • Alicia Volcy ($50,000) to support the RHYTHM x Design: Black Architects in Residence program.
  • INEZ ($50,000) to support a musical album, documentary and music visuals.
  • Gregory Scott Williams Jr. ($50,000) to support “Warriors,” a feature documentary film and multimedia photography/video exhibition.
  • Alisha B Wormsley ($50,000) to support “Children of NAN: a Survival Guide,” a film for future Black femmes.
  • Young Black Motivated Kings and Queens ($50,000) to support the development of a multi-purpose art studio dedicated to visual and musical art form instruction.

Discretionary grants totaling $60,000 for one year:

  • Pittsburgh Positive Young People Associations ($50,000) to support the 2023 annual Harambee Black Arts festivals.
  • Darryl Chappell Foundation ($10,000) for an artist talk between Pittsburgh native, Harrison Kinnane Smith, and New York artist Dread Scott.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment