Health workers say at-risk Missouri moms need help during and after pregnancy

Doctors and health workers in St. Louis say providing mothers with pregnancy care earlier and more consistently is essential to reducing the state’s high rate of maternal and infant deaths.

Experts in pregnancy and maternal health on a panel convened by the St. Louis Department of Health on Thursday said quality pre- and post-natal health care provided by workers beyond clinical health settings is essential to reducing maternal and infant mortality rates.

“No one person can be the be-all and end-all,” said Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis, St Louis health director. “I as a physician can’t, and a nurse can’t, and a [community health worker] can’t, but together understanding the work we do is critical to each other, we can do that.”

About six infants per 1,000 born each year die in Missouri, and more than 30 women per every 100,000 people die in the state during pregnancy or within a year of giving birth. Mortality rates for Black mothers and infants are higher than for their white counterparts.

According to the state’s Department of Health and Senior Services, Black women were three times more likely to die during pregnancy or in the year after birth than white women.

Panelists advocated for increasing the use of doulas, community health workers and midwives and integrating them into existing clinical settings.

“We have not integrated [midwives and doulas] into health systems like other countries have, said Okunsola Amadou, a midwife and founder of the Jamaa Birth Village, which provides doula services to people of color in St. Louis. “Social workers, community health workers, these are people who are with pregnant women all the time.”

Having support early and during pregnancies provides emotional help to expecting mothers. It also makes it easier to integrate screenings for potential problems, including congenital syphilis, and provides an easy way for women to address health concerns.

“It doesn’t matter if your doctor is empathetic if the person who answers the phone and checks you into the hospital or the nurse who is laboring with you is not,” said Dr. Dineo Khabele, the OB-GYN department chair at Washington University. “We need everybody in health care to think about how we’re approaching the individual patients.”

About 30% of Black pregnant women in St. Louis don’t receive adequate prenatal care, compared with about 13% of white pregnant women, said Yolanda Lawson, president of the National Medical Association, which represents African American physicians.

Only about half of Black pregnant people in the city got prenatal care early in their pregnancies, she said.

Care after pregnancy is just as important, panelists said. Mental health issues, suicide and substance use issues were among the most common reasons mothers die within a year of giving birth.

“At the point when somebody decides to die by suicide, there’s a complete despair. And there’s a huge correlation between that and lack of social connection,” said Ronke Faleti, the founder of Korede House, a social club for women in the Central West End.

The space, which offers memberships on a sliding scale, will soon host peer support groups for mothers, she said.

“Engineering that social connection and trust-building … that’s our solution,” she said. “That way we can identify early, intervene early, and provide that support for whatever that temporary social situation is, instead of having a permanent solution to it.”

Opinion: Suicide is a leading cause of death on campus. As educators, our support is critical.

Rivera-Lacey is superintendent/president of Palomar College and lives in Fallbrook. Savaiano is director of Behavioral Health and Wellness at Palomar College and lives in San Marcos.

In many situations, an education provides the knowledge, skills and resources needed to navigate the complicated daily life of a college student. The personal challenges that college students experience are incredibly important to identify and address, as they impact their capacity to pursue their educational goals. With mental health concerns increasing amongst college students and with suicide as one of the leading causes of death on college campuses, our ability as educators to identify students who need support is critical.

Over the years, institutions of higher education have had to become more aware of the vast sources of stress for our students. In 2019, the Chancellor’s Office for the California Community Colleges published a primer for faculty and staff to build awareness and provide recommendations to address mental health needs on our campuses. This document highlights the impact of mental wellness on student success and retention and identifies many stressors that community college students commonly experience. The more recent impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated these stressors.

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The majority of community college students work at least part-time, and many work full-time due to financial demands. Many are taking care of loved ones, including parents, siblings and their own children. When compared to four-year universities, the community colleges have larger numbers of LGBTQ+, veteran, foster youth, low-income and first-generation college students; many of whom experience additional layers of stress, such as discrimination, food and housing insecurity, and intergenerational trauma. Due to their positionality and experiences, students may struggle with imposter syndrome, parental/family pressure and other social pressures that impede their ability to persist in college. In addition to a quality education, we must provide our students with the tools necessary to balance the many demands of work, study and social life. We must also recognize and promote the inherent strengths, grit and resilience that our students possess.

At Palomar College, we have proactively implemented several strategies to support our students’ mental health and basic needs. In addition to our food and nutrition center, where students receive free groceries, free diapers and other essential products, we strive to create spaces that promote a sense of community. To help achieve this goal, we established the Comets Care Network, a regular interdisciplinary meeting of key campus stakeholders who work directly with our most vulnerable student populations.

Palomar College recently expanded its Behavioral Health Counseling Services, Palomar’s mental health clinic for students, by adding two full-time licensed therapists to work alongside an established group of part-time therapists and interns. With these additional resources, the Comets for Recovery workshop series was designed to help students dealing with their own substance abuse or experiencing it within their families. In addition, Behavioral Health Counseling Services has developed intentional, culturally informed services and liaison roles with other campus departments to address mental health related-concerns of underrepresented students, including Latinx, LGBTQ+ and African American students.

Our Student Wellness Advocacy Group, a cohort of Palomar students who work under the guidance of our health care professionals to reduce stigma and promote help-seeking behaviors in their peers through classroom presentations and outreach events supported each of these efforts. In order to support the long-term health and wellness of our students, Palomar College has entered into formal and informal partnerships with nearby community health care clinics, giving our therapists and other health care providers the ability to refer students who require long-term therapy or a higher level of care, as well as access to services while the college is closed or when they are no longer enrolled.

As we look towards the future, Palomar College will continue to expand our established health and wellness offerings through student-led initiatives. These include a Peer-2-Peer suicide prevention student ambassador program in collaboration with TrueCare, a neighboring community clinic, and the reactivation of the Palomar Chapter of Active Minds, a national organization that promotes mental health awareness and education through clubs and chapters at campuses throughout the U.S. In all these efforts, our student voices will continue to be our center as we support their well-being and success.

American investors no longer interested in funding African startups: Report

According to the report, the decline was attributed to the reduction in the number of active investors in the region compared to the previous year. The withdrawal of North American investors was responsible for 50% of the overall decline in investor numbers in 2023, significantly overshadowing European and Asia-Pacific investors, which accounted for 18% and 9% of the decrease, respectively.

The report added that foreign investors abandoned African economies struggling with high inflation and erosion in the value of local currencies. As a result, African startups have either laid off staff, changed business models or shut down due to economic realities and internal factors they couldn’t easily navigate.

“Those who made opportunistic rather than dedicated investments in Africa exited in favour of more familiar shores,” said the association, whose members include private equity, venture capital, institutional investors, and development finance institutions. There’s a “need for indigenous capital allocators with a long-term commitment to the continent.”

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According to the report, West Africa emerged as the leading region in Africa for venture capital activity, securing 26% of the continent’s total deal volume. Nigeria stood out as the most vibrant market, contributing 19% to the volume. The report also revealed that the financial sector was the most prominent, representing 23% of the deals, followed by information technology with 20%, and consumer discretionary sectors at 17%.

Black pop artists have long gone country. Here’s a brief history.

When Beyoncé confirmed that she would be going all-in on country music with “Cowboy Carter,” the second part of a project that began with her 2022 album “Renaissance,” conversation about pop artists turning to the genre — and how Black artists are received in Nashville — began to heat up.

Country remains a cloistered segment of the music industry where Black performers continue to face an especially challenging path — despite the fact that Black pioneers have been essential to the genre, including Lesley Riddle, known as Esley, a guitarist and folklorist who taught the Carter Family in the 1930s and Charley Pride, who scored more than 50 Top 10 country hits from the 1960s through the ’80s.

In the past few years, Lil Nas X sparked cultural debate and hit chart gold with “Old Town Road,” a country-rap mashup that was followed by the arrival of Breland’s aesthetic blend “My Truck,” and songs from O.N.E the Duo, a mother-daughter group making a hybrid of country, R&B and pop. But there’s also a long history of Black artists embracing country after establishing careers in other genres. Here’s how some key figures fared.

Ray Charles

Ray Charles’ passion for country music dated back to childhood, when his mother would let him stay up late on Saturdays and listen to the Grand Ole Opry. As he told Terry Gross on “Fresh Air” in 1998, “it was fascinating what these guys could do with these banjos and these fiddles and the steel guitars.”

When he tried his hand at the genre, with “Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music” in 1962, he mostly did away with those surface trappings, instead re-imagining country favorites from the prior decade-plus as affecting, pop-crooner fare. Focusing on lovelorn ballads, including Eddy Arnold and Cindy Walker’s “You Don’t Know Me,” Don Gibson’s “I Can’t Stop Loving You” and Hank Williams’ “You Win Again,” Charles elegantly conveyed the wistful ache at the heart of these songs, his voice framed by sumptuous orchestral arrangements.

It was a brilliant concept that paid off in sales: The album topped the Billboard pop chart and its second volume, released later the same year, hit No. 2. In subsequent years, amid his steady work in pop, R&B and jazz, Charles would return to country music regularly, on albums such as “Love Country Style” (1970) and “Wish You Were Here Tonight” (1983), where he openly paid homage to his roots by incorporating the banjos, fiddles and steel guitars he’d first heard decades earlier.

Tina Turner

An entire album themed around country music wasn’t a huge stretch for Tina Turner. “The music I heard on the radio when I was a kid was mostly country and western,” she wrote in her memoir, “I, Tina,” and her superlative covers of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary,” the Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women” and the Beatles’ “Get Back” showed her mastery of the rootsier side of rock ’n’ roll.

On “Tina Turns the Country On!,” her 1974 solo debut, she amplified the deep yearning of Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” added a righteous twang to a gender-flipped version of Bob Dylan’s “She Belongs to Me,” toughened up Hank Snow’s “I’m Movin’ On” and found the gospel undertone in Dolly Parton’s “There’ll Always Be Music.”

The album earned a Grammy nomination for best R&B vocal performance, female, but didn’t chart, and Turner found greater success with her next LP, “Acid Queen,” which leaned back toward rock. Although she never made another country album, outtakes from the “Tina Turns the Country On!” sessions came out later, including fiery renditions of Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson’s “Good Hearted Woman” (a song originally inspired by an ad Jennings had read for an Ike and Tina release), Tammy Wynette’s “Stand by Your Man” and Loretta Lynn’s “You Ain’t Woman Enough (to Take My Man).”

Linda Martell

Linda Martell had recorded a few early ’60s singles in a girl-group R&B vein when an aspiring music manager heard her singing country covers at a U.S. Air Force base in South Carolina. He persuaded her to come to Nashville, where she quickly signed a record deal and tracked a debut LP, “Color Me Country” from 1970, that solidified her reboot as a country singer.

Three singles made Billboard’s country songs chart, with Martell’s beautifully understated cover of Richard Lewis Spencer’s recent hit “Color Him Father” peaking at No. 22. Martell became the first Black woman to perform at the Grand Ole Opry, but she faced racial discrimination on the road. A falling out with her producer — “He blackballed me” after she recorded for another label, Martell told Rolling Stone in 2020 — marked the end of her Nashville recording career. She continued to sing country and R&B in later years but never made another album. As a now-acknowledged pioneer in the genre, she’s inspired contemporary Black country artists including Mickey Guyton.

The Pointer Sisters

The Pointer Sisters’ early hits dipped into a grab bag of genres, including jazz, rock and funk, and on their proudly defiant 1974 breakup song “Fairytale,” full-on country, recorded in Nashville with fiddle, pedal steel and all the trappings. The song charted at No. 13 and won the quartet a Grammy for best country vocal performance by a duo or group, making them the first and, to date, only Black women who have taken home a Grammy in any country category.

“When I wrote ‘Fairytale,’ I wasn’t trying to do something clever to break into the country market,” Anita Pointer, who co-wrote the song with her sister Bonnie, said in the group’s autobiography, also called “Fairytale.” “I wrote it because that’s the way I felt.”

The Pointer Sisters broke another barrier with the song, becoming the first Black female group to perform at the Grand Ole Opry, where they faced protesters carrying signs that said “Keep Country, Country.” Their sound remained eclectic in later years, as they scored pop hits like “I’m So Excited.” But a follow-up to the country stylings of “Fairytale,” “Live Your Life Before You Die,” earned another Grammy nod, and on the 1994 genre-blending “Rhythm Country and Blues” compilation, the Pointers teamed with Clint Black to cover the Aretha Franklin hit “Chain of Fools.”

Millie Jackson

“I took these country songs that I like and funked them up a little,” soul singer Millie Jackson said in 1981, before the release of “Just a Lil’ Bit Country,” her first full LP focusing on the genre. Like Charles and Turner, the Georgia-born singer-songwriter grew up on country radio, and she recorded songs by Merle Haggard and others even as she established herself as a master of passionate, straight-talking R&B.

On “Just a Lil’ Bit Country,” she added a strutting contemporary groove to Charles’ “Modern Sounds in Country and Western” smash “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” tackled ballads made famous by Tammy Wynette and John Conlee, and re-imagined Kris Kristofferson’s “If You Don’t Like Hank Williams” as an ode to her favorite soul singers (including herself) on “Anybody That Don’t Like Millie Jackson.”

Despite cracking the Top 50 on the R&B albums chart, the album turned out to be Jackson’s last full-LP foray into the genre, as she continued to explore soul, pop and even raunchy comedy. But in 2014, she showed she still had a knack for funking up country with her playfully explicit riff on Tyler Farr’s 2013 country hit “Redneck Crazy.”

Darius Rucker

In 2008, when singer-songwriter Darius Rucker announced that Hootie & the Blowfish would be going on hiatus, he told fans not to expect another album or tour from the group “until I do three or four country records.” That number actually turned out to be five, as he found immediate success with “Learn to Live,” his second solo LP and first country album.

The album topped the Billboard country albums chart and yielded the first of a string of country No. 1 hits, culminating with “Wagon Wheel,” his Grammy-winning, diamond-certified Old Crow Medicine Show cover from 2013. Rucker would become the most prominent Black artist in the genre in decades: the first to top the Billboard country songs chart since Charley Pride in 1983, and the first to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry since Pride had in 1993.

Rucker did join back up with Hootie & the Blowfish in 2019, but his country career is still very much a going concern: His sixth album in the genre, “Carolyn’s Boy,” came out in 2023.

Lionel Richie

Traces of country were evident on Commodores hits like “Sail On” from 1979, where Lionel Richie sang with a pronounced twang. But the Alabama native found even greater success in the genre the following year, when “Lady,” a stirring love ballad he’d unsuccessfully pitched to his then-bandmates, became a huge hit for Kenny Rogers, topping Billboard’s Hot 100, country-songs and adult-contemporary charts, and also making a showing on the R&B songs chart.

Even as Richie’s solo career exploded in the ’80s thanks to pop hits like “Truly,” “All Night Long (All Night)” and “Hello,” he tipped his hat to Nashville on tracks like “Stuck on You” and “Deep River Woman,” a collaboration with the country veterans Alabama. He spotlighted his country past on “Tuskegee,” a 2012 LP where he revisited his major forays into the genre, along with his pop smashes, with help from Rogers, Willie Nelson, Shania Twain, Darius Rucker and other country A-listers.

In 2022, Richie made it clear that he hoped to make more time to record country music going forward. “I am so vested in country music, you have no idea,” he said at that year’s CMA Awards.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

The True History Behind Netflix’s ‘Shirley’ Movie

… offering public apologies and asking Black Americans for forgiveness. His daughter … editor, humanities. Filed Under: African American History, American History, American Presidents … , Movies, Political Leaders, Politics, Racism, US Government, Women's … RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News

Twenty years ago, Usher gave us his Confessions

Twenty years ago, Usher confessed his way to the bestselling album of his career — and the bestselling album by a Black artist in the 21st century.

The singer’s fourth album, Confessions, arrived March 23, 2004. It stemmed from Usher’s desire for fans to get to know him as a person. As he said at the time, “All of us have our Pandora’s boxes or skeletons in our closets. I let a few of them out, you know. I’ve got a lot to say.”

That being said, not all the tracks on the album were actually things that had happened to him in real life. “Burn” was definitely about his relationship with TLC‘s Chilli, but “Confessions Pt. II” — in which Usher famously sang, “My chick on the side said she got one on the way” — was based on something that happened to producer Jermaine Dupri.

When Confessions was released, it sold an incredible 1.1 million copies in its first week — on its way to becoming the bestselling album of 2004. To date, it’s sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. 

It also debuted at #1, becoming Usher’s first chart-topping album, and produced the #1 hits “Yeah!,” “Burn,” “Confessions Pt. II” and “My Boo” as well as the top 10 hit “Caught Up.”

In 2020, Billboard called Confessions “the blueprint for all your favorite stars to come” and cited Drake, Miguel, Chris Brown and Omarion as artists who’ve all said they were influenced by Usher.

Confessions made Usher a global superstar and won him three Grammys, four American Music Awards and 11 Billboard Music Awards. 

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5120 Entertainment film ‘Back on the Strip’ nominated for Image Award

When 5120 Entertainment CEO Eugene Parker decided to take a chance on the comedy motion picture ‘Back on the Strip’ his goal was to see the independent film to the finish line.

Released in theaters in August 2023, ‘Back on the Strip’ was nominated for Outstanding Independent Motion Picture for the 55th NAACP Image Awards airing Saturday, March 16 at 8PM on BET and CBS.

“First and foremost, I really liked the project and secondly and not the least bit significant was because it was a film with a lot of talented people on screen and behind the scenes,” said Parker from his Woodland Hills headquarters.

‘Back on the Strip’ is featured in the category of Outstanding Independent Motion Picture along with Brother (Vertical Entertainment), Story Ave (Kino Lorber), Sweetwater (Briarcliff Entertainment/Universal) and The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster (RLJE Films).

“We are thrilled to celebrate the achievements of this year’s nominees, whose outstanding contributions across film, television and streaming, music, literature, podcasts, and more have inspired us all,” said Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP. “The NAACP Image Awards stand as a tribute to their creativity, talent, and dedication to authentic storytelling and are a testament to the richness and diversity of our community.”

“Back on the Strip” marks a significant milestone, serving as the directorial debut of veteran comedian Chris Spencer, that expresses his richness of storytelling through the film’s predominantly Black cast.

Featuring iconic talents such as Wesley Snipes, Tiffany Haddish, J.B. Smoove, Gary Owen, Bill Bellamy, Spence Moore II, Raigan Harris, and Faizon Love, the movie resonated culturally with its audience.

The NAACP Image Awards recognition is more than an accolade for ‘Back on the Strip’, it also represents a pivotal moment for Parker and 5120 Entertainment’s vision of elevating independent entertainment to unparalleled heights.

The NAACP Image Awards, considered the Black Academy Awards, celebrates the incredible achievements of Black artists, producers, directors and storytellers who underscores the evolving dynamics of representation and diversity in the entertainment industry.

As 5120 Entertainment continues to champion the mantra “Bring Your Dreams Here,” its impact on the live event space and beyond illustrates the boundless possibilities when dreams are nurtured and brought to fruition on grand stages like the NAACP Image Awards.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment