Recently, gubernatorial candidate Betsy Johnson responded to a report that supporters attending one of her campaign events were wearing T-shirts showing a Confederate flag.(“Oregon governor candidates debate in first clash among Betsy Johnson, Christine … RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News
Artworks collected over 65 years to go on display at Herbert in Coventry
Artworks collected on behalf of Coventry over a 65-year period will soon go on display at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum. Brought to Light will see highlights from the Herbert’s collectiongo on display to the public from August 12 until January 8, 2023.
Meanwhile, at the same time, in the neighbouring exhibition space, work from the National Gallery’s artist in residence Ali Cherri will be on display as part of a partnership with the Herbert. The exhibition If you prick us, do we not bleed? – a line from the Merchant of Venice – started with research in the National Gallery’s archive, from which Cherri uncovered accounts of five paintings that were vandalised while on display and his reaction to that vandalism.
Cherri has created five new sculptures. They imagine the lives of the paintings after they had been damaged, one of which has now been acquired by the Herbert’s Collection’s team. Martin Roberts, Curatorial Manager at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, said: “We are very excited to bring two new exhibitions to the city, starting this summer and running through to the New Year.
READ MORE: Jailed in July: Evil killers, Coventry rapist and depraved step-grandad
“Brought to Light gives us an opportunity to display works that have been collected for the city over the past 65 years, and some that have, in fact, never been seen by the public before. If you prick us, do we not bleed? Is a wonderful example of how our partnership with national museums can significantly enhance our offer, and bring brand-new perspectives to the region, which gives us the opportunity to work with artists such as Ali, a Silver Lion winner at the Venice Biennale.
“We’re really excited to open both exhibitions in August and would urge visitors to come along and make the most of this opportunity.” Caroline Douglas, Director of the Contemporary Art Society, said: “We are delighted to see this eloquent and conceptually rich work by Ali Cherri enter the permanent collection at the Herbert.
(Image: Submitted by the Herbert)
“The legacy of the residency at the National Gallery lies also in the powerful new connections for Coventry, across history and geographies. It has been a great pleasure to work with Ali Cherri at this pivotal moment in his career.”
Organisers say Brought to Light reflects over six decades of collecting at the Herbert – going back to the appointment of the gallery’s first Art Director, John Hewitt, in 1957, all the way up to the present day. Hewitt was tasked with building a contemporary collection and chose to collect works showing scenes of British life and landscape which he felt would appeal to Coventry people.
Hewitt held strong socialist beliefs, and this is reflected in the works he selected. These included many views of British towns and cities and working-class people going about their everyday lives. He also collected a small number of more radical works by artists such as Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, as he wanted to reflect current ideas in art. Hewitt retired in 1972.
In the 1980s, the Herbert showed several exhibitions by young Black artists, including The Pan Afrikan Connection, which showcased work by the Blk Art Group. Key acquisitions were two paintings by the South African artist Gavin Jantjes. Since around 2010, the focus of the Herbert’s collecting has been on themes of conflict, peace, and reconciliation. This reflects the city’s role in promoting peace and reconciliation internationally, which grew out of the destruction of the Second World War.
Most recently a key priority for collecting has been works by Black artists and female artists, to redress a historic imbalance in the collection. These works often overlap with existing themes in the collection around British life and landscape, and conflict and reconciliation.
In the exhibition next-door, Cherri presents a series of mixed media, sculptural installations which consider how histories of trauma can be explored through a response to museum and gallery collections. He was struck by the public’s highly emotional response to attacks on artwork, finding that newspaper articles would describe the damages as if they were wounds inflicted on a living being – even referring to the Gallery’s conservators as surgeons.
He also noticed an overwhelming urge to ‘heal’, make good and hide the damage. This personification of artworks, and the suggestion that they can experience distress, is reflected in the exhibition’s title, taken from Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice. For more information, go to www.theherbert.org
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54gene’s CEO Abasi Ene-Obong Wants to Fix the Racial Imbalance in Health Data
Born and raised in the Nigerian port city of Calabar, Abasi Ene-Obong remembers the exact moment that changed his life’s direction. Sitting in an introductory genetics class at medical school, in 2003, he heard the professor say that African genetic samples comprised less than 3% of health data bases in the world, creating a stunning vacuum in its ability to detect diseases and develop effective treatments for hundreds of millions of people.
Ene-Obong ditched his plan to become a doctor, and instead left for London, and later Los Angeles, to study genetics, finally earning a Master’s degree in business focusing on the bioscience industry, at the Keck Graduate School in California, and a Ph.D. in cancer biology at the University of London.
With that, he launched 54gene in 2019—named for the 54 countries in Africa—with the mission to right the sharp racial imbalance in global health data. Headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, and Washington, D.C., the startup was on TIME’s 2019 list of best health innovations.
Three years on, Ene-Obong, 37, says every part of the mission has proved hugely challenging, from raising venture-captial funds to explaining to Big Pharma companies what 54gene is trying to do.
TIME met Ene-Obong in Paris in June to discuss how his company intends to grow its business, make money and the process of winning over investors—and the health problems at stake.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
(For coverage of the future of work, visit TIME.com/charter and sign up for the free Charter newsletter.)
What is the major problem you are trying to solve?
This is a problem that affects everyone across the world. We’re all faced with new diseases, and even current diseases, like cancers and cardiovascular diseases, and there’s a need to find cures, with advancements in bio-computing, and AI and genomics.
Because of the maturity of various tech verticals, where most groups are beginning to look at genetics, that could mean better diagnostics, and safer and more effective drugs for diseases. In order for us to understand human biology, we can’t just look at one group of people and assume that group represents all people.
Right now most of the genetic [data in] databases across the world is Caucasian.
I see 54Gene’s website says only 3% of the world’s genetic databases come from African genes.
Actually it’s less than 3%, That is something my company is trying to solve.
Africans represent the most diverse population on Earth, and what that means from a genetic standpoint is that lots of what we call variants that we need to understand, what we’re looking for is just differences.
We’re not only talking between Africa and Caucasian, but also between [for example] Nigerians and Cameroonians. Nigeria has more than 300 ethno-linguistic groups. I am mixed, Efik and Igbo, from Calabar, which was one of the biggest exporters of slaves.
Is this vacuum the fault of Big Pharma? Or is it African countries and governments that have simply not collected genetic data?
It’s everybody’s fault. It’s both the fault of governments not prioritizing this, in many cases, not even understanding the need for this. And it’s also the fault of Big Pharma.
Big Pharma has been opportunistic. They’ve gone to where the data exists. It has not really been their job to produce the data. But because of their role in the ecosystem, they could be a voice to really advance this part of medicine.
I would put quite a lot of the fault on the lack of research and development in Africa. I want to make sure we are being honest with ourselves. If we as Africans take the initiative and the leadership in this, then others will come to the table.
There was a lot of talk during the pandemic about vaccine nationalism and about African governments being cut out of any fair distribution. Is this part of the same problem—that Western pharmaceutical companies are basically rapacious?
I’m not an apologist for the West, but I think we need to take more ownership and more action. You don’t have to match the West and put $2 billion into COVID, but you can put a portion of your budget. What we’re seeing is that they [African governments] were not even putting in that.
Most of health care in Africa has typically been funded by international donors. So African governments have not owned their own health care. They have lots of international donors who put in the money and dictate the agenda for how funds should be used. And so after decades and decades of that type of behavior, they have to unlearn, and practice healthcare in the way it should be practiced. Now we’re beginning to see that in certain governments.
What’s 54gene’s business model? And how do you partner with Big Pharma and other entities?
Our goal is not so much to create the data and have anybody buy it. That would not be responsible. We have to fix systemic issues, where people come in [to Africa] to pay for samples, take the samples to their countries, all outside Africa, do the research and development outside, make the drugs, and they never come back to Africa.
Right now, it takes 10 to 20 years for a drug launched in the U.S., or France, to come to Africa. Our business model is one that I believe is more inclusive and sustainable, and has Africans in mind. Rather than building a data set and sending it out, we are doing the R&D work, sometimes in partnership with pharma companies, the goal being that we will develop drugs or our data will be used to improve diagnostics for Africans and non-Africans.
How are your discussions going with big pharmaceutical companies?
We do have works in progress with a few pharmaceutical companies, both U.S. and European.
When you talk to CEOs, is the work you’re doing something they understand, or is it a jump for them?
We have some that understand the need to do this type of work in Africa, such as doing the [genetic] sequencing on the continent, with which we’ve built a sequence in the lab so that we don’t have to send them abroad, or doing the clinical trials in Africa such that African patients can also get access to innovative drugs very early on.
So we see that some of these companies get it. A majority of them do not get it, because the majority of them are still looking at old business models. They want access to biological samples, to do the research and make whatever decisions the boardroom decides.
Do you see health crises, or disease, where the outcome would have been different if Africa had this kind of genetic data?
With COVID-19, we know we should have very robust surveillance systems. But in order to do that, you need to have the technical capability and infrastructure. Africa lacks quite a lot of that. Again, that is one of the things we are solving. But you know, there are 54 countries and 1.4 billion people. We could do much, much better. And yes, it could help prevent some infectious diseases.
But people are not yet calling out the rise in non-infectious diseases, and we are seeing that in hospitals: Rises in cancer cases and cardiovascular disease cases.
Most public funders have prioritized infectious diseases like HIV, tuberculosis, malaria. That’s where all the money has gone to. That has led to a lack of development in this non-infectious disease care management.
I don’t think this is really understood. Are you saying that basically, to treat diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes, Africans might require treatment specific to them?
In a lot of cancers, with the mutational drivers, most of our understanding is based on studies done in purely Caucasian populations. There was a study a year ago at the University of Chicago where they looked at breast cancers amongst Yoruba women, which found there was a different gene mutation causing a number of cases. The women got more severe breast cancer in their 40s. The drugs we’ve been using to treat breast cancer, and the diagnosis, have not really looked for this mutation.
How hard has it been for you to raise funds for 54gene?
We raise funds mostly through venture capital funding, where we give some equity, for investments. As of last year, we had raised $45 million. We are attracting very good investors.
I see the company becoming a major player in the health tech space, measured by impact, rather than the monetary value. The work we are doing is going to improve health outcomes in various countries in Africa, covering hundreds of millions of lives, potentially. Globally, it’s going to help inform how diseases are looked at, how new drugs are developed.
What is the potential impact on Black Americans?
The work is going to impact all people of African origin, whether they are in Africa, France, the U.K., or the U.S., Brazil, or the Caribbeans. Many of them came from West Africa. We know Nigeria contributed about 25% during the slave trade. And we still see more Nigerians leaving. As the world gets more diverse, this is only going to get even more important.
And then, of course, Nigeria will soon have more people than the U.S.
Yes. And Africa will soon have more people than Asia.
Big Pharma is notoriously focused on its bottom line. What do you say when they ask, ‘what is in it for us?’
Quite a few things are in it for them. One is it’s going to improve the pipeline of new products, not just products sold in Africa, but also globally. We’re not saying that your entire focus should be Africa. We are saying you can include Africa in your focus, and it could also impact your bottom line significantly.
I’ll give you an example. There is a drug used to treat bad cholesterol. A lot of the insight for the work came from Africans, because the drug targets a rare mutation, that is more common in African populations. The discovery came from African populations in the U.S., actually.
At what moment did you suddenly think to yourself ‘this is what I should do?’
A lot of it was serendipity. I was studying medicine as an undergraduate in Nigeria. I saw how genetics held the possibility of finding cures for rare diseases like Huntington’s and sickle cell disease. I got very interested at that age in doing genetics. By the time I was doing my Ph.D., I realized that I wanted to be running a company that was global, but also provided a platform for Africans to contribute globally to research and healthcare.
In 2013, I moved to LA. I worked in the U.S. as a management consultant for pharmaceutical and biotech companies. The first sets of data coming out showed how diverse African populations were, and the lack of that data. So I knew that with my educational background and my work experience, and being born in Nigeria, that I could solve some of this problem. And so I went back to start it.
Why does 54gene have a Washington base? What’s the purpose of that?
It’s a global company. There are a lot of people, Africans and non-Africans, who want to contribute to this mission because it affects all of us as human beings. Right now we have over 100 people in Nigeria, and nearly 30 in the U.S.
We’re sitting here at VivaTech, a tech conference in Paris, and there’s been a lot of talk for a long time about the tech industry being overwhelmingly white. How has your experience been?
People solve what they know. It is the same for investors: Investors invest in what they know, and what they connect to. When you don’t have a diverse group of people in key decision-making positions in the tech industry, you are not going to get them to invest in Black businesses, or businesses from diverse communities, because they want to put their money in what they understand.
We need to have more diversity in the VC [venture capitalist] offices. Investments are emotional, you have to have an emotional connection.
I’m assuming when you are dealing with VCs it is mostly white men, correct?
Yes. I have reason to believe investment is emotional, from my own personal experience. It could mean I am connected to the problem, or connected to the person who is solving the problem.
One way we solve that problem is having people who are of diverse ethnic groups and experiences. When I talk to U.S. or U.K. or European VCs about the market in Africa and how it’s growing, many of them have never been to Africa. Many of them still have the same pictures that you see on TV, of somebody begging, of donating to charity. One investor meeting I had, he started mentioning what he does for charities. As I started talking, he was interjecting all the time. Some of his colleagues were getting uncomfortable. At some point I said, I didn’t come here to be insulted. I would rather not take your money. He had to take a step back and his colleagues apologized.
So, for an investor like that, there is no sense that maybe there could be a return on the investment?
When he stopped talking and started listening, he ended up saying, ‘oh this is this is actually cool.’ But that was an experience I do not want to repeat.
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African American Churches Are Stealing Money From The Poorest Black Inner Cities.
6
(ThyBlackMan.com) We all understanding that in every black community there is over five thousand churches which are located every five to six blocks from each other and within them there is a liquor store every two blocks which are the same ongoing tools of systemic racism used against the poorest black communities in America. These African American churches; as well as, the liquor stores are social engineering created with the sole purpose to keep black people in a state of worship and drunkenness. The African American churches in America which are the foundation of white supremacy who gave us Christianity “The Religion of the Slaves” over 400 years ago and black men/women who worship this garbage are the ones been taking for a ride and their money given to these churches are under the control of the white men and the government but with a black pastor tap dancing to you and preaching the cave dweller celestial message.
Now, the main reason for this topic at hand is that for the last 53 years after the assassination of our great leader Martin Luthe King on April 4, 1968 in Memphis Tennessee where he was shot while staying at the Lorraine Motel and was still alive when He arrived at the hospital only to be suffocated by an FBI agent which was witness by a white nurse and a white Doctor who will years later confessed to what they witness but their story to be kept in a lock vault and hidden from black America with the help of the white mainstream media. Indeed, since 1968, all the African American churches switched from been pro-black movement and pro-revolution to laying in bed with the FBI and democrat party in order to prevent the birth of another black man with the same fire, dedication and defiant to resurface as a leader of the black community which will again threaten the white power structure and destabilized the country.
You have noticed that as a so called free black men/women walking down the street of the inner cities of America that there is always a black church every five (5) to ten (10) blocks and before you get to these black churches there is one (1) to three (3) liquor store every two blocks and the question is why? No other race or culture in America has churches and liquor stores in their community to such extent. You do not see it in the Asian, Middle-Eastern, Jewish, Armenians, Italians, Irish and white people communities or neighborhoods. Not at all, do you see these group of people allowing the government or any other group of people to come in their neighborhood and place liquor stores and churches in every block or every other block of their neighborhood; but the African Americans are the only ones who allow anyone and anything to open liquor stores that destroyed our youth with their fire water and cheap food; and the churches to brainwashed our people into following the religion of the slave “Christianity” which was used as a tool to control the black men/women during slavery and still been use to keep black people docile, pacified and never to raise their hands against the white men and its agenda of systemic racism.
Now, who is at fault for these ongoing madness? Well, it is us black people for allowing ourselves to be fool not once, not twice but over 400 times every year for over 400 years and it will not stop until we wake up and start paying attention to the simplest detail and those who look like us but are not with us. Of course, I am talking about the black pastors and black priest operating all these African American Churches in our community at the behest of the white government in order to keep up in check and never to allowed us to really see the truth that is in plain view. You may asked “what is this truth that you cannot see” and I will tell you that you see it and supported every day when you go to these black churches and you give or donate your little money that you have to these black churches, black pastors and black priest who then take that money and put it in a white owned bank with white employees and then give that same money as loans and grants to other white people and other races who have an account in that bank for which they use their loans and grants to open businesses, hire their family member, friends and other white people and thus far create generational wealth for their white children and then turn around and denied employment to black men and black women and to you knowing that the money came from your donation to your church who then gave your donation to the white men’s bank.
Are you listening black man and black woman! Your African American Churches are preaching, singing, teaching and bending the knee to a white religion of the slaves for which you call Christianity and you call yourself Christians while the black pastors and black priest called you a “Sucker Bible Thumper”, they take your hard earned money, donations, contributions and put that money in a white bank owned by racist white men who employees other racist white men and racist want to be white Hispanics and use your money to give it to other racist white men and other racist who are seeking loans and grants to open business, buy houses, buy cars and build things that you cannot build or owned by yourself. The black pastors also take your money to buy luxury cars, million dollar homes in white neighborhoods, take long vacations, expensive clothing and jewelry while they tell you to lived a simple life and prayed to a white God for good thing to come to those who prayed and wait. You may notice that some of my sentences seemed repetitive but there is a reason behind it since I want all my African Americans men and women to understand that we are doing this to ourselves and we need to wake up and starting paying attention and thinking before we do things in support of churches that do not have the best interest of our black community. These black pastors and black priest are stealing the little money and wealth that we have and they are using it to enrich themselves and to enriched the white men while our community is dying and in desperate need of repair and rehabilitation.
Every Sundays and even on weekdays allege free black people go to church to seek peace, advise, solutions, entertainment, wife, husband etc.,, but the only things you received is the same speech that many pastors have been given black people with no solution in the near future. While at these black churches you are told at the beginning to give to God and Jesus and at the end your are asked again to give what little you have to the church and that God will blessed you with love, faith and happiness; yet, black people go home to despair, poverty, unemployment and death by the hands of police officers or at the hands of other black thugs and criminals who were born to single mothers who themselves were born to single mothers as well. Black America we need to stop giving money to black churches who do not do anything for blacks and neither do they lived in our black community or put money in black banks.
In the United States of America there are over 21 African American banks and yet our black churches do not bank with them and neither do they put any money or redirect any churchgoers to put their money in black banks. The African American Churches have a combined NetWorth of over $14 million dollar a month which is over $168 million dollars a year and that money is not use to help our black youth to keep them out of gangs, crime and drugs; instead, all that money that poor inner-cities black people give to black churches goes to hands and control of white banks that are owned by racist and non racist white men and they in turn use that black money and wealth to invest in the endeavor and businesses of white people, Asian people. Middle Eastern people, Hispanics people, LGBT and now it will also be use to help the 65,000 thousand Afghan refugees living in America.
It is time for all African American worshipers of the Religion of the Slaves aka Christianity to stop giving your money away to black pastors and their black churches preaching the word of the Neanderthal cave dwellers who gave you their garbage religion as a tool to control you during slavery and they still controlling you via the use of the black pastors, black priest and black bourgeoisie who are enriching themselves every Sunday while you are still living poor and seeing your children and love ones been killed on a daily basis by other people and by our own people who are also brainwashed by the same Religion of the Slaves aka Christianity. Now, many of you sellout blacks and uncle toms will continue to give all your money and the money which you do not have to your black churches regardless if the pastors is living in a white Neighborhood and driving a luxury car using your donations but at least you can asked, demand and seek proof of your black churches putting your donations and contributions in African American owned banks. Remember, there are over 21 black banks in America and yet these black churches and mega black churches refuse to open accounts and deposit their money that they receive from black worshipers into these black banks.
With that said, it is time for African Americans to demand our black pastors, churches, mega churches to put the money you gave them as donations, contributions, payments etc.. in black banks and financial institutions that are owned by pro- blacks and employees black people with black managers and black accountants. If every black church in America put all their money in our black banks it will create opportunities for our black banks to invest in our communities by creating jobs, investing in property, building trade and vocational schools for our black children, building safe home for battered black women and black homeless people and it will free us from the dependency of racist white America but more so if all churches and all black people put their money in our black banks then we could build dozens of Black Wall Streets in every state where there is a black population.
Below you will find a list of African American owned banks but you as a free thinking black person must do your own research and verify each bank to make sure they are black owned and pro-black.
1. OneUnited Bank
2. Carver Federal Savings Bank
3. Liberty Bank
4. Industrial Bank
5. Citizens Trust Bank
6. Mechanics & Farmers Bank
7. First Independence Bank
8. GN Bank (Groupe Nduom)
9. Broadway Federal Bank
10. The Harbor Bank of Maryland
11. First Independence Bank
12. Citizens Savings Bank & Trust
13. Unity National Bank
14. Tri-State Bank of Memphis
15. United Bank of Philadelphia
16. Commonwealth National Bank
17. Carver State Bank
18. Metro Bank
19. Columbia Savings and Loans Association
20.Alamerica Bank.
Columnist; Eugenio Stewart
One may contact this brother at; islam4infinity@yahoo.com.
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Filmmaker Jennette McCurdy opens up about harrowing experience at Nickelodeon
American filmmaker
Jennette McCurdy‘s new memoir sheds light on how a man at Nickelodeon called “The Creator” forced her to drink alcohol when she was underage and gave her massages. She also gave details about how Nickelodeon offered her $300,000 to stay quiet about her experiences with “The Creator”.
Jennette McCurdy‘s new memoir sheds light on how a man at Nickelodeon called “The Creator” forced her to drink alcohol when she was underage and gave her massages. She also gave details about how Nickelodeon offered her $300,000 to stay quiet about her experiences with “The Creator”.
Her memoir does not mention the name of The Creator. However, Dan
was the man behind iCarly, and ViacomCBS investigated him before he departed from Nickelodeon in 2018.
McCurdy said that “The Creator” was a two-faced man who sometimes complimented people and was generous. The other times he was mean-spirited and terrifying. She alleged that his degradation and insults could make grown women and men cry.
Eventually, The Creator faced the consequences of his actions, but McCurdy points out how she was offered hush money that she declined to accept. She mentioned in her memoir how she was surprised that Nickelodeon offered her money to keep mum about the abuse that The Creator brought about on her.
She added that she thought there should have been some ethical standard and a moral compass at Nickelodeon.
Turned McCurdy’s promised spinoff of iCarly into Sam & Cat, where Ariana Grande was allowed to work outside the show, but McCurdy was not.
McCurdy recalled how she “broke” when Ariana came about whistling and was happy and excited because she had played charades the previous night at Tom Hanks’s house.
She also detailed other incidents working at Nickelodeon, such as when she was embarrassed because someone pictured her in a bikini during a wardrobe fitting.
She discussed the incidents with her mother, and her mother asked her to deal with them as others would want what she already had.
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Black Parents Stop Sending Your Children To White Schools.
… Black America and my African American brothers and sisters? We … and beliefs of the African American Community. The white school … and suffering for which African Americans continue to endure to … many discriminatory and systemic racism against black children that … RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News
The Democratic Party – Still Tricking African-Americans!!
… a testimony against treachery, racism, discrimination, deception, theft … which still tricks African-Americans into thinking the … schools and neighborhoods. African Americans and “black” negroes … and highly intelligent African American REPUBLICANS who made … RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News
50 Black sailors were convicted of mutiny for striking after a deadly…
… 500 to 1,500 enslaved African Americans in California. The years of … and ammunition was motivated by racism. “The routine assignment of … on the area’s deep African-American history, is resolved to … is dedicated to the 50 African American sailors who in August … RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News
Giant Strides Of First African American-owned Portable Lasertag Firm
Latest News, U.S./Canada Sunday, August 7th, 2022
(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – MKETag, the first ever African American-owned renowned portable laser tag event production company based in Chicago, IL, has been in the news lately for reasons.
The company, jointly founded by Jermaine Young and his son, Terriquee, secured the approval of The Chicago Park District to launch the LaserTag in the Park AfterDark series across local community parks in June this year.
MKETag is thrilled to announce the company’s expansion into Chicago this summer with the launch of the LaserTag in the Park AfterDark series. The series’ first pop-up event will be held at Humboldt Park and will continue into Millennium Park, Grant (Ulysses) Park, Lincoln Park, and Garfield Park throughout the summer.
These public events are approved by The Chicago Park District and will include the company’s 1,500 square-foot enclosed laser tag arena equipped with LED lights, neon fog, air-conditioning, a vortex of wind tunnels, and a 360-degree sound system that the community is sure to enjoy all summer long.
MKETag, first established in Milwaukee, WI in 2018, is best known for its ultimate laser tag event activation for schools, festivals, fairs, non-profits, businesses, and private parties. Throughout the year they hold events such as fundraisers, team-building exercises, private birthday parties, post-prom parties, and in-school field trips to name a few.
Notably, the company has also hosted events for the Milwaukee Bucks, Waukesha County Fair, Milwaukee Police Association, Ronald McDonald House Charities Eastern Wisconsin Inc., Job Corps, Strawberry Fest, Sheboygan Falls PTO, Country Springs WaterPark and others.
Moreover, MKETag acts as one-stop-shop for community events, offering several other services such as Xbox and PS5 Gaming Lounges, Quest2 Virtual Reality Exp, DJs, 360 photo platforms, glow-in-the-dark ping pong, Fat Tuesday Daiquiri Bar (21+), food and drink concessions, inflatables, costumed characters, face-painting, balloon stations, including sensory sensitive events for those with special needs and so much more.
Player Development Coordinator for the Milwaukee Bucks, Lexi Phillips said MKETag goes “beyond expectations by incorporating interactive elements that aligned with our crowd of participants”.
In addition to MKETag’s upcoming series, LaserTag in the Park AfterDark, the company is also working with the city on other event activations such as the Back of the Yards Fest, Columbian Fest, The Promontory, MSOE, ComEd Rec Center LaserTag Pop-Ups, Kidz Fun n’Fitness, LaserTag-HipHop-Sip NITE-OUT, El Grito Events, Fundraiser Pop ups, Bulls Fest 2022, and Illinois State Fair.
By and large, the event production firm is excited to build their reputation across Chicago and encourage local schools, non-profits, party planners, fundraisers, block parties, festivals, fairs, colleges, social media groups, churches, sports teams and other businesses to reach out to MKETag the next time they are considering hosting a budget-friendly experiential event in the Chicago Metropolitan Area.
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Barack And Michelle Obama Discuss Their Documentary ‘Descendant’ During The African-American Film Fest At Martha’s Vineyard
Attendees of the African American Film Festival at Martha’s Vineyard received quite the surprise when former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama made an appearance on Aug. 5. According to Variety, the Obamas were on hand to discuss their new documentary on Netflix, Descendant.
Descendant is directed by Margaret Brown through the Obamas’ production company, Higher Ground Productions and tells the story of the last known slave ship to bring people from Africa to the U.S., the Clotilda. The film, which won the creative vision U.S. special jury award at Sundance, focuses on the descendants of the Clotilda in Africatown, Alabama.
The Obamas were introduced by one of the documentary’s executive producers, Questlove, and spoke for approximately 15 minutes about the film while noting the importance of revealing Black history that is frequently untold.
“When we screened this… we looked at it and immediately thought, ‘This is why we’re doing Higher Ground.’ Because what we know about our history as Black people, we don’t talk about nothing,” said the former First Lady. “We can’t get anything out of our elders, can we? We don’t know anything. Our mothers don’t talk about menopause, nobody knows about why grandma and grandpa got divorced,” she said.
“We just don’t talk. And there’s a lot of psychology around that, but what this film reminds us of is the power that our stories have. And we have to tell that truth.”
Mr. Obama spoke of the power of storytelling and praised the founders of the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival, Stephanie Rance and Floyd Rance.
“When we left the White House, Michelle and I talked about the things we wanted to do post-presidency. We’ve got a lot of stuff going on, but one of the things that we learned both when we were campaigning for office and taking office was the importance of stories and who tells stories and what stories are valid and what stories are discounted,” he said. “And it’s one of the powers of this festival, and the work that the Rances have done is to lift up stories that too often have been lost in the flow of time. Because we believe that everybody’s stories matter,” he said.
“Everybody’s got a sacred story that motivates us, moves us. It’s not just a matter of nostalgia, it powers us into the present and the future.”
Also seen at the film festival were Rev. Al Sharpton, Stacey Abrams and Keisha Lance Bottoms. Sharpton was at the event to premiere Loudmouth, a documentary about his life as an activist.
The 2022 Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival is running from Aug. 5 until Aug. 13.