Cassreino has two decades of journalism experience that he uses to amplify the journalism program at St. Joseph Catholic School in Madison, Miss.
Jackson Indie Music Week held a panel titled “Do the Knowledge” on Jan. 14, 2023, where professionals in the music industry advised artists on furthering their careers.
Amia Edwards launched the Amiable Arts Foundation, a nonprofit foundation that helps prepare students for vocations, college, and careers in film, theater and performing arts.
Aspiring director Karley Newell said she initially wanted to be in the entertainment industry as an actress, but while attending the Jackson Youth Film Camp that started in June 2022, she found a love for the behind-the-scenes work surrounding filmmaking.
Sam Cooke. W. C. Handy. Marty Stuart. Alice Walker. Ida B. Wells. These five superstars in their fields—musical performance and business, writing, journalism, Black activism—are the latest Mississippians inducted into the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience Hall of Fame. They join the ranks of Oprah Winfrey, James Earl Jones, Sela Ward and 25 other Mississippi artists The MAX, as it is commonly known, has honored.
I believe that I am on this earth to do all the work I can to help people. No matter how flawed I am and no matter how many times I mess up, I know that I can make a difference for those around me. This pandemic helped me to realize more of who I am as a person mentally, spiritually and physically. I can’t continue to live life being a timid little girl who doesn’t know how to speak up for herself.
“I talked to my teacher about how everyone was calling me an oreo because at the time, it was a very hurtful comment. I’d always been around mostly white people, and to be in this new Black community and to feel rejected by that community, a community that I really wanted to be a part of, was very difficult,” teenager Yasmike Ware explains about her award-winning “OREOntation” podcast.
I conclude that the decisions to force Black students to share top honors with white students result from a psychological discomfort known as “white fragility.” This is a state of stress experienced by some white people when they are presented with information about people of color that challenges their sense of entitlement. I maintain that when students of color are named top students in their graduating class, as Shepard was in 2016, white society may begin to fear that students of color are encroaching upon their social turf.
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The Mississippi Free Press is a project of the Mississippi Journalism and Education Group, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit journalism organization (EIN 85-1403937).
