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The Top 10 Blog Posts and or Magazine Articles for Black Christian Women in May 2020…

Hello World!

Happy June…Despite ALL that is going on in the country, which I won’t go into right now, black Christian women continue to make an impact.  So I’m back with my monthly roundup of blog posts and or magazine articles for black Christian women. Below is my Top 10 monthly roundup of blog posts and or magazine/newspaper articles for black Christian women for May, but you don’t have be a black Christian woman to to check them out. As usual, let me know if you like my list! Enjoy and share!

1.”Black Woman May Have Discovered Cure to Coronavirus” by Stacy M. Brown

Excerpt: The coronavirus pandemic has ravaged most of the world, but no one has felt the wrath more than African Americans and communities of color. Now, it might just be an African American woman who has discovered a desperately needed and life-saving drug to defeat the virus. Darnisha Harrison, founder, and CEO of Ennaid Therapeutics in Georgia, said scientists working for her company had found a drug that is showing promise in laboratories at blocking the continued spread of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.Based in Atlanta, her company uses its artificial intelligence, or AI, drug-discovery platforms to develop antiviral drugs. See more at: washingtoninformer.com.

2. “Column: Ida B. Wells, Awarded a Pulitzer Prize 89 Years After Her Death, is as Relevant as Ever” by Dahleen Glanton

Excerpt: Ida B. Wells was awarded a Pulitzer Prize on Monday, a symbolic gesture that cemented her place in history as a great American journalist. With or without public accolades, she has always belonged there. Wells’ fearless pursuit of justice during an era of mass lynchings set her apart from other journalists at the time. But like the issues she so passionately wrote about more than a century ago, recognition was not deemed urgent. See more at: chicagotribune.com.

3. “Dancing in the Street: Elaine Welteroth Got Married on Her Brooklyn Stoop, Then Threw a Virtual Block Party” by Alexandra Macon

Excerpt: Elaine met Jonathan through church when they were both around 12 and growing up in Northern California. (Their moms still sing next to each other in the choir to this day.) There wasn’t a romantic connection until they were reunited as adults in December 2013 when Jonathan came to interview for jobs in New York City, where Elaine had been living since 2008. See more at: vogue.com

4. “Black Journalist Launches Newsletter to Keep Black People Informed About the Coronavirus Pandemic” by Zack Linly

Excerpt: “As a black woman and freelance journalist passionate about writing stories for us, I’ve been desperately brainstorming constructive ways to lend my writing skills to help suppress the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and pandemic,” Peck wrote. “At the same time, for a *long* time, I’ve been wanting to write more original stories independent from any publication, for my own audience, and to start a newsletter as a way of practicing that. So I decided to combine all of these ideas and dedicate my newsletter SpeakPatrice to highlighting coronavirus news for black folks, both stories written by other journalists and by me, Patrice Peck.” See more at: theroot.com.

 

5. “Meet the First-Ever Mother-Daughter Duo to Graduate Med School Together and Become Doctors” by Njera Perkins

Excerpt: This mother-daughter duo is making history together as the first-ever to graduate from medical school at the same time and match at the same hospital. The University of Medicine and Health Sciences (UMHS) reports that Dr. Cynthia Kudji & daughter, Jasmine, both matched at LSU Health in Louisiana after receiving their medical degrees–Cynthia in Family Medicine and Jasmine in General Surgery. See more at: afrotech.com.

6. Black Woman Entrepreneur Now Manufacturing Her Own Line of Hand Sanitizer

Excerpt: Gwen Jimmere, founder and CEO of Naturalicious and the first Black woman to own a patent for a natural hair care product, is making history again as one of the first to launched a Black-owned hand sanitizer brand. See more at: blackbusiness.com.

7. “Who Is Joyette Holmes, The New Prosecutor in the Ahmaud Arbery Case?” by Sarah Rose

Excerpt: Earlier this month, Holmes recorded a video for the Cobb County “12 Hours of Prayer” event. In it, she cited her spirituality as a tenet of her life. “I am grateful that in these times of uncertainty, I can lean on my faith and my ability to fellowship with others,” she said in the video. See more at: gpbnews.org.

8. “Vanderbilt’s Candice Lee Becomes First Black, Female Athletic Director in SEC history” by Sam Cooper

Excerpt: History was made at Vanderbilt University on Thursday.  The school announced that it has appointed Candice Storey Lee as its full-time athletic director, lifting the interim title she held since February. Lee, who will also hold the title of vice chancellor for athletics and university affairs, is the first woman to hold the AD title at Vanderbilt. More significantly, she is the first African American woman to lead an athletic department in the history of the Southeastern Conference. See more at: sports.yahoo.com.

9. “MIT Elects First Black Woman Student Body President in its 159-year History” by David Williams

Excerpt: About six percent of undergraduates at MIT are black and 47 percent are women, according to the school. MIT students had to leave campus in March because of the coronavirus pandemic, so Geathers campaigned online and through social media from her home in Miami, Florida. Students voted online. See more at: cnn.com.

10. “Georgia Woman Celebrates Turning 103 Years Old!” by  Adrianne M. Haney

Excerpt: While family had to hold a drive-by parade in her honor Saturday – keeping their social distance – she said she felt grateful for their love. “It brings tears of joy,” she said. “I can’t help but think how grateful I am to have friends to come out at a time like this. I appreciate it.” See more at: msn.com.

If you know of any black Christian women bloggers and or writers, please e-mail me at jacqueline@afterthealtarcall.com as I’m always interested in expanding my community of black Christian women blog, magazines and websites. As I noted before, while this is a roundup of interesting blog posts and or magazine and newspaper articles for black Christian women, you don’t have to be one to appreciate these pieces  🙂.

Any thoughts?

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Kirk Franklin & Fred Hammond Along With Bishop T.D. Jakes to Appear TODAY in Special Edition of ‘Verzuz – The Healing’

Hello World,

After this week with the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by a former Minnesota police officer and the subsequent protests and riots throughout the country, on today, we need some comfort. In an effort to do so, gospel institutions Kirk Franklin & Fred Hammond will be on Verzuz today at 5 p.m. on Instagram. Bishop T. D. Jakes will speak briefly before the battle. On the IG announcement, you can hear the piercing song of 12-year-old Keedron Bryant, who sings, “I’m a young black man…Every day, I’m being hunted as prey…I just want to live…God, protect me.” Yes, please God…

See the Verzuz announcement and Keedron’s song below…

 

Any thoughts?

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It’s Fiction Friday Featuring…Author Chandra Sparks Splond!

Hello World,

Since I officially became a novelist when my debut novel Destination Wedding was released in December, I’ve decided that I want to meet and support other novelists! So one Friday a month, I plan to feature a novelist. I hope these features will inspire you to read their work and support them as you’ve supported me. When I first started this blog in 2008, I was a nonfiction junkie and hadn’t read fiction in years. However, when God gave me the idea for Destination Wedding, He presented it as a novel so I began reading novels again for solely for research purposes. Through this research, however, I rediscovered the passion I had for reading fiction as a child (which was probably God’s plan all along). And this feature is proof of that rekindled passion. (I sound like a romance writer, right?  🙂 )

Since this is my first Fiction Friday feature, I thought it would be apropos to feature Chandra Sparks Splond, a novelist who recently created a new website completely dedicated to fiction. Chandra is the creator of Black Fiction Addiction! Below is Chandra’s bio followed by my interview with Chandra, who is, incidentally, also one of the authors who endorsed my novel!

Chandra Sparks Splond is an editor, speaker and award-winning author and blogger. She is a 2019 recipient of the Learning for Life award presented by the Orlean Beeson School of Education at Samford University. Splond’s young adult novel Make It Work was named Alabama’s Great Read 2017, Spin It Like That was chosen as a Popular Paperback for Young Adults by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), and The Pledge was a YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers.

Splond, who lives with her family in Birmingham, Alabama, is the owner of West End Publishing, LLC. In addition to working for Kensington Publishing as the consulting editor for Arabesque romance, Splond has also done work for Random House, Moody Publishers, Kimani Press (formerly known as BET Books), and Hyperion. She has edited books for several New York Times, USA Today and Essence bestselling authors and has interviewed New York Times bestselling authors Karen Kingsbury, Kimberla Lawson Roby, Eric Jerome Dickey, singer Tamela Mann and actress Meagan Good. She has also worked for Good Housekeeping, Black and Married with Kids, Brides Noir, Weddingpages, Newsday, The Morning Call and Romantic Times. Visit her at chandrasparkssplond.com.

You began blogging in 2015, which is when you originally got the idea for Black Fiction Addiction? What took you so long to launch this website and why now?

First, thank you so much for having me on your blog today, Jackie.

I think there were a couple of things that kept me from launching. One, when I came up with the idea, I had just launched my blog, Magic City Momma, which I eventually renamed Book of Splond. I was still feeling my way through blogging, and I didn’t want to bite off more than I could chew by launching another blog so soon after I had started the first one. The more I worked on the first one, I let fear get in the way of launching Black Fiction Addiction. I had built up a following with Book of Splond, and I was afraid of losing them if I switched to something new, although not completely different since I featured authors on Book of Splond all the time. The thing is, the idea just wouldn’t let me go, so back in December, I told myself I would just take one step and see what would happen.

You originally began Black Fiction Addiction on YouTube, but you’ve recently decided to move Black Fiction Addiction to a website. Why, and will you still have some video-based content? Please explain.

Have you ever wanted to do something and pictured it being one way in your mind, but when you actually did it, it was totally different? That’s the way I felt with the YouTube channel for Black Fiction Addiction. It just wasn’t the way I envisioned, not to mention I couldn’t figure out the logistics of how I wanted to eventually do things—scheduling author interviews, editing, etc. I decided to table the video portion until I could think and work through it some more. I do plan to go back to it eventually—I have a few episodes already recorded.

What other types content will you feature on Black Fiction Addiction?

In addition to author interviews, I also plan to do book roundups and book spotlights, as well as share book news. If you follow the Black Fiction Addiction social media pages, I also have a Book of the Day spotlight, and I share games, memes and quotes. I have a few other ideas that I plan to eventually implement too. It’s all a process, and for a lot of it, I’m still feeling my way through.

What do you hope to accomplish with Black Fiction Addiction?

I want Black Fiction Addiction to be a celebration of black books and the authors who create them. I’ve spent most of my almost 25-year career in publishing—I was consulting editor for BET Books/Arabesque and I’ve done freelance editing for a lot of publishers, as well as established and aspiring black authors. I absolutely love black books, and I want to share that love with readers and maybe help some folks fall in love with reading along the way.

You’re a fiction author. Do you hope Black Fiction Addiction will help you to achieve your future fiction writing dreams? If so, how? (And how has COVID-19 pandemic and sheltering in place affected your writing.)

I think Black Fiction Addiction will play a part in my dreams. I’m honestly not sure how yet. I know God placed the idea for Black Fiction Addiction in my heart years ago, and right now, I’m trying to be obedient by moving forward with it. I’m excited to see where it leads.

As far as how COVID-19 has affected my writing, other than blogging, I haven’t gotten a lot of writing done. I was really stressed out about it for a while, but I’ve decided to give myself a little grace. We’re in unprecedented times, so I’m learning to be okay about not accomplishing some things. I’ve learned that things happen when they are meant to, so for whatever reason, I’m not supposed to be working on my own stories right now.

Who are some dream authors who hope you to interview in the future?

I’ve been blessed in that I’ve already had an opportunity to interview some of my dream authors (Kimberla Lawson Roby, Beverly Jenkins, Eric Jerome Dickey, Lolita Files, Victoria Christopher Murray, ReShonda Tate Billingsley, Donna Hill, Meagan Good, Jacquelin Thomas, Vanessa Davis Griggs, Kim Cash Tate and Michelle Stimpson to name a few). Interviewing Brenda Jackson, Rochelle Alers, Angie Thomas, Terry McMillan and Bernice McFadden would be amazing.

What are some novels to look for in 2019-2020 thus far?

A few books that have already been released I think people should check out are Lean on Me by Pat Simmons, (Im)Perfectly Happy by Sharina Harris. Upcoming books I’m excited for the release of are The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon; A Duke, the Lady and a Baby by Vanessa Riley; and The Other Sister by Donna Hill. I’m always sharing books on my blog (blackfictionaddiction.com), as well as on social media (instagram.com/blackfictionaddiction, facebook.com/blackfictionaddiction and twitter.com/blackfictionad1). I’d love it if readers would come hang out with me at any (or all) of those places.

Any thoughts?