Art for Sale Page 2

Gus Casely-Hayford, the director of the new V&A East Museum in east London © Lewis Vorn
The V&A brand is expanding with the launch of the long-awaited V&A East Museum in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, this month. Its director, Gus Casely-Hayford, is promising “a fresh look at contemporary culture through the V&A’s global collections”.
The new five-storey building, due to open on 18 April, joins the V&A East Storehouse, which opened in 2025, and will sit alongside venues for the BBC, Sadler’s Wells East and London College of Fashion, which together make up the East Bank cultural quarter. The V&A East Storehouse, which opened last May, has already drawn more than 500,000 visitors. The original Victoria and Albert Museum was founded on Pall Mall in 1852 and moved to South Kensington in 1857.
Casely-Hayford declines to give a visitor figure target for the first year of V&A East but points out that research conducted in the first six months of opening showed that more than 31% of visitors to V&A East Storehouse were between the ages of 16 and 35, more than 45% of UK audiences were from minority ethnic groups, and 55% of visitors were Londoners.
British artist Thomas J. Price’s 18ft bronze sculpture A Place Beyond (2026) greets visitors on the forecourt of the museum David Parry/PA Media Assignments
The new museum, Casely-Hayford says, is for “everyone”; he describes how his team has focused on creating open and public spaces and programming that meets the needs of younger audiences, those living, working and studying in the four Olympic boroughs (Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest), as well as people who “may not have felt comfortable in museums previously”.
“At V&A East, and across our two sites, we’re deeply embedded in our local communities,” Casely-Hayford says. “We’re locally rooted with a global outlook. We’ve created our sites with and for our audiences and have spoken to and consulted with over 30,000 local people and creatives through education and career initiatives, preopening events and activities, working in partnership with organisations and collectives across east London.”
Every aspect of the new institution has been developed in collaboration with the V&A East Youth Collective, a paid consultation programme for young people living, working and studying across east London. “Our V&A East Youth Collective community has helped shape everything from the design and content of V&A East Museum’s Why We Make galleries and our shops, to ticket prices, the V&A East brand, creative commissions, staff uniforms, co-productions with local artists and creatives, and much more,” Casely-Hayford says.
Entrance to V&A East Museum’s Why We Make galleries © David Parry for the V&A
The Why We Make galleries feature more than 500 objects from across the V&A’s collection, highlighting themes from representation to wellbeing, justice and environmental action. “The gallery themes are topical and based on what our audiences told us that mattered to them: identity, representation, health and wellbeing, and how we all have a responsibility to create a more sustainable future for everyone,” Casely-Hayford says.
The section “Breaking Boundaries”, for instance, examines how creatives have tried to push disciplines in new directions, helping break down barriers of gender, race and class; it features radical ballet costumes by the performance artist Leigh Bowery and his creative collaborator, corset maker Mr Pearl.
V&A East will also launch a rolling six-month commissions programme called New Work, debuting pieces by artists including Tania Bruguera of Cuba, who has made a stained-glass installation, Carrie Mae Weems and the Turner Prize-nominated artist Rene Matić. A major sculptural installation by Thomas J. Price depicting a Black woman will greet visitors at the entrance (the next series of creative commissions will be revealed later this year).
Still from Carrie Mae Weems’ V&A East New Work commission, The Long Goodbye. On view in the Film Room inside V&A East Museum’s Why We Make galleries © David Parry for the V&A
The museum opens with the exhibition The Music Is Black: A British Story (18 April-3 January 2027), charting the influence of Black British music from 1900 to the present day through music trailblazers such as Winifred Atwell, Janet Kay, Stormzy and Little Simz. The show also highlights the impact of the Windrush generation and explores Caribbean influences on the UK music scene.
In addition, the exhibition includes works from important Black British artists such as Sonia Boyce, Tam Joseph, Vicky Lindo, and Bill Brookes and Frank Bowling. Sokari Douglas Camp’s recent sculpture Red Coats and Flags (2023) traces connections between African musical masquerades, Caribbean carnival traditions and carnival celebrations around Britain.
“This is our soundtrack, the music that over the course of the last century helped to shape our nation,” Casely-Hayford says. “You could say this is a story of diversity but that would be to not give it its due … this is our shared story, eloquently, exquisitely crafted into poetry. I hope it is an example of how culture has and can draw us together, build links across time and geography that are meaningful and lasting.”
Inside V&A East Museum’s inaugural exhibition, The Music is Black: A British Story © David Parry for the V&A
In 2020, Casely-Hayford wrote an influential opinion piece in The Art Newspaper about tackling inequality in the arts following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, saying: “I still find it hard to fathom that we have never formally and robustly confronted our colonial past.” His aim, he added, was to “build a sector that embraces and benefits from the glorious diversity of our nation”.
He reinforced this message last year, telling The Guardian that V&A East will be “unapologetically diverse”. Whether museums today can satisfy all audiences is debatable, but Casely-Hayford stresses that “we are proud to celebrate the cultural and demographic complexity of the people we serve. It is what we were created to do.”
When asked about the most challenging ethical issue museums face today, Casely-Hayford says: “Being funded through public subsidy in a time when resource is tighter than in recent memory, we must demonstrate how we offer distinct and important value to our audiences.” V&A East is free to access with charges for temporary exhibitions.
The museum is launching as debate intensifies around whether national UK museums, which offer free entry to all, should start charging visitors, especially foreign tourists. “We believe it’s fundamental that access to the UK’s national collections and institutions remains free; we don’t want to put up barriers or make accessing museums prohibitive,” he says.
Outside V&A East Museum’s Why We Make galleries © Hufton+Crow
Asked about funding in general, Casely-Hayford points out that the V&A overall is partially funded by the UK government alongside income generated from across its venues. “To supplement income that will be generated by the V&A and other sources of funding, an uplift to our ongoing grant in aid was agreed in 2020-21 as part of the business case approved by the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport,” he says. This extra sum of £9m sustains the programme of exhibitions, events and education work across all the V&A museums, as well as maintaining collections and permanent galleries and displays.
According to figures provided by the Greater London Authority (GLA), London’s governing body, the total cost of V&A East is £115m. The GLA has meanwhile committed to cover operational funding gaps of up to £12m over 15 years for both the V&A Storehouse East and the new museum, if required.
V&A East Museum does not have a separate collection—displays are drawn from the V&A’s overarching collection—nor its own acquisition budget, adds Casely-Hayford. “Acquiring items for display at our two V&A East sites, and that speak to V&A East’s vision and mission, is a strategic collecting priority for the V&A.” New acquisitions include Yinka Ilori’s Captain Hook armchair from the series If Chairs Could Talk (2015).
• The Music is Black: A British Story, V&A East, 18 April-3 January 2027
The Victoria and Albert Museum outpost is now due to open in 2025 but its open storage space is still on track for 2024
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The British cultural historian will take up his role at the Victoria and Albert Museum’s new branch in the spring
The institution will join venues for the BBC, Sadler’s Wells East and London College of Fashion in the new East Bank cultural quarter

As Cuban crisis deepens, diaspora artists have a message of compassion

Exile, a vessel built from steel barrels to bring Cubans across the Florida Straits, passed Miami’s famed Freedom Tower en route to Antonia Wright and Ruben Millares’s studio Photo: Rudy Duboué
Until recently, a large, rusted vessel hung from a steel beam in the Miami studio of artists Antonia Wright and Ruben Millares. The craft is made of steel barrels welded together, with two cone-like drums topping either side. In the centre, an oxidised engine is connected with makeshift wires; four wooden planks span the raft’s barrels, providing structure and seating. Two bullet holes are visible in the wreckage, as are signs of human life: the word “Mami” is scrawled on the vessel, as is a small child-like sketch of a boat.
This vessel, salvaged from the shores of Key Biscayne in 2022 and towed back to Wright and Millares’s studio along the Miami River, is now the focal point of their exhibition at Piero Atchugarry Gallery, Exile (until 2 May). It speaks volumes about the dire circumstances facing Cuban migrants—for whom the situation in their home country is so desperate that many are willing to risk their lives on a 93-mile journey across the Straits of Florida in a makeshift boat.
“Empathy is what I used to think art was about,” says Wright. “But then I realised we would never know what this experience is. I can imagine it. I can interview people and hear their experience. I can watch films. But the actual terror they feel, I don’t think you can ever really get there. So then we realised, maybe it’s not empathy that’s the goal, but embodiment.”
Antonia Wright and Ruben Millares, Exile, 2026 Photo: Rudy Duboué. Courtesy of the artists and Piero Atchugarry Gallery
Life in Cuba has devolved into a catastrophe in recent months. For Cubans who have lived away from the island for years, the possible fall of the revolutionary government is a prospect mired in contradiction: exuberance at the possibility of a Cuba freed from dictatorship; despair knowing that leaders in the US—especially president Donald Trump and secretary of state Marco Rubio—are mostly interested in the economic resources they can extract from the island; and fear for those who remain on the island facing hunger, disease and shortages of fuel and electricity.
“I cannot explain to you how dire things are,” says the Cuban American artist Coco Fusco, whose recent retrospective at El Museo del Barrio in New York and the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona dealt in part with the treacherous realities of the Cuban revolution. “Cuba looks like a country that has been bombed. Garbage is piled up like mountains and buildings collapse everywhere; the schools are a mess and the hospitals are completely overrun. My relative broke their hip and died because she couldn’t find gas to drive herself to the hospital. This happens every day.”
Coco Fusco, La plaza vacía (The Empty Plaza), 2012 (still) Collection of El Museo del Barrio, New York. Acquisition enabled by VEZA New Media Fund 2022 and headline supporters South SOUTH and Niio
Despite the mounting evidence that Cuba is a failed state, president Miguel Díaz-Canel’s government remains defiant and continues to strangle free expression on the island. The government blocked all internet access during protests in 2021 and arrested 19 artists including Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. Most of them have been in jail ever since. Last month, the Cuban government arrested the duo behind the dissident TikTok account El4tico, Ernesto Ricardo Medina and Kamil Zayas Pérez, who had shunned Cuban artists’ typical practice of “creative resistance” in favour of more bluntly documenting what is really happening in Cuba.
Would-be migrants from the island now face an impossible choice: stay, suffer and risk imprisonment, or find a way to the US and risk arrest, detention and deportation. Historically, Cubans arriving in Miami by foot or by raft were afforded automatic residency thanks to a policy known as Wet Foot, Dry Foot. When president Barack Obama eased the trade restrictions between the US and Cuba in the final months of his presidency, he eliminated this policy. The move proved to be a lose-lose for him: hard-line Cubans in the US saw his attempt at rapprochement as a sign of sympathy for the Cuban Communist party, while Cubans newly arriving in the US lost their right to residency.
Antonia Wright, Home, 2026 Courtesy of the artist and Piero Atchugarry Gallery
The shifting US policies have done little to dissuade Cubans from fleeing north. Since 2021, more than one million Cubans have left the island, the majority to seek asylum or humanitarian parole in the US. Many of the country’s artistshave left, too. Some of the most prominent, like Tania Bruguera and Tomás Sánchez, have not returned to Cuba since the 2010s. Other artists who not that long ago spent the majority of their time on the island—like Reynier Leyva Novo, Amaury Pacheco and Nestor Siré—say that returning feels impossible under the present circumstances.
“This is the longest I’ve ever been away from Cuba, since I never left the island for more than six months at a time, and now I’ve been gone for almost a year,” says Siré, a multimedia artist who was based in Havana and whose research probes how technological infrastructures shape, and are shaped by, everyday social life. “What’s happening now is laying the groundwork for a social and humanitarian crisis similar to a country that’s been bombed or is at war. It’s also incredibly difficult that nobody really talks about it much internationally, especially in Europe, where I am now.”
Ruben Millares, Paint by Number, 2017 Courtesy of the artist and Piero Atchugarry Gallery
In their exhibition, Wright and Millares reflect on this experience, shared by new migrants and the around one million Cubans exiled after the 1959 revolution. The exhibition is charged with both violence and a sense of the uncanny. It includes Wright’s cyanotypes under smashed glass, which evoke brutality and fragility in a single, visceral gesture. Works from Millares’s Paint by Number series are also on view, in which the artist takes numbers from financial documents and transforms them into silkscreen prints, akin to reducing people to a series of jumbled numbers on a canvas. The salvaged boat sculpture, Exile, is installed in a darkened room with a warm, hazy light shining out of the bullet holes and embedded speakers playing sounds that register as vibrations before they are heard.
Standing near the humming hull, the artists’ intention is clear. The glowing sculpture “makes me think of the boat as an immigrant body”, Millares says. “Having my body be close to it and feel the vibration, I can, for a moment, be inside the body of someone who had to ride in this to get to a better place.”
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President Donald Trump, A Queens Native, Doesn’t Know What A ‘Corner Store’ Is

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April 17, 2026
“Who the hell wrote that, please?”
While celebrating tax breaks for small businesses as part of his “Big Beautiful Bill Act,” President Donald Trump admitted not knowing what a “corner store” is.
Speaking at a roundtable in Las Vegas during Tax Week, Trump promoted his no tax on tips policy, which pushes larger tax refunds for tipped workers and small businesses. But while reading some of the talking points given to him, he began questioning some things.
“The Great Big Beautiful Bill also slashed taxes on millions of American small businesses, including restaurants, dry cleaners, corner stores….what is a corner store?” the president asked the crowd. “I’ve never heard that term. I know what a corner store is, but I’ve never heard it described… A corner store. Who the hell wrote that, please?”

Social media users in the comment section were taken aback by Trump not being familiar with the term, which describes a small grocery store, as he was born and raised in Queens, New York, where a corner store is seen at almost the end or beginning of every street.
“You cannot be from New York and not know that. That was deliberate,” @transvilla420 wrote.
@ch0ngkenny wondered how Trump “has all these black friends and doesn’t know what a corner store is?” The sentiment was echoed by newscaster Don Lemon in an Instagram post.
“Wait til he hears the word bodega,” @suegreene22 wrote.
This isn’t the first time Trump has spoken out about how other Americans refer to groceries. In April 2025, during a “Liberation Day” speech, he claimed the term “groceries” was old-fashioned, according to People, and provided his own definition.
“It’s such an old-fashioned term but a beautiful term: groceries,” he said at the time. “It sort of says a bag with different things in it.”
Not knowing what a corner store is, is not a good look for Trump as Americans are struggling to keep cabinets full due to the the rising costs. According to NBC News, though costs of some goods, like eggs, have gone down by 30% since spring 2025, the average price of items like orange juice and beef have increased by 22% and 15%, respectively, during the same timeframe.
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Dr. Cerina Wanzer Fairfax was more than just a ‘wife’

Although her life ended tragically, Dr. Cerina Wanzer Fairfax’s story represents excellence, care, and community rather than just tragedy.
On April 16, 2026, women across the country were once again confronted with the sometimes fatal reality of domestic violence, as communities began grieving the loss of Dr. Cerina Wanzer Fairfax. The accomplished dentist and mother was reportedly killed by her husband, former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax. Authorities suspect the incident was a murder-suicide, unfolding as the couple navigated what Fairfax County Chief of Police Kevin Davis described as a “complicated or messy divorce.”
In the hours since her death, many headlines have reduced Dr. Wanzer Fairfax to the role of a politician’s “wife.” But those who knew her are pushing back, saying her life represented so much more.
“I definitely would put politician’s wife at the bottom of the list,” said Dr. Wanzer Fairfax’s friend, turned patient, Terron Sims II, to WUSA9. “She was one of the most loving, caring people. [It’s important] that Cerina is a real person and an accomplished person and one of the best in her field.”
Dr. Wanzer Fairfax was the founder and head of Dr. Fairfax and Associates Family Dentistry, where her work extended far beyond clinical care. According to her practice’s website, she earned her bachelor’s degree from Duke University in 1999, where she met her husband, and later received her Doctor of Dental Surgery degree magna cum laude from VCU’s Medical College of Virginia School of Dentistry in 2005. After completing her residency in VCU’s Advanced Education in General Dentistry program, she went on to build a two-decade career serving patients across Northern Virginia.
“It wasn’t just a profession for her. It was an expression of love and compassion. It was her way of service to others,” Sims recalled. “She and her staff were really progressive in helping all of her patients meet all of their financial needs”.
Even after graduating, Dr. Fairfax remained an active member in the VCU alumni network, having won the Alumni Association Award for “Outstanding Graduate of the Last Decade” by the VCU School of Dentistry in 2015.
“Her loss is deeply felt by many who knew her. As a clinician and alumna, Dr. Fairfax embodied the ideals of our profession—dedication to her patients, commitment to growth, and a deep sense of purpose in her work each day. I know she was a mentor, role model, and friend to many in our school,” interim dean Dr. Jeffrey Johnson wrote in a statement, per WTVR CBS 6. “At times like this, we are reminded of our community’s strength and the enduring bonds that connect us across time and place. On behalf of our school, we extend our heartfelt condolences to Dr. Fairfax’s family, friends, colleagues, and all who were fortunate to know her. Please keep her children and loved ones in your thoughts during the days ahead.’”
Beyond her alma mater, she was an active member of several professional organizations, including the American Dental Association, the Virginia Dental Association, the Northern Virginia Dental Society, and the Omicron Kappa Upsilon Dental Society. As her website describes, Dr. Fairfax was “committed to serving not only her patients but others as well through participation in community outreach programs, volunteer and sponsorship opportunities, vocational training programs, and contributions to local charities and nonprofits intended to aid individuals and/or organizations helping those in need.”
“Dr. Fairfax loved giving back through volunteer work and contributions to local charities focused on helping those in need,” Ryan Dunn, CEO of the Virginia Dental Association, told the outlet. “As we remember Dr. Fairfax, we honor the impact she made and the connections she helped build within the VDA and her community.”
In her spare time, she loved reading, running trails with her dogs, practicing yoga, traveling, and spending time with family. A proud mother of two kids, Cameron and Carys, those close to Dr. Fairfax remember her devotion to her children. As Rep. Jennifer McClellan, who met the late mother of two through her husband’s political career, recalls, Dr. Fairfax’s kids were “the people she cherished the most.” According to Sims, her death came as they were planning college trips.
Now, as her two teenagers navigate the unimaginable loss of both parents, loved ones are rallying around them, determined to ensure they feel supported, loved, and reminded that “whatever dreams, hopes, plans that they had before this tragedy, they still know that they can be those.”
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15 Upcoming Movies That Could Make $1 Billion

The Street Fighter trailer just dropped. These upcoming movies could be the next $1 billion box office hits.
The new Street Fighter trailer just dropped and sparked fresh buzz around upcoming blockbuster movies.
Hollywood is lining up major releases with global appeal, including Spider-Man: Brand New Day, The Odyssey, and The Mandalorian & Grogu.
These films carry massive expectations and built-in audiences. Several have a real shot at crossing the $1 billion mark worldwide.
Here are 15 upcoming movies that could dominate the box office.
Please note listed release dates are expected but subject to change.
Release Date: May 22, 2026
Star Wars returns to theaters with one of its most popular characters in Grogu. The franchise’s global fanbase alone puts this in the billion-dollar conversation.
Release Date: August 28, 2026
This long-delayed Looney Tunes film has major curiosity behind it after nearly getting shelved. If families show up, it could surprise at the box office.
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Release Date: June 26, 2026
DC looks to build momentum with a fresh take on Supergirl. If the new DC universe clicks, this could be a breakout hit.
Release Date: June 19, 2026
Pixar returns to one of its most reliable franchises. Nostalgia plus family appeal gives this a strong path to $1 billion.
Release Date: July 10, 2026
Disney taps into one of its most beloved modern animated hits. The original’s popularity and soundtrack give this major global upside.
Release Date: June 30, 2027
Shrek returns after years away, bringing massive nostalgia with it. If families and millennials show up, this could explode at the box office.
Release Date: July 17, 2026
Christopher Nolan’s next epic will dominate IMAX screens worldwide. His track record plus spectacle gives it serious billion-dollar potential.
Release Date: July 31, 2026
Spider-Man remains one of the safest bets in Hollywood. The last film cleared $1B easily, and this one should draw massive crowds again.
Release Date: October 16, 2026
The newly released trailer has fans talking about this reboot. If it connects globally, especially overseas, it could overperform.
Release Date: May 8, 2026
The sequel promises bigger fights and more iconic characters. Strong fan support could push this beyond expectations.
Release: April 24, 2026
The Michael Jackson biopic brings one of the biggest global icons ever to the big screen. His worldwide fanbase and cultural impact give this real billion-dollar upside if the film connects.
Release Date: August 14, 2026
A mysterious sci-fi project with a strong cast could break out. These types of films can explode if word-of-mouth hits.
Release: Expected December 2026
Denis Villeneuve continues the Dune saga with the next chapter centered on Paul Atreides. The previous film crossed $700M, and growing global interest could push this installment toward the $1 billion mark.
Release: December 18, 2026
Marvel brings the Avengers back together in one of the most anticipated films in years. With the franchise’s history of billion-dollar hits, this is one of the safest bets on your entire list.
Release: Expected 2027
Robert Pattinson returns as Batman in one of DC’s most anticipated sequels. The first film made over $770 million, and with strong word-of-mouth, this follow-up could push into billion-dollar territory.
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15 Upcoming Movies That Could Make $1 Billion was originally published on newstalkcleveland.com

Rest In Power: Notable Black Folks Who We’ve Lost In 2026
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GED Section: The Real Threats to Our Communities

Copyright © 2026 Interactive One, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
A look into the real tangible issues impacting our neighborhoods and our wallets
D.L. Hughley’s Notes from the GED Section, challenged the mainstream narrative we are fed daily, urging our communities to look past manufactured global anxieties. Instead, he wants us to focus on the immediate, tangible issues impacting our neighborhoods and our wallets. His breakdown offered a raw look at how systemic priorities leave everyday people behind.
The segment first exposed how leadership uses fear as a tool for constant distraction. For decades, politicians have pushed urgent narratives about foreign powers enriching uranium and plotting our destruction. Hughley pointed out that a massive portion of the nation’s wealth goes directly to the military to combat these unseen enemies. This relentless fear-mongering justifies funneling money away from vital community programs. They keep the public terrified of distant threats, ensuring we do not question where our tax dollars are actually going.
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Hughley then broke down the numbers to reveal the true dangers to our safety. While foreign terrorism dominates news cycles, the actual reality looks entirely different. Since the tragic events of September 11, a relatively small number of citizens have lost their lives to foreign extremists. In stark contrast, domestic threats and everyday gun violence claim tens of thousands of lives regularly. He emphasized that the most immediate threat to our physical safety is right here at home. We lose far more community members to local violence and a lack of proper healthcare than to any overseas conflict.

The conversation naturally shifted to the everyday economic hurdles that truly terrorize families. The real danger is not a distant political regime, but the inability to afford basic human needs. Rising costs for groceries, gas, housing, and medical care are the actual crises hitting our pockets hard. Hughley bluntly noted that foreign republics have nothing on corporate giants like Bank of America or Chevron when it comes to draining our daily livelihoods. True affordability is the central issue we face, yet it constantly takes a back seat to massive defense spending.
Finally, Hughley tackled the devastating impact of billionaire-driven policies on our most vulnerable. He called out figures like Elon Musk and a system designed to enrich the ultra-wealthy at the direct expense of the working class. When crucial social safety nets like Social Security, Medicare, and school lunch programs face severe cuts to fund tax breaks for billionaires, the cost is measured in human lives. He estimated these ruthless cuts cost thousands of lives annually, far exceeding the toll of any hypothetical foreign attack.

Rihanna To Receive 2026 Edison Achievement Award For Her Billion-Dollar Brilliance

The Edison Achievement Award will honor Rihanna’s remarkable versatility and influence, celebrating her groundbreaking contributions to the entertainment industry.
Congratulations are in order for the Bajan beauty Rihanna. On April 14, the singer and Fenty Beauty founder and CEO was crowned with the 2026 Edison Achievement Award, “the organization’s highest honor recognizing individuals who are reshaping industries and the world through innovation,” according to a press release.
The Edison Awards spotlight the world’s most impactful innovations, providing honorees with community, credibility, visibility, and the connections needed to drive market growth. According to the CEO of the Edison Awards, Frank Bonafilia, Rihanna has exemplified all of these qualities, breaking new ground across “music, beauty, fashion, and philanthropy while setting new standards for creativity, inclusivity, and global influence.”
Bonafilia added, “She embodies the spirit of Thomas Edison, by using inclusive innovation as a catalyst for progress. We are honored to recognize her with this year’s award.”
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Rihanna will be honored virtually with the 2026 Edison Achievement Award on April 16 in Fort Myers, Florida, alongside Adam Silver, Commissioner of the National Basketball Association.
Over the years, the mother of three has built a remarkable career. She has earned nine Grammy Awards and received 34 nominations, with her first win coming in 2008 for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for “Umbrella” with JAŸ-Z. Additional standout wins include “LOYALTY” with Kendrick Lamar (2018) and “The Monster” with Eminem (2014), which both scored wins in the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration category.
In 2023, she delivered a historic Super Bowl Halftime Show performance that drew more than 118.7 million viewers, making it the second most-watched Super Bowl in history, according to Nielsen Fast National data and Adobe Analytics.
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The wins did not stop there. At just 29, Rihanna launched Fenty Beauty with 40 foundation shades, nearly four times the industry standard at the time, addressing long-overlooked consumers with darker skin tones and prompting the global beauty industry to rethink inclusivity. Time Magazine later named it one of the 25 Best Inventions of 2017, while the “Fenty Effect” transformed how brands approach representation.
She continued to expand her influence by building a business empire that includes Fenty Skin, Fenty Hair, and the Savage X Fenty fashion line, becoming the first Black woman to lead an LVMH luxury brand. Across these ventures, she challenged the notion that serving a broad audience limits success, demonstrating that inclusive products can achieve both cultural impact and exceptional commercial performance.
In 2012, she founded the Clara Lionel Foundation to address systemic global issues, from climate resilience and emergency preparedness to health equity and cultural preservation. More recently, her partnership with the Mellon Foundation has supported Caribbean arts infrastructure, highlighting how innovation can uplift both communities and commerce.
A true trailblazer indeed. Congrats to Rihanna!
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Rihanna To Receive 2026 Edison Achievement Award For Her Billion-Dollar Brilliance was originally published on madamenoire.com

The Big Review: Rothko in Florence ★★★★★

An exhibition view of Rothko in Florence at the Palazzo Strozzi, with Untitled (1952-53) seen on the left and No. 13 (White, Red on Yellow) (1958) on the right Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio
The works: ★★★★★
The show: ★★★★★
In the hushed, monastic cells of Florence’s Museo di San Marco, Mark Rothko’s canvases pulse with spiritual intensity. The permanent works of art in these small abodes, within a former Dominican convent, are Fra Angelico’s frescoes, designed to engross their inhabitants in quiet contemplation. Rothko’s paintings are a new arrival, part of the city’s latest major exhibition. Seen alongside the early Renaissance works, they are like abstracted distillations: a beam of yellow light on rich red next to an angel in prayer or forbidding layers of blue and brown alongside a brooding crucifixion. In dialogue with Fra Angelico’s works, they also help to invest otherwise plain rooms with awesome emotional weight.
Rothko in Florence is the Palazzo Strozzi’s new exhibition exploring how the Tuscan city and its art shaped the American artist (1903-70), who visited three times in the 1950s and 60s. The show is co-curated by Rothko’s son, Christopher, and stretches across three locations. The bulk of the 70 works—a fine selection from private collections and major museums including New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Tate in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris—are shown at the Palazzo Strozzi, offering a focused account of Rothko’s creative evolution. A handful displayed elsewhere—five at San Marco and two in the Michelangelo-designed vestibule of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana—provide the exhibition’s key.
You might question whether the world needs another big Rothko exhibition, especially after the mammoth retrospective featuring more than 100 of his works at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris in 2023. Rothko is, of course, an artist at the height of his posthumous fame, with one of his works recently offered at Art Basel Paris for $40m. Yet Rothko in Florence does something new through the originality and force of its thematic focus. If placing his works alongside Fra Angelico makes them radiate, hanging a pair of 75cm by 55cm studies for the Seagram Murals (commissioned in 1958 for New York’s Four Seasons restaurant) in Michelangelo’s vestibule is almost suffocating. Their black columns on bright red mimic how the Renaissance artist’s austere stone stairwell entraps you in a narrow, vertically arranged space. More than simply conveying the expressive power of his works, the installation reveals how Rothko, inspired by the masters, devised a new language by thinking spatially.
Accompanied by his wife, Mell, the near penniless artist first visited Italy on a tight budget in 1950. During his time there, he feasted on artistic wonders that he had only ever contemplated in books, such as the Roman Forum, perfectly preserved buildings in Pompeii, and Giotto’s enveloping frescoes at the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. Later, in his unfinished book The Artist’s Reality, Rothko wrote at length about the golden age of the Italian Renaissance. His Rothko Chapel in Houston, completed posthumously in 1971 with 14 dark canvases displayed inside, shows he was thinking of art as something that defined space, much as Fra Angelico had at San Marco.
Rothko was sometimes explicit about the influence of Renaissance art. “He achieved just the kind of feeling I’m after,” he once said of Michelangelo’s vestibule at the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, in reference to his own Seagram Murals, which were never hung in the restaurant (Rothko eventually withdrew from the commission) and are now displayed in major museums including Tate Modern. “He makes the viewers feel as though they are trapped in a room where all the doors and windows are bricked up, so that all they can do is butt their heads forever against the wall,” he added.
The show is taking place at three venues, including the Museo di San Marco (pictured) Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio
The show is a typically ambitious undertaking by the epoch-straddling Palazzo Strozzi, which ended a blockbuster Fra Angelico show in January and has also shown contemporary artists like Ai Weiwei and Tracey Emin in its 16th-century halls and courtyard. An awkward ticketing system—visitors must buy separate entry for each of the three venues—means some effort is required to see the exhibition in full. But the rewards are considerable; a carefully thought-through layout and meticulous attention to detail helping make this a revelatory show (Christopher Rothko, who has shared curatorial duties with Elena Geuna, has been trying to bring the project to fruition for 15 years).
It would be easy to read the core showing at the Strozzi—the site of impressive canvases like a blistering yellow-on-red from the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao—as a simple chronological exposition. It sets us up with the artist’s geometric figurative works, such as Interior (1936), with grey pilasters, blocked-in windows and lithe statues that hint at the Medici Mausoleum in Florence’s New Sacristy—a place Rothko could have only seen from photographs. From there, we pass through his fluid neorealism and the muted blotches of his transitionary multiform phase, followed by the throbbing yellow and orange blocks of the 1950s, the more meditative earthiness of the following decade and the cool greys on blacks created shortly before his untimely death in 1970.
More than a plain retrospective, however, the thesis of Rothko’s preoccupation with space emerges with greater ease and power than the authoritatively insightful programme essays can convey. Walking through the Strozzi’s halls, you can feel the artist interacting with that dimension in different ways as he searches for a new artistic language, from works that are simply concerned with space to ones that essentially create it. Standing in front of the large, rough-surfaced canvases of the 1960s—with layers of reds that could have been inspired by Pompeii—the viewer feels invited to step into the painting. Careful hanging just inches from the floor accentuates its surroundings, as if turning the works into thresholds. Curatorial precision helps create the overall effect. At the San Marco, Rothko’s paintings glow in soft spot-lighting, showing how these works, like Fra Angelico’s frescoes, appear to emanate the very moods and emotions the viewer perceives. Darkened windows and calibrated lighting at the Strozzi allow for a similar result. In a room entirely filled with large red canvases, the simmering rage of Four Darks in Red (1958) hangs heavily in the air.
The Seagram Murals were not decorations but installations that would have morphed the restaurant they were conceived for (“I have made a place,” Rothko once said of them). Part of that effect lies in the way the paintings were created to speak to one another. The curators cleverly guide us through his vision, closing the exhibition with an octagonal room—reminiscent of Florence’s Baptistery, or even the Rothko Chapel—where a chorus of assorted works surround the viewer like brilliant stained-glass windows. Within the Renaissance walls of Palazzo Strozzi, the exhibition has created a chapel of its own.
The New York Times’s Elisabetta Povoledo suggests it is appropriate to stage an exhibition in a city Rothko loved. “Sixty years after his last trip to Florence, Rothko is back in a way he might never have imagined,” she writes. In Domus, Maria Cristina Didero lavishes praise not only on the exhibition—describing it as “compelling”, and singling out the “exceptional” and “rarely seen”preparatory drawings—but also the venue. The Palazzo Strozzi “stands out for the scholarly quality of its programme,” she writes.
In 1974, fresh after graduating from the experimental studies programme at Syracuse University’s visual and performing arts department, Bill Viola moved to Florence to work at Art/Tapes/22, one of the first video art production studios in Europe
The exhibition brings together more than 140 works, including key altarpieces reconstructed with the help of some detective work
The Palazzo Strozzi mixes Viola’s videos and installations with the Old Masters that inspired them

Taraji P. Henson says Broadway is ‘a different animal’ as she makes debut in ‘Joe Turner’s Come and Gone’

Taraji P. Henson calls Broadway “bootcamp” as she makes her debut in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, highlighting the energy and impact of live theater.
Oscar-nominated actress Taraji P. Henson is stepping into a new chapter of her career, describing her Broadway debut as both demanding and deeply rewarding.
Henson is starring in a revival of ‘Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,’ a classic written by August Wilson. The production, directed by Debbie Allen, began previews on March 30 at New York’s Barrymore Theatre and is scheduled to officially open on April 25 for a limited run through July.
Speaking during a recent television appearance on ‘Live with Kelly and Mark,’ Henson described the experience of performing live as “bootcamp,” noting the intensity of appearing on stage multiple times a week. “Broadway is a different animal,” she said, emphasizing the immediate connection with audiences that theater offers compared to film and television.
The play is set in 1911 and follows Black Americans navigating the upheaval of the Great Migration. Henson plays Bertha Holly, co-owner of a Pittsburgh boarding house, alongside Cedric the Entertainer, who portrays her husband Seth Holly.
“It’s so alive,” Henson said of the stage experience, pointing to the dynamic exchange between actors and audience. She added that each performance feels different, making theater uniquely unpredictable and engaging.
The role also carries personal meaning for Henson. She recalled meeting August Wilson during her time at Howard University, describing the opportunity to now perform in one of his works as a “full circle” moment.
The production explores themes of identity, displacement, and healing, with a storyline centered on a man searching for his wife after years of forced labor. These themes, Henson noted, remain relevant today.
The cast includes a mix of established and emerging actors, which Henson praised, saying she is confident in the future of theater talent.
As opening night approaches, Henson said she embraces the nerves that come with live performance, viewing them as part of what keeps the work authentic and energizing.
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Empowering change: Understanding black maternal health

Dive into the world of black maternal health, uncovering issues and solutions. Learn how to drive positive changes and improve outcomes.
The maternal health crisis in America has a specific face, and it belongs to Black women; research consistently identifies preventable causes, such as delayed diagnosis, untreated hypertensive conditions, structural inequalities in access to care, and providers who routinely dismiss pain and symptoms in Black patients.
Because of this, Black maternal health sits at the center of one of the most persistent and well-documented public health failures in the United States, a gap between what care should look like and what Black mothers actually receive. The CDC’s most recent data confirms that in 2024, maternal morbidity rates for Black women were 44.8 deaths per 100,000 live births, which is more than three times higher than the rate for white women at 14.2.
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These deaths aren’t mysterious, and the gap is not shrinking on its own; the women most affected deserve far more than acknowledgment.
The factors driving the racial disparity in Black maternal health outcomes are overlapping and structural. Black women face significantly higher rates of conditions like preeclampsia and postpartum hemorrhage, and when those conditions arise, they’re more likely to be undertreated. According to a report by the American Heart Association, provider-related delays in diagnosis and treatment contribute to roughly half of maternal deaths from hypertensive disorders, and implicit bias plays a documented role in those delays.
Access to continuous, culturally competent care is also uneven in ways that carry real consequences. In Georgia, a state commonly cited as having the second-highest maternal mortality rate in the country, many counties are classified as rural, creating conditions where Black women travel long distances for prenatal appointments only to receive care from providers who lack cultural familiarity with their community. That combination of distance, distrust, and dismissal heightens risk at every stage of pregnancy and into the postpartum period.
Preeclampsia, a rise in blood pressure during pregnancy, doesn’t affect all women equally. The Preeclampsia Foundation reports that Black women are approximately 60% more likely to develop preeclampsia than white women, and their risk of dying from it is substantially higher. Early, consistent prenatal care is the most reliable way to catch and manage this condition before it becomes life-threatening.
Researchers and advocates across the country have identified several concrete interventions that work. Doulas, professionals who provide physical, emotional, and informational support through pregnancy and postpartum, have documented impacts on reducing birth complications, including:
The evidence is particularly strong for community-based doulas who share the cultural and racial background of the patients they serve.
Representation in the provider workforce matters too. Studies consistently show that Black patients have better health outcomes when they can access Black physicians and midwives. Expanding training pipelines, loan forgiveness programs, and scholarship funding targeted at Black obsteric professionals directly addresses a structural gap in who delivers care and who patients trust enough to be honest with.
Nearly half of maternal deaths happen within the first year after delivery, not in the delivery room. Many Black birthing people rely on Medicaid for pregnancy and postpartum care. For decades, Medicaid coverage ended after 60 days postpartum, leaving women without coverage during precisely the period when cardiovascular complications, mental health crises, and postpartum hemorrhage can turn fatal. Extending that coverage to a full year is one of the most impactful structural changes advocates have pushed for.
Managing chronic conditions before, during, and after pregnancy is another critical piece. Understanding what is chronic care management and how it integrates into maternal care helps women with pre-existing conditions like hypertension and diabetes receive coordinated support throughout the perinatal period, reducing the risk that those conditions escalate into emergencies.
Individual providers and health systems cannot fix structural racism alone, which is why policy advocacy is inseparable from clinical improvement. The Black Maternal Health Momnibus, a package of 14 federal bills, addresses everything from data collection and implicit bias training to community health worker funding. Supporting this legislation, contacting elected officials, and contributing to the organizations pushing it forward create the kind of systemic change that clinical reforms alone cannot deliver.
Community-based organizations are doing critical work right now that doesn’t wait for federal action. Groups like the Black Women’s Health Imperative, the National Black Doulas Association, and Ancient Song are:
Multiple factors contribute:
No single factor explains the gap; the disparity is the product of a system that consistently underserves Black women at every stage of the maternal care continuum.
Bringing in a trusted support person, such as a doula, family member, or friend, to prenatal appointments and labor provides both emotional support and an additional voice if concerns get dismissed. Documenting symptoms, asking providers to explain their clinical reasoning, and seeking second options when something feels wrong are all concrete ways to push back within a system that too often requires self-advocacy to navigate safely.
Black maternal health is not a niche issue; it’s a measure of whether the healthcare system functions equitably for everyone. The data is clear, the solutions are proven, and the communities are already doing the work. What’s needed now is sustained attention, policy support, and the kind of systemic accountability that matches the urgency of this crisis, ultimately improving maternal outcomes for Black women and racial disparities in childbirth.
Want to learn more about topics related to Black maternal healthcare? Browse additional articles on this site covering topics related to health, community, and advocacy that are worth exploring.

Coach Stormy Speaks Out After Settling FTC Lawsuit

April 17, 2026
Stormy Wellington is barred from making any future earnings claims unless they are truthful, non-misleading, and supported by written evidence
Multi-level marketing influencer Stormy Wellington is speaking out after settling a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit alleging she used deceptive earnings claims to recruit participants into two different companies.
Under the settlement terms, Wellington is now permanently banned from misrepresenting potential earnings through her company, Farmasi. She is prohibited from making direct statements or using suggestive lifestyle imagery, such as photos of luxury goods. This ban extends to any other future business ventures she may promote. In an interview on the Isaiah Factor Uncensored podcast, Wellington stands behind her business practices. However, she says her future endeavors will have to be presented and worded carefully.
“There are some things that I use as a marketer. There are some things that I use as strategies, you know, I’m a manifestor. I believe that life and death is in the power of the tongue.” Wellington said. “I learned through this experience that you can’t do that when you become a woman of my caliber. You can’t say things that’s based on wishful thinking.”
Additionally, she is barred from making any future earnings claims unless they are truthful, non-misleading, and supported by written evidence at the time the claim is made. This evidence must remain available for inspection by the FTC at any time. Furthermore, the settlement outlines a notification process, requiring Wellington to inform all current participants in her recruitment network of the court order and the strict terms prohibiting deceptive financial claims.
The FTC’s legal action centers on Wellington’s role as a top-tier “Life Changer” at TLC and a high-ranking “Influencer” at Farmasi. According to the complaint, Wellington utilized social media platforms and YouTube videos to report baseless earnings claims, allegedly promising recruits they could earn between $100,000 and $1,000,000 within short timeframes. Federal investigators characterized these recruitment efforts as aggressive, citing a specific instance in which Wellington vowed to create “60 new millionaires in 2026.”
These promises of guaranteed wealth contradicted the hard data. The FTC noted that Farmasi’s own 2023 income disclosure revealed that fewer than 1% of active participants actually reached a six-figure income. Furthermore, the agency accused Wellington of using deceptive imagery to mislead the public, frequently showcasing luxury homes, high-end vehicles, and expensive travel to imply that such a lifestyle was a probable outcome for anyone joining her sales network.
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As Immigrant Deaths In Custody Rise, ICE Releases Fewer Details

April 17, 2026
While ICE recently reported the 16th immigrant detainee death of the year, the number of people in ICE detention centers has dropped by 11% since February.
There was a time when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials released three-page reports on what happened following the death of immigrant detainees in custody.
But as the number of deaths has gone up, NBC News reports, the details have decreased to a few paragraphs.
The agency once required ICE to give notice to the public and Congress within two days of a detainee’s death. The next step was submitting reports within 90 days to be posted on the ICE website with details surrounding the death: timelines, timestamps of medical observations, regular medications, administered emergency medications, and times and causes of death.
Since mid-December 2025, released reports have only included a brief synopsis of the circumstances surrounding these deaths as lawmakers grow increasingly almarmed over the increase in detainee deaths under Department of Homeland Security (DHS) custody. The ICE website that posts investigations has not been updated since mid-February, with DHS blaming the delay on the ongoing department shutdown
“Under these conditions, certain administrative and public-facing updates are not fully operational. In a shutdown driven by Democrats’ failure to fund the government, non-essential reporting functions can be slowed even as ICE continues its core mission,” DHS said in a statement.
ICE recently reported the 16th immigrant detainee death of the year. In addition, the number of people in ICE detention centers has dropped by 11% since February, and arrests are down by 21%. But there are still more than 60,000 people in custody, close to double the number prior to President Donald Trump’s second term in office.
Under the Trump administration, DHS has committed to detaining and deporting as many immigrants as possible. However, lawmakers have focused on deaths in facilities like Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, which has more immigrants than any other facility.
As U.S. leaders like Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas have called for Montana’s closure due to its conditions, world leaders like Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum have criticized immigrant deaths while in U.S. custody, including those with Mexican backgrounds.
According to PBS, Sheinbaum claimed, “There are many Mexicans whose only crime is not having papers.”
She’s not alone. A poll from AP-NORC found six in 10 U.S. adults feel the Trump administration has “gone too far” in sending federal immigration agents into American cities, as the disapproval of immigration enforcement increases.
“Growing dissatisfaction around ICE activities in the United States creates a more comfortable platform for members of the Mexican government to raise concerns about the fate of Mexican citizens,” vice president of content strategy for the Council of the Americas, Carin Zissis, said.
DHS defended the reported increase in death rates, calling them a small percentage of the overall detainee population.
“All detainees are provided with proper meals, water, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers,” the agency said. “In fact, ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens.”
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Young Black mothers deserve a seat at the maternal health table, too

Rapper Monaleo’s medical scare is a reminder that the fight for Black maternal health must include young mothers.
By now, most of us have heard some version of the statistic: Black women are three and a half times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. For the last 10 years, we have talked about it during Black Maternal Health Week. We share the posts, we mourn the losses, and yet there’s a group of Black mothers who barely make it into that conversation at all: young mothers. The teen moms, early twenty-something moms who find themselves fighting medical racism, prejudice, and the extra stigmas linked to being a young mother.
Most recently, 24-year-old rapper and mother Monaleo highlighted this reality when she opened up about how overlooked abdominal pain led to a life-threatening medical emergency. In a recent freestyle and TikTok live, the Houston rapper explained how doctors tried to send her home despite experiencing extreme pain. It ultimately took her pushing for the medical staff to conduct a surgery for doctors to see that a softball-sized cyst had twisted, cut off blood flow to her fallopian tube, and caused internal bleeding in her abdomen.
“Imagine had they sent me home with a dead ovary and fallopian tube and internal bleeding that was pulling,” she recalled to her fans. “That’s actually life-threatening, you can literally die.”
That type of medical gaslighting is one of the many reasons why Black women are three and a half times more likely to die from pregnancy-related symptoms than white women. Similarly, recently published reports from the CDC found that Black women often endure more invasive surgeries because their pain is consistently overlooked. However, Dr. Aisha Mays, a family medicine and adolescent medicine physician based in Oakland, California, explains that these risks are often amplified for young moms, who are already vulnerable due to their age.
“This is the 10-year anniversary of Black Maternal Health Week, and even as we talk about Black maternal health disparities and Black maternal mortality rates, young mothers are still forgotten about in those conversations. They’re not even thought about,” Dr. Mays told theGrio. “It is so important for young Black mothers to be at the center of this conversation because they’re even more they’re some of the most vulnerable Black mothers in our community.”
Dr. Mays founded the Dream Youth Clinic, an organization that provides free medical care, mental health services, and reproductive health support to young people ages 13 to 25, rooted in a reproductive justice framework. And this year, in an effort to recenter Black Maternal Health Week on young people, the organization launched the “Young Black Moms To The Front” campaign.
“We also know that it is even more difficult for young mothers, teen mothers, early young adult mothers because of the stigma that is placed on young mothers and teen mothers during that time, it’s not the pregnancy alone,” she continued. “It is the societal stigma that is placed on young mothers that really has pushed them to the fringes, into the corners, where they’re really not even they’re not seen, they’re not regarded. And more than that, they are looked down upon and shamed for their choices.”
Dr. Mays further explained how teen mothers face higher rates of preterm birth and early delivery, which is directly linked to increased stress during pregnancy and sometimes the late implementation of prenatal care.
“All those things can happen when stigma is placed on you,” she notes. “We also see that the health disparities for the babies born to teen moms have higher rates of being low birth weight, which can also happen when you haven’t had prenatal care as consistently. And we know that young mothers experience discrimination when they go to the doctor, even when they are trying to do the best for their health care.”
Having worked with young mothers for nearly 20 years in her practice as a doctor and 10 years through her organization, Dr. Mays has seen both the struggles and the joys of young motherhood, which are often kept out of mainstream discourse.
“What we’re told from society is all these negative things. Young mothers don’t finish school, but what we’re not told is that they were pushed out. We’re told that young mothers have worse birth outcomes and worse outcomes for their children, but we’re not told that they are being discriminated against when they go to see a health care provider. We’re told that young mothers have higher rates of their babies going into the foster care system, but what we’re not told is that young mothers have more incidents of having social services called on them just because they’re a teen mom, not because they’ve done anything wrong,” she explained.
“So, the surveillance, that and that policing that happens to young mothers simply because of their age, those are the things that are causing these downstream statistics that are being reported,” she added.
She and her colleague, Dr. Bria Peacock, delved deeper into this phenomenon in their Black Adolescent Mother (B.A.M.) study, which involved interviews with young Black mothers in California and Georgia. The study revealed that young mothers need consistent, wraparound community support, spaces like the Dream Youth Clinic’s “Young Mothers Rising” program, where they are celebrated, resourced, and empowered, not just tolerated. Similarly, this demographic needs postpartum support, which many of the study participants say was promised but not delivered to them after they gave birth. Just as there are food deliveries, mom circles, and community check-ins for adult postpartum moms, young women transitioning into motherhood need mother circles tailored to the unique experience of entering this chapter as an adolescent.
Ultimately, Dr. Mays hopes that the next decade looks radically different for young mothers.
“What I wish to see for our 20-year [celebration of Black Maternal Health week] is young people at the center, where we are moving our young Black mothers from the shadows where they have been for decades to the center, so they know we see them. We are supporting them. We are listening to them, and we are learning from their leadership around what Black mothers need in this country,” she concluded. “[Because] having a child at a young age does not mean your life is over. It has been detrimental for young people because of how they’ve been treated for that choice. So imagine if we change the treatment from punishment to celebration, support, and resources. It would change 100%.”
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Former NFL Player Alshon Jeffery Arrested, Charged With Insurance Fraud

April 17, 2026
Jeffery, through a representative, maintained his innocence.
Super Bowl-winning Pro Bowl wideout Alshon Jeffery was recently arrested in California and charged with insurance fraud.
According to TMZ Sports, Jeffery was taken into police custody on April 15 and charged with insurance fraud for concealing or failing to disclose an insurance benefit or payment. He is no longer in custody after being booked around 8 a.m. that day. No other details were immediately available.
“Alshon Jeffery categorically denies the allegations that have been reported. The underlying incident was a minor freeway fender bender, and he provided his information at the scene,” his representative, Denise White, the CEO of EAG Sports Management, said in a statement to PennLive. “These are unfounded allegations only, and Alshon has not been convicted of any offense. He will address this matter through the legal process, and he remains confident that the facts will demonstrate this was a misunderstanding and nothing more.”
Jeffery, 36, won an NFL championship in 2017, his first year playing for the Philadelphia Eagles. In Super Bowl LII, he caught three passes for 73 yards and scored a touchdown, helping the Eagles upset the New England Patriots ,41-33.
The wide receiver joined the team following five seasons with the Chicago Bears, who selected him in the second round of the 2012 NFL Draft. Jeffery, a South Carolina native, was an All-American receiver at the University of South Carolina.
After spending four seasons with the Eagles, Jeffery retired after the 2020 season. During his NFL career, he caught 475 passes for 6,786 yards and scored 46 touchdowns.
In 2013, Jeffery caught 89 passes for 1,421 yards and scored seven touchdowns; those stats helped him make the Pro Bowl. The next season, he surpassed 1,000 yards again, catching 85 passes for 1,133 yards and scoring 10 touchdowns.
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Rick Ross Speaks On Drake Fallout, “Homie Got A Lot Of Issues”

Copyright © 2026 Interactive One, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Rick Ross is shedding more light on where things stand between him and Drake following their fallout.
Rick Ross is shedding more light on where things stand between him and Drake following their fallout.
During the debut episode of Culli’s YouTube show, the Maybach Music boss was asked whether he’d be open to squashing beef with the Toronto rapper. Rozay didn’t hold back.
“Homie got a lot of issues he got to address. I’ma leave it right there. Is it any potential of him being a real n*gga? He gotta decide that. But he got sh*t he gotta deal with and address. Hopefully it was a lot of n*ggas that was watching and learned from it. It was unfortunate.”
Ross appeared to be referencing the highly publicized “20 v. 1” situation involving Kendrick Lamar, A$AP Rocky and others, which ultimately saw Drake take a major hit after Kendrick dropped “Not Like Us.”
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Despite the tension, Rick Ross made it clear he still values the music he and Drake created together over the years.
“You can never change your past. The music I created in the past, I could never change. I enjoyed it and I’ma still enjoying it. Can’t no lame n*ga or nobody having differences make me not enjoy something that I was a part of.”
However, Ross did note that the fallout has had an impact on how fans react to those records during his live shows.
“The sad part about it is, when I play those records, everybody just stands and they don’t sing his part any more. I be like ‘No y’all can sing it. Sing the little man part’.”
Rick Ross Speaks On Drake Fallout, “Homie Got A Lot Of Issues” was originally published on hiphopwired.com