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Yakheim Lollar was a star athlete at Miami Northwestern High School when Jahara Malik stabbed him on Dec. 20, 2024. A judge didn’t buy Malik’s argument that the two were horsing around and that Lollar’s death was an accident.
An 18-year-old girl who pleaded guilty in March to charges related to the killing of her boyfriend will spend nearly two decades behind bars.
A Florida judge sentenced Jahara Malik to 17 years in prison on manslaughter charges for fatally stabbing 17-year-old Yakheim Lollar in December 2024. Malik’s lawyers argued that Lollar’s death was an accident and the two were horsing around. Prosecutors in the case wanted Malik to serve a 20-year sentence for the crime, plus an additional 10 years of supervised release.
Lollar’s family asked that she be sentenced to the maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
The 17-year-old was a star athlete at Miami Northwestern High School when, on the night of Dec. 20, he and Malik were in a Miami parking garage, Malik stabbed him with a four-inch blade. He succumbed to his injuries the following day.
“I was wrong for what I did, and every day I sit and think about the damage I caused,” Malik told the court, according to NBC Local 10. “I wish I [could] go back and change what happened, but I can’t, and that’s the worst part. Y’all didn’t deserve this pain and I wish I hadn’t been the one to give it to y’all.”
“The family wants me in prison,” Malik continued. “I’m in my own prison for the rest of my life. This was my best friend, my love and someone I could vent to about anything and everything. He was a good person and definitely should have been here. This is just a sad situation. I miss him every day.”
Tensions ran high in the courtroom during Malik’s sentencing phase. Lollar’s family members each read impact statements and addressed Malik, chiding her for her actions.
“It will always be a fact that you are a murderer,” Lollar’s aunt, Zeldrina Beecham, said, addressing Malik directly. “You are a demon seed that your parents brought into this world to bring suffering on everybody else. Shame on them.”
Per the terms of her sentence, Malik will have to undergo a mental health evaluation and write a letter every anniversary of Lollar’s death to address the impact it has had on her.
Her family is considering appealing her sentence, according to WSVN.
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Kwanza Jones’ $3.9 billion agreement with the San Diego Padres could usher in the league’s first Black woman majority owner.
For more than a century, Major League Baseball has stood as one of America’s most tradition-bound institutions. Since its modern founding in 1903, the league has weathered wars, strikes, integration battles, and cultural shifts, but one milestone has remained conspicuously unmet: no Black woman has ever held a majority ownership stake in an MLB franchise.
And that may soon change.Entrepreneur, philanthropist, and singer Kwanza Jones is on the brink of making history as part of a $3.9 billion agreement to purchase the San Diego Padres.
Last Saturday, the family of late San Diego Padres owner Peter Seidler announced it had reached an agreement to sell the franchise to an investor group led by Jones and her husband, José E. Feliciano, co-founder of private equity firm Clearlake Capital.
“The Padres are more than a baseball team; they are a unifying force in San Diego, rooted in community, connection, and belonging. As life and business partners, and as a family, we are honored to lead this next chapter together,” Jones and Feliciano said in a joint statement. 
If approved, the purchase would make Jones the first Black woman to own a majority stake in MLB history. And Feliciano would cement his own place in the record books as the first majority owner in the league of Puerto Rican descent and the second Latino majority owner, joining Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno.
However, Jones is no stranger to being the “first.” As an undergraduate student at Princeton university, Jones won Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater. She went on to earn a law degree from Cardozo School of Law and a master’s in dispute resolution from Pepperdine, released music on her own independent label, and founded a motivational media company. 
Together, Jones and her husband have given over $200 million to education through their philanthropic work. So much so that in 2023, the couple became the first Black and Latino donors in Princeton’s history to have two residence halls named after them. 
“We have worked hard for everything we have achieved, and we have built it together,” the couple noted. “We see that same spirit in this team and its fans, and we know what it takes to win.”
Now, the Jones-Feliciano deal still requires a formal vote among all 30 MLB clubs, which is expected at the league’s quarterly meeting in June. To pass, it needs at least 22 votes, followed by Securities and Exchange Commission review and sign-off from the City of San Diego. If all goes smoothly, the Jones-Feliciano era could formally begin around this summer’s All-Star break.
“This is about more than baseball — it’s about boosting the pride, energy, and connection that define the Padres, investing in community, deepening belonging, and ensuring this team remains accessible and endures for generations. We are all in — with the goal of bringing a World Series championship to San Diego,” they concluded. 
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Japanese ukiyo-e artist Kobayashi Kiyochika’s triptych of colour woodblock prints, Our Troops Set Up a Bivouac at Yingkou while Braving the Bitter Cold (1895). It is a scene from the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), during which he produced more than 70 triptych prints Saint Louis Art Museum
The woman in the poster—beautiful, confident and, it seems, just a tad blasé, her low-cut dress a miracle of ruffled pink glamour—has just turned away from us. She is holding a folded fan in her black-gloved right hand, while her left, as if equipped with a life of its own, crawls down the side of her dress. She could have sprung from one of the portraits of elegant ladies painted, around the same time, by John Singer Sargent, and yet, unlike those compliant sitters, she does not fully reveal herself. And for good reason. Created by Jules Chéret in 1891, the poster was never intended to be a portrait, let alone a work of art. Its sole function was to advertise the Alcazar d’Été Club at 8 Avenue Gabriel in Paris, where the woman in pink, the singer known as Kanjarowa, was the nightly attraction.
Illustrations are important not for what they are, but for what they refer to: a passage in a book, an event, a cultural or a natural fact. We do not admire them the way we would a painting in a museum. Instead, we read them, claims D.B. Dowd, a professor of design and American culture studies at Washington University in St Louis. In his aptly titled Reading Pictures, a sprawling 400-page history of the genre, Dowd lets illustrations tell their stories, from the first known example, the frontispiece of the Diamond Sutra in Tan China (AD868), to Molly Crabapple’s devastating pictorial reports from Gaza in 2015.
“Illustrator”, as a professional designation, first took hold in the middle of the 19th century, but Dowd takes care to emphasise continuities across cultures and centuries. Chéret’s poster, for one, would have been unthinkable without the xylography (a woodcut combining image and text) perfected by 17th-century printmakers in Japan. Looking ahead, Chéret’s fancy flappers (also called the Chérettes) irked the US painter Stuart Davis, a supplier of caustic covers for Max Eastman’s socialist magazine The Masses. Davis’s design for the June 1913 issue starred two women who were distinctly working class, their worn-out faces transcripts of hard-lived lives. Davis’s models—one shown from the side, her long neck accentuated by her open-necked striped blouse, the other facing us, eyebrows sarcastically raised—are fully aware of what is happening to them: “Gee, Mag,” reads the caption, “Think of Us Bein’ on a Magazine Cover.” A few decades later came an angrier variation on the theme, now from Vietnam. A poster by Duong Ngoc Canh, Look after the Land, Look after the Youth (1966), features a young Vietnamese girl wearing the checkered white and black scarf flaunted by the revolutionaries. She is carrying not a fan but a machine gun.

British Labor—They Stood as One, an illustration by Hugo Gilbert for New Masses magazine, June 1926 The Marxist Internet Archive
Long before the Chérettes bewitched Parisian passers-by, courtesans in 18th-century Japan, “celebrations of feminine fashion and beauty”, beckoned male customers from woodcuts sold in print shops. But Asian artists also produced sweetly intimate scenes, such as Wu Youru’s Wandering Eyes Giving Way to Wandering Thoughts, an ink drawing made for an 1890 Shanghai Pictorial (an illustrated newspaper supplement). Two courtesans are lounging on the balcony of their second-floor apartment. One is playing a lute, while the other leans over the railing to ponder two small birds perched on the power lines below: a wry comment on the collision, in modern city life, of the old and the new.
Dowd masterfully embeds his images in pages of cultural commentary, relating the steady expansion of the genre to the growth of literacy worldwide. He also offers trenchant observations on the ways in which illustrations have been abused for propaganda or profit. In the wrong hands, books for children proved convenient tools in spreading the seeds of racism. A 1938 Nazi picture book taught young Germans how to tell Jews from non-Jews by likening both to mushrooms. Which is the edible one? (Hint: it is not the one wearing the Star of David). Consumerist greed found an early outlet in advertisements, such as the shrine to customers’ desires created by the Mitsukoshi Kimono Store in Tokyo in 1920: a tower of shoes, teacups, cameras and clocks. The “varied colours and shapes,” writes Dowd, “invite the viewer to linger”, training them how to behave when visiting the store.
I enjoyed Dowd’s quirky captions even more than his lengthy overviews, which, given the vast amount of material they summarise, inevitably force him to simplify. (He repeats the old canard of Marx’s early antisemitism, which, at the very least, requires context). But when Dowd turns his mind to the images themselves, his prose always takes off, as in this humorous recreation of an illustrated scene from an early Japanese picaresque novel, Jippensha Ikku’s Footing It along Tōkaidō Road (1806). Two buffoons, Kita and Yaji, arriving at their inn after dark, stumble across what they assume is a sleeping maid on the floor. When she will not wake up, “Yaji leaps in a panic: A dead body!” The “maid” turns out to be a statue made for the local temple, “now with a broken nose”.
As admirably comprehensive as Reading Pictures is, it neglects the rich tradition of natural history illustration. Just think of John James Audubon and Robert Havell Jr’s innovative life-sized aquatints of North American birds (The Birds of America, 1826-38) or Ernst Haeckel’s Art Nouveau-inspired plates of invertebrates, minuscule organisms of such astounding variety and ornamental sophistication that they seem to have come from an artist’s mind rather than nature (Art Forms in Nature, 1899-1904). These examples would have reinforced Dowd’s main point that we should not think of illustration as mainly service work or as inferior to real art.
Readers who continue to be sceptical of the genre might take a moment to sample a particularly fine specimen included in Dowd’s book, the hilarious 15 October 1951 cover of the Canadian magazine MacLean’s. Drawn by Oscar Cahén, it shows an artist at his easel amid a wildly Cubist landscape, a cascade of triangular and ovoid trees and trapezoid mountains. When you peek at the artist’s canvas, though, you discover a disappointingly conventional postcard view. Which cheekily suggests that a painter might get wrong what an illustrator gets right. Put differently, if you would like to see the world represented as it really is—jagged, crazy, in perpetual motion—turn to an illustrator.
• D.B. Dowd, Reading Pictures: A History of Illustration, Princeton University Press, 400pp, 400 colour + 24 b/w illustrations, $60/£50 (hb), published 21 April
• Christoph Irmscher is a critic and biographer
Philip Hoare has created his “version of a Blake print”, a complex book to dive into and get lost in
A new edition of her 1980s autobiography brings this vivacious and well-connected artist back to life
Catalogue accompanying exhibition at London’s Design Museum explores the US film-maker’s unique aesthetic
The Italian scholar Alessandro Giardino posits his theories about the Baroque artist’s Seven Works of Mercy in fictional form

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Diggs was accused of assaulting his former live-in chef.
A Massachusetts jury on Tuesday found NFL wide receiver Stefon Diggs not guilty of felony strangulation and misdemeanor assault in a case related to a pay dispute involving his former chef.
Diggs, who pleaded not guilty during his first court appearance in February, was accused of assaulting Jamila Adams, his former live-in chef at his Massachusetts home. Adams testified on Monday that Diggs slapped her and choked her during an argument last December.
The trial, which lasted only two days, saw the defense team for Diggs point to financial demands made by Adams and testimony from friends and employees that said she did not seem injured following the assault. At one point during the trial, Diggs’ defense team shared a video of Adams dancing on camera in the home shortly after the alleged assault took place.
“The evidence has shown what we’ve maintained from day one: Mr. Diggs was wrongly accused, and this case represents exactly the kind of opportunistic targeting that players can face the moment they step off the field,” Mitch Schuster of Meister, Seelig & Schuster said in a statement.
Diggs was visibly emotional after the verdict was read, wiping away tears while thanking his lawyers.
Prosecutors argued that Adams’ testimony was the crux of the case involving Diggs and that because she wasn’t a “perfect witness” didn’t mean that her testimony needed to be disregarded.
“She was argumentative, avoidant, difficult. But does that mean you should throw away everything she said? No,” Assistant District Attorney Drew Virtue said, later urging jurors to give her testimony “the attention, the scrutiny, the weight it deserves.”
While on the stand, Adams admitted that her relationship with Diggs was “complicated” and that the two had previously had a sexual relationship but were not together at the time of the assault. She testified that Diggs entered the room, arguing over money Adams said she was owed, before he “smacked me with an open hand” and later choked her.
However, during several instances of her testimony, Adams’ words were stricken from the record, including an accusation that Diggs attempted to pay her $100,000 to recant her statement about the alleged assault. Another tense moment came when Diggs’ defense team asked about claims that her attorney sought a $5.5 million settlement from the NFL star. Adams said that she “can’t speak on that” and “how to answer the question.”
An officer involved with the case said he spoke with Adams once she reported the incident, but noticed no visible injuries and took no photographs for his investigation.
Those employed by Diggs, including his chief of staff and hairstylist, all testified that they saw Adams around the time of the alleged assault, and not once did she mention it.
Diggs spent this past season with the Patriots, helping lead the team to their first Super Bowl appearance since 2019. He was released from the team in March despite signing a 3-year, $69M contract last summer.
Had he been convicted, the former New England Patriot faced up to five years in state prison or two and a half years in a correctional facility.

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Celebrate National Nurses Week (May 6–12, 2026) and Teacher Appreciation Week (May 4–8, 2026) with the best food deals, discounts, and free meals.
As communities across the country celebrate appreciation for educators and healthcare professionals, National Nurses Week (May 6–May 12, 2026) and Teacher Appreciation Week (May 4–May 8, 2026) bring a meaningful spotlight to the individuals who shape lives every day inside classrooms and hospitals.
During this special time, restaurants, cafes, and national food chains often roll out exclusive deals, discounts, and free meal offers as a way of saying thank you for the hard work, dedication, and compassion these professionals provide year-round.
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Teacher Appreciation Week, observed during the first full week of May, recognizing educators who go above and beyond to support students, while National Nurses Week begins on May 6 and ends on May 12. Together, these two observances create a powerful moment of gratitude, where businesses and communities come together to give back in small but meaningful ways.
Take a look at the food deals happening for National Nurses and Teacher Appreciation Week
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Einstein Bros. Bagels
FREE Bagel & Shmear w/ purchase on 5/6
Chick-fil-A
Nurses can get a free original chicken sandwich at Chick-fil-A from May 4–9 using the mobile app.
Kura Revolving Sushi Bar
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Purchase $100 and receive a $20 Bonus for your next visit. Also May 4-10, 2026 at Kura Sushi, teachers enjoy 20% off, as a thank you for all the care and dedication they show every day. Must present valid ID.
Potbelly
 Potbelly is offering teachers and nurses a complimentary cookie or regular-sized fountain drink with the purchase of any entrée from Monday, May 4, through Tuesday, May 12. Eligible entrées include any original or big-sized sandwich, wrap, whole salad or bowl of soup. The offer is available in-shop only.
Salata Salad Kitchen
Nurses and teachers: show your badge. Get 15% off. Eat better, feel better, work better. Valid May 4-12, in-store only.
Shake Shack
Shake Shack is giving one free shack burger or veggie burger for nurses with the purchase of at least one other menu item from May 4-12. The offer is in-person only with valid ID at participating locations. 
Insomnia Cookies
BOGO cookies. Show your valid professional ID in store to redeem.

Food Deals For National Nurses and Teacher Appreciation Week was originally published on majic945.com

COMMENTARY: 5 Reasons Why Obama Will Beat Romney
Rest In Power: Notable Black Folks Who We’ve Lost In 2026
The 30 Most Beautiful Black Women In Hollywood
Red Carpet Rundown: Coco Jones, La La Anthony, & Others Turn Heads At The ‘TIME 100’ Gala
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In a chat with her former colleagues from the “Native Land” pod about her new book, the former “Cross Connection” host lays bare her thoughts on personal loss, the election, why Black women feel under attack and more.
Tiffany D. Cross has looked back at the last decade of her life and chronicled both the highs and the lows. She’s been viewed as a rising star on cable news with “The Cross Connection” on MS Now, saw one of her dream jobs taken from her, then witnessed Donald Trump once again take the presidency and endure a painful breakup back-to-back-to-back.
On Tuesday, Cross’ new book “Love, Me: A Letter to Black Women in a Toxic Country, Career, and Relationship” hit bookshelves and the political commentator joined her former “Native Land” colleagues Angela Rye, Andrew Gillum and Bakari Sellers and explained that while she felt a desire to love and felt an overabundance of love, she felt that love “emptying” from her.
“I had to find a way to plug those holes and get that faucet turned back on for myself,” Cross said, relating her journey to that of Megan Thee Stallion following her public breakup with NBA star Klay Thompson.
On her journey, Cross explained that she hopes her new book offers hope not just to Black women but also to Black men. In her eyes, “Love, Me” offers a glimpse into what Black women are going through in modern times, from being underemployed to being a target of the Trump Administration through layoffs and more.
“I hope it offers insight that you won’t get anywhere else because I do say the quiet parts out loud,” Cross began. “I say those dark thoughts that I have out loud that women might be afraid to say at brunch tables with each other. I try to share that. And the hope is giving ourselves something to believe in.”
She continued, “When we talk about black women, particularly in politics, we’re talked about as a political commodity. So before you ask me to go out here and save America, I need you to realize I’m a whole human being right here with a beating and broken heart. And my heart is breaking for a lot of reasons. So before I can get back out here and save something that hasn’t really served me in a righteous way, given what I poured into this place, I need to heal myself.”
That healing isn’t just about politics; it’s about love itself. Cross bears plenty within “Love, Me,” tracing the pain she felt losing her show, losing love and feeling like Black women have lost the country, like it was all building to one explosive moment. In a day and age where Black women have seen their love and what they pour into being extinguished in various avenues, Cross is letting her hurt be public for the world to see.
She admits she doesn’t have the answers, but she knows Black women are taking a pause and remains steadfast in her hope for change.
“I need everybody to give us a second to breathe,” she said. “Don’t mistake our ‘out of office’ like we not out here doing sh-t and moving strategically, but I need to for a second give myself something to believe in. So to me, that’s the hopeful part.”

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GameStop announced on Sunday that it had submitted a nonbinding proposal to purchase 100% of eBay for $125.00 per share (50% cash and 50% GameStop common stock).
GameStop isn’t the juggernaut it used to be, and that’s why many analysts are confused by its unsolicited offer to acquire eBay.
Shares of eBay were up more than than 4% Monday after the video game retailer announced it made an unsolicited bid of $56 billion to take over eBay.
GameStop announced on Sunday that it had submitted a nonbinding proposal to purchase 100% of eBay for $125.00 per share (50% cash and 50% GameStop common stock), valuing the online auction site at about $55 billion.
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In a press release shared on Monday, eBay’s board confirmed the proposal, adding that it will “carefully review and consider” it.
But according to Variety, the math isn’t really mathing, noting that there is a good chance it won’t go through. ]
Per Variety:
GameStop’s market capitalization is currently below $12 billion — less than one-fourth the proposed deal size. Shares of GameStop were down nearly 5% in early trading on Monday on the eBay gambit, as of 10:30 a.m. ET, eBay’s stock was hovering around $109/share, indicating investor skepticism that the deal could get across the finish line.
According to GameStop, it has lined up $20 billion in committed financing from TD Bank. But that still leaves a shortfall for the deal price tag. Meanwhile, GameStop reported $9.4 billion in cash and “liquid investments” as of Jan. 31, 2026, which would include large holdings in Bitcoin.
Ryan Cohen, the current CEO of GameStop, didn’t offer much clarification on why his company is making this move during what was described as a combative interview.
“We are offering half cash, half stock, and we have the ability to issue stock in order to get the deal done. But the full details of the offer are on our website,” Cohen said. “We will see what happens.” During the interview, Cohen acknowledged he would be open if eBay turned the tables and sought to acquire GameStop at a premium because “I have the same obligation to my shareholders.”
GameStop also claims to have acquired a 5% stake in eBay. While the latter’s stock has seen a bump, GameStop’s share price took a hit and was down nearly 5% in early trading on Monday.
Yeah, we have zero faith this will go through.
GameStop Makes Unsolicited Bid To Pruchase eBay, Analysts & Social Media Are Confused was originally published on hiphopwired.com

COMMENTARY: 5 Reasons Why Obama Will Beat Romney
Rest In Power: Notable Black Folks Who We’ve Lost In 2026
The 30 Most Beautiful Black Women In Hollywood
Red Carpet Rundown: Coco Jones, La La Anthony, & Others Turn Heads At The ‘TIME 100’ Gala
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Janne Síren, who will step down as director of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum later this year Photo: Jeff Mace for Buffalo AKG Art Museum
After 13 years at the helm of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Janne Sirén is stepping down from the director post and returning to Europe. The museum announced on Wednesday (29 April) that Sirén will vacate the role in October and the board of directors will begin planning its search for a new leader this summer. Sirén’s departure follows a pivotal period of growth for the museum, which was known as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery when he was appointed in 2013, including a campus renovation and expansion project completed in 2023 through a $230m capital campaign.
“There are always a combination of professional and personal factors when it comes to a decision like this,” Sirén tells The Art Newspaper. “One marker in this process of starting to think about next chapters was the completion of the campus expansion project. I would say another, more personal, factor is that now that my children are grown and have left the house, I’ve started looking at the world differently.”
The campus development initiative was a significant milestone for the museum. Prolonged due to the pandemic, the four-year construction project redesigned the flow of the grounds, connected existing structures and added a jewellery-box shaped building designed by OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture) and partner Shohei Shigematsu.
Beyond the physical expansion during Sirén’s tenure, the collection grew steadily, the museum’s staff increased from 62 to nearly 200, the endowment ballooned from $31.3m in 2013 to $79.3m today, and annual visitor numbers reached 340,000 following the expansion.
“It’s easy to point to the material facts like the campus expansion as an accomplishment, but I really look at the growth and evolution of the team,” Sirén says. “We’ve become a high-performance team and we’ve emerged as an institution that is very committed to its local community and cares deeply about what happens here in Buffalo and Western New York. But at the same time, we are increasingly a player on various international and global platforms. And that’s not just me, that’s us together.”
Buffalo AKG’s purview under Sirén also expanded. After joining the museum in 2013, he launched a public art department that has since brought over 60 projects to Western New York. The following year, he introduced the Innovation Lab, a creative incubator that ran until 2020, bringing together arts, science and technology to address issues facing museums and communities more broadly.
The Buffalo AKG Art Museum Photo by Jason O’Rear
Sirén also helped strengthen the museum’s international relationships, launching the AKG Nordic Art and Culture Initiative in 2021. The platform organises exhibitions and programmes at the museum and in Buffalo to support artists with ties to the Nordic Region. In 2023, Buffalo AKG also bolstered its American network, establishing the National Council of supporters who act as ambassadors for the museum.
Sirén’s tenure was not without challenges. Last year, the museum came under fire for laying off 13 employees in what the union representing them alleged was retaliation against its members. (The museum denied that union membership factored into the layoffs and the National Labor Relations Board has to date not ruled on the incident.) Earlier this year, the Erie County Comptroller’s Office discovered that Sirén owed $335,000 to the museum for a home loan received as part of his recruitment package in 2013. A spokesperson for the museum says neither of these issues factored into Sirén’s decision to leave and confirmed that the loan has been paid back.
Reflecting on his time at the museum, Sirén has overwhelmingly positive sentiments, noting that the challenges of being a director are not unique to the Buffalo AKG. “I’m sure many of my colleagues feel the same way that leading a museum is challenging,” he says. “You have to strike a balance between the aspirations of an ambitious curatorial team and the budgetary means required to make their visions possible. You have to consider the work-life balance of your entire team. It’s an archipelago of challenges that you must learn to sail through and not be disturbed by obstacles and failures.”
As for Sirén’s life after Buffalo, he is looking beyond the role of museum director for the time being. “I’m not going to be prescriptive about the distant future, I still have years on the clock,” he says. “My roots are in academia. The daily life of a director is intense minute to minute and there are things I’ve said I’d write one day, but that day never comes unless you make a decision for it to come. My inner voice tells me that I have an exciting next chapter to explore, but that’s not my focus for the next six months.”
While his professional plans are still, “a dish that is not fully baked yet”, Sirén is eager to spend more time in nature. “I will miss every single one of my team members,” he says. “I will miss the amazing collection. I will miss the community of wonderful people in Buffalo. I grew up spending time in the literal wilderness, taking solo hikes north of the Arctic Circle and diving in the North Atlantic. As director, I had very little time to be deep in nature and that is what I’m looking forward to having time for.”
More than three years after it closed, the museum in upstate New York has made major upgrades across its campus and added more than 500 works to its collection
A decades-long process resulted in an ambitious reorientation of the museum’s campus around people and art
The museum recently reopened following a $230m renovation and expansion

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Monday’s blunt dissent comes weeks after Jackson gave a rare rebuke of her colleagues during a lecture at Yale Law School.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is continuing to scold her conservative colleagues on the U.S. Supreme Court. Following the high court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in Louisiana v. Callais, nearly a week later, the conservative majority made a ruling that sets the path for the state to halt its primary election — which is already underway — to redraw its map and eliminate a second majority-Black district that the court shockingly ruled unconstitutional.
The latest SCOTUS order, issued on Monday evening, speeds up the normal 32-day timeline before the justices formally return a case to the lower court. 
Justice Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court and the most junior member of the bench, did not mince her words when calling out the judicial ruling and what she described as the potential for partiality in an ongoing political issue sparked by President Donald Trump.
“To avoid the appearance of partiality here, we could, as per usual, opt to stay on the sidelines and take no position by applying our default procedures,” Jackson wrote in her four-page dissent. “But, today, the Court chooses the opposite. Not content to have decided the law, it now takes steps to influence its implementation.”
Less than 24 hours after the Supreme Court ruled on April 29 that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act does not require Louisiana to have two majority-Black districts despite African Americans making up more than 32% of the state’s population, Governor Jeff Landry indicated that he would call an emergency to suspend the state’s primary elections already underway in order to redraw the congressional map.
The move seeks to give Republicans a political advantage, as states across the country are engaging in gerrymandering following Trump’s 2025 call for Texas to defy tradition and redraw its map to give his party at least five additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. As the president faces tanking approval ratings, most notably on the economy and his signature policy issue of immigration, the gerrymandering fight is his last-ditch effort to keep control of Congress in 2027. Trump has warned that if Democrats win the majority, he will be impeached.
“The question whether our decision should affect the map to be used in the ongoing primaries raises a host of legal and political questions that are entirely independent of the issue in Callais,” writes Justice Jackson, who pointed to prior decisions by the court that Monday’s ruling seemingly defies.
“Courts should not risk assuming political . . . responsibility for a [partisan map-drawing] process that often produces ill will and distrust,” says the former U.S. District and Court of Appeals judge. “There is also the so-called Purcell principle, which we invoked only five months ago to chide a federal district court for ‘improperly insert[ing] itself into an active primary campaign.’”
At the heart of the Louisiana v. Callais issue, for voting rights and civil rights leaders, is the ability for Black voters, who make up 13% of the population and faced nearly a century of racial discrimination in voting—as well as racial violence and terror—to have equal representation under the law by being able to elect candidates of their choice. However, in Callais, the court essentially said that diluting the power of Black voters is permissible for political reasons. Any plaintiff challenging an election map under the VRA, they ruled, would have to prove that the slicing and dicing of Black or brown communities in redistricting was intentionally based on race.
Jackson, who dissented in the Louisiana case, does not call out the merits of the case in Monday’s ruling, sending the case back to the lower court, but notes the political activities around efforts to expedite its ruling to rush through a new map as problematic for the Supreme Court.
“These post-Callais developments have a strong political undercurrent. Louisiana’s hurried response to the Callais decision unfolds in the midst of an ongoing statewide election, against the backdrop of a pitched redistricting battle among state governments that appear to be acting as proxies for their favored political parties,” said Jackson. “And as always, the Court has a choice.”
The Harvard Law-educated justice noted that SCOTUS has only broken its 32-day timeline to return a case only twice in the last 25 years.
“The Court’s decision to buck our usual practice under Rule 45.3 and issue the judgment forthwith is tantamount to an approval of Louisiana’s rush to pause the ongoing election in order to pass a new map,” noted Jackson.
She added, “The Court unshackles itself from both constraints today and dives into the fray. And just like that, those principles give way to power. Because this abandon is unwarranted and unwise, respectfully, I dissent.”
Monday’s blunt dissent comes weeks after Jackson gave a rare rebuke of her colleagues during a lecture at Yale Law School. She called out the conservative majority for its unusually frequent rulings in favor of President Trump’s emergency docket requests, allowing his administration to carry out many of its policies before they are fully litigated in court — some of which she noted could be illegal.
“Are we going to allow him to do this thing, this thing that is being challenged in the interim, while we are evaluating whether or not that thing is lawful?” Jackson queried. “The only way to make that determination without having it just completely collapse into forecasting the merits is to focus on what is going to happen if he does this thing concretely in the real world, versus not.”
Tiffany Royster, Esq., associate counsel at the National Council of Negro Women, notes that Jackson’s vote in the Supreme Court is “for the most part, overwritten every time.”
“Her dissents are obviously in the minority, and just thinking about the 6-3 makeup of the court, the majority is getting to decide how these cases are decided, and they necessarily don’t share her perspective on the issues,” Royster tells theGrio. “She really does have very little formal power, the 6-3 makeup, but she’s using her voice and using her voice in a way where she’s not staying silent.”
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“How much fame do we need, ya’ll?” Lewis questioned in her Instagram post.
Jenifer Lewis is the latest celebrity to criticize Black celebrities for attending the 2026 Met Gala, following the Met Gala’s sponsor and co-chair, Jeff Bezos, who significantly impacted The Washington Post, resulting in thousands of job losses.
On Monday evening, the longtime actor took to Instagram to share a video, calling out those who attended the annual fashion event while others are reeling from job losses and the closure of children’s programs.
“Okay, so I hadn’t seen any of it, the singer and advocate, 67, began. “I had been running around all day, and my girlfriend called and said, ‘Jenifer, they showed up anyway.’”
A post shared by Jenifer Lewis (@jeniferlewisforreal)
Lewis then started to play the piano and said, “They cut nearly 30,000 jobs and gutted the Washington Post. They showed up anyway? Postering and posing, hoping to be the most. They cut $1 billion in funding for children’s nutrition. And there they all were, vying for the next position. We’re at war, and so many people are dying.”
She continued, “I said to my girlfriend, ‘Tell me you’re lying.’ How much fame do we need, ya’ll? How much more fame?”
Her followers in the comment section praised her for addressing these issues, with many also speaking on the massive job cuts from Amazon and over 300,000 Black women losing their jobs since early 2025.
“And she knows that the folks she’s talking about know THEY ARE THE FOLKS she’s TALKING about,” one commenter said with a teary-eyed emoji.
“300,000 Black women lost their jobs,” another wrote.
“And it’s a slap in the face knowing that the average citizen is in protest. So what does that state about their solidarity with average one,” a third user said.
“They showed up after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act,” another follower said.
Ahead of this year’s Met Gala, Taraji P. Henson also called out celebrities who were planning to attend. The situation began when influencer Meredith Lynch shared an Instagram video advising celebrities not to wear “ICE OUT” pins at the event and attributing part of the political issues to Bezos, according to theGrio.
Henson commented on her post, writing, “I am so confused by some ppl that are going. I am just like WTF ARE WE DOING!?!?!?!” with many followers also agreeing with her.
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The tennis star returned to the festivities for the first time in five years after she served as co-chair for the 2021 event.
Naomi Osaka is no stranger to turning heads, whether on the tennis court or in the fashion world. When she hit the carpet at the 2026 Met Gala on Monday, she made certain to live up to this year’s theme.
Wearing Robert Wun, Osaka first stepped out in a flowery white-and-red feather gown that was, in fact, taken from the Met’s current exhibition, “Costume Art.” The feathers sprouted upward like flowers, and she completed the look with bright-red gloves bearing noticeable claws.
However, the gown wasn’t the only surprise Osaka had for onlookers. Underneath the white gown, she wore a stunning red dress in her own version of performance art.
“I was able to work with Robert Wun, which is an incredible honor for me,” Naomi told Variety. “This is the shedding of the skin and the human anatomy.”
Naomi Osaka says her #MetGala look was inspired by “the shedding of the skin and human anatomy.” pic.twitter.com/n2VQmszoMl
Osaka’s appearance is her first since 2021, when she served as co-chair for that year’s gala. However, fans quickly caught on to Osaka’s latest collaboration with Wun, which began during this year’s Australian Open.
Wearing a jellyfish-inspired outfit, the look not only dared tennis customs, but it also gave Osaka even more grace as a competitor, one who was vocal about turning her appearances on the court into her version of the Met Gala.
In January, she responded to critics of that Wun collaboration on Threads.
“There’s a demographic that’s been talking about ‘traditional’ tennis outfits and calling me classless for what I wear,” she wrote. “To be honest, I see it for what it is. I don’t do this for them though; they will never get it, and I don’t want them to. I do this for the people who are like me.”
What made the moment at the Met more unique? Wun and Osaka had never met until going over initial fittings for her gowns at his design studio in London.
“I was so appreciative to meet him and see how he works,” Osaka said. “He didn’t have an ego and was just willing to change things to make me more comfortable or hear my perspective on things.”
Per Wun, “The look debuts with a two-part act on the carpet. First is a sculpted ivory coat, with open seams exposing red crystals from within, adorned with stripped feathers flaring outwards like a fountain shape.”
Speaking of the red gown, which is a unique stunner in its own right, he said: “It totals over 3,280 hours of handiwork and thousands of faceted Swarovski crystals in four shades of red that illustrate the human anatomy, needle by needle, crystal by crystal.”
The full look was completed by OLAPLEX and Marty Harper, who used several products to ensure Osaka’s hair stayed true to its natural curly texture and more, including shampoo, conditioner, bonding oil, and smoother.
Something impactful indeed.
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Jurors have been seated to oversee the assault trial involving football player Stefon Diggs.
A jury has been seated in the assault trial of Stefon Diggs, a former New England Patriots wide receiver accused of attacking his private chef at his home in Dedham in 2025. According to WCVB, seven jurors were selected on May 4, and the trial began Monday at Norfolk County District Court. Diggs has pleaded not guilty to felony strangulation and misdemeanor assault and battery charges tied to the alleged December incident.
Prosecutors opened with a brief statement outlining testimony from the chef, Jamila Mila Adams, while the defense delivered a longer argument claiming the assault never occurred and asserting a lack of evidence. Defense attorneys also argued that Adams went to police days after being fired and amid demands for money, alleging she withheld messages and pointing to a payment dispute as central to the case, WCVB reported.
According to court records cited by the Associated Press, Adams told officers the two had argued over unpaid wages and that during the Dec. 2 encounter Diggs “smacked her across the face” and then “tried to choke her using the crook of his elbow around her neck,” leaving her struggling to breathe. She said she feared she might black out.
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More details were revealed during her testimony. On Monday, Adams testified that Diggs confronted her about a message revealing private details of an intimate relationship he had with another employee, but after an objection, prosecutors moved on. She added that her live-in role included managing his diet and cooking for the household, earning $2,000 per week. Diggs declined to speak to reporters upon arriving at court.
Stefon Diggs, a four-time Pro Bowler, signed a three-year, $69 million deal with New England last year and recorded 85 catches for 1,013 yards and four touchdowns, his seventh 1,000-yard season. Previously drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in 2015, he later starred with the Buffalo Bills and had a brief stint with the Houston Texans in 2024. His Patriots performance marked a strong return after a season-ending knee injury in Houston.
He was released in March and posted a farewell message thanking the organization, writing, “We family forever.” He is currently a free agent.
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Stefon Diggs Assault Trial: Jury Selected In Case was originally published on newsone.com

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May 3, 2026
The launch also reflects Aglow Dermatology’s broader mission: to close gaps in dermatologic care.
Dina D. Strachan, MD, a Harvard-educated, board-certified dermatologist, is the founder and CEO of Aglow Dermatology, a leading Black-owned dermatology practice in New York City’s borough of Manhattan. Recently, she announced the launch of her new Hair Loss Center of Excellence, a specialized initiative dedicated to diagnosing and treating hair and scalp disorders across all hair types and textures.
Dr. Strachan, who is also an NYU faculty member and a nationally recognized expert in complex hair and scalp conditions, is known to a broader audience as an on-camera expert featured in the Netflix docuseries The Black Beauty Effect, where she lends her expertise on skin, hair, and representation in dermatology.
As interest in hair restoration has grown, so has confusion about treatment options—particularly for patients with textured hair, who are often underserved or misinformed. The Hair Loss Center of Excellence was created to bring medical clarity, evidence-based treatment, and equitable care to patients seeking effective, individualized solutions.
“Hair loss is a medical condition that deserves careful evaluation and thoughtful treatment,” said Dr. Strachan. “Too often, patients are given generalized advice or cosmetic solutions without a proper diagnosis. Our goal is to provide clear answers and personalized treatment plans grounded in sound medical science, while ensuring that people of all hair textures receive the same level of expertise and attention.”
Dr. Strachan is widely known for her expertise in diagnosing and managing hair loss conditions that disproportionately affect African Americans, including scarring alopecias such as central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia (CCCA), a condition that is frequently underrecognized or misdiagnosed. Her work emphasizes early diagnosis, prevention of permanent hair loss, and culturally competent care that accounts for styling practices, hair care traditions, and patient priorities.
Aglow Dermatology has built a reputation for combining medical excellence with a nuanced understanding of skin and hair issues in people of color. The new Center of Excellence formalizes that commitment, offering structured, in-depth evaluations for patients with complex or treatment-resistant hair loss. These dedicated sessions will be held monthly to allow for comprehensive assessment and management, while standard hair loss consultations remain available year-round.
The launch also reflects Aglow Dermatology’s broader mission: to close gaps in dermatologic care, improve outcomes through education and early intervention, and ensure that advances in dermatology are accessible to all patients– not just a subset.
Patients will benefit from:
• Detailed diagnostic evaluations of hair and scalp disorders
• Evidence-based medical and procedural treatment options
• Expertise in both scarring and non-scarring alopecias
• Care tailored to all hair textures, including tightly coiled and curly hair
• Guidance on safe hair care practices and avoidance of harmful or ineffective treatments
Previously appeared on BlackNews.com.
RELATED CONTENT: ‘Minding Our Own Business—’ A Spotlight On Diaspora Enterprise and Culture: Lu Smith

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Palazzo Grimani, a rare gem Photo: Agata Kadar
Palazzo Grimani isa rare gem that never ceases to enchant, above all for its spectacular Tribuna, a chamber filled with valuable marbles, restored to its original splendour with the support of Venetian Heritage. The Renaissance art of collecting becomes architecture, offering a truly hypnotic aesthetic experience.
Micheluzzi Glass, located near the Gallerie dell’Accademia, is a must-visit for anyone seeking unparalleled artisanal excellence. The daughters of the renowned Murano glassmaker Massimo Micheluzzi continue his legacy, creating stunning sculptural works and refined textures.
The Gardens of the Church of the Redeemer on Giudecca Photo: Paolo Reda—REDA
The Gardens of the Church of the Redeemer on Giudecca, lovingly restored with the support of the Venice Gardens Foundation, are a sanctuary of discovery. This extensive space is an oasis of peace, blending contemporary art, nature and landscape design.
For those seeking time-honoured flavours of the lagoon, there’s only one destination: Antiche Carampane, a few steps from the Rialto Bridge. It is a bastion of Venetian tradition.
The Dries Van Noten Foundation Courtesy Fondazione Dries Van Noten
The brand-new Dries Van Noten Foundation, recently opened in the 15th-century Palazzo Pisani Moretta, offers an immersive journey through the Belgian designer’s distinctive aesthetic, in a stunning space that promises to become a new hub for lifestyle and creativity.
San Giorgio Maggiore is a vibrant cultural hub, home to Cini Foundation, Stanze del Vetro and the newly opened Stanze della Fotografia. Every two years, the island comes alive with Homo Faber, the Michelangelo Foundation’s extraordinary celebration of craftsmanship.
Gregory/Adobe Stock
Without a doubt, Codroma, in the heart of Dorsoduro—a place that has preserved its authentic charm. Sipping a spritz here means participating in a historic ritual steeped in the real essence of the neighbourhood. Accompanying cicchetti, served in the Venetian tradition, are the perfect complement.
Trevor Paglen’s Voyager (2026) in the exhibition Strange Rules © Trevor Paglen; courtesy the artist and Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, and Pace Gallery, New York
Strange Rules, at Palazzo Diedo’s Berggruen Arts & Culture, is more than a traditional exhibition. This interdisciplinary research project—curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist—delves into aesthetics at the intersection of new technologies, AI and artistic creation.
The city took a big financial hit during the pandemic. But as things improve, locals are pushing for a more sustainable form of tourism
The Venice Glass Week is a city-wide collaboration between museums, commercial galleries and artisans of Murano
Local associations are objecting to plans to transform part of the former shipyard into a new site for the Biennale’s historical archives

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Gov. Abigail Spanberger directed U.S. and Virginia state flags to be flown at half-staff on all state and local buildings from sunrise to sunset on May 4.
Virginia flags flew at half-staff Monday to honor Dr. Cerina Wanzer Fairfax, the dentist and mother killed in a domestic violence incident involving her husband, former Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax.
As theGrio previously reported, police say Fairfax shot and killed his wife before taking his own life at their Annandale home in April, and the couple’s teenage children were inside the home when the shooting occurred, with their son placing the 911 call. FOX 5 DC reported that the governor issued the official order on May 1, directing U.S. and Virginia state flags to be flown at half-staff on all state and local buildings from sunrise to sunset on May 4.
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The order honors her by name, recognizing her life, her work serving patients, and her dedication to her children and community. It also extends the tribute beyond her individual case, paying respect to all victims of domestic violence across the Commonwealth and emphasizing that such violence can affect people in any community or circumstance.
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Dr. Cerina Wanzer Fairfax was a graduate of Duke University and earned her Doctor of Dental Surgery degree magna cum laude from Virginia Commonwealth University’s Medical College of Virginia School of Dentistry (now simply the VCU School of Dentistry). She founded and ran Dr. Fairfax and Associates Family Dentistry, where she built a two-decade career serving patients across Northern Virginia. State leaders have described the flag-lowering as both a personal tribute and a broader call to action on domestic violence awareness.
The couple was in the middle of divorce proceedings at the time of her death. Court records show a judge had granted her custody of their children and ordered her husband to vacate the family home by the end of April. The flag-lowering ensures that the life of Dr. Cerina Wanzer Fairfax is not reduced to the circumstances of her death.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788.

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