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The Universal Zulu Nation founder is credited with being one of the originators of hip hop, but his legacy was complicated by abuse allegations over the last decade.
Hip hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa has died at age 67.
The Bronx-born rapper, DJ, and founder of the Universal Zulu Nation died of complications from cancer in Pennsylvania today, according to TMZ, which first reported the news.
Born Lance Taylor, Bambaataa is credited as one of the originators of hip hop, with some even contesting that he began throwing his famous block parties before DJ Kool Herc, the “Father of Hip Hop.” But later in his life, younger Zulu Nation members brought forth harrowing allegations of abuse against him.
Growing up in the Bronx River Houses, Bambaataa joined a street gang called the Black Spades, ultimately rising through the ranks and taking on the leadership role of a “warlord.” But he eventually turned away from gang life and toward community building.
He created the Bronx River Organization, which later became the Universal Zulu Nation, inspired by his travels to Africa and the 1964 film “Zulu,” and he renamed himself after the Zulu chief Bhambatha. As part of the community organizing, Bambaataa threw neighborhood parties in the 70s, where he would perform as a DJ and emcee, becoming the foundation of the hip hop music we know today. His 1982 single “Planet Rock” is one of the most influential hip hop tracks ever made.
He also took the Universal Zulu Nation international, establishing chapters in countries like Canada, South Africa, and Honduras. Many notable rappers like Ice-T, Fat Joe, and Big Boi are affiliated with the organization.
Allegations of child sexual abuse marred the legacy of the last decade of Bambaataa’s life. In 2016, Ronald “Bee-Stinger” Savage publicly accused Bambaataa of molesting him in the 1970s, when he was 15 years old, in an interview on a YouTube show called “Star Chamber,” and then later with the New York Daily News. Three other men came out with their own stories after Savage, many with similar details about how they became close to Bambaataa after joining the Universal Zulu Nation as pre-teens and teenagers, seeking refuge from violence, addiction, and chaotic home lives. They alleged that they saw Bambaataa as a mentor and father figure, and he took advantage of his position when he groomed and sexually abused them.
Bambaataa denied these claims in a statement to Rolling Stone in 2016, calling them “baseless” and “cowardly.” He stepped down as the head of the Universal Zulu Nation that year.
Though no criminal charges were brought against him, Bambaataa lost a civil case in 2025, where a “John Doe” accused him of child molestation and sex trafficking from 1991, when he was just 12 years old, to 1995. According to Rolling Stone, a judge granted the plaintiff’s motion for a default judgment after Bambaataa never showed up to court.
At least 12 men have accused Bambaataa of sexually abusing them when they were children.
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Lorna Simpson © Bottega Veneta
In this podcast, based on The Art Newspaper’s regular interview series, our host Ben Luke talks to artists in-depth. He asks the questions you’ve always wanted to: who are the artists, historical and contemporary, they most admire? Which are the museums they return to? What are the books, music and other media that most inspire them? And what is art for, anyway?
Lorna Simpson talks to Ben Luke about her influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work. Simpson was born in Brooklyn, New York, 1960. Her conceptual approach to photography, and image-making more widely, reflects a desire to subvert the conventional framing of different forms of identity.
Lorna Simpson’s Woman on a Snowball (2018) © Lorna Simpson. Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Installation View ‘Untitled, 2020. Three perspectives on the art of the present’ at Pinault Collection – Punta della Dogana, 2020 © Palazzo Grassi, photo: Marco Cappelletti.
From her early photo-text works to her recent paintings using found images, Simpson has explored the complexity of representation, and the visual and textual languages with which it is constructed. While she is deeply engaged with societal issues and historical inequities, and with the camera’s time-honoured role as a documentary instrument, she blurs boundaries between reality and fiction, between witnessing and storytelling. The result is a practice that is precise and yet elusive, spare and yet capacious.
A detail of Lorna Simpson’s Tried by Fire (2017) Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Installation view, Lorna Simpson. Third Person, 2026, Pinault Collection – Punta della Dogana, Venice. Photo: James Wang © Palazzo Grassi, Pinault Collection

Simpson discusses how she achieves a balance between refusal and engagement to allow space for the viewer to enter her work. She talks about the role of the archive and history and how she navigates the use of existing images through various media. She reflects on her constant need to test herself through her work.
From left to right: Lorna Simpson’s For or by the eyes (2023) and Third Person (2023) Installation view, Lorna Simpson. Third Person, 2026, Pinault Collection – Punta della Dogana, Venice. Photo: James Wang © Palazzo Grassi, Pinault Collection
She recalls the immense importance of discovering the work of David Hammons, how an exhibition of Francisco de Zurbarán at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York influenced her approach to image-making, and her connection to artists from Isaac Julien to Terry Adkins and Wangechi Mutu. She reflects on the importance of literature and writers including Robin Coste Lewis and Audre Lorde to her practice. And she discusses the vital importance of the films of Chantal Akerman. Plus, she gives insight into her life in the studio and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?

Lorna Simpson, Pinault Collection – Punta della Dogana, Venice, until 22 November

This podcast is sponsored by Bloomberg Connects, the arts and culture platform. Bloomberg Connects offers access to a vast range of international cultural organisations through a single click, with new guides being added regularly. They include several US museums in which Lorna Simpson has had solo exhibitions, from the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Contemporary Art Museum in St Louis, and, in New York, the Met Fifth Avenue, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Studio Museum, Harlem. Explore Bloomberg Connects and you will find that the guide to the Studio Museum features extensive content on the museum’s new building, which opened at the end of 2025, including Harlem Inspired, in which cultural figures connected to the neighbourhood discuss the museum in the context the “four pillars” on which the new building was constructed: the Street, the Sanctuary, the Stage and the Stoop. You can also hear in-depth audio about From Now: A Collection in Context, the evolving displays of the holdings of the Studio Museum, with curators and educators discussing the themes of the displays and key works within them.
An in-depth interview with the artist on his cultural experiences and greatest influences, from Agnes Martin to Frankie Knuckles
Rudolf Stingel talks to Ben Luke about his influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work
An in-depth interview on the artist’s influences and cultural experiences, from the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke to being photographed by her mother

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Kenneth Tyler pulling a proof of Frank Stella’s Bene come il sale (1988) at Tyler Graphics, Mount Kisco, New York, in April 1988. National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, Gift of Kenneth Tyler 2002. Photo: Marabeth Cohen-Tyler
With the International Fine Prints and Drawings Association’s (IFPDA) annual Print Fair returning to the Park Avenue Armory this week (9-12 April), dealers and collectors are flocking to New York to see the newest and most coveted prints and drawings on offer. Exhibiting in the fair’s invitational section is the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), which is showcasing a selection of its publications, including a new three-volume catalogue raisonné of the influential master printer Kenneth E. Tyler. Published in October 2025 after years of extensive research, Tyler Graphics: Catalogue Raisonné, 1986–2001 is the latest milestone in the close relationship between Tyler and the NGA, which holds the largest collection of his workshops’ art, research and archival material from 1965 to 2001.
“The catalogue raisonné is incredibly meaningful to me,” Tyler, who is 94 years old, tells The Art Newspaper. “It’s a nice reminder of the many things I’ve done, and seeing the documentation of decades of work allows for reflection and new insights.”
In the world of printmaking, Tyler’s mark is indelible. Born in 1931 in Indiana, Tyler emerged as a printmaker in the 1960s in the milieu of the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, a studio that helped revive fine art lithography in the United States (now the Tamarind Institute at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque). Yet it was through the founding of his own workshops that Tyler transformed what was then considered a modest reproductive medium into a site of ambitious production for limited-edition prints. In 1965, Tyler started a studio in Los Angeles called Gemini Ltd, which the following year became Gemini GEL with the partnership of Stanley and Elyse Grinstein and Rosamund and Sidney Felsen. Gemini quickly earned a reputation for high-quality editions made with some of the leading names in Modern and contemporary art, including Robert Rauschenberg, Joseph Albers and Jasper Johns. In 1973, Tyler left Gemini (which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year and is still run by members of the Grinstein and Felsen families) and set out to start a new workshop on his own.
Helen Frankenthaler, assisted by Kenneth Tyler, reworking the image on a lithography stone used in proofs for Reflections XII, from the Reflections series, Tyler Graphics, Mount Kisco, New York, in February 1995. National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, Gift of Kenneth Tyler 2002. Photo: Marabeth Cohen-Tyler
In need of funding for this endeavour, Tyler decided to sell one impression from each edition he made, which caught the attention of the art critic Robert Hughes. Knowing that the NGA, which had recently opened in 1967, was building its collection, Hughes suggested the museum buy Tyler’s work. “What had been a considerably challenging period for him professionally proved a rare opportunity for the newly formed NGA,” says Jane Kinsman, the museum’s adjunct curator and editor of the catalogue raisonné.
The NGA’s inaugural director, James Mollison, met with Tyler and “saw the value of modern printmaking as an art form”, Kinsman says. “The seeds of the National Gallery’s Kenneth E. Tyler Collection were sown, and in 1973 Mollison acquired 621 prints, rare proofs and related drawings from Tyler.”
With this sale, Tyler established what would become known as Tyler Graphics in New York in 1974. Over the next nearly three decades, until it ceased operations in 2001, Tyler Graphics worked with artists including Helen Frankenthaler, Roy Lichtenstein and Donald Sultan.
“Working with Ken was really a collaboration,” Sultan says. “He was so technically invested that he helped invent complex techniques to achieve the best results for the projects. When I first went to Tyler Graphics, Ken showed me the facility and all the presses and printers, and the ability of each one to do amazing things. I immediately forgot any idea I brought with me and suddenly went blank. However, once started, the process began to coalesce into marvellous works. I often wish we had run small editions of the pieces as we went along because at every step, remarkable things happened.”
James Rosenquist, on top of a moving platform held by Paul Stillpass and Michael Mueller, using a pattern pistol to spray coloured paper pulp onto base sheets for Time Dust (1992), assisted by Kenneth Tyler and an unidentified person, in the Tyler Graphics workshop driveway, Mount Kisco, New York, in 1990. National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, Gift of Kenneth Tyler 2002. Photo: Marabeth Cohen-Tyler
Tyler’s workshop was known for innovation and even developed new presses, papers and techniques. “A key example of Tyler’s experimental approach was his development of pulp‑paper works in the mid‑1970s, which merged printmaking with painterly and sculptural methods,” says NGA curator Warwick Heywood. “This allowed artists such as Kenneth Noland to create tactile tonal works that celebrated the expressive qualities of paper pulp.”
The catalogue raisonné highlights how these projects came to fruition. “The documentation includes proof stages leading to the final editioned artwork and makes visible the ways the workshop supported, problem‑solved and helped shape each project,” says Nick Mitzevich, the NGA’s director.
Coinciding with the catalogue raisonné’s debut at the IFPDA, Sultan will be in conversation with Heywood and the scholar J. Cabelle Ahn on April 11 at 4pm. The NGA is also celebrating Tyler’s legacy with Proofs and Processes: The Kenneth Tyler Collection, an exhibition on view at the museum in Canberra until 2 August.
“I often think of the energy and electricity in the workshops,” Tyler says. “I am grateful to the NGA for the making of the catalogue raisonné and for capturing that spirit and energy. I hope this publication provides inspiration for generations to come.”
The exhibition includes the first series produced by the LA workshop, as well as a collection of prints recently donated to the museum
Printed publications can quickly become obsolete, so the ease with which a digital document can be revised is a godsend—and that is what makes many uneasy

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Musician Dess Dior reflects on the emotional journey that shaped her latest track ‘Tell Me Now’.
Dess Dior joined DJ Misses and Incognito on Posted on the Corner to discuss her music career, the creative process behind her latest single “Tell Me Now,” and her growth as an artist. During the interview, she shared insights into her album Take Notes, her approach to navigating the music industry, and the importance of loyalty and self-reliance. Dess also addressed the challenges of social media and offered advice to young women pursuing their dreams.

Dess Dior discussed the creation of her hit single “Tell Me Now,” a track that has been making waves. Recorded in Las Vegas, the song came to life during a spontaneous studio session with producer Nick Papp, who crafted the beat on the spot. Dess described the session as a moment where everything clicked, with the energy in the room confirming they had something special. She also praised Belly Gang’s feature on the track, noting how his conversational style added a unique dynamic to the song.
Reflecting on her growth, Dess explained that while her core values remain the same, she has elevated her artistry and approach. Her latest project, Take Notes, showcases her multifaceted personality, from the assertive tone of “Come Correct” to the vulnerability of “Different Pages.” Dess emphasized that her music reflects her life and experiences, always staying true to who she is.
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Dess also spoke about the challenges of the music industry and the pressures of social media. She highlighted the importance of self-reliance, explaining that no one will have the same passion for your dreams as you do. While social media has helped her reach new audiences and showcase her talents, it also comes with negativity. Dess shared her strategies for staying grounded, including disconnecting from the noise and focusing on her craft.
A key moment in the interview was Dess’s discussion about her long-standing friendship with her bestie. She credited their bond to mutual respect and loyalty, values instilled in them from a young age. In an industry often marked by drama, their unwavering support for each other stands out as a testament to the power of true friendship.
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Dess offered advice to young women chasing their dreams. “Believe in yourself, even when no one else does,” she said. She encouraged aspiring artists to stay consistent, stay close to God, and remain focused on their goals.

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From Coco Jones to Jodie Turner-Smith, the 2026 Fashion Trust Awards brought bold looks, sleek glam, and fashion moments worth talking about.
Fashion nonprofit the Fashion Trust U.S. held its fourth annual awards ceremony on Tuesday, April 7, in Los Angeles, and the red carpet did not come to play. Yes, the night honored U.S.-based designers and rising talent. But the real show started the moment guests stepped onto the carpet.
The girls were outside and giving looks that had everybody paying attention.
With celebrities, stylists, designers, and industry insiders all in the building, everyone brought their A-game. From sculpted gowns to dramatic silhouettes and sleek glam, the fashion was everything.
Inside, the space matched the energy. Clean tablescapes, curated design moments, and collections placed throughout the room set the tone. It felt like fashion from the second you walked in, and the red carpet followed right behind it.
Let’s get into some of the looks that stood out.
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Olandria keeps showing up and making it clear she understands the assignment. In fact, she may give out assignments at this point.
This time, she stepped out in a pixie cut and a daring denim gown from Area, styled by the Reismans. The off-the-shoulder design hugged her frame, while the asymmetrical neckline and distressed detailing gave it edge. The subtle fraying at the hem added just enough attitude.
Her gold accessories pulled everything together, and her smoky eye brought in that soft 90s feel that always works.
“This is my first time doing a jean moment as a gown, and I am loving it so far,” she shared with the Fashion Trust on the carpet. This may be her first time, but we hope it’s not her last. Olandaria and Area are looking like a match made in fashion heaven.
Coco also stepped out and gave exactly what needed to be given.
She wore a ruched, body-hugging Cult Gaia dress in a soft pink tone that followed her shape from top to bottom. The cutouts and gold hardware details added just enough contrast without taking away from the overall look.
Her high ponytail was sleek and pulled back, letting her features do the work. The glam was soft but polished, and everything came together clean.
Coco and Cult Gaia go together real bad.
Keep scrolling to see more of the standout looks from the night. Celebrities in attendance included Erykah Badu, Ryan Destiny, Aweng Chuol, Sergio Hudson, Yara Shahidi, and Jasmine Tookes.

Erykah stepped out in a look that only she could pull off, complete with an oversized structured hat sitting low over her eyes and framing her face. Her hair was a blend of two tones: blonde and honey, while her bold lip and defined eyes kept everything sharp. She poses with Michelle Lamy, who gave a fit equally as bold and daring.
Yara wore a sculpted look featuring a soft nude structured bodice paired with sleek black pants that gave a clean, tailored finish. Her hair was styled in defined curls pulled back, and her makeup was fresh with glowing skin and a soft neutral lip that kept everything polished.
Jodie wore Tory Burch Fall 2026 ready-to-wear and brought color to the carpet in a rich golden-yellow gown that moved beautifully as she walked. Her long, voluminous waves framed her face, and her glowing skin paired with soft glam.
Ryan wore Phan Huy Spring 2026 couture, styled by Luxury Law, in a bold red gown with a high slit and a gold waist detail that added shape. Her hair was sleek and straight, with a soft side part, and her bronzed makeup and glossy lip gave her a warm, radiant finish.
Aweng stepped out in a strapless gold gown that hugged her frame and caught the light with every move. Her short, side-swept pixie gave the look a sharp edge, while her deep-toned lip and glowing skin made the glam feel rich and striking.
Natalia wore Cult Gaia and kept it classic in a black halter gown with a deep neckline and a gold circular accent at the waist. Her hair was styled long and straight. Her makeup featured a bold emphasis on her eyes, complemented by a clean, neutral lip color.
Red Carpet Rundown: Celebrity Style From The 2026 Fashion Trust Awards was originally published on hellobeautiful.com

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From the University of Missouri to the University of Alabama, universities are gutting funding for minority student organizations in response to Trump’s anti-DEI push.

When the University of Missouri told its Black student government it was losing funding and university recognition, administrators framed it as a compliance issue, a necessary response to federal pressure. But for Amaya Morgan, the current president of the Legion of Black Collegians (LBC), it felt like something else entirely: erasure.
“We’re losing legacy,” Morgan said. “As long as we’re a student government, administration is required to meet with us and required to hear us out, and work with us on issues. And definitely, because [we’re not university-sponsored anymore] it gives them more of a reason to toss us to the wayside.”
Morgan is one of many Black students across the country now grappling with what it means to exist on a campus that is actively dismantling the structures built to support them and citing the Trump administration’s memos and directives on DEI as justification. Most recently, at the University of Missouri (Mizzou), the historic Legion of Black Collegians, the only Black student government in the nation, was stripped of its funding and university-sponsored status alongside four other minority student organizations. Founded in 1968—in direct response to the use of Confederate flags and the playing of “Dixie” on campus—the organization was formally recognized as a student government in 1969. Since then, it has played an important role in Black students’ experiences at the university. In 2015, the organization sparked the movement that led to the resignation of then-university president Tim Wolfe after her failed to adequately respond to racist incidents targeting students. For 57 years, LBC has been the reason Black students at Mizzou have had a seat at the table, and now their position is at risk. 
Starting in July, LBC and four other affinity-based organizations, including the Association of Latin American Students, the Asian American Association, the Queer Liberation Front, and Four Front, an Indigenous student group, will lose all designated funding and their status as university-sponsored organizations. In a public statement, the university reportedly stated the decision was made in order to remain in compliance with the Department of Justice’s new restrictions on DEI. 
“In the past, Mizzou allocated a portion of its student fees to fund certain affinity-based student organizations. These practices must be discontinued to align with federal law as outlined in the memo,” university spokesperson Christopher Ave told Inside Higher Ed. “As a public institution, failure to follow federal law will risk forfeiture of significant federal funds that we receive to support student financial aid, research, and other university programs.”
Students were quick to note that the DOJ memo is guidance, not a law. However, this is not the first time the university has tried to censor LBC. In July 2024, Mizzou dissolved its Division for Inclusion, Diversity and Equity. Then, officials tried to force LBC to rename its beloved “Welcome Black BBQ” orientation event. When LBC refused, the university canceled the event altogether.
“The University is taking calculated steps to push minority students further away from the Mizzou stratosphere,” LBC wrote in an Instagram post. “LBC is hurt, frustrated, outraged, disheartened, and much more. But we promise, we’re not going down without a fight.” 
This comes weeks after students at the University of Alabama filed a lawsuit against the institution for suspending publication of its student-led Black- and women-focused campus magazines, “Nineteen Fifty-Six” and “Alice,” in December 2025. Like Mizzou, at the time, the University of Alabama cited Attorney General Pam Bondi’s non-binding memorandum on DEI when announcing its decision. And in March 2026, a group of students, represented by the Legal Defense Fund (LDF), the ACLU of Alabama, and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), filed a federal lawsuit challenging the suspensions as viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment.
“The University of Alabama’s decision to suspend these publications is discriminatory and unconstitutional,” said Avatara Smith-Carrington, Assistant Counsel at LDF in a press release shared with theGrio. “Student magazines like Nineteen Fifty-Six and Alice provide students with a critical space to explore culture, build community, bridge divides, and reflect on their lived and shared experiences. Silencing these students sends a troubling message that certain student voices and experiences don’t belong on campus.”
“I believe that freedom of expression on campus should neither be censored nor restricted because of its perceived value or audience,” student plaintiff Rihanna Pointer added. “Nineteen Fifty-Six and Alice have always provided a platform for diverse voices and perspectives that are vital for fostering an inclusive community amongst students on campus.”
What’s unfolding at schools like Mizzou and Alabama are not isolated incidents; it’s a reflection of a pattern. And while institutions and corporations appear to be preemptively surrendering, there is something refreshing in seeing young people pushing for their rights. 
As LBC wrote: “This is the time to be loud, to fight, and to activate.” 

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Before his 8 p.m. Eastern deadline, President Trump announced a two-week pause on planned military strikes on Iran.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Before his 8 p.m. Eastern deadline, President Trump announced a two-week pause on planned military strikes on Iran.
Trump spoke with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, who both urged the President to hold back a “destructive force” that was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m.
“This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE! The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East,” Trump said. “We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate.”
Trump said the agreement is subject to Iran agreeing to the “complete, immediate, and safe opening of the Strait of Hormuz.” He added the U.S. has already reached its primary military goals and will spend the next two weeks trying to finalize a permanent agreement.
Trump Announces ‘2-Week Double-Sided Ceasefire’ Before Iran Deadline was originally published on wibc.com

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New data from Candid and ABFE shows that most racial justice investments faded quickly and favored larger organizations.
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer, sparking a global racial reckoning at a time when much of the world was already grappling with the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic.
His death, arriving after dozens upon dozens of high-profile killings of unarmed Black Americans and on the tragic heels of two earlier that same year — both Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery — became a watershed moment that prompted a record number of corporations, media institutions, philanthropies, universities and beyond to make sweeping promises to address racial inequities.
So much money was pledged that summer. The Fifteen Percent Pledge launched, successfully pushing major retailers to dedicate 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned brands. Corporate diversity funds were announced. Diversity, equity and inclusion became both buzzwords and a booming career track. New grantmaking initiatives aimed at closing racial wealth gaps were rolled out. For a moment, it felt like long-overdue financial investment into Black communities and Black-led organizations was finally arriving.
But by 2023, questions about what had actually come from those lofty commitments were beginning to bubble up. By the following year, those concerns had only grown louder. In 2025, President Donald Trump’s dismantling of federal DEI initiatives accelerated a broader and bewildering corporate pullback. Now, new data suggests many of those early fears were justified.
A new report from Candid and ABFE, a philanthropic partnership focused on Black communities, entitled “From Transaction to Transformation: Three Ways Foundations Can Invest In Black-Led Nonprofits for Lasting Change,” released Tuesday (Apr. 7), found that the much-publicized funding boost to Black-led nonprofits after 2020 was both narrow and extremely short-lived.
“Black-led nonprofit leaders are being asked to meet rising community needs while navigating an increasingly hostile environment toward race-explicit work, often without the flexible, sustained funding needed to build staff, strengthen infrastructure, or plan for the long term,” Susan Taylor Batten, President and Chief Executive Officer of ABFE, said in a release. “This cycle of short-lived transactional investments keeps organizations doing the crucial work in communities in constant survival mode rather than scaling the solutions our communities need. At ABFE, we see this as a call to action to mobilize Black philanthropic resources and ensure investment in Black-led nonprofits is recognized as essential to equity and justice for all.”
According to the data, most of the increased funding went to a small group of larger Black-led organizations and lasted less than two years between 2020 and 2022, while smaller Black-led nonprofits saw little to no meaningful increase. In other words, the racial justice funding boom that many hoped would finally begin to reshape the landscape largely just reinforced who philanthropy was already comfortable funding.
“The importance of monetary investment—or financial support—for nonprofits cannot be overstated,” the authors of the report wrote. “Most nonprofits run on shoestring budgets; without ongoing grants to support nonprofits’ projects, programs, and missions, their ability to serve communities is immediately put at risk.” 
The report also found Black-led nonprofits continue to face steeper barriers to foundation funding overall and often receive smaller grants when they do secure support. Many organizations reported that the influx of donations in 2020 came in the form of one-time contributions rather than sustained investments, making it difficult to build staffing, infrastructure or long-term programming.
Researchers analyzed foundation grantmaking data from 2016 through 2023, pairing it with a survey of more than 3,500 nonprofits and with interviews with nonprofit leaders and funders, to better understand how those funding decisions played out beyond the headlines.
Those realities are also colliding with a political environment that has made it more difficult to sustain race-focused funding. As companies and institutions retreat from DEI commitments amid legal challenges and political backlash, some funders have grown more hesitant to explicitly support Black-led causes, even as the needs those organizations serve remain unchanged. That shift has left many nonprofits navigating growing demand for services while also operating in a landscape that has become increasingly cautious about how racial equity work is framed and funded.
“While foundations navigate legal risks around language use and funding priorities, Black-led nonprofits face existential threats to their identities and missions. The question is not whether to continue supporting nonprofits that work with Black communities—but how to do so effectively and sustainably,” the authors wrote. 
The report’s authors hope the findings push philanthropy to move beyond moment-driven giving and toward sustained investment in Black-led work. They argue that real change will require multi-year general operating support, stronger relationships between funders and Black nonprofit leaders, and a willingness to fund smaller, community-rooted organizations rather than defaulting to the largest and most visible groups. Without those changes, they warn, the same funding gaps are likely to repeat themselves the next time the country is forced into another racial reckoning.
“The bridges we build today will determine the path laid out for the next generation of Black leaders and communities,” the authors said. “They can either face the same barriers documented in this report, or they can inherit a philanthropic sector that more authentically and consistently values their contributions. This report is an invitation—to foundations interested in supporting Black communities and Black-led nonprofits committed to their missions—to build lasting bridges together.”
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Before she was fired, ICE Barbie, aka Kristi Noem, claimed that Sosa-Celis was “trying to kill the agent.” Video footage from a city-owned camera viewed by the NYT refutes those claims.
ICE agents lying about an incident they were involved in? No one should be surprised. A new video obtained by the New York Times contradicts claims made by the Trump administration, accusing an immigrant of attempted murder.
A new video obtained by the publication could potentially lead to two Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents facing criminal charges.
Back in January, Venezuelan immigrant Julio C. Sosa-Celis was shot in the leg in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by an ICE agent who accused him of beating him with a shovel and broom for three minutes.
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Before she was fired, ICE Barbie, aka Kristi Noem, claimed that Sosa-Celis was “trying to kill the agent.” Video footage from a city-owned camera viewed by the NYT refutes those claims.
The report also exposes that the Trump administration had access to the footage, and obtained it within hours following the shooting.
Per Raw Story:
“The agency’s acting director, Todd Lyons, said after the charges were dropped that two agents had appeared to have lied under oath about the events, adding that they had been placed on leave and could end up facing criminal charges,” the Times report reads.
Furthermore, the Times learned that the Trump administration “had access” to the video it had obtained “within hours of the shooting,” but that prosecutors “did not watch the footage,” according to an official who spoke with the Times on the condition of anonymity, “until nearly three weeks after they filed charges.”
“Bare due diligence would have shown that the agents were lying,” said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey in a recent interview, the Times reported.
Bonkers.
Social media has been reacting to the news, spoiler alert, they are not surprised by ICE’s behavior at all.
You can see those reactions below.
Pretends To Be Shocked: New Video Catches ICE Agents Lying was originally published on hiphopwired.com

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J. M. W. Turner, SlaversThrowing overboard the Dead and Dying – Typhon coming on (The Slave Ship) (1840) which sits at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Photography © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. All Rights Reserved
During the last four decades Sam Smiles has made an invaluable contribution to the literature on one of Britain’s great landscape painters, J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851). Yet his most significant text—in terms of the impact on our perception of the artist—is likely to be the article he published in 2007, revealing for the first time Turner’s involvement in a speculative scheme in Jamaica. Research into British families with a stake in the inhuman commerce of slavery indicated that in 1805, just when the abolition cause was gaining ground, Turner had invested in a “dry sugar work pen”, a type of property that centred primarily on raising livestock. The money he added to this collective endeavour helped pay off the mortgage on the plot and bought enslaved Africans to rear the cattle.
Smiles’s article charted the rickety venture’s ensuing failure to generate the anticipated profits. He then considered whether it was possible to reconcile this new information with our understanding of Turner’s celebrated painting Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying – Typhoon Coming On (1840, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). After its time in the collection of John Ruskin, it subsequently assumed the status of a sermon in paint, championed as a defiant stance against the objectionable practices of the slave trade in its unique depiction of jettison during the Middle Passage. Perhaps it was the potency of this reading of the picture that prevented Smiles’s article generating public outrage. It was, nonetheless, the seed for a haunting sequence in Mike Leigh’s biopic Mr. Turner (2014), and Winsome Pinnock’s powerful play Rockets and Blue Lights (premiered in 2018 at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, and revivedin 2021 at the National Theatre, London), in which she—and the character of Turner—wrestle with the idea that The Slave Ship (as the painting is now widely known) constitutes an attempt at displacing or repurposing guilt.
Smiles’s new book is a much fuller exploration of these key elements of Turner’s life and art, unpacking the rich hinterland in which he lived and worked through meticulous archival research and vivid first-hand contemporary accounts. A chapter on the Jamaican investment adds greater detail and, to counter the inevitably one-sided presentation of this discussion, Smiles manages to resuscitate from the blunt and sketchy surviving records one of the enslaved Africans, called “Grey”, working on the estate. But the subsequent chapter follows the money back from Turner himself to his wealthy patrons and collectors, some of whom were passionate opponents of abolition, such as the notorious John “Mad Jack” Fuller, MP for Sussex.
The pervasive links to slavery, of course, go back to the start of Turner’s career. His first excursion as a teenager was to the deeply embroiled city of Bristol, and his first essays in painting country houses were focused on mansions built with money generated from exploitation on Caribbean plantations. And in the shift from the landed gentry, who supported Turner’s early career, to the northern English industrialists, the funds paying for his pictures were further tainted through connections with North American cotton production. Smiles, here, is unable to detect anything in Turner’s work that especially attracted these types of clients. Moreover, many of the painter’s most successful peers at the Royal Academy were also sought by the same collectors, whether for aesthetic or commercial reasons.
Moving steadily towards an extended discussion of The Slave Ship itself, two further chapters survey contemporary representations of slavery and the likely influences on Turner’s awareness of the campaign for abolition and emancipation, for which Smiles builds on a now extensive body of research that encompasses, most notably, Sarah Thomas’s compelling Witnessing Slavery: Art and Travel in the Age of Abolition (Paul Mellon Centre, 2019).
Since 1959, The Slave Ship, almost without exception, has been interpreted as a representation of the infamous case of the Zong (or Zorg) massacre of 1781, during which as many as 132 of 442 enslaved Africans were thrown overboard by the British crew when the water rations were running short towards the end of its transatlantic voyage. A new account of the ensuing court case by Siddharth Kara, The Zorg (Doubleday, 2025), repeats this idea and as recently as 2021 Smiles himself supported the Zong theory in the Turner’s Modern World exhibition catalogue (Tate Britain and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).
In the present book, however, Smiles overturns the accepted idea that Turner was looking back to an incident almost 60 years earlier, instead persuasively arguing that the appalling practice by slave traders of jettisoning humans into the sea was an outrage of pressing concern in the years before the painting was exhibited, and therefore constitutes an act of contemporary artistic reportage—albeit one inevitably sublimated to Turner’s distinctive aesthetic characteristics. Smiles sets out and tests this proposal with an impressive close reading of the details in the picture, amplified by potential influences and resonances. However, it should be noted that this is not a completely new theory; in fact, the fundamental point had been made, using many of the same sources, by the late John McCoubrey in 1998, and it is curious that Smiles only cites this earlier article when he is refining its content.
Nevertheless, the scale of Turner and the Slave Trade permits Smiles to speculate on and open out the artist’s possible motives for painting The Slave Ship, ultimately challenging readers to evaluate for themselves how to assess Turner’s conflicted position both in his times, and our own.
Sam Smiles, Turner and the Slave Trade, Paul Mellon Centre, 224pp, 90 col. illust., £30 (hb), published 25 November 2025
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150 works produced from 1835 until his death in 1851 will dispel oversimplifications of this later works
A year-long event bonanza will mark the birthday of perhaps the greatest British artist ever

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Visitors will soon be able to book timed entry to explore exhibits highlighting Barack and Michelle Obama’s legacy.
Tickets for the highly anticipated Obama Presidential Center museum will officially go on sale in early May, offering the public its first chance to explore the landmark cultural site in Chicago—Founding Members of the Obama Foundation will be able to purchase tickets starting on April 21. The center is set to open on Friday, June 19.
According to NBC Chicago, the Obama Foundation announced that ticket sales will begin on May 6. The museum, located in Jackson Park, is expected to draw significant interest as it showcases the life and presidency of Barack Obama and Michelle Obama.
Visitors will be able to purchase timed-entry tickets, which grant access to all four levels of the museum, including immersive exhibit spaces and notable areas such as a recreated Oval Office and the Sky Room. Organizers say the experience is designed to highlight not just the Obamas’ journey, but also broader themes around civic engagement and democracy.
“The Obama Presidential Center Museum shares the remarkable story of President Obama and Michelle Obama and those who inspired their journey. Dynamic exhibits across four floors explore the promise of democracy and the work of the Obama presidency,” outlines the Obama Foundation website says.
Ticket pricing varies depending on residency and age. Illinois residents aged 12 and older will pay $26, while non-residents will pay $30. Children’s tickets range from $15 to $23, and admission is free for children under 2. As part of the Illinois Free Days Program, Illinois residents will also be able to visit for free on Tuesdays during select hours, starting on June 23.
The museum will feature thousands of artifacts tied to Obama’s life and career, including items from his early days as a community organizer to his time in the White House. Organizers say the exhibits aim to provide a deeper understanding of the historical and cultural impact of his presidency.
Additional discounts will be available for educators, students, military personnel, and first responders, reflecting the foundation’s broader goal of making the center accessible to a wide audience.
The opening of the museum marks a major milestone for the Obama Presidential Center project, which has been years in the making. Once fully operational, it is expected to become a key destination for both tourists and locals, as well as a hub for education and community engagement.
With ticket sales set to begin soon, officials anticipate strong demand as visitors look to experience one of the most talked-about presidential centers in recent years.
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April 8, 2026
Philadelphia’s upcoming WNBA expansion team is set to debut in 2030.
Will Smith is bringing his latest investment home, reportedly buying a minority stake in Philadelphia’s expansion WNBA team.
On April 6, sports business reporter Kurt Badenhausen revealed that the Oscar-winning actor had secured a minority stake in his hometown’s incoming WNBA franchise. The small stake is estimated at a humble 0.1%, enough to strengthen the ownership group’s local connection in a city deeply rooted in basketball culture.
The news comes as Philadelphia was officially awarded one of three expansion teams, part of the league’s plan to grow to 18 franchises by the end of the decade. The new WNBA team will be operated by Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, with Josh Harris serving as governor and leading an ownership group that includes David Blitzer, institutional investors, and Smith as a minority stakeholder.
Philadelphia’s WNBA team is expected to play at Xfinity Mobile Arena, with ownership committing at least $50 million toward a dedicated practice facility. Comcast is also set to take a minority stake as part of a larger arena partnership.
The expansion underscores the league’s continued growth, with Commissioner Cathy Engelbert citing record viewership and rising demand as driving forces behind the addition of teams in Cleveland (coming in 2028), Detroit (coming in 2029), and Philadelphia (coming in 2030). Each city was selected based on long-term viability, strong ownership groups, and infrastructure readiness.
Philadelphia’s WNBA expansion is expected to draw strong crowds, building on the more than 21,000 fans who packed Xfinity Mobile Arena for an Unrivaled 3×3 doubleheader in January—setting a record for a regular-season women’s pro game. The star-studded turnout, featuring celebrities, NBA veterans, and local figures, highlighted a demand that goes beyond individual players.
With solid ownership backing from celebrities and industry figureheads, along with the league’s growing momentum, Philadelphia’s arrival is part of a broader push to expand the WNBA’s national footprint.
RELATED CONTENT: Does Stephen A. Smith Have A 2028 Presidency Plan?

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The Migos rapper has become meme fodder in recent days, but from Drake to Lil Baby, rappers with high wage losses have become synonymous with America’s growing gambling fix.
When news broke on Monday that Offset, one-third of the Migos, had been shot outside of a casino in Florida, the immediate reaction was skepticism followed by prayers. His presence at a Florida casino seemed normal, typical for any adult visitor of the state wanting to have a good time and try to win a quick buck or two at the craps table.
However, as more details emerged, the story about the shooting quickly turned from peculiar to jokes and internet ridicule about a growing phenomenon in America: gambling addiction.
Almost immediately, the stories weren’t about Offset’s recovery or even his feud with fellow rapper Lil Tjay and a presumed $10,000 debt owed to him. Instead, it morphed into recollections from individuals across the spectrum, from former NFL star Dez Bryant accusing the rapper of owing him $8,000 and suggesting the rapper’s crew threatened him over it, to a report that Offset owed a Detroit casino over $100,000 and was sued over it days before he was shot in Florida.
According to TMZ, the MotorCity Casino Hotel filed a lawsuit against the former Migos rapper, claiming he opened a six-figure credit line with the casino back in March of 2024 to fuel a night of gambling fun. Both Offset and the casino agreed that it could withdraw funds from his account to settle the debt, but there wasn’t enough to cover the losses, which led to the lawsuit.
“We are working toward a resolution,” a rep for Offset told TMZ.
Offset’s recent streak of bad news echoes that of fellow Atlanta rapper Lil Baby, who sought an intervention after losing around $8 million to $9 million in a single day, just by gambling.
“Like one day, probably like 40 hours straight, I lost like $8 million, $9 million. I made myself stop gambling,” he told Lil Yachty in a 2024 interview. “I had (Fanatics CEO) Mike Rubin write a letter to every casino and ban me from the casino. I just do s–t. I don’t gamble no more.”
Lil baby speaks on quitting Gambling after losing 8 million dollars in one day pic.twitter.com/cXIStE46W2
As Lil Baby quit cold turkey, there are other rappers like Drake who have routinely thrown down major bets on sporting events, even prompting him to sign a reported $100 million endorsement deal with the online casino company Stake in 2022. However, that deal has come under scrutiny to the point that Drake and streamer Adin Ross were named in a federal lawsuit in Virginia, which alleges the company operates as an illegal casino that violates state and federal law.
Although the US arm of Stake does not allow players to gamble with real money, Drake and Ross are accused of deliberately misleading consumers into believing that the platform was legal and harmless.
The proliferation of gambling has become a siren for lawmakers in several states, even as ads for “daily fantasy” sites such as DraftKings. Underdog and Prize Picks become omnipresent, and prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi become more and more visible with every passing day. In Ohio, Republican lawmakers have introduced bills that would ban mobile betting for casinos such as FanDuel and DraftKings and require all bets to be made in person at one of the state’s legalized casinos. The bill would also ban parlays and prop betting.
“Americans are projected to lose $1 trillion in personal wealth to gambling by 2030,” State Rep. Jonathan Newman said. “[In] the state of Ohio, $1 billion of personal wealth was lost last year.”
In Offset’s case, his losses have turned into memes and jokes, with some fans arguing that his gambling debts are the reason for the delays in his divorce from estranged wife Cardi B. In reality, his issues aren’t too far off from those of everyday people, including his peers in hip-hop.
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April 8, 2026
Tilray is accused of moving the liability for the Marley licensing payments into an empty business entity.
The Bob Marley estate has filed an $11.3 million lawsuit against the global cannabis company Tilray Brand Inc., Bloomberg Law reports. 
Marley Green LLC claims that Tilray and its partners owe licensing royalties for the Marley Natural brand. The lawsuit, filed March 27 in Delaware, alleges that Tilray engaged in a “scheme to defraud” to avoid its financial obligations to the estate.
The estate claims that after Tilray acquired Privateer Holdings, the original partner, in 2019, the company engaged in a fraudulent transfer by structuring corporate entities to shield assets. 
Specifically, Tilray is accused of shifting liability for the Marley licensing payments to an empty business entity that lacked the funds to pay the contractually mandated minimum royalties. That led to a breach of contract, prompting the estate to terminate the licensing deal after the unpaid balance reached nearly $13 million by 2023.
While $1.7 million was recovered from a subsidiary, the estate is seeking the remaining balance.
The partnership between Tilray dates back to 2014, when the Marley family partnered with Privateer Holdings to launch Marley Natural as the world’s first global cannabis brand. Under the leadership of Bob Marley’s daughter, Cedella Marley, the estate manages a massive portfolio of brands, including Tuff Gong, Marley Coffee, and House of Marley. 
Notably, Cedella has been successful in previous suits, including a 2015 trademark infringement victory and a 2017 award against a former coffee partner. Tilray argues that its primary business entities are not parties to the original agreement following corporate restructuring.
However, the Bob Marley estate is now challenging the move as a bad-faith effort to escape liability. The lawsuit is another setback, as 24/7 Wall Street that as of April 2, the company’s stock has declined by 4 percent.
RELATED CONTENT: Rohan Marley Became An Entrepreneur After His Brother Ziggy Gave Him An ‘Ultimatum’; Between ‘Business Or Football’

© 2026 Black Enterprise. All Rights Reserved.

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One of the 33 sheets that make up the Lucknow scroll depicts a pink palace Courtesy Yale Center for British Art
Following two years of conservation, a 37ft-long, early 19th-century scroll is on public view for the first time at the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA) in New Haven, Connecticut. Known as the Lucknow scroll, the object is part of the exhibition Painters, Ports and Profits: Artists and the East India Company, 1750-1850 (until 21 June), bringing questions of empire, commerce and artistic exchange into material focus. Due to the scroll’s size and fragility, half of it will be exhibited at a time and unrolled over the course of the show, giving repeat visitors a chance to see different sections. (Displaying the object in portions also helps reduce light exposure.)
Scrolls range in scale from handheld objects to ones even larger than the Lucknow example, and they have served a variety of purposes. “Within artistic traditions on the Indian subcontinent, narrative scrolls were popular forms of art,” the exhibition curators Laurel O. Peterson and Holly Shaffer tell The Art Newspaper. “These were made for people at all levels of society. They often tell devotional narratives, unfolding as the scroll is unrolled. In early 19th-century Britain, scrolls were used for entertainment at home and might be a souvenir.” Though printed in multiples, scrolls were considered luxury objects.
Emma Hartman, the assistant conservator of paper at Yale University Art Gallery, unrolling the Lucknow Scroll. Photo: Anita Dey, image courtesy of the Yale Center for British Art
The Lucknow scroll, or Lucknow from the Gomti, was made between 1821 and 1826 and comprises 33 joined sheets of laid paper, executed in watercolour, gouache and gold. It offers an expansive view of Lucknow in northern India, as seen from across the Gomti River.
“We can think about the Lucknow scroll in terms of storytelling, as it allows the viewer to follow a journey along the banks of the river,” the curators say. “The English-language key written in 1826 describes the work as a ‘Panoramic View of Lucknow’, suggesting a link between the two forms—but panoramas represent the landscape from a fixed viewing point, rather than a continuous one.”
Created during the reign of Ghazi-ud-Din Haidar Shah—who declared independence from the Mughal emperor in 1819 and embarked on ambitious building campaigns—the scroll captures palaces and mosques, as well as workshops, warehouses and vernacular structures.
“The scroll has a fascinating story both historically and materially, in part because it’s so mysterious,” the curators say. “We don’t know the names of the artists who made it.” The patron is also unknown, they add, but its inscriptions “place little emphasis on the company, signalling that the scroll was likely made for, or in honour of, the ruler—perhaps at the request of an elite woman in his retinue”. It could also have been part of a military or political negotiation.
Anita Dey, the assistant paper conservator at the Yale Center For British Art, and Emma Hartman, the assistant conservator of paper at Yale University Art Gallery, examining the Lucknow Scroll under ultraviolet light. Photo: Jessica Makin, image courtesy of the Yale Center for British Art
Over the years, the scroll developed areas of pigment instability and structural weakness. “The primary conservation challenges stemmed from the scroll’s complex layered construction,” says Anita Dey, the assistant paper conservator at the YCBA. “It is composed of multiple sheets of paper joined together with subsequent linings of another paper layer and a cotton-textile backing. While this structure helped protect the scroll from wear associated with handling through its lifetime, it also introduced significant planar distortions that prevented the object from lying flat as originally intended.”
Conservation treatment at the YCBA began with stabilisation to prevent further loss and flattening the object, ensuring it could be safely unrolled and displayed. Among the noteworthy findings revealed during conservation was a watermark for the British mill of James Whatman, a discovery that helped narrow the scroll’s date and understand it within broader trade networks.
The London-based collector Davinder Toor holds one of the most significant collections of Sikh works in the US and the UK

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