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Chaka Khan is known as the Queen of Funk. From her time in Rufus to her modern hits, the woman born Yvette Stevens in Chicago, IL, according to Biography, has been entertaining us for generations. One of her most recognizable songs, says PlanetRadio, is her 1983 hit, “Ain’t Nobody.” The song hit No. 1 on the Billboard R&B charts and went to No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Her songs have also been sampled in the world of Hip-Hop, too. Her 1984 hit, “Through the Fire,” has been infamously sampled by none other than Kanye West, who turned it into “Through the Wire” from his groundbreaking album, “The College Dropout.” And of course, everyone knows Whitney Houston’s version of the Chaka Khan classic, “I’m Every Woman,” from “The Bodyguard” soundtrack (Legends covering legends!). All told, Celebrity Net Worth reveals that she’s amassed a $30 million net worth over the course of her illustrious career. And now, her children — and even her grandchildren! — are carrying on her...
Feb 9, 2022
Today’s educators are the single most influential figures in kids’ lives and the best way to reach them is by appealing to their interests. This includes incorporating popular music like Hip-Hop into core curriculum, making certain subjects resonate better with students. With this idea in mind, Healthy Hip Hop co-founders Roy Scott and Wes Smith came up with a unique concept that could both improve student-learning environments and increase classroom engagement by merging innovative technology , education , music, and cultural relevance together. For co-founder Scott, the idea for Healthy Hip Hop’s platform was sparked by an epiphany he experienced while he was picking up his son from school one day. “When I was picking up my son, Justice, from school, I noticed him repeating my music word for word,” he shares with AfroTech. “Those lyrics promoted drugs, violence, misogyny, [etc.] and that was just my light bulb moment that I couldn’t be this kind of influence on my son or anybody...
Apr 9, 2021
During times like these, we all need a pick-me-up to keep us going and this Black-owned puzzle company is the perfect solution for families across the country. Puzzle Huddle — founded in January of 2018 — began with two Howard University alums who had an idea to create the representation their kids were lacking in their toys. “As all parents do, we were looking for educational toys for our kids,” co-founder, Matthew Goins said. “As we bought a couple dozen puzzles home, I looked at the variety and noticed none of them had Black characters.” Starting Puzzle Huddle As products of an HBCU, Matthew and his wife Marnel were understandably frustrated with the lack of diversity in the toys they were buying for their kids. “That’s not what we were taught, we don’t deal with the world that way,” Matthew said. Upon experimenting with their available resources, Matthew and his wife started making homemade puzzles from scratch. Upon making these puzzles, it struck them that other parents...
Apr 10, 2020
Launching a new business is a challenge in itself, but balancing a new venture alongside motherhood is equally as difficult. However, businesswoman and founder Raven Fisher has a plan to make her vision a reality with her company Social Tykes, Detroit’s first indoor coworking play space for moms and families. “Here in Detroit there’s a lack of places for younger children and moms to go,” Fisher said. “A lot of places are for the older kids and not really tailored to the younger ones.” The coworking play space is meant to encourage children to expand their knowledge with other kids and make connections outside of their families. In turn, the space also gives moms a chance to build relationships with other moms in the same position. “I experienced postpartum depression, and wanted to bring child guardians together to bridge the gap of loneliness that can sometimes come with new parenthood,” Fisher said. Fisher’s vision for her business stemmed from being a mom and seeing the lack of...
Apr 7, 2020
People often talk about how Black kids lack representation in media, but there’s another pressing issue for young children: toys. For many little Black girls, it can be difficult to find dolls that look like them. Navigating a world that doesn’t represent Black girls can negatively impact how they see themselves. That’s something that’s always been at the front of Yelista Jean-Charles’ mind. She’s the founder of Healthy Roots, a toy company creating dolls and storybooks. Healthy Roots is on a mission to “positive self-perception of the richly diverse, varying shades of complexion and natural hair textures among girls of color”, according to its website. Or, as Jean-Charles describes it: Healthy Roots empowers children to love themselves the way that they are. The inspiration for Healthy Roots came from Jean-Charles’ own experiences as a child. Growing up, she didn’t see a lot of representation of women that looked like her in terms of what’s defined as beautiful in society. “I...
May 24, 2019
On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that Apple and Google removed three dating apps from their stores for allowing kids as young as 12 to access them. The apps in question — Meet24, FastMeet, and Meet4U — are operated by Wildec, a Ukraine-based company. The apps collected users’ birthdates, email addresses, photographs, and real-time location data, the FTC reported. Although each app’s privacy policy claimed to block users who indicated they were under 13, none of the apps actually did so. Instead, young children were able to use the app and be contacted by other people. The FTC did send each of the apps a warning letter, stating that allowing adult users to communicate with children “poses a serious health and safety risk.” In addition, the letter noted that “several individuals have reportedly faced criminal charges for allegedly contacting or attempting to contact minors using Wildec’s apps.” Most alarmingly, the FTC’s letter noted that Wildec seemed to be...
May 7, 2019
Online classifieds can be super helpful because they allow you to see and compare a ton of options immediately. Parents have flocked to Care.com — an online childcare marketplace founded in 2006 — that aims to “help families make informed hiring decisions.” However, a report published by The Wall Street Journal earlier this month revealed poor vetting procedures on the site. Now, a new report shows that Care.com has deleted about 72 percent of daycares (or around 46,594) from its site. The original report showed that Care.com only did a “preliminary screening” of providers. This didn’t include a full background check, verifying credentials, or vetting day-care centers. In some cases, providers were unlicensed or responsible for the deaths of children in their care. The Wall Street Journal also found that in about nine instances over the past six years, a provider listed had a criminal record and “were accused of committing crimes while caring for customers’ children or elderly...
Apr 1, 2019
On Monday Apple’s fairly “secretive” event took place and shared a lot relating to its new streaming service, Apple TV+. That included one thing parents and kids can look forward to, which is a new Sesame Street-themed show where kids will learn coding basics, as reported by TechCrunch . The show, Helpsters, was introduced on stage by Big Bird and a muppet named Cody, who shared, “We use the big ideas behind coding to solve problems.” Helpsters’ introduction and the appearance of Cody can be caught around the 11:35 mark in the video below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=694&v=JiDnNUN9ERA Apple announcing a show dedicated to teaching kids to code isn’t surprising because the company already invests in that. The company has an Everyone Can Code program that includes a curriculum to teach coding to students from kindergarten to college. As part of the program, Apple designed its own coding language, Swift , and developed Swift Playgrounds for “first time coders.” There...
Mar 26, 2019