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After establishing himself in America 20 years ago by way of his Haitian family, Lenny Pyrrhus has made a name for himself and continues to thrive one new skill at a time. According to CNBC’s “Make It” series, Pyrrhus’ immediate family made the trek to the states after his uncle, who was also a well-known musician (Ti Pierre), was killed during a political protest in 1991. His family settled in the northern region of the U.S., and the then-26-year-old does not take the things they endured to get here lightly. “My family went through so much suffering before I was even born, and then for me to have gotten that kind of opportunity in America, I tried to figure out how to make the best of it,” he shared with CNBC.
Dr. Juliette Nelson is making way for Black women in the eyewear industry with her luxury eyewear brand, NURILENS . With its signature wooden frame and imaginative designs, NURILENS seeks to enrich the lives of all through its quality. Being of Haitian heritage, Dr. Nelson understands what it means to be a trailblazer. That belief has helped drive her initiative. AfroTech was able to catch up with Dr. Nelson on the heels of Haitian Heritage Month to highlight her vision for this eyewear brand, and to encourage us all accordingly.
Ambitious startup Lien Library that’s solving the problem of “interacting with and processing lien information on properties” has been awarded a $25,000 grand prize at the Endeavors Pitch Competition, Miami Herald reports. Lien Library founded by Haitian native Macdeur “Mac” Alabre was conceptualized while encountering issues with lien processing during his time working for the city of North Miami. The 27-year-old was on his way to completing his master’s in business administration and Ph.D., so he put his acquired programming and financial knowledge to the test and developed a new system. The system proved to be promising as it received a stamp of approval from the city of Miami, which is now considering embedding the Lien Library into their internal systems. “I said, ‘I found something, and I think it’s big,’” Alabre said. Now, the startup has won big, taking home the grand prize of $25,000 and an additional $25,000 in credits for Microsoft’s Azure platform. The competition was...
This famous Haiti native is working to give back to his country after a devastating loss. Rapper Jackboy, born Pierre Delince, continues to give back to his home of Haiti following a deadly earthquake that hit the country last month. Despite the fact that the emcee moved to the U.S. at the age of six, he’s been known for using his success to reach back and help his birth country. On Aug. 14 approximately 2,200 people were killed during the 7.2 magnitude earthquake and over 12,000 people were injured, the U.S. Embassy revealed. While aid is slowly but surely reaching those who need it, there are still several parts of the country that aren’t able to get the assistance that they need due to their remote nature. With this in mind, Jackboy wants to help as many people as possible get the help that they need. According to Complex, during a recent visit back home, he donated $100,000 to Haiti but knew he had to do more when he witnessed firsthand the extent of the conditions. View this...
Tennis star Naomi Osaka and Nike are making good on their partnership to redefine the meaning of sports and movement for the next generation of girls. This week, the two announced that Play Academy — created in partnership with Laureus Sport for Good last August — is expanding its outreach to Los Angeles and Haiti, where it will collaborate with local sports-based organizations to help support today’s young girls participating in sports. Nike’s Play Academy was created alongside Osaka, who incorporated her own personal experiences — as an athlete — and cultural heritage into the program’s mission, to help change the lives of other young girls like herself. “I’m passionate about breaking barriers that girls face when it comes to opportunities to access and benefit from play and sport,” Osaka shared in a statement. “Play Academy’s expansion represents an even greater opportunity to do that.” Osaka shared the expansion news with her followers on social media in what she describes as...
In his prime, Haitian-Puerto Rican artist Jean-Michel Basquiat was a social commentarian, a graffiti artist, and a multi-media painter who infamously dated Madonna before they both became pop culture icons. But ever since his tragic death from a heroin overdose at the age of 27, Basquiat’s work has been steadily growing in value and importance. And there’s no greater evidence of that than the recent sale of the 1982 painting, “Warrior,” which just sold for $41.9 million at a Christie’s auction in Hong Kong. The New York Times broke the news about this latest Basquiat sale, which also revealed that this big-ticket price was the highest-ever paid for a Western artist in Asia. Despite this impressive accomplishment, “Warrior” isn’t even Basquiat’s most valuable piece of artwork. That honor goes to “Untitled,” which was sold to Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa for $110 million in 2017. And nine out of 10 of the artist’s most expensive paintings were done in 1982. But lest you think...
Black wealth, especially at the billionaire level, remains a statistical anomaly in global finance. But in 2025, that narrative continues to shift — if only incrementally. According to Forbes, out of 3,028 billionaires worldwide, only 23 are Black, representing less than 1% of the list. Despite this underrepresentation, these 23 individuals collectively hold an impressive $96.2 billion in wealth. The figures tell one story. The names behind them tell another story — one of legacy, innovation, cultural power, and long-game strategy. This year, two notable newcomers joined the global roster of Black billionaires: Sheila Johnson, the media and hospitality powerhouse, and Herriot Tabuteau, a biotech founder with a focus on brain health. Both represent not only financial achievement but industry-specific influence in spaces where Black leadership is often overlooked or underestimated. Who’s New To The 2025 Black Billionaires List? Sheila Johnson, widely known as the co-founder of Black...
At a time when public trust in government is already on shaky ground, the latest actions by the IRS and ICE are only deepening the divide. Word is spreading fast: the IRS is reportedly finalizing a deal that would give Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) access to confidential taxpayer data to locate and deport undocumented immigrants. For many, this isn’t just another policy shift — it’s a direct betrayal of a system that asked for participation and is now threatening punishment in return. At the heart of this issue is more than just bureaucracy — it’s about survival, privacy, dignity, and the weaponization of information against some of the country’s most vulnerable communities. This marks a potential turning point in U.S. immigration enforcement strategy, raising significant privacy and civil liberties concerns across the country. A Dangerous Shift In Tax Data Use According to CNN, the proposed agreement between the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would...
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s painting “Sabado por la Noche,” or “Saturday Night,” will be the centerpiece of Christie’s evening sale in Hong Kong on March 28, 2025. Basquiat’s striking hot pink and maroon artwork, created in 1984 and measuring 6.5 feet by 7.5 feet, is estimated to sell for between $13 million and $16 million, according to a March 13, 2025 news release. “It is a privilege to present Sabado por la Noche (Saturday Night), an iconic masterpiece that reverberates with Basquiat’s inimitable visual language,” said Ada Tsui, Christie’s Asia Pacific head of evening sales and 20th/21st-century art. “Sabado” was created when Basquiat collaborated closely with Andy Warhol on over 150 paintings, ARTnews reported. The painting is filled with Basquiat’s signature motifs and imagery, featuring two of his “Griot” figures and depictions of animals, simplified female nudes, spirals, doubled gyres, references to the solar system, and the Fibonacci golden ratio. Tsui said the auction house...
If you’re tuned in to the world of early 2000s hip hop , or the world of modern Belizean politics, you may already be familiar with the name Shyne Barrow. The former rapper and current Opposition Party leader in Belize’s House of Representatives has one of the most fascinating backstories in all of pop culture and politics. Though he may not be as well known as his contemporaries like Busta Rhymes and Jay-Z, Shyne’s story is finally being told with the recent release of the Hulu original “The Honorable Shyne,” which dropped on the streamer earlier this month. In the documentary, Shyne outlines the untold truth about his time laboring under Bad Boy Records , his lengthy incarceration and his pivot into politics within his home country. Given that the 46-year-old politician has led such a storied life, fans are justifiably wondering about other personal details, including his net worth, investment portfolio and various streams of income. Luckily, we’ve got you covered, with a quick...
Samyr Laine took a page from Roc Nation’s investment book and is now helping other startups. Laine, a Harvard graduate who roomed with Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg, is behind Freedom Trail Capital, an investment firm backing “fully functioning, well operated, effectively managed and revenue generating businesses,” its website mentions. The firm was established in 2023 alongside his wife, Ayanna Alexander-Laine. The couple-turned-founders also share history in the sports world as former track and field Olympians, with him representing Haiti and she, Trinidad and Tobago. “I love people and connecting with people,” Alexander-Laine told TechCrunch. “We know how to merge talent and business and found that athletes are good in these spaces. We also have the stamina to conquer other things and other entities outside of sports.” Freedom Trail Capital, featuring Ivan Lopez as a third general partner, has funded seven startups, including Issa Rae’s Sienna Naturals and Ciara’s Ten to One...
Da’Vinchi, 28, has been on quite a roll in Hollywood. From shows like “Grown-ish” to “All American,” the Haitian-American actor has been stacking roles. However, Da’Vinchi’s starring role and portrayal as Terry “Southwest T” Flenory on 50 Cent’s “BMF” (or “BMF: Black Mafia Family”) on Starz is his biggest gig to date. Although Da’Vinchi, born Abraham D. Juste, has made a name for himself in the acting world, he is transparent about coming from humble beginnings. In an interview on REVOLT’s “The Blackprint,” the Brooklyn, NY, native was open about the way he grew up. “I grew up in poverty,” Da’Vinchi told host and REVOLT CEO Detavio Samuels. “A very normal situation that most of us grow up in, but of course while you’re in it you don’t really know it because everyone else is like that around [you] until you switch environments. And then, you start realizing the depths of the lack that you were in.” He added, “The poverty that I faced was you don’t have all the meals throughout the...
The latest TikTok challenge taking over our timelines, the #NoSpendJanuary challenge, is a new approach to savings that urges individuals to resist unnecessary spending. Scrolling through the #NoSpendJanuary hashtag, you see a sneak peek into people’s regular spending habits. Although we’re almost through the month, it’s never too late to learn valuable financial lessons and collect helpful resources to mend unhealthy spending habits. It’s not just about the challenge itself, but a space for learning the diverse financial habits of entrepreneurs, business owners, content creators and professional’s financial habits in the new year . Creator of the award-winning “Millennial In Debt” web series, Melissa Jean-Baptiste is a testament to financial wins through a frugal lifestyle . A first-generation Haitian-American, she paid off $102,000 in student loans on simply a teacher’s salary. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American household spent $72,967 in 2022....
These days, social media is for more than catching up with friends and family or sharing funny memes. More and more, people are turning to social platforms as a legitimate means of making money. From gamers and beauty gurus to life coaches and even budding actors, social media has turned into big business. In particular, the medium has now reached a point where society has literally watched people grow up in front of the camera, or even migrate from one platform to another as new options emerged and overtook previous social options. It has become something of a real-life “The Truman Show” with content producers often sharing intimate parts of their lives. In particular, Kai Cenat is one such Black creator who has amassed quite the following across popular platforms like YouTube and Twitch. And after his recent controversy with a viral push in New York’s Union Square, he has become a household name beyond the Gen Z and Gen Alpha demographics. This leaves only one question — exactly...
In 2020, Yve-Car Momperousse and Stéphane Jean-Baptiste represented Haiti on national television. The wedded couple and co-founders of Kreyol Essence made an appearance on season 11 of “Shark Tank,” according to The List. The eco-friendly beauty brand sells products made with pure Haitian Black Castor oil that promotes hair growth, healthy skin, and more.