Communities That Care Coalition
Promoting health, well-being, and equity among young people in Franklin County and the North Quabbin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_Ramaphosa
Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa (born 17 November 1952) is a South African businessman and politician serving as the 5th and current President of South Africa since 2018. A former anti-apartheid activist and trade union leader, Ramaphosa is also the president (leader) of the African National Congress (ANC).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampha
Sampha Lahai Sisay (born 16 November 1988) is a British singer, songwriter, musician and record producer from Morden, South London.[1] Sampha has collaborated with Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, SBTRKT, Jessie Ware, Alicia Keys, Gorillaz, Travis Scott, Kanye West, Solange and others.[2] Sampha has released two solo EPs: Sundanza (2010)[3] and Dual (2013).[4] Sampha’s debut album, Process, was released on 3 February 2017 by Young[5] and won the 2017 Mercury Prize.[6] His second album, Lahai, was released on 20 October 2023.[7]
https://www.npr.org/2023/11/29/1215356077/sampha-tiny-desk-concert
Sampha Lahai Sisay’s music is known for its sheer vulnerability in tackling the human experience. On his debut album, Process, we met a son mourning the loss of his parents while navigating the relationship with his partner and future mother of his first child. On a transcendental follow-up, LAHAI, we now meet Sampha as a father and a companion, asking us to revel in the magic of our existence.
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/10/nx-s1-5394509/college-grad-sc-state-orangeburg-massacre
Linwood Riddick went to Vietnam to serve in the military, at an age when many people choose to go to college. Instead, he pursued his college diploma when many are busy enjoying retirement.
On Friday, Riddick graduated from South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C., two days before his 80th birthday, the school said in a news release. He came out of retirement to get his college education.
On a morning in early April, Geoffrey Chanda’s phone was going off almost constantly. Truck drivers were calling him.
“They are crying: ‘We’ve got no [HIV] medicine. Where do you get [it] from?’ ” says Chanda, 54.
For 15 years, Chanda has been meeting truckers in dusty parking lots at the border of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo to give them their HIV medications. Now, he says, he doesn’t know what to tell them.
He’s lost his job as a community health worker. The U.S.-funded program he worked for — which supported the mobile clinic where he collected the medications for distribution — shut down.
More than a century after her death, an emancipated Black woman finally received a headstone.
Rhoda Ray Jones was buried in an unmarked grave at Hazelwood Cemetery. Nearly 100 people visited the cemetery Sunday not just to see the unveiling of the marker for her, but to also recognize Rhoda Ray Jones for her help during the battle at Wilson’s Creek.
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/02/nx-s1-5380993/national-poetry-out-loud-high-school-students
Four teens on why they like poetry
District of Columbia: Nyla Dinkins
Age: 16
Benjamin Banneker Academic High School
Washington, D.C.
Favorite poem to recite: Learning to Read by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
“Although it is a competition, there’s definitely community,” said Dinkins, who was a finalist in 2024. “I remember some of my fondest moments from last year for Poetry Out Loud were backstage with the other eight finalists. And I just remember that even though there was a lot of anticipation and fear back there, there was also a lot of laughter.”
The kingdom of Kaabu held power from the 1500s through the 1800s and included modern-day Guinea-Bissau and Senegal.
The story of Kaabu’s royalty and reign has been told for generations through the songs of griots. In fact, much of what’s known about the kingdom and its capital city Kansala has been passed down by griots.
“It played a key role in many events of historical importance for the world, including early African statehood,” says Sirio Canós-Donnay, an archaeologist at the University of Valencia.
Yet it was reportedly never visited by Europeans (even though there was contact — the people of Kaabu did trade with the Europeans).
Canós-Donnay wanted to know what this real-life Camelot looked like.
In early 2024, she and her colleagues, including a handful of Senegalese archaeologists, began the work of unearthing Kansala. They’ve since uncovered physical evidence of the kingdom’s capital.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Baker
Freda Josephine Baker (née McDonald; June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975), naturalized as Joséphine Baker, was an American-born French dancer, singer, and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in France. She was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 French silent film Siren of the Tropics, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant.[3]
https://www.npr.org/2021/11/30/1059776777/josephine-baker-france-pantheon
PARIS — Josephine Baker, the American-born entertainer and civil rights activist who first achieved fame in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s, was given France’s highest honor on Tuesday when she was inducted into the French Pantheon, the nation’s mausoleum of heroes.
Before the Second World War, Josephine Baker (1906-1975) was one of the most famous performers in the world. She made her name dancing on the Parisian stage, but when war broke out she decided not to return to America. Instead, Baker turned spy for the French Secret Services.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Holder
Geoffrey Lamont Holder (August 1, 1930 – October 5, 2014) was a Trinidadian-American actor, dancer, musician, director, choreographer, and artist.[2][3] He was a principal dancer for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, before his film career began in 1957 with an appearance in Carib Gold. For his theatre work, he won two Tony Awards, Best Direction of a Musical and Best Costume Design in a Musical for the original Broadway production of The Wiz.
Angeline Murimirwa of Zimbabwe has really racked up kudos for her work as head of CAMFED, a charity that has enabled millions of girls in five African countries to stay in school — and thrive with the help of mentors. Murimirwa is one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2025.