Real Black News

On Episode 134 host Raqiyah Mays shares the top five empowering Black news stories from around the world including this episode’s picks from Cameroon, Morocco, Washington, DC, Ghana, Newark, NJ, and even Dubai. Plus discussions on Wendy Williams, Black Girls Rock, and more.

Pop-up episode 133 of Real Black News, hosted by Raqiyah Mays, brings uplifting news stories about people of African descent from Ghana, Sweden, Brazil, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Queens, New York. Psychotherapist Camille Banks Lee joins the episode to share three tips for staying empowered and manifesting the positive in 2024 and beyond.

Real Black News returns with host Raqiyah Mays after a year-and-a-half hiatus. The pop-up episode features five empowering Black news stories from around the world. #RealBlackNews

The new season of Real Black News launches with Ep. 129 and the dynamic power couple behind ABFF (The American Black Film Festival), Jeff & Nicole Friday. Celebrating twenty-five years of lifting Black Hollywood, Jeff & Nicole join Real Black News to discuss the history and success that’s landed ABFF in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in DC, finding talent before the mainstream like Ryan Coogler, Halle Berry, & Will Packer; and how they juggle parenting, marriage, and business as a Black power couple. (Interview starts: 9:12) Other topics include Howard University’s student protest, Jay-Z’s job fair, Tanzania’s billionaires, Indigenous History Month, Leonard Peltier, and 5 empowering Black & Brown News stories. #RealBlackNews

Writer and director Reggie Rock Bythewood drops knowledge and discusses everything from his coming-of-age Apple TV show "Swagger" and dedicating his work in film and TV to spotlighting and uplifting the Black community, to learning from Sidney Poitier, elders like James Earl Jones and Harry Belafonte, telling the story of Emmett Till, working with his wife, director Gina Prince Bythewood, teaching his son Black history and empowerment, along with powerful tips for writers and producers.

Episode 130 of Real Black News ends the year and begins 2022 with tips on manifesting and tapping into the moment with Therapist Camille Banks-Lee who gives guidance on everything from how to deal with anxiety and Intuitive eating to adolescent brains and mental health. This is an inspiring free therapy session. Other good news topics include the doula grants to help Black mamas, Black dads taking over schools, the indigenous fight to find the missing, and Africa’s award-winning adolescent girl reporters, plus more of the top 5 empowering Real Black and Brown good news stories! #RealBlackNews

Ep 128 of Real Black News features the top five empowering Black news stories of the week and this week’s two guests. The first is writer and director Malcolm Lee who discusses his new mega movie Space Jam:  A New Legacy.  He talks the ins and outs of directing for animation, plus his new journey and lessons in television as he writes and produces his upcoming TV show The Best Man: Final Chapters based on his classic film The Best Man (starts 13:27). While Sascha Penn, the Showrunner of one of this summer’s hottest shows, Power Book III: Raising Kanan, joins the podcast to break down the making of the latest installment in the Power franchise with Courtney A. Kemp and 50 Cent. Plus he shares golden, must-listen advice for writers (starts 36:25). Other topics include Jamaica’s reparations, Black Girls Lead, the NAACP’s Bail Fund, Virginia’s entrepreneur fair for youth business owners, plus more of the top five empowering Black News stories of the week. #RealBlackNews

Ep 127 of Real Black News features the top five empowering Black news stories of the week and this week’s guests: Entrepreneur, commercial real estate investor, and CEO of The Chicago TREND Corporation, Lyneir Richardson, who discusses his work empowering urban retail development via Black and Brown real estate investors. Balancing his mission while working as a professor at Rutgers Business School, Lyneir joins the podcast to discusses his success partnering with Black and Brown investors via crowdfunding to buy shopping malls nationwide to take reclaim our power. While real estate attorney Darryl Scipio shares three crucial tips for working with a real estate attorney. Other topics include the business man pushing for Black-owned social media platforms, Kenya’s electricity milestone, Prairie View A&M University’s partnership with multiple colleges in Africa, and more of the top five empowering Black News stories of the week. #RealBlackNews

Ep 126 of Real Black News focuses on adolescent mental health and features the top five empowering Black news stories of the week and this week’s guests: One of history's youngest Emmy-nominated actors, Asante Blackk, discusses life as a Gen Z’er and bringing attention to adolescent mental health with his fiction podcast "Here Comes the Break". Asante discusses life after starring in "This is Us" and "When They See Us". He provides tips to both parents and teens for communicating and managing mental health (starts 42:07). While actress Jasmine Carmichael, star of the new film "Real Talk" with Loretta Devine, Michael Beach, and Macy Gray, discusses the movie’s bold take on everything from herpes to adolescent depression. Other topics include the three-year anniversary of Real Black News, the indigenous tribe that bought a 140 acre Island, Newark’s Business Hub for Black women, and more of the top five empowering Black News stories of the week.

Ep 125 of Real Black News features the top five empowering Black news stories of the week and this week’s guest, hip hop music, and radio legend Doctor Dre' who shares his health journey and tips surviving Type 2 diabetes, blindness, and losing a limb. Blessed to see 57, he takes a trip down hip hop memory lane sharing stories of going to college with Chuck D, rolling with Public Enemy, New York morning radio with Ed Lover, Yo! MTV Raps, and often forgotten hip hop history heroes (starts 9:29). Other topics include Darnella Frazier’s Pulitzer, Cherokee Nation money, HBCU’s and ice hockey, plus more of the top five empowering Black News stories of the week.

Ep 124 of Real Black News features the top five empowering Black news stories of the week and this week’s three guests: Author Ronda Racha Penrice discusses her timely second book, Black American History for Dummies, where she breaks down historical facts that shaped America (starts 22:46). While therapist Camille Banks-Lee soothes the soul just in time for Mental Health Awareness Month with an important conversation about healthy ways to heal from and maneuver through racial trauma (starts 48:10). And civil rights lawyer Shavar Jeffries discusses legislation, policy wins, and battles since the murder of George Floyd (starts 1:11:40). Other topics include Africa Day, the first HBCU-made beer, Black farmers, and more of the top five empowering Black News stories of the week. #RealBlackNews

Ep 123 of Real Black News features Geneva Solomon, co-owner of Redstone Firearms, who joins the podcast after recently speaking to Congress about gun violence to share her thoughts as a liberal on why she stays armed, trains, and suggests more women do the same (starts 24:43). Other topics include the increase in Black gun owners, the huge financial win for Maryland HBCUs, the problem with shaming people for vaccine hesitancy, and more of the top five empowering Black News stories of the week. #RealBlackNews

Ep 122 The State of Black Activism: This week's episode of Real Black News features the top five empowering Black News stories of the week and this week’s guest: Black Puerto Rican Activist, soon-to-be PhD, and associate producer of the two-time Oscar-winning film Judas and the Black Messiah, Rosa Clemente (starts 24:16). She returns to the podcast to talk about the journey to making the movie and how her co-sign and connection to Fred Hampton’s family was the key to the film finally getting made. Rosa also discusses attempts to erase Afro-Latinos, calling out Latina actresses in Hollywood, activist PTSD, why parents should “racially socialize” their children, and her thoughts on the drama surrounding Black Lives Matter and its leaders. Other topics include the Young Black Panther Party, Gambia’s cure for the blind, Black entrepreneurs who house and hire the formerly incarcerated, and more of the top five empowering Black news stories of the week. #RealBlackNews

Ep. 121 of Real Black News features the top five empowering Black news stories of the week and two dope guests who use their art to lift women and black culture. This week, Image Award-winning screenwriter, Emmy nominated producer, journalist, and playwright Keli Goff discusses her critically acclaimed new play The Glorious World of Crowns, Kinks & Curls. She talks inspiration behind her success lifting Black women when writing for numerous TV shows (Starts 39:55). While actress Adepero Oduye discusses her role opposite Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson’s sister on The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. She breaks down being Nigerian in America and her groundbreaking role starring as a Black lesbian teen in the award-winning movie Pariah (Starts 20:28). Other topics include Ma'Khia Bryant, mutual aid in Louisiana, HBCU’s training aviators, and more of the top 5 empowering Black news stories of the week. 

Ep. 120 of Real Black News features conversations about tracking and fighting White Supremacists with two guests, including the president and CEO of The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Margaret Huang. She discusses the tactics they use to track hate groups, the history of white supremacists in the military, and where the SPLC stands with the Nation of Islam on their map of hate groups in America (interview begins at 9:46). While lawyer, Harvard professor, and former president of the NAACP, Cornell William Brooks, discusses executive producing the four-part CNN original series The People v. The Klan and the black woman - Beulah Mae Donald - who won the fight (interview begins at 44:13). After taking down White supremacy, we focus on building up our money as a community via crowdfunding with real estate and business lawyer Darryl Scipio and his campaign to build an apartment building - Savers Village - in Newark, NJ, that gives money back to its tenants. He also shares three tips on launching a crowdfunding campaign (interview begins at 1:11:04). Plus, North Carolina A&T’s history-making track team, activists getting Hollywood production deals, and more of the top 5 empowering Black news stories of the week. 

Recognizing triumph after survival, Ep. 119 of Real Black News features writer and executive producer Jenny Lumet, who discusses everything from her legendary family and grandmother Lena Horne to Black families on TV and how her trauma that came with pointing a finger at a mogul and surviving sexual assault inspired the vision when writing her CBS TV show, Clarice (15:36). While therapist Camille Banks-Lee of CBL Psychotherapy shares tips to cope and manage all types of trauma (49:43). Other topics include Virginia abolishing the death penalty, the Jersey non-profit teaching the hood emergency first aid, the superhero teen in Florida, muMs, Kenny Armwood, and more of the top five empowering Black news stories of the week.

Ep 118 of Real Black News features Award-winning DJ and Community Organizer, DJ Kuttin Kandi, who joins the podcast to discuss coalition building in light of the rise of hateful violence against Asian-Americans. She discusses her work uniting with the Black Community via the Asian Solidarity Collective and the tough conversations both communities need to have to build trust, heal tensions, and unite coalitions necessary to effectively fight White Supremacy. While French journalist Epee Dingong zooms in from Paris to report on Europe’s recent lockdowns due to COVID, the Variants, and Europe’s vaccine distribution drama. Other topics include the rise of ethnic studies curriculums in high schools across the country, cannabis companies partnering with HBCUs, Black child geniuses in Chicago, and more of the top five empowering Black news stories of the week.  

Ep 117 of Real Black News provides an update on Mississippi's water crisis, where some see hints of an end. Jackson, Mississippi councilman DeKeither Stamps joins the podcast to give an update (interview begins at 59:27). While hip hop journalist and author Clover Hope discusses her new book "The Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip Hop" and how she documents the history of ladies on the mic from Sha Rock and Sheri Sher to Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion. Clover, a writer on Beyonce’s Grammy-nominated musical film "Black is King," gives respect and light to women on the mic who’ve been overlooked or dismissed (interview begins at 31:25). Other topics include the weekly White Supremacy Report, Octavia Butler, Judas and the Black Messiah, the 78-year-old sista who’s a weight lifting champion, politicians pushing to return a portion of LA’s Manhattan Beach to descendants of Black former owners, and more of the top five empowering Black news stories of the week.

Ep 116 spotlights mental health and wellness with psychotherapist Camille Banks-Lee who shares tips on staying emotionally fit. While entertainment journalist Ronda Racha Penrice talks upcoming TV shows and films to watch for decompression. And Drew Glover, Principle Coordinator for the Selma Jubilee, March 5-7, discusses this year’s virtual civil rights celebration. Plus the top 5 empowering Black news stories of the week.

Episode 115 of Real Black News features Snowfall actor Amin Joseph discussing his role as Uncle Jerome Saint on season four. He talks about the personal influence of Hollywood legend John Singleton and making Snowfall without him, crack in the Black community, acting, and survival tips for thespians plus some of this week’s news stories. Topics include new information on the NYPD & FBI’s involvement in the murder of Malcolm X, Los Angeles’ move to defund and remove police from schools, Togo, the fight for 15 protests, the NAACP, KKK, and more of the top five empowering Black news stories of the week