With @llcoolj at the opening of the Obama Presidential Center.
A powerful moment celebrating legacy, culture, and the future we are still building together.
#OPC2026
Admitted serial rapist Darren Sharper, the former NFL champion, has been transferred from federal prison to a halfway house program as his 2028 release date nears | https://t.co/qRQoVezsX8
Larry Fitzgerald shows love to the city of New Orleans ❤️
“I absolutely love New Orleans. I don’t even think I told you this, but my family is from, not New Orleans, but the West Bank… I don’t know if you’ll find a place as culturally rich as New Orleans.”
This rare, unedited footage of an archival outtake from the landmark 1995 PBS/BBC ten-part documentary series Rock & Roll (produced by WGBH and filmed by Elizabeth Deane). In this incredible raw interview clip, legendary songwriter Dorothy LaBostrie pulls back the curtain on the true history of American Rock and Roll music.
While recounting how she cleaned up Little Richard's raw, underground roadhouse lyrics in just fifteen minutes to write "Tutti Frutti" at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studio, LaBostrie strips away the commercialized myth of the genre. She firmly re-anchors the birth of Rock and Roll in its true origin: the resilience, survival, and creative genius of Black Americans navigating the hardships of the mid-century South.
When asked by the interviewer how Rock and Roll and the Blues truly began, LaBostrie bypassed the standard talk of record labels and studio equipment. Instead, she spoke directly to the socioeconomic realities and systemic oppression faced by Black communities in Mississippi and Alabama, explaining how systematic struggle was transmuted into a global musical revolution:
“Where I would go to Jackson, Mississippi, down in Meridian, Mississippi, those places where people had such a hard time as I said, and they would give out their event in song. You couldn't fight what was going on down there, so you get in the corner and make up a song, get a rub board or whatever it may be. And it was sad, but beautiful.” —Dorothy LaBostrie
These four Black men are the only Black people elected to serve in Congress from Louisiana since the 1870s.
Louisiana has elected more than 170 white men to Congress during that same period. Yet today, a corrupt Supreme Court, a puppet governor, and a weak-backed legislature have decided to strip elected power from Black people.
That means other people decide how our tax dollars are invested in our communities.
I spoke with @repcleofields_, @reptroycarter, former Rep. @cedric_richmond, and former Rep. William Jefferson about why they went to the Louisiana State Capitol to testify against the congressional maps being pushed through.
For years, I’ve been saying what happens in Louisiana will impact America. Here we are.
This week, the Louisiana House of Representatives plans to pass maps that dilute Black voting power.
Our response cannot be silence. Our response has to be showing up in numbers this November and beginning the work of taking power back.
Yall gone hear me one day.
Black turnout exceeded white turnout in Louisiana’s May election.
Black voters are 31% of registered voters, but made up 34% of the people who showed up.
I was on here every day telling y’all to vote because this is what happens when Black people participate at higher rates. We influence elections the same way we influence culture.
Jeff Landry lost all 5 constitutional amendments. Even in Republican parishes, voters rejected his agenda.
Never underestimate the power of informed, organized Black voters.
And to be clear, this happened while Black folks are underfunded in this work in Louisiana.
One thing the record will always show is, I did my part.
Share if you care 🦾
Thank you, @ReverendWarnock, for welcoming me to Ebenezer Baptist Church today.
As legislatures across the South seek to draw Black Americans out of power, we gathered this Sunday to steel ourselves for the work ahead.
We will always stand together, and we will not go back.