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EFOC 2024: Your voice is your voice. Use it to shape the future and drive change – Essence

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Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for ESSENCE)

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During the “Our Voice, Our Vote, Our Power” panel during the Global Black Economic Forum at ESSENCE 2024, the discussion focused on the critical importance of voting, engaging communities, and the motivation behind exercising this fundamental right.

The panel featured a distinguished group of speakers, including Nikole Hannah-Jones, founding father of the 1619 Project and Knight Professor of Race and Journalism at Howard University; Brittany Packnett-Cunningham, activist and founding father of Campaign Zero; Flau’jae Johnson, LSU women’s basketball national champion; and Reyna Roberts, rapper/songwriter.

EFOC 2024: Your Voice is Your Voice. Use It to Shape the Future and Drive Change
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – JULY 6: Nikole Hannah-Jones (right) speaks onstage during ESSENCE Festival Of Culture™ Presented By Coca-Cola® 2024 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center on July 6, 2024 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for ESSENCE)

Addressing key issues in the upcoming election, the panel highlighted why voting is crucial, especially for the Black community. Hannah-Jones emphasized the power and responsibility of voting in a democracy. She highlighted the ongoing historic struggle between pursuing a multiracial democracy and maintaining a system that primarily serves one group.

“When we found out 60 years ago that we were finally as close to a democracy as we were with the passage of the Voting Rights Act, that set in motion a fundamental struggle about whether we wanted to be a multiracial democracy or continue to be a democracy for one racial group, which is white people,” Jones said.

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The conversation then moved on to strategies for engaging communities around elections. Brittany Packnett-Cunningham emphasized the importance of standing in our power, even when it’s uncomfortable, as a catalyst for change and inspiration for others. She emphasized the need for transparency in the voting process and managing expectations about the pace of change.

EFOC 2024: Your Voice is Your Voice. Use It to Shape the Future and Drive Change
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – JULY 6: (L-R) Brittany Packnett Cunningham, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Flau’jae Johnson, Reyna Roberts and Beth Lynk attend ESSENCE Festival Of Culture™ Presented By Coca-Cola® 2024 at Ernest N. Morial Convention Center on July 6, 2024 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for ESSENCE)

“Sharing with people the why, reading the 900 pages of Project 2025 together and recognizing that when we tell people the why, we have to help them understand voting in a way that we haven’t been talking about,” Cunningham said. “Telling everyone that one vote, one election will save and fix everything is a lie that we have to stop telling. The truth is that your vote is a strategic weapon in setting the terms of your next battle,” she said.

The youngest panelists, Flau’jae Johnson and Reyna Roberts, shared their motivations for leading and discussing the election, fueled by a desire to create a greater future for younger relations. Johnson, particularly, channeled her personal loss to gun violence into advocacy, transforming the recording studio where her father was killed right into a community resource center.

“I try to use my voice for the voiceless because I have the confidence to speak out and face the consequences,” Johnson said.

From highlighting the historical context of suffrage to advocating for community engagement and transparency, a panel discussion at the ESSENCE 2024 Festival highlighted the power of collective motion and the critical importance of voting in shaping the future.

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Politics and Current

Donald Trump’s attempt to embarrass Keisha Lance Bottoms with online cancellation, when he announces that she has already given up the fiery clamp

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Even after the day he returned to the oval office for the second term, Donald Trump once more showed that nothing would break through the rush of the fact that he has no job.

Early on Tuesday morning, shortly after midnight, Trump began to Social truth With his latest staff news, after all entitled “You are released”, his abused signature with the reality show “The Apprentice”.

“Our first day in the White House is not over yet!” Trump wrote. “My presidential staff office actively identifies and removes over a thousand presidential denominators from the previous administration, who do not agree with our vision of making America again.”

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The mayor of Atlanta Keisha Lance Bottoms was called N-Słow in a text message after she refused to open her city again, despite the decision of Governor Brian Kemp. (Photo of Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

In other words, released – including the joint chiefs of staff Marek Milley, serving the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, chef Jose Andres, from the President’s Council for Sport, Fitness and Nutrition and former mayor of Atlanta Keish Lance Bottom, from the President’s Export Council – were critical without delay and the current president.

But it seems that Andres and Bottoms defeated a brand new boss.

Writing on X, Andres said that he gave up last week. “My two -year term is over”, the famous chef wrote.

A day late and a brief dollar … My resignation from the President’s Export Council was made on January 4, with the effect yesterday, “wrote Bottoms in a statement issued on Tuesday.” You cannot decelerate someone who has already given up. From all the things that are happening in the world, I’m undecided why I’m in the mind of Donald Trump at 1:30 after his inauguration, but I count as a badge of honor. “

Bottoms will not be a surprise. She proved that she was a talented surrogate in the Joe Biden 2020 campaign, based on her experiences cooperating with Trump as the mayor of Atlanta. A couple of weeks after the election, Anderson Cooper from CNN said: “He will eat his own children, I am sure that if he considered it careful.”

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In his statement on Tuesday, Bottoms scolded the president for waste of time to staff, when his attention is required elsewhere.

“I hope that his attention to detail will be much more lit when it comes to world matters,” she said. “There are real problems that require attention all over the world. No matter how you voted, I think we can all agree, that aiming with me with a man who feeds resettled people in Los Angeles and arranged military general in the early morning hours through social media, is not the best use of time for the President of the United States.”

Was recently carried out by The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionBottoms said that the critical point in her relationship with the Trump administration appeared during a pandemic, citing the lack of predictability in dealing with the crisis.

“I give an example, among the pandemic, the comments that the president presented whether it was injected with bleach or really encouraged people to trust science in Covid,” she said.

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She criticized his use of federal agents to suppress demonstration over excessive strength by law enforcement agencies, signing a protest letter with dozens of other leaders of enormous cities.

Botty was the mayor of Atlanta in 2018–2021 before joining the Biden administration in 2022 as a senior advisor and director of the public commitment office. She returned to DC in 2023 to lead the import advice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nicwjeliniu

(Tagstranslate) Donald Trump (T) Keisha Lance Bottoms

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Kamala Harris made a historic president: the new book gives her a breakthrough journey through photos – essence

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The 107-day Kamala Harris campaign for the president of the United States was greater than a political run-it was a seismic moment in America’s history. Although the race didn’t end with victory, Harris broke the barriers with relentless determination, historical milestones and a message of joy that many inspired.

In the new book, IN The authors of Deborah Willis and Kevin Merida capture the transformation journey of Vice President Harris with convincing photography and great history. This book that hit stores on December 17 offers an intimate and refined portrait of Harris’s life, a formidable profession and a historical campaign, combining their public triumphs with personal moments that shaped its groundbreaking entrance.

Kamala Harris made a historic president's run: the new book gives her a breakthrough journey through photos
Simon and Schuster

This is a story that each Merida, journalist, in addition to the creator, in addition to Willis, photographer and photo historian, needed to be told, no matter the campaign’s consequence. “You know, sometimes we can simply take a story for granted. This person was the first and that, but literally broke the barriers and broke the ceilings not made of glass, but made of bricks at every level,” says Merida. “She is the first black American woman who is a vice president and the first of the main political party who received the president’s nomination and who had to be fully mastered.”

Thanks to over 150 photos, the iconic quotes and the most vital events from the vertical life and profession of Vice President Willis and Merida provide a photographic biography that consolidates Harris’s history as a testimony to progress and strength of possibilities.

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The book offers an intimate have a look at its historical 107-day campaign to the President of the United States, launched after President Biden announced that he wouldn’t search for re-election. “It was different than everything we saw,” says Merida.

“107 days to conduct a campaign when we are used to presidential campaigns that were two years old in creation … The Democratic Party merged around this one candidate after the president decided not to run, so we were dealing with history only in the campaign and how it happened … so chronicly that we wanted to capture him in real time,” he adds.

“When she announced her campaign, I was surprised that many people in news ignored the history of her history,” says Willis, who tried to inform the layered story of Harris’s personal and skilled journey. “I wanted to show her identity – she had many – as a sister, daughter, mother. I wanted to show influential experiences that shaped her through photos,” adds Willis.

Kamala Harris made a historic president's run: the new book gives her a breakthrough journey through photos

One of the most striking elements of the book is concentration on joy – a topic often omitted in political narratives, but a deliberate purpose of this book. Willis and Merida claim that they intended to capture the joy and emotional resonance of the campaign-often inverted aspect of political travels.

This approach reflects their previous cooperation, which described the groundbreaking campaign of former President Barack Obama from 2008, with a similar attention to humanity behind the story.

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“We were looking for ways to find the joy of the campaign, this emotional experience, which is often ignored during the campaign,” divides Willis from Essence. “When we noticed the door of the door to the door, the touch of the heart, the selfie that created the language that he directed me as a photographer to look at the eyes of the people he is looking at … those exchanges that created a desire to be part of the world of Harris,” he adds.

Kamala Harris made a historic president's run: the new book gives her a breakthrough journey through photos
US President Joe Biden (L) and the US Vice President and the candidate for the President of Democratic Kamala Harris pose for a selfie with fans at the end of the campaign rally at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 5 in Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, September 2, 2024 (photo Brendan Malialowski / AFP) (Photo Mrenowski / AFP / AFP vopts.

Book visualizations are a powerful tool for telling stories, with paintings akin to Harris engaging with young fans, sharing cordial moments together with his team and covering community members on the campaign trail. These photos provide readers with a sense of joy and combination that defined her sprint to the White House.

Both authors perceive their work as a tribute to Harris’s immunity and the wider impact of her journey. “Books are souvenirs … There is nothing stronger than visual images, because you can come back and you can consider and study them,” notes Merida.

Willis emphasized the importance of sharing the amazing journey of Harris. “We wanted to show the world not only what she achieved, but as she achieved it,” he says.

Thanks to the cooperation of Willis and Merida, they created a work that not only celebrates the achievements of Kamali Harris, but additionally inspires readers to see in history. As Merida put it: “Nobody arrives. Success is based on the influence, perseverance and belief that tomorrow can be better than today. The story of Kamali is proof of this.”

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Author Trump Stephen Miller says that America is “blessed” Kamala Harris is not the president, Rails against Dei

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The White House advisor, Stephen Miller, hit Kamala Harris after the former vp slammed the first 100 days of office of President Donald Trump during his last speech in California.

Miller, deputy chief of Trump’s policy staff, reacted on Thursday to Harris’s catchy remarks about the president during the press briefing of the White House, telling journalists that American public opinion should hear from the former presidential candidate, is “apology”.

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“I think it was a great reminder for the Americans about how blessing we are, that the leader sitting today in the oval office is President Donald Trump, not President Kamala Harris,” said Miller, the important strategist of Trump’s immigration policy. “It was a helpful reminder what a parody and tragedy would be. It would be the end of America.”

Miller argued that Harris’ administration would proceed to proceed what he described as “radical regulations, choosing American energy … taxing our economy to death, pushing the cancerous ideology to awaken our children, ending his merit, ending scientific innovations (I) ending public security.” He added: “Citizens who follow the rights under the previous administration were punished while Gang Bangers received a red carpet treatment.”

“The only thing that Americans want to hear from Kamali Harris is an apology for joining Joe Biden,” remember that there was a spell border – in burdening the invasion of our country, “he said about the former vp.

On Wednesday, during a conversation on the twentieth anniversary of Emerge America in San Francisco, Harris warned that Trump was leading the country to economic and constitutional crises. However, she encouraged the Americans to recollect “this country is ours – it does not belong to who is in the White House.”

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Kamala Harris, Emerge, Speech, Thegrio.com
San Francisco, California – April 30: former US Vice President Kamala Harris comprises a speech during the Emerge Gala twentieth Anniversary at Palace Hotel on April 30, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Photo of Justin Sullivana/Getty Images)

Former Biden-Harris clerk said as an alternative of specializing in what Harris says in speeches, Miller should “focus on his own home.” She cited Thursday’s overthrow of Trump’s national security advisor, Mike Waltz, adding: “They are already shooting staff in 100 days. It’s a bit stupid.”

During the Thursday press briefing, Stephen Miller also directed against diversity, capital and inclusion, the important feature of Trump’s administration, which implemented the executive orders of prohibiting Dei politicians in the federal government and compelled private institutions, including university campuses, to follow the suitcase.

The NACP lawsuit says that the Education Department

Miller called the policy of Dei as a part of the Biden-Harris administration “racial discrimination” and certainly one of the “most important crises that President Trump inherited from the office.” Trump’s adviser said that the administration “fully enforces title VI, title VII and the title of the 9th of our Federal Code of Civil Rights.” Suggesting that Dei is essentially discriminating against white men who do not use such policies, he added: “discrimination based on breed and sex is prohibited by law, and this administration vigorously enforces it.”

“These are not the effects that we will feel today. These are the effects that we feel from now on. These are the effects that our children will feel,” she explained. “These withdrawals have significant implications for diversity in the workplace, protection of civil rights, and the general position of America.”

(Tagstranslata) Trump administration

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