Page 13 - Florida Sentinel 12-12-17

HBCU
Atlanta’s New Mayor Is A FAMU Graduate; Adding
FAMU Alum Dee Rees’ New Film ‘Mudbound’ Received High Acclaim
To An HBCU Tradition
At Sundance Film Festival
Atlanta’s 60th mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms will be sworn in in 2018.
Writer-director and FAMU alum Dee Rees has been a shining star in the in- dependent film world for years now, with movies “Pariah” in 2011, and the 2015 HBO biopic “Bessie,” about legendary blues artist Bessie Smith. But it’s her latest movie that will make her a known name in the mainstream.
“Mudbound,” which re- ceived high acclaim at this year’s Sundance Film Festival before being snatched up by Netflix for $12.5 million, is a gripping work that looks at life on a rural Mississippi farm in post-World War II America. But it also contains themes of race and class that are sadly still very rele- vant in today’s world.
“Mudbound” is a story
The city of Atlanta welcomes is 60th mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms.
Bottoms is a proud gradu- ate of Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University (FAMU) and woman of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
After winning a runoff election by 750 votes, Bot- toms greeted a crowd of exu- berant supporters. She ran through a list of thank you’s to her siblings, family, friends, and campaign staff.
With her four adopted children surrounding her, one affectionately laying on her arm, Bottoms shared a direct message to some of her sup- porters:
“For all the little girls out there, who need somebody to
believe that you are better than your circumstances, I want you all to remember that black girl magic is real...”
Bottoms is a prime exam- ple of the reality that is black girl magic.
She is the third Atlanta mayor since 2002 to be a grad- uate of an HBCU.
In 2002, Howard University alumna Shirley Franklin be- came the 58th mayor of the city of Atlanta.
In 2010, Howard University alum Kasim Reed became the 59th mayor of the city of Atlanta.
Next year, FAMU alumna Keisha Lance Bottoms will be officially sworn in as the 60th mayor of the city of At- lanta.
Dee Rees, center with her cast of ‘Mudbound’.
about dreams that go unful- filled, and how hatred that goes back generations can’t be mended by a single friend- ship. But mostly it’s about family: for one character it’s
all he has, while for another it’s what he’s been trying to run from his whole life.
"Mudbound" premiered on Nov. 17 in selected cities and on Netflix.
Spelman Grad Becomes
All Women’s HBCU, Bennett College Has One Year To Get Business In Order
Youngest Cannabis
Dispensary Owner In U. S.
Hope Wiseman is a 25- year-old set to become the country’s youngest black fe- male owner of a cannabis dis- pensary.
The dispensary, Mary and Main, is set to open in winter 2018 in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
It will offer medical mari- juana in the form of a variety of products. With a medical rec- ommendation, customers will be able to buy cannabis sativa and indica at Wiseman’s shop, as well as cannabis tea, edibles, balms and tinctures.
In an interview with the
Washington Informer, Wise- man credits the war on drugs for her interest in the cannabis industry.
“I saw how the war on drugs impacted my community and I knew I wanted to be involved in cannabis to correct that,” the Maryland native said. “I started doing research in my home state and I knew that at that time there would be a bill legal- ized soon. The next step is an application process and they don’t really announce it, but you’ve just got to know.”
Wiseman said that once a license is awarded, a buy-in cost of $200,000 within two
Hope Wiseman will open her dispensary in Maryland next year.
years of being certified is re- quired.
“With an investment bank- ing background I knew what I had to do and began to raise money,” she said. “I also knew I needed to get investors to go in on this with me and I partnered with my mother, who’s a den- tist and another investor. From there I left my job as a Equity Institutional Sales Analyst at SunTrust in Atlanta and came back home.”
In addition to Mary and Main, Wiseman also founded Compassionate Herbal Alter- native to help create opportu- nities for minorities who have been disproportionately af- fected by the war on drugs.
Bennett College in North Carolina made the an- nouncement they have one more year to get everything in order with their finances.
The HBCU women's col- lege announced the South- ern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges has put them on probation, with good cause, for the next 12 months.
Bennett College has done a lot of things in the past year to get this extra year of probation.
Donations, and atten- dance are up.
Bennett College
However, there is still work to do.
While attendance is sitting at 410 students, lead- ers at Bennett say to get off probation they need to raise $4 million dollars, and have an enrollment of at least 450 students by next school year.
If they don't, this could be the end of Bennett Col- lege, which is why this next year is so dire.
"Very important to the survival of Bennett. Very im- portant to what we want to do to implement our strate-
gic goals, very important to the lives of students cur- rently at Bennett, and the ones we're trying to recruit. So, it is very important to our basic survival," said President Dr. Phyllis Worthy Dawkins.
Dr. Phyllis Worthy Dawkins says she is very confident they will meet their goals, and they are reaching out to individuals, organizations, businesses, and the Greensboro com- munity in general -- so they can keep this institution alive.
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