Kadeem Lundy

November 1st is the fourth annual Black Entrepreneurs Day, and to celebrate, a special taped event curated by FUBU Founder and Shark Tank venture capitalist Daymond John was held at New York’s Apollo Theater. The event helped celebrate Black businesses and inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs while showcasing remarkable Black talent.

Black Entrepreneurs Day which was filmed over two days, featured guest appearances by influential figures such as Whoopi Goldberg, Anthony Anderson, Cedric the Entertainer, Shaquille O’Neal, Cari Champion, Sloane Stephens, Ice T and Flavor Flav. Rick Ross also performed in honor of celebrating the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop.

One of the highlights of Black Entrepreneurs Day is the “NAACP Powershift Entrepreneur Grant.” This year, the grant will award over $200,000 in black business grants, providing crucial support to Black entrepreneurs seeking to take their businesses to new heights. Also a pitch competition was presented by Shopify in which three aspiring entrepreneurs pitched their products to guest celebrity investors. The winner received $25,000 to help develop and market their product, and all three finalist received business mentors. “We may be three years out from the George Floyd travesty and the height of support for Black Lives Matter, but the need for resources and community support for our Black businesses remains paramount. I salute our partners who year after year, support our mission to educate and inspire Black
entrepreneurs around the globe,” said John. Some of this year’s partners included Meta, SalesForce, The General Insurance, JP Morgan Chase and McDonalds.

Black Entrepreneurs Day has rapidly become one of the largest and most acclaimed Diversity and Inclusion events in the United States. In 2022 alone, it garnered over 7.6 million broadcast viewers and received two Webby Awards. Viewers who were unable to attend tapings in person can watch a stream of the event starting at 7pm on November 1st.

Jada Pinkett Smith wants to share her experience in finding self worth in her new memoir titled Worthy. After speaking with television and online journalist for the past few days in promoting the book, Smith sat with Arianna Huffington (October 16th) at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in New York City to for a chat as part of PAC’s ‘Conversations” series which is a partnership between CAA and Vanity Fair which presents cultural tastemakers, and Hollywood stars and authors sharing their stories. Prior to sitting with Huffington, Smith met with select fans who purchased her book during an intimate meet and greet. Vanity Fair reporter Chris Smith introduced Jada.

During the nearly hour long discussion Smith discussed a range of topics including controversial topics such as her marriage to Will Smith, the Oscar incident with Chris Rock, being introduced to ayahuasca and more. Huffington also asked Smith about specific quotes and questions that she wrote in the book.

“I had to go through everything and that’s one of the reasons for me [that] I’m so glad that I didn’t go on that angry impulse of just like ‘I’m divorcing you, I’m’ sick of you’. I knew I had to get myself together. I recognized that and I had to get through my stuff before I could see what was actually happening right, and then being willing to work with Will in a different way. So now that we’ve done work together now we’re getting through on the other side, And it’s like the ceremony which I talked about in the book [ayahuasca] having to sit there in your stuff, you can’t you can’t stop the process, right? It’s the same thing in relationships. We try to stop the process of working through it. We try to escape it and go well I’mma go find somebody else, well, I’mma leave you. Sometimes we have to do that. Sometimes it’s necessary in my case, I had to work through my stuff through my stuff with Will and now we’re coming out on another side”, Jada said about working on herself and her relationship with her husband Will whom she is currently separated from.

After an over 30 year career in Hollywood, and having received numerous awards, and accolades, Jada explained what ‘success’ currently means to her saying, ” For me, it’s loving connection it’s having a beautiful intimate relationship with myself, that allows me to have beautiful, intimate relationships with others. I love feeling connected it is my favorite thing, even people that I got to meet today, looking at you and your eyes, hugging you looking at the beauty, taking pictures, even if it’s just for a second. That to me is life. And so the disconnect was that I was disconnected with myself and that’s the part I didn’t know that I had to learn to do. But that’s success to me.”

Worthy is currently available for purchase.

Photo Credit: The Creative Collective/ CultureCon

For all creative content creators CultureCon was the place to be this past weekend. The Creative Collective in partnership with Max took over the Brooklyn Navy Yard for two day cultural convention which featured discussions with some of the top Black entertainers of today, entrepreneurs, and social media influencers, along with activations set up by companies including Adidas, Spotify and Kickstarter and food tastings from Black owned restaurants and chefs in New York City.

During the two day event, Adidas allowed attendees the opportunity to express their creativity by designing their own Adidas classic sneaker, and Spotify allowed attendees to record mini single person podcast in recording both that they set up, in which attendees were also encouraged to launch their own podcast on Spotify for Podcasters. Award winning photographer Greg Noire was also on hand taking photos of attendees who stopped by the Culture Rated activation presented by Amazon Prime Video.

Emmy Award winner Jharrel Jerome spoke at the CultureCon on Saturday (October 7). While Jerome is known for his acting in the Oscar winning film Moonlight and his Emmy winning performance in When They See Us, and his current role in I’m a Virgo, he is planning on releasing a four part musical project titled Someone I’m Not through Sony Music. Speaking on the timing of the musical project during a discussion during CultureCon Jerome told the audience, ” I think the Emmy was a blessing, but at the same time it comes with what’s next for me, can you top it can you keep doing it. There’s a big reason why I’ve been quiet and haven’t been rushing into the next project. I want to make sure that the project challenges me like the last one did and that’s not easy. Projects that I have been a part of don’t come around often. So as an artist I know people are looking at me like alright you wanna rap that’s cool but what’s it for what’s it about, and so those are the questions I got to answer in order to gain the respect and in order to garner a certain attention for it. So I’m willing to take those questions and roll with the punches”. When asked about mentally dealing with challenges of wanting to move into music while still dealing with his acting career, Jerome explained that he ‘blocks out the world’, and relies on his confidence.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 07: (L-R) Bimma Williams and Jharrel Jerome speak onstage at CultureCon NY 2023 on October 07, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)

The following day on October 8th, CultureCon hosted a panel discussion with Faith Jenkins, Real Housewives of Potomac star Candiace Dillard Bassett and Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard star Preston Mitchum, discussed navigating career after achieving an initial level of success, while finding ways to showcase other talents to prevent being boxed in, and helping to find ways to deal with and overcome imposter syndrome. “You will really find yourself creating a lot of mistakes if you don’t know who you are before you get your big break. There’s the purpose of saying no just as much as saying yes, so know what you have to say yes to and most importantly know what you need to say no to to define your purpose”, Mitchum stated during the panel discussion. “Not everyone feels they have to be accountable to our community when they are representing themselves on TV, and I think that’s a real shame, honestly. I think when we do take this mantle, we have an obligation to community right and it means also we’re gonna make mistakes. The reason why I love reality TV so much I was watching all of them before I also became one of them, and it’s such an opportunity to discuss real things”, Mitchum also mentioned.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 08: (L-R) Taryn Finley, Candiace Dillard Bassett, Faith Jenkins and Preston Mitchum speak on stage during CultureCon NY 2023 on October 08, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)

Singer/Actress Tinashe shared that “there’s absolutely no substitute for experience” when she hit the stage to discuss how she navigates her career in the music industry. Tinashe recently released her album BB/Ang3l and is planning to promote the album on tour.