‘I Just Wish I Could Have One Good-Paying Job’: A Black Mother’s Story of Hard Work and Hope

Front & Center began as first-person accounts of Black mothers living in Jackson, Miss., receiving a guaranteed income. Moving into the fourth year and next phase of this series, we’re expanding our focus beyond a single policy intervention to include a broader examination of systemic issues impacting Black women experiencing poverty. This means diving deeper into the interconnected challenges they face—including navigating the existing safety net; healthcare, childcare and elder care; and the importance of mental, physical and spiritual well-being.

“I’m lucky if I get four or five hours a day of sleep, but it’s what I have to do to make sure my kids are taken care of and I have enough money to cover all my bills. … When I was part of the Magnolia Mother’s Trust, I was able to just work one job. … I hate that it’s over, I really wish leaders would create a policy like that that would be permanent.”

Trans Activist Raquel Willis Offers Thoughts on Organizing, Strength and Hope in this Moment

Within the first three weeks of Donald Trump’s second term, he has signed a devastating and chaotic wave of executive orders that undo a wide variety of laws and protections impacting vulnerable Americans.

With so many rights and freedoms at stake, I reached out to trailblazing transgender activist Raquel Willis to get her perspective on what we are facing under this administration and how we can support the trans community.  

“We’re not starting from zero.” The fight for trans rights continues—and so does the resistance.

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: Opportunities for Women Governors and Mayors; Black Women Have Always Paved the Way to Progress

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week: articles on races to watch for women governors and mayors, the Belgian prime minister on the importance of gender quotas, a study of women representatives’ increased likelihood to mention their constituents, gender terminology bans, a piece on governance by Danielle Allen, the harassment women candidates face, the partisan breakdown of women state legislators, a link to register for the 2025 Democracy Solutions Summit, and more.

Documentary Films ‘Seeds’ and ‘How to Build a Library’ Debut at Sundance—Just in Time for Black History Month

This year’s observance of Black History Month falls at a convulsive time for Americans. As the Trump administration works to eliminate all diversity, equity and inclusion programs in government and throughout American society, from companies to nonprofits, it’s more important than ever to celebrate and commemorate the achievements and the contributions of Black Americans.

With that in mind, two films that premiered at Sundance are worthy of your attention.

Seeds, the winner of the U.S. Grand Jury Prize for documentary, explores the lives, traditions and history of Black generational farmers in the American South.

How To Build A Library, a powerful new documentary from Kenya, tells the story of two remarkable women who decided to transform what used to be a whites-only library until 1958 into a vibrant cultural center in Nairobi.

An American Requiem: Beyoncé’s Country Statement at the Grammys

With all the upheaval, just two weeks in, that has accompanied the second term of the current presidential administration, the 67th annual Grammy Awards show came and went Sunday night like a welcome distraction. Even calling the event a “distraction” misses the serious work of art and its purpose in troubled times: to mobilize the masses, reaffirm our values and spread joy and light amid the darkness.

The big night, however, went to pop star Beyoncé, who not only made history as the first Black woman to win Best Country Album, but finally earned Album of the Year for her politically salient album Cowboy Carter, after previously losing in the category. The album, which opened with a “requiem” for America and closed on a prayer that “we’ll be the ones to purify our fathers’ sins,” calls on all of us to witness this nation’s history and its present, to reckon with its “sins” of exclusion and discrimination and demand that we purify it toward the democratic promise it has always held out for all of us and not just a select few determined to set us back on a backward course.

Loretta Ross on ‘Calling In’: 25 Lessons on Change, Compassion and Cancel Culture

In Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel, activist and scholar Loretta Ross challenges us to move beyond cancel culture and embrace a more humane approach to accountability. “A call in is a call out done with love,” she explains, emphasizing that true change requires “creating the conditions for differences of opinion to be heard” rather than relying on shame and ideological rigidity. With truth and history on our side, Ross urges us to build bridges, not burn them, leading a “revolution of moral renewal” that unites rather than divides.

‘Calling In’: Loretta Ross’ New Book Teaches How to ‘Model the World We Desire’

Reproductive justice founder Loretta Ross has a groundbreaking new book: Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel. Ross draws on over 40 years of experience as a feminist activist to offer hope and guidance for how we can learn to communicate and work together across our differences of identity, political opinion and priorities. Calling In is part activist memoir, part how-to guide for calling in and part strategic plan for growing the human rights movement.

Beautifully written and engaging, Calling In is a guide to “compassionate politics”—an antidote to infighting and calling out that is weakening the women’s movement and the left today. 

Beyond the Bus: Rosa Parks’ History of Fighting Sexual Violence and Systemic Oppression

Rosa Parks is often remembered as the quiet seamstress who ignited the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Yet, her history as an advocate against sexual violence is often overlooked. Parks’ work demonstrates how the fight against sexual violence is inseparably linked to the fight against systemic oppression, particularly racism, sexism, and misogynoir.

Hip-Hop Icon Roxanne Shanté Gets Her Long-Overdue Grammy Moment

Roxanne Shanté made history once as the first solo female MC in hip-hop, and now she has made history again. On Feb. 1, 2025, the Recording Academy honored her with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, making her the first solo female rapper to receive this recognition. She received the award at the Special Merit Awards Ceremony in Los Angeles, just one day before the official Grammy Awards.

As she reflected on receiving one of the most prestigious honors in music, Shanté opened up about her career, her impact and her ongoing mission to support at-risk youth in this exclusive interview.

Women’s Paychecks Are Shrinking—And Policy Isn’t Keeping Up

Last September, the National Partnership for Women and Families reported the wage gap for all women workers had widened to 75 cents for every dollar men earned, representing a 3-cent decrease in real pay per hour for women.

While on the surface this may seem negligible in a paycheck, even a seemingly small increase in wage disparity dramatically impacts the significant gains in pay since the 1980s. American Progress reports that with this current backslide, it will now take until 2068 to close the wage gap.