Good morning, girls!

So you constantly hear about all the problems and violence in the world and automatically assume that your voice doesn’t matter, right? Wrong!

Bryan Cross, 28 year-old South Side native,  was fed up with the crisis of gun violence in Chicago and decided to make his voice heard.

He posted a photo of himself with the caption “Angry Because Over 500 Youth Were Murdered in Chicago.” Seemingly overnight, Facebook and Instagram users were flooding his inbox asking that he make one for them.

And just like that, an online anti-violence movement was born: the 500 Campaign.

From NBC Chicago:

He’s had fairly steady requests over the past couple of weeks, but when 6-month-old Jonylah Watkins was fatally shot on Monday, the requests started coming in fast and furious.

He’s edited hundreds of photos for his followers, who in turn are spreading the message on their own social media networks.

“There’s a depression out here, people are wondering what they can do,” Cross said. “I wanted to get people worked up so they at least feel like there’s something they can do to address the violence.”

Bryan is hoping to stage an anti-violence rally downtown sometime this summer.

Learn more about the 500 Campaign at its Facebook page HERE

SUPPORT THE 500 CAMPAIGN!

How will YOU use your voice to make a change?

SPEAK OUT!

Hey Fly Girls!

So tell me if you or a friend have ever used #TeamLightSkin or #TeamDarkSkin on Twitter or Instagram? Be honest.  Well,  you know at the end of the day EVERY shade is just as  gorgeous as  the next, right? Absolutely! Even though the music industry might show one shade of female as being more beautiful, new artists are breaking down those stereotypes and embracing all girls.  Compton rapper, Kendrick Lamar is trying to do his part to diversify the type of beauty seen in the music industry. The hot lyricist has been getting praise lately for not only his dope album but also having a darker tone model, Brittany Sky, in his new vid Poetic Justice. Check it out…

“We had another girl for the lead but I had an idea where I just wanted a little bit of a darker tone [girl] in the video,“ Kendrick tells Miss Info. “It’s almost like a color blind industry where there’s only one type of appeal to the camera.“

“I give [Brittany] the credit, too, for just being there, and being a natural, genuine young lady. She wasn’t  all in the open, trying to jump in [front] of the camera. She was cool, just chilling. I always kept in the back of my mind  like ‘you don’t ever see this tone of a woman in videos. ‘” Kendrick says, “No disrespect, I love all women, period. But at the same time, I still feels like it needs that balance.“

Check out the interview he had with Miss Info discussing his choice in his new vid…

Do you think it’s a division between darker tone females and lighter tone females at your school? If so, how do YOU think we can close the gap and accept everybody’s beauty?

SPEAK OUT!

Good morning Beautiful Girls,

We have to put a stop to all of this senseless violence. Each one of you has too much to offer the world to have your precious  life taken at such an young age.

After Hadiya Pendleton performed with her high school marching band during the presidential inauguration two weeks ago, the King College Prep teen became Chicago’s 42nd homicide victim of 2013. She was gunned down and killed on Chicago’s South Side becoming an unintended victim of a gang dispute.

We know that President Obama cannot solve the issue of gun violence alone. But going to Chicago and addressing Chicago’s youth violence is a priority in dealing with the future of our country.

President Obama rightly went to Newtown to comfort the families who lost children in that horrible tragedy. Now, Chicago needs his leadership & guidance. since over 500 families have loved ones to violence in the last year alone.

Please Sign the petition to get President Obama to make a speech in Chicago dealing with youth & gun violence! 

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION!

Hey beautiful ladies!

Ok, so let’s have a truth moment. Do you HONESTLY think it’s cute when guys walk around wobbling because their pants are  literally at their knees? Yeah, we don’t think that look is too hot either. I mean fitted jeans are trendy nowadays but unfortunately we  still have guys for some reason who want to show their boxers. Gross!

A group called the Black Mental Health Alliance of Massachusetts is behind a controversial ad urging black youth to pull up their sagging pants.

In the ad, a black police officer sternly advises against the divisive style by mentioning some staggeringly harsh consequences; including a $300 fine and up to three years in prison!

From All Hip Hop:

The video, targeted to young urban dwellers in Massachusetts, is the brainchild of Dr. Omar Reid.

Dr. Reid, President and Founder of BMHAM, said the video’s purpose was to address the growing issue of young men walking in the streets, without regard and respect for themselves and their community.

“This is just the beginning of our public strategy to encourage parents, schools, police, social service agencies, housing agencies, faith-based organizations along with men and women in our community to take a collective stand and tell our young men and boys to pull those pants up,” said Reid.

 

Do you think the trend of saggin’ will ever pass?  Do you think it’s cute when guys do?

SPEAK OUT!

 

Good morning Fly Girls!

I know, I know it’s Christmas break and the last thing you want to do is read anything half way educational due to the fact you’re about to dive into a new semester! But this info is useful & can save your life!

Students who attend certain high schools in Philadelphia will have easier access to condoms.

Due to the high rates of Sexually Transmitted Infections, Condom dispensers have been placed in schools.

The dispensers are located in the nurse’s office, and the condoms are free.

“We believe distributing condoms is part of our obligation to keep  students healthy and to remain healthy,” said school district spokesman  Fernando Gallard.  “The health department has described this as a  continued epidemic of STDs among teenagers in Philadelphia.”

Condoms have in the past been provided to students in Philadelphia as  part of wider program in which the teenagers are provided “free,  voluntary and confidential” testing for sexual diseases in their  schools, Gallard said.

It was the results of those tests that led officials to launch the  current program to distribute condoms regularly in schools instead of  once a year when the tests are administered.

Of the 130,000 student who have received testing in the last five years, some 6,500 or 5 percent of them have tested positive for diseases  including HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Parents were made aware of the distribution program in October and were  given the chance to opt their children out of receiving the  prophylactics.

Read more at ABC News.

DO you think it’s a good idea to put condom dispensers in high school? Is it helping or hurting?

Should schools make condoms available?

SPEAK OUT!

Hey Fresh Girls!

We always love to spotlight fresh young females making a difference and reaching their dreams, just like Rhiana Gunn-Wright who has been chosen to become Rhodes Scholars at the University of  Oxdford!

Born and raised in the Englewood section of Chicago’s South Side, Rhiana Gunn-Wright graduated at the top of her class at the Illinois Math and Science Academy, and graduated magna cum laude from Yale University.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

“I had serious doubts about even applying because I didn’t see people who reflected my experience, the places I had come from, the things that I am interested in pursuing,” said Gunn-Wright, who grew up in Englewood.

“My mom wasn’t a lawyer or a doctor. My parents aren’t professional. My great-grandmother was a laundress in Mississippi. I actually struggled to apply because I was like, people like me don’t win awards like this,” she said.

Though from humble beginnings, Gunn-Wright insists that she came from a loving community, and was blessed with a mother who always urged her to “know the world was much bigger than what I saw around my house.”

Her research will center around welfare policies both here and abroad.

““I want to help make the policy more humane. People aren’t just poor because they are lazy or shiftless,” she said. “How do we structure programs that respect that poverty is something you can get into for any number of reasons, and most of those reasons aren’t under your control?”

Check out her vid at Yahoo.com

A BIG CONGRATS to Rhiana Gunn-Wright from C.O.R.E Mag

If you had one challenge in your life you could overcome, what would it be?

SPEAK OUT!

Hey Beautiful Girls!

Once again teens are stepping up and making their voice heard! “Stop the killing, start the healing,” is the powerful  slogan that was created by young leaders, called Peace Ambassadors, at the Urban Peace Movement.  This influential campaign can be viewed on billboards  all around  east Oakland, California  where  gun violence happens too often.

Xiomara Castro is the director of Urban Peace Movement (UPM) states “Often when you do see the first headlines or the first news stories of the lost, it’s the mothers, the parents, the very direct relatives. And the story that gets lost is the best friend or the sister or the cousin or the child.”

On the other hand Castro believes, “Seeing these young people take a stand, seeing them honoring their loved ones and wanting something better for Oakland is definitely a part of the healing.”

Castro and her organization hopes that this campaign will support young people who are still trying to cope from past incidences of violence. “Young people in Oakland are too often left to themselves to deal with their trauma,” she said.

As more billboards are being created,  more teens are stepping up to  tell  their story which  sends a message to young people that they are not alone and have others to reach out to in similar situations.

Shykelah Birchett, one of the Peace Ambassadors from Urban Peace Movement and also one of the young people on the billboards, shared the story of her brother being killed. “In 2008 my brother Issac Turner he was killed on 65th [street]. He was shot in the neck by one of his friends and he passed,” she said.

“[My friends were] surprised that I actually came forward and [put myself on a billboard] ‘cus they thought it was very brave, and normally you won’t see people step out and do something like that,” said Birchett.

Read more HERE

If YOU had to create a billboard to improve your city, what would it say?

SPEAK  OUT!!

Good morning loves!

C.O.R.E Mag would like to give a BIG congratulations to President Barack Obama & the First Family!

Good morning girls,

We have mentioned the intense  issue of  the police Stop-and-Frisk in major cities as New York & San Francisco  before and unfortunately it’s not improving.

Police officers have continuously targeted young teens of color and harassed them  based on  looking “suspicious.”

In 2011, a Harlem youth was stopped by officers.

He recorded the incident on his cell phone: (Please excuse the language but we want you to understand how serious this problem is becoming.)

On June 3, 2011, three plainclothes New York City Police officers stopped a Harlem teenager named Alvin and two of the officers questioned and frisked him while the third remained in their unmarked car. Alvin secretly captured the interaction on his cell phone, and the resulting audio is one of the only known recordings of stop-and-frisk in action.

In the course of the two-minute recording, the officers give no legally valid reason for the stop, use racially charged language and threaten Alvin with violence. Early in the stop, one of the officers asks, “You want me to smack you?” When Alvin asks why he is being threatened with arrest, the other officer responds, “For being a f*cking mutt.” Later in the stop, while holding Alvin’s arm behind his back, the first officer says, “Dude, I’m gonna break your f*ckin’ arm, then I’m gonna punch you in the f*ckin’ face.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK SHOULD BE DONE TO STOP THE MISTREATMENT OF INNOCENT PEOPLE??

SPEAK OUT!

Hi Fly Girls!

Athletes & activists came together this past weekend to promote peace in Southside Chicago.

Priest and activist Michael Pfledger and NBA legend Isiah Thomas came together to  organize a basketball tournament this  past weekend in order to bring together several rival Chicago gangs.

From the Grio:

“You walk in that gym and you see the passion, the excitement, you see the smiles on kids [faces],” Fr. Pfleger told Chicago’s WMAQ-TV. “You see kids who used to shoot each other playing ball with each other…you see Joakim [Noah] and [Derrick Rose]…you tell me anything’s wrong about this? I’m in heaven right now.”

In addition to some of the Bulls’ star players, other famous ball players in attendance included Antoine Walker, Quentin Richardson and Taj Gibson. Isiah Thomas, who grew up on the West Side of the city, said the tournament can essentially be a wake-up call for many young men.

“These kids know that they’re valued, they know that we love them,” Thomas told WMAQ. “And we’re hoping that out of this [tournament], there can be some type of peace where they stop killing each other and really understand how important they are to all of us.”

How do YOU promote peace in your neighborhood???

SPEAK OUT!