Stacey Abrams visited Harris Stowe State University on Wednesday for a conversation centered on democracy, civic engagement and leadership ahead of the upcoming elections.

Abrams was joined by HSSU President Dr. LaTonia Collins Smith, Congressman Wesley Bell and Missouri State Rep. Ray Reed for a discussion with students and the St. Louis community.

📸 Video by Lawrence Bryant / St. Louis American
#stlamerican #HarrisStowe #StaceyAbrams #StLouis

Brett Buckner does not call himself an activist. He calls himself a servant, and he says the work is the daily, unglamorous effort of making the north side better for the people who live there.

Buckner joins host Charles Hallman on Blacklight on Sports to talk about the North Commons Park fieldhouse, which took more than 12 years to reach groundbreaking and secured federal, state and local funding together. He explains how the project was built so the community center could keep operating, why nearly 12,000 children within a mile make the park a regional opportunity, and how he hopes suburban teams will start traveling to the north side to compete.

He also shares his vision for a mixed-use campus built to anchor women’s professional sports, a concept he is developing with the Minnesota Vixen, and his call for the Timberwolves, Lynx, Vikings and Twins to invest in the north side in sustained ways. The conversation covers the $3.5 billion Blue Line extension, voter protection work with Common Cause Minnesota, how Minnesotans responded when ICE came to the north side, and what arriving at Hampton University, an HBCU, taught him about Black leadership.

Watch the full conversation.

After hitting rock bottom, it is easy to count yourself out. But past mistakes do not disqualify your purpose. Your story still carries weight, and your voice deserves to be heard regardless of your history. #PersonalGrowth #FindingPurpose #OvercomingFailure #Inspiration #SelfWorth

LaBrent Speed, founder of The Better Black Business Project and BNI’s first Black regional director, talks about intentional networking for Black entrepreneurs, his nonprofit B3I and his new book The Transformation Code.

Full story at msr.media.

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LaBrent Speed spent 30 years in sales, served as chapter president of a BNI chapter and became BNI’s first Black regional director, traveling and teaching across Minnesota. And the whole time, he kept noticing something that bothered him.

When he attended Black networking events, there was no intentionality. No structure. No mechanism to actually build business together. Just cards and pitches and socializing.

In this On the Radar episode, host Damenica Ellis sits down with Speed to talk about what he did about it, what he has built, and the personal journey that shaped all of it.

Speed founded The Better Black Business Project, or B3, on one foundational principle: serve before you sell. The organization is a professional networking community for Black entrepreneurs and authentic allies, built around what Speed calls the intentional pursuit of impactful relationships. In just over two years, B3 has grown to more than 100 members who have passed millions of dollars in referral business to one another. The organization is now expanding virtually into markets like Atlanta ahead of in-person launches.

“I wanted to create an intentional community of people coming together, building each other up and doing business with one another.”

Speed also runs B3I, The Better Black Business Initiative, a nonprofit that trains Black youth, next-generation allies and justice-impacted people to become entrepreneurs.

On September 11, Speed released his first book, The Transformation Code: 5 Keys to Transforming Your Life and Impacting the World. He says the book grew out of one of the lowest periods of his life, before B3 existed, when he was going through personal upheaval and actively studying what it actually takes to change.

“I was severely overweight. I was going through my third divorce, and life just didn’t look good. I wanted to know, how do I actually change from where I am to where I want to go?”

The principles he discovered on that journey are the same ones that run through B3: serve first, build genuine relationships, prioritize community alongside commerce and stay anchored in your why.

“Community without commerce is nice, but it’s broke. And commerce without community is transactional. We don’t want either one of those.”

Full story at msr.media.

North Commons is evolving into a world-class park for Minneapolis youth. By upgrading facilities near North High and local community centers, the project gives 12,000 neighborhood kids a first-rate space to play, compete, and connect locally. #CommunityDevelopment #MinneapolisParks #YouthSports #UrbanPlanning