In the four decades since the HIV/AIDS epidemic began, the disease has taken the lives of more than 750,000 Americans, part of a total of 40.1 million deaths worldwide. A 2022 estimate shows that there are currently over 1.2 million Americans living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), of which 13% remain undiagnosed.

Newark, NJ - Photography cannot only capture an image but also a sound. Public Square Amplified's photojournalist, Brian Branch-Price, displays his adeptness in depicting gospel music through his signature black-and-white medium. Through his photos, he gives us a glimpse of the rhythms that tie family to music and God.

Following the devastating impacts of the recent earthquakes hitting both Syria and Turkey, one woman saw an opportunity to lend a hand in a way that is often overlooked. She did not donate food, clothes, or even money. Instead, Eiko La Boria, founder of The Flow Initiative, donated over 20,000 menstrual products to the people of Turkey and Syria.

Heavy rainfall, runoff, urban flooding, overbank flooding and drainage problems threaten several areas in Camden County, but the City of Camden—one of 37 municipalities in the county—has the greatest number of residents living in a floodplain. Like a peninsula, water surrounds the city, such as the Delaware River, Cooper River and Newton Creek. But residents aren't just taking in floodwater. There's raw sewage in the mix. As an overburdened Black and brown community with about 36% of residents living below the poverty level, residents, environmental specialists and community nonprofits say it's an environmental justice issue.

On Tuesday night, March 7, hundreds of citizens gathered to mourn and protest in outrage the killing of yet another Black man, 31-year-old, Najee Seabrooks, by two Paterson Police officers, while Seabrooks was experiencing a mental health crisis.

In provocative irony, Seabrooks worked as a high-risk violence interventionist with the Paterson Healing Collective to assist Paterson community members, mainly young people, experiencing a crisis.

Hunterdon, NJ - Photo essays can be counter-narratives to affirm our shared humanity in racialized spaces designed to erase it. And Public Square Amplified's photojournalist, Brian Branch-Price, makes it look sublime. As always, his choice of the black-and-white medium delivers a beautiful portrait of a Black female rancher.

Tammy Harris comes from generations of harvesters. In the mid-twentieth century, her grandparents traversed the highways during the terror-filled Jim Crow era of racialized laws from New Jersey to Florida to harvest potatoes and other produce.

Philadelphia, PA - On a summer day in August, When Black Women Gather (WBWG), an international organization, took a cross-section of Black women from N.J. to learn how to shoot.

"It was a long-awaited adventure originally planned for Mother's Day, pre-pandemic,” said the founder of the organization, Helen Higgenbotham.

Newark, NJ - On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Mark Kearney pulls weeds to make room for the eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, beans, squash and melons that will grow on the three-acre urban oasis he manages.

Kearney, who was formerly incarcerated, says he feels alchemy working the land on the Newark-based Hawthorne Avenue Farm.