This was published as part of the 2024 community journalism class sponsored by New Jersey Civic Information Consortium. 

It’s June 14, the jump ball is thrown, and Big Fendi, former Nicki Minaj manager and now author, takes it running. A promotional video for a community basketball tournament dubbed “Nuttin’ Butt Azz’” is circulated on Facebook.

The bustling intersection at Broad and Market Streets is a prime location for shopping, featuring a variety of department stores and street vendors. It’s also a public transportation thoroughfare making it an ideal spot to engage with folks.

On Sunday, September 22, the New Jersey Society of Professional Journalists (NJSPJ) hosted a webinar with the Executive Director and Editor of HonestReporting.com, Gil Hoffman. Initially suggested by Steve Lubetkin, NJSPJ board secretary, then championed by Kenneth Burns, board president, it is unclear how much research and effort was made to ensure the guest was appropriate for the topic.

On Wednesday, August 28th, a coalition of abolitionists and organizers hosted an annual commemoration of Black August at The HUBB in Orange that brought together political prisoners, academics, returning citizens, and fellow community members.

As we pass 300 days since a one-day attack, part resistance and part massacre, we continue to bear hourly witness to an ongoing Genocide. Anyone can livestream the completely disproportionate response to that attack that is a trifecta of war crimes: collective punishment, forced displacement, and ethnic cleansing.

After months of fear-mongering that democracy is at risk, the Democrats invoked the very layered and opaque delegate process to appoint a nominee not listed as a choice on any primary ballot, given she filed to run for president on July 21, 2024, the day Biden dropped out of the race.

Hurricane Beryl, the strongest hurricane recorded in the Caribbean since 2005 and the earliest Category 5 hurricane ever observed in the Atlantic Ocean, devastated the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in its path across the Caribbean. The prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a small island developing state, spoke with Public Square Amplified’s executive director about the widespread devastation, the nation’s appeal for aid and the broader meaning of the increasingly powerful storms afflicting the planet.

The historical and ongoing struggle for Black equality in America is a narrative woven from resilience, sacrifice, and a persistent yearning for true equity within our nation. What does it say about America today that this remains a yearning?

On Sunday, June 9, at about 7 a.m., dozens of Rutgers police raided and then evicted a peaceable assembly – an encampment – of Newark residents and Rutgers University students at the institution’s Newark campus. The raid occurred without warning.