(BALTIMORE – October 27, 2025) – Years ago, while in Jamaica, I found myself in conversation with a Rasta. I asked him what wisdom he’d have me carry back home. He paused, smiled, and said two simple words — words I will never forget: “Love life.” Then he repeated them, slower this time. “Love life.” Today, the world feels upside down. What was left is now right. What was right is now passé. It’s as if common decency has become retro — a relic from another time. People’s mental health is stretched thin as we try to make sense of…

(BALTIMORE – October 25, 2025) – Everybody knows Frank Johnson — at least, if you’ve been anywhere near the entertainment world. Gold records on the wall. Years with Kevin Liles at Def Jam. Collaborations with some of the biggest names in music. The man can write, play, sing, and — back in the day — he could dance, too. (He just turned 59, so we’ll let him decide about that part!) Last night, friends and family came out to celebrate him — an unforgettable evening filled with laughter, good food, and love. Konan had the music flowing. Then Mike Thomas took…

(BALTIMORE – October 24, 2025) – Black Wall Street is coming home — to Coppin State University, the beating heart of West Baltimore’s renaissance. BMORENews.com, publisher of the Joe Manns Black Wall Street Awards, is proud to announce the next edition of this celebrated recognition series: “Black Wall Street: NEW BALTIMORE,” set for Wednesday, November 6, 2025, from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at Coppin State University’s College of Business, located at North Avenue and Warwick. Since launching in Washington, D.C. in 2011 — with the support of Sisters4Sisters Network, Inc. — the Black Wall Street Awards have honored over 3,000…

(BALTIMORE – October 20, 2025) – Smoke was clearing away as neighbors came out early, picking up trash and debris. The morning after Baltimore’s first riots in 47 years, people began gathering at the battered intersection. Cameramen and reporters swarmed what had become the epicenter of global attention, while politicians scrambled to find out if the 1600 block of West North Avenue was in their district. It’s a shame how politicians regard Penn-North. The people here know local politics better than many could imagine. They know who’s delivered and who hasn’t. They attend Penn-North Community Association meetings, Druid Heights CDC…

America Just Took the Ball and Went Home  (BALTIMORE – October 14, 2025) – As I read numerous articles on the recent Trump Administration ruling to remove Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) opportunities from the books, my thoughts go far beyond the obvious women-owned and minority-owned businesses that are most affected. My thoughts are on the Black women who nursed white babies with their own breast milk. I think of Chevy pickup trucks with Confederate flags in the rear window. I’m thinking about the kid who brought his basketball to the court, but he took his ball and went home when…

Are We Moors, Hebrews, or Indigenous? (BALTIMORE – October 12, 2025) – Call it cognitive dissonance—the tension we feel when new information collides with what we’ve always believed. Many of us grew up with two big narratives: that humanity’s oldest roots trace to southern Africa, and that people we call “Black” in the Americas arrived solely via the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. But what if the fuller story is more complicated? What if some of our families have been here far longer than our textbooks suggest—and what if many we call “descendants of slaves” are, in fact, descendants of prisoners of…

What they never told us … (BALTIMORE – October 10, 2025) – When scientists examined the DNA of Albert Perry, an African American man from South Carolina, they uncovered a genetic mystery that rewrote the history of humankind. Perry’s Y-chromosome — the strand of DNA passed from father to son — didn’t fit into any known category. It was older, far older, than all others on record. The discovery, published in 2013, revealed that Perry carried what geneticists later called haplogroup A00, the oldest known male lineage ever identified — dating back more than 300,000 years. His bloodline diverged from all…

(RANDALLSTOWN – October 4, 2025) -If you live in Maryland’s 10th Legislative District — stretching from Woodlawn to Owings Mills — you should know Senator Ben Brooks. He’s not just another elected official. He’s a longtime businessman, family man, and community servant who built his legacy right here along Liberty Road. For decades, Senator Brooks and his family have operated a respected CPA firm on Liberty Road. That business is more than a professional enterprise — it’s a community hub. From that foundation, Brooks worked his way up the political ladder, ultimately succeeding the legendary Senator Delores G. Kelley in…

“Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.”– Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (1961) (BALTIMORE – September 28, 2025) – Sometimes we’ve got to rewind the tape back to the 1960s just to remind folks where we’ve been. Back then, Dr. King warned us about “nullification and interposition” — the very tools segregationists used to block progress. And let’s not forget Baltimore’s own Clarence Mitchell, Jr. As the NAACP’s chief lobbyist, he was in the White House in ’64 when President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. Mitchell fought tooth and…

(BALTIMORE – September 26, 2025) – This morning, I awoke to a text that reminded me of something my father used to say:“Doni, get out there and try. Somebody might see you, and they might even help you.” The text was a picture of Mr. Edwin Avent, fearless leader of the Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys, holding my new book, Black Blueprint: Baltimore to Burkina Faso (2025). I first met Edwin back in the 90s at a Black Professional Men’s meeting. He was a businessman then, and he is a businessman today. If anyone understands the essentials of business management—even…