Job Summary: Verite is a Black-led nonprofit news organization with a twofold mission to produce in-depth journalism that serves the whole community while training, developing and mentoring a new generation of minority journalists. Verite is part of Deep South Today,  a nonprofit hub of local newsrooms located in the South. Launched in fall 2022, Verite is growing a staff that will be recognized as a leader in independent, nonpartisan journalism in the Deep South.  The mission is to create a newsroom that is truly diverse in perspective, background and experience.  To that end ..read more

Early Wednesday (May 1), officers from the Tulane University Police Department, New Orleans Police Department and Louisiana State Police  — clad in tactical gear  — forcibly cleared an encampment set up earlier this week by pro-Palestinian protesters on the Tulane campus, arresting 14 individuals.  NOPD has yet to confirm the charges, but court records for several arrestees show misdemeanor trespassing charges. At least one person is facing an additional charge of resisting arrest, also a misdemeanor. And at least two other protesters present during the raid, who were not arres ..read more

It was early on in the pandemic when Catalian Colbert’s son, then 10-year-old Steven Williams, wanted to switch schools. Colbert said Williams had been in a French Immersion School since kindergarten and could speak and write in French much better than he could in English.  Colbert’s husband had attended Bienville Elementary, which, prior to Hurricane Katrina, was located at the same site where Arthur Ashe Charter School stands today. So, the family decided to enroll Steven there. At first, Colbert said she was worried about the transition, but felt immediately reassured after her phone ..read more

A panel of federal judges has thrown out Louisiana’s new congressional map that created a second majority Black district, dealing a blow to one of Gov. Jeff Landry’s first official actions in office.  The 2-1 decision from a U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals panel comes in the case Callais v. Landry, in which a group of non-Black voters sued the state. They contend the map, signed into law after a five-day special legislative session convened at the governor’s direction, constitutes an unconstitutional racial gerrymander and violates the 14th and 15th amendments of the U.S. Constitution ..read more

When did Cash Money take over? It was 25 years ago, when Juvenile, featuring Mannie Fresh and Lil’ Wayne, recorded “Back that Azz Up” a single from Juvenile’s successful “400 Degreez” album. Certified four-times platinum, the album turned 25 in November 2023. “Back That Azz Up” was released as a single in June 1999 and reached No. 19 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. “Y’all really been backing that azz up for a quarter century,” Juvenile posted in February. “I gotta hand it to the azzes. Y’all did y’all’s thang.” According to Mannie Fresh, who produced “Back That Azz Up” and performed at Jazz Fes ..read more

It wasn’t the wail of a siren or the buzz of an emergency phone alert that warned Tanya Richard a pipeline near her home was spewing poison gas. The first hint that something was wrong came from her cats, a motley collection of free-roaming felines that fled her property as the dense cloud of carbon dioxide (CO2) rolled over a rural stretch of southwest Louisiana on April 3.  “Normally, I’ve got six kitty cats out here wanting to be fed when I come home,” said Richard, who lives just outside Sulphur, a small Calcasieu Parish town about five miles from Lake Charles. “But they were nowhere ..read more

On an overcast day in late February, singer Dawn Richard, formerly a member of the platinum-selling pop group Danity Kane, rode around St. James Parish with activists from Rise St. James — an environmental justice group that fights the expansion of petrochemical plants. As the group counted the facilities in the heavily industrial parish, Richard noticed an odor.   “Ooo, that asphalt [smell] is crazy,” Richard said. “So that’s back-to-back sulfur, asphalt and ammonia – like what?”  Prominent environmental justice activist Sharon Lavigne was at the wheel that day, with her daugh ..read more

Hundreds of protesters calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza occupied a portion of Tulane University’s campus on Monday (April 29), setting up tents along St. Charles Avenue on a campus lawn in front of Gibson Hall and refusing to move despite demands from police. The protest, organized by Tulane and Loyola University student groups, was similar to those that have cropped up at campuses across the country over the past several weeks. But despite a heavy police presence, as of Tuesday morning, the Tulane demonstration had yet to result in mass arrests of protesters recently seen at C ..read more

Officials from Xavier University of Louisiana and Ochsner Health announced on Monday (April 29) that the planned Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine campus will be located in Benson Tower in New Orleans’ Central Business District. The event, attended by New Orleans Saints and Benson Tower owner Gayle Benson, U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and members of the New Orleans City Council, was held on Benson Tower’s fifth floor, the same floor where the school will be located. At the event, Reynold Verret, president of Xavier University of Louisiana, and Pete November, CEO o ..read more

The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival’s Gospel Tent was full as Irma Thomas took the stage for her 50th Anniversary performance on Saturday, April 27. The New Orleans legend was greeted by enthusiastic cheers from her audience, as she called out to familiar faces and longtime fans.  This year’s Jazz Fest features hundreds of artists from across the world, but few with as long a history at the festival as Thomas, who has performed at the festival with musicians such as Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight. Thomas first graced its stages in 1974 when she was a guest musician for piani ..read more