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Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign made significant payments to the production companies of Oprah Winfrey and Beyoncé. Campaign finance records from the Federal Election Commission show that Parkwood Production Media LLC, Beyoncé’s production company, received $165,000 on Nov. 19, 2024, according to USA Today. The payment arrived roughly a month after the singer appeared alongside Harris at a campaign event in Houston, TX, her hometown. While Beyoncé did not perform at the Oct. 25, 2024, event at Shell Energy Stadium, she and her Destiny’s Child groupmate Kelly Rowland publicly endorsed Harris in front of the roughly 30,000 attendees. The event focused on reproductive rights , a key issue Harris emphasized on the campaign trail. On Oct. 15, 2024, Harris’ campaign also paid $1 million — split into two $500,000 payments — to Harpo Productions, Winfrey’s media company, USA Today reports. Winfrey explained that the money was for Harpo’s work producing Harris’ “Unite for America”...
Oprah Winfrey is embracing artificial intelligence (AI). How She Is Using AI The long-time television host and founder of her own network believes “we are in for the ride of our lives.” There appears to be positive sentiments around her reactions as she has been leaning into the technology, even using ChatGPT to search for Airbnb listings, she mentions during an interview with “ABC News.” “It was miraculous to me that before you can practically finish the request, the answer has already come back to you,” Winfrey said. Shift Towards AI Influenced By Sam Altman Winfrey’s encounter with AI did not come until after she had spoken with Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, for her ABC special, “AI and the Future of Us,” which aired on Sept. 12, 2024. After learning further about its capabilities, the television mogul said there was no need to fear AI. “After he was telling me all about all the things it could do, I’m saying, ‘Okay. don’t be scared. Don’t be scared,'” she revealed in her...
Oprah Winfrey has only one regret in her decades-long reign as a media mogul. Winfrey is widely recognized for her tenure as a successful journalist who went on to host and produce “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” After departing from Nashville, TN, to pursue a career in Baltimore, MD, working local news, she landed her own syndicated show. According to CBS News, she was just 22 years old when she transferred cities and spent eight years working as a 6 p.m. anchor at WJZ-TV. Winfrey later landed her talk show, “A.M. Chicago,” which was renamed “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in 1986. It became the top-rated show, overtaking Phil Donahue, who had maintained the status for nearly 20 years. “For a long time, I wondered why it took so long for someone to copy us,” Donahue said, per CoastTV. “Then along came Oprah Winfrey. It is not possible to overstate the enormity of her impact on the daytime television game.” The success of Winfrey’s show is proven in its number. It reportedly was the top show for...
A popular chicken spot loved by Oprah Winfrey is spreading its wings. Ezell’s Famous Chicken, a Seattle, WA-based chain co-founded by Lewis Rudd in 1984 is preparing to bring the business to Kirkland, WA. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Rudd opened the restaurant with his sister, Faye Rudd, and a high school friend Ezell Stephens, according to Oregon Live. Then in 1989, it scored two visits from Oprah Winfrey. The media mogul was impressed with the menu, featuring Louisiana-style fried chicken made fresh daily in pure vegetable oil, baked rolls, barbecue beans, and mac and cheese. She even hired Ezell’s Famous Chicken to cater her 36th birthday celebration in Chicago, IL. The exposure from Winfrey led to an increase in customers for Ezell’s Famous Chicken. “We had people literally driving from Longview, Washington, to get chicken,” Rudd said, according to Oregon Live. “We couldn’t keep up with the demand.” Over the years, other notable names have stopped by to support the...
Oprah Winfrey’s company has filed a trademark infringement suit against the hosts of the Oprahdemics podcast. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Kellie Carter Jackson and Leah Wright Rigueur are being sued by Harpo Inc. for their Oprahdemics podcast. Harpo Inc., which owns Winfrey’s trademark, believes users are being misled under the notion that Winfrey is involved with their platform. “Her fame is so extensive that she is instantly recognized by her first name Oprah alone,” wrote attorney Tamara Carmichael of Dorsey & Whitney in the complaint.
The origin story of Oprah Winfrey is nothing if not a true testimony. Born into poverty in Mississippi, Winfrey — who was raised in the inner city of Milwaukee — got her start as a local television journalist before transitioning into acting and, eventually, into her own eponymous talk show. That talk show would, eventually, jettison Oprah Winfrey into the stratosphere — and today, her $2.6 billion brand has made her the richest Black American woman in the world. She has consistently made Forbes’ lists of the world’s richest entertainers and business people and has earned several accolades including Emmys, Tonys, and Peabody awards. Yet, Oprah Winfrey continues to remain as humble and as graceful as she always has been. “Don’t worry about being ‘successful,'” she said to Inc. when asked about the key to her success. “Strive for the truest, highest expression of yourself … and then use that expression in service to the world. If the paradigm for which you see the world is, ‘How can I...
When Google released its annual Year in Search report, it’s no wonder that Amanda Gorman was on that list. In fact, she came in at No. 1 on the tech giant’s list of poets in 2021. Unsurprisingly, Amanda Gorman, the nation’s first-ever Youth Poet Laureate, earned the title shortly after she performed her now-world famous poem, “The Hill We Climb,” at President Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021. However, what was surprising about the search results was that Norway was the country that was most likely to search for the term “Amanda Gorman” in Google over every other country (including our own!). No matter, though: her accomplishments are all her own. Born in Los Angeles to a single mother, Amanda Gorman pushed herself to excellence from the very beginning — from enrolling in speech therapy classes to gaining a world-class mentorship that landed her in the halls of the United States’ most prestigious Ivy League college. “Gorman doesn’t view her speech impediment as a...
Some celebrities go back to school after they become famous — and some teach college courses. More than just “stunt casting,” though, these celebrities take their roles as “professors” very seriously. They hold office hours, design full curriculums and throw themselves head-first into the work they do for the next generation of leaders. Sometimes, too, the celebrities who teach these college courses are living legends all on their own. For example, AfroTech recently reported about Grandmaster Flash, the Hip-Hop pioneer, teaching courses at the University of Buffalo. He’s also an artist in residency at the school in upstate New York. “The residency at UB gives me a chance to tell Hip-Hop’s whole story. The sights. The sounds. The places and the moments,” he said, according to the University of Buffalo. “It’s important that we get this history right. For the next generation to take music and art in new directions, they have to know where that music and art came from, who made it and...
When Megan Thee Stallion announced she was going back to school, fans of the Hip-Hop superstar were shocked at the announcement. After all, what would be the need for her to go back to school when her career on the charts was in full swing? But, as AfroTech previously reported, that’s exactly what she’s doing. She’s attending Texas Southern University as of this writing and plans to finish her degree in healthcare administration. Additionally, she’s making it easier for other Black women to go to school to pursue their dreams: in addition to making a huge donation toward a full-tuition, four-year scholarship to attend the Roc Nation School of Music, Sports, and Entertainment at Long Island University (LIU), she’s opening up her own healthcare facility for recent graduates to work at, as well. “Come and get your experience over here,” Megan told Glamour. “Generations taking care of generations, making people feel like they are still at home, still with their families.” But Megan Thee...
There’s certainly no shortage of billion-dollar empires, but Black billion-dollar empires are a different level of #Goals. According to Forbes, despite all the strides Black men and women have made in the field of business, less than 1 percent of all billionaires in the world identify as Black. That said, though, the United States has the world’s largest concentration of billionaires. “The number of billionaires on Forbes’ 35th annual list of the world’s wealthiest exploded to an unprecedented 2,755–660 more than a year ago. Altogether these billionaires are worth $13.1 trillion, up from $8 trillion in 2020. The U.S. still has the most, with 724, followed by China (including Hong Kong and Macao) with 698,” reports Forbes. So, if ever there was to be a renaissance of Black billion-dollar empires, it would definitely happen in the United States. That’s why these seven Black billion-dollar empires are worth taking special note of. Whether they’re in the world of business, media, or...
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are responsible for some of the nation’s most renowned doctors, teachers, entrepreneurs, political and religious leaders, plus more. And to be honest, we truly don’t know what a world without institutions that aid the rich knowledge and success of our people would look like (we’re glad we don’t even have to imagine it)! AfroTech has decided to take this time to raise awareness of those HBCUs by spotlighting some familiar faces who are products of those pristine institutions.