It’s been 100 years since a white mob set fire to Greenwood, a thriving Tulsa neighborhood also known as Black Wall Street. Between May 31 and June 1, 1921, the Tulsa Race Massacre burned Greenwood’s entire business district down to the ground, murdered hundreds of Black people and left many more homeless in an American horror story that’s long been ignored.

Now that’s changing with the help of two music projects commemorating the centennial through the voices of Black culture’s next generation in Oklahoma: Fire in Little Africa and 1921 … The Black Wall Street Music Project. Both compilations feature artists — some of whom are direct descendants of Tulsa-Greenwood survivors — sharing their fresh perspectives through hip-hop, R&B/soul, jazz and spoken word.

Arriving in July and featuring 18 artists, 1921 … The Black Wall Street Music Project will release two singles on June 18: “For Black Wall Street” by Dangerous Rob and Playya 1000 featuring Malachi and “Oklahoma Made” by Kode Ransom. These are the follow-ups to the project’s first dual singles that came out in late May: “Kerosene” by Omaleyb featuring Steph Simon and “The Sun Will Rise Again” by Doc Shaw featuring Lester Shaw and Retsel Shaw. Among the album’s other offerings will be a posthumous premiere by the late smooth jazz bass guitarist and NBA player Wayman Tisdale.

Being released in conjunction with New York-based Isotopia Records, headed by Constance Hauman, 1921 … The Black Wall Street Music Project was executive produced by Fred Jones, Thornell Jones Jr. and Guy Troupe. Partners in the project include The Hille Foundation, Osage Casinos and Spirit Bank. Jones is the founder of One Tulsa LLC, whose divisions encompass broadcast, digital and print media, marketing, artist management and philanthropy. Jones, who envisioned the music project three years ago, has close ties to the Tulsa Race Massacre. His grandmother Maggie Jones was in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, 25 miles away from Greenwood, when the riot started.

“I remember my grandmother saying they could see the smoke as the city burned for three days,” says Jones. “The massacre was about money and the economic power that Black Wall Street had. Black people were hiring Black people. You didn’t have to be treated as a secondhand citizen or be subjected to racial slurs. I want people to realize what really happened and see the resilience of a community.”

Sharing similar sentiments, Jones Jr. adds, “In order for us as a people to move forward, we have to unify behind the message of Tulsa, the country and the world. This album speaks to the horrors of the massacre and the destruction. But it’s really an allegory because it’s telling young people to be fired up, be the best they can be and walk in the steps of their ancestors.”

Fire in Little Africa, Motown Records’ commemoration of the massacre’s anniversary, is the company’s latest project via its relaunched Black Forum label. Released on May 28 in partnership with Tulsa’s Bob Dylan Center and Woody Guthrie Center, the album features 60 Oklahoma hip-hop artists and a special guest, Tulsa native and Gap Band frontman Charlie Wilson. In fact, the Gap Band adopted its name from three streets in Wilson’s former neighborhood: Greenwood, Archer and Pine Streets — the center of Little Africa.

Wilson, who appears on the track “Party Plane,” notes, “It’s important to continue bringing attention to the Tulsa Race Massacre so future generations will know the history of Black Wall Street. Being a part of the album is full-circle for me: coming from a generation that was told not to speak of the massacre, as our elders still feared for their lives, to the present day where we are standing together unveiling and spreading the truth.”

In addition to Wilson’s track, Fire in Little Africa features the singles “Shining” and “Elevator.” Recorded over a five-day period in March 2020, the album was executive produced by Stevie “Dr. View” Johnson, Ph.D. and manager of education & diversity outreach at the Woody Guthrie Center/Bob Dylan Center. The making of the album is set to be the focus of a documentary film due later this year.

“We wanted to show that this is the new way of community organizing,” says Johnson of the inspiration behind Fire in Little Africa. “It was an opportunity to blur the lines, take historical facts and oral traditions and put them in epistemological lyrics of hip-hop to talk about history, while encompassing how we heal from our trauma and reimagining what the next 100 years will look like for not only Tulsa, but Black and brown folks around the world. We are like the rose in the concrete: We’re still here. We called ourselves ‘Fire in Little Africa’ because the fire still burns, it still exists.”

Rapper Steph Simon, who appears on both 1921…The Black Wall Street Music Project (“Kerosene”) and Fire in Little Africa (“Shining” with Jerica Wortham and Dialtone) says he felt “chosen” to be a part of both tributes. “It gave me purpose,” he explains. “I always wondered, ‘Out of all the places in the world, why did God birth me in North Tulsa?’ But learning this history about where I come from — only to find out we actually had everything — makes me proud.”

Chanel is teaming with Pharrell Williams and his nonprofit Black Ambition on a two-part initiative focused on Black and Latinx entrepreneurs aimed at providing “access to knowledge, insights and opportunities from industry-leading experts.”

For part one, Chanel assembled the panel “Women Who Lead” that featured Tracee Ellis Ross, Medley co-founder Edith Cooper, Good American CEO and co-founder Emma Grede, Imaginary Ventures co-founder and partner Natalie Massenet. Moderated by Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief, the chat covered topics like resilience and determination, mentorship, building culture and community, and the importance of clarity of vision.

It was live-streamed on Friday exclusively for Black Ambition semifinalists and network members.

Part two is a series of interactive mentorship workshops available to the Black Ambition prize finalists, focused on addressing critical capacity needs by leveraging the expertise of Chanel’s leadership community, as well as the house’s network of experts. Workshops will help prospective entrepreneurs with the knowledge needed to launch and sustain a brand.

The partnership extends an already fruitful relationship between Chanel and the multi-hyphenate Williams, who has appeared in campaigns and at various events for Chanel over the years. When Williams launched Black Ambition last December, he did so by revealing two prize competitions — the Black Ambition HBCU Prize and the Black Ambition Prize — that will culminate in a national Demo Day event to be held in July. The prizes, per Black Ambition, are to “fund bold ideas and companies led by Black and Latinx entrepreneurs” with prize money totaling up to $1 million.

This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.

Ever since arriving as a 16-year-old pop auteur in 2013, Lorde has been prone to returning every four years and commanding our collective attention with a new album. Unlike, say, the presidential elections or the Olympic Games, she does so with relatively little buildup, disappearing from the public eye for multiple years at a time before suddenly being back in our lives, a fresh opus handy.

During an age of popular music in which being hyper-prolific is the new norm — artists releasing multiple albums in a calendar year, or doubling track lists with instant deluxe editions — Ella Yelich-O’Connor has made a habit of releasing a full-length of 10 or 11 songs, touring behind that album, and then… going away to live life, often in New Zealand and always off social media. The thrill of a new Lorde era is the unknown of what she’s experienced, who she’s become; in a letter to fans about her upcoming third album, Solar Power, Lorde aptly begins with, “There’s someone I want you to meet.”

The Lorde we’re acquainting ourselves with this time around has found peace in the natural world. After leading 2017’s Melodrama with “Green Light,” a purge of feelings that raced through tempos and accusations, Lorde’s new single “Solar Power” is a playful splash of salt water onto our faces in time for the summer. With Clairo and Phoebe Bridgers providing backing vocals and Jack Antonoff playing bass and electric guitar (along with co-producing and co-writing, as he did on the majority of Melodrama), Lorde has gathered her friends and shown them her newfound euphoria, first in an intimate acoustic format, then in a swaying sing-along when the drums kick in with a minute to spare.

Like all great pop songs, “Solar Power” is deceptively simple: after a few listens, you notice the saxophone and trumpet snuck into the mix, as well as the barely audible ad-lib “So sorry, I can’t make it,” after Lorde shrugs, “I tend to cancel all the plans.” For as attention-grabbing as a winking line like “I’m kind of like a prettier Jesus” may be, Lorde remains one of the best at filling the corners of her songs with personalized knickknacks.

In the four years since Melodrama, Lorde’s presence in the mainstream has loomed large: artists like Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo have become household names in her absence, all while drawing upon her dark-pop sound, use of harmony and songwriting detail as influences. With that in mind, hearing Lorde happily deliver lines like “Forget all of the tears that you’ve cried” and “Come on and let the bliss begin” on “Solar Power” is a bit jarring, especially after last hearing her at her most emotionally charged. But that’s part of Lorde’s magic — her affinity to re-emerge as something new and unfamiliar, while still dazzling with her unmistakable talent for song construction and unlikely hooks. “Solar Power” is a fresh chapter in a riveting book, and Lorde fans should be thrilled to meet this new author.