Los Angeles Sentinel

FILE – Los Angeles Sparks forward Nneka Ogwumike dribbles the ball during the second half of the team’s WNBA basketball game against the Dallas Wings in Arlington, Texas, June 14, 2023. The WNBA will use league-wide charter flights for the first time this season, the league announced Thursday, May 9, 2024. Ogwumike said the move is a big step forward.

Lakers forward Ziaire Williams (Amanda Scurlock/L.A. Sentinel) Signing with the Los Angeles Lakers brought forward Ziaire Williams back together with his high school teammate Bronny James. Williams said that James is his “brother.” “He’s the coolest, man. Super down-to-earth,” Williams said. “Definitely happy to be back with him.” During the 2019-2020 season, Williams was a senior on the Sierra Canyon boys’ basketball team while James was a freshman.

Justin Auston used the aggression he had in basketball for football. (Amanda Scurlock/Los Angeles Sentinel) Justin Auston was a multi-sport athlete during his time at Bishop Montgomery High School. While he competed in basketball and track and field, Auston believed he could play football on the college level. “I’ve always loved football because I feel like in basketball, I was a physical player,” Auston said.

Television production executive and Braintree Productions founder Wileen Charles attends the Daytime Emmy Awards. (Courtesy Photo) For nearly three decades, Wileen Charles built a career helping other people turn ideas into television. She learned how to manage the budgets, schedules, crews and inevitable problems that stand between a good story and a finished production. She also learned how to navigate rooms where she was often the only Black woman.

Tony Wafford (File Photo) I was watching baseball over the weekend and flipped to a game between the Red Sox and the Guardians. I remember when they were the Cleveland Indians. Then Washington went from the Redskins to the Commanders. These changes were made out of respect for Native people and the way their names and images were being used. And of course, some folks got mad. They said the changes were unnecessary. They called it “woke.” Why is respecting other cultures considered being woke?

Jordan Adero with her great-grandfather’s stool. (Andrew Diego & Saon Kashem) For Jordan Adero, design is more than a career. It is a connection to family, community and a Los Angeles legacy that began with her great-grandfather, famed architect Paul R. Williams. The South L.A. native is building her own identity as an interior designer while finding new ways to carry Williams’ influence forward.

Dr. Maulana Karenga (File photo) This is a sankofa retrieval in rightful and reverent homage to one of the tallest trees in the forest of our foreparent freedom fighters, Nana Fannie Lou Hamer. And it is also offered as a site and source for meditation on struggle in this historical moment of our rightful and relentless resistance and in our constant quest for anchor, uplift and direction in imagining and achieving a new future of shared and inclusive good.

Dr. Ryan J. Smith, president and CEO of St. Joseph’s Center. (Courtesy photo) Being an entrepreneur is not only a challenge, but it requires a lot of commitment and connections to get ahead in your field. Yet, many times connections are hard to come by. That’s where one group is stepping in for the second year in a row to help Black male entrepreneurs in Los Angeles connect with one another.

More than 1,500 entrepreneurs, minority business owners and local leaders gather at the Los Angeles Convention Center to hear Mayor Karen Bass and Earvin “Magic” Johnson discuss how Angeleno-owned companies can prepare for contracting opportunities.

From left, Mr. Brown, Solomon Dumas, Shayla Caldwell and Annique Roberts in “Upside Down,” at the Joyce. (Ruby Washington) Ronald K. Brown, dancer, choreographer and founder of the genre-defying EVIDENCE Dance Company, will perform at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in three evening shows from Oct. 8–10, 2026, marking the company’s return to Los Angeles for the first time since 2022. Ronald K.