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One thing is for sure, two things are for certain: Spotifys Jemele Hill Is Unbothered isnt always what we expect, but its always a treat.

On the latest episode, the award-winning journalist chops it up with Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza, who dishes on her new book, The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart; her decision to distance herself from BLM and start her own organization, Black Futures Lab; and the tricky relationship between celebrity and activism.

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In addressing her decision to leave BLM, Garza noted that the sheer magnitude of the movement restricted her ability to exist freely while associated with it.

I didnt want to be the Black Lives Matter lady for the rest of my life, she says. To be honest, I have a lot of other talents. I have a lot of other skills. I have a lot more to offer and, you know, Im not Black Lives Matter. That is something that I helped to create, but I am like the smallest piece of it. And I just kept feeling like the longer Im here, the more it becomes about me and Patrisse and Opal and less about what it is that were trying to do out in the world.

Aside from her work with BLM, the 2020 The Root 100 honoree directs Special Projects for the National Domestic Workers Alliance and remains committed to empowering the Black community through the Black Futures Lab, which works with Black people to transform our communities, building Black political power and changing the way that power operates.

Garza also touched on the complications of doing this type of work while also juggling the increased popularity that often comes with it.

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Theres something that happens when a movement starts to become a brand, too. And I think this summer was the worst part of it, to be honest, she says. I couldnt turn on the television without seeing Black Lives Matter. Whether it was Netflix, Comcast, Real Housewives of Atlanta; it was just a lot, right? So I get it. And I also dont know how movements become effective if theyre not well-resourced. So thats the question for me.

She continued, I think theres also a dynamic here where so many families throughout this countrywho have had a loved one stolen from them through no fault of their own[...] are still dealing with the loss of a loved one. [Theyre] still fighting, and waiting, and pushing for justice. I can understand their frustration, too. Like, Why is my childs story not the thing that everyone is talking about? Why is it Black Lives Matter?

With Garza being acutely aware of how that delicate balance works, her insight and opinions on these matters hold tremendous weight. Hit up Spotify to check out the rest of this episode of Jemele Hill Is Unbothered, where Garza also shares her thoughts on respectability politics and if shed be open to one day running for public office.

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Alicia Garza Discusses Leaving Black Lives Matter, the Complications of Balancing Activism and Branding on Jemele Hill Is Unbothered - Yahoo Lifestyle

Brian Amadi, Precious Familusi and Raven Khadeja are the founders of Black Lives Matter N.L. (CBC )

After the murderofGeorge Floyd, Precious Familusi, Brian Amadi and Raven Khadeja started talking back and forth in Facebook messages.

"It was a time where we saw a lot of people rallying and we decided this was a time to talk about racism here in Newfoundland," said Precious Familusi."People in Newfoundland are really friendly but this doesn't mean that racism doesn't exist."

Those initial Facebook messages became the start of Black Lives Matter N.L., which Familusi, Khadejaand Amadico-founded in June 2020.

Amadi is quick to point out that the organization is more than just an activist group against racism.

"Black Lives Matterdoesn't just mean stopping racism because stopping racism doesn't do much for Black lives that are already suffering from the effects of racism," Amadi said.

For our latest segment of Being Black in N.L., host Ife Alabaspeaks withAmadi, Familusiand Khadejaabout their organization, the importance of having open and honest conversations about racism,and the need for anti-racism education.

WATCH | See Ife Alaba's interview with Black Lives Matter N.L.:

You may already be familiar with Ife Alaba she's one of the charismatichosts ofCBC Newfoundland and Labrador's series Stuffed.

Alaba is host and producer of our Being Black in N.L. segment where she chats with members of theBlack community about their lives,businesses and passions.

Watch out for more Being Black in N.L. right here, on our social media channels and on Here & Now.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of.You can read more stories here.

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An open conversation about racism: Meet the founders of Black Lives Matters N.L. - CBC.ca

Cloe Poisson :: CTMirror.org

A protestor holds a Black Lives Matter sign at the start of a protest march at Keney Park to protest the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

My life and every other black life matters.

This is every black persons motto in the United States of America. In the past few months, weve seen an increase in deaths among the Black community. Besides COVID-19 disproportionately affecting this community, resulting in many deaths, so has police brutality. Racism is a public health crisis.

The recent killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and now Daunte Wright of Minnesota help reveal the sad truth about how devalued lives of people of color are in the United States. People worldwide are now finally having open discussions about what racism looks like and how it is disproportionately affecting their communities in their day-to-day lives. We are starting to finally hold officers accountable for their actions and speak out against these reoccurring injustices.

Every day, it seems as if another killing or shooting results in the death of another black man. On Sunday, April 11, 2021, 20-year-old Duante Wright was shot and killed after the traffic stop in Minnesota, miles away from where George Floyd was murdered. The shooting was just recently ruled as a homicide, but is claimed to be accidental. Many Black Americans, including me, want to see the officer responsible for this young Black mans death held accountable.

It is no secret that people continue to suffer daily from the trauma we see, such as the deaths of our brothers and sisters at the hands of the police, the people who take a vow to protect us. Black people are not viewed as humans in this society. This is the reality: Black men are afraid of the police. We are scared that if we get pulled over, our lives will be put at stake, and we can be brutally murdered at any given time, regardless of the environment.

To continuously mourn the loss of a Black life every day is draining. We were put on this earth to be conscientious members of society, not to be eternally oppressed.

Today, and every day: Black Americans such as I will continue to say that our lives matter.

Eugene Bertrand is a student at Eastern Connecticut State University.

CTViewpoints welcomes rebuttal or opposing views to this and all its commentaries. Read our guidelines andsubmit your commentary here.

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Opinion My life and every other Black life matters - The CT Mirror

We're excited to announce the winners of the Chess.com Immortal Game Contest. With more than 2,500 fantastic games submitted, we added 130 to Chess.com's official Immortal Games Collection in our Library. You can enjoy those games by clicking the button below:

Over 50 games made it to the final voting stage of the contest. The community and the Chess.com expert panel chose their favorites and voted to immortalize the best game in each category: Chess.com Immortal Game, Immortal Queen Sacrifice, Immortal Swindle, Immortal Bullet Game, and Immortal Daily Game.

The first spot goes to the blitz masterpiece by Brazilian grandmaster Luis Paulo Supi against none other than the world champion Magnus Carlsen. After sacrificing a knight to open up the a-file to attack Carlsen's king, Supi found the "dirty" and "really awesome" (according to Carlsen himself) 18.Qc6!! to force checkmate. With this game, Supi won the $1,000 prize and carved his name into Chess.com history.

Immortal Game Podium:

We love queen sacrifices, and so does GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. With an astounding queen sac in one of his blitz games against GM Fidel Corrales Jimenez, Mamedyarov snagged first place for Immortal Queen Sacrifice. After playing the surprising 11.Qxd5!! in the opening, the Azerbaijani super grandmaster opened up the enemy king to win the game and the $250 prize.

Immortal Queen Sacrifice Podium:

GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave rose from the ashes to win blitz a game against IM Mohammad Shaikh after blundering a bishop. Vachier-Lagrave sacrificed a bishop and the queen to checkmate in the middle of the board and produce the Immortal Swindle. MVL will receive the $250 prize for his cunning play.

Immortal Swindle Podium:

The Immortal Bullet award and $250 prize goes to bullet extraordinaire GM Alireza Firouzja for his game against GM Daniel Naroditsky. After exchanging a queen for two minors and a rook, the 2021 Bullet Chess champion fended off Naroditsky's attack and successfully checkmated White.

Immortal Bullet Podium:

The Immortal Daily Game goes to user @Phrscoll for his eye-catching sacrifices against @sebastian_plebington. Phrscoll offered his queen twice to play the forcing combination that culminated in a beautiful checkmate. With this game, Phrscoll takes home the $250 prize.

Immortal Daily Game Podium:

Prizes are not only for the people who played the gamesthe following Chess.com members will win a one-year membership for being the first to submit the award-winning games:

Even though the contest is over, we know that our users will continue to play amazing games. If you know of any game that deserve a spot in our official Immortal Games Collection, submit it to us through this form. We'll keep updating the collection with jaw-dropping games for your enjoyment!

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Announcing The Chess.com Immortal Game - Chess.com

Ian Nepomniachtchi is in sight of the result of his life, as the 30-year-old Russian champion leads the Candidates in Ekaterinburg, half a point ahead of his nearest rival and with a superior tie-break, with just three of the 14 rounds still to go. The jackpot for the winner is a 14-game, 2m (1.7m) challenge match for Magnus Carlsens world crown at Dubai in November.

After 11 of the 14 rounds, Nepomniachtchi leads with 7/11, followed by Anish Giri (Netherlands) 6.5, and Fabiano Caruana (US) 6. The other players look out of it: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) and Alexander Grischuk (Russia) 5.5, Wang Hao (China) 5, Kirill Alekseenko (Russia) 4.5 and Ding Liren (China) 4.

The leader still has the favourable white pieces to come against the out of form Vachier-Lagrave, but the sting could be the final round, traditionally a nervous occasion for front-running candidates, when the Russian has Black against Ding, who has just lost his longstanding spot as world No 3 and in successive days dropped to fifth behind Nepomniachtchi and Giri.

Chinas No 1 was considered a likely challenger to Carlsen before the pandemic, and will want to end a disastrous event for him on a positive note.

Nepomniachtchi, a distinctive character at the board with his man-bun, has a unique training routine for an elite grandmaster, often playing the 5v5 team video game Dota 2. He is the only top GM with a classical plus score against Carlsen, dating back to junior championships 20 years ago, and defeated the champion online this year in the Magnus Carlsen Invitational.

Carlsen provided some insight into his potential challenger this week during his perceptive and articulate Candidates commentaries, assessing him as a quick and imaginative tactician, whose weakness is high day-to-day form variance. Until recently, this gap between his ceiling and floor performances stopped Nepomniachtchi achieving the very top levels.

Three games at Ekaterinburg stood out as significant. Caruana waited for many months to spring a mega-novelty against Vachier-Lagrave in the Poisoned Pawn Sicilian early on the US world No 2 was a bishop and three pawns down but still moving instantaneously, while at the end Black lost only because his knight was not on the right square (g7) to make his endgame fortress viable for a draw.

This result deposed Vachier-Lagrave from the tournament lead and led to criticism of his narrow black repertoire, Grunfeld against 1 d4 and Najdorf against 1 e4. Former world champion Vlad Kramnik even blamed the Frenchman for not working hard enough during lockdown. Yet Vachier-Lagrave lost again in round 11 and dropped out of contention.

Nepomniachtchis easy 10th round win against his compatriot Alekseenko has led to an outbreak of conspiracy theory, harking back to Paul Keres and Mikhail Botvinnik in 1948 and to Bobby Fischers accusations in 1962. Both those had some factual basis and precedents, whereas in the Candidates games of the 21st century Russian players have several times defeated their well-placed compatriots. Alekseenko is weaker with Black, was unfamiliar with Whites surprise opening, and got trapped by an unusual move order into a standard poor position.

Conspiracy theories, though, are popular and can persist for a long time. Everyone who was an adult in 1963 remembers the grassy knoll at Dallas, so even if Nepomniachtchi wins the Candidates and beats Carlsen convincingly for the world crown, this game will continue to be quoted against him for years to come.

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The third significant game was in yesterdays Fridays round 11 when Giri defeated Ding in impressive style to advance within half a point of Nepomniachtchi, although the Russian has the better tie-break (direct encounter) dating right back to March 2020 when he defeated Giri in the very first round before the Candidates was halted for a year by the pandemic.

For many chess fans Giri is a figure of fun, best known for his Twitter banter with Carlsen, his excessive draws, and for his few wins in super-tournaments.

In 2021, the 26-year-old whose father is Nepalese, his mother Russian, was born in St Petersburg and learnt his early chess skills in Japan has shown his real strength. His unlucky second place over the board at Tata Wijk behind his Dutch compatriot Jorden van Foreest was followed by an online victory in the Carlsen Invitational, where he defeated Nepomniachtchi in the final.

His new world ranking is his best yet, and for Dutch fans there are potential echoes of 86 years ago when Max Euwe jumped from 3-6 down against Alexander Alekhine to win the world title.

Online, the New in Chess Classic, the fifth event in the Meltwater Champions Tour, starts thison Saturday evening (6pm BST) on Chess24.com with a playing schedule designed to start after the Candidates finishes for that day. Carlsen, still seeking his first tournament win of the Tour, will face a field led by his US rivals Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura. It also includes the Indian prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, 15, and Englands Gawain Jones, who this week won over-the-board at the Bob Wade Memorial in New Zealand, held to celebrate the birth centenary of the legendary player and teacher.

3720 1Qe2! and White resigned. If 2 Rxe2 Rf1 mate or 2 Rxf4 Qg2 mate or 2 Qd2 Qf1+! 3 Rxf1 Rxf1 mate. 1...Qg5+ 2 Kh1 Rf5! also wins quickly.

Link:
Nepomniachtchi nears Candidates title and tilt at Carlsens world chess crown - The Guardian