Playing the Changes: How jazz music helped unite a South African university
Darius and Catherine Brubeck visit CU this week to discuss their work creating a jazz program in apartheid-era South Africa.
Instead of ending DEI, University of Illinois will add ‘open to all’ language to websites
Chancellor Robert Jones and Provost John Coleman announced by email on Thursday that the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign will not strike sensitive words or phrases from websites under pressure from the federal government.
Urbana’s Black-owned retreat cultivates healing spaces through nature
How can rest be a form of resistance? We sat down with Ujima Retreat Center in Urbana and discussed how they are reclaiming nature.
Dialogue dives into what’s happening around Illinois
And a look at the first known cookbook by a Black American woman.
Congressional committee asks University of Illinois for information on Chinese international students
The letter from the House committee asks for information on the U of I’s Chinese International student population — claiming that relying on foreign enrollment could pose a national security threat.
Potawatomi to reclaim tribal land in DeKalb County
More than 175 years after their reservation in Illinois was illegally sold at auction, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation is now in line to get their land back.
Local activists march in downtown Champaign after Israel breaks Gaza ceasefire
Nearly 200 people marched from West Side Park to downtown Champaign and back Tuesday evening after Israel resumed air strikes in Gaza, breaking a temporary ceasefire.
Jazz Composer, Terence Blanchard, talks elevating Black Culture via opera, Super Bowl 2025, and African Americans’ impact on society
In films, such as Spike Lee’s Malcolm X or Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King, music is used as an underlying tool to draw emotions from viewers. Tones of sound allow audiences to feel what Lee’s characters are experiencing on the big screen, whether it’s joy, tension or sorrow. The man working behind the scenes on those…
Midgets no more? Bill would require Freeburg High School to change its mascot
A bill introduced in the Illinois General Assembly would prohibit public schools from using discriminatory references to disabilities as mascots — requiring Freeburg High School to phase out Midgets by 2028. Little people with dwarfism consider the term to be dehumanizing and derogatory. “We don’t want to erase history,” said Shelby Holloway, co-director of Mascots Matter, a national…
War heroes and military firsts are among 26,000 images flagged for removal in Pentagon’s DEI purge
References to a World War II Medal of Honor recipient, the Enola Gay aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Japan and women and minorites are among the tens of thousands of photos and online posts marked for deletion as the Defense Department works to purge diversity, equity and inclusion content.
C-U community members protest for immigrant rights in downtown Champaign
Community members marched in downtown Champaign to protest the Trump administration’s efforts to target and deport those without legal status.
First public bus tour explores the Champaign County African American Heritage Trail
Illinois Public Media rides along for the first public bus tour for the Champaign County African American Heritage Trail.
Mother of Palestinian American boy slain in suburban Chicago hate crime testifies at trial
Prosecutors say a suburban Chicago landlord took a knife from a belt holder and attacked a Palestinian American woman before fatally stabbing her young son 26 times in 2023. The landlord, Joseph Czuba, is accused of fatally stabbing 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi and wounding his mother Hanan Shaheen on Oct. 14, 2023.
Lawsuit threatens Illinois minority teachers scholarship
Conservative group seeks to overturn race-based financial aid.
Central High School in Champaign will be led by a Black principal for the first time
Gardner is currently the associate principal at Central. She has a PhD in literacy from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.