Denver Baller Will Barton Donates Game Room to Local School

Denver Nuggets baller Will Barton made it a feel good Friday for students at Johnston Square Elementary school.

By converting a spare room in the Baltimore school into a game room. And it’s officially ready for testing.

Will donated the games as a way to give back to his native B-more.

Telling CBS Denver:

(I thought) how could I help this school and help kids stay in school with good attendance and keep striving to get good grades?

By bribing little boys with video games, of course.

Not to be left out, the girls were given a dance/exercise room. Donated by owners of The Vino Vixens Social Club.

Barton’s rules are boys and girls earn points to use the room–based on classwork, attendance and (duh!) good behavior.

Will may be on to something.

Terrell Owens Makes Surprise Visit to LA Women’s Shelter

T.O. spread Mother’s Day love to those that need it the most.

The ex-Seahawk player turned reality star dropped by Alexandria House, an LA-based women and children’s shelter.

T.O. delivered much needed supplies to the shelter. And gave single moms a break by playing catch with the kids.

Let’s tip our hat to mama Owens for raising her son right.

Tracy Morgan Upgrades Hometown Playground

Spread love, it’s the Brooklyn way.

Tracey Morgan (being the faithful Brooklyn-nite he is) did just that last week by returning to the ‘hood to officially open the gates of shiny and new Marcy Park.

TBS and The Last OG comedian donated $215,000 to renovate the Bed-Stuy playground.

“Thanks to Tracy and TBS for making it possible for NYC Parks to refurbish Marcy Playground, a beloved Bedford-Stuyvesant park that was in need of some TLC,” Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said in a statement.

Including new basketball backboards with the TBS logo, of course. Fresh asphalt and a mural from artist Askew One.

It’s the first upgrade Marcy Park has gotten in a decade, according to NYC Parks department.

Yet it’s the back in the day times Tracy remembers most.

“I played on this court as a kid. I actually cut my finger on a glass bottle here and the blood I spilled on the court was for these kids. This is for Brooklyn. It makes me so happy.” Tracy said at the event.

Langston Hughes Legacy Revived Through Arts Collective

So, I’m killing two birds with one stone on this post, actually three because I love doing the most.

Giving much deserved props to my fave poet–Langston Hughes–during National Poetry Month (check).

And featuring an arts collective org launched by Coretta Scott King Award winner. Introducing our other #WCW…Renee Watson.

The New York Times Bestselling author of “Piecing Me Together” was so inspired by Langston Hughes’ work she created “I, Too, Arts Collective” org (a nod to the iconic poem) in the scribe’s own Harlem brownstone.

Yes Ma’am!! The same parlor Langston used his famous typewriter, is now being occupied by kids taking part in African drumming and adult poetry readings.

It’s among the many creative programs offered by the non-profit, whose goal is to foster creativity within Harlem and sustain Langston’s legacy.

“This was a person that didn’t just write about Harlem, but loved Harlem,” Watson told CBS News.

What better way to repay that love affair than preserving the last creative space Langston Hughes worked in.

Through crowd sourcing and using hashtag #LangstonLegacy to get support, Watson was able to lease the brownstone in 2016.

The new goal is getting the collective to buy the building, which should’ve been a museum, anyway.

“There’s stories about Langston sitting in the parlor room with friends, and just talking politics, and talking about art, and we do that here. And so I hope that, yeah, if he knew it was going on, I think he would be proud. I feel like he’s cheering us on,” Watson said.

I am too.

Beyonce Donates to Young, Gifted and Black at HBCU’s

My edges have officially grown back, so that Beyonce can snatch them right off again come Saturday for Beychella 2.0.

Not only has the Queen of showtime put on the blackest of black performances celebrating…um…Black culture that wasn’t featured on an Apollo stage, Beyonce is donating to the cause.

Our girl is shelling out $100 Gs worth of scholarships at HBCU’s through her BEYGOOD charity initiative.

Xavier, Wilberforce, Tuskegee and Bethune-Cookman (sorry Howard, we know you needed that W) will receive $25K each for Homecoming Scholars Award Program.

Four students from each school can apply. Just like with the merit scholarship she debuted after release of Lemonade, students concentration has to be art based.

Winners will be announced this summer.

May your odds be as favorable as Beyonce’s killing the stage on Saturday. #Blackexcellence

This is No Laughing Matter to Chris Tucker

So we’re all use to Chris Tucker making us laugh…okay, at least during his Friday and Rush Hour years.

Well, now our high-pitched voiced funnyman is getting deadly serious about saving Black men’s lives.

Chris Tucker is the new spokesperson for Prostate Cancer Foundation–an org dedicated to research and funding of prostate cancer–he’s joining the org to raise awareness for the huge differences between Black and White men facing prostrate cancer.

Three million men are diagnosed with the disease, but Black men are 74% more likely to get the illness in their 50s, and 2 times more likely to die, according to Look to the Stars.

“It was shocking for me to learn that African American men have the highest death rate and shortest survival of any racial and ethnic group in the U.S. most cancer and that prostate cancer is the number one diagnosed cancer among veterans.” says Chris in a statement.

Now we know.

To prevent this ugly disease from taking more of our Black men’s lives requires more research. Our men have to do their part too, like a change of lifestyle.

Good looking out, Chris.