Tuesday, July 07, 2020 | One day, you will instantly recognize the names below. Perhaps you’ll even know them by a single name or set of initials, when they enter the LeBron-Kanye-AOC pantheon. At OZY, we pride ourselves on surfacing the rising stars you need to know before the rest of the world discovers them (including the aforementioned Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez). And today we’re bringing together the names of the moment for a tumultuous 2020. Start memorizing now. |
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| | 1. Hasina Kharbhih More than 72,000 women and children who have been victims of human trafficking across India, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Nepal now find themselves free thanks to Kharbhih, 49, and her innovative model for rescuing victims. What makes her stand out is an emphasis on compensation and reparations. Read more on OZY |
| 2. Bree Newsome Bass The world first met Bass, 35, when she was climbing the flagpole at the South Carolina State Capitol to snatch the Confederate battle flag waving there. She was arrested, but the flag came down days later. Now, as Confederate symbols crumble across the country, Bass has emerged as a leading activist — with housing rights and local political change forming the core of her work. |
| | 3. Stacy Johnson Johnson, 54, knew from her classroom experience how Black schoolchildren are disproportionately tracked into lower-level coursework and overdisciplined compared to their white peers. But it wasn’t until she investigated further while researching her 2019 dissertation that Johnson discovered the deeper pathologies of classroom control — how behaviors natural to Black students (e.g., call and response, interruption) are dismissed as rude, squeezing the “Africanness” out of them. And she reached a provocative conclusion that white educators have disproportionately become “accidental slave masters.” Read more on OZY |
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| | Keep it Cool There, Hottie Pandemic or not, summer is summer and that means HOT. Not to worry – we’ve got you covered on keeping it cool, calm and collected for seasonal sweaty-time. Get these summer must-haves at the OZY Store and say goodbye to sweaty summer days today. Shop Here On Ozy |
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| | | 1. Osh. Agabi The Nigeria-born neuroscientist is CEO and founder of Koniku, a biotech startup that uses nanotech to “smell” threats. Agabi has partnered with Airbus on detecting chemical and explosive threats — a partnership that recently expanded to sniffing out the coronavirus. |
| 2. Vikram Bakhru The founder of ConsejoSano is exploring the social determinants of health with Medicaid patients via a multilingual outreach program dedicated to improving health outcomes and lowering costs. A surgeon, Bakhru was director at New York Presbyterian Hospital/The University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell in New York City before launching his startup career. |
| 3. Nina Tandon The CEO of EpiBone grows bones in a lab using stem cells and 3D printing — a potentially breakthrough technology for how surgeries are performed and how we can recover from all manner of ailments. |
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| | | 1. Gloria Álvarez There’s something quixotic about Álvarez. With photographs of the aurora borealis and rock star portraits decorating the walls of her Mexico City apartment, the 35-year-old political provocateur looks as though she’s just returned from Burning Man. Tossing her dyed red hair and waving her ring-studded fingers, she confirms that, “yes, I’ve always been a bit like a gypsy.” Read more on OZY |
| 2. Laurel Lee Is she the next Katherine Harris? Florida’s secretary of state was a backup for Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose first pick for the post was caught wearing blackface in old photos, Lee, 46, is a former prosecutor and judge, and is married to a state senator. She’ll be managing state voter purges and the implementation of new law allowing ex-felons to vote if they pay off their court fees, which remains in limbo in federal courts. If this perpetual swing state is close, we could be hearing a lot about Lee on election night — and the days after. |
| 3. Mandela Barnes As polarized Wisconsin paddles through the coronavirus and the upcoming election, Barnes is the punchy sidekick to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. At 33, he is the youngest lieutenant governor in the country — by far — and the first African American to hold the post in Wisconsin. An outspoken Twitter presence, Barnes is primed for national stardom. |
| 4. Jennifer McClellan This Virginia state senator has bided her time with a steady rise in Richmond. Now the 47-year-old is hoping to become America’s first Black female governor, in 2021. It won’t be easy: She might have to fend off both former Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, among others, in a high-wattage Democratic primary. She’s got a track record for moving bills to expand abortion rights and ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. |
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| | | 1. Makur Maker We first told you about the history-making possibilities of this rangy NBA hopeful last year. But last week Maker, 19, made it official: He’s heading to Howard University, in what he hopes will start a movement of blue chippers heading to historically Black colleges and universities, at a time of increased racial awareness across the country. Read more on OZY |
| | 3. Savannah Bradley An accomplished hot air balloonist, the 20-year-old is gunning for a gaggle of world records — many of which are held by her father, Tony. But Savannah doesn’t see ballooning as a career: She is destined for the Air Force. Read more on OZY |
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| | | 1. Elizabeth Hinton In 2017, Hinton, a professor at Yale, published From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America, in which she examined the implementation of federal law enforcement programs beginning in the mid-1960s, formulating a system of mass incarceration of Black Americans. Hinton, 36, says her book inspired her to transfer her education from the campus to the community — to work directly with law enforcement, community groups and nonprofits. Read more on OZY |
| 2. Laurence Ralph The book’s release predated the George Floyd protests by several months, but Ralph’s The Torture Letters: Reckoning With Police Violence is harrowingly relevant to the moment as he documents the systematic abuses of one precinct of Chicago police officers against mostly Black males. Hardly a few bad apples, this was systemic over decades and went right to the top. Yes Ralph, a Princeton anthropology professor, has receipts. |
| 3. Alma Katsu Katsu spent more than three decades witnessing horror. It was part of her job at the NSA and CIA, planning clandestine missions. Now the 60-year-old has become a new-age horror novel queen, earning praise from none other than Stephen King for her historical takes. Her latest, The Deep, reimagines the sinking of the Titanic. Read more on OZY |
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| | 1. Michaela Coel Her daring I May Destroy You HBO-BBC series examines the 32-year-old’s own sexual assault, from a fictionalized perspective. The London showrunner has arrived as a force to be reckoned with, bearing an unapologetic voice for the times. |
| | 2. Holly Rankin With COVID-19 sidelining an estimated one-third of the world’s population, the typically overbooked Rankin has found herself unusually still — with both the sustainable music festivals she organizes and performances of her own (as Jack River) put on pause. Even as the pandemic has inspired many to pivot virtually, the 28-year-old Aussie is not diving in. Read more on OZY |
| 3. John Boyega Wearing a gray sweater, hoodie and leather gloves, the Star Wars star gazed out at the crowd that had assembled in Hyde Park. “Black lives have always mattered; we have always been important!” shouted Boyega, 28, tears rolling down his cheeks, in a viral moment that has sent him into the stratosphere of celebrity activists in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. And he’s carrying the flag in the U.K. Read more on OZY |
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