News — amazon

27-year-old multi-hyphenate entertainer Keke Palmer is taking her viral Instagram comedy sketches to Amazon. Palmer has teamed up with Amazon Original Stories, an imprint of Amazon Publishing, to publish new short story series based on her original Instagram characters and sketch comedy videos.

A press release said readers and listeners will be able to download the collection as a Kindle eBook or as an Audible audiobook, performed by Palmer herself.

The idea for her comedy sketches was born nearly five years ago on Instagram. Her short binge-able sketches have amassed over 100 million views, with the headlining character, Lady Miss Jacqueline, gaining over 60 million views. 

“What started as an Instagram sketch, led me to one of my most beloved characters, Lady Miss Jacqueline. She’s always been larger than life—and a huge symbol of the moment when I realized I wanted to create worlds for my audience to get lost in. In effect, she was the beginning of my production journey. The opportunity to share what makes her not only funny but important, is exciting!” said Palmer. 

Palmer told Variety that Amazon shares in her plans for her sketches, and now she can co-produce her works with the giant media platform. The collection of comedy sketches will be published by Amazon Original Stories in fall 2021.

“The team at Amazon Original Stories and I have a shared vision and what they have already been able to accomplish pushes me to bring my best and then some. I can’t wait to together share a new side of Lady Miss, her truth, and comedy with the world!” said Palmer. 

So far, she has tackled issues about class, race, femininity, and culture in her short stories and is thrilled to embark on this new phase with Amazon, exploring more themes that are more relatable to people growing up in this millennium. 

“I think there are a lot of important themes that are going to be very relatable to the growing person in this millennium, and so I’m excited to see how they feel it’s expressed.”

Amazon Original Stories publisher Julia Sommerfeld said, “We are thrilled to team up with Keke to help expand her unique vision and an unforgettable cast of characters into a broader literary universe. 

“We like to think of Amazon Original Stories as serving as a playground for an innovator like Keke, to bring her ground-breaking characters to life in new ways and to push the boundaries of storytelling.”

Palmer’s short stories, featuring illustrations throughout, will take readers and listeners into the “hilarious and fully realized world of her beloved characters, expanding on their backstories and building a plot that answers the most asked questions from her fans,” according to the release.

Readers and listeners are not going to get a new story each time but will get a different point of view each time from the same story, Palmer said.

Nashlie Sephus is on a mission to build a tech hub in downtown Jackson, Mississippi, to train the next generation in technology. Downtown Jackson is not known for its technology prowess but Sephus wants to put the community on the map of technology hubs in America.

She is building a $25-million Jackson Tech District out of 12 abandoned acres of vacant lots and ramshackle buildings in downtown Jackson. “My goal is to turn this space into a self-sustaining village where people can live, work, play, and eat,” Sephus tells Inc.

The plan includes developing seven of the abandoned buildings within five years and the redevelopment will include a maker’s space, an electronics lab, a photography studio, apartments, restaurants, a grocery store as well as an innovation center. 

The techpreneur works at Amazon as an applied science manager for its artificial intelligence initiative. Before joining Amazon, she was the chief technology officer of the startup firm Partpic, a visual recognition technology.

Partpic was sold to Amazon in 2016 and in 2018, Sephus launched her own company called Bean Path. The firm is an incubator and technology consulting nonprofit, Sephus says, and claims to have helped over 400 locals businesses and individuals with their technology needs.

She founded Bean Path after she watched members of her team get laid off during an internship at Delphi Technologies in Indiana. That was when she decided to be her own boss.

The idea to build a tech hub occurred to Sephus in 2018 when she was looking for an office space for Bean Path. According to Inc., her search for an office space focused on the downtown Jackson area, a once booming business community for Black businesses. 

“It’s clear that people don’t expect anything good to come from Jackson,” she says. “So it’s up to us to build something for our hometown, something for the people coming behind us.”

She adds: “It had never occurred to me, even though I had sold a company to Amazon and was working with some of the top people at Amazon and having led a whole startup, started our own nonprofit. It just never occurred to me that I, a young Black female, could buy a building in downtown Jackson, Mississippi.”

Her vision to build a tech hub in downtown Jackson has resonated with some investors and city officials, including her superiors at Amazon. One of such investors is Toni Cooley, whom Sephus once provided tech help.

Contrary to her fears, Amazon has also offered a helping hand through its Amazon Future Engineer program, which provides scholarships and instruction for teachers interested in improving their tech skills.

Raising money to finance her project has been one of Sephus’ challenges. In fact, less than 10% of Black businesses get access to venture funding. She has sunk $500,000 of her savings into the project, in addition to funds she raised from friends and families amounting to some $150,000. 

She intends to raise additional cash through crowdfunding, grants and private sources. The tech hub project will generate funds through rentals and membership fees, she says.

Sephus obtained her first degree in computer engineering at Mississippi State University. She subsequently earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in computer engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

Yassin Hall is an entrepreneur who sells mainly on Amazon where she manages four successful six-figure stores. Her journey began after she took to selling clothes online following a difficult divorce.

She started Let’s Journey into Fashion after many of her social media followers showed keen interest in her business. Her website subsequently caught the attention of Amazon and she was offered the opportunity to open an e-commerce store on the platform.

One of her four Amazon stores belongs to her daughter Yamisha Young. Having become a successful seller on Amazon, she decided it was time to also share her expertise with others as the C.E.O of B.O.S.S. Amazon and Ebay Classes in a bid to help them increase their earnings or bring in extra income.

She teaches How to Set Up an eBay Store From Your Classroom to Earn Six Figures a Year; How to Sell on Amazon; Creating the Mindset for Being an Entrepreneur; and Understanding How to Manage Money.

As a mental health advocate, Hall also teaches students with learning disabilities how to be financially savvy, including her autistic daughter, who made some $155,000 when she turned 18.

“The lessons being applied in the curriculum are what I have created in my B.O.S.S. eBay and Amazon classes,” said Yassin. “Children are proving they are far more technologically advanced than we were at their age so it was no surprise that when I offered the class on August 31, within minutes about 60 students enrolled.”

Hall has made over $1 million selling online and believes that the coronavirus pandemic has taught many the need to create alternative incomes and home-based businesses. She is teaching middle and high schoolers at Genesis Preparatory Academy near Atlanta how to profit from Amazon and eBay.

“We are delighted to have found the BOSS CLASS LLC’s eBay course that aligns with our curriculum expectations that will bring awareness and exposure into entrepreneurship, problem-solving, and critical thinking,” said Iris Blevins of Genesis Preparatory Academy.

This may be Hall’s first time teaching at a school in Georgia but her bestselling book in which she chronicles her experience living with a violent bipolar schizophrenic mother has been on the curriculums of several schools as reading material.

Hall is a mother of four — three boys and one girl. She was born in the Virgin Islands as an only child. She completed Charlotte Amalie High School in 1988 and obtained her first degree in computers and fashion from the National Education Center for the Arts.

Her life journey has not been smooth but Hall has managed to weather the storm to be where she is now. God is always the center of what she does, she said.

“I firmly believe that God has been building and preparing me to be the mother, entrepreneur, business coach, teacher, speaker, writer and B.O.S.S. (Built on Self-Motivated Success) that I am today,” she told.

Besides being an entrepreneur, Hall is also known for her philanthropic activities. She made donations to hurricane victims and also supplied students in the U.S. Virgin Islands with laptops to help them attend online school amidst the pandemic.

A Black female Amazon Web Services senior manager on Monday filed a lawsuit against the trillion-dollar company and two of its executives on allegations of race and gender discrimination. Besides an additional allegation of the company flouting the Equality Pay Act, the plaintiff, in the lawsuit, also claims she was sexually harassed and assaulted by a former Amazon executive, Recode reported.

Prior to joining Amazon in 2017, the plaintiff, Charlotte Newman, previously worked for Sen. Cory Booker as his economic policy adviser. In an interview with Recode, the Harvard Business School graduate revealed the discrimination started when she was first offered a much lower role within the organizational ranks despite applying for a higher opening that she said befitted her qualifications.

After joining the company, Newman said the discrimination persisted as she was unable to rise up the organizational ranks for over a year despite performing some tasks that were above her level and also demanding a promotion from her manager. She also alleged some of her White colleagues who were on the same level as she was were promoted ahead of her despite having less working experience and not having graduate degrees. The lawsuit alleges that the period of stagnation cost her millions.

Though she was eventually promoted to a senior level in 2019, Newman claimed her first boss spoke to her in a language she believed was racially stereotypical when he addressed her about her mode of communication – using descriptions like it was “too direct”, “just scary”, and saying she “can intimidate people.”

Aside from that, Newman alleged a senior colleague by the name Andres Maz sexually harassed her on numerous occasions, claiming he went as far as seemingly proposing they have sex. Newman also recalled other separate incidents where Maz groped her by her thigh and yanked her by her hair when she was leaving a company hangout. She also said she was initially reluctant to report Maz’s alleged unprofessional advances as he was responsible for providing updates on her performance to another manager, thus making her fear there was going to be some form of retaliation from her superiors if she did so.

“There’s been deep emotional pain,” she told Recode. “All of the hard work, all of the sacrifices I made, my education — none of that saved me from someone who’s a predator and living in fear of what else he might do.”

Newman said she ultimately decided to file an official complaint against Maz and also open up on the discrimination she faced as an employee of the organization after she was spurred by the protests that happened in the country following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. She said she filed the complaint in June last year, adding that she was also working from home during that period. Though Maz was eventually fired after investigations, she said she had to endure participating in virtual meetings involving him for several months while company authorities were looking into her complaints.

“At the very least, Amazon could have better safeguards in place to protect employees,” she told Recode. “A company of Amazon’s size should have clear guidelines about what happens if you report, hear what your rights are … [and] ensure that once you report you don’t have to be contacted by the person who harassed you.”

Fearing retaliation from her managers, Newman said she moved to a different department last year. Newman’s lawsuit comes after an expose from the news outlet that revealed bias and discriminatory complaints from Black Amazon employees.

“I strongly believe that Amazon should be harnessing the light of diverse leadership rather than dimming the light of Black employees and other employees of color,” she said. “For years I had been sort of suffering in silence, [but] I’m sure there are a lot of people who now feel more empowered to add their voices to the story, and hopefully there’s some real change that occurs.”

Newman said she has told representatives from the company she would only remain with the establishment for a longer period if they introduce policies that would revamp their hiring and diversity programs. She also wants a company hiring practice known as “down-leveling” to be either scrapped or reviewed.

“Amazon works hard to foster a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture, and these allegations do not reflect those efforts or our values,” the company said in response to the lawsuit. “We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind and thoroughly investigate all claims and take appropriate action. We are currently investigating the new allegations included in this lawsuit.”

Over the past few months, the third wealthiest woman in the world, MacKenzie Scott, has donated a staggering $4.2 billion of her fortune to various entities across the country including some HBCUs.

In a recent post on her Medium titled “384 Ways to Help”, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos touched on how a food donation drive of a then 19-year-old lady in Chicago during the COVID-19 pandemic, inspired her to also launch her own.

“In March, a 19-year-old girl in Chicago sent a group text to her friends suggesting they buy supplies for people in their neighborhood who had lost their jobs,” she wrote. “She posted two Google forms — one for people who needed help and another for people with help to give — and by two days later they’d raised $7,000. ‘We’re really excited,’ she said.”

The lady in question was Alycia Kamil. Speaking to media, activist, poet and educator, said she was surprised when she heard the billionaire mentioned her program in her post.

“I was like, oh, that’s me. I had no clue that she even donated that amount of money, or that she saw an article from somewhere about the work that I did that inspired her. It was pretty cool,” Kamil said.

Kamil told the news outlet she wanted to extend a helping hand to residents who lived in areas that lacked affordable and healthy food options and were in need of groceries around the period COVID-19 hit the city. Together with her friends and volunteers, they were able to raise $7,000 and arranged for groceries worth $200 to $300 to be delivered to 30 families.

“I wanted to do a more hands-on thing to be considerate of the people who, even if they get the money, they have to take the bus and then bring all these groceries on the bus,” she said. “It’s about the importance of understanding communal living. We should all be able to resource and depend on each other.”

The food initiative wasn’t Kamil’s first, as she had also previously assisted with hosting a number of “Feed the Block” events where they gave hot meals to residents through GoodKids MadCity. The youth-led non-profit organization fights to end violence in Chicago and lobbies for more resources to be made available to underserved communities, according to reports.

The 20-year-old said she’s following that up with a similar project – “Resource the Block” – to hand out PPE, water, packaged food and other supplies to needy families. She said she’ll also roll out her grocery initiative again during the winter season.

Amazon says it plans to increase the number of black leaders in the company, according to FOX Business. The company said the effort includes working to double the representation of Black Vice Presidents and Directors in 2020 and again in 2021.

In addition, the move will also see the e-commerce giant making “increased investments and programming designed to grow Black leaders from within.” Through the Black Employee Network Executive Leadership Development Program, Amazon plans to build Black leaders at the vice president and director-level roles.

 “At Amazon, we’re constantly learning and innovating – and our long-term efforts in diversity and inclusion are no different. As part of this work, we are setting aggressive goals in our ongoing effort to be a top employer for Black employees,” an Amazon spokesperson told FOX Business.

Black employees make up around 26.5% of Amazon’s workforce as of 2019. Also, 80 percent of Amazon’s top leadership worldwide was either held by white or Asian people, while Black people accounted for just 8.3% of those positions.

According to Amazon, it intends to increase the company’s black leadership through robust programs such as its $700 million commitment to “upskilling” — the process of teaching employees new skills that will aid them in their work.

“There will also be smaller pilots such as the Black Employee Network Executive Leadership Development Program, which includes targeted and specialized training to build Black leaders at the Director and above level,” According to Fox Business.

Amazon recently donated $10 million to organizations focused on combating systemic racism and improving the lives of blacks. It also launched an employee $17 million to the 12 organizations and their local affiliates, which the Black Employee Network (BEN) helped select.

This is in addition to Amazon’s initial donation of $10M in early June. In all, these organizations have now received more than $27M from the Amazon community.

Amazon recently appointed its first Black executive to join the firm’s senior leadership team popularly called “S-Team”. Alicia Boler Davis was appointed as the e-commerce’s Senior Vice President of Global Customer Fulfillment.

The prestigious S-Team meets regularly with Bezos to take strategic and critical business decisions. With the addition of Boler Davis along with John Felton and Dave Treadwell, the expanded leadership will now have 26 executives.

In her new role, Boler Davis will be responsible for the worldwide network of over 175 Amazon fulfilment centres across 16 countries. Also, she will lead the worldwide network of Customer Service operations and technology, as well as the Sustainability, Product Safety, Security and Product Compliance teams.