Names and faces
Grammy Award-winning artist
Chance the Rapper will deliver this year’s commencement address to graduates of Dillard University in New Orleans on May 12. Dillard President Walter
M. Kimbrough said Chance the Rapper, whose real name is Chancelor Bennett, is part of a new wave of artists who can openly talk about faith while being in hip hop, balancing the secular and the sacred. In 2017, the 24-year-old’s independent project Coloring Book became the first streaming-only album to be nominated and win a Grammy. Bennett has used his growing popularity to give back to his hometown of Chicago. The rapper has hosted the high school “OpenMike” series at Chicago’s public libraries, which gives teens an opportunity to perform; raised over $100,000 to provide sleeping bags and coats for the city’s homeless; and raised over $4 million for the Chicago Public School System. Bennett is also the founder and president of SocialWorks, a nonprofit created to empower youths through the arts, education and civic engagement.
On his HBO show over the weekend, Bill Maher defended conservative political commentator Laura Ingraham’s free-speech rights. Ingraham, a Fox News host, is in the midst of an advertiser revolt after she taunted Parkland, Fla., shooting survivor and gun-control advocate David Hogg about his college rejections. The 17-year-old retaliated by encouraging his hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers to pressure companies to stop advertising on The Ingraham Angle. “I think those kids did a great thing,” Maher said on his show, Real Time With Bill Maher. “They put this [guns] issue in a place we’ve never had it before. And I wish them success. But if you are going to be out there in the arena and make yourselves the champions of this cause, people are going to have the right to argue back.” Maher said he didn’t agree with Ingraham’s stance on guns or many other issues but that it’s her First Amendment right to say what she wants. Nearly 20 advertisers, including Johnson & Johnson, Nestle, Hulu, Jenny Craig, Ruby Tuesday and Miracle-Ear, have distanced themselves from Ingraham’s show since she taunted Hogg. She has since apologized for it.