Latest news with #Joya
Miami Herald
3 days ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Herb Coleman, Miami entrepreneur who served food and his community, dies at 62
Kendall entrepreneur Herbert 'Herb' Coleman thrived in the food industry for more than 30 years because of his penchant for finding solutions and connecting with people on a personal level. He had various ventures in the business, from running Nathan's Famous franchises to serving food in a mobile kitchen at the Olympics, before his death last month at age 62. 'He had the type of personality where people would come to him and tell him their whole life story,' Herb's widow, Joya, told the Miami Herald. 'That's the type of spirit that he had about him.' Joya Coleman, 61, was married to Herb for more than 30 years and worked closely with him as he developed his food empire. Joya first met Herb when he worked at her parents' North Carolina record store in the '80s. She befriended him and worked alongside him when she came home for breaks from her studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After she graduated in 1986, they started dating. Herb was born in Miami and returned many times to visit family throughout his childhood after moving to North Carolina in elementary school. But as he prepared to enter the workforce as an adult, he felt limited in terms of pursuing a future career in North Carolina and moved back to Miami. In Miami, Herb got a job in marketing and promotions at Luther Campbell's Luke Records. Coleman had a talent for working in the community and eventually developed a relationship with marketing reps at Walmart that would provide him with franchising opportunities later in his career. The Colemans married in 1992 and first began working together as food vendors for Miami-Dade Public Schools. Joya remembers her late husband's brazen attitude in making that partnership happen: Herb had walked into the school district's headquarters and asked to speak to the top person in charge. Joya said she was initially taken aback but appreciated the act when they secured their opportunity. 'He always had that type of confidence about him,' she said. 'It worked, but it used to make me nervous.' During the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Herb worked as a chef catering the equestrian events, and the infrastructure of his kitchen there captivated him. The kitchens were built on 18-wheelers, and Herb began to wonder what it would be like to run his own food trucks. 'He said, 'I wish I had an 18-wheeler kitchen to drop food off and feed people,'' Joya remembered. Between 2005 and 2009, Herb franchised eight Nathan's Famous restaurants at Walmarts across Florida. From 2009 onward, he continued to hone his entrepreneurial skills and built relationships with Miami leaders like Miami Dolphins CEO Tom Garfinkel — another connection that would turn into a business partnership later in life. But first, in 2018, he got another opportunity that was years in the making. The Miami Veterans Affairs hospital was renovating its kitchen and needed a mobile chef to serve food to its employees and visitors. The Colemans secured what Joya called their 'first big contract.' For two years, Herb finally got to serve food on a large scale via his own mobile operation. Then COVID hit, and their mobile catering operation was affected. Never out of ideas, Herb quickly found a solution. When the pandemic began in 2020, he partnered with the Miami Dolphins for the Dolphins Food Fleet. The program utilized minority caterers and mobilized them to serve communities throughout Miami via food trucks. 'They sent us everywhere. That's how our businesses stayed afloat,' Joya said. While Herb's business acumen continued to sharpen, he dealt with health challenges. His wife said he ate clean but had high blood pressure and often stayed up late doing research. On May 18, Joya and Herb were in their bed with their 4-year-old granddaughter when something made Joya get up. She yelled Herb's name, but he was unresponsive. Herb had died in his sleep. Family was extremely important to Herb. He is survived by Joya and three sons, Christopher, 33, Herbert II, 29, and Emmanuel, 27. Herb and Joya's daughter, Jade, 31, has a daughter, Jamia, and is expecting another daughter named Joy with Florida International University assistant football coach Jelani Berassa. Herb Coleman worked to make sure every employee at his businesses was recognized and appreciated, his wife said. If customers were ever rude, he would tell them that his business didn't need their money. The atmosphere he created didn't go unnoticed, Joya said. 'He used to say that people do business with people they like,' she said. To her, the impact Herb left on the communities he served proved that he wasn't just liked — he was loved.
Tatler Asia
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Tatler Asia
How May Chow and Jodie Chan are preparing for motherhood
It's official, Chef May Chow and singer-songwriter Joya are expecting! For this Mother's Day, they share with Tatler how they're preparing for motherhood and navigating the idea of queer parenthood in Hong Kong Simone de Beauvoir's renowned words on womanhood—'One is not born, but becomes a woman'—can also be applied to motherhood. For May Chow and Joya—born Jodie Chan—it's been a three-year-long discovery and they're still writing the story as they go. Chef Chow and technologist, singer-songwriter Joya announced on a joint Instagram post on April 29 that they were expecting their first child together—a 'little little bao', as they jokingly wrote in their caption. For Mother's Day, the happy couple shares with Tatler the obstacles they faced on their IVF journey and how they feel about welcoming a child in Hong Kong as a queer couple. You might also like: Celebrated chef May Chow continues her culinary evolution with a new brand Above May Chow and Joya, aka Jodie Chan, shared the happy news on an Instagram post late April 2025 (Photo: Instagram / @sheisjoya / @chefmaychow) What are some of the things you wish you knew when you started your IVF journey? Chow: Nowadays, IVF is well established. From testimonials of IVF babies becoming adults to doctors' reviews, there is a lot of information out there. To be honest, I wish I had been educated about fertility earlier. It was a very busy time for me, career-wise, until I turned 34. By the time I met Jodie and began the IVF journey at 37, I had just hit the mark where my eggs were, according to the charts, 'falling off a cliff'. I felt like every woman should have learnt this before 24, to better weigh options. We finally decided to go with Jodie's eggs instead of my own, as she is younger and I think has just honestly better genes! It was a lot less pressure in terms of timing, egg viability and quality. But I can only imagine the stress of already trying to navigate the unknown, but feeling every misstep or failure would be a race against time. Chan: We knew it would take a long time, but not that it would take as long as it did! I don't wish it to be any different, but I'm glad we started the journey when we did: it was less stressful than friends who started the process later on in their lives. Even after having travelled abroad to perform the IVF, I remember sitting in the living room, hoping it would work and wondering when would be our next opportunity be, in case it wasn't successful... Though I realised that this is probably what all parents feel: anxiety... so, maybe that was good training. Above May Chow and Joya, aka Jodie Chan, got engaged in 2021 (Photo: courtesy of May Chow and Joya) How do you feel about welcoming a child as a queer couple in Hong Kong? Chow: We are fortunate because we have built an amazing community bubble where we're loved and accepted. In moments of potential ignorance, we [reassure ourselves that] we are more loved than misunderstood, which allows us to have the patience to share optimistically. Hopefully, this won't change when I'm lacking sleep and completely exhausted. But we also had to learn to build a legal protection bubble. A number of same-sex marriages and same sex rights are not currently legalised in Hong Kong. So, we had to integrate estate planning, wills, adoption and think about how we need to protect our family from a legal standpoint. Luckily, we are not the 'firsts', so we can model from others who have done so successfully. I think we try to learn and share as much as we can. I don't want our family and peers to be afraid to ask us questions. Chan: I honestly feel very lucky. It's a privilege for us to expect a child in a place where IVF is accessible for same-sex couples. I'm also really proud of May. Throughout her life, she has defied expectations and continues to do so in carrying the baby, as an active business owner. We often laugh: 'If Rihanna did the Super Bowl, being as pregnant and fabulous as she did, so can we'. I know some people are opposed to us, a queer couple, having a child, and while I'm okay with disagreement, I do sometimes worry what that will be like for our child. Discrimination has an ugly head. However, I hope that this child will grow to have a strong sense of self, safety and self-worth—and with that be able to thrive in the face of a world where they may be a minority. Above May Chow and Joya, aka Jodie Chan are expecting! (Photo: courtesy of May Chow and Joya, aka Jodie Chan) What advice you would give to other queer couples in Hong Kong who are considering parenthood? Chan: Start the conversation early in the relationship, where possible. There's a lot to discuss from whether you want children at all, whether IVF makes sense, to go for known or unknown sperm donor, where you'll have the procedure done, the time you'll need to do the procedure—from injections to the extraction to the implantation, many blood tests, and potentially tough conversations about the worse-case scenarios for which you will need legal documents drafted up, especially for protections that aren't assumed as a same-sex couple. Practically, consider freezing your eggs in an embryo form if it's an option! It's a lot more stable. Chow: It's interesting for me because beyond queer couples, I generally give—as Jodie tells me—'unwarranted advice' to young women to learn about this early. As LGBTQ+ couples, we are constantly only given outside-the-box options, so sometimes tradition cannot be followed anyway, which sometimes allows us to have unique insights and experiences. But for LGBTQ+ couples specifically, I would suggest joining the Rainbow Family on Facebook. Many great people will share their insights, both locally and internationally, with you. It took us almost three years from reaching out to a fertility clinic to today (I am officially 40!). So, before deciding if you want to carry a child or not, it's better to get all the information first. There are just too many things to think about, from insurance to legal issues and fertility options. Above Joya is a singer-songwriter (Photo: Instagram / @sheisjoya) Above May Chow is the founder of restaurant Little Bao (Photo: Instagram / @chefmaychow) How do you envision this motherhood journey as public figures? Chow: I think we both always knew that the love we share is really rare. So, living it publicly is a way to give back and to share hope. That being said, we know this journey through parenting will be out of our control, no matter how thoughtful or careful we are. Living through a potential health scare or else in the public eye might be scary. But we've aligned to make decisions and take it day by day, and we choose to be brave and open as we feel that we will always learn along the way and receive as we go. You might also like: New record labels, redefining parties and gender-defying lyrics: Meet three women challenging the status quo in the Hong Kong music scene Chan: We're first-time parents. Throughout this process, we have great role models but have also developed greater empathy for all parents. For the most part, people closer to us have been kind enough to offer advice at the right times, but wow, it's like a whole world in which everyone has an opinion! We've now been able to adjust and even have a laugh about it, and take with us helpful advice too, but it has been an interesting experience. I imagine because we're public, people we've never met may have opinions of us. We have talked about how much we want to share, and we appreciate a good balance of privacy but also visibility, being aware that representation is also very important. Maybe one day, people won't blink an eye—but until that day, we envision that we will do our best to protect our child and figure out the rest along the way. What resources did you find useful during this journey? Books and YouTube videos helped us understand IVF adults who came from same-sex couples Local LGBTQ+ charity Alongside, which helped us navigate legal protection for us as a same-sex couple in Hong Kong Local LGBTQ+ charity Rainbow Family and its Facebook group for community insights AI has actually been very helpful in finding resources, citing sources and just generally sorting through the old wives' tales versus data-backed practices. It also gave us so much specific information at every stage, from the prenatal to the current process, so we don't always have to call doctors and specialists, which is very calming Fertility IQ is amazing as an online platform for reviewing doctors The whole process requires a lot of financial resources, which for us we know it's a privilege that we can do, but it can be disheartening for some who don't have these resources Counselling Level-headed, amazing family and friends and support And a special mention to Rihanna, who showed us what's possible while being pregnant.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Dybala-Soulé could start together vs Porto
Paulo Dybala is ready to return to Roma's line-up for the return leg of the Europa League playoffs with Porto. After the blow suffered by Varela in the first leg, the Joya has recovered and wants to be a protagonist in the decisive match on Thursday. Ranieri knows this and will hardly give up on him. In the meantime, Matias Soulé has gained points with the goal and the performance against Parma. Having arrived in Rome seven months ago, the Argentine has had an uphill journey, also due to the continuity rediscovered by Dybala. Now, however, Ranieri has two quality options in attack. According to Il Messaggero, Ranieri could start Soulé again wide on the right, even if his athletic stamina for that role remains an unknown. Dybala, who has yet to score in Europe this season, is however the man of the great European nights for Roma and Ranieri is relying on his flashes to carry the Giallorossi to the round of 16.
