Latest news with #Urgent
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Legendary Rock Band Rereleases Hit Song Like You've Never Heard Before
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways Even if you aren't an avid listener of classic rock, there's a good chance you've sung along to one of Foreigner's songs. After all, the legendary band is responsible for hits like 'Feels Like the First Time,' 'Double Vision,' 'Juke Box Hero,' 'Cold As Ice,' 'Hot Blooded,' 'I Want to Know What Love Is,' and 'Urgent.' On Friday, May 2, Foreigner actually released a reimagined version of 'Urgent' to honor their Latin American fans. That's right, you can listen to the beloved tune in Spanish! The new Spanish-language version is performed by Foreigner's Luis Maldonado. 🎬SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox🎬 'We've been embraced by fans in Latin America for decades,' the guitarist and vocalist said in a press release. 'Recording these songs in Spanish is our way of saying thank you and sharing the music in a more intimate, personal way.' Foreigner is currently rocking on their 2025 South American Tour, consisting of shows in Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and more. Foreigner was formed in 1976 in New York City. The founders of the band were Mick Jones, Ian McDonald, and Lou Gramm. Nowadays, Foreigner's lineup features Kelly Hansen on lead vocals, Jeff Pilson on bass, Bruce Watson and Luis Maldonado on guitars, Michael Bluestein on keyboards, and Chris Frazier on drums. Related: Bruce Springsteen Keeps Touring—and the Paycheck Doesn't Hurt Gramm, 75, has also joined the band onstage while touring South America. "I think we're gonna continue doing this type of thing for another year or so ... [After the Latin American tour] I'm doing Southeast Asia, I'm doing Europe and next year I'm doing the whole of the U.S,' he said in an interview with Brazil's 92.5 Kiss FM radio station, per As for Maldonado singing some of Foreigner's biggest hits in Spanish, Gramm is all for it. "We just talked about it within the last two weeks, and we decided that when we play areas of the world where Spanish is the dominant language, Luis, who has a wonderful voice, will sing some of the big hits in Spanish," he said. "I think that's fabulous ... He's worked on [translating all the lyrics into Spanish] and he's made it work. He's very excited about doing it."
Miami Herald
20-02-2025
- General
- Miami Herald
‘I feel more seen here': Black history is central to this microschool in Overtown
Faith Ladson recognizes a vibrancy in her daughter Journey since enrolling her in Urgent Academy, a microschool in Miami's Overtown neighborhood. She's more jovial and outspoken, Ladson said, and she noticed Journey was more excited to learn, particularly about Black history. 'She's excited about the fact that she doesn't have to be restricted with what it is that she learns,' Ladson told the Miami Herald. 'She's very happy about the fact that they give her freedom to be able to explore whatever it is her interests are, and they support her in doing that.' That's the environment Urgent Academy founder Saliha Nelson wanted to foster for students in the Overtown neighborhood. The micro middle school is Nelson's brainchild after hearing students in the Urgent, Inc. afterschool program complain about school, she said. Nestled in Miami's Overtown neighborhood, a historically Black community, Nelson created the school with the hopes that students could learn in a diverse environment that embraces and celebrates them and was different from the traditional school setting. 'We get to know our students very well,' Nelson told the Herald. 'That means having conversations around who they are, their histories, pieces of their culture that they want to lift up, and then providing an opportunity for them to showcase that and elevate the issues and concerns that they care about.' RELATED: This Miami native wants to teach Black students things they might not learn in school A place where students can learn their history Growing up in New Jersey, Nelson said Black history was regularly taught to her in school. At eight, when she and her family moved to San Diego, she noticed that was no longer the case. 'We sang the Black National Anthem, negro spirituals as part of choir, and we were introduced to a lot of historical facts just as part of the everyday curriculum,' Nelson recalled of her early schooling. 'It was pretty much normalized.' A graduate of Northwestern University, Nelson moved to Miami 28 years ago, where her husband Henry Crespo founded Urgent, Inc., an nonprofit afterschool program that focuses on youth development in Overtown. The organization celebrated 30 years in Miami last year, and seeks to transform Miami's Black communities through arts, culture and technology. Looking to grow Urgent, Inc.'s footprint and define its role in the nonprofit space, Nelson earned a degree in community and social change from the University of Miami and later received her Ph.D. in applied learning sciences. Nelson conceptualized Urgent Academy through her fellowship with the Drexel Fund Founders Program, a nonprofit organization that helps educational leaders plan and open an 'innovative and effective' private school in eight states, including Florida. The plan for Urgent Academy, which opened last August, had been in the works for eight years. The school received $100,000 in funding from Allegany Franciscan Ministries and all students are recipients of Florida's school voucher program to help cover much of the $10,000 tuition. Nelson said she didn't want to open up the school and figure it out as she went and she didn't want to replicate the traditional school model. Instead she envisioned a school that would build on the Urgent, Inc. model of fostering creativity and entrepreneurship among youth. Right now, the academy has seven students, allowing for more hands-on instruction with at least two teachers daily, which includes a part time math specialist and a humanities instructor. A typical day for the students starts with breakfast and an opening circle, where students set the tone for the day and what goals they want to accomplish. From there, the students rotate learning humanities and math, social emotional learning and focus on career and technical education toward the end of the day. Nelson said part of the curriculum is guided by the students' passions and interests. One unit they discussed was Overtown and its history as the Harlem of the South. RELATED: This historian wants you to learn Broward's Black history. His flashcards might help 'Our community informs what they're learning about. The young people also help elevate issues that they care about,' Nelson said. She referenced the book students were reading for the month, 'The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora' by Pablo Cartaya, about a Cuban family grappling with gentrification in Miami as they plan to expand their family business. It was a book the students chose to read as it related to some things they were experiencing in their own communities, Nelson said, adding that it reinforces a culture of belonging. 'If who you are and how you're showing up is welcomed and celebrated and lifted up, then for me, that is the most important thing,' she said. For education director Krisanne Stewart, the environment Nelson has created has been a much needed reprieve from the teaching environment she'd dealt with in Texas, where she had to push back against the banning of books by Black and gay authors. Stewart said she was ready to give up on education until she came across a job description that also detailed Urgent Academy's intent. 'I consider her a thought partner, and I consider her so knowledgeable in the area and the nonprofit space,' Stewart said, calling Nelson 'a gentle giant agent for change.' 'I feel more seen here' Monica Bissainthe is an alum of Urgent, Inc. and is now a teacher for Urgent Academy, focusing on humanities. She credits the school for allowing instructors to have latitude in what they teach the students. Bissainthe said discussions on political events and Black history aren't avoided and are often brought up at the behest of the students. One of those topics was the presidential election and understanding the changes President Donald Trump has made or tried to usher in, such as birthright citizenship. Bissainthe said many of the students have also discussed their concerns about immigration and how it might affect their friends. This led to her creating an assignment where the students were president for a day and decided what laws they would enact. 'I'm trying to make sure that they understand that these are going to have long term effects,' she said. 'Let's understand what changes that he's making.' Students also work on passion projects, where they spend a semester working on something they're interested in. Seventh grader Kristian Benn, 13, is designing his own fashion line using online graphic design program Kittl. 'I just started out using my sketchbook just creating designs when randomly, my teacher said you should start a clothing brand,' Kristian said. Students are exposed to other subjects such as photography and African culture through University of Miami's School of Education program Kalula, an evidence-based mentoring program intended to enhance the ethnic identity and socialization skills of Black youth. Kulula is Swahili for 'excel' or 'achieve.' Journey has taken a liking to the Kalula program since she's been in Urgent. 'We're learning about our community, we're learning about ourselves, we're learning about the Black community, we're learning about our past,' she said. 'We're learning about what might happen in the future with the Black community.' Journey said she feels more confident expressing herself while being in Urgent, having come from a school where she said racist behavior, such as saying racial slurs, was tolerated. 'As a young Black person, really a young Black female, I feel more seen here,' she said, adding any off-color jokes get shut down. Sixth grader Emma Hunter, 12, echoed Journey's sentiments, saying that for her it's been comforting being around other Black students. 'It offers a lot more creativity than my last school, because my last school was very uptight,' she said of Urgent. 'At this one, the more you know, the more you learn.' READ: 'It's a story that needs to be told.' Historic Black neighborhood in Broward gets honor Right now, the school has students in grades six through eight, and has received at least 5 applications as of mid-February to enroll new students. The school, which operates out of Urgent, Inc. headquarters, will move to a 50,000 square foot space at the Children's Village ahead of the upcoming school year, allowing for the school to have five larger classrooms. But Nelson is already thinking of what a potential Urgent High School would look like. She also understands the concerns some may have about their child transitioning from a non-traditional school back to a more traditional high school, but said Urgent Academy students will be self-directed learners. 'They're going to be critical thinkers,' she said. 'So, no matter what content they get introduced to, they're going to know how to break that information down and manipulate it to get where they need to go.'
