From the mainstage moments to the hallway meetups, AfroTech 2025 was all about connection and culture. It was a full week of learning, linking, and leveling up with Black innovators from across the globe. And when the panels and presentations wrapped, the energy didn’t stop—it just shifted. With the help of legendary DJs and live performances, conference goers sang, swayed, and danced till the sweat rolled down our… well, you know the rest. This year, with DELEÓN Tequila serving as the official tequila partner, AfroTech invited attendees to three blockbuster events over the course of three epic nights in three different venues. More than 3,000 guests turned up and turned out for the festivities. On Wednesday, Blavity House Party hosted five top-tier DJs for a nostalgia-fueled tribute to R&B. With fly ’fits on deck, partygoers raised DELEÓN cocktails, sang under the stars, and danced to the feel-good sounds of classic and contemporary favorites. What’s a better turn-up than a house...

François Locoh-Donou has several truths he believes Black professionals should apply. Locoh-Donou’s father was from a fishing village on the banks of Lake Togo in West Africa and was the fourth in a family of 16 children, Locoh-Donou explained on stage during AFROTECH™ Conference 2025. When it was time for his father to start school, admission was determined by height. After three failed attempts, he shares that his father refused to leave the school until he was accepted at age 9 into first grade. When it was time to graduate, his father then had the option to become a teacher, but he had broader aspirations. Leaving the village to study at a public high school 300 miles away, he graduated in the early 1960s. He applied for and was awarded a full-ride scholarship from the government to study architecture in college, which enabled him to complete projects across Africa. Locoh-Donou shares that he learned what an “extraordinary figure” his father was. He had not only helped his...

You can never predict JuJu Watkins’ next move. The University of Southern California (USC) basketball player is now an investor in the National Women’s Soccer League’s Boston Legacy Football Club (Boston Legacy FC), according to a press release. Watkins makes history in the process as the first college athlete to invest in a women’s professional sports team. She joins a group of investors that includes Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman, actress Elizabeth Banks, Celtics General Manager Brad Stevens, WNBA player Aliyah Boston, and Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams. Sportico reports the city of Boston was awarded a National Women’s Soccer League team in 2023, and the team will begin competing in 2026. “Boston Legacy FC is creating a space for women to achieve, lead, and inspire others at the highest level, and I’m proud to be part of the movement pushing women’s sports forward,” Watkins said in a press release. Jennifer Epstein, controlling owner of Boston Legacy FC, commented:...

As anticipation continues to build for “Grand Theft Auto 6” (“GTA 6” or “GTA VI” ), one of the most anticipated video game releases in recent memory, new reports suggest that fans will have to wait a bit longer. Rockstar Games’ ‘GTA’ 6 Release Date Announced According to Reuters, publisher Take-Two Interactive has pushed the release date for Rockstar Games’ next major title, “GTA 6,” to Nov. 19, 2026. The announcement represents the second public delay, postponing the launch from May 2026, the outlet reports. Take-Two’s stock dipped about 6% following the news, but industry analysts told Reuters the delay could actually strengthen the game’s commercial potential. Releasing during the holiday season could align “GTA 6″ with peak consumer spending and major console promotions. “Releasing it closer to the holiday season allows for more opportunities to bundle with the tail end of current-gen consoles, making it more valuable to Take-Two because of the marketing dollars the console...

Dr. Astro Teller shares how Google X is pushing technological boundaries to solve global problems. During an AFROTECH™ Conference 2025 panel moderated by Blavity Inc. COO and Co-founder Jeff Nelson , Dr. Teller defined a moonshot as a groundbreaking technology that can solve a major world problem, but may sound like a piece of science fiction. He has worked at Google for 15 years as the co-founder and captain of moonshots at X, the moonshot factory, which engineers technologies specifically to solve global problems. Innovations that have come out of its lab include Google Brain, which is responsible for many of the advancements seen in machine learning today, such as AI chatbots. Additionally, Waymo, self-driving cars, and “Project Wing,” a drone delivery service, emerged. “The idea was not that we would look backwards at Google and try to fix Google’s problems, but instead our mission has always been go out in the world and find new problems to have and then hopefully solutions for...

Filmmaker and philanthropist Tyler Perry has donated nearly $1.4 million to several nonprofit organizations supporting families affected by the loss of benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) amid the ongoing federal government shutdown. According to People, the funds are directed to groups that serve children, seniors, and low-income working households. Perry, 56, distributed the donation across multiple organizations, including Atlanta Community Food Bank, Baby2Baby, Meals on Wheels Atlanta, Caring for Others, All for Lunch, Ron Clark Academy, and Goodr. In a statement shared with People, Perry spoke about the impact of reduced food assistance on families. “If you’ve never been poor then you may not fully understand the life-changing impact SNAP benefits mean to hard-working people, to our seniors and to our children,” he said. “For millions of people, it could mean extreme hunger. For newborns, it could mean a lack of access to formula.” Perry described...

Scarlet by RedDrop Co-Founders Dana Roberts and Monica Williams are celebrating great success for their business, driven by a vision to support young girls navigating puberty. It all started with Robert’s time teaching fifth graders in an Atlanta classroom. She was approached by a student who had started her period and felt that she was dying, according to Yahoo! News. This would lead her to launch RedDrop, which was rebranded to Scarlet by RedDrop in 2025, alongside physician Williams, to serve tweens and teens. It offers pads, tampons, and period kits that include pads in various sizes, as well as a diary that shares helpful tips, according to its website. “RedDrop was our beginning, born from a desire to fill a gap in puberty care for school-age girls,” Williams told Inc. “But as we grew, we realized our name no longer held all that we were becoming. The rebrand reflects the company’s new educational period-care product line that supports tweens and teens at every stage of their...

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon believes AI will eventually shorten the work week and says people should embrace it now, before it transforms every corner of the workforce. Speaking at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women conference at the America Business Forum in Miami, FL, on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025, Dimon said the future of work may involve fewer hours but greater value — if leaders take the proper steps now. He urged companies to modernize data systems so AI can use them effectively, invest despite power limitations, and create humane transitions for jobs that will disappear. “It’s going to affect every application, every job, every customer interface,” Dimon said, as Fortune reported. “My guess is the developed world will be working three-and-a-half days a week in 20, 30, 40 years, and have wonderful lives,” he continued. As AI takes on more routine work, the same result may require fewer hours — though every transition brings its own challenges. “It will eliminate jobs. People should...

More than 1 million people have lost their jobs already in 2025. Many people are out of a job this year, and this includes more than 300,000 Black women, according to The Root. This also comes at a time when diversity is under attack — with federal dollars being used as bait — and Americans are feeling the effects of a government shutdown. In Big Tech alone, there has been a string of layoffs this year at media companies, including Paramount, VIBE, and Teen Vogue, as a result of mergers, as well as other companies that include Meta, Microsoft, Starbucks, Oracle, American Airlines, and, most recently, Amazon. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, Amazon will lay off 14,000 corporate workers, and AI is partly to blame. “This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the internet,” Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, said in a memo. “We’re convicted that we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and...

Artificial intelligence is increasingly entering the music world, with AI-generated artists gaining attention on charts and in media coverage. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Telisha “Nikki” Jones, a poet and entrepreneur from Mississippi, has made headlines for her AI creation, Xania Monet. The artist’s debut single, “How Was I Supposed to Know?,” has already secured Jones a multi-million-dollar recording contract with Hallwood Media following a competitive bidding process that reached $3 million. In an interview with “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King, Jones discussed her approach to creating Xania Monet.   The 31-year-old emphasized that she writes all of the lyrics herself, often drawing from poems she has been composing since she was 24. “There’s real emotions and soul put into those lyrics,” Jones said. She added that “How Was I Supposed to Know?” was inspired by the death of her father when she was 8 years old. After writing the lyrics, Jones uses the AI platform Suno to...

Dance Theatre of Harlem, the professional ballet company and school based in New York City, has named Jaime Wynn, president of Jimmy Choo Americas, to its board of directors, the company announced. According to a press release, Wynn brings more than 25 years of experience in luxury fashion, business transformation, and brand growth. She has held senior roles at LVMH, leading global planning at Marc Jacobs, and at The Jones Group, where she helped scale Ralph Lauren’s licensed business and launched a $550 million private-label brand. Since 2021, Wynn has served as president of Jimmy Choo, per LinkedIn, guiding the brand’s evolution into a lifestyle fashion house with a focus on market leadership, omnichannel expansion, and operational innovation. She first joined the company in 2016 as vice president of sales & planning. Her appointment comes at a pivotal moment for Dance Theatre of Harlem, as the company, led by executive director Anna Glass and artistic director Robert Garland,...

Spelman College is expanding its partnership with the National Education Opportunity Network (NEON), formerly known as the National Education Equity Lab. The collaboration provides high school students from Title I schools — those serving large numbers of low-income families — with access to college-level courses for credit, according to a university press release. Since launching in spring 2023, the partnership has grown significantly, from one course with 50 students to nearly 300 students enrolled across two Spelman-led classes in 2025. To date, the initiative has reached more than 767 high school scholars from 47 schools in 19 cities, including New York City; Nashville, TN; Jackson, MS; Charleston, SC; and Washington, DC. The first course, “The Education of Black Girls,” was developed and taught by Andrea Lewis, Ph.D., director of Spelman’s Student Success Program and associate professor of education. The class allows high school students to explore identity, race, gender, and...

After 32 years at Black Entertainment Television (BET), former CEO Debra Lee continues shaping culture and business. Today, she sits on the boards of Warner Bros. Discovery, Marriott International, and Procter & Gamble — but her legacy at BET remains untouched. At AFROTECH™ Conference 2025, Lee reflected on how her leadership from 2005 to 2018 helped define generations of Black entertainment, from shaping beloved programming to setting new standards for representation. Lee began at BET as the company’s first in-house counsel, building the legal department from the ground up. She later — and unexpectedly — became president and chief operating officer, succeeding founder Bob Johnson. “When people started writing articles, ‘Debra Lee is the heir apparent,’ it really shocked me,” Lee recalled. “I thought I was just going to continue to do the work, and Bob would get all the credit. That’s the way it went. No big deal. And it wasn’t until Bob left and I became CEO that people started...

Mustafa Suleyman has high hopes for the future of superintelligence and its impact on humanity. During a conversation at AFROTECH™ Conference 2025, he joked that he grew up playing “Snake” on a Nokia phone, which was supposedly a “phenomenon” when it launched in the late ’90s. Suleyman’s fascination with technological advancements never wavered, and his enthusiasm remains strong as the CEO of Microsoft AI. He shared his thoughts on superintelligence, stating early on that it “must always work in service of humanity.” He also offered his predictions for it by 2040. He expressed optimism about its potential to benefit humankind, believing that if developed successfully, it would align with human interests and improve the standard of living. Suleyman explained that it is already capable of world-class medical diagnostics and continues to advance in emotional intelligence and autonomous action. “It’s going to learn to use APIs, send emails, make phone calls, interact with us,” he...

Tiffany “The Budgetnista” Aliche continues to prepare people to take control of their finances. The Budgetnista The Nigerian American and former Newark, NJ, preschool teacher may no longer be working a traditional 9-to-5, but she remains an educator. For 15 years, she has taught financial literacy, a lesson rooted in her upbringing. “I grew up in a household where money was talked about all the time. My father was an accountant and a CFO … It wasn’t really until college that I realized that people didn’t get financial education at home,” she told attendees during the AFROTECH™ Conference 2025. Aliche had a reckoning while teaching on a $39,000 salary, realizing that the corporate world was not her goal and she wasn’t willing to lose her soul for a paycheck, she explained. This led her to become a master of her finances, and she also taught the parents of her students how to do the same. “The kids went to sleep during nap time, and I had Parent University during nap time. I showed...