June is LGBTQ+ Pride, National Immigrant Heritage, and Caribbean American Heritage Month LGBTQ+ Pride Month is celebrated in honor of the Stonewall Uprising, a series of protests that erupted in late June 1969 after police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village. The patrons, many of whom were transgender women of color, drag queens, and homeless queer youth, fought back against years of harassment, sparking a movement that led to the first Pr

There's a moment Willie Seals III describes that cuts right to the core of what The Academy for Creating Excellence (ACE) is about. A young man walks in late, maybe 9:30 or 10:00, when the program started at 9:00. Instead of a reprimand, he's greeted with warmth, “We're glad you're here. Make sure to shake everybody's hand.” That small act, the welcome before the question, is not accidental. It is the entire philosophy of the ACE Academy lived out in a single moment. Seals kn