Maung’s Meanwhile in Jersey City mural stands around the corner from an elementary school. Its inscription reads: “This mural is not just Ms. Marvel. It is the representation and power that comes with her. It is for the kids of Jersey City to take up space both metaphorically in the media, but also physically on the walls of Jersey City.”

The 2024 U.S. election revealed historic and unresolved political fractures that betray the story of an America finally triumphant over deep misogyny, racism, and xenophobia. As the collective consciousness gives way to disillusionment and confusion, the decay of the collapsing U.S. empire eats away at its own ideals of democracy and self-identity.

In 2023, approximately 2.5 local newspapers shut down each week. This national downhill trend has continued in 2024 and is hitting home in New Jersey. Decisions made by the Newark Morning Ledger Co. and NJ Advance Media have led to the print closures and full closures of multiple local New Jersey news outlets.

This was published as part of the 2024 community journalism class sponsored by New Jersey Civic Information Consortium. 

It’s June 14, the jump ball is thrown, and Big Fendi, former Nicki Minaj manager and now author, takes it running. A promotional video for a community basketball tournament dubbed “Nuttin’ Butt Azz’” is circulated on Facebook.

The American Lung Association’s Annual “State Of The Air” Report confirmed what New Jersey’s lower income families and communities of color already know—our air stinks.

As we pass 300 days since a one-day attack, part resistance and part massacre, we continue to bear hourly witness to an ongoing Genocide. Anyone can livestream the completely disproportionate response to that attack that is a trifecta of war crimes: collective punishment, forced displacement, and ethnic cleansing.

After months of fear-mongering that democracy is at risk, the Democrats invoked the very layered and opaque delegate process to appoint a nominee not listed as a choice on any primary ballot, given she filed to run for president on July 21, 2024, the day Biden dropped out of the race.

Hurricane Beryl, the strongest hurricane recorded in the Caribbean since 2005 and the earliest Category 5 hurricane ever observed in the Atlantic Ocean, devastated the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in its path across the Caribbean. The prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a small island developing state, spoke with Public Square Amplified’s executive director about the widespread devastation, the nation’s appeal for aid and the broader meaning of the increasingly powerful storms afflicting the planet.

The historical and ongoing struggle for Black equality in America is a narrative woven from resilience, sacrifice, and a persistent yearning for true equity within our nation. What does it say about America today that this remains a yearning?