Steve Stoute forged his own lane in the music industry, rising to the cream of the crop. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Stoute worked as a former Sony Music Entertainment executive serving as its president for urban music between 1990 and 1999. He worked alongside some of today’s industry giants including Mariah Carey, Will Smith, and Nas. However, Stoute would soon be convinced to venture further into the industry covering his own terrain when working on the “Men In Black” soundtrack with actor and rapper Will Smith. He was there when Smith’s single from the movie skyrocketed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and won the star a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance in 1997, according to Pop Sugar. At that time, Stoute also learned of the amount of dollars that existed in advertising when he found out a small agency representing Ray Ban sunglasses profited from increased sales of the shades after Smith wore them in a well-known scene of the movie. After Stoute had...

Representation in space exploration is crucial, and Sian Proctor stands among the luminaries. A woman on a mission, Proctor aspired to have an impact on society. The geoscientist had been “chasing space” throughout her lifetime, Space.com mentions. Born the same year Neil Armstrong made history with his first steps on the moon during NASA’s Apollo 11 mission, and raised with a father working at the NASA tracking station on Guam, Proctor would go on to make her own significant contributions. Historical Firsts As previously reported by AFROTECH™, Proctor became the first Black woman to pilot a spacecraft. This was accomplished after she earned a Ph.D. along with a pilot’s license and SCUBA certification. She also completed a four-month mission in a building located near a Hawaiian volcano for an experiment imitating the conditions and stresses on a habitat like Mars in 2013. Ultimately, Proctor’s expertise, creativity, and dedication to her JEDI space initiative — a just, equitable,...