Pioneers

MEGAN THEE STALLION

Tenacious talent

BY TARAJI P. HENSON

I remember hearing Megan Thee Stallion on one of those famous DJ radio shows a few years ago. She rode the beat like I’d never heard anybody ride the beat in a long time—and I’m a hip-hop head. There was something about this woman. Once you discover her, you become a fan. I don’t like to put the stigma of the word strong on Black women because I think it dehumanizes us, but she has strength—strength through vulnerability. She’s lost much of her family—her mother, her father, her grandmother—yet she is the epitome of tenacity, of pulling herself up by her bootstraps. She was shot this summer, and still people tried to tear her down. But she’s out here still loving and being sweet. It’s invigorating to see her become a platinum-selling artist with the viral hit “Hot Girl Summer” and multiple No. 1 songs in the past year, “Savage” and “WAP.” But you would be a fool to think that’s all there is to her. She’s deep. She’s enrolled in college. She’s an entertainer. She’s a free spirit; I see that in her. The industry might try to pigeonhole her in this rap game, but she’s got a plan that’s much bigger. And we got her. I just want her to keep winning.

Henson is an Academy Award–nominated actor

JULIE K. BROWN

Intrepid reporter

BY RONAN FARROW

Before Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown’s explosive reporting on the late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein in 2018, plenty of outlets had failed to grasp the story’s ongoing significance. Epstein had been convicted and some of the allegations against him disclosed. Many reporters considered Epstein’s connections to figures like Bill Clinton and Donald Trump a promising story, and Epstein himself an old one. But Julie’s relentless reporting proved that Epstein’s accusers deserved to be heard more fully and his crimes to be exposed more thoroughly. Julie placed empathy over headline chasing, with seismic impact.

Raised by a single mother who struggled to make ends meet, Julie set out on her own at age 16 to work odd jobs and save up for college. She’s translated those experiences into attentiveness to voices that need amplifying, publishing stories that have confronted powerful interests and spurred reforms. When news broke last year about MIT’s fundraising relationship with Epstein, she tweeted an animated GIF of a Muppet treading water before getting carried away by a flood, with the caption, “Me trying to keep up with the Jeffrey Epstein story.” But the truth is, all of us in journalism are trying to keep up with Julie.

In her dogged pursuit of the Epstein story, Brown placed empathy over headline