Dream Hampton is many things: a writer, a cultural critic, a social activist, a community organizer, and an award-winning filmmaker. There’s something about Dream and her work that makes you pay attention. It might be her fearlessness and fighting spirit, almost as if she was born to speak out and stand up. After all, she’s named after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Although she spells her name in lowercase out of humility (and in homage to feminist Bell Hooks and poet E.E. Cummings), her legacy is larger-than-life. 

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Every day the newly crowned Miss Universe 2019 Zozibini Tunzi recites self-affirmations in the mirror: 

“You’re beautiful. You’re capable. You’re intelligent.” 

And with that faith in herself, Tunzi won the hearts of millions. Not that we needed much convincing. The 26-year-old South African beauty radiates elegance, poise, and thoughtfulness.

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"Many people don't think water is alive or has a spirit, my people believe this to be true. Our water deserves to be treated as human with human rights. We need to acknowledge our waters with personhood so we can protect our waters," Autumn Peltier, international activist, told the diplomats of the United Nations in her 2018 speech. Peltier has been fighting for water protection since the age of 8, and has been deemed  “The Water Warrior,” by the public.

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British actor and Oscar nominee Daniel Kaluuya is a part of the culture. That’s culture with a capital C. In the past three years, the now thirty-year-old thespian’s career has gone from the slow burn it was back home in the UK, to a steady boil in Hollywood. From his breakout role as "Chris Washington" in Jordan Peele’s horror-comedy film Get Out (2017) to his role as "W’kabi" in Ryan Coogler’s Marvel movie Black Panther (2018), Kaluuya has landed two groundbreaking movies that are cinematic gold. 

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**UPDATE**

Here at VA Mag, we’ve kept a close eye on current NFL free agent quarterback, Colin Kaepernick. Ever since Kaepernick’s decision to kneel became the ultimate conversation starter back in 2016, we’ve been on top of keeping our readers abreast of his situation. Fully supporting him and his stance against racial profiling and police brutality against black and brown men and women across the country. As heroic as his stance was, and still is, it unfortunately cost him his job and no other team signed him in the following seasons. Last year, we covered the deal he subsequently signed with Nike despite their partnership with the NFL, and touched on the collusion case Kaepernick had against the league. When Jay-Z announced his joint venture with the NFL and there were talks of how it was disrespectful to Kaepernick, but we took a different angle. We told everyone to just wait and see what Hov’s approach would be.

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“Understanding the future means carefully observing, from unusual places, the changing nature of the present,” Amy Webb, a renowned futurist, wrote on her website. 

-Amy Webb, a renowned Futurist wrote on her website

When I first heard the word futurist, what popped into my mind was something in the realm of science fiction, but in fact, futurists are a real group of people doing their every day job. A futurist is a real career in which major corporations, investors, or governments, will pay an individual to predict the state of the future and how they expect society will function. Webb is one of these futurists, who analyses data to make predictions and create risk management strategies.