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Tuesday, August 05, 2025

Metro

NKwanda Jah sits in her office at Wilhelmina Johnson Center on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022. Jah runs an afterschool science program from her office.
METRO  |  ALACHUA COUNTY

NKwanda Jah: a lifetime of community advocacy

NKwanda Jah never obtained a degree or had Black female role models throughout the majority of her life. Yet today, she leads the non-profit organization Cultural Arts Coalition, which serves disadvantaged Gainesville residents' needs through summer employment, cultural enrichment programs and after-school programs.


GFGS volunteers organize fresh produce and food donations in preparation for their weekly distribution at the Civic Media Center Tuesday, May 16, 2023.
METRO

Gainesville community tackles Eastside food insecurity

A 2023 report by Gainesville Free Grocery Store, a mutual aid food pantry and garden, described East Gainesville neighborhoods abounding with poor-quality food as “food swamps." To combat this, a variety of local activists and organizations have launched efforts to feed food-insecure East Gainesville residents. 


Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a political roundtable, Friday, May 19, 2023, in Bedford, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
METRO  |  POLITICS

‘Unsettling’: Asian American locals criticize Florida bills targeting China

Han Yi, who immigrated to the U.S. from China, feels betrayed by the state she’s called home for roughly 10 years due to a bill restricting Chinese citizens from purchasing real estate in Florida. Yi, the vice principal of the HuaGen Chinese School in Gainesville, is one among the many frustrated Asian American and Pacific Islander locals speaking out against three bills signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis aimed at limiting the Chinese Communist Party’s influence on the state. 


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