This Week's Hot Headlines

Survivor's guilt and Harvey winners and losers lead this week's top stories

Houston, 5th annual JJ Watt Charity Classic, May 2017, J.J. Watt in baseball uniform

J.J. Watt's fundraising efforts made him one of Harvey's winners.

Courtesy photo

It's time to recap the most popular stories on CultureMap from this past week:

1. Harvey Survivor's Guilt: Untouched by hurricane, everything is fine — but it really isn't. University of Houston-Downtown professor Abby Koenig shares a moving personal essay about the guilt she feels over getting through Harvey unscathed.

2. Hurricane Harvey winners and losers: Storm brings out the best, worst, and most clueless instincts. Editor-in-chief Clifford Pugh's analysis of which local people and organizations fared better or worse during the storm proved controversial with some commenters, but most people appreciated his honest opinions.

3. Houston Restaurant Weeks is extended throughout September. Adding another month to HRW allows the event to raise even more money for the Houston Food Bank, which has kicked into overdrive to help Harvey relief efforts.

4. Support Harvey relief efforts by dining at these Houston restaurants. These special menus and dishes allow people to eat well and do good.

5. Austin billionaire with Houston ties pledges $36 million to Harvey relief fund. Houston native Michael Dell and his wife Sarah aim to raise more than $100 million for the Rebuild Texas Fund.

hot-headlines

Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”