Ashley Winters

1 week ago | stlamerican.com | Ashley Winters

St. Louis Language Immersion School (SLLIS) offers wrap-around services to support students, teachers, and staff, while inspiring young minds. The local charter school serves students in grades Pre-K through eighth grade, and its staff comes from around the globe — 18 countries to be exact. The school offers a unique dual language immersion program in three languages: French, Spanish, and Chinese.

2 weeks ago | stlamerican.com | Ashley Winters

By Ashley Winters| The St. Louis American Prizewinning author Stefan Bradley examines the Ferguson uprising in his new book “If We Don’t Get It: A People’s History of Ferguson,” and shared his thoughts at Left Bank Books in the Central West End on Tuesday night. Jamala Rogers and Jonathan Pulphus, who organized, marched, and protested with Bradley during the Ferguson Uprising, joined him for the book reading and community conversation just blocks from severe tornado damage.

2 weeks ago | stlamerican.com | Kenya Vaughn |Ashley Winters |Alvin Reid

Like the statue of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Fountain Park, St. Louis was knocked asunder by a May 16, 2025, tornado that ripped through parts of St. Louis county, city and Metro East. North St. Louis felt the worst brunt of the historic storm, yet like the Dr. King statue, the only one in Missouri, it will rise from the destruction. The deadly tornado claimed five lives, according to Police Chief Robert Tracy.

3 weeks ago | stlamerican.com | Ashley Winters

According to a 2021 study published by the American Cancer Society, African Americans have a higher risk of developing oral cancer and a higher likelihood of dying from it compared to white Americans. Mortality rates for oral cancer were 85% higher for African American men than White men in 2000.

3 weeks ago | stlamerican.com | Ashley Winters

While Black Maternal Health Week has passed,  the conversation and the work behind the movement goes on. Tiara Johnson has made it her life’s mission to help other Black mothers receive quality maternal health care.  At just 25 years old, Johnson was diagnosed with Peripartum Cardiomyopathy (PPCM): heart failure that happens in the last month of pregnancy or within the first five months after giving birth. Years of heart failure required Johnson to get a heart transplant to save her life.