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San Jose’s Tyler Gordon Commissioned for Time Magazine Cover

Published

5 years ago

December 17, 2020

Kiki

Tyler Gordon with his painting of the Central Park Five. The men were falsely accused of rape and assault in 1989. Black Enterprise photo.

A San Jose teenager was selected by Time magazine to paint the portrait of its Athlete of the Year, Lebron James.

Tyler Gordon, 14, an avowed L.A. Lakers and Golden State Warriors fan, believes James is one of the greatest players to ever play the game. “I am honored to be painting his portrait for TIME,” he said.

Gordon is the son of a painter and he got his start at the age of 10 when he dreamed of taking up the craft. His mother, Nicole Kindle, bought him a canvas and other supplies that week.

He proved he had talent when a portrait of his school principal won an art contest. Since then, he has painted more than 500 portraits of Black icons, including one of The Central Park Five, which sold for $100,000.

“Working hard makes you a contender but believing in yourself makes you a champion,” said Gordon about James, but the accolade could be said about Gordon himself for having navigated physical handicaps from early childhood.

For two years, he was in a wheelchair having suffered broken hip and leg bones because of a Vitamin D deficiency. He stutters because he was born deaf and underwent surgery at 5, which gave him some hearing.

He was bullied so badly in school, he was afraid to speak, said Kindle. Now, she can’t get him to shut up, she said of the teenager who is a wizard at making grilled cheese sandwiches, prefers online school so he can wear pajamas all day, gets in trouble for pranking people. He’s earned his mother’s displeasure recently by spilling pink paint on the carpet.

“Sometimes I can’t talk and get words out, so I speak through my art,” Gordon told Time magazine, which chose him as one of five Kids of the Year, the first time this category was set up.

According to Time, his big break came in 2018 when a portrait of basketball star Kevin Durant caught the eye of the player’s mother who bought it for $300. Commissions from other celebrities poured in, among them Janet Jackson, Alex Rodriguez, Kevin Hart, Jennifer Lopez and Janelle Monae.

Last month, he got a call from Vice President-elect Kamala Harris when a portrait he did of her went viral. He was thrilled to hear from her and called her ‘humble’ for taking the time to call him while she was at home making Thanksgiving corn bread for her family.

The media attention has meant he is also losing self-consciousness about his stutter. A corner of his living room is his ‘studio’ where he conducts online painting classes, titled “Tongue Tye’d,” a venue he hopes to inspire other kids to overcome their challenges using art as well.

Time Magazine and the SFGate were sources for this report.

Kiki

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Oakland Post: Week of July 2- 8, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 2 – 8, 2025

Published

5 days ago

July 7, 2025

Oakland Post

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Trump Set to Sign Largest Cut to Medicaid After a Marathon Protest Speech by Leader Jeffries

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S.

Published

1 week ago

July 3, 2025

Oakland Post

By Lauren Burke

By a vote of 218 to 214, the GOP-controlled U.S. House passed President Trump’s massive budget and spending bill that will add $3.5 trillion to the national debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S. With $175 billion allocated in spending for immigration enforcement, the money for more police officers eclipsed the 2026 budget for the U.S. Marines, which is $57 billion. Almost all of the policy focus from the Trump Administration has focused on deporting immigrants of color from Mexico and Haiti.

The vote occurred as members were pressed to complete their work before the arbitrary deadline of the July 4 holiday set by President Trump. It also occurred after Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries took the House floor for over 8 hours in protest. Leader Jeffries broke the record in the U.S. House for the longest floor speech in history on the House floor. The Senate passed the bill days before and was tied at 50-50, with Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski saying that, “my hope is that the House is gonna look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.” There were no changes made to the Senate bill by the House. A series of overnight phone calls to Republicans voting against, not changes, was what won over enough Republicans to pass the legislation, even though it adds trillions to the debt. The Trump spending bill also cuts money to Pell grants.

“The Big Ugly Bill steals food out of the hands of starving children, steals medicine from the cabinets of cancer patients, and equips ICE with more funding and more weapons of war than the United States Marine Corps. Is there any question of who those agents will be going to war for, or who they will be going to war against? Beyond these sadistic provisions, Republicans just voted nearly unanimously to close urban and rural hospitals, cripple the child tax credit, and to top it all off, add $3.3 trillion to the ticking time bomb that is the federal deficit – all from a party that embarrassingly pretends to stand for fiscal responsibility and lowering costs,” wrote Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) in a statement on July 3.

“The Congressional Budget Office predicts that 17 million people will lose their health insurance, including over 322,000 Virginians. It will make college less affordable. Three million people will lose access to food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). And up to 16 million students could lose access to free school meals. The Republican bill does all of this to fund tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires, and corporations,” wrote Education and Workforce Committee ranking member Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) in a statement. The bill’s passage has prompted Democrats to start thinking about 2026 and the next election cycle. With the margins of victory in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate being so narrow, many are convinced that the balance of power and the question of millions being able to enjoy health care come down to only several thousand votes in congressional elections. But currently, Republicans controlled by the MAGA movement control all three branches of government. That reality was never made more stark and more clear than the last seven days of activity in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.