Listen: David Lewis-Peart reflects on the need for a conversation about Black men. Music: Driftnote. Audio editing: Omar Rivero. Audiograms: Al Donato.

In process. Ever-changing. Vulnerable. Sensitive. Confusing. Loaded. Beautiful. Evasive.

Policed.

Fragile. Diverse. Dynamic. Persecuted. Constrained. And, misunderstood.

These are just some of the responses I received when I asked the not-so-simple question: What is Black masculinity?

My name is David Lewis-Peart, and nearly a year ago, I was invited to write a short article for HuffPost Canada about this very topic.

The plan was, I would speak to a small group of men in the Black community from across a spectrum of experience, and write up a tidy summation. Well, a couple interviews gradually became 12, and what began as an assumedly easy dive became a rather deep one fairly quickly. A year later, here we are.

We need to talk about masculinity, and how it’s experienced by Black men, in a fulsome way. For me, this exploration is not an impersonal one. As a queer Black man, I too have been sitting with these same questions recently, and how my own notions of Blackness and manhood, both conscious and unconscious, find life in myself, my work and my world — in both helpful and not-so helpful ways.

I also see how this fuller conversation requires room for nuance and complexity, candour and care, and of course, work — more work than sensational headlines and siloed and reactive commentary on social media can provide.

So, to continue the conversation, in this four-part series for HuffPost Canada, we’ll hear from a number of Black men on what masculinity means to them, what they have learned or are in the process of unlearning, and how Black manhood reimagined has presented itself in their lives and work.

Part I:

• Brandon Hay: The Space For Healing
• Jah Grey: The Sharing Of Joy
• Travoy Deer: The Need For Love

SALEM, Va. — 2009 national champion Messiah rolled to a run-shortened victory Saturday night to become the first team to reach the best-of-three championship series at the 2016 NCAA Division III Finals at the James I. Moyer Sports Complex.

The (47-4) Falcons get a day off as they await the winner of Sunday’s extra bracket game at 10 a.m. between 2015 national runner-up Texas-Tyler and St. John Fisher — the third meeting of those two squads this week.

Meanwhile, Emory and Massachusetts Institute of Technology were eliminated earlier on Saturday to drop the eight original teams to just three.

Messiah 9, Rowan 1 (6 innings)

Erin Cressman and Brooke Pompeo homered and the Falcons played great defense behind — and including — NFCA All-American Courtney Allen to oust the (41-11) Profs and assure themselves at least a national runner-up finish.

Allen allowed four hits and one run over the first 4.1 innings, benefitting from two outstanding catches in center field by Amber Bingaman. Allen herself promptly made an over-the-shoulder diving catch in center field after Madelyn Yannetti took over in the circle and Bingaman slid over to right field.

Amanda Jones had three hits, including a triple, and Cressman drove in four runs for Messiah.

Four players had one hit apiece in the loss for Rowan.

St. John Fisher 1, Texas-Tyler 0

Two-time All-American Lindsey Thayer tossed her second shutout of the day, limiting the powerful (46-5) Patriots to just three hits while fanning seven to give her 21 strikeouts for her two games Saturday. In all, Thayer made 215 pitches (150 for strikes) over 14 innings, allowing two runs and four hits.

Batterymate Karlie Neale led off the top of the seventh with a homer to left center to snap a scoreless tie.

Texas-Tyler starter Kelsie Batten, a four-time All-American, pitched plenty well enough to win, allowing just five hits over seven innings while walking none and striking out nine.

St. John Fisher 1, MIT 0

Sophomore Thayer struck out 14 in an one-hit gem to reach 750 for her Cardinal career in just her second season.

Neale had two hits, while Lauren Owens doubled in Sarah Kubik in the fourth for the game’s lone run.

Katherine Shade provided the only hit for the (34-14) Engineers with one out in the fifth and Lexi Marshall fanned four and allowed five hits in the loss.

Rowan 7, Emory 4

MacKenzie Juodaitis won her second game of the week and Allison Nolan collected her save, as the Profs set a school record for wins in a season (41) by eliminating Emory.

First team All-American Ashley DeYoung hit a game-tying two-run homer in the bottom of the first and Damariz Mercado doubled home two more in a three-run Rowan third.

Ashley Powers doubled twice among her three hits, Alyssa Pollard added two hits and Janelle Turnquest drove in two in the loss for the (46-8) Eagles.

Keep track of all the action with our NCAA Division III Softball Championship Tournament Central by clicking HERE

Metroid Prime 4’s development is restarting from the beginning with the help of Retro Studios, developers of the original Metroid Prime games.

Announced by Nintendo, the decision was made because this fourth entry “has not reached the standards we seek in a sequel to the Metroid Prime series.”

Due to this reason, Nintendo has decided to have producer Kensuke Tanabe “work in trust and collaboration with the studio that developed the original Metroid Prime series, Retro Studios in the United States, and restart development from the beginning.”

Tanabe was the Metroid Prime series producer and the initial project was being over seen by him and a “talented development team,” which was not Retro Studios, and had reportedly been said to have been Bandai Namco.

Metroid 4 was announced at E3 2017 and little has been heard of it since its reveal.

The last we heard of it was in November of last year when Nintendo of America president and COO Reggie Fils-Aime said that “the game is well in development.”

Retro Studio’s last game was Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and there have been reports that it was working on the rumored Star Fox racing game.

Retro Studios developed the first Metroid Prime in 2002, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes in 2004, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption in 2007.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN who is very sad about this news but is happy the original Metroid Prime developers are back on the job. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The NFCA has added two new ways to recognize member coaches this year — The Humanitarian Award and the Diversity Committee Convention Grant — and now accepting nominations until August 1.

The Humanitarian Award will honor an NFCA member coach who has selflessly dedicated his or her time toward the long-term betterment of the community and/or engaged in charitable activities in the service of others.

The 2016 Diversity Committee Convention Grant covers registration for the NFCA National Convention in New Orleans and includes a stipend to reimburse up to $1,500 in travel and lodging costs for the honoree. The recipient must be a minority coach who promotes diversity, is service oriented and active in the fastpitch community.

Existing awards include the Mary Nutter Scholarship, Donna Newberry “Perseverance” Award and Easton/ Assistant Coach of the Year honors for each membership category.

For all these awards, appropriate details and supporting documentation is required to be submitted and recipients must be NFCA members. Visit NFCA.org and access application forms through your Coach’s Box.

Donna Newberry “Perseverance” Award
Recognizes an NFCA member coach who has demonstrated extraordinary strength of will and character in the fight to overcome a physical, mental, or social adversity that presented an additional challenge to the already demanding job of a coach.

Easton/NFCA Assistant Coach of the Year Award
Recognizes an assistant/associate head coach from each NFCA membership category for their tireless dedication to the sport of softball and to the continued education, growth, and development of young women both on and off the field.

Humanitarian Award
Recognizes an NFCA member coach who has selflessly dedicated his/her time toward the long-term betterment of the community and/or engaged in charitable activities in the service of others.

Mary Nutter Scholarship
Is an educational grant awarded to an NFCA member coach who seeks and desires educational opportunity, but who requires financial assistance to cover the NFCA Annual Convention costs.

Diversity Grant
Is a grant awarded to a minority NFCA member coach who is active in the fastpitch community, is service oriented, and who promotes diversity in the sport of softball.

The federal government’s system of tax benefits and deductions reinforces and even worsens gender inequality, with men taking 62 cents of every dollar the government spends on tax breaks, a new study argues.

But the study shows that much of the inequity is a reflection of the broader gender inequities in society — the reality, for instance, that men continue to dominate the highest-paying jobs, or that women live longer.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives looked at “tax expenditures” — the various deductions that reduce payers’ tax burdens and the benefits the government pays out to some tax-filers. There are 64 of these tax expenditures, and 45 of them had sufficient data to carry out a gender analysis, the CCPA report found.

Of those 45 expenditures, only nine of them paid out more to women than men.

The analysis even found that the popular retirement vehicles known as RRSPs may actually be a much worse deal for many women than men.

Watch: How long will it take to close the gender wage gap? Story continues below.

CCPA chief economist David Macdonald ran a gender-based analysis on Canada’s system of tax expenditures — something he said the governing Liberals largely haven’t done, despite a vow to look at policy through a gender lens.

“The tax system doesn’t get nearly the attention that program spending does,” Macdonald told HuffPost Canada.

In many cases, the disparity comes from the fact that men earn more than women, and — as earlier research from the CCPA showed — Canada’s tax breaks disproportionately benefit higher earners.

For instance, the government forgoes $755 million in revenue for the employee stock option deduction, and 77 per cent of that goes to men. Stock options are most commonly paid to upper management, so this deduction particularly helps “executives of big companies who are … dramatically more likely to be men,” Macdonald said.

Among the 100 most influential companies on the Toronto Stock Exchange, only one was headed by a woman in 2018, according to a survey from Bloomberg.

Macdonald said Canada’s tax system would “likely” be more equitable to women if it wasn’t so skewed towards tax relief for higher earners.

A raw deal on retirement plans?

Some of the ways in which the system disadvantages women may be surprising. For instance, Macdonald’s research found that registered retirements savings plans (RRSPs) may not be saving women much money on their taxes.

Men get $2.6 billion more in savings from RRSP contributions than they pay in taxes on RRSP withdrawals every year, the study found. But women pay $315 million more in taxes on RRSP withdrawals than they receive in savings from RRSP contributions.

Macdonald says there are two things going on here. One is that lower-earning women may find themselves earning a higher income in retirement, meaning the taxes on their RRSP withdrawals would be larger than the tax savings on the original contributions. The same would be true for lower-earning men.

But in some cases it’s women — who earned less than their male partners — drawing from a spousal RRSP. As women live longer than men, they will often end up paying taxes on income their male partner earned.

Macdonald found that only one tax break is explicitly targeted towards one gender: The Canada Child Benefit, which is paid out to the mother, or to just one person in a same-sex couple. Because of that — and because women are much more likely than men to be single parents — 97 per cent of the $22.6-billion child benefit is paid out to women.

The CCPA report doesn’t lay out any particular policy proposals. Macdonald described the work as a springboard for further gender-based research on Canadian taxes, and a guidepost for policymakers looking to make the tax system more equitable.

“Women tend to live longer, they work more in part-time jobs than men, they tend to be caregivers. You have tax breaks that overlap, or not, on those issues. There’s a gender dimension to it.”

The lead producer on Anthem has revealed a new social area that has been implemented following player feedback.

The new Launch Bay is an area where players can “hang out… use the forge, reload and grab a new contract,” according to a tweet from BioWare’s Michael Gamble.

He went on to explain that once a mission is wrapped up, players can choose to go to the NPC-centric Fort Tarsis. In regards to implementing the Launch Bay using player feedback, Gamble added, “We figured that we could show you BEFORE launch how we plan continue to be AFTER launch.”

Anthem is set to launch on  PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on February 22. Players can get a taste of the game in the demo next weekend, which is available  from Friday, February 1, 9am PT – Sunday February 3, 6pm PT.

There’s a VIP demo this weekend for players who pre-ordered, or are members of EA or Origin Access. You can log in from Friday, January 25, 9am PT – Sunday, January 27, 6pm PT.

You can read more about the difference between the demo and main game right here, and be sure to join us for the Anthem VIP demo world premiere live.

Shabana is a freelance writer who enjoys JRPGs, wine, and not finishing games. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Canada can raise its rainbow flag a little higher today. The home of one of North America’s largest Pride celebrations has been ranked among the most LGBTQ+-friendly travel destinations in the world.

According to a new list published by gay holiday guide Spartacus, Canada, Portugal and Sweden share the title of most LGBTQ+-friendly travel destinations.

In its Gay Travel Guide 2019, Portugal leapfrogged its way from 27th position to the top spot, thanks to initiatives in the country against hate crimes and law improvements for the protection of trans and intersex people, says Spartacus.

Another rising star on the ranking this year is India, which rose from 104th to 57th spot after decriminalizing homosexuality. Trinidad and Tobago and Angola also decriminalized homosexuality last year.

The index also revealed, however, that the social and political climates for the LGBTQ+ community in countries like Brazil, Germany and the US have worsened due to right-wing conservative governments and an increase in homophobic and transphobic violence.

At the other end of the spectrum, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Somalia and Chechnya have been deemed the most dangerous countries for LGBT travellers.

1. Canada, Portugal, Sweden

2. Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Reunion Island, Spain, United Kingdom

3. France, Gibraltar, Greenland, Ireland, Switzerland, Uruguay

4. Colombia, French Polynesia, Germany, Israel, New Caledonia

5. Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Slovenia, South Africa

6. Czech Republic, Estonia, Guam, Puerto Rico

7. Liechtenstein, Slovakia

8. Bolivia, Ecuador, Italy

9. Mozambique, Nepal, Taiwan

10. Bermuda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Macau, Seychelles, Thailand, US

The Spartacus Gay Travel Index is based on 14 criteria in three categories:

1) Civil rights to assess whether gays and lesbians are allowed to marry, whether anti-discrimination laws exist or whether the age of consent is the same for heterosexual and homosexual couples.

2) Discrimination, which includes travel restrictions for HIV-positive persons and the prohibition of Pride parades and other demonstrations.

3) Threats individuals via persecution, imprisonment or death penalty.

The Gay Travel Index uses research from human rights organization Human Rights Watch, the UN Free & Equal campaign, and information about human rights abuses against members of the LGBTQ+ community collected throughout the past year.

— With files from Charmaine Noronha in Toronto.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The 2016 NFCA Convention kicks off on Wednesday Dec. 7 and runs through Saturday, Dec. 10 at the New Orleans Marriott.  Over the course of four days, attendees have a wide array of opportunities to educate themselves, network, conduct business, be recognized for their achievements, discover innovative products and have fun.

To get those more acquainted with the on-going proceedings, this feature takes a look at the first day of activities. But before we dive into things, the most important item to point out is registration. Be sure to pick up your credential, because without your convention badge, you will be unable to attend all the great sessions offered in New Orleans.

For those arriving on Tuesday, Dec. 6 and who want to beat the crowd, a four-hour window (Noon-4:00 p.m.) is available to pick up your credentials. The registration booth will be open 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 7 and Thursday, Dec. 8. On Friday, Dec. 9 and Saturday, Dec. 10, the booth opens at 8:00 a.m. and closes at noon and 10 a.m., respectively.

In addition to picking up your credentials (for those who preregistered), members can also register on-site, renew their memberships and sign up for other convention related items.

2016 NFCA CONVENTION WEBSITE | REGISTER HERE | SPEAKER LINEUP | SCHEDULE | EXHIBITORS

Conducting Business
After picking up your credential, head over to your committee meetings being held at 8:30 a.m. and 10:00 a.m., respectively. It is a chance to discuss changes and have healthy conversations about the future of the sport in an intimate setting with your peers. Later in the evening, the NCAA Division I, II and III Head Coaches committees meet to discuss the important issues leading in to their respective business meetings on Thursday.

Educational Opportunities
There are many opportunities to gain valuable knowledge from our preconvention seminars to our keynote speaker on the first day. Held simultaneously from 12-4 p.m. on Dec. 7, the seminars feature NFCA Hall of Famer Cindy Bristow and the Assistant Coach University. Bristow will conduct a pitching seminar, while the ACU is designed to help assistant coaches become a valuable member of their team’s coaching staff and provide them with the skills to thrive under their head coach’s leadership.

Also on the docket is a Rightview Pro Training session (9:30-11:30 a.m.) and a New Convention Attendee Orientation (3-4:00 p.m.), the latter is conducted by NFCA President Rhonda Revelle.

Education and Achievements
The NFCA’s “First Pitch” Opening Welcome and Keynote session really gets the ball rolling. NFCA Executive Director Carol Bruggeman, Revelle, NPF Commissioner Cheri Kempf, ASA/USA Softball Executive Director Craig Cress, President of the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s Softball Executive Committee Dale McMann and Jenny Dalton Hill of USA Baseball will welcome everyone and present about the state of their organizations. Additionally, Bruggeman will recognize  Mary Nutter Scholarship and Diversity Convention Grant recipients along with our top academic programs sponsored by Easton and the StrikeOut Cancer fundraisers.

Capping off the opening welcome will be keynote speaker Brett Ledbetter. Ledbetter, a renowned author and motivational speaker, will present his “What Drives Winning” philosophy to the membership.

Fun
Following the “First Pitch”, USSSA is hosting the first of two evening social events with its Leadoff reception from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Immediately following is the Wilson Sporting Good’s reception running from 9 p.m. to midnight.