James the Mormon, a.k.a James Curran, will be entertaining Jazz and Clippers fans this Friday during halftime for the sixth game in the Jazz-Clippers series. With the Jazz already up by one game, a victory Friday night could clinch their continuation in the NBA playoffs

The real heroes of the story are women such as Jane Elizabeth Manning James, a free black woman who was baptized into the LDS Church in the early 1840s and then traveled with a small group of black converts from Connecticut to Illinois in winter, the last 800 miles on foot. “We walked until our shoes were worn out, and our feet became sore and cracked open and bled until you could see the whole print of our feet with blood on the ground,” James recounted in a brief autobiography several decades later. James walked to Utah with the Mormon pioneers in 1847 and remained a devoted member of the Church until her death in 1908, outliving its first five prophets. Upon her death Church leaders recognized James as a pillar of faithfulness—after having denied her access to Mormonism’s most sacred temple rituals by virtue of her race.

Lunch and Learn Series with Deseret Book Artists and Authors11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Downtown Deseret Book Store, SLC, Utah

James Lawrence has a goal: conquer 100 full-distance triathlons in 100 consecutive days.

Editor’s note: The following excerpt comes from a book about special witnesses of Jesus Christ. You can read this chapter in its entirety at truthwillprevail.xyz as well as other chapters as they are posted. This excerpt is republished here with permission.

LDS rapper James the Mormon has used his social media presence and his music to share the gospel. Recently, he shared a video explaining why temples are sacred, saying, "temples are the closest we can come to our loving Heavenly Father where we can catch a glimpse of what heaven is truly like."

David-James Gonzales was born, raised, and educated in Southern California by Mexican American parents that instilled in him a love for education and a commitment to family and community. He is a professor of history at BYU where he teaches and researches race, migration, and civil rights in US History. He has published in several academic journals and anthologies including the Journal of American Ethnic History, American Studies (AMSJ), 50 Events That Shaped Latino History, and The U.S.-Mexico Border: A Reference Handbook. He is the receptor of multiple scholarly fellowships and awards including the Career Enhancement Fellowship by the Institute for Citizens and Scholars and the Butler Young Scholar Award by the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies. His current book project is tentatively titled Breaking Down the Walls of Segregation: Mexican Americans and Civil Rights in Orange County, California. He is also a producer and co-host of the podcast New Books in Latino Studies, part of the New Books Network.

ane James haunts me. Not in the way you’re thinking—I don’t see her ghostly specter on cold evenings, or hear her humming a tune in the other room as I’m trying to sleep. What I mean is that she just won’t let me go. Every time I learn something new about her, it seems that I go down a rabbit hole. It takes me days to return, mentally, to whatever I was doing. James, an African American woman who converted to Mormonism in the early 1840s, moved to Nauvoo after her conversion and worked as a servant in Joseph Smith’s home. After Smith’s death, she worked for Brigham Young. She was in one of the first companies to arrive in the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1847, and she remained a faithful Latter-day Saint until her death in 1908.

Looking at the teen with long blond hair standing in the middle of the lit-up stage, Adam Levine made an almost prophetic prediction.

Okay, I'll admit, for the first minute of this music video, I wasn't sure whether to laugh or not.