THE ULTIMATE BATTLE! Soul ICONS Gladys Knight & Patti LaBelle Are Set for the Next 'Verzuz' Battle!

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THE ULTIMATE BATTLE! Soul ICONS Gladys Knight & Patti LaBelle Are Set for the Next 'Verzuz' Battle!

It's the Godmother of Soul versus the Empress of Soul. Patti LaBelle and Gladys Knight's pipes will take the roof off The Fillmore on Sunday, Sept. 13 for the next Verzuz battle.

VerzuzTV announced the latest superstar pairing on Instagram Tuesday (Sept. 8). "The Master Class we’ve ALL been waiting for! @MsGladysKnight vs. @MsPattiLaBelle," the caption read. "Leave ya church clothes on all Sunday and pull up to the affair of all affairs. Y’all gotta get dressed up in ya Sunday’s best for this one."

In addition to fans donning their Sunday or even Easter best, the soul sisters will show out at an official venue, The Fillmore in Philadelphia, at 8 p.m. EST for what the post described as "the ultimate Verzuz."

Maybe the two superwomen will take on their Grammy-nominated "Superwoman" collaboration (featuring Dionne Warwick) that previous Verzuz battle contender Babyface wrote in 1991. And even though the Verzuz platform doesn't really do duets, the two might take on their other famed classic from the same year "I Don't Do Duets." Either way, these two have quite the catalogs to pull from, including their careers as frontwomen of Gladys Knight & the Pips and Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles and their subsequent, highly successful solo stints.

Fans can help their aunties and grandmas understand Instagram Live and set up Apple Music accounts after church for the Sunday evening celebration. And even though CÎROC is handling the drinks, Twitter users are already debating who's cooking what.

CAN'T WAIT!

She’s another Hidden Figure! Dr. Gladys West, The Black Woman Who Invented The GPS, Gets Honored By U.S. Air Force At The Pentagon!

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She’s another Hidden Figure! Dr. Gladys West, The Black Woman Who Invented The GPS, Gets Honored By U.S. Air Force At The Pentagon!

Did you know that a black woman from Virginia was instrumental in creating a convenience we use every day and almost can’t live without? Yes indeed, Dr. Gladys West invented the GPS or the Global Positioning System and has finally received the recognition she deserves by being inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame by the United States Air Force during a ceremony held at the Pentagon this week.

The 87-year-old scholar knew as a child that she did not want to work in fields, picking tobacco, corn, and cotton or in a factory, beating tobacco leaves for cigarettes and pipes like her parents did. She said, “I realized I had to get an education to get out.” And that she did, studying math at #VirginiaState and graduating top of her class. She became a teacher for two years, then went back to school for her Masters. 

In 1956, West began to work at Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, where she was the second black woman ever to be employed. There, she collected data from satellites, and that job is what eventually led to the development of the Global Positioning System. In 1986, West published “Data Processing System Specifications for the Geosat Satellite Radar Altimeter,” a 60-page illustrated guide, which was based off data created from the radio altimeter on the Geosat satellite, which went into orbit on March 12, 1984. She worked at Dahlgren for 42 years and retired in 1998.

West’s humble character is part of why many people were unaware of her role in the development of the device for decades. She said, “When you’re working every day, you’re not thinking, ‘What impact is this going to have on the world?’ You’re thinking, ‘I’ve got to get this right.’”

In 2017, Capt. Godfrey Weekes, the then-commanding officer at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, described the “integral role” West played in a Black History Month message. He wrote, “She rose through the ranks, worked on the satellite geodesy [science that measures the size and shape of Earth] and contributed to the accuracy of GPS and the measurement of satellite data. As Gladys West started her career as a mathematician at Dahlgren in 1956, she likely had no idea that her work would impact the world for decades to come.”

Congratulations to a “hidden figure,” Dr. Gladys West! Thank you for your great contribution to science and your #BlackGirlMagic ✨