Little Richard Little Richard Richard Wayne Penniman (born December 5, 1932), known as Little Richard, is an American recording artist, singer-songwriter and actor. A pop music and culture icon, Little Richard's most-celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s when his dynamic music and charismatic showmanship presaged the rise of rock and roll. His music influenced many other popular music genres, including soul, funk and hip hop and shaped generations of rhythm and blues artists. Little Richard has been honored by many institutions. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986.
Nick Penniman Nick Penniman Nick Penniman is the co-founder and CEO of Issue One, an American nonprofit organization whose mission is to strengthen American democracy and government ethics. Previously, Penniman was executive director of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, which he founded with Arianna Huffington in 2009. Supported by large foundations and The Huffington Post, the operation established a multi-media newsroom of journalists. It was profiled in media publications, including the "American Journalism Review" and the "Columbia Journalism Review". In 2011, it merged with the Center for Public Integrity. Penniman founded the American News Project, an early experiment into online video journalism