About Us

Bean Soup Times is a multi-media outlet with a print newspaper, website and email distribution list that provides irreverent, fearless satire and entertainment features, including celebrity interviews, book, movie, and music reviews.

Newspaper bites man
Media Comments
About the Publisher
About the Staff
About the Contributors
Disclaimer

Newspaper Bites Man

In the beginning was the word ... and it was funny!

Bean Soup Times began three years ago out of the frustration with the mainstream media's lack of coverage on issues important to the Black American community. Last year, no media outlets reported on the “woman with the excessive weave,” the man who “put his marriage license in his mama’s name” or that “Black women were offering dance lessons to white girls if they left Black man alone.”

In March of 2001, Toure Muhammad decided to do something about this. He sent a simple text email to 50 friends and family. People immediately demanded more. He had no idea people would be so interested in his quirky view of the world. So with little money, but lots of confidence and determination, Toure launched a website and finally, the premier edition of Bean Soup Times  was printed in December of that same year.

Everyday, Bean Soup Times touches thousands of politicians, lawyers, media professionals, journalists, and other prominent Black Americans both in cyberspace and in print.

The publisher has appeared on national and local media outlets, including The Tavis Smiley Show on NPR, 848 with Steve Edwards on WBEZ, Mo in the Midday on WVON, and has been featured in the Chicago Reader, Upscale Magazine, The Atlanta Voice, and The Final Call. Bean Soup Times offers satire that is both hilarious and thought provoking. We are outspoken, intelligent, and full of attitude.

Media Comments

UpScale Magazine “(Bean Soup Times) has jaws dropping. The hilarious stories border on the ridiculous while making striking political commentary.” (November 2003)  

Tavis Smiley Show “Biting humor. I ain’t mad at you.” Tavis Smiley (August 5, 2003)

Chicago Reader "No, it's not the Onion but an Afrocentric variant with a similarly edible name." (August 5, 2003)  

The Final Call  "Offering hilarious parodies of mainstream media, Bean Soup Times is quickly becoming a popular source of witty social and political satire." (April 16, 2002) 

Mo in the Midday WVON-AM (1450) “Hilarious. Bean Soup Times makes you laugh and think.”
Monique Caradine (September 2002)

Eight-Forty Eight" WBEZ (91.5 FM) "A Chicago-based paper is peeling a layer from The Onion. Bean Soup Times is a new satirical newspaper that spoofs news from an African American perspective." (April 1, 2002)

Toure Muhammad, Publisher and Editor

Toure Muhammad Sr. is a communications professional, author, publisher, and activist. Born Toure Rockett, he was born and raised in the midst of segregated Chicago's various nations: the House, the Hip Hop, the Blackstone Ranger, and the Black Gangster Disciple. Though he was a good student, it was his street smarts, class clown antics, and way with the girls that stood out in school. (What do you expect me to say in retrospect--that I was scared to death of not being liked by the girls, thugs, teachers that I spent my adolescent years appealing to them all? Besides, I got smooches on my high school year book, report cards and dead homies to prove it.)

Anyway, Toure attended Lindlbom High School (Lindblom swoop!)  in Chicago for three years before graduating from Lakeshore High School (home of the Lakeshore, M-D rivalry!) in East Point, GA in 1988. That year away from Chicago was tough. "Every time I went to a chicken place, I ordered "three wings, salt and pepper with mild sauce thinking I was at Harold's Chicken Shack!" he said. "And I couldn't find ANYBODY to share my love of House Music with."

Despite the odds (the 11 to 1 female to male ratio on the college campus), Toure graduated from Morehouse College in 1993 and began his career as a journalist and photographer with The Final Call newspaper.

In 1997, Mr. Muhammad published a history book about Islam in America. His work as a communications professional includes both as a spokesperson and placing news articles in local, regional, and national media: Chicago Tribune, Sun-Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and others.

He has been writing comedy since March of 2001 when he launched Bean Soup Times as an email newsletter. The email to 50 friends and family has turned into a website and monthly print newspaper. Mr. Muhammad has written and performed social and political satire for radio as well as the Second City Training Center and other live comedy sketch shows. He serves on the board of the Community Media Workshop.

An engaging speaker, Toure Muhammad is available to speak at your community center, prison, meeting, church, mosque, soap box, social club, fraternity/sorority, library, etc.

Toure Muhammad Sr.
PO Box 2176
Chicago, IL 60690

Lloyd "Kam" Williams

Lloyd "Kam" Williams is an attorney turned writer who, in addition to a law degree from Boston University, has three degrees from Ivy League schools: a BA in Black Studies from Cornell, an MA in English from Brown and and MBA from The Wharton School.

After practicing law for almost 20 years, he started writing celebrity interviews, film and book reviews, op-eds and other assorted features. Mr. Williams lives in Princeton, NJ with his wife and son.

Disclaimer

Bean Soup Times is a monthly satirical newspaper published by Bean Soup Times, Inc. Bean Soup Times uses invented names in all the stories, except when satirizing public figures. Any other use of real names is accidental and coincidental. Bean Soup Times is intended for people 18 years-old and up. The content of this newspaper is copyright 2001-2005 by Bean Soup Times, Inc. and may not be reprinted or retransmitted without proper credit given to its origin.